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korereapers · 6 months

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I collaborated with the amazing @laxi0v0 for a cute little event we made in the scriddler server. This is Laxi's art about the fic I wrote, and HONESTLY HONESTLY i couldn't have asked for a better and more supportive partner. Her art is way better than I would ever dream on writing and honestly, Laxi, I'm so glad it was you bc we vibe a lot about our tastes w this ship.

The fic will be on ao3 later, but here, for you guys, before anyone else:

Jonathan takes a sip out his mug, nicely decorated with a pumpkin, the recipe of the pumpkin spice coffee perfected by him for decades. It’s warm, it tastes like fall, and it’s the start of what Jonathan considers to be the best time of the year.

It started like a small tradition for him, when he finally left home and started studying to become the psychologist he wanted to be. Halloween was to be celebrated, especially for freaks like him, abhorrent creatures that made great-granny’s skin crawl. He was proud of that, in a way. It was his moment, it still is, after all of these years, because he is still a freak, he belongs to this weather and these colors more than he belongs anywhere else. He belongs between ocher leaves and the smell of fog, the rain starting to fall over Gotham, only to leave when it’s summer again. The start of his kingdom, of the time he rules over.

Or it would be, if Edward wasn’t so adamant about going to freaking Starbucks.

He doesn’t get it, not really. A malnourished child from Georgia, surrounded by overworked kids that serve them with the most forced smile when Edward asks, yet again, for the infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte. With ice. Oatmeal milk. Whipped cream.

Jonathan wants to die.

“How is this even supposed to be spooky?”

Edward rolls his eyes, green contact lenses barely moving, as if they were starting to get glued to his irises. Which should be a bad sign, but Jonathan is, yet again, not his boyfriend’s keeper.

“Not everything has to be spooky when this time arrives, Jonathan.”

He kind of dislikes it, when he calls him by his full name. He calls him Jon when they are alone, when they are intimate, when their bodies or their hearts are entwined. He doesn’t like when he calls him Jonathan, because that means that Edward thinks he is being too bitter, complaining too much, a complete prick.

It’s not that he dislikes the stupid PSL, either, but it feels like desecrating one of his oldest traditions, and he feels as if he were betraying himself.

“Don’t you like my recipe, then? Do you dislike it so much we have to come here every single week?”

The cashier smiles at them awkwardly as Edward pays for their order, tipping the young lady generously.

“Do you have to take everything personally? I started getting here when I finally had my own money to spend. Is it that hard to just enjoy it, when I want to share it with you?”

Oh. A tradition. Jonathan distractedly drinks from his thematic glass, but says nothing.

They are really different, Edward and himself. To Edward, spending time and money like this… is almost a love language. It’s a lifestyle that he works hard to keep, having dinner in expensive places, getting coffee every time he can. Sharing it with him, because Jonathan is important to him.

Jonathan may be unable to feel fear, and his brain may be as damaged as Edward’s heart, but guilt still crawls its way into his psyche. It still makes him feel uneasy, because he cares, because he understands the feeling, because he wants to share his recipe with Edward because of the exact same reason.

He touches Edward’s hand when they sit, an apology he doesn’t utter but that can be felt in his irradiated orange eyes.

“I like it when you share time and nourishment with me.”

Edward’s expression softens, a glint of blue under the bright green contact lenses.

“Wow, when did you get emotionally aware?” his mouth says instead, and for a moment, Jonathan understands the Bat and his compulsion to punch him in the mouth.

“I’m a psychologist, Edward.”

“... right,” he mutters, his voice cheeky, still clearly a little mad, his thoughts loud. Jonathan loves that about him, his expression when he is deep in thought, when he is trying to understand something. A puzzle, a new riddle in their lives. “That recipe of yours is really important to you, too, if I’m guessing correctly.”

Jonathan nods, his eyes still on Edward’s, who seems to be feeling a little bit too shy to look at him, knowing that they are having an emotionally vulnerable moment.

“It is. I made it myself and… I want to share it with you.”

Edward does smile a little at that, his voice softer when he speaks.

“Let me try it later. I want to give it the thought and recognition it deserves.”

Jonathan’s thumb caresses Edward’s hand, his smile contagious. Like a well concocted virus.

“I would love to.”

—-------------------------------------------

Edward is pretty sure that he is (very unluckily, by the way) dating the man with the poorest taste in the world. Jonathan seems to think that he is hilarious, dressed in his usual costume, even the needles oozing toxin as he sits quietly on the couch.

There is a thing about him that Edward has always loved: how he becomes a different person when the mask is on.

They used to talk about it, back in the day, when they used to share a room in the Asylum. Jonathan felt naked without his mask, his expression dull and almost tense, devoid of what made him himself. Edward, at least, has managed to make those expressions change, the real Jon emerging from behind whatever aloof façade he tries to put on to protect himself, to pretend he is a regular human being and not the freak that makes his heart melt.

He must surely be smiling behind the mask, then. Edward can almost feel him vibrating in excitement, like a small child, and in a way, he kind of is. A reclaimed childhood, the enjoyment of a joy he wasn’t allowed to feel. He can understand that.

Still, the poorest fucking choice of a Halloween costume.

“Really, Jon? The most original idea, I have to say.”

Jonathan looks at him, and he can feel his piercing eyes even behind the mask, the expression of a predator, so dangerous it makes his face flush a little. Birds of a feather, both of them. The Scarecrow sighs, deeply, the sound distorted behind the mask. It’s creepy, he has to admit, which is probably… kind of the point.

“Like you’re one to talk, Herlock Sholmes.”

Edward gasps, indignant. His Poirot costume is nothing to be laughed at.

“Excuse me?!”

He can almost feel the smile behind the mask, because Edward knows him, he knows Jonathan is an avid reader, he knows the difference between Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, for fuck's sake. He is doing this on purpose, to rile him up. He always is.

Edward's mind goes somewhere else, somewhere private. Somewhere where he is indeed riled up, and Jonathan touches his cheek, looking up at his face from behind the mask, Edward sitting on his lap, while long, dangerous hands go up his thigh, eyes hungry-

The doorbell rings. Edward goes back to reality, Jonathan's eyes on him as he moves towards the entrance, the tips of his ears surely blushing.

When he opens the door, he has to look down, because damn, kids sure look tinier these days. He cannot remember to be this short, this innocent, this…

Happy.

He feels Jonathan's chin on his shoulder, almost jumping in place because the man is silent like a ghost, no matter how eager he is to take part in the holiday.

One of the kids is wearing a Batman costume, and Edward tries his hardest not to roll his eyes, with better or worse success. Another kid is dressed as Harley Quinn, what makes him wonder if these parents are in need of any kind of psychological help. The youngest, a child dressed as Wonder Woman, looks at them with badly hidden mischief, and Edward feels tempted to just close the door.

"Trick or treat!" They ask in unison, and before Edward can answer, Jonathan drops a bag in front of them, full of who knows what, but the kids don't ask.

Such blissful ignorance.

"Thank you Mister Holmes! Mister Scarecrow!" The girl dressed up as Batman says, and the one dressed as Wonder Woman purses her lips in disgust.

"Poirot's moustache isn't like that. You're a fake."

The kid dressed as Harley Quinn laughs in response, taking the bag of candy and running away with Wonder Woman. The one dressed as Batman follows who Edward believes to be her sisters, and he blissfully thanks that they don't have any children.

"Please tell me the bag is full of drugs."

Jonathan chuckles a little, his arms around Edward's waist.

"Hershey's," is everything he says, his sudden lack of malice and evil intent a headache for Edward.

"Oh, Jon. Are you going soft on me?"

Jonathan's smile can be felt in the air, a predator, a killer awaiting their next victim.

"Me? Oh, darlin'..." he whispers against Edward's ear, his distorted voice making him shudder in anticipation. "Never."

#scriddler #my stuff #and laxi's #dc #riddler #scarecrow #edward nygma #edward nigma #edward nashton #jonathan crane #i love you laxi.... really

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jjkeverlast · 1 year

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keep in step | knj (m)

-> pairing professor!namjoon x professor!f.reader

-> genre/au's smut, enemies to lovers, dinner party au!

-> summary after namjoon has got you worked up for nothing, you find a way to reclaim your power, and what better way than to do it at the annual dinner party?

-> word count 2.6k

-> author's note i cannot believe that a request from my milestone celebration AND joon feeding us so much content today had me writing pt2 so quickly... but here we aaaare :)))) i highly suggest reading the first part, which you can find here ! to my lovely readers and moots who have been waiting for a second part, i hope this meets your expectations <3 also big thanks for the banner made by my lovely mari ( @archivedkookie ) i love you babe, it's absolutely beautiful omg.

i should note that play the game was a request by my darling jess @btsgotjams27 for my milestone last year and therefore there will not be a taglist to this! thank you :)

Three months. Three painful months of doing absolutely nothing after your little mishap with Namjoon. It was torture, to be quite honest. Somehow you weren’t certain about him, about his intentions with you and certainly not how to revenge yourself in the perfect way.

Namjoon proved towards you that his little scheme in the copy room was part of some fucked up game. A game to prove you don’t hate him. Currently, it’s one to zero, but you’re going to prove to not only him but yourself as well, that he isn’t here for the game, but you.

Another reason for you to have yet to revenge yourself was because Namjoon was barely in the same capacity as you. The universe loves to suddenly turn your world upside down and make sure that you and Namjoon now have separate auditoriums for your classes. Therefore, you haven’t exactly been annoyed with him as you were before when he overtook your classes time.

It wasn’t until the annual teacher’s dinner party that Namjoon was at your expense.

The dinner party was a tradition, paid by the university to give thanks for the teacher’s hard work throughout the year. The venue that was picked out was spacious, various tables decorating it and big chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

As soon as you stepped in, Namjoon was the first to catch your eye. He was wearing an all black outfit, his hair dark in a nice cut. It’s the first time you’re seeing him without his glasses and the sight is refreshing. There’s something about how his eyes are more captive from a mile away for you, and how exposed his defined face is.

Namjoon’s eyes move towards you, gliding down to your feet in a slow movement. He smirks, his dimple prominent by the action and you’re trying to hold your breath. He’s not going to win tonight. You’ll make sure of it.

A few presentations are presented by various teachers and counselors. All of them honoring the hard work. You’re sitting next to Kim Taehyung, an art history professor who’s been nothing but kind to you. His boxy smile and lame jokes keep you in a good mood and keeps you away from thinking about a certain someone.

You don’t know what it is about Namjoon. Ever since he went down on you in the copy room, giving you a mindblowing orgasm he has managed to engrave himself in your head and infiltrate your love life. Yes, you had clearly tried to find a solution, a partner who actually wants you but whenever you managed to get a date, Namjoon’s dimple filled smile and his tongue skills would cloud your mind and leave you in irritation.

