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medium-sized-snack-portion · 1 year

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A friend's trust

Hey, so I guess it was about time I finally wrote down my pretty much first actual vorish story. It's my first piece of writing I've done, so I'm excited to see if y'all like it.

This is just a little side story (which would relate to the big one I might actually get to write someday, haven't decided yet), featuring my main OC Hyacinth the Fairy, his roommate Galen the Minotaur, 4 of my other OC-s sprinkled in, and of course, noms.

Containing: Soft and safe vore, some language (nothing too bad), ✨️emotions✨️, probably an acceptable amount of grammatical errors (yes english isn't my first language how did u know) and around 3500 words.

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A red Maserati was parking in front of an apartment building. A Siren, wearing a sleeveless turtleneck was sitting behind the wheel, his phone in his hand.

"Matty, if you don't get your ass into the car within the next 5 minutes, you can walk all the way to the cinema."

Half of a "Just a minute!" could be heard from the other side of the phone, before the Siren hung up the call. "He'll be here in a sec."

"You sure you don't wanna come with us, Hyacinth?" asked the girl sitting in the passenger seat, from the pointy eared guy standing next to the car. She was wearing a yellow top and denim shorts, and Hyacinth was wearing a purple shirt with black jeans, a crystal necklace hanging from his neck.

"Nah, I got some homework to do, and I know if I put it on for longer than needed, I'll just end up not doing it." Hyacinth said. "But you guys have fun!"

Faint music could be heard from the back of the car. A Telkhine was playing on his Switch on the backseat, his hood pulled over his head, music leaking from his earbuds.

"Just make sure he won't be doing that during the movie." Hyacinth said. He knew how hard it was to snap Idios out of gaming trance once he got into it.

"Don't worry about it, he's been wanting to watch this movie ever since people started talking about how surprisingly good it was." the girl said. "I hope they're right, the animation looks promising, that's for sure."

The front door of the apartment slammed open with a gust of wind, and a chubby, white-haired guy in a jacket came running through. "I'M HERE!" he said, out of breath. "I just - *huff* - had to grab some stuff."

"Why the hell are you wearing that? It's like 20°C." the Siren in the driver's seat asked.

"Because of this, Kal." Matthias (Matty) said, unzipping his jacket, revealing the snacks that were taped to the inside. "Do you know how overpriced the stuff they sell at the cinema is?"

Hyacinth couldn't help but chuckle at this, Kalais (Kal) just rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever you say."

"Hey, the passenger is my seat!" Matt said, as he noticed his cousin sitting next to Kalais. "Reka, lemme in!"

"Not a chance." Reka said. "Maybe next time don't take that long."

Matty begrudgingly sat next to Idios in the backseat, whose eyes were still glued to his console.

"Is everyone here? Cool." Kal said, and he turned to Hyacinth. "Okay, I plan on getting something to eat after the film, so we'll be back in around 3 hours. Want us to grab something for you?"

3 hours. That was more than enough time for Hyacinth to do what he was planning. "Nothing, thanks. You guys should get going tho, the movie is starting soon."

Kal looked at the time on his phone. "You're right. Well, let's go!" he said to Hyacinth, and winked at him.

"See ya later!" Reka and Matt, in sync. Idios just gave a nod, as he was semi-listening to what was going on while gaming.

"Bye guys!" Hyacinth said, and watched the Maserati drive away, until it disappeared behind a corner.

4 of his roommates left for 3 hours, leaving only him and his 5th roommate alone at home. It couldn't have gotten more perfect for Hyacinth. He quickly turned around and went back to the building, and back to his apartment to put his plan into motion.

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The apartment was unusually quiet, with 4 out of it's 6 inhabitants gone. The apartment was small, but cozy: it had a kitchen/dining area, a living room, a bathroom and a 6-in-1 bedroom. Next to the bedroom door was a dial, with the names of Hyacinth and his roommates' names on it, currently set to the name "Matthias". It served as a kind of portal, each name belonging to a room with a different interior. It was a quite popular little thing invented by some welsh wizard, it made the housing situation much more manageable.

The place was owned by Hyacinth's 5th roommate, Galen. The Highland Minotaur was in the living room area, reading a book while laying on the couch. He was wearing his signature green sweater with a daisy crocheted on the part around his heart. Hyacinth was in the dining area, writing an essay on his laptop.

"Nice change of pace." Hyacinth broke the silence between the 2 of them. "Some peace and quiet."

"Agreed." Galen didn't even look up from his book. "I love them, but Gods, they can drain a person quickly." Hyacinth gave an agreeing hum, and went back to typing.

...Well, at least tried to, because his mind was wandering off to someplace else. It was just him and Galen, alone, with no one to disturb them. 3 hours wasn't that long, and he didn't want to waste any of that time. So, after a few minutes of typing, he spoke again.

"Hey, Galen?"

"Hm?"

"Can I… ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"We've been... friends for a while, right?" he could feel his heart pounding in his chest.

There was a moment of silence.

"Yeeeah, why?" Galen was rather confused by the question. He has known the Fairy for almost 10 years at that point, him and Kal were the closest people to him outside of his family.

Hyacinth walked to the couch, his hands fidgeting. He thought he was better prepared for this, but he clearly wasn't. His legs felt like jelly, and his face was as red as a tomato.

A little tuft of fur around Galen' eye moved. That was the equivalent of an eyebrow raise, since his eyes weren't visible from the fur on his head. "Dude, are you... okay?" Galen asked in a concerned voice. Hyacinth looked like he was about to pass out, and the Minotaur sprung up from the couch, ready to support him. "Here, just sit do-"

"WILLYOUEATME?" Hyacinth asked without a break between words, immediately covering his face with his hands after it.

Galen was flabbergasted by the question. For a few seconds, none of them said a word: Galen from the shock, Hyacinth from the embarrassment. They were just standing in front of the couch in silence.

"I, uhh, what?" Galen was the first one to speak up.

"I- I just-" Hyacinth was trying really hard not to break down crying.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" the Minotaur was trying to reassure his friend. "Just sit down, here!" he said, as he helped Hyacinth onto the couch. He sat down next to him, his hand on the Fairy's shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry." Hyacinth began, fighting with tears. "It's- It's just that I always wanted to know how it'd feel like to be inside someone- Oh, Oberon, this must sound so fucking weird." he said, and let out a weak chuckle.

"No, no. It's okay." Galen said. He knew about people who enjoyed being eaten. It wasn't a common thing by any means, but it wasn't as weird as it sounded. "Just continue."

Hyacinth took a deep breath. "I wanted to try it out for the longest time, but I couldn't. I spent most of my life between the walls of my family's chateau, and my mother always made sure I wasn't gone longer than a few hours each day, so I didn't get to talk to anyone about this. If she knew about this... Oh, Oberon, I don't even know how she'd react. Perhaps she'd just see me as even more of a disappointment, if that's even possible at this point..." the Fairy went quiet for a minute.

Galen didn't really know what to say, so he just kept gently rubbing his friend's back. He didn't know Hyacinth's mother personally, but from what he heard about her, he was certain she wouldn't have been okay with the situation. He couldn’t imagine what she would’ve done if she found out, but it wouldn’t have been a pretty sight.

"Now that I'm away from home I feel so free, I finally have the chance to figure out things about myself!" Hyacinth continued. "I probably could've asked someone on the Internet to help me with this, but I wanted it to be someone I knew I can trust." he turned to Galen, his yellow eyes glittering with tears. "You're the person I trust the most in the world, Galen, I mean it. I figured there wasn't a better guy to ask than you, but if you don't want to, I understand. It's still a really weird thing to ask from someone. I'm sorry."

Galen was greatly touched by what Hyacinth said. He figured the Fairy's at home situation wasn't the best, but hearing how much trust the Fairy has in him really moved him. Tho he didn't really know what to say, because Hyacinth was right, it was still a rather... unusual request. But he wasn't going to let this stop him from supporting his friend.

"For a second, I thought you were asking me out on a date or something." he said, smiling.

"What? No! I would never!" Hyacinth said. "No wait, not in that way!" he quickly added after realizing how bad his first sentence sounded. "You're the greatest person I know, and you look hella fine too, but I know you're just not into the whole romance thing."

Galen couldn't help but laugh a little. "It's okay! I got it the first time, don't worry. And thanks for keeping that in mind, I appreciate it."

Hyacinth rubbed the tears from his eyes. "I'll just go back to finishing that essay." he stood up, but Galen stopped him.

"No. Let’s do it."

The Fairy quickly turned to the Minotaur, his eyes wide from surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, I'll help however I can dude, you can trust me. Just... are you sure you'll be okay?" the Minotaur asked. "I don't want to accidentally hurt you or something. I mean, being inside someone sounds kinda... dangerous?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm already prepared!" Hyacinth said enthusiastically. "I'm very good with healing magic, so even if I get hurt, I can just fix myself. I've also been practicing teleportation, so I could get out whenever I wanted, but we might not even be needing that, since you're a Minotaur. You guys ruminate like cows do, so coughing me up wouldn't be difficult, well, at least while I'm in the first 2 parts of your stomach. That's partially why I asked you in the first place!"

Galen had no words. "Well damn, you really do know your stuff." The Fairy's thirst for knowledge never stopped amazing him.

Hyacinth blushed. "You know me, learning about the world is like breathing to me. Now, let's get to it, because If Kal bought both 4 movie tickets and food for everybody for nothing, he's gonna kill me."

"Hold up, what?"

"Yeeeah, he's the only other person who knows. I told him what I was planning and how I needed time to be alone with you, and he was like "Don't worry dude, I got you.", and the rest is history."

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Hyacinth was standing on the kitchen table, missing his necklace and approximately 155 cm-s from his height, leaving him at 5. Galen was kneeling next to the table, his head around the same level as Hyacinth.

"Last chance to turn back, you still wanna do it?" Galen asked from Hyacinth.

"Ready as I’ll ever be!" the Fairy replied excitedly.

"Alright, but if there's anything wrong, or you feel uncomfortable, you get out of me immediately. I don't know if we'll be able to hear each other once you're, well, inside of me."

"Got it! And if you want me out of you, you can just cough me up."

Galen couldn't help but laugh. "We are talking about this wayyy too casually."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, open up, big guy!"

"You're way too excited about this." Galen said, and lowered his chin onto the table. He slowly opened his mouth, granting full access to Hyacinth.

"O-oh, wow." Hyacinth said, as he slowly approached the gaping maw of the Minotaur. He slowly reached out his hand and touched the giant tongue in front of him. It was warm, wet, and spongy. He didn't want to waste any more time, so he climbed into his friend's mouth.

If the Minotaur's breath was humid, then the inside of his mouth was like a rainforest. The dripping saliva and the heat was overwhelming, but the smell was relatively nice, since Galen always paid close attention to personal hygiene.

Galen lifted his head off the table, which made Hyacinth stumble and fall flat onto the tongue he was standing on. He quickly collected himself, but also realized that he should've picked some more expendable clothes than the ones he was wearing.

"Alright, I'm ready! I'll be seeing you in a while. Well, technically, I'll be only seeing you for a while, am I right?"

Galen couldn't help but sigh at this, which made a blast of warm air hit Hyacinth in the face, making him fall over again. A "SOHHY" could be heard all around Hyacinth, accompanied with the rumble of the entire mouth.

"It's OK!" said the Fairy, making a thumbs-up that no one else but him could see.

Galen's mouth started to close, trapping the tiny Hyacinth in complete darkness. He made a few movements with his hands, which made a ball of light appear, illuminating the cavernous mouth of the Minotaur. The light reflected from the large, saliva covered molars of Galen, giving the mouth a sort of cozy vibe. This feeling didn't last long however, as the tongue moved under Hyacinth, pressing him into the side of Galen' mouth, which was noticeably softer and wetter than the tongue. Galen moved Hyacinth around in his mouth like a hard candy, and Hyacinth found the experience quite enjoyable, if a bit rough.

Then, for a moment, everything stopped. Galen tilted his head back, creating a slope with his tongue. He pushed up the muscle, sending Hyacinth tumbling towards the gaping abyss of his throat. One loud *GLLK* , and the little Fairy was on his way down to the first of the bovine's 4 stomach compartments.

The esophagus was less tight around Hyacinth than he was expecting. Instead of the stop-and-go feeling he was expecting, the journey down was more like the world's slowest water slide. On the outside, there was a barely visible lump on Galen’s throat. Hyacinth didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually, he reached the sphincter, and after he got pushed through it, he plopped into the first stomach part of his friend, the rumen. It was large, relatively dry, and filled with the remains of Galen's lunch.

"Okay, I'm down! Say something if you can hear me!" Hyacinth shouted, but he didn't get any response. "Aight, can't be heard from the stomach, noted."

Not much was happening in there, since the rumen was mostly for microbes to start breaking down plant based materials, which, luckily, wasn't what Hyacinth was made of. The main thing happening in there that affected Hyacinth were the movements of the walls, which helped breaking down the food into smaller bits - and in Hyacinth's case, thrashing him around. After a while, Hyacinth and the food mush was transferred to the 2nd stomach area, the reticulum, which was pretty much the same as the rumen, maybe a bit smaller and more active.

After a little more of getting thrown around, Hyacinth found himself back in the esophagus - except this time, he was moving upwards. The way up was just as slow - maybe even slower - as the way down, and Hyacinth was soon back in Galen's mouth, with the food pieces that didn't turn into complete mush. Galen started chewing, making sure his friend did not end up between his molars. While chewing, a gurgling sound could be heard from the Minotaur's stomach, and a burp left his mouth, making Hyacinth tear up a little from the smell.

"ESCHYOOS ME!" the Minotaur tried to say

"I'm fine!" the Fairy said, wiping the tears from his eyes. He knew what he was getting himself into, he wasn't going to quit because of a little smell.

"WAHHA GEH OUH?"