Every part of you wants to look and glance at Namjoon. He’s sitting two tables away from you, his laugh flowing through the venue directly to you and you grab tightly onto your bag to restrain yourself.

Just stick to the plan.

‘’Wow, can’t believe we’re already halfway through the year.’’ Taehyung comments, earning your attention.

‘’Yeah, time really does fly.’’ He nods along, swirling his thumb against his wine glass as if he’s contemplating taking another sip. He mutters under his breath, grabbing onto the glass and taking a light sip. The cringing expression on his face connects to his pondering face from before. Taehyung isn’t a wine person, but in most cases alcohol is still in the end, alcohol.

The first course gets served and everyone on the table is pleased. Minor conversations are exchanged, mostly university related and you join in once in a while. Somehow your mind continues to play Namjoon’s words before he took the courage and kissed you.

‘’You hate me, yet you stare at me as if you want me.’’

Brain, kindly shut the fuck up. You don’t notice yourself poking more aggressively at the food in front of you but it’s the only way for you to scold yourself.

Namjoon doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s—

You almost drop your fork, glancing upwards to find Namjoon watching you with delicate eyes. His fingers trail beneath his chin, nodding along to the person babbling away next to him. But his gaze, his gaze remains on you. You squirm in your seat, clearing your throat as you avert your attention elsewhere.

Fuck, that’s another point for him.

You’d love to blame yourself for this, but in reality it’s his fault. His fault for showing up with an outfit showcasing every part of his body that is to drool for. You’re thankful that you aren’t sitting with him, or else you’d constantly throw glances downwards to his prominent thick thighs. You may or may have not once dreamt about riding them. But that’s for him to wonder and for you to know.

The desert rolls around, a creamy cake and Taehyung’s eyes light up at the delicacy being placed in front of him. Maybe you’ve had enough, or maybe you’d love to finally revenge yourself seeing Namjoon is already giving you the perfect attention for it.

Slowly, you take a bite, locking eyes with Namjoon from across the room. The cream manages to fill out the corners of your lips. Instead of taking a napkin, you drag your thumb over the corners before licking the excess. To your success, it works. Namjoon’s lips slightly part by your action, his adam’s apple bobbing proving he’s lost his breath due to it.

Taehyung accidentally drops a piece of cake on his pants, groaning loudly which snaps you back from your lustful trance with Namjoon. You help Taehyung, handing him your unused napkin and he thanks you with a sincere smile.

With hope, you return your gaze to Namjoon, but he’s gone. You look around, noticing how multiple have left the table and are now mingling amongst each other in playful chatter. This is your chance.

‘’Hey, I’ll be right back. I just need to use the restroom.’’ You excuse yourself to Taehyung and he thankfully doesn’t seem to mind, leaving the table himself to talk with Jeon Jungkook, a biology professor.

You set yourself on a mission to find Namjoon, walking away from the crowd, stumbling past some empty rooms that seem to be reserved for future meetings. When you reach the exit, someone pulls at your arm, pushing you inside a cramped closet.

The minute you’re about to scream, you notice it’s Namjoon and your brows frown. Even though you were looking for him, you’re annoyed with every part of him and how he manages to affect you without having to lay a single finger on you.

‘’Missed me?’’ He raises a brow in tact with the question.

You roll your eyes at his comment, yet your body shivers.

‘’I still hate you. Nothing has changed.’’ You step closer, the material of his jacket brushing against your exposed skin.

Slowly, a smile grows on Namjoon’s face and a laugh manages to slip out.

‘’Nothing has changed. Right, and you definitely haven’t been thinking about my tongue.’’ The words roll off perfectly, going straight to your core.

‘’Not exactly.’’

With confidence, you bring your hands on him, trailing on his white shirt beneath the black jacket. Namjoon hisses by the sudden action, mouth agape as he watches you carefully explore his upper body.

‘’Oh yeah? Then tell me.’’ You look up, moving your face closer to his until his nose brushes against yours.

‘’Been thinking about sucking you off.’’

Namjoon closes his eyes before muttering, ‘’Fuck.’’

He moves closer, his lips hovering above yours but instead of completing his action you drop down to your knees. You give yourself support by holding firmly onto Namjoon’s thighs. They tense once in a while under your palm and it makes it hard for you not to imagine what it’d be like riding them. How the prominent lines of his muscles would flex under you, encouraging to continue as you hold tightly onto him.

Maybe, if you still badly want him after this, you’ll take that fantasy into consideration.

For now, you want nothing more than to return the gesture you would’ve given Namjoon since he left you half naked in the printer room.

The material of his pants cling nicely to his thighs, showcasing a bit of what’s underneath and excitement bubbles at the pit of your stomach. Namjoon has completely lost his use of words, only breathing heavily as he observes your every move.

Your palms start to move slowly over the material, feeling the soft sensation it carries. You squeeze down once or twice, dragging closer to his bulge that has started to strain beneath the slacks. You’re tempted to open the single button that keeps his pants up, but this is Namjoon. The Kim Namjoon who’s been on your nerves for the longest time. The Kim Namjoon who you thought you hated, but now? You aren’t exactly certain what you feel towards him.

‘’I know what you’re doing.’’ Namjoon says.

‘’And what am I doing?’’ You ask but don’t stop the motions of your hands.

‘’You’re being slow on purpose, to torture me for all those months.’’ Wow. Kim Namjoon may carry a brain after all.

It was your plan, to show him how painful slow can be and to poke him for being a slow professor in general. He’s taken you by surprise by cracking the code so quickly.

You hum in approval. ‘’You got me.’’ Before you continue, Namjoon’s hooded eyes catch your attention.

‘’I’m gonna show you how slow I can be.’’ It’s the last thing Namjoon hears from you, before you’ll tease him till he’ll plead for you to give in.

Your mouth hovers above his bulge, lips trailing on the closed off zipper. The movements of your hands never stop admiring his firm thighs, how big they are under your burning skin.

‘’You’re a fucking menace.’’ Namjoon manages to choke out, mind blurred from your breath so close yet so far from where he wants you.

Ignoring his comment to your pace, you take a step further, removing his pants and dragging them down to his feet. His naked golden skin catches you off guard. The light partakes in making it look extraordinary, showing you the minor details of his definite muscles.

‘’Shit.’’ You mutter under your breath and even though you aren’t looking at Namjoon, you can paint out the cocky smile he’s carrying.

Straightening your back, you move closer, toying with the waistband that clings nicely on his hips. You haven’t even removed his boxers yet, but the outline of his cock tells you exactly what you’ve been wondering. Kim Namjoon is big.

It’s a challenge you’re willing to take — in your mouth to be exact.

Lifting the white shirt, you trail a few wet kisses on his abdomen and v-line. Namjoon grunts in response, grabbing onto your cheek out of instinct. The touch of his hand feels warm, careful and delicate and you urge yourself to not lean into his touch.

Curiosity gets the worse out of you and with no warning, you pull down the briefs abruptly. Namjoon’s breath gets caught in his throat, a clogged moan slipping past his lips. You’re trying not to drool once his cock is fully exposed in front of you. Anger manages to seep through as well, remembering him keeping it a secret from you when you both got a taste of one another for the first time.

He’s painfully hard, pre-cum leaking off his tip and you mentally praise yourself. You’ve managed to work him up a lot quicker than you had imagined. He’s never truly shown how much he wants you, even though his tongue has been on you. Namjoon never once admitted how much he wants you.

Your lips trail on his thighs, inching closer to his cock that’s begging for attention but you aren’t so easy. The bridge of your nose brushes against the base of his cock and Namjoon’s grip on your cheek tightens.

‘’You’re fucking killing me.’’ He’s laughing softly, although it’s painted with irritation.

A small peck is received by your end. ‘’Tell me how badly you want me, and maybe I’ll give in.’’

Namjoon knows you’re playing the game, the game he started back then when he wanted you to admit how badly you wanted him before he dropped down to his knees, trailing his tongue on every part of you. You bat your eyes, waiting for him to give in and Namjoon clenches his jaw — contemplation overtaking his expression.

With a deep breath, Namjoon closes his eyes. ‘’Please. Need your mouth so fucking badly.’’

One to one, to you. Let’s make that two.

You comply, letting your tongue trail freely from the base to the tip, coating him in your saliva. The sounds from Namjoon are unexplainable, his moans sending you through the roof.

The tip settles heavy on the end of your tongue, and you look up, catching a sight of Namjoon straining his neck, veins decorating it.

Swirling your tongue on his tip, you manage to taste him. You open wider, inviting more of him inside your warm mouth, lips closing around his cock. With the help of your hand, you stroke what your mouth can’t cover and you start off at a slow pace.

‘’Fuck—’’ Namjoon curses under his breath. His hand never leaves your cheek, secretly loving how he’s able to feel his cock inside your mouth.

The slow pace is still a threat to him, but your soft lips on the outline of cock eases down the hatred he has for your plan.

Internally you hope no one catches the both of you. Inside a closet, at an annual dinner party doing anything but friendly chatter which the other professors are too busy maintaining. It’s kind of thrilling somehow, your secret sneaking around with Namjoon — a professor you were bound to hate — yet here you are stuffing your mouth with his cock.

The thrill starts building up when muttered chatter can be heard from where you are, and with that you completely blow off your plan, quickening the pace out of the blue.

Namjoon knows you’re both at risk and he’d wish he would be able to enjoy this without having an uncomfortable thought of being caught. He bites his bottom lip, refraining himself from being too loud and giving you both away.

Quickening your pace makes it easier for Namjoon to reach his limit. His thighs tense, along with his hand on your cheek and you’re prepared for him to come in your mouth. The last thing you want is for people to find cum stains in the closet while picking out their jacket to go home.

‘’Shit baby— Yes. Fuck!’’ One choked out moan and Namjoon’s orgasm seeps through, the cum spilling itself in the base of your throat. The nickname catches you off guard, but you’re too busy making sure you don’t leave a mess behind. Thankfully, you succeed and quickly pull yourself up to your feet.

‘’Holy shit.’’ Namjoon blurts out, panting with a smile.

‘’We need to leave, before anyone catches us.’’ You inform, grabbing his wrist towards the exit while he fumbles with getting his pants back on.

The air is a bit cooler once you’ve stepped out, Namjoon behind your trail. The dinner party is still going on, music starting to play over speakers and the teachers forming an awkward dance circle.

‘’Hey, do you wanna get out of here?’’ The question throws you off guard.

‘’What?’’

‘’Yeah, I mean my place isn’t far from here and I’d love to finally fuck you.’’