"Nah, I'll be okay, the fun part is about to begin!" Hyacinth said, and Galen sent his friend back down, into the 3rd part of his stomach. The omasum was noticeably less spacious than the previous 2 areas, the walls were nearly hugging Hyacinth. The food mush around him lost a lot from it's moisture in the omasum, making it the consistency of dough. Hyacinth and the breakfast bits were soon escorted into the final stomach part, the abomasum.

If you had to name a main stomach amongst the 4 parts, that was definitely the winner. The usually dry plop was replaced with a wet one, soaking Hyacinth with enzymes and acids. This was the part that was the closest to Galen embracing Hyacinth in the inside. It was wet, gurgly, and tight - and Hyacinth loved every second of it. He felt like he could simply just fall asleep in there. However, after a while, he started feeling a tingly sensation on his skin, and, considering this was the one stomach that was suitable to digest non-plant based material, Hyacinth figured this was the curtain call of his little adventure inside his friend. Hyacinth drew some runes into the air with his fingers, and suddenly, he found himself in the blinding light of the living room.

He was laying on his back on the coffee table in front of the couch. Galen was sitting on said couch, and when he saw Hyacinth, a weight lifted from his chest.

"Thank the GODS it's over! Holy fuck, I was getting so worried, the last hour after I swallowed you back down felt like an eternity. Never ask me to do this again, I need like a drink after this or something."

Hyacinth slowly got himself together, and looked down at his clothes, drenched in saliva, acids and food particles. "Aww man, and I liked this shirt too..."

Galen just rolled his eyes. "Well, did you have fun? Or was me worrying myself into an early grave in the last hour in vain?"

"Dude, it was incredible!" said Hyacinth, with a smile on his face. "It was wild and overwhelming, but also comfy at the same time. The second half of the trip much better honestly, more exciting stuff happened, felt like I was getting a full body massage and-"

"Alright, alright, I don't need to hear any of this.” Galen stopped his friend before he could go into any more details. He was happy for him, but he chose blissful ignorance about knowing how he looked on the inside. “I'm just glad you had fun. Now, go and take a shower while I go and, I don’t know, burn your clothes or something. Here, put this thing back on." Galen gave Hyacinth his necklace back, which was comically large on the Fairy in his current size. This quickly changed, since the moment the jewelry was in the Fairy’s neck, he quickly grew back to his "human" size.

"Sweet, back to size XXL. Well, I’ll just be in the shower for the next 30 minutes or so." he hopped off the table, and made his way into the bathroom, but not before turning back to his roommate. "Hey, Galen?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. This meant... a lot to me, believe it or not."

The bull smiled. "I know."

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"Man, you two missed out, this was the best movie I've seen in a while!" Idios said to Hyacinth and Galen, sitting next to them on the couch. "I mean, the first one wasn't bad either, but this? This was cinema."

"Gotta agree with Idios on this one, it was pretty good." Matty was putting leftovers into the microwave from the dinner they had. "Just absolutely hilarious."

"I love how it handled the darker themes without dumbing them down, that's rare nowadays." Idios replied.

"Also: the wolf was hot as fuck." Kal said, before putting a spoonful of fried rice into his face.

"Was everything okay while we were gone?" Reka asked while she put her leftovers in the fridge.

Hyacinth and Galen looked at each other.

"It was okay, nothing special happened." Galen said. Hyacinth looked at Kal and gave him a wink, which made the Siren smirk.

Hyacinth yawned. "Well, I think I'll go and hit the hay. See you guys tomorrow." he said, and made his way towards the bedroom dial. He turned it, so his name would be next to the doorknob, and opened the door.

"Wait, I almost forgot! I wanted to ask you about something." Kal said, and quickly followed Hyacinth into his room. He locked the door behind them, and sat down on the bed, next to Hyacinth.

"Well? How did it go?" he whispered, as his face was glowing with curiosity.

"It was great!" Hyacinth said, scratching the back of his head.

"Sweeet! High-five!" the Siren raised his hand, and Hyacinth slammed his palm into it. "Oh, that reminds me, go and check your messages!"

"Oookay?" Hyacinth pulled out his phone and looked at the messages sent by Kal: it was pictures of different guys - some of which he recognised - with their names next to them. He looked at Kal, confused. "...What's this?"

"You said you were looking for a relationship, sooo, I did a little digging and found these guys: they're all single, go to the same Uni as we do, and would be open to the occasional "snack". Maybe you'll find one who could be the one."

Hyacinth just stared at his phone for a few seconds, his eyes getting wet. "Kal, you really shouldn't ha-"

"Nonsense!" Kalais shut him down before he could finish the sentence, and put his hand on Hyacinth's shoulder. "You're my friend, and you deserve someone you can feel comfortable next to, inside of, or best case scenario, both. Now go and rest, I feel like you had quite the adventure." and with that, the Siren hopped off the bed, and left the room.

Hyacinth looked through the pictures Kal sent him one last time, before putting down his phone and turning down the lights in his room. He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the thing the Siren said.

"Comfortable next to, inside of them, or both, huh?"

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Here's some little side notes/explanation/random stuff

"Oh, Oberon" is the Fae equivalent of "Oh God". Oberon is the immortal king of the Fae (Fairies, Gnomes, Elves, Changelings, etc.) in my OC world.

Similarly, Galen saying "Oh Gods" refers to the Greek pantheon.

The gust of wind that opened the apartment door was made by Matthias, who's a Garaboncias. They're human like creature from Hungarian folklore who can control the weather.

Telkhines are semi-aquatic dog like creatures from Greek mythology, usually related to blacksmithing, magic and poisons.

Kalais is a Siren in the mythological sense, so more of a bird person rather than a mermaid like creature (there's some fish traits tho).

Hyacinth's necklace serves roughly as a size/form stabiliser. Every creature who is either too small, too big, or not humanoid enough gets one, so they can "blend in" better amongst humans.

For the folks who use the imperial system: 20°C is roughly around 70° Fahrenheit, 5cm is around 2 inches, putting Hyacinth's "big height" around 160 cm/5'2.

Hyacinth has family issues that will be brought up in future writing stuff (my boy needs help)

Anyways, thanks for reading! If y'all got any questions, my inbox is always open. Well, see y'all later!

#vore story #v/ore #soft vore #safe vore #v0re #extreme cuddling #g/t #vore oc #oc: galen #oc: hyacinth #fantasy oc #fantasy vore #g/t vore #tiny prey #giant pred #yes they were watching Puss in Boots 2 #levi's ocs #oc

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talkingbl · 10 months

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How A BL Can Go From Melodrama to *Cinema* 🤩

1. Better production quality across the board. But particularly when it comes to set dressing (all BL markets), audio quality (Thai BLs), sound design and sound track. Tired of hearing unintentional real-room acoustics because GMMTV was too cheap to buy enough wireless mics for every actor, or because MeMindY thought wireless mics were the only kind of mics allowed ever and now we can hear every brush against the mic, or hearing the water on the beach over the actor's actual voice. Tired of the bland, plain "dorm room" with absolutely no personality that's clearly shot in a hotel room. Tired of the same 15-20 clearly royalty-free backing tracks blaring over an actor's voice at inappropriate times that are the editor's way of calling the viewers idiots by handfisting a cue that a tonal shift is occurring. And I am utterly exhausted with cheesy sound effects that completely suck the tension out of every scene! Just fucking stop!!!! Example of good production quality: The Blue Hour (not a series but still...).

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2. Multi-season series (with shorter seasons overall). And no, I don't mean sequels (a la Tharntype 2/Still 2gether) where the characters are fundamentally in a different story. I want to see genuine conflict explored with the care it deserves, characters actualized, and romantic moments that linger just enough to leave viewers wanting more. Most BL storylines are entirely too rushed (or, on the other hand, feel like 2 different stories crammed into one season of television). I'd rather split up seasons by character arc the same way it's done in Hollywood or anime and cut seasons down from 12-14 episodes to 8-10. I feel like most Thai BLs would benefit from taking the multiple shorter-seasons than the one longer-season approach. Good example of a multi-season series, with strong pacing due to tighter seasons: Young Royals.

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3. Better acting. And no, I don't mean crying and screaming because that's what the uninitiated think good acting looks like. I'm talking microexpressions when Neo portrays Boston's silent hurt watching Top take genuine interest in Mew. I'm talking the subtle glance down to Juntaek's lips when Jisub shows Jaewon's inital interest in Jihyun on their meetcute. And I'm talking the quiver of Fourth's voice when Gun is confronted with the reality that maybe he's not cut out for the music industry. A great performance doesn't necessarily have to be understated or even realistic, but it does need to be consistent with the story conventions and characters we're dealing with. Under/overacting to the point of parody is okay in satire. But doing so in a story that otherwise leverages typical romance/tragedy story beats looks ridiculous. It would also be great if all the lead actors were talented too.... Example of a good acting performance: Fourth (most of the time) in My School President.

4. Increased story variety. From broad themes and co-genres all the way to specific character arcs and tropes, we need more variety in BL stories (ESPECIALLY in KBL). Give me more period pieces, sci-fi, horror stories, star-crossed lovers, soulmates, magical boys, heroes' journeys, survival stories, mysteries, etc.! Good example of an unconventional character arc: Not Me.

5. Longer Episodes for KBLs. This is one area of production I think the KBL industry can learn a lot from the Thai BL industry. While the stories I've watched never really feel rushed, they do feel a bit empty/inadequate. The writers could explore more themes and character drama just by lengthening episode runtime 10-15 minutes per episode. Good example of a KBL with many longer episode runtimes: The Eighth Sense.

6. Subtlety. This is kind of an amalgam of 1 and 3 but I want to say more. Stop telling me the plot/character arc and just do the plot or arc. Stop cueing tonal shifts with on-the-nose music/sound effects and trust that, as your viewer, I am intelligent enough to know that the actors have gotten serious after a bout of laughter, or have simmered down from a heated exchange. When you cue your viewer, you either think they're dumb or you don't trust that your actor, director, and/or writer are doing their jobs. Either way, the viewer is left unsatisfied. Good example of subtle storytelling: I Told Sunset About You.

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#bl boys love #the blue hour oabgun gun atthaphan #young royals wilhelmsimon edvinomar my school president tinngun geminifourth fourth nattawat notme offgun #the eighth sense #i told sunset about you bkpp billkin putthipong pp krit

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jones-friend · 1 year

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Avatar: The Way of Water

December 18, 2009: Avatar releases

2010: I have my first girlfriend

2011: I graduate high school and attend college moving from Illinois to Iowa, making a number of lifelong friends in the early months

2012: I declare a cinema arts major

2013: me and a small number of friends form a media production company, I have no idea what I’m doing

2014: I get more into dnd and mtg as hobbies with my friends

2015: I graduate from Iowa with a bachelors in cinema arts and move to Chicago interning in the Hancock building

2016: my grandmother passes away from a stroke and I return to semi-country Illinois to live with my grandfather

2017: I have a major falling out with friends I have had since elementary school and college leaving a permanent scar on multiple friend groups

2018: I escape a league of mentally detrimental jobs that put me in a dark dark place and start working in higher ed

2019: family life becomes so stressful I am forced to move out of my grandfather’s house

2020: COVID rocks the world and changes everything. We are locked down with a life threatening virus running rampant as US fascism hits its fever pitch

2021: I cut ties with my biological family

2022: multiple friends have had children or are pregnant, forming families of their own

December 16, 2022: Avatar Way of Water releases

I’ll be 30 this coming year. It has been 12yrs, 11mo, and 29 days between Avatar films. 410,140,800 seconds. It is an interesting feeling to come back to a world depicted on screen after so much time has passed, very nearly half the amount of time I’ve been alive.

My initial impressions of Avatar Way of Water is that if you enjoyed living in the world of Pandora in the first movie and would love some more adventures in Pandora you will enjoy the second movie. If you liked the tighter moviegoing experience the first offered you will feel a little let down. I don’t think this is a bad movie by any means, nor is it a mediocre movie. It is good. It just isn’t as tightly crafted as the original movie was.

God knows, it’s been so long most movies have been remade since then. Or revived under new premises a la Fantastic Beasts (which is a whole other animal to tackle). But I fully understand I’m coming to Way of Water with an entire kit of analytical skills I did not have when I watched the first movie, and this will impact my enjoyment of the second and let me look back fondly on the first.

Thinking between these two, not much has changed. Humans are one note greedy, comfortably made into cannon fodder for thrilling fight sequences. The navi are in tune with nature, peaceful, someone we can root for without complicated emotions. We have a new McGuffin or item everyone wants but it gets a back seat to the grudge match that takes importance over it. And rightfully so.

This is a movie that wants to do a lot of things in the three hours and twelve minutes it runs for. I’m not sure it is successful in all of them, feeling a bit like Star Wars Episode IX in that scenes run fast and loose, a little too loose in some places. The ending especially felt that fervent pace and could not slow down where it really needed to and let some scenes sit for more than a few seconds, instead summarizing via voice over because with 20-30mins of trailers frontloading this your audience has been sitting for four hours and we gotta get👏this👏shit👏going.

This movie s a Star Wars in that its science fantasy and don’t worry we can just make computer chip copies of your brain. It’s also a Toy Story 3, we’ve aged up the characters and moved their lives along to reflect the aging audience who first watched Avatar. It’s also a Star Trek IV where we’re saving the whales. This movie is trying to be a lot of things in 3hrs 12mins. Roughly, it succeeds.

There is a lot to be charmed by in the world of Pandora. It is a different kind of movie because in describing it, the movie acts more like an immersive experience with the viewer so I wouldn’t say “characters do X Y and Z” but you as the audience get to “make friends with a whale” and “learn to ride alien dolphins”. It is a world that continues to be lovingly crafted, like sitting in dnd with a dm who has laid out so much of their own lore and worldbuilding its just a delight to immerse yourself in.

Even when it is unfocused Avatar Way of Water is far and away a better experience than so many other theater movies. It’s drop dead gorgeous, and it doesn’t mind getting its hands dirty in that new aquatic environment immersing scenes in and out of water with ease. If you enjoy escapism I absolutely recommend seeing it while it’s in theaters, preferably IMAX.

A lot has changed since the first Avatar dropped 12 years 11 months and 29 days ago. Well, longer now, writing this on January 2nd. This movie is a comfortable return to the world of Pandora with uncomplicated premises and setups that do not challenge the viewer. It is a movie made by an action movie director with a long resume of quality work. If you bothered reading through my ramblings you likely have already made up your mind on whether or not you’d enjoy such a thing. I give a recommendation to seeing it, I love fantasy, I love escapism, and I love the world of Pandora. I am always down to revisit this chapter and will be excited to see later movies. Is it perfect? God no. There’s alien jesus, major death retcons, silly pacifism philosophies, its got flaws. But I do enjoy the quality of the world it gives me. Its one of the few things that can instill a sense of childlike wonder in myself and I treasure that sensation greatly.

#avatar #way of water

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lilyinlosangeles · 4 months

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On December 14th, 2023, the New Beverly Cinema in Los Ángeles, California released its calendar for January 2024. The slate included many classics such as Funny Girl, Trainspotting, and In the Mood for Love. However, one show stood out; a five-movie marathon of The Twilight Saga on 35mm. I saw this and immediately fell to my knees. My mind was racing, thinking about not only what would happen if I went -- but also the dangerous corollary that would occur if I didn't. So naturally I forced my dad to take out his wallet and phone in the middle of dinner and dropped $72 on [two] tickets for this event.

One might ask: why would you go to this with your dad? And to that I answer -- I just didn't want to pay for my own ticket. Originally, he agreed to go to the first couple of movies then leave to eat then come back to see the last film. This did not happen. By the end of New Moon, my father -- 42, a film school graduate, and a hater of most female-centered media -- was so absorbed by the remarkable world of Forks that not only did he stay the entire time but hung around after to discuss with our fellow Twi-Hards.

The actual experience of the show was like none other. For context, I have seen Twilight (2008) in show at the New Bev twice before and have watched the Saga back to back at home many times. So although I'm VERY familiar with the films, this would be a feat like no other. Watching 720 minutes of this beautiful/terrible/heartwrenching/tragic/corny love story with a sold-out audience reminded me of why I love Twilight so much.

The collective awws, oohs, yays, and boos transpired cemented my belief in why this movie is so culturally cardinal. This is cinema. Regardless of the actual quality of the picture, Twilight has formed such a nexus with so many people that almost 20 years later they would sit in uncomfortable polyethylene chairs and watch all 5 films back to back. The purpose of cinema isn't to win the most Oscars or to make the most money at the box office -- it is to grasp the opportunity to bridge humanity on film.

I realize this reads more like a diary entry than a film review, but I find it important to discuss other aspects of film than just the quality on this app. So thank you Summit, thank you RPattz and KStew, thank you Catherine Hardwicke, and a begrudging thank you to Stephanie Myers. Because without Twilight, I would not be the daughter, artist, friend, person, or consumer...I am today.

#cinema #film #twilight #twilight renaissance #robert pattinson #edward cullen #messy personal essay that I adapted from my letterboxd review lol #catherine hardwicke #kristen stewart #letterboxd #essay writing #personal essay #essay

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cassie-carpenter · 2 years

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Hi, I went to the cinema last night with an angry lil army guy who I hope will be my friend for a long time to come. We laughed, we were evil, we were caring, and most of all we embraced Halloween together (which meant a lot, as it’s my favourite day of the year and he… well he’s a Scrooge, always).

The film really exceeded my expectations and I can’t wait for it to come out so I can watch it again (& honestly just reminisce about what a good time we had). We’re going to look into season tickets as we need to go see every other film that was advertised too! Which works out as he bought me far far too much sealed popcorn, which I will bring with me on our next visit(s) 🍿🤭 and a tango ice blast 🤭 which may have made me sick twice since, and has given me a migraine splitting enough to part the Red Sea, but… I felt like a kid again, I drank my calories (!!!!!), and who could say no to “Sour Pear” and green tongues 🥰

Most of all though I suppose (and I’m realising this as a write it, which is why I mustn’t stop these little dairies, ok, me??), he treated me like I mattered. He asked me questions about my perspectives, genuinely listened to my responses and didn’t just rush through them so he could share more himself… if he couldn’t hear me or misunderstood he would ask again, rather than moving on regardless… He took me on a 20 minute speed walk to the nearest Nandos because he knew I wouldn’t enjoy my dinner without a packet of hot sauce… he held out his hand to take my wrappers and hat as we hurried back to the cinema without saying a word, enabling me to eat as we went… he… he noticed me. In a way I haven’t felt noticed since I was a child, he noticed me.

So, in conclusion (heheh), yes i feel hungover from a kids drink. Yes, i am having a really bad day, and yes, those waves of suicidal panic may continue to overwhelm me as the day goes on. But nothing is going to happen. I am stronger than any of the voices, and even if I’m not, I will reread this, I will play the Halloween opening theme through my headphones, and it will pass. I cemented a great friendship last night, I experienced the (forever? prolly not) ending of a franchise I’ve loved for years and honestly… i managed to leave the house & really enjoy myself on my favourite day of the year!

Nothing else matters rn 🖤

#personal #and boring #tw suicide reference #tw ed reference #🦊

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fleurlia · 3 years

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here is part two of this.

[7:13 pm] for all the phases you have been through in the past few months, all of them were disastrous. a couple of months after jeno has told you about his proposal karina and he appears with new rings, explaining to everyone how both just choose to make things more swiftly and not wait until graduation.

you already knew it but that didn't stop you from spending at least twenty minutes crying pathetically in the ladies' room.

certainly when you thought things couldn't get any worse, believe me, they did. you were convinced for the moment karina asked you to help her choose the dress. again, you couldn't blame anyone against yourself.

renjun and donghyuck stood next to you, holding their laughs as she was asking for help in the most loving way. just for when she was gone the duo were shouting loud and attempting to comfort your poor heart. following that, you saw yourself sat there watching karina trying on more than a thousand wedding dresses, for getting married to the love of your life.

it would be easier to hate her if she was a bitch and 20% less attractive. you thought.

and talking about him, you couldn't even hold his gaze without looking weepy and bitter. your friendship existed only by devices, which you believed would be turned off the moment he said yes to her.

after a year of planning and torture, the big day has arrived and even though you have created every possible excuse, none seemed good enough to not going to your best friend's wedding. including a sweet smile, your mom comforted you as you got ready for the wedding, holding up tears and making yourself at least looking attractive on the worst day of your life. you asked more than once for your mother to be merciful and to fake an accident but she keeps telling you how could you get over it if you didn't see "the dead body".

instructed to stay at least a few minutes late, you made everything possible to be delayed. not wanting to arrive and have to deal with the reception and face the bride and groom. not craving to deal with the fact that if you held more than five seconds alone with jeno, you would presumably tell him the truth that was stuck in your throat. then when you arrive everyone was already at the ceremony, your entry causing a small noise that drew attention. jeno's eyes catching yours immediately.

the couple looking supremely beautiful, like always. the dress that karina and you have picked just not fits her but makes everyone around her look poorly ugly. oh my god, i hate myself so much. that was the only thing going through your mind.

sitting down next to renjun, he sends you a glance. "it's almost ended, i thought you were not coming."

"as if i were that lucky"

he chuckles but gently takes your hands. even though you said more than a thousand times that you didn't want anyone feeling sorry for you, he tried his best to make things a little better.

while the minutes started to grow, your mind stopped a few more every time that ceremony got close for the "yes". holding up every tear you possess in your body, you almost failed as the old lady next to you smile in your direction and whispered;

"what are you from the groom??"

"i... i am his best friend, since freshman year at college."

"oh, that's why he is looking right here all the time."

quietly you agreed with her, not even daring yourself to look up and catch all of his stares. the moments pass with you staring to anywhere, you couldn't even look at them without feeling your chest squeeze in sharp pain.

"so lee jeno, do you take this woman as your wife to lover her, respect her, and looking for her?"

wishing to not stand there or even existed, you were close to starting to crying but renjun squeezed your hands and all that people heard at next was; "yes, i do."

lee jeno, the love of your life just got married... but it's was not whit you.

later on, — this including the time you spent crying and sobbing in the car — you were supposed to go to the celebration and that's is what you did as a supportive friend.

the first hour was going like a blink, you have to pretend so much happiness that the idea of the newlyweds just got blanked out of your mind. it was the last straw when jeno's sister approached you with a gentle smile, you could feel her pity just by the look on her face and you felt even more miserable when she said it in a low tone: ''i always thought that on a day like today, you would be my new sister.''

that hurt so much.

the rest of the night passed like a blur, a slow and painful blur. you had taken so many pictures and you were sure that you looked ridiculous in the picture with the bride and groom, donghyuck and renjun were there to support you but your false happiness was quickly destroyed by jeno's stares.

almost at the end of the celebration, everyone full of the food and tired from the dancing, people decided it was time for the speeches and in the crowd of invited people you hid behind your friends. if by any chance the universe hated you that much you would be chosen to give some words and you were ready to make a whole speech based on rose's in "love, rosie". it would be tragic.

karina's mother said beautiful words to the couple and praised jeno so much that you at that moment felt happy for him. many relatives passed by, all of them talking about how perfect they were for each other and at end wishing them happiness. you felt like a jealousy bitch at every second.

almost at the end of all your torture, you already agreed that renjun or one of his friends would take you home because you didn't even want to talk, it was the newlyweds' turn to speak. karina sounded so perfectly in love with every word she spoke out. you were thankful to be far away from the couple because your stomach flipped as you watched jeno stand up, straightening his suit and black hair.

you were about to get up and walk away, not wanting to hear about how much he loved her and was grateful to be married to her but after a second thought, you knew you would draw pitying and pitiful glances in your direction.

"i can give you more than a thousand and one reasons about how i ended up here, married to karina." his soft voice echoing throughout the room. "one of them is because sometimes... we don't notice that what we need is right under our noses. sometimes we even notice... but only a few people dare themselves to confess their love to that person.'' at that point nobody else understood where he was getting at with that speech. just like all evening, you didn't attempt to look at him and be unlucky enough to find him also watching you.

''one more reason why we are here, on this particular night, is that maybe i took too long to realize, waited for too long. i wish i could confess this earlier because... deep down i always knew it was you. the love of my life and my best friend.''

something inside of you clicked. back when you started to date, jeno looked you up one day and you fought, he was just being jealous that your then-boyfriend also claimed to be your best friend and you didn't say anything, the point is that he would never call karina his best friend. on that day, both promise never forgets about their besties and never, never calling anyone ''best friend''.

nobody knew about that.

"if... if i could only go back in time... maybe i would tell myself how i should confess to you.'' you looked up, getting his gaze. you stood surprised when you noticed that his eyes were tearing up. ''if only i had known that we would be here today. i never would have let your lips leave mine years ago, on new years'. i never should have walked away. i never should have panicked. i never should have lost all those years without you... because i've realized that no matter where you are or what you're doing, or who you're with, i will always honestly, truly, completely love you.''

you couldn't believe in your damn bad luck.

you couldn't discover what was more pathetically tragic. the fact that karina would watch the video of her wedding in the future and see her husband confessing his love to someone who wasn't her. or the fact that jeno had chosen his wedding day to acknowledge that he loved you.

karina never kissed him on new year's, their first one was in a cinema. only you did, once in your second year as friends. you two never spoke about it.

karina didn't like romantic comedies, she was a literature major and only liked movies that was focussed on classics. you did. you had made jeno watch "love, rosie" so many times that you both knew the script.

with tears rolling down their cheeks, the two of you stared at each other for what seemed like hours. he loved you too. you both now knew about the other's love. inaudibly while you wiped your tears you both agreed that; maybe in another time, another life, we were meant for a happy ending. but not here, not at this moment.

but it didn't matter, only you two knew how much you loved each other and always would.

ok guys, sorry for making this so long and for any mistakes. let me know if you wanted to me doing scenarios, reactions or timestamps or even let my asks open for requests.

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bruhlsbees · 3 years

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sweet disposition: 1/? || femaleprofessor!reader x modern!alex kerner

hi bestie hehe i’d like to request a little series for you, sub! a little jealous modern alex keener (of age) x professor! f reader (late 20’s) - shes an english romantic lit professor & her “love interest” is a film professor who is one of alex’s shared teacher. alex has a little crush on her, and knows the film teacher is after her. super fluffy, smut maybe??? u decide baby, im just so excited eeeeek!!!

summary: alex kerner is a senior film student and develops a crush for his friend, denis, english professor

pairing: modern!alex kerner and professor!reader

warnings: age gap (alex is 22 and reader is 32), wet dream, sweet sweet pathetic boy, nsfw, 18+, minors dni

word count: 4,387

a/n: thank you for the request @gotmadison ily sweet gal!! this will be a short fic series i write and will post probably throughout the coming weekend! :) please enjoy and if you have any requests or asks please send them in!!!

For Alex Kerner, a senior film student, nothing bored him more than the first day of a new unit. He knew what to expect - twenty plus slides about some dead, or borderline dead, director while connecting their life to the style of films they did and how it related to whatever political controversy was going down at the time. Alex knew that there was a reason for going into so much history to better understand the meaning of the films, but jesus did it have to drag for so long?

The auditorium that Alex’s class was held in was larger, although the class was rather small. There were maybe, at most, thirty students in his class, including him, which felt empty as the auditorium they were in was meant to hold almost double that. Alex didn’t mind though, of all the rows, he was the only one in the back, taking the middle seat - of course, the best view to see a film. He recognized a lot of the faces in his class, as it was a senior level class, but he didn’t bother to converse with many.