You chuckle, crossing your arms. ‘’You’re gonna have to earn that.’’

Before Namjoon responds, you turn your back, returning to Kim Taehyung and the rest of the crowd.

Two to one, Kim Namjoon.

#namjoon smut #kim namjoon smut #namjoon x reader #namjoon x female reader #namjoon x you #namjoon fanfic #namjoon drabble #bts namjoon #bts kim namjoon #kim namjoon bts #bts rm #bts smut #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction

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yooo-lets-go · 1 year

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In my family, there's a tradition of naming our cars. The other day my dad asked what I named mine and I wasn't really paying attention so without thinking I went "Roach" because I had just been looking at your Roach art and was falling in love.

He got so offended, he was like "but, you love that car! You got upset when I had to borrow it for like a month!"

And I just had to awkwardly explain, "Nah, Roach is the nickname for one of my favorite fictional characters. It's endearing!"

Him, visibly distraught: "Why is his name Roach??"

Me: "I dunno, it just is. He's Bug Boy."

Dad: *more confusion*

Me: "It's about vibes, Dad."

Dad: *smiles at me as he holds back laughter* You are a special breed, kiddo

So, yeah, it's your fault my car is now named "Roach" (affectionately)

Wow this is cute 🥹

I take full responsibility for your cars name, very good

🥹 thats so nice, thanks! I really feel appreciated💕

#ask #💕💕

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vmpiires · 25 days

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﹆₊ 画家‧₊˚ THE BLOOD PAINTER, KAMO CHOSO

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 ﹆₊ 概要 ‧₊˚ art; it comes in many forms. even clothing. wc, 4.39K. dark mode recommended.

␥ note. i’m backkk. i got so caught up in writing one-shots that i almost forgot to do the series. so i’m here. hope ya enjoyyy. reblog to support meeee.

␥ tags. artist!choso, college AU, possible nsfw, female anatomy, smoking, reader has a motorcycle, etc. lmk if i missed anything

␥ misc. masterlist AO3 PART FIVE

finally, the much-anticipated friday had arrived, as the clock struck 12:15, choso let out a heavy sigh and pushed away from his cluttered desk. the familiar sound of the bell signaling the end of class echoed through the room, soon followed by the lively chatter of students as they filed out into the hallway. as he stepped out, the distinct smell of freshly cleaned carpets mixed with the mouth-watering aroma of takoyaki and ramen wafted towards him. his stomach grumbled in response, and he rolled his eyes at his hunger pangs.

as the male strolled gracefully down the hall, his footsteps echoing against the tiled floor, kashimo slung his arm over choso's broad shoulders. his face was lit up with a beaming grin that seemed to radiate energy. choso couldn't help but suppress a groan at the touch.

"what's with the frown?" kashimo asked, his voice laced with playful curiosity. "aren't you excited for tonight?" he continued; excitement evident in his tone as they made their way towards the bustling cafeteria.

"what day is it again?" choso rubbed his bleary eyes, his tiredness evident in the way he slumped in his chair. he had spent all night tending to his digital artwork and finishing up homework. kashimo nearly choked on his drink when he heard choso's question. the bags under his friend's eyes were deep and dark, a clear sign of exhaustion.

kashimo leaned in close, speaking in hushed tones. "you know it's friday, right?" he reminded choso with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. "your date with you-know-who is tonight." he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, causing choso's eyes to widen with shock and surprise. suddenly, all traces of exhaustion seemed to vanish from choso's expression.

choso let out a frustrated sigh, his hand pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "damn it, i almost forgot," he muttered to himself. "i need to find something nice to wear and freshen myself up. i probably look like death right now." his thoughts drifted to his upcoming date and he suddenly felt self-conscious about his appearance. kashimo waved a dismissive hand, trying to calm choso’s nerves.

"relax, you have plenty of time. your date isn't until seven and its only noon now. take a nap, get dressed, and do whatever else you gotta to do. maybe even pick up some flowers for the lovely lady." choso only rolled his eyes at kashimo's teasing words but was grateful for his reassurance.

after a satisfying lunch, the two boys retreated to choso's dorm room, where they spent their time sifting through an impressive collection of clothing. like pages in a newspaper, choso pulled each hanger from the rack and tossed the garments onto his bed.

"wow, you must come from money," remarked kashimo, studying the designer labels and high-end fabrics of the clothing strewn across the bed. the beige sweater with a brown collar and sleeves underneath that caught his eye looked like it belonged on the cover of a fashion magazine. it was clear that choso had an eye for style and a wallet to match.

"i wouldn't say i'm wealthy in the traditional sense," choso replied with a hint of modesty, as he effortlessly pulled out a few pairs of designer boots. kashimo's expression shifted to one of disbelief as his eyes took in the luxurious footwear. he couldn't tell if choso was being humble or simply showcasing his affluent lifestyle.

"what’re you talking about? you have the largest room on campus, your wardrobe is filled with high-end fashion that could pay for my textbooks ten times over, you're top of the class, and you have an incredible talent for painting," kashimo exclaimed.

"you have everything. you don’t have to want for anything." the words tumbled out with a mix of admiration and envy, as kashimo couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy towards the male beside him.

choso chuckled humbly as he moved the pairs of boots closer to the bed, each one a work of art in its own right. they were made by the most prestigious fashion house in the world, a symbol of his wealth and status.

"the biggest room in the school? that's just because i got lucky with housing arrangements," choso replied nonchalantly, brushing off kashimo's words. "and these clothes and shoes? it's all just material possessions. it’s not like they define who i am." but even as he said this, a part of him couldn't help but feel proud of what he had achieved and acquired through hard work and determination.

a thoughtful look crossed kashimo's face as he sized up his friend. "you've got it all, man, i’m telling you. looks, brains, talent…what don't you have?" he couldn't help but feel envious of choso's seemingly perfect life. little did he know, beneath the surface, there were struggles and insecurities that even wealth and success couldn't erase.

choso simply shrugged, a slight smile playing on his lips. "my wealth is of no concern to me, and it shouldn't be to you either. you are just as worthy as i am, if not more so. i refuse to be lumped in with those spoiled assholes who strut around this place as if they own it." he gestured towards the crowd of students milling about the school grounds outside his window.

“i’d rather not be labeled as an entitled individual that kicks another down because of their casual way of life." choso's eyes glinted with determination and a hint of defiance. he refused to let his family's fortune define him or dictate how he treated others.

kashimo let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat. but then, as if on cue, a smile lit up his face. "let's forget all that," he chirped. "we have more important things to focus on, like finding the perfect outfit for you." his gaze fell upon a rack of clothes. he strode towards it with purpose.

"i think i already have an idea," he added, gesturing towards a sleek and stylish collared shirt on display. it caught the light just right, highlighting its delicate details and flattering cut. kashimo's keen sense of fashion was always reliable, and he knew this would be the ideal choice for his new friend.

choso inhaled deeply, his chest rising and falling with each breath. "you have an idea?" he repeated dryly, his dark eyes following kashimo's outstretched finger as it pointed towards the shirt.

with a flick of his wrist and a wide, toothy grin that always made choso roll his eyes and groan, kashimo declared confidently, "yeah, yeah, we'll have you looking like a vogue model by the time we're done." his hands moved deftly, as if conducting an orchestra, as he waved them around in front of choso's face.

the sunlight glinted off the sharp planes of his cheekbones and highlighted the smattering of his blood mark across his nose. choso couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance mixed with fondness for his friend's over-the-top antics. but he knew deep down that kashimo was just trying to help him look his best for his upcoming date.

after a few moments, choso found himself meticulously adjusting the crisp collar and sleeves of his tailored top, the fabric hugging his figure perfectly. he paired it with formal pants in a deep coffee shade, complementing the beige sweater he wore underneath. the overall effect created a polished and put-together appearance.

kashimo's lips curled into a mischievous smirk as he lightly nudged choso. "well, you could pass for a model," he teased, his eyes flickering over choso's outfit. the male blushed, not expecting to be dressed in such a fashion so soon. "you're quite the handsome devil, choso." his words were laced with admiration and playfulness. choso's cheeks flushed deeply at the compliment.

"please don't say things like that," he murmured, trying to hide his bashful smile. "but thank you…i think." the soft breeze flowing through the window tousled his hair, adding an extra touch of dishevelment to his already dashing appearance.

placing his hands behind his head, kashimo's snicker broke through the quiet of the bedroom. choso shifted his weight, crossing his arms over his chest as he felt the tips of his ears grow warm with embarrassment. fidgeting with his fingers, he tried to push away the teasing.

"aw come on, choso. your lady friend would definitely approve," kashimo taunted, his laughter now booming in the open space around them.

choso's cheeks grew even redder as he found himself growing more uncomfortable. "can we please stop talking about this?" he pleaded, desperately wishing he could escape this conversation and the teasing that came with it. "and shouldn’t you be saving these comments for hakari, not me?"

kashimo's smirk faltered slightly at choso's words, hints of embarrassment creeping into his expression. "hey, it’s not like he's not my boyfriend or anything," he muttered, trying to brush off the earlier comment.

choso couldn't help but roll his eyes at kashimo's attempt to downplay their relationship. as much as kashimo denied it, everyone knew there was something more between them than just friends. but for now, choso was content with keeping their dynamic as it was - friends who teased each other mercilessly.

"right," choso muttered, his dark eyes flickering with curiosity. "so, what happened the other night with you and hakari, if i may ask? did you two have fun?"

kashimo exhaled slowly, his cheeks flushing as he thought back to that unforgettable evening. "i mean…yes, we did have fun, but a couple things happened that i didn't expect."

choso could see the telltale sign of embarrassment in kashimo's blush. He could only imagine what had transpired between the two of them, causing such a reaction in kashimo. a small smile curled at the corners of his lips, wondering just how wild their night together must have been.

kashimo shifted uncomfortably, trying to find the words to explain his feelings about that night. but they eluded him, leaving him with a tangle of emotions that he couldn't quite put into words. nevertheless, one thing was for sure - it was a night he would never forget.

choso raised a skeptical brow at kashimo's wistful expression. "well, aren't you gonna tell me what happened?" he prodded with curiosity. "you seem like you're reminiscing about it."

kashimo was abruptly pulled from his reverie, caught off guard by choso's inquisitive tone. his lips pursed as he carefully considered how to explain the night's events. "i guess i could tell you," he began slowly. "it was a pretty nice night all around. we ate and drank a little, but then out of the blue, he asked me to give him my hand." a faint smile tugged at the corners of kashimo's mouth at the memory.

"i was confused as to why he wanted my hand, but i gave in anyway. we held hands for a while, just enjoying each other's company. and he had this silly grin on his face…" kashimo trailed off with a fond chuckle.

choso couldn't help but tease, "you didn't kiss, did you?" though his words were nonchalant, there was a hint of playful curiosity in his tone.

"stop," kashimo protested, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "it's not like that. we just held hands and…okay, we almost did but i got nervous." his words tumbled out in a rush, his eyes darting away from his teasing gaze. "but we're going to hang out again tonight," he continued, determined to prove that there was nothing more than friendship between them. "and i was thinking of having a double date soon since our situations are pretty similar."

choso chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. "damn, you're really soiling my plans," he joked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"well excuse me, mr. kamo," kashimo chuckled jovially, his eyes glinting mischievously. "i should've considered that you might've wanted some alone time with the pretty lady… hey, let's head out and get some flowers. that'd be a nice touch, right?"

"i suppose," choso exhaled, rubbing his temples wearily. "would you mind passing me my wallet? it's on the desk." he pointed over to the umber wood desk that held his notebooks and other school supplies. kashimo retrieved the wallet and couldn't resist taking a quick peek inside. among choso's id, dorm room keycard, and a small polaroid of him and his brothers, was a thick wad of cash.

"holy shit, man," kashimo exclaimed before choso could snatch the wallet from his hands. "you could literally buy the whole planet with this amount of money."

"i said give me the wallet, not snoop around," choso narrowed his eyes, an edge of annoyance in his tone. the stack of bills represented years of hard work and sacrifice for him and his siblings. he didn't want anyone else getting their hands on it, let alone stare at it.

as the clock struck seven, you carefully chose your outfit - a sleek black leather jacket and fitted jeans paired with a simple yet elegant blouse. your trusted harley davidson roared as you rode into the parking lot of the upscale restaurant that choso had chosen for your meeting. you removed your helmet and placed it on the bike seat before walking confidently into the building.

inside, the restaurant was bathed in a warm, dim light that enhanced the romantic atmosphere. the scent of scented candles and sizzling food filled the air as you made your way to the table that had been reserved for you and choso. when you spotted him, your heart skipped a beat at his appearance.

instead of his usual intimidating demeanor, choso looked more like a regular academia student with metal adorning his face. he wore a cozy-looking sweater and a purple scarf wrapped around his neck, giving off a sense of vulnerability. a bandage on the corner of his lip suggested that he may have been injured recently. an expensive-looking watch around his wrist. and instead of his signature ponytails, his hair fell freely around his face, some strands neatly tied into a ponytail.

you sat down on the opposite side of the table, unable to contain the soft smile that spread across your face. "hey, choso," you greeted him warmly. the sound of your voice made him look up at you, seemingly surprised that you had actually shown up regardless of whether it was planned or not.

choso's voice was gentle and hesitant as he spoke, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. "um…hi," he said, returning your smile with one of his own. he held something behind his back, and as he brought it forward, you saw that it was a bouquet of flowers. your heart skipped a beat at the sight of them.

"i brought you something," choso said, presenting the bouquet to you. each stem was carefully chosen and arranged, bursting with vibrant colors and delicate petals. you were not typically one to accept flowers as a gift, but these were too beautiful to resist.

you took the bouquet into your arms, feeling the softness of the petals against your skin. "wow," you chuckled in disbelief, admiring the intricate details of each flower. "these are really pretty…thank you." your eyes met choso's and you could see the sincerity and thoughtfulness in his expression. it made your heart swell with appreciation for this unexpected gesture of kindness.

choso nodded, a delicate pink hue blooming across his cheeks. "i'm…glad you like them," he stammered, his hand unconsciously smoothing out the creases in his scarf. "i was seriously struggling to decide which flowers would be best for you. i wasn't sure if i made the right choice."

you smiled warmly at him, taking the bouquet from his hands and inhaling the sweet scent of the blossoms. "no, it's okay," you reassured softly. "i love these flowers. no one has ever given me a bouquet before - let alone such beautiful ones like these. i can tell you put a lot of thought into this."

as always, your kind words had choso's heart fluttering and his chest feeling light as air. "well, i'm happy to be the first to give you such a gift," he replied, unable to contain the shy smile that spread across his face. "though now I'm starting to wonder if i should have just given you one of my paintings instead."

you shook your head gently. "whatever gift you came up with, i would’ve loved it," you assured him. "as long as it came from your heart and had some thought put into it, that's all that matters to me."

choso smiled softly, feeling a sense of confidence wash over him. after your simple conversation, the two of you finally sat down to order some delicious food and refreshing drinks. your conversations ranged from how your days had been to school-related topics like class projects and even delved into personal matters.

as the waiter placed your plates in front of you, choso couldn't resist taking a quick photo with his camera, capturing not only the mouth-watering food but also the charming interior of the restaurant.

"smile," choso said with a slight twitch at the corners of his lips. your eyebrows raised in surprise, but you quickly posed for the photo, revealing a flawless smile that made choso's heart skip a beat as he gazed at you through his camera lens.

the vibrant colors and warm atmosphere of the restaurant seemed to enhance your beauty, and choso couldn't help but feel grateful for this moment shared between the two of you.

with a contented smile on your face, you playfully plunged your fork into the steaming bowl of ramen, eagerly slurping up the tender noodles. across from you, choso calmly ate from his plate of shrimp tempura, occasionally watching you with an amused glint in his eyes.

"hey, let's do that thing they always do in the movies with the noodles," you suggested, holding up your fork and wiggling it playfully. a faint blush colored choso's cheeks as he caught on to what you were referring to, and he couldn't help but internally sigh at the thought. it wasn't that he didn't want to do anything romantic with you, but he was wary of how things might change between the two of you afterward.

"i suppose there's no harm in trying," choso said with a small smile, taking the other end of the noodle between his lips. you mirrored his actions, using the thin noodle as a playful tool to bring each other closer. as your lips were only a breath away from touching, you both paused for a moment, your hearts racing in anticipation.

finally, unable to resist any longer, you closed the distance between your lips and shared a brief but sweet kiss. the remaining noodle was quickly swallowed as your lips met, causing choso's eyes to widen in shock and surprise. his cheeks flushed a deep red, almost matching the crimson liquid slowly seeping out from his blood mark and onto the table.

feeling slightly embarrassed by his unusual reaction, choso hastily pulled away and chuckled nervously. "that's part of why i always keep it covered up," he admitted, trying to make light of the situation. but before he could apologize or explain further, he felt your gentle touch as you began wiping away the traces of blood on his cheeks with a napkin.

"it's okay," you reassured him softly, carefully folding the napkin to a cleaner side and continuing to clean his face. "does this happen often?" you asked, genuinely curious about choso's sudden bleeding.

choso nodded, his expression slightly sheepish. "usually when i'm….overstimulated," he admitted with a small smile. it wasn't a common occurrence, but it did happen from time to time, especially in moments like this when he was caught off guard by unexpected yet welcomed intimacy with someone he cared for deeply. "but i can also make it bleed at will."

the sound of your laughter filled the room as choso's cheeks flushed with embarrassment at your observation. "that explains why there isn't any red paint in your room. you use your own blood for art…i think that's so cool. but doesn't it hurt?" you asked, genuinely curious about his unique artistic process.

choso shook his head, a small smile on his lips. "no, not in the slightest." his mind seemed to go momentarily blank before he quickly changed the subject. "um…we should finish eating before the food gets cold."

you nodded, returning to your meal but unable to shake off your curiosity about choso's blood mark and how it worked. after dinner, the two of you left the restaurant and made your way back to your motorcycle. you eagerly held onto the bouquet of flowers as you mounted the vehicle and placed your helmet in your lap.

"well, i guess this is where we part ways for the night," choso said, his hand nervously fiddling with his scarf. you looked up at him and checked the time on his watch. despite the sun having set and the moon beginning to rise, the night was still young.

"come on, it's too early to call it a night. let's take a bike ride around shibuya for a bit," you pleaded, hoping to spend more time with choso. just as he was about to politely decline and suggest rescheduling for another day, he felt something stopping him from saying no.

"alright, but please don't drive too fast…i've never been on a motorcycle before," choso reluctantly agreed, surprising himself with his sudden change of heart.

you squealed in excitement and patted the padded seat before putting on your helmet. "you'll have to hold onto me unless you want to fly off," you advised quickly as choso settled himself onto the seat behind you.

"fly off?" choso repeated before you unexpectedly accelerated out of the parking lot, your harley roaring into the night. he inhaled sharply, feeling slightly scared as he instinctively wrapped his strong arms around your body and buried his face into your back. you couldn't help but smirk at your daring actions.

"please…slow down," choso's muffled and shaken voice pleaded from behind you, making you giggle mischievously.

·.⌇ bonus..

under the moonlit sky, you and choso sat on a wooden bench in front of a serene lake. the gentle breeze caused both of you to shiver, but the beauty of the setting made it worth it. as you watched the ripples of the water sway back and forth, you turned to look at choso beside you.

"i wanted to ask you something," you said softly. choso's head snapped over to face you, his eyebrows raised in anticipation.

"about?" he asked.

"you mentioned that you always keep your mark covered up. you said it was because of people's fear and judgment towards what you really are…but why does it worry you so much?" your question forced choso into a moment of silence as he pondered his response.

"i'm…" he let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "i'm not sure if you've noticed, but i'm not like other sorcerers or curses. i’m half curse, half human. my brother yuji is a sorcerer, while the other two are also curses. normally, humans can’t see curses, but because i am in this body, you can see me."

he glanced at you to confirm that you were still listening before revealing more. "i…um…i keep my blood mark covered because when i get overwhelmed or stressed, my face starts bleeding like i told you before. i'm just embarrassed about it. if people knew what i really was, they would probably be too scared to even look in my direction. people think curses are disgusting and unworthy of life; they are afraid of them. it's better that part of myself hidden and live as a human."

you placed a comforting hand on choso's thigh, gently rubbing it with your thumb. "but choso, i'm not scared of you at all. curse or not, i think you're one of the kindest and most genuine people i've ever met. i honestly thought your unique display of techniques was just your sorcery, but now i know the truth. my opinion of you will never change, i promise."

choso's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "really?" he asked incredulously. "i'm not disgusting or horrible to you?" you shook your head, a small smile quirking at the corners of your lips.

"not even close," you reassured him. "the most people will say about you is how annoyingly smart you are." you playfully teased him, making him chuckle.

"but in all seriousness, you're a genuinely good person, choso." with a tender gesture, you reached up and cupped his cheek, causing his cheeks to flush a light shade of red. as you leaned in to place a gentle kiss on his cheek, choso couldn't help but place his hand where your lips had just been.