It wasn’t that he was shy, not overly at least, he just didn’t care to make friends. It was an afternoon class, he was just getting out of work to rush to his class, and far too exhausted to try and fake being friendly…hence him sitting in the back, all alone.

The ‘Authorship in Cinema’ course he was currently in was held twice a week - both two hours long. The first class of the week was held for lectures and the second class was held for the film screening. The university was just getting back from winter break, continuing into the last half of the semester. In Alex’s class they had finished their unit on Roman Polanski before the break and they came into the next covering Krzysztof Kieślowski. Alex was thrilled to say the least about not having to listen to his film professor rave on Polanski. Even after discussing Polanski’s case, his professor still seemed to idolize the man.

Alex was not fond of his film professor. He was a younger professor, maybe in his late thirties, early forties, and he seemed to praise the worst directors he could find. His name was Jaxon Thorne and was the staple image of a douche. He always wore faded jeans that were tight in the crotch, scuffed up sneakers that he always tried to pass as being cool, and a sweater with a scarf - even though they were inside. He truly didn’t get how girls liked the man. Alex wouldn’t lie though, some of his opinions were interesting, but the guy loved to hear himself talk, that much was obvious.

They weren’t even at the tenth slide yet when Alex felt himself beginning to doze off. Work had been busy today, fixing satellites and dealing with prissy wives and their drunk husbands. He was almost late getting to class with all the traffic that was on the highway. The last thing he wanted to do was attend class. It took everything in him not to put his head down and go to sleep right there. He had done it before, and that was a mistake he would never make again. Waking up to everyone staring and snickering while the teacher was hovering over you meant for a lasting effect.

But Alex just couldn’t take it, he was so bored with Kieślowski’s early work. The documentaries of everyday lives for city dwellers, workers, and soldiers could not keep his attention even if he wasn’t tired. He sunk down into his seat, crossing his arms over his chest, before craning his head to the side on his shoulder. His blinking became slow, desperately trying to stay awake and pay attention, but his eyes grew heavy, and before he knew it, his mouth was gaped open, drool slipping out of the corner of his lips.

He didn’t know how long he had dozed off for, but when he woke up he heard the projector screen zip up and the lights click on. Jumping slightly, Alex sat back up, feeling the stickiness of his drool on his face. With a groan, he wiped his face with the sleeve of his jean jacket before beginning to pack his things up into his bag.

“On Wednesday we will dive into his documentary, Workers, and discuss the censorship aspect of it. Come prepared to watch the screening and discuss afterwards. If anyone has any questions or comments, I’ll be staying after for a few minutes.”

Rolling his eyes, Alex pushed himself out of his chair, swinging his bag over his shoulder before rushing out the back door at the top of the auditorium. He couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough to avoid his teacher from going off on an ‘intellectual conversation’ on their new unit. Barf.

Alex was happy though to finally be out of class and to enjoy his hour and a half break before his next class. He knew he should have been finalizing what project he wanted to submit for critique in his senior portfolio, but he needed something to wake him up.

As he turned the hallway, going to leave the building, he stopped by the vending machine and pulled out a crinkled bill from his pocket, pushing it into the machine before pressing the buttons to get a bottle of Coke. To his luck, however, the machine stalled, the bottle retriever getting stuck in front of the row and producing an obnoxious ‘whirring’ noise.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” Gripping the side of the vending machine, Alex shook the machine roughly, rocking the broken vending machine back and forth until setting it back, sending a punch to the front of it.

“Woah, woah! Jesus man what did that vending machine do to you?”

Turning his head, Alex’s glare softened at the sight of his friend, Denis, approaching him. Denis, with his books still in his hands, tucked them under his arm as he stood in front of the machine, watching as the machine stalled with Alex’s bottle of Coke.

“The stupid thing got stuck! Is it too much to ask for a bottle of co-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the machine began to work again, grabbing the bottle and dispensing it below. Staring blankly at the bottom, his lips pulled into a tight line, Alex could only feel the embarrassment settling in - and it didn’t help to hear Denis laugh at how ridiculous he reacted.

“Oh my god, dude, you seriously need to take it easy. Did work kill you that bad?” Denis asked, watching as Alex bent down to pull out the bottle, standing back up as he began unscrewing the cap, guzzling the pop down.

Nodding his head, Alex screwed the cap back on before tucking the bottle in his bag, hiccuping at the carbonation before sighing, “Yeah, and it doesn’t help that I gotta go to Professor Dick’s class right after.”

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Denis nodded, listening to Alex as he vented, “Yeah, Thorne’s a real piece of work. But hey! Only gotta deal with him for another semester after this. Who knows, maybe he will knock a student up and ditch down?”

The fantasy would have been nice to come true, but Alex knew that it would stay just that - a fantasy. Thorne was a questionable guy, with interesting ideas and made borderline inappropriate comments towards the female students in all his classes…but that was just it, he could charm anyone he wanted, and that’s how he stayed around.

“Yeah, maybe when dogs walk on two legs…” Alex mumbled, pressing his knuckles to his eyes and rubbing the sleep out of them, a yawn escaping his lips.

As he dropped his hands down to his side, he felt Denis nudge him in the arm, groaning at the contact as he was too tired to have any contact, “You got class at seven right?”

Nodding, Alex blinked, a tired smile on his face as he smacked his lips, “Yeah…seven to nine, best time of day to have a senior portfolio workshop.”

Denis laughed at the sarcastic comment, mentioning that it could’ve been worse and be at seven in the morning than at night. Alex, however, couldn’t see how anything could be worse than an evening class after a long day of work.

“Listen, I got my ‘Romanticism in Literature’ class in a few…why don’t you come with me? My teacher’s pretty cool and I’m sure she won’t mind if you sit in. I’m in the back anyways so she probably won’t even realize. She’s got pretty bad vision I’ve realized. I think she said that her glasses don’t got the right prescription or somethin. She’s always runnin late and claims she never has time to put her contacts in.”

The detailed explanation of the professor’s vision made Alex laugh, shaking his head as Denis looked at him confused, cheeks red, “What? It’s what she’s told us! She’s always coming in late. I wouldn’t be surprised if she came in late this time around. She’s got office hours before class, so she probably gets held up with a student.”

“Sounds like you’re in love with her, is that right, Denny Boy? Someone’s gotta crush on the teacher? Ain’t that every high school kid’s fantasy? Get the hots for the teacher?”

Scoffing, Denis rolled his eyes at Alex’s teasing and shoved him in the arm, “No man, come on now, it ain’t like that. Look if you don’t wanna come I don’t care, but I gotta go before I’m late.”

Holding his hands up in defense, Alex trailed behind Denis, going back in the direction he originally came from, “Hey, hey, I was only kidding, don’t gotta get defensive. I’ll take along, hopefully I won’t fall asleep in this class. Why you even taking this class anyways?”

Following Denis into the class, the auditorium setup similar to the one he just came out of, except smaller, Alex sat beside Denis in the back row, watching as the class filled up, only a few seats not filled.

“I guess I gotta earn some more credits outside my degree, this was the only one that wasn’t completely filled up yet and it worked with my schedule. It ain’t too bad, she gives us a lot of free time to work.”

Watching as Denis set his bag down beside him, opening his textbook to where they left off the other day, Alex watched Denis prep for the class, the teacher not in sight. Alex figured that the teacher must have been running late, like Denis said she always did, but he couldn’t help but wonder how long it’d be before she even showed up.

Fifteen minutes after class was supposed to begin the front door ripped open, slamming shut seconds after while heels frantically clicked towards the desk in the front of class.

“Sorry I’m late! I got caught up with another professor. I hope you all enjoyed your winter breaks and are happy to be back. I know I’m thrilled to be back!”

The sweet voice caught Alex’s attention, his eyes pulling from his cell phone and to the front of the class where the professor had just walked in. He felt his mouth fall open slightly, catching it before Denis noticed his reaction.

He was expecting an old lady for Denis’ class, someone who was on the edge of death and smelled of cats. What he found, however, was someone the complete opposite. Younger, curvier, and the scent that filled the room when she entered was warm - like she just finished drinking a cup of coffee.

Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, bangs hanging low over her eyes, covering the tops of her crooked frames. She couldn’t have been all that older than him, maybe mid-thirties at max. He didn’t notice what she was wearing below, but the shirt she wore clung to her so well, the outline of her fuller chest displayed with her necklace dipping into her cleavage.

‘Good God, Alex, get a hold of yourself.’

Alex watched the professor, noticing her speaking although his lusted thoughts deafened his ears. He assumed she was asking how the break went and if anyone did anything fun because a few people raised their hands, a kind smile on her face as she listened to her students.

“That’s great to hear, Polly! You’ll have to show me the photos you took sometime. I have never been to that side of the country before,” Her head shifted towards the other side of the room, looking up at the higher rows. “Did anyone else have anything to share about their break?”

Denis’ professor sat patiently and listened to everyone who wanted to share, giving everyone the opportunity to discuss their breaks before she opened up her laptop to get started with class. Alex watched as she picked up the remote and pointed it to the projector box, the screen coming down beside her with her computer screen displayed.

Her home screen featured what he assumed to be her and some friends. He recognized a few of the people in the photo as they were also professors at the university - what made Alex turn his nose, however, was right beside her - in all his douchebag glory, Jaxon Thorne. Before he could make a cohesive thought, the photo went away and a slideshow on Mary Shelley appeared…and maybe for the better.

“Okay everyone! As mentioned in the email, we are gonna be diving into Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein for this part of the semester,” She began, her warm smile still ignited, chuckling lightly as some of the students up front became uneasy in their seats, excited for the novel, “I’m glad to hear we have some fans. Now, I promised that I wouldn’t give you any reading over break, but because of that we will be reading quite a bit over the next few weeks.”

The slide shifted to the reading guide and what chapters were due when. Alex watched as some students scribbled the due dates down while others pulled out their cell phones, snapping a photo before stuffing their phones away.

“For Wednesday I would like you all to have read the preface and letters one through four. Come prepared to discuss your analyses of the text and any questions you may have. Of course, I’ll have my office hours open tomorrow and Wednesday before class, but if there are any questions, you can send me an email and I’ll try to get back with you in a timely manner.”

The rest of class seemed to lull by, Alex’s gaze fixed on the professor that continued to go over what the last half of the semester would look like, answering the occasional question, before finally it was time to pack up and go. Frowning, Alex shifted in his seat, looking at Denis who was packing things up in his bag.

“It’s over?” Alex asked, eyebrows furrowed, a pathetic frown on his face.

Looking up from his bag, Denis smiled, nodding, “Yeah man, it is. Why? You fall in love with Mary Shelley?” Standing up, Denis pushed his seat under the table and shrugged his shoulders, “I mean, if it works for your schedule and you’re interested, maybe go up and ask if you can enroll. I don’t know if you’ll be able to with it being so late in the semester, but it’s worth a shot,” Glancing down at his watch, Denis sighed, “Look, I gotta run, but let me know how it goes, okay?” Patting Alex’s back, Denis rushed up the stairs and out the back door, fleeing the auditorium to get to his next class on time.

Meanwhile, Alex kept seated, watching as the professor talked with some students who approached her desk after class, laughing and admiring the editions of Frankenstein that students presented. Was this how professors could be with their students? Actually caring and involved? It seemed like Alex had poor luck with his own professors - either they were old as a bat and didn’t know how to work the computer, or they were a presumptuous dick.

When the students began to flock out, already discussing how they were looking forward to Wednesday’s class, Alex finally stood up, pulling his bag over his shoulder and making his way down the auditorium steps. She hadn’t noticed him as he walked, writing something down in her planner. As he stood now in front of her, he cleared his throat awkwardly, gaining her attention as she looked up, squinting before taking her glasses off.

“Hello,” he began shyly, adjusting the strap of his bag, “I’m Alex. My friend, Denis, he’s in your class.”

At the mention of Denis, she smiled and nodded, “Yes! Denis, nice boy he is,” She adjusted her position in her seat, leaning back slightly, “I-I’m sorry, are you in my class? I don’t believe I’ve ever see-”

“No! I mean, no, no I’m not in your class. I have a free hour before my next class and Denis invited me to sit in for this one,” He rushed, cheeks red as he realized how abruptly he had interrupted her, “I’m sorry, um, yeah I just came down because I really enjoyed your lecture today. I was curious if there was any way I could maybe enroll? I know it’s late in the semester, but I did enjoy today.”

The cheeky smile faded into a sadder, smaller smile. She chewed on her bottom lip before leaning forward again, crossing her arms over chest, accentuating her cleavage that Alex desperately tried not to stare at.

“Oh, I’m sorry Alex, but I don’t think I can convince the department to let you in this late in the semester. I love your enthusiasm with the course and would love to have you in my class, but I don’t think I can make that happen.” Her smile dropped to a frown when she saw the visible disappointment in Alex’s face before bending over to open her bag, pulling out a copy of Frankenstein, handing it to Alex.

Looking down at the copy, Alex opened the cover, reading what he assumed to be her name in the cover, before flipping through the pages, a weak smile on his face, trying his best to not look so pathetic in front of her.

“How about this? I probably shouldn’t, but if you want to sit in on the days you’re free, you’re more than welcome to. I’ll forward you the reading guide so you can keep up with us, but you won’t earn any credit in this class. Is that okay?”

His frown turned into a grin, looking up from the book, Alex nodded, his cheeks pink as his toothy crooked grin spread across his face, “Yeah, yes. Thank you,” Tugging down the front of his striped blue shirt, he cleared his throat awkwardly, looking down at the book before back up at her, “Um, so when are your office hours? Just in case I have any questions?”

Letting out a faint ‘ah’, she opened her notebook and scribbled some notes down, tearing off the paper and handing it to Alex, “You’re more than welcome to shoot me an email though if you need help outside of my office hours. Or you can call my office number, sometimes I answer it.” She admitted, her own cheeks going pink at the confession.

Smiling, Alex looked down at the paper and made a mental note to remember all that she had given him.

My email,

My office number,

Office hours are M&W: 3-5:15 and T&R: 1-2

Class takes place on M&W from 5:30-6:30

The smile she left on the page made Alex’s stomach flutter. His thumb ran along the smiley face before he looked up, thanking her quietly for the note. She was sweet, almost too sweet for Alex to absorb, like he was in a sugar coma and begging for more.

“Of course, it was nice to meet you Alex. I’m looking forward to seeing you in class. I don’t mean to run off, but I’m to meet another professor here in a couple minutes and don’t need to be lectured on being late.”

When she stood up, Alex’s face went hot. The flowy flower blouse that showed more cleavage than he had seen on a professor before was tucked into a tight jean skirt, clinging to her hips in all the right places, a thick black belt holding it all together. If it weren’t for the fact that he was right in front of her, he probably would have started drooling.

Packing up her desk, she stuffed her things in her bag, throwing her sweater over her shoulder before throwing her bag around her, moving around the desk to stand beside it now, looking up at Alex. He noted how she was shorter, the heels helping her with height, and how good her legs looked in them. Clearing his throat, he shifted his bag around him to sit in front of his pants, attempting to hide any possible pop-up in his jeans.

“If you’re free tomorrow, stop by my office hours. I’ll even buy you a coffee if it’s too early for you. I know you college boys stay up far too late. I can only imagine what your mothers think.” She teased, shaking her head and she turned and began to head out of the room, hearing Alex keep tight on her trail.

Turning off the lights and letting him leave first, she shut the door behind her and stood beside Alex, motioning towards the English department office, “I’ll see you tomorrow, or Wednesday, my office is the last one on the right. I’ll be sure to leave my door open!”

Nodding, Alex smiled and waved goodbye as she waved back, rushing down the hall and weaving through the students to get into the office. Letting out a sigh, Alex leaned against the doorway, processing his first encounter with the professor, the boyish lust grin stuck on his face.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Panting hard, Alex gripped her hips tight, his fingers digging into her plush figure, grunting as he snapped his hips into her from behind, her pillowed ass meeting him with each thrust. The sweat that built up on him was beginning to fall down face, trailing down his neck and chest.

Tangling his right hand into her hair, his left still placed on her hips, Alex pulled her locks gently, smiling at the sound of her wanton moan, her eyes rolling back into her head.

“A-Alex! Oh god, Alex, I don’t think I’m going to last. F-Fuck!”

Feeling his own climax build, Alex let out a shaky breath as he bent down craning his neck to kiss her lips as he continued to rut inside of her, his thrusts becoming sloppy and quicker.

The sensation became too much too quickly, his legs shaking as he kneeled behind her befo-

Jolting awake, the obnoxious phone alarm woke Alex from his dream, resulting in a now completely frustrated mood. While still on his back, Alex reached behind him on the shelf that rested behind his bed frame, pulling his phone up and looking at the screen, squinting to gain his vision from waking up, the bright screen burning his eyes.

When he unlocked his phone and opened it, prompting him to his email, his frown lit up and turned into a smile, seeing her name in his inbox.

Good evening, Alex!

I’m sorry this is so late, I’m finally getting back to my apartment and wanted to send this your way before I forgot. Here is the reading guide for the rest of the semester and that information I shared with you earlier in case you lost it.

I look forward to seeing you in my office tomorrow or Wednesday. I hope you have a good night! :)

Best!

Alex’s mood quickly shifted after reading the email. While he was disappointed that the wet dream he was having with her ended so soon, he was more than pleased to see that he had an email from her. Clicking his phone off, Alex tossed his phone onto his bed, sitting up with his hand behind him to keep him up.

His room illuminated a red/orange hue from the lava lamp that sat on his dresser in the corner of his room. Turning his attention towards the window, he looked behind the blinds to see the city life outside his apartment lit up, the sound of music coming from the club down the road and laughs from those partying.

Letting out a yawn, Alex shook his head and rubbed his face, shifting his legs before stopping quickly, feeling the mess in his boxers. Looking down, Alex groaned seeing the stain in his boxers, pressing his hand to feel the wet spot before sighing, standing up. He pulled his boxers carefully off, tossing them into his laundry basket before making his way into the bathroom to clean up.

When he entered the small bathroom that was connected to his room, he hissed at the bright light as it came on, looking at himself in the mirror. His hair was tangled up, sticking out on the sides and his eyes were squinted, too tired to open them fully. Shaking his head, Alex climbed into the shower and started the water, the cold water hitting him both waking him up and cooling himself down.

He was absolutely and pathetically smitten over her. There was no doubt about it. Since leaving her class, the only thoughts that occupied his mind were of her. He had already planned out what he would wear tomorrow when he went to her office hours. It was pathetic, truly, with how quickly he was letting the woman ruin him. It was ridiculous to say, no doubt, because what would happen between them? Nothing. Not a single thing would come between the two other than a conversation about Frankenstein, maybe a personal question here and there.

Or so he thought.

#submissions #submission #daniel brühl #daniel bruhl #daniel bruehl #daniel brühl imagine #daniel bruhl imagine #goodbye lenin #good bye lenin #alex kerner #alex kerner imagine #alex kerner smut #alex kerner x reader #au #college au #modern au #sweet disposition

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wearehuman-after-all · 3 years

Audio

A short extract from a Daft Punk interview on Radio Nova from 2003 - Translated

The whole point of this interview is that the two interviewers play various questions asked by french journalists taken from other radio interviews and Thomas and Guy-Man have to answer them.

The interview is quite long and Thomas keeps answering with long phrases really hard to translate so I thought I would just post and translate the parts of the interview that I thought were funny for now, so there you go :)

Translation under the cut, I hope it’s right because I was tired when I did it and I’m not really used to doing translation anymore x)

Male interviewer: Second part of “the most expensive 20 minutes of the FM band” on Radio Nova with Daft Punk, the DVD Interstella five five five five, or cinq cinq cinq cinq it’s up to you, is coming out at the moment, we will go a little bit over you, Daft Punk, the film, but also music with a first question from Michel Drucker.

Michel Drucker: Does your first meeting leave you a precise memory?

Guy-Man: It was in high school, in high school... before going to class we-...

Female interviewer: Line up in pairs

Guy-Man: Line up in pairs

Female interviewer: It’s line up in pairs

Thomas: *literally laughing at Guy-Man*

Guy-Man: Before entering-... and uh I think Thomas came to see me, I was at the back of-

Thomas: The... the... the classroom

Guy-Man: No no it was before entering the classroom

Thomas: The row! At the back of the row!

Guy-Man: No, it’s not the row

Thomas: Uuuuuh

Guy-Man: Before entering the classroom, when you-

Female interviewer: When they make the attendance check?

Thomas: Uuuuh at the back of... the SCHOOL!

Guy-Man: No-...

Thomas: *laughing in the background*

Male interviewer: The question was-...

Guy-Man: A single file!

Male interviewer: The question was “does it leave you a precise memory?”

Thomas: Yes, I have a very precise one... No, no I have a very precise one... So I arrived in this lycée Carnot in 4e (equivalent of the 8th grade in the US) and Guy-Manuel was already there, and I come and sit next to a friend-... well someone I didn’t know with whom I started to get on with and one or two days later he tells me “yeah there’s this guy who’s super funny who does great imitations of Garcimore” and from then on-..

Male interviewer: Yeah from then on the logical consequence would be to ask for the Garcimore imitation

Thomas: Yeah but no I’m not finished...

Male interviewer: Ah!

Female interviewer: Shit!

Thomas: From then on he maybe showed me his Garcimore imitation which wasn’t great... I don’t know if his voice had broken yet or not, I remember that mine didn’t break

Guy-Man: No, mine had not broken yet

Thomas: I don’t think that his voice had broken yet either, I was 12 years old and what needs to be said is that I was a full head shorter than him, now I’m a full head taller than him. So I looked at him like that and said “can you do a Garcimore imitation?” and voilà. Then we went to the cinema together, I asked him on a “date” to go to the cinema, and we went to see, for the people so that they will remember what week it was, we went to see

Guy-Man and Thomas: *at the same time* Génération Perdue (The Lost Boys)

Female interviewer: Oh!

Thomas: Uh... a film by-...

Female interviewer: Lost Boys

Guy-Man: Mmh Lost Boys

Thomas: Voilà...

Female interviewer: With Kiefer Sutherland

*****

Male interviewer: A question from Thierry Ardisson from his famous duo interview

Thierry Ardisson: Who pays the most taxes?

Thomas: It’s me because I produced a song called Stardust, so, it’s true that we share everything, but there’s Stardust which makes a little bit more [money] so there might be stuff remaining from that, from that time

Thierry Ardisson: Who does the grocery shopping?

Thomas: We don’t live together

Thierry Ardisson: Who’s the most “soupe au lait” (an old French saying that literally means milk soup) of the two of you

Thomas: *Laughs* “soupe au lait” what does “soupe au lait” mean, I don’t know

Male interviewer: Short tempered

Female interviewer: Short tempered, easily hurt

Thomas: Oh no, we’re not- we’re not-…

Guy-Man: No not really

Thomas: We’re not like that, we have a lot of flaws but we’re not really “soupe au lait”

Male interviewer: Thierry Ardisson

Thierry Ardisson: Who stays in the shower the longest?

Thomas: Uh recently I’ve been taking more baths than showers so I don’t know

Guy-Man: Me too, I take more baths as well

Thomas: We’re a bit lazy

Female interviewer: So you stay in there for a long time then?

Thomas: Yeah yeah we stay in the bath for a long time

Male interviewer: François Morel

François Morel: Uuh… do you sometimes go to the swimming pool?

Guy-Man: Only during summer and where it’s not a public pool

Thomas: Oh well what, what’s that… wait I go to the swimming pool sometimes however it’s annoying with the school hours and everything you have to go there from noon to 1pm or before seven in the morning, the kids piss [in the water]

Guy-Man: I don’t like wearing swimming caps that’s it basically

Thomas: Ah yes but that’s a matter of style but we’re on the radio now we don’t care

#daftpunk #daft punk #daft punk interview #guy manuel de homem christo #thomas bangalter #translation #translated #my translation

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mamsellechosette24601 · 3 years

Text

I love thinking about my personal relationship with ASOUE and how 6-year-old me would never have guessed what an important part of my life this story would become?? I remember so vividly every step of the journey

- aged 6, having cousins over for school vacation and hearing from your father that there was a nice children’s movie coming out. Then going to the cinema and being told that neither you nor your slightly older cousins could watch it bc it was for 12+

- deciding for no apparent reason other than sheer pettiness that you really needed to watch this movie and being on the lookout for when the dvd would appear at your local blockbuster. Finally getting your hands at it and watching it with your parents and younger brother in a freezing chalet at night. Hearing Lemony’s advice to leave the movie theatre you’re in and thinking “well, that would’ve been trippy”. Being absolutely terrified of the leeches, spending the entire night having nightmares about being in a small boat surrounded by them, and swearing that you’d never have anything to do with ASOUE ever again

- going back to the blockbuster after a few months and renting “the polar express”, while your brother, for some trick of fate, decided that he was brave enough to rewatch ASOUE. Finishing watching the polar express a few minutes before your brother was done with ASOUE, so you go and sit with him. Thinking that the leeches’ scene wasn’t so bad in daylight and that the story “was actually pretty nice”

- aged 7, reading The Bad Beginning and feeling such an intense sense of accomplishment at having finished your first book ever, just a few minutes before it was time to go to the airport pick up your cousin. Your father being so proud of you that he bought you the 2nd volume in the airport’s bookstore

- aged 8, receiving the entire fricking collection from your amazing aunt as a birthday gift. Not knowing until then that receiving books could bring such joy. Then, in a very underwhelming development, getting to book 5 and deciding that it was boring. Apparent end of your engagement with lemony forever.

- finding out that 2 of your older cousins were also reading ASOUE! Being so excited to have something to share with them! Them telling you you should definitely continue reading, because book 6 was the most fun (cough eternal obsession with Esmé cough). Doing it to make them proud and falling in love all over again.

- finishing book 7 while on your first train trip. Learning the very useful life lesson that you should always bring more than 1 book with you when on long journeys. Watching the movie obsessively with your cousins, memorising every line, enacting it. Having a fight with the uncle you considered your own Count Olaf and your father telling you you could build a tent, a sanctuary, like they did in the movie. Watching horror movies in this tent in the garden at night but not feeling scared at all, bc you felt so safe in there and just remembering the Baudelaires already felt like being at home.

- aged 9, bringing book 12 and book 13 on another trip. Finishing it all in the plane and discovering that yes, a book could break your heart and make you cry as if you were living it. Deciding you would cherish it forever. Finding out about the other books little by little over the years. Discovering comfort at the never ending mystery.

- aged 20, getting a vfd tattoo that brings you peace whenever you look at it. Aged 23, reading the most recent lemony snicket novel and seeing that he has been your friend for almost as long as you can remember, and that reading his words still bring you immediate reassurance. Knowing for sure that if you ever have kids, you’ll pass on to them this inheritance.

I just… love ASOUE a lot. And like to think about it. I’m maybe not as vocal about it but that’s bc it’s always had a characteristically underlying presence in my life, just tying it all together, sometimes without me even realising it. Thank you, DanHan

#personal #asoue #asoue movie #poison for breakfast #lemony snicket #you can complain whatever you want about the movie but it’s so important to me #though it’s only bearable to watch it dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese #and of course the tv show was also a huge part of me realising how much a love this story

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crispy-chan · 3 years

Text

slip n slide | han jisung

>> masterlist

♥ pairing: han jisung x gn! reader

♥ genre: fluff, valentine's day special, drabble (1k)

♥ warnings: none

♥ a/n: so...this is my first time writing something so short. I tried to make it gn but if I slipped up, please let me know. Enjoy <3

ps: this was written for the @newskynet Valentine's Day special event. the prompts I used were: 20. “Babe.” / “Since when do you call me babe?” and 25. “I love you.”