"my face is going to start bleeding again," he muttered with a shy smile, clearly trying to hide his embarrassment.

with excitement bubbling in your chest, you quickly pulled choso's camera out of his bag and slung an arm over his shoulder, positioning the lens perfectly in front of you both. "smile, choso," you chimed with a grin, capturing the moment forever.

choso's eyebrows shot up in surprise at your quick movements, but he obliged and gave the camera his best smile as a bright flash illuminated the area and the sound of the photo printing echoed through the air.

as soon as the picture was fully developed, you eagerly removed it from the slot and examined it with satisfaction. "we look pretty damn good, don't we?" you commented, admiring how the lighting fell perfectly on both of you and the beautiful scenery around you.

"yeah, not bad at all," choso agreed as he gently took the photo from your hands and stowed it away with his camera in his bag. "that was actually the final picture i needed for my project."

"right, your scrapbook thing," you remembered with a smile as you rose from the bench. "shall we head back? i can help you put it together if you'd like."

choso's smile widened at your offer and he nodded eagerly. "i would love that."

⠀© vmpiires | like, reblog & follow.

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katzone · 7 months

Text

Answering asks #4

I have been... procrastinating over answering asks in my inbox... just a bit 🥺

I'm really grateful for everyone's patience so I'm finally sitting down to answer all the asks I got! Again tysm ;w;

• Finny art request + Timelapse and brief overview of my art process

My deepest apologies anon! Not only did you send this ask back in July, but I additionally promised you a reply back in August- and it's October now! 😭 I am so sorry for my lateness and am so grateful for your patience!

In any case, you asked for a Finny drawing so I offer a Finny drawing! As well as a timelapse of my art process and brief overview of how I do things since you were interested!!!

I wasn't sure what style you wanted me to draw him in (I have so many styles RIP) so I picked the most difficult one I (sometimes) use! Aka my painterly style!

As for how I draw like this uhh, it's a lot of messing around trying to find the right colors basically!

Also focusing on quick brush strokes that communicate the shape of whatever surface I'm rendering!

I also love casting most of the upper part of the face in shadows. Does it make sense? No. Does it look good? Yes!!

As for my lineart, again- rly depends on the style I'm going for- but I tend to use a more sketchy style of lineart these days.

Like a superrr clean sketch. I think it looks nicer with my rendering style, bc the lines have that sketchy rough quality so it's easier to hide the imperfections bc I can hide under the "well it's supposed to look rough duhh" excuse LOL. Work smart not hard! I always say that.

I hope I'm making sense with my rambles. I've never been the best at explaining my art process bc I myself don't rly get what I'm doing usually. It just kinda comes as a reflex almost?? I've been drawing for so long I just kinda go with the flow at this point.

Anyhow hope it was worth the wait XD enjoy your Finny!!!

• Kuroshitsuji Musical idea suggestions

To refresh everyone's memory (bc I'm so late at answering asks), awhile back @shadowalkingschemer asked if I ever planned to make a Kuroshitsuji musical parody type songs/animations like I did for Umineko, to which I said "probs no bc an actual official Kuroshitsuji musical exists, but it sounds like a rly fun idea tho". ANYHOW- this was the followup ask I got from the same person! So let me finally answer!!!

Oki so I looked up this Beethoven's Last Night thing you mentioned and???? OMG??? It goes hard from the first few minutes I listened to. It's a rock opera I assume? And it's such a bop?? And yes this would be perfect for Kuroshitsuji, it matches that classical sophisticated vibe SO WELL with the general edge of the story (bc duh. it's a recreation of Beethoven's compositions but with epic rock music). God this is so good, thank you for the recommendation I will have to listen to the full album soon bc WOW.

• Nice person in my inbox :D

Thank you so much @eynnwwyjth !! That's such a sweet compliment too ;W; to call my art enchanting AAA ty!!! :>

• Animation advice

Thank you for checking out my YouTube @aeowolfestheater !! It's my primary social media, and I'm glad you fell down the rabbit hole of my many many uploads I posted over the years XD

To answer your question, I don't rly have the best personal advice when it comes to starting out as an animator rly! I kinda... fell into it? XD I started animating (well trying to animate in MS Paint), before I even turned 10, so I didn't really have that traditional learning curve? It was mostly a lot of trial and error, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

(If anyone wants to see how my old animations looked and how they improved over the years, I posted many "Animation Improvement" type videos that showcase my work over the years, so you get the idea of what I'm talking abt!)

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Best advice I can give to any animator right now is probably the boring advice I personally never took (hence why it took so long for me to get where I am now). Learm the fundementals (the principles of animation, the ins and outs of the animation program you're using, general art skills are also a bonus depending of what you wanna animate). I think it's also important when you are first starting out to focus less on making your animations smooth and clean and more on learning how to capture movement itself (that's the point of animation after all!). Learn how things move depending on material, speed, physics etc. and how to communicate that in animation. I think just observing life helps a lot. References are your friend (video references are probs the best). Ofc clean and smooth animation is great as well, but that comes after you learn the basics I think. Stay on model the best you can while animating any shot (ofc unless you are doing squash and stretch or experimental animation). It makes it look less janky. Uhh I can't think of much else right now (bc again I never rly learned animation the normal way haha), so I will link my two animation tutorials here! They are abt Clip Studio Paint EX though, idk how helpful they are if you don't have that program :'0!

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• Tumblr mutual reunion!

Omg hi @rissynicole and so sorry for the late reply!! As this post has shown so far I am extremely slow at replying to the asks I recieve in my inbox! Anyhow it is me! Katrinci! I got back on Tumblr in 2022 (has it already been over a year??)! Sadly someone else took my old username (an innactive empty blog too... I'm so mad), so I got a new username heyooo. I hope you've been well!! I'm doing better then I have in gosh, years I feel like XD. Mostly bc I'm finally out of school and finally focusing on stuff I wanna be doing (art career stuff and irl stuff!) But yeah I hope you've been well too!!! Feel free to reply or shoot me another ask if you feel like, I'll do my best to reply on time this time! (I'm so so sorry for being so late!!) Anyhow YIPPIE!

• Where to watch my silly Umineko Musical parody

It's here! I privated it on my main channel bc I thought it was too goofy/self-indulgent even for me (also it wasn't doing well and y'know how YouTube is with channels that underperform T_T), so I moved it to my secondary channel! It has both the song you are referencing and the other song I did! Enjoy :>

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• What Croatian stereotype is Katzone?

Well every region in Croatia has its own stereotype, I'm from Dalmatia, and we are stereotyped as loud. So I def fit that one! And also I fit the "cura iz umjetničke" (girl from art school) stereotype quite well. I went to an art highschool and I'm gay, autistic, slightly mentally ill and look vaguely alt (literally I don't btw, but ppl see a buzzcut and it blows their minds, like "woah that's so alternative and quirky", not knowing I only have a buzzcut so I can't pull my hair smh (trichotillomania, look it up for more info)). Though I don't smoke weed so mby I am a bit subversive and not like other art girls.

• Kat sexuality confirmed??

Oki so what @xxparanoidvampirexx is referencing here is when I posted a poll asking my followers to guess my sexuality.

These were the results!

I have been democratically declared a lesbian by popular vote. This is probably true. Listen I'm like 95% certain I'm a lesbian but you never know. My autism makes it hard for me to figure out any sense of my identity bc I often mirror ppl around me (and most of my friends are lesbians or sapphic women in sapphic relationships), you get me? We can never know. My sexuality is currently a Schrodinger's cat situation I'm afraid.

ANYHOW, to answer LMAO- I mean fair assumption. I do mostly post about women on my blog (Saldy... I got back into Adventure Time recently and my blorbo there... is a *shivers* man. I saw someone on Twitter today as that fictional middle aged men are to lesbians what Taylor Swift is is to gay men. And like. Yeah.)

• Nice person in my inbox #2 + "What's your favorite Ciel outfit?"

First of thank you so much anon for the kind words!!! I'm rly happy to hear my art makes you gayer (the only correct compliment ever). Jokes aside, but fr this is super sweet :'D thank you!!!

To answer your question, I had to go skim through this video by @/nullbutler to refresh my memory on what outfits Ciel wears throughout the anime/manga/official art.

Here's the video if you wanna watch it!

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Anyhow, my personal fave fits of his are extremely basic. While I do love Ouji fashion, I dislike seeing him in most of the oufits Yana puts him in. Like yes they look lovely, slay extremely hard and fit the visual aesthetic of Black Butler perfectly- but every time I see him in these frilly oufits I'm like "this is not reflective of his personality in any way, he would not wear this on his own, it's pure camp". Don't get me wrong- I love camp, and this anime/manga is as camp as you get. So while I love the more campy frilly oufits he wears aesthetically (and those are way prettier), I perfer when he's in stuff like this:

Like yes, these outfits are objectively less interesting and pretty- but I see stuff like this and I'm like yeah that's him. If Sebastian dropped dead and couldn't pick out his clothes anymore, this is what he would wear on his own accord methinks.

• STOP MAKING ME FEEL OLD 😭

Here's my live reaction of reading your ask @porfiriea :

What do you mean?? You were 6?? I doubt you watched my 2014 MS Paint animation era, I assume you found my channel during 2016-2017 at earliest (my Undertale and Yan Sim animation era). I refuse to believe you were born in the 2010s. Nuh-uh. No. Not happening. Fake news.

Jokes aside, but it's always cool to see ppl be like "oh I watched your stuff b4, I didn't know this Tumblr user was you!" It's a strange feeling!! Makes me feel like I did leave a mark on the animation side of YouTube. Feels nice! :'D but also old. And I'm only 20!! How will I feel when I'm 30 or 40?? Will I just turn to dust on the spot??

• Grelle's gender masterpost update

I'm so sorry anon, but I completely lost interest in this topic T_T! Plus even if I ended up making a masterpost, it wouldn't be fully accurate (or at least- I wouldn't be able to verify its authenticity completely), as I don't speak Japanese. So I would have to go off of Google translate and translations by English speaking fans who understand Japanese. And I don't wanna talk too much abt Japanese queer culture either. Even though I did a ton of research, I'm not Japanese and I never went to Japan! So I'd rather not risk spreading any potential misinfo. Sorry to let you down ;;!

• Another YouTube viewer spotted me in the wild!

Omg you spotted me!! In the wild!! That animation was crazyy, bc I made it rly fast and rly didn't expect it to do well. But I remember it did super well during the first day (got 100k views on the first day it was wild), and while I love that old video, I'm like. Rly? That one blew up?? Out of all my other ones?? I mean the idea was creative! But I feel I half assed it a little, I barely animated anything for it outside the headbop tweening and blinking animation XD. Mby I'm being too harsh on 14 year old Kat here. Nahh I'm not, I felt the same when I posted it innitially as well. But hey I still love that vid. Love the style I drew in at the time, I was still using a mouse for everything back then. Love the colors too! Mby I should remake it one of these days. Mby!!!