“Come on Jisung, slow down,” you shouted at your boyfriend who was running a few steps ahead of you, laughing like a maniac as you tried to catch up to him.

“You'll have to catch me, sweetheart,” he sing songed.

“But it's really slippery,” you whined, “I could slip and break something.”

“You're not that clumsy, are you?”

Speak of the devil. Just as he said that you could feel yourself lose your footing as your right foot slid across the frosty surface.

“Aaaahhh,” you screeched, closing your eyes and preparing for the inevitable fall.

But it never came.

You slowly opened your eyes to see Jisung grinning from ear to ear at your confused expression.

Seems like he managed to catch you just in time, his hands steady around your waist as he kept you from falling flat on your butt. You felt your cheeks heat up at the whole ordeal. Why were you such a damn klutz?

“I caught you just in time, what would you do without me sugar?” he smirked, smugness lacing his tone.

“Oh shut up,” you retorted, swatting his face away as you finally steadied yourself on your feet. You took a few shaky steps before finally regaining your balance, patting him on the head and yelling: “tag, you're it.”

You ran as fast as you could leaving your confused boyfriend in the dust. You maneuvered through all the other couples, trying to avoid bumping into anyone and ruining their date. You see - with the current situation, you weren't the only ones who decided to celebrate valentine's day in the park. All the restaurants, cinemas, and other establishments were closed, so you had to find other ways to enjoy yourselves.

You two had agreed to meet in the park after lunch and just mess around and have fun.

About five minutes have passed in the meantime, and you were starting to wonder, where was Jisung and why he hasn't caught up with you yet. You were about to turn around and go look for him but a sudden noise near you, coupled with hands on your shoulders made you freeze in your spot.

You yelped in surprise but quickly calmed down after seeing who it was.

“Jisung!” you scolded, “don't do this to me you meanie.”

The pout on your face made him coo as he slung his arm around your shoulder, moving in the direction of the hot chocolate stand.

“And you're a cutie. C'mon, let's go get something warm.”

You could feel yourself heat up again. And it definitely wasn't because of the chilly weather. You wordlessly followed him, contemplating on how did you even manage to get such a loving boy as a boyfriend.

You had lucked out in the love department, that was for sure.

As you two walked down the path in hopes of getting a warm drink, Jisung kept joking around throwing in some compliments here and there. You felt your heart skip a beat every single time, still not used to his treatment.

“What's wrong Y/N? Everything ok?”

“Yeah, I'm just happy,” you smiled, taking his palm in yours fondly.

It was his turn to blush now, he quickly turned to face the side, waiting for the redness on his cheeks to subside.

“Oohh,” you teased, “got a taste of your own medicine, haven't we.”

“Yes,” the agreement came surprisingly quickly, “but I still haven't shown you what I'm capable of.”

Laughing at your confused state, he placed his hands under your body and swiped you off your feet.

“Sung!” you screeched, in annoyance and delight alike as he ran down the park, scaring all the couples away and making them involuntarily clear the way for you.

“Put me down. Right now!” you ordered but the will to fight left your body a long time ago.

“Just a second babe, we're almost there.”

“Hey! Since when do you call me babe?” you questioned, quirking your eyebrow.

“Since now babe. Look, there's the hot chocolate stand. Quick, before there'll be a line,” he ushered you towards the booth.

You tried to go there but two older men stood your way. It seemed like trouble, Jisung seemingly thought so too as he pushed you behind him, acting as a shield.

“What do you want? Why won't you let us through?” he barked.

“Oh sorry, we just wanted to ask if you were interested in getting professional photographs done...they're two dollars each. You know - since it's Valentine's and all.”

The two of you looked at each other surprised, not expecting to be asked something like that. “D-do you want to get them?” Jisung asked you.

“Umm, sure...I guess.”

“Okay,” he shrugged, clasping your hand and walking over to where the two photographers went.

“Stand in this circle,” one of them instructed, pointing at the fading circle drawn with a piece of chalk. The other one in the meantime prepared the camera, pointing it at the two of you as he readied for the “photo shoot”.

“Now do a funny pose.”

You stood there awkwardly, not knowing how you should pose but thankfully, Jisung wasn't one to shy away from PDA.

He initiated many different poses, ranging from holding you bridal style, making funny faces, and even kissing your cheek on the last one.

You almost combusted from the embarrassment, Jisung seemingly not minding all the poses he just did, perfectly unbothered like always.

“Thank you very much,” he smiled, handing them a crisp banknote.

“Come on babe, let's get the hot chocolate.”

“Coming,” you ran after him, only to enfulg him in a bear hug much to his surprise.

“I love you Jisung,” you muttered shyly.

“Oh, babe...I love you too, I was kind of hoping to say it first today,” he admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

“Doesn't matter who said it first.”

“Well, I'll at least say it more times. I love you,” he groaned into the embrace.

...

#han jisung #nsnvalentine #han jisung x reader #han jisung fluff #han jisung drabble #stray kids drabble #stray kids fluff #drabble #valentine's day drabble #crispy chan

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nutty1005 · 3 years

Text

Xiao Zhan, welcome to the cruel entertainment business

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6qaJPp9O1exu4M8xtbt71A Original Author: 杨晋亚 Translator’s note: The original author is part of Yuli Studio, this article is published in Yuli Studio’s Weixin Official Account on 15 Sep 2019 as a part of “Behind the Screens” Volume 210.

“I never thought it would happen this way, this was fated.”

A month ago, he was just accepted by audiences due to “The Untamed” and just became one of the most popular actors. Now, he had to take on the responsibility of a movie’s box office as the main lead actor, and show his worth to the movie industry.

Three days before “Jade Dynasty I” aired in the cinemas, Yuli Studio met up with the nervous Xiao Zhan, who told us his fears, “Movies, well, they are very direct, very pragmatic and very cruel, so there’s no choice, since we’re already here, I just have to work hard to do my best.”

With traffic and popularity, comes others’ views and opinions – some expected him to withstand the stress of the box office, but there were also others waiting to laugh at his failure. “Jade Dynasty I” was the first obstacle Xiao Zhan was breaking through, and the path ahead was still long.

Xiao Zhan, welcome to the cruel entertainment business.

Xiao Zhan at “Jade Dynasty I” Press Conference

Looking back at the movie journeys of all the traffic actors, no one was like Xiao Zhan, who took on a movie while he was still a nobody, and this movie aired just barely 2 months after he made a name, putting his resource conversion ability to a public test.

On the first day, the box office was 142 million, on the second day it broke 200 million, these were the results “Jade Dynasty I” achieved during the Mid Autumn movie season, which exceeded many people’s expectations. The first day was with fans support, the second day still had interested moviegoers, Xiao Zhan’s first time as the lead actor on silver screen and he miraculously withstood the box office.

“Jade Dynasty I” Super Topic + Maoyan Movie Professional Box Office Chart

This was Xiao Zhan’s third time on the silver screen.

The first time, he was a little monster dressed in flowery clothes in “Monster Hunt 2”, drowned in a sea of group actors, almost unnoticeable as the camera panned past him in a second. The second time, he was a special agent, a side character that barely had 1 minute of screen time, in “The Rookies” during that year’s summer movie season. The third time, he became the main lead actor and took on the entire movie, presenting the process of innocent Zhang Xiaofan becoming a demon.

The production team of “Jade Dynasty I” revealed that, whether or not Xiao Zhan became popular, the movie was planned to air on 8 Aug, however because the post production was incomplete, hence it was shifted to the Mid Autumn movie season.

Director Cheng Xiaodong said that the luckiest decision he made for “Jade Dynasty I” was to cast Xiao Zhan, “I never thought that his acting would be so natural so good, he is not pretentious, and he is very humble, when you tell him something he will listen and improve.”

Stage photographs from “Jade Dynasty I”, Xiao Zhan before and after demonizing

On set, Cheng Xiaodong even actively added some scenes for Xiao Zhan, for example the scene at the start of the movie where Xiaofan was fantasizing about his senior, Tian Linger, “I found that he could act in all layers, he could do dull and dimwitted, he could do the demonizing transformation later on, so this movie he had many layers, the pace kept changing.”

To Xiao Zhan, Zhang Xiaofan of “Jade Dynasty I” was an unforgettable milestone, it was considered to be his toughest filming. Filming in conditions under 20°C and being blown by a giant fan, hung upside down for a free fall of 30 meters, in order to maintain his sense of the role, he even turned off the heater in his trailer, just so that his body will adapt to the temperature outside.

Before “Jade Dynasty I” aired, Xiao Zhan once said, “If the reception of the movie isn’t very good, I just have to work harder in the future. If it was not bad, then I am grateful that you saw my hard work from that period of time.”

After the movie aired, Xiao Zhan became the center of discussion for “Jade Dynasty I”. The movie’s quality was the result of an entire movie crew’s hard work, but now that all the discussions had landed on Xiao Zhan, to a certain degree, that was the price to pay for fame.

Stage photograph from”Jade Dynasty I”, Xiao Zhan as Zhang Xiaofan

On 23 Aug, there was a video on Weibo that was reposted a few tens of thousands of times.

In the video, Xiao Zhan had just ended a day’s filming, and after he got off the car, the 20 over fans waiting at the hotel entrance got rowdy, they blocked Xiao Zhan’s path and took pictures of him in his face using their phones. Spotting a gap at the side, Xiao Zhan suddenly took off running, and then he safely entered the elevator.

During the filming period of “The Oath of Love” recently at Wuxi, crazy fan actions were happening everyday as Xiao Zhan went to and from his work, sometimes they would surround and block him in the underground car park, sometimes when he got into the car they would forcibly block the car doors from closing, sometimes they would knock on his hotel room door to stuff notes to him.

Xiaofan, a staff who worked around Xiao Zhan said that the sasaeng problems was already very serious, the company wanted to provide him two assistants and security guards, but Xiao Zhan insisted not to.

“Because he didn’t want to give off the impression that he started acting like a big shot after he got famous.”

During the interview, Xiao Zhan spoke about the sasaeng problems again

From the media’s perspective, we have witnessed many artists change after they got famous, some would have a star aura, some would be exuding confidence from in to out, Yuli Studio’s reporter Lanpangzi once visited the set of “The Untamed”, and one year later met Xiao Zhan again at the “Jade Dynasty I” press conference, Lanpangzi discovered that Xiao Zhan was still as warm and accommodating like the boy-next-door.

At the backstage of the press conference, a few tens of guests spoke to Xiao Zhan consecutively, he was smiling at everyone, and slowly fulfilled each and everyone’s request to take a photograph together, and only until 4pm that afternoon he was able to finally have time for a few mouths of a lunchbox. The continuous non-stop interviews started at 4.05pm, all the reporters wanted a photograph together, and he tried to accommodate even under such tight scheduling.

After becoming famous, Xiao Zhan had more and more interviews, and if he was not careful, he would be accused of putting on airs if the arrangements of the interviews were done wrongly. Xiaofan said that Xiao Zhan himself was especially aware of this point, “He is now even more nervous than before, and he had expectations of all of his staff, please don’t think that he is putting on airs just because of our errors.”

Xiao Zhan at the “Jade Dynasty I” Press Conference

After joining the “Jade Dynasty I” press conference in Beijing, Xiao Zhan had to quickly fly back to Wuxi to continue filming.

Before “The Untamed” finished airing, Xiao Zhan had already entered the filming for “The Oath of Love”, and filming while at the height of his fame would mean that he would miss a lot of event opportunities. When his fans were worried about his limited exposures, Xiao Zhan’s thoughts was that: “What’s there to be worried about, I feel that an actor’s life comes from his works.”

In fact, Xiao Zhan had received a lot of invitations from many events, so his biggest worry was how he could maintain his normal acting condition.

“Some events you just had to complete, and then I had some commercial obligations prior, like that day at Suzhou, that was a contract that I signed then,” Xiaofan said, “the last thing that Xiao Zhan wanted to do was to take leave.”

Xiao Zhan’s current schedule at “The Oath of Love” was from 8am to 10pm, if he had to take leave, it meant that when Xiao Zhan returned to the set he would have to work overtime to film his scenes.

Stage photograph from “The Oath of Love”, Xiao Zhan as Gu Wei

The performance teacher accompanying the filming , Yang Xu, witnessed Xiao Zhan’s helplessness and anxiety.

“His load in ‘The Oath of Love’ was especially big, basically we could only discuss his scenes that day while he was doing his make up in the morning, because the filming would end very late at night, I wanted him to go back for more rest. Moreover the fan problems now are too prominent, sometimes he would also talk to me a bit, although I don’t think this incident affected his mood or his performance, but it definitely affected his normal resting time.”

For a while, Yang Xu was very worried about Xiao Zhan’s condition, but what surprised him was that, although the filming would end very late at night, but by the next day, Xiao Zhan would have memorized his lines and made full preparations before coming to the make up room.

“That was what made him powerful, and I found that he would actually really use every bit of spare time to prepare for the role and his lines, for example, while doing his make up, even when going to the toilet, he would be holding the script, and then during the rest period after filming every scene, he would be reading his lines with me while drinking coffee, because lines reading needed partners, I said you just take me as your partner.”

When he was away from the set on leave, Xiao Zhan took late night flights between Beijing and Wuxi almost every time, and in the photographs taken by his fans at the airport, he would also be reading his script.

Stage photograph from “The Oath of Love”, Xiao Zhan as Gu Wei

Every early morning at the make up room would also be the spare time for Xiao Zhan and Xiaofan to talk about their work and release stress.

“Now he does not seem to enjoy the applause and glory from the opportunities that came with his sudden fame, a lot of it was some anxiety and confusion,” in Xiaofan’s eyes, these two months in Xiao Zhan’s life definitely changed.

“Suddenly, we experienced a lot of things that we don’t quite understand, it could have been a small mistake at work, but we would gain the attention of anti-fans or fans. He is more of an introvert, he doesn’t go out to entertain, stays at home more, leads simple life, and suddenly his life came under the spotlight, wherever he went there will be fans following, he was definitely anxious.”

The seniors in the industry would also give Xiao Zhan some advice, and share with him some of the survival rules in the entertainment world that he had not experienced. “For example we will having having a fun conversation, or someone would be telling some something he does not know about in the industry, the next day he will tell me that the conversation made him quite excited, he learned a lot, I feel like he is a sponge like person, continuously absorbing,” a senior in the industry revealed.

Xiao Zhan

On 10 Aug, a day before the filming starts for “The Oath of Love”, performance teacher Yang Xu finally met Xiao Zhan again.

The script for “The Oath of Love” was given to Yang Xu quite early on, Xiao Zhan also wanted to quickly get into the preparation for this role, but because the promotion schedule for “The Untamed” was too tight, they did not manage to squeeze out some time to discuss about the script face-to-face.

“That day’s morning he just fixed his costume, we only met briefly at night,” Yang Xu recalled, but what put him at ease was that Xiao Zhan already made full analysis and preparation of the script, “At that time, I felt assured, his analytical skills of his roles were getting stronger, he was already able to analyze the script independently.”

Yang Xu, who was once a teacher in Central Drama School, participated in many dramas, such as “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, as their performance instructor. When he joined “The Oath of Love”, it was already his third time working with Xiao Zhan.

Stage photograph from “The Oath of Love”, Xiao Zhan as Gu Wei

While filming “The Untamed”, Xiao Zhan told the visiting staff from Yuli Studio that he wished to improve his lines. After finishing “Jade Dynasty I”, Xiao Zhan proactively went to Yang Xu for a few classes.

The airing “The Untamed” in this summer made many viewers notice the actor Xiao Zhan.

In the “Bloodbath at Nevernight City” in episode 32, Wei Wuxian stood on top of a roof, facing off the accusations from all of the sects, crying and laughing, unable to explain himself. In this part, the Yiling Patriarch’s rage was at his max, and it was Xiao Zhan’s golden moment of his acting abilities, and many drama fans were surprised to find out that the filming of that scene was done in the same day as another scene – that day’s morning was the filming of youth Wei Wuxian in the library, and at night he immediately went into the condition of the Yiling Patriarch dying in Nevernight City.

We asked him how he could film such extreme conditions within the same day, Xiao Zhan confessed that he himself did not know, “I saw some gifs and clips, if I had to suddenly redo this scene, I don’t think I can outperform that me then, I guess that time it was the accumulation of time and condition, maybe that period of time I had already blended into the role.”

Stage photographs from “The Untamed”, Wei Wuxian at Nevernight City and the Library

Drama fans attributed this to Xiao Zhan’s “self-sacrificing styled acting” performance method, in the drama, Wei Wuxian depended on someone to use the “self-sacrificing curse” 16 years later to resurrect – this “self-sacrifice” meant that Xiao Zhan gave himself entirely to the role of Wei Wuxian.

To Yang Xu, Xiao Zhan’s instinctive acting method, where he became the role, actually came from this “sincerity”, and this was where the advantage of Xiao Zhan as an actor lied.

“Xiao Zhan is a very sincere person, I spoke to him then that sincerity is a very important quality in an actor. This sincerity meant that he could 100% give away himself, he was the same when he was taking classes with me. Because when we were practicing, he also needed to share some of his privacy or live experiences, he would share them very sincerely.”

Stage photograph from “The Untamed”, Xiao Zhan as Wei Wuxian

Yang Xu felt that the introvert and quiet Doctor Gu from “The Oath of Love” was more like Xiao Zhan in his everyday life. But Xiao Zhan felt nervous about this role having similarities with his own character, because he felt that he had not acted in any contemporary dramas. Before filming started, he constantly asked Yang Xu about the differences between contemporary dramas and period dramas, whether he was to portray life as more at will compared to period dramas.

Yang Xu told him, at its core they are acting out human emotions, therefore he must truly experience the life of this character, and then build a realistic communication with his partner.

“Yang Zi is a more quick-witted actress, her performances are very varied, if at this time Xiao Zhan wasn’t about to build enough communication with Yang Zi, or not focused enough, then the two of them might not be able to match up. But what’s good is that Xiao Zhan is very sincere, and he could receive Yang Zi’s performance, and then reply with his layered emotions. I was on set watching a few of their scenes, I personally feel that Xiao Zhan did very well.”

From “Jade Dynasty I” to “The Oath of Love”, Yang Xu saw the growth of Xiao Zhan within this half year. During the process of working with Yang Zi, Xiao Zhan became willing to try more variations, willing to breakthrough his fixed style of acting, and look for changes in every scene and every line.

“He is very concerned about how he crafts every single character, he has his own expectations of his performance and profession, he will never be satisfied with his results and what he has attained in performance. He will forever be seeking, and with this seeking, he will have motivation to learn and grow. And he is very talented, I always tell him, you definitely can become a good actor.”

“The Oath of Love” Character Poster

We reverse the time back to early 2017, Xiao Zhan has just joined the filming of “Battle Through the Heaven”, as the minor role Lin Xiuya.

Then, Xiao Zhan had just entered the entertainment industry for barely a year, and acted in a web drama that he jokingly called it his “dark history” later on.

During the performance classes before the filming of “Battle Through the Heaven”, Xiao Zhan stood out from all the newcomers, not only because of his outstanding looks, but also because he was well-mannered and polite, very hardworking during the filming, and left a great impression on the staff.

“Battle Through the Heaven” was filmed throughout the Chinese New Year period of 2017, the new actors did not go home, and one of the seniors in the crew was talking to them, telling them that as a singer in China, their career progression might be more limited, and they should go down the path of acting, but the path of acting is a path of no return, they could only move forward and not backwards, therefore you will need to put in everything for it.

Stage photograph from “Battle Through the Heaven” Season 1, Xiao Zhan as Lin Xiuya

Born in 1991, Xiao Zhan was the representative of “over-aged commoner pursuing an entertainment business dream”, he only started to learn dancing at the age of 24, debuting as a part of a boy group. That spring, the 26 year old took in what the senior said, and started to consider the possibility of changing his career path.

At that time, Xiao Zhan was not confident, he felt that he came from an idol group background, and he was not sure if he could become an actor. But one of the strengths of Xiao Zhan was that he would not consider whether he could or not, instead, he would “choose, I just want to do it well, do it first, we’ll see the results later”.

Just like him starting to learn dancing with no foundations, but he saw effects after a month; during the idol competition his mentor Shu Qi suggested that he train his gaze, and a few weeks later he started to shed off the commoner in his gaze; in the transformation to become an actor, the senior encouraged him to lose weight first, and come to the set of “The Wolf” 3 months later, he really lost 10lbs.

“The Wolf” was Xiao Zhan’s entry work, followed through the entire drama as a part of the lead actors, and gained an acting quality improvement from 0 points to 50 points. A member of the staff revealed that hotels with better conditions were further away from the set, and in order to leave more time to acting, Xiao Zhan took the initiative to pick a hotel that was near the set despite it having worse conditions.

Stage photograph from “The Wolf”, Xiao Zhan as Ji Chong

During the filming period of “Battle Through the Heaven” and “The Wolf”, transforming from a singer to an actor facing cameras, that sensation once caused Xiao Zhan to lose the sense of himself, unsure how he could let the audiences believe that he was that role. During the filming of “The Untamed”, Xiao Zhan was still not confident enough, compared to the newcomers around him that came from acting schools, Xiao Zhan did not have any advantages.

“My thoughts and intentions had always been very simple, that is I want to do it well,” Xiao Zhan said, during the filming of “The Wolf”, he filmed in the day and took classes at night, writing his acting analysis in the late night, he also broke down once or twice, writing them while crying, but eventually he persisted.

The seed of stubbornness and refusal to admit defeat is deeply rooted in Xiao Zhan’s body, as a child he would go to Shaoniangong every weekend to learn drawing, and nothing would keep him from it, because that was something he wanted to do from his heart; when competing in the idol competition, facing many teammates who were from music academies, he thought to himself that “if you could do it, then I could do it too, and I’ll do it even better”; when filming, he believed that viewers would not be concerned whether he came from an acting background, but the most direct answer would be whether he acted well or not.

“The Untamed” finally brought the actor Xiao Zhan to everyone’s notice.

That summer, he became the entertainment business’s new top traffic power, his supertopic firmly in the top three, all kinds of gossip forums had posts about him, and “Jade Dynasty I” also showcased his appeal.

Stage photograph from “The Untamed”, Xiao Zhan as Wei Wuxian

Why was he able to receive so much love this summer?

There were many within the entertainment circle that looked well upon Xiao Zhan, two of them could provide answers or a type of assessment:

“Xiao Zhan used his acting abilities to conquer me”; “I see the shadow of every worker on him, he carries the hopes and dreams of every man pursuing a dream.”

There was a microblog titled “Recording Xiao Zhan’s every man moments” that obtained 330 thousand likes, and within it, fans shared many little stories about him.

For example, after living for 28 years, Xiao Zhan’s most prideful moment was to have his logo sell well as a designer; the backgrounds of his group’s concerts and the web drama’s slides were all drawn by him; his mobile phone home screen was the God of Fortune, like every person who hoped for a sudden windfall.

One part was the recognition of his working capabilities; the other part, the Xiao Zhan, who became a designer after graduation and went through a year of working life before pursuing his “entertainment business dream”, was indeed very different from the idols that were cultivated from the idol machine, he came with common sense and life experiences, his past was definitely able to resonate with every man.

Xiao Zhan

A fan once sent this microblog – Xiao Zhan’s temperament is so good, perhaps it’s because he had been honed by his clients. Xiao Zhan himself replied her with a meme: “What do you mean?”

The experience as a contractor, plus always facing people with a smile, everyone’s first impression of Xiao Zhan was that he was a gentle person with a good temperament.

Xiao Zhan always habitually considered others’ feelings first.

Staff Xiaofan revealed that the previous assistant was not capable enough, made a lot of mistakes, but Xiao Zhan never lost his temper at him.

Yang Xu accompanied Xiao Zhan every morning in the make up room for script reading, there was once Xiao Zhan had insomnia the night before and was in a bad shape, he took the initiative to apologize to the teacher, “That day I could feel that he was actually very tired, but he still tried his best to maintain his condition to discuss his role with me, later on he came to me and said, teacher I’m sorry, my condition was bad in the morning, you took still so much effort to explain the role to me, I feel quite bad, you can come slightly later, otherwise you’ll feel bad looking at my current state. I was very touched then, I said you just rest well and don’t worry about me.”

In the idol competition, someone once questioned Xiao Zhan’s character as passive and unenthusiastic. To Xiaofan, this is because “he is always humble and polite to people he doesn’t know well, and he’ll treat everyone with a sense of propriety.”

A reporter once asked Xiao Zhan if he was a Mr. Nice Guy. Xiao Zhan replied, “I feel that those who feel like this are probably acquaintances. People who know me very well will know that I’m actually quite stubborn and quite strong-headed.”

Xiao Zhan

Xiao Zhan said, he did not like to make the atmosphere uncomfortable, he hoped that everyone could all be harmonious.

But in the “Secret Garden”, Xiao Zhan will unexpectedly shed off this shell of warm smiles and display the tenacious edge in his heart.

Xiao Zhan had a microblog that held the heartfelt words between he and his fans, and some words Xiao Zhan would quietly post in the comments, and those who care for him would always see it.

Last year after “The Untamed” started filming, there were those who believed that he would rise to fame very quickly, but there were also those who mocked him for “being famous on credit”, Xiao Zhan, who had a nickname “Brother Wealthy”, quietly posted a comment on the sentiments then, “I have money, I don’t go on credit.”

In his daily life, Xiao Zhan does not like to cry, he said he has given all of his tears to his characters. Once in a while, everyone can also see that soft Xiao Zhan coming out of his protective shell. Last year during the Hangzhou concert, he looked at the hall full of his fans’ support, singing the song, “Satisfaction”, that his fans fought for him, he tried to keep in his tears.

After bursting to fame, whether Xiao Zhan will continue to display his strong or soft moments, we would not know, but Xiaofan revealed that the staff do not control Xiao Zhan’s microblog postings, the “Secret Garden” continues to be his method of communicating with his fans.

But we can be certain that Xiao Zhan is slowly learning and adjusting to the rules of the entertainment business, becoming more careful, he will sometimes tell his staff, “We need to be more careful than before.”

Xiao Zhan’s Mid Autumn greetings

The night after the premiere of “Jade Dynasty I”, Xiao Zhan secretly went to record a program at CCTV. That night at 8.30pm, word from the scalpers circle came out, “Xiao Zhan’s activity, those who can come to the area near the world trade center message me! Limited seats! Hurry!”

Later on, there were a lot of fans gathering at the north entrance of CCTV, and until late night at 11pm, there were still large groups of fans quietly waiting. Xiao Zhan and his staff would sometimes wonder, when would days like this ever end, but they also understood that this is an anomaly, things would slowly stabilize after a few months, and the future still depended on his works.

After completing the filming of “The Oath of Love”, Xiao Zhan will go through a period of rest and adjustment, and enter filming again at the start of next year.

“What worried him previously what that he didn’t know where his opportunities were, didn’t know which path he should take; now of course he’s firmly decided on being a good actor,” Xiaofan revealed.

Xiao Zhan at the premiere press conference of “Jade Dynasty I”

His vlogs since his debut, until yesterday when he spoke to everyone online, Xiao Zhan always started with “I am still Xiao Zhan”.