If anyone wants to watch the animation @gentle-starlight is refering to:

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• Umineko time

@anawkwardlady This is the universal Umineko fandom experience I'm afraid. Being sad over Beato and wishing she was vibing (after you learn abt... the horrors...) XD

• ???

I'm so very concerned and do not know what this means or what this is refering to. I'm afraid O_O @hononyan what does this mean...

• What happened to my old Tumblr blog

It's completely ok to ask anon! In truth, I have this rly bad habit where I delete social media accounts when I'm having a bad mental health moment. It's always an impulsive decision I end up regretting. I deleted my old Tumblr in early 2021 I'm pretty sure, and I'm still so sad about it. I wish I didn't delete it. I had that blog since 2015 and now it's gone like poof. I can't get it back and I'm always emo abt it.

I might make like, an archive or something of my old art one day. I mean I still have most of it saved on my computer, but it would be nice to have all of it in one place publically again (it's always good to have stuff backed up somewhere)! Adding that to my to-do list XD

Oh and the worst part? I can't use my old username on Tumblr (Katrinci). Someone else took it. A BLANK EMPTY BLOG. I'm so mad. I'm soooooo mad give it back to meeee.

• THE END!

And with that I have answered all the asks I had in my inbox! Well, all the questions and stuff, I still have other stuff in my inbox like art requests but I'll get to that some other time if I feel like doing any of those! In any case, tysm for being patient everyone! Ik it took me very long to reply but I hope my responses were worth it! I wish all of you a nice day! My hand hurts from typing owie.

#📬 askbox #i talk abt sm stuff in this post holy cow.#it even has some art/animation advice bc some ppl asked for that so do read this post if it interests u!#oki DONE.#Youtube

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saturnznct · 1 year

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d-20; making christmas cards for members | lmk

➸ word count; 1023 words

➸ lucas; aged 10, noah; aged 8, maeve; aged 4

➸ alternative names used; hyungjun (lucas), minjun (noah), yeoreum (maeve)

dadmas masterlist | nct masterlist (lnks will be added later)

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

‘Wow, Mae, you really captured Uncle Doyoung’s spirit there,’ Mark grins.

Maeve holds up her Christmas card for Doyoung proudly, showing off the rabbit with a Santa hat she’d drawn on the front with ‘Merry Christmas Doyoung Samchon’ written in messy toddler handwriting on the front.

‘Although, I think we need to work on your Hangul. You wrote Samchon in English..’

Maeve just looks sheepish, putting the card into the finished pile and grabbing another plain one to start.

This was a Lee household yearly tradition. The kids would sit down at the dining table, cover it with pens, glitter and whatever crafting materials they could get their hands on, and make cards for family and friends.

When it came to the sheer amount of NCT members, it was a full on operation. The members had been randomly assigned to each of your three children, who would make their cards. You and Mark would write the inside messages once they were finished and all the glue and or paint had dried.

‘Wait, why does Maeve get Uncle Johnny?’ Noah whines once he notices Johnny’s name on Maeve’s list.

‘It’s random, No,’ you explain, ‘it’s fair that way.’

‘But I wanted to make Uncle Johnny’s card,’ he pouts.

‘Buddy, the card will still be from you, and Uncle Johnny will know that,’ Mark rubs Noah’s back with his hand, ‘how about you make a really pretty card for Uncle Taeyong, huh? I bet he’d love a really glittery one!’

‘Daddy, can we come to work with you and give Uncles their cards?’ Noah asks, wanting to see his beloved Uncle’s reactions to his work.

‘Of course, how about you and mummy/mommy drop me off tomorrow, and we can give them to Uncles then?’

‘Yay!’ Noah cheers, accidentally knocking over a pot of silver glitter.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

‘Uncle Ten!’ Maeve runs into the practice room, barrelling towards the first member she sees.

‘Mae!’ He exclaims with equal excitement, wrapping the small girl into a big hug.

‘Sorry to interrupt your practice, guys,’ you apologise, knowing that all of the members are gathered to rehearse for their end of year project.

‘It’s all good,’ Jungwoo, the closest person to you grins, ‘it’s nice to have a break.’

He catches Maeve’s eye, his face suddenly lighting up, immediately dropping to his knees to offer a hug, ‘and to see my Yeoreum!’

‘Ah, Minjun-ah,’ Jaemin squats down to greet Noah, ‘what’s that you’ve got?’

Noah holds out the envelope with both hands, a messy ’Nana’ scrawled across the front.

‘Ah, thank you,’ Jaemin always saves his aegyo for his favourite nephews and niece, his Mark’s children.

‘This one’s for you, Uncle Yangyang,’ Maeve hands Yangyang his card.

‘Wow, thank you MaeMae, you’re so kind,’ Yangyang, who has crouched down to her level, peels the envelope open, laughing when he sees the sheep with the Christmas hat drawn on it.

‘I like how the sheep is pink and glittery,’ he adds, pulling her into a hug, ‘I love it, thank you Mae.’

The members fuss over the kids, each giving very exaggerated but genuine reactions to their individual cards.

‘Ah, Hyungjun-ah, thank you,’ Chenle fist bumps Lucas, ‘you write in Chinese so well.’

‘It’s from the lessons you gave me,’ Mark chimes in teasingly, and the two men laugh as Lucas huffs.

‘Yeoreum-ie, your art is so good!’ Yuta fusses over Maeve, who blushes and squirms at his compliment over her drawing of him next to a Christmas Tree.

‘Don’t get all embarrassed!’ he teases, poking her side, before turning to Sicheng who’s standing beside him and commenting, ’so cute.’

When Lucas notices Johnny holding his own card, he walks over to talk to his favourite Uncle.

’Tell Jude-hyung that I’ll give him his card the next time I see him,’ Lucas tells Johnny, ‘I don’t want him to think I’ve forgotten about him when you bring that one home.’

‘Will do buddy, I’m sure you’ll see him when the school holidays start.’

‘Are you guys not going to Chicago?’ Lucas tilts his head in confusion.

‘Not ’til the twentieth,’ Johnny explains, ‘you guys should arrange to hang out. In real life, not just on the Xbox or whatever it is.’

Lucas just shrugs, embarrassed at being called out, and Johnny chuckles.

‘I’m just messing with you, go on, go give Uncle Seunghan his card.’

‘They’re so sweet, Hyung,’ Jisung remarks, watching the scene alongside Mark, ‘so crazy I’ll have one of my own in a few months.’

’They’re a handful,’ Mark shakes his head, still smiling, ‘but I love them more than anything.’

At that moment, Noah runs up to Jisung, clutching Jisung’s own card.

In a corner, several members are gathered comparing cards, Doyoung throughly enjoying Maeve’s rabbit drawing while Xiaojun praises Noah’s reindeer.

‘Thank you, Noah, I’ll keep it forever,’ Taeyong reads the message inside of his card, on which Noah has drawn a polar bear wearing a lime green (’NCT colour!’) scarf.

‘Will you really?’ Noah gasps, shocked that his Uncle would treasure his creation for so long.

‘Of course, because my Minjun-ie made it for me!’

Eventually, all of the cards are distributed, and the three Lee children sit against the mirror and watch as the members go through their dance performance for the year.

‘What did you think, Mae?’ Hendery bends down to ask, face showing a picture of pure joy when she begins bouncing on her feet and enthusiastically chatting about what she likes about the song and the choreography.

‘Come on kids, say goodbye to your Uncles. We’ll get out of your hair now, leave you to practice,’ you start gathering up your things, leaving the three of your children to say goodbye to all of the members.

’See you when you get home,’ you give Mark a quick hug, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek as to allow him to avoid unnecessary teasing from his members.

‘Bye bye little Lees,’ Ten and the rest of the members wave you all out of the room.

‘Now, kids,’ you announce once you’re fully in the corridor, ‘let’s go and harass Uncle Minseok.’

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oklotea · 6 months

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Click for better quality!

Then Maddie pressed her face to the mirror, and it was cold glass. A level, delicate pane. It was known. All Looking-Glasses were mirrors, but no mirrors were Looking-Glasses anymore. She sat back, looking at her inverse who wore her own distant expression, and made them both smile. “Perhaps tomorrow.” Though she knew home would be impossible then, too.

WOOHOOOO!!!!! ANOTHER EAH:RIR SCENE REDRAW!!!!! god I hate traditional art. NO. NO I PROMISE I DON'T. I just. Hate. My traditional art. I PROMISE I'LL GET BETTER, I PROMISE I WILL

EAH:RIR is a REALLY GOOD EAH REWRITE FIC BY @gumjester and you should go read it!

I'm ngl this chapter really fucking ruined me. MADDIEEEEE AGHHJEJFJDNKEK ALL THE WONDERLANDIANS MAKE ME SAD, THINKING ABOUT THEIR BACKSTORY AND JUST HOW MUCH MORE PROPER ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO HOW TRAGIC IT IS, AGHHHHH aghhhhh gumjester wtf what the HELL WERE YOU ON WHEN DESCRIBING MADDIE'S THOUGHT PROCESS. It was just so, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND HORRIFICALLY SAD AND AHHDBWBANDJ I CAN'T FUCKING PUT IT INTO FUCKING WORDS

SHE WANTS TO GO HOME SO BAD, ALL OF THEM DO, BUT THEY ALL FUCKING KNOW THAT NO ONE WANTS TO PUT IN THE EFFORT TO EVEN HELP THEM. NO ONE CARES. NOT FOR YEARS.

And FUCKING MILTON GRIMM THAT BITCH

Maddie's rationalizing that Milton was angry because he can't believe something has lived in ever after for so long without his permission, MUAH. CHEFS KISS. THE WONDERLANDIANS SEE RIGHT THROUGH THIS BITCH BASTARD.

LIKE. ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE CHAPTER SO FAR. IT RUINS ME. IT FEELS LIKE A HUG AFTER A 3 HOUR LONG BREAKDOWN. IT'S SO WELL WRITTEN AND PERFECT IN EVERY ASPECT. FUCK. WHAT IN THE FUDGE. FUCK.

I miss them so much. I miss the wonderlandians. I miss eah. AGHHHH

I listened to gumjester's Maddie playlist while drawing this and uhmmmmm..... Wow I can see where the inspiration came from. ALSO ALL OF IT IS AMAZING MUSIC. I LOVE MUSIC. I LOVE ART. THIS FIC MAKES MY DAYS BETTER. AGH. FUCK

Anyway uhhhhhhh have a good day everyone, say nice things to me I'm lonely

#ever after high #eah #eah:rir #maddie hatter #Madeline hatter #tea art 🎨#eah fic #eah rewrite #oklo makes a post

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ryuichirou · 7 days

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Replies

A couple of replies about random stuff today.

Anonymous asked:

have you watched/are going to watch the new black butler season? you definitely need to see the ED it’s gorgeous

We might at least check out some of the scenes at some point (there are a lot of very juicy scenes in this arc that I would love to hear the seiyuu cast voice), but whatever we do, it absolutely won’t be very soon :( Since we are preoccupied with other things and all.

The ED really is very pretty! The colour schemes and the shading that they use is very nice and suits the atmosphere a lot. I also love how we just keep getting these romantic dance-like visuals for Sebastian and Ciel lol, this is their tradition at this point. And a great tradition at that! Keep catching him, Sebastian... 💪

Anonymous asked:

Thoughts on Lilia/Malleus/Silver/Sebek orgy?

Yes. Absolutely. Should happen at least once. Sebek is going to be the only one who didn’t see it coming….

Anonymous asked:

Idk if you keep up with fandom on twt but this Malaysian webtoon artist revealed to the webtoon's fandom that their main ship are actually cousins

And I really feel like I shouldn't laugh at the fandom but a lot of them trying to justify the ship and honestly it's hilarious

I do feel bad for the artist because they're being harassed by people who want the ship but at the same time they can't really control how people will interpret art or a story

Wow, so there are two fandoms that had this happen to them this week (in addition to the Conan thing)? Or is this related to this situation?

The artist absolutely shouldn’t be harassed; no one should be harassed in that situation actually, people should just reflect on how they interact with the media and what is more important to them: having fun with their favourite ship or their moral superiority. Whenever shit like this happens, I always think about how they can’t be this delusional and not see how silly this discourse is. Like, what are you supposed to do? Stop shipping it (do you completely lack self-respect?) or start coming up with excuses (are you a hypocrite?).

Ideally, it should show to them that fictional characters being cousins doesn’t change anything. But in actuality, it only makes people confused and angry… and start doing stupid shit like harassing others or trying to prove that their ship is still somehow alright.

It really is funny though, not gonna lie lol

#replies

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the-himawari · 9 months

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A3! Citron - Translation [SSR] Curtain Among Cherry Blossoms (1/3)

*Please read disclaimer on blog; default name set as Izumi

---

Tangerine: Wow, I’ve never seen any of these tools before!

Taichi: These are items used in traditional Japanese games! These are just some examples though.

Kumon: This one’s called a top and you play it by spinning it! This one’s a kendama. You either set the ball on a cup or stab it.

Tangerine: What is this one? It looks like simply a rope tied in a loop.

Kumon: You use that in a game called cat’s cradle. You wrap the string around your wrist or fingers and make various shapes.

Tangerine: Cat’s cradle… that sounds fun!

Kumon: Are you interested? Alright, I’ll show you how it’s done!

Taichi: Kyu-chan’s a pro at cat’s cradle~.

Kumon: Lemme see. Loop this string on my thumb and remove this other string… Look, I made a tower!

Tangerine: Amazing. A simple piece of string became an art piece! You’re a genius, Kumon!

Kumon: Hehe, thanks! You know, Sakyo-san is awesome at cat’s cradle too.

Tangerine: I can’t imagine someone making beautiful art with that look. People are not always what they seem~!

Taichi: That’s surprisingly harsh!

Kumon: Would you like to give it a try, Prince Tangerine? I know a trick that’s a little easier.

Tangerine: Really? I would certainly love to.

Kumon: Okay! First, wrap the string on your thumb and little finger. Then twist it and take it with your middle finger…

Tangerine: Middle finger… like this? Um, I think my fingers are going to get caught.

Izumi: …It looks like Tangerine-kun is enjoying the traditional Japanese games.

Tsuzuru: His teachers Taichi and Kumon look like they’re having fun too.

Citron: I’m full of great attitude that everyone is getting along well with Tangerine~.

Tsuzuru: It’s gratitude, not great attitude.

Kumon: There, the broom is complete!

Tangerine: Wow. I can do it too!

Taichi: You made it perfectly the first time! You have a knack for this, Prince Tangerine~.

Tangerine: I am full of graptitude.

Taichi: It’s gratitude!

Kumon: Hey, let’s play another game! Which one do you like, Prince Tangerine?

Tangerine: Hm… I am curious about this round block. Is this a Japanese-style building block?

Kumon: Oh, the daruma otoshi! Nice choice!

Taichi: This is a game where you hit and slide the block on the bottom of the stack out while being careful not to make the top blocks fall. If you hit it sideways quickly with this little hammer, the blocks on top of it will fall straight down.

Tangerine: I see! I do not fully understand, but it sounds fun!

Kumon: It’s faster to actually do it than explain it, so let’s give it a shot! Here, take this mallet~.

Taichi: Give the block on the bottom a big ol’ smack to the side!

Tangerine: I got it. I will try. …Here I go!

---

| next

#a3!#a3! translation #a3! citron #act! addict! actors!#this was requested forever ago sdkfhsdk #SORRY BUT HERE WE GO <33

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atom-writings · 1 year

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(Hetalia Main 8 x Reader) Ballet Dancer S/O!

(Gender Neutral) Headcanons ~ A/N whoopsies this one is shorter sorry </3

Trigger Warning: Fem adjective used once, other than that none!

Alfred has never been one for the more traditional arts, but he can still appreciate the effort you put into your dancing!

He’s not gonna understand though. He’ll come to your performances and his only takeaway is “wow, you looked real pretty in that outfit :)”

But he’s still gonna go to every one of them. Very, very proud of you! Constantly showing you off and bragging about you.

Constantly reminding you to take care of yourself. He sees how hard it can be, and will do anything to make up for it.

Like Alfred, Arthur does not really understand ballet. But after watching you, he completely understands the appeal.

Frankly he wishes that the other dancers weren’t there. Watching you is absolutely entrancing, and everyone else is just a distraction!

Eventually, you’ll have to ask him to stop coming because he always brings way too many flowers for you-

He just can’t help but be overly supportive! He sees how much effort you put in, and it blows him away every time.

Francis would absolutely adore a ballet dancer S/O! Anyone whose in the arts immediately has his respect and admiration.

He acts like a soccer mom for you lmao. Bringing water, snacks, keeping track of your costumes, and always coming to every rehearsal and performance. It’s a little overbearing, but he’s just trying to show his support-

Shows you off SO MUCH. He just can’t stop gushing about how talented you are!

Yao loves all kinds of dance! Throughout history, he’s seen styles come and go, and whatever style you love, he’s totally in for.

Insists that you teach him everything you can about it, even if he can’t replicate it.

One of the only ones who knows how to act normal about. He’s very proud of you! But he won’t embarrass you about it.

He’ll take care of you after rehearsal if you ask, but he mostly gripes at you about taking care of yourself (like a dad would-)

Oh, Ivan would absolutely adore this! His country is known for ballet, so he’s always had a love for it. He’s ecstatic that you love it too!

VERY enthusiastic! He’s taken a few lessons himself, so he would love to get better with your guidance.

Comes to a lot of your rehearsals, just to admire you. He says it's to make sure you get home safe, but really he just loves watching you dance.

He knows how to act at performances, but his support is still a little overwhelming... he's just so crazy in love with you and everything you do!

Feliciano loves the arts, but ballet has always been a little confusing to him. He loves your performances, but most of it is lost on him.

That doesn’t mean he’s not willing to learn! And seeing how hard you work, he gains a new respect for the medium.

At every performance, he’s SO obnoxious. Cheering for you when it’s not appropriate, taking a million pictures, gushing about how well you did, telling everyone how perfect you did. It’s nice, but… wow.

Don’t worry though, he’ll pamper you once you get home.

Ludwig is going to be a little intimidated at first. In his mind, ballet dancers are the pinnacle of human aesthetics. And now he’s dating one? Oh boy…

But he’s very supportive! Goes to every single one of your performances, even if he doesn’t know the appropriate level of excitement he’s supposed to have at first.

He’s not an athlete in the same way you are, but he’d still love to exercise together! You two can teach each other some things. For you, strength, for him, endurance!

He doesn’t know much about ballet, but if it makes you happy, it makes him happy!

After he learns more about it, he might start engaging more. Coming to your rehearsals, helping with costumes, and stuff like that! He’s very supportive, but he struggles to tell you in words how much he admires you <3

But he does worry a lot about you wearing yourself out. He’ll take care of you after every rehearsal and constantly remind you to not push yourself too much.

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justmenoworries · 11 months

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RotB spoilers

Wow. That sure was... a Transformers movie.

The Positives:

The human characters were amazing. I love Noah's relationship with his little brother, the Sonic and Tails thing made me squee both because I'm a Sonic nerd and because it was just so darn cute! Anthony Ramos does a great job of protraying both the comedic and the more serious sides of the character. I hope he gets big after this, I'd love to see him in more. Same for Dominique Fishback, who also did amazing as Elena. Elena is a gem of a character, I loved her genuine passion for history and how openminded and willing to help she is. Her relationship with the Autobots and the Maximals is so genuinely respectful on both sides and the way the movie makes it clear that the gang probably wouldn't get far without her knowledge - I'm just really happy that the first POC human companions in a Transformers movie were handled this well.

Mirage and Noah's odd friendship is wholesome and funny and one of the highpoints of the movie. Mirage in general is a pretty well-written comedic relief. He's quirky and does his own thing, but never to the point that it gets grating. I think a big part of his likability comes from Pete Davidson's performance, he gives this character such an inherent charisma and joy for life you can't help but warm up to him eventually. I found it pretty interesting that Noah and Mirage seem to be a sort of mirror to Bumblebee and Charlie, heck, their last scene together is literally Noah repairing Mirage to bring him back from a coma. Human-Transformer friendships are pretty hit or miss in these movies, but these two absolutely hit. Btw, we're definitely in for tons of ship-art after Mirage's "You were inside me!" - line and I, for one, cannot wait. Hot take, Noah and Mirage should have kissed.

The Transformers designs were awesome (for the most part, but we'll get to that)! They're very different from the old Bayverse designs, but not in a bad way at all. I think they're a perfect mix of the old traditional G1 but wth enough elements from more modern depictions that they can be seen as their own thing. I'm especially a fan of Arcee's new look, the visor that becomes her windshield in motorcycle-form is aneat touch.

It was cool to see less known Transformers get to be part of the maincast. Mirage is the obvious one, but we've also got Stratosphere, whom I honestly didn't think they'd ever bring back, but it was a nice surprise. I think it's an interesting decision to not have Bumblebee the one who bonds with a human, since in every mainline movie so far he was basically the bridge between humans and Autobots, as the only one with a permanent human companion. They even reference it. But I can get behind it, Bumblebee's kind of become infamous for hogging the limelight. Giving another Autobot a human friend allows someone else to shine for once.

The underlying commentary on instituional racism in both Elena's and Noah's stories was *chef's kiss*. The way Noah struggled to get a job, despite having all the qualities, but being dismissed at the first excuse hi would-be boss gets? Elena being obviously more qualified to be a curator than her boss, but being stuck as an intern who does all the actual work while the white woman gets all the credit for it? Real. Frustrating, but real.

Optimus being portrayed as more jaded and bitter and needing to relearn the meaning of Til All Are One was an intriguing direction to take the characcter in, I enjoyed it for the most part. Also ngl, I got a bit teary-eyed when Optimus pleaded with Noah not to destroy the Transwarp Key and that they could save both of their worlds without one needing to suffer. The paralells between Optimus and Noah were also neat. They're both soldiers who adopted a "Whatever it takes" mindset after countless instances of life just absolutely dumping on them and need to re-learn that sometimes, it's not just about you and your loved ones. You can't just dismiss the fate of others because they're not in your general orbit and working together so no one will have to sacrifice or be sacrificed will always be better than bulldozing through with a "Fuck you, got mine" attitude.

The movie gives the middle finger to the Ancient Aliens trope so fucking hard. Yes, the Maximals were on Earth for a long time and had contact with humans, nope, they're not responsible for stuff like the Nazca Lines or the pyramids, those were all still the humans. The Maximals only contributed their own artifacts to hide the Transwarp Key and even those are clearly distinct from humanity's ancient artifacts, absolutely no overlap. If anything, it's heavily implied the Maximals were imitating humanity when creating their artifacts and I think that's great.

The Negatives:

The story isn't really the movie's strong point. It's a standard Macguffin-hunt, ending with a world-ending threat. If you've seen even one movie with those plot-points before, you've seen this one. There's very little there in terms of fresh new takes or originality. The pacing's too fast to give much attention to the characters, who should have been the main focus, and the climax is a drag that takes about half an hour too long, has about three separate Darkest Hour moments and severely undermines two major characters (more on that later).

The secondary conflict about Noah wanting to destroy the Transwarp Key to protect Earth from Unicron and going behind both the Autobots' and the Maximals' backs is resolved way too quickly. I get why it is, going more in-depth with it would have taken time that the movie simply didn't have to spare, but I feel like that was a potentially enaging discussion that we've missed out on. It's one of the very few examples where a story portrays a gray conflict in a competent manner: You can't really blame Noah for not wanting Earth to be torn apart between all those factions of giant robots, one of whom has shown nothing but disdain for humanity and seems to care only about his own people. On the other end, you can understand why Optimus is so desperate and hyperfocused on using the key to return to Cybertron: There's still a war going on there, dozens of his friends are in the line of fire and he's been forced to sit the conflict out on Earth twiddling his thumbs, with no way to contact the other Autobots. Optimus' speech to Noah during Airazor's attack was good, I won't deny that, but I wish we could've seen other characters react to what Noah almost did. Would they be accepting like Optimus? Or would they feel angry and betrayed, especially Mirage? Speaking of Mirage, how would the fact that Noah almost took away his one hope of going back home affect their relationship? How would Noah defend himself? Or would he accept that what he did was understandable but not okay and try to apologize?

I'm sorry, the Mirage-armor was just silly. It looked silly too. Granted the movie did kind of foreshadow it with Noah's Mirage-glove, but a simple glove is leagues away from 'dismantling my entire body to give my bestie a mech-suit made out of me'. And no hate to the CGI artists, but they messed up big time on the armor. It's obvious Noah's face is photoshopped in there and the movements are just way too video game character-y.

I'm not sure how I feel about the G. I. Joe teaser. I've never watched the cartoon, but I am aware they've had a history of crossovers with Transformers. Still, this feels like another attempt at creating a cinematic universe a la Marvel and I'm really starting to get sick of those. Plus, are we supposed to just ignore that a government organization was spying on Noah the whole time, meddled with his family's medical business and is already looking to weaponize the Autobots for their own purposes through Noah's connection with them? I gotta say, that's a whole lotta yikes that we're just supposed to accept because the Joes are, allegedly, the Good Guys. And come to think of it, how come they only contacted Noah? How come Elena didn't get contacted as well? She was right there, they never would've been able to save the world without her contributions! But that transitions neatly into my next point.

This movie does it's female characters dirty. All of the main groups suffer from Smurfette Principle (each group has only one female character who is mostly relegated to sidekick or background role for the sake of the male characters). Like, the male-female ratio isn't balanced at all here. Two of the four main girls don't get to do anything but be there, more or less, one gets fridged and one gets shafted for the sake of her male companion. Airazor's death was an insult, I'm sorry, but it was. You're telling me that Scourge has the ability to corrupt and brainwash other Transformers and out of the dozens of characters he fights/comes close to over the course of the movie, the only one he uses that on is the sole female Maximal? Oh and just to add insult to injury: Bumblebee gets fatally stabbed in the first act, but gets magically revived during the climax through energon. Not Airazor though. She stays dead. I guess healing springs are boys only. Don't get me started on Elena. The movie spends so much time building her up as the Heart, the Brain to Noah's Brawn whose contributions are just as if not more important and then it screws her over in the climax by removing the one way for her to save the day so Noah and Optimus can do it instead. She literally gets dragged off the battlefield so the men can do the "real" fighting. Oh, and remember Airazor? The movie was teasing that Airazor could be to Elena what Mirage is to Noah, but not only does Airazor die, she attacks Elena beforehand and Elena is forced to witness Primal mercy-killing her. Fucking wow. Elena wasn't allowed to have anything in this movie. (Yes, it was nice to see her being credited with the discovery of the old underground city in Peru, but again: The fact that Noah was given major credit for helping save the world while she was more or less shoved into the background and ignored speaks volumes). You're probably wondering why I haven't said anything about Arcee and Nightbird yet. That's because there is nothing to say. They're barely characters in this movie. Arcee is flat as they come and Nightbird is just a villain who spouts eeevil one-liners. Thanks, I hate it.

We did not need a return of the Realistic Old Man robot designs. Stratosphere and Wheeljack look so deeply out of place next to the others. Why couldn't Wheeljack keep his design from Bumblebee (the movie) and just have it tweaked a bit to fit in on Earth? Seriously, were the "realistic" faces anyone's favorite part of the old Bayverse series? Optimus, Arcee's, Mirage's and Bumblebee's designs were already perfect. Just human enough to be readable, just otherworldly enough to be alien, why did we have to do Jackie and Strats like that???

I'm gonna say it: It was way too early to bring in Unicron as the Big Bad. In Transformers canon, Unicron is basically Thanos. You can allude to him, hint at him as a Greater Evil that's to come, but you do not bring in fucking Unicron as your Starter Villain! Imagine if in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1, Thanos just showed up at the midpoint, teamed up with Ronan and got beaten by the Guardians. That's this movie with Unicron and Scourge. You already had perfectly serviceable villains with Scourge's team, you didn't need to waste the planet-level threat like that! Unicron should have been this constant looming presence in the background, someone we regularly see Scourge interact with and him managing to cross over should be a Worst Case Scenario, not the actual climax. He should not have appeared in person! Because now that the bubble's burst, the tension is gone. We don't need to be afraid of Unicron anymore, because the heroes already beat him once and he has no way to return. And where do you go to escalate from a literally planet-sized Transformer god who eats other planets as fuel??? Where do you escalate from there?? What or who could be more of a threat than a god??? There's a reason Unicron was the Big Bad for a whole separate movie in G1. Now that you had him, every other threat will inevitably look like a step down in comparison. The Decepticons will look like a step down in comparison! Good job Jody Harold, I didn't think anyone could shoot themselves in the foot that badly, but you've proved me wrong quite expertly. Bravo!/s

The Autobots and Maximals feel so underdeveloped. It's been an unfortunate trend in live-action Transformers that the actual Transformers are more window-dressing than anything else ever since Transformers (2007) and sadly, that's very much the case in this movie. Apart from Optimus and, if we're being extremely generous, Mirage, none of the Autobots get anything resembling a character arc or good character moments. Same for the Maximals. The Terrorcons are just generic villains who are neither hammy nor cool enough to leave a lasting impression. There are hints of potential, with the implication that the Terrorcons are remnants of worlds destroyed by Unicron that Unicron brainwashed into his service, but we never really elaborate on that. They're really just goons for the heroes to get whooped by in the first act, so they can be triumphantly defeated in the third act. They had something going with the Optimus/Scourge rivalry and the potential Scourge/Primal rivalry, but none of it is executed in a way that feels narratively satisfying. Optimus gets his ass beat once and Bumblebee gets stabbed trying to help him and from then on Optimus kinda wants revenge until he doesn't. Primal's brother Apelinq dies to Scourge while holding the line so the Maximals can escape their planet, but that's literally only mentioned once and then Primal just forgets he was supposed to hold a grudge, I guess. Watching the movie, it's pretty obvious the Transformers were an afterthought, which really shouldn't be the case in a movie series that has their name in the title.

The action is extremely underwhelming. The fight choreography is kind of okay, but everything feels way too floaty and weightless. There's no 'oomph' behind any of the punches, kicks or any physical attacks. Same goes for the gunfights. The characters might as well be firing with pea-shooters for all the damage any projectile does in this movie. Airazor's fire-breath is the closest thing a weapon comes in this movie to being actually threatening, because she's allowed to do actual damage that isn't shrugged off. If there's anything to be said for the original Bayverse movies, it's that the fights were phenomenal. You could actually feel the characters were heavy, you could tell they were getting hurt. Nothing about this film's fight-scenes feels tense or engaging. Just a bunch of robots shooting blue pellets at one another and doing flips in-between. That's it. Bumblebee (2018) only had like three major fight-scenes and it still managed to outdo this one in terms of solid action. The big battle scene in the climax tries to feel grand and high-stakes, but it doesn't work because you don't care for most of these characters. Though I will admit, Primal kill-stealing from Optimus and Optimus being indignant about it was funny. Maybe I would have cared more if we'd had more interactions like that between the characters.

Conclusion:

This movie was mid in every way. Some characters stood out, most didn't. The story was nothing to write home about, the acting is solid for the most part but the action doesn't deliver and you constantly feel like there could have been more if the movie handled its time better.

4.5/10, Bumblebee (2018) did it better.

#rotb spoilers #transformers rise of the beasts #tf rotb

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