After rising to fame, Xiao Zhan told himself that he needed to work harder in his life, and work hard to remind himself to stay common and still be that very initial Xiao Zhan.

However, no one would be able to foresee the possibilities of Xiao Zhan in his career, “No one restricted that I have to be this type of Xiao Zhan my whole life,” since he is someone who likes to stay on his feet, and very willing to try and change.

Entering this cruel entertainment business, Xiao Zhan still continues to be a honorable working class, lying on his sofa after knocking off; traffic comes and goes, he tells himself that he should not compare with anyone else, he should only compete against himself, and be a long distance runner.

Only passion and sincerity can withstand the long and slow passage of time.

Xiao Zhan looking at that year’s fireworks

#xiao zhan #sean xiao #xiaozhan #肖战

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crushzone · 4 years

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relationship hcs for akiteru 🥺🥺🥺

Hi yes yes YESSS! More love for Akiteru, here we go! 💕

Being in a Relationship with Akiteru Tsukishima 🥰

Let me start off by saying this: if you ever find yourself in a relationship with him, then congratulations, you have very great taste and a wonderful boyfriend. 😘

How it all began:

You met Akiteru at your university. As someone who greatly values academic and genuinely enjoys going to classes, you always wake up a little earlier than you had to, just so you can get a head start. Little did you know that you’d run into the cutest fellow early bird on the first day of your second year.

As expected, the building is peaceful, so quiet, as the only sound are echos from your shoes. But to your surprise, you come across a silhouette of a tall male, sitting with his back to you, in front of the massive window that overlooks the empty university.

When your footsteps come to a stop, he turns to you, lowering the book that he’s holding on to his lap. “Are you here for World War 2 in Cinema?” He asks with a smile.

His smile widens when you respond with a nod, turning around to fully face you with an arm outstretched. “My name is Tsukishima Akiteru! But you can call me Akiteru.”

You walk up to him and shakes his warm hand, as you can’t help but be infected by his genuine smile and warm demeanor.

Also noting how calloused his palms are. Hmm, what could’ve caused that 🤔

From that day on, you two would come to class even earlier; from 10 minutes, to 15, even up to 20, just so you can chit chat.

He’d bring whatever he thought was cool to show you before class too. For instance, he’s gone thrift shopping with his other friends once, and came across a children dinosaur book. It made him very nostalgic as it reminded him of Kei, but he’s also way too excited to share it with you, so he bought it on the whim.

His friends totally gave him a weird look, but they’re like: ok, yea, Akiteru’s just being hella nerdy. The usual.

You would also bring cool things to share with him before class as well, and it makes him really happy when you do.

He’d come home everyday, since the day he’d met you, with a fuzzy feeling in his chest. So he likes to snuggle his side pillow with his warm cheeks squished to it with eyes closed, day dreaming about you.

In a way, you remind him a lot of younger Kei; when he’d have someone to share his interests and passion with. However, he’s well aware that you are not his brother and that his excitement to see you every morning is way too intense for it to be something that’s just platonic.

Is also a very observant person; if you’ve gotten a haircut, re-painted your nails, or is wearing something new, he will instantly compliment you on that. And the bizarre thing is that he’s not even trying to suck up to you, it’s actually how he felt and his eyes automatically notice new things about you, even if they may be subtle.

He’s usually the one asking a lot of questions; he wants to know more about you, where you’re from, your family, your passion, hobbies.

So you were pretty surprised when you found out he’s on Kaji Wild Dogs Volleyball team. You didn’t even know what a Wing Spiker or anything is because you were never really a big sports fan.

When you frankly told him that you do not know much about sports, but is still fruitlessly trying to come up with questions, just so he can talk about his passion some more, he just laugh, a wholesome grin on his cute freaking face. 😩

“It’s okay, Y/n-san, It means a lot to me that you’re trying to understand the sport that’s meant so much to me, but that doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to speak about it for my sake. I have other passions too, and I’d rather speak about what makes the both of us happy.”

Ughh, like how are you so observant!! It’s the big brother intuition, I tell ya. Since Kei barely communicates with him verbally, he’s gotten really good at observing micro-signs.

Which MEANSSS that this man KNOWSSSS you are into him and that he’s got a chance. Oh yea, he knows bby, and he may or may not have denied it for a day, before he’s like, nah dude, I like them too, so I’m going to go for it.

Your name keeps popping up in conversation with his friends, even without his awareness. BUT if there is ever a chance for him to promote you in a conversation, he will not hesitate, and totally go all out.

He is addicted to your smile, and he wants you to keep doing whatever makes you happy.

Will go out of his ways to support your hobbies; e.g. staying up late at night to brainstorm paper ideas with you, and he’s not even in the class your paper’s for.

Speaking of assignments, you guys are the POWER STUDY BUDDY. Like wow, you know those times when you meet up with your friends for a study sesh, but it turns into a distracting mess. No no, not with you two smarties.

There’s this mutual unspoken agreement, the moment he’s asked you to study with him at the library during mid-terms. You’ll be chit chatting about anything in the world on your way to the lib, but the moment you’ve found your work desk, you’re both completely silent as your eyes skim through the pages of your textbook, while his hands scribble like flaming wheels on his notebook.

The only time one of you would speak is when you’re hungry, and you want to stop by the library’s cafe. He will always ask you if you want anything, even if you already have your sandwich in front of you.

And even if you’ve said no, he’ll still buy something extra for you anyway, cuz he knows it’s going to be a late night at the library.

Knows your class schedule by memory, will always walk or offer to drive you home. And he’ll always make sure you actually enter your apartment before leaving.

On days when he cannot be there to drive you home because of practice, he can’t relax until you send him a photo of your cat at home or something haha.

He’s basically your main ride for almost anything, including groceries. He just enjoys spending time with you in general, it doesn’t have to be anything grand, just as long as you are with him, something as dreadful as waiting at the DMV no longer sounds as bad.

There was never really a distinct moment of when your first date was, because your relationship started off with a very stable friendship of shared interests.

It’s likely that he’ll confess his feelings for you even before he’s officially asked you on a date, because you are so comfortable with each other’s presence. And you’re cool with that, you’ve always wanted a relationship with an S/O who’e like a best friend anyway.

When he confessed, he did it at least expected moments. It was when you were on your way back from grocery shopping together, you noticed a cheesy-looking Halloween shop, so you asked him if he’d be down. You didn’t even have to beg, he’s already turning his car around.

Can I also add that he’s a very smooth and calm driver?

You’ll be trying on the goofiest looking costume, and he cannot help but smile at how perfect you are to him. Then it slips.

You: Look at me, I’m a cat meow meow. Akiteru: *laughs* Wow, what an accurate imitation. You: I know right? I’m not as cute as my cat though. Akiteru: You are very cute to me. 😳

Wow okay, but was that like platonic cute, or romantic cute. You know? Sometimes, people are vague, what can I say. But not Akiteru.

Akiteru: and I meant it. I like you a lot, Y/n-san. He confesses, looking at you with a smile. Like how are you going to say no to that.

Earlier stages:

Congratulations, Akiteru is now your boyfriend. ✨

A lot of the things that had been mentioned above still remains: he’s still just as attentive and observant as he had been from the start.

He has a list on his phone, of all the things you would eye when you go window shopping, the food you crave when you are extra broke that month, and the different things that make you smile so widely, he could’ve sworn your cheeks were about to explode.

He may not be the richest person in the world, but he will go out of his way to bring your cravings/wishes to fruition. For instance, you were craving some vegetarian Ethiopian food, but it was way too pricy for you to splurge, and you can’t decide on just one. Akiteru will go out of his ways to gather all ingredients, and cook everything from scratch, just so you can experience it as identically to the original thing you had craved for.

You also like to cook together a lot, and he’s pretty great in the kitchen. Loves chopping things for you, especially onions, because he hates the way it makes you tear up. 🥺

Calls you pet names that are inspired by all the children books and anime he’d read and watch with Kei, such as “Olive Baby (Olive Oyl from Popeye the Sailor), Dokin-chan~ (From Go! Anpanman), and Lil Tweety (Warner Bros.) ”

He will just text you with “Cuddle Bug? 🐞” and that’s just code for “I want you to spoil me with cuddles right now.”

It’ll usually happen randomly, but you’ve been noticing him doing that a lot after you’ve had a long day at work or after studying. You often wonder if Cuddle Bug was actually meant to be for him, or if it’s because you looked like you needed one. Regardless, you are grateful.

You can never say no to his cuddle requests because he gives some of the best ones you’ve ever experienced.

His favorite cuddle position is when you are laying on his chest, as he bring both arms to wrap around your shoulders, tucking his nose to your hair as he ingrains the memory of your scent to his mind. The feeling of your warm hand on the dip of his broad chest, makes his heart beat a little faster, as he relishes in your presence.

But on days when you know he needs Cuddle Bug most, are when he’d return to university housing after his visit home.

On those days, he will be the one to lay on your nape, face down, as his long arms wrap around your waist, and underneath the curve of your back. Automatically, your fingers find its way to his honey hued hair, running it through his soft strands, massaging his scalp, as you occasionally brush his temple with your thumb.

You could’ve sworn he purrs like a cat whenever you do.

When you ask him how his visit home went, he always assures that it went well, but you wonder if that was the entire truth.

He always seems a little silent after his visits, not being as playful about his teasings, and his smiles being a little less energetic than what you’re used to.

You were so concerned, you even asked some of his volleyball friends, and all they know was that Akiteru’s brother gives him a hard time, sometimes.

Strange, because Akiteru had only ever said great things about his brother to you: how Kei is a regular player in the team, and that he is killing the game at his blocks. Whenever he talks about his younger brother, his eyes sparkle and his voice booms proudly.

Knowing him, you decide to leave it at that, and not pry further into it. If he wants to tell you, he’ll tell you himself.

He’ll include you in all of his social events, as long as he’s allowed to, and likes to bring you with him whenever his friends want to hangout.

You felt a little bad, because you didn’t want to take away his guy time, but his friends genuinely enjoy your company. They even ask him how you’re doing sometimes, and for him to say hi for them.

Long term:

Okay, so when I say long term, I mean that it’s past the honeymoon phase.

At this point, you guys know each other so well, like it’s the back of your hands.

You also live together now, in a two bedroom apartment, where you turned one of the bedrooms into both your study rooms.

A very adventurous couple: would go hiking and camping all the time. But he’s also kind of a big introvert, so he’s totally down for chill movie nights at home.

And when you watch movies at home, you both SPRAWL out ALLLL over the couch, doesn’t even matter if you are short or tall, you both will take up every inch of the couch.

He’ll occasionally surprise you with some spontaneous dinner dates at home too, because he knows how badly you wish your cat could join you for all the dates you’ve gone to.

On those spontaneous dinner dates, you’ll come home and he’ll greet you in some nice button ups, 3 buttons undone, black trousers, and black dress shoes. When he draws you in a hug, you can smell the faintest cologne on his neck: a mix of caramel, and something subtly spicy but refreshing.

You also understand volleyball a little better now, and is always there to cheer for him to the fullest extent of your lungs, jumping up and down in excitement every time he score.

Whenever he’s feeling a little too exhausted than he intends to, all he needs is to look over at you, and just like that, he’s instantly recharged as he jumps up and down to your wave with a peace sign.

Is also not a clingy boyfriend at all, he trusts and respects you, and you are both very independent with your own set of interests. He’s totally fine not seeing you ALL the time during the day, but you ALWAYS make dinner together a thing (or if not, at least you’ll spend one of your meals together.)

He may not be the best at communication, such as when something’s bothering him, but that is just his way of protecting you of his burden.

And being around Mr.Perceptive, had taught you to be one as well. You pick up on subtle micro-signs, such as when he would count the grains of his rice with chopsticks, before pulling one grain to his lips at a time. You KNOW something bothersome is plaguing his mind when he plays with food.

He opens up to you about his past mistakes and the reason why Kei no longer talks to him very much. He’s very bothered by the way his little brother holes up in his own room when he visits, it makes him feel like a phantom, a walking failure that just occupies his parent’s home.

And every time his facade shatters, you instantly pull him into a hug, just the same way he’s always liked, his long limbs on top of yours, with your digits entangled in his hair.

You got him to work on his communication, clearly expressing the importance of it to you. And though he struggles sometimes, he’s still doing his best to improve.

Is a very clean person, kind of obsessed with keeping the kitchen clean; he cannot enjoy dinner until everything is in place.

Not that uptight about it though, there will be days when he lets it slip. But then he’ll be right back at it, after you’ve gone upstairs to prepare for bed: quickly washing the dishes and wiping everything down.

If that is not some husband energy then I do not know what is. 😩🥰

You jokingly told him how sexy he is, whenever he does home chores, and it’s now become an inside joke. Every time one of you wipes down the counter or puts the dishes away, you’ll turn to each other and wiggle your brows suggestively, before bursting into laughters.

At this point, if you were never good at teasing, you bet you’ve improved significantly just from dating him.

You’ll really worry when Akiteru gets home late from practice, so sometimes, you’ll stop by with his dinner to find that he is alone in the gym, just practicing his spikes.

When that happens, he’ll sit outside to eat with you, stargazing. Then he’ll return to the gym to lock it up,

But on days, when you’d stop by to say hi at the gym, in the morning, his team would great you very warmly. They’re pretty much your family now, and you like to host them at your apartment for potlucks.

Now, every time Akiteru visits home, he’ll bring you with him.

His mother LOVES you, she finds you to be one of the loveliest person she’s ever met, and keeps thanking you for taking such great care of her son.

With you there with him, he no longer feels lost when he’s home, he’s got you! And anytime he gets to see Kei for dinner, he’s just grateful.

Speaking of Kei, he suppose he does not mind you. You share a lot of similar interests with him — well, that would make a lot of sense because you and Akiteru does too, and that man had such a big influence through Kei’s adolescence.

Sometimes, Kei will chill with you and Akiteru at the balcony, your favorite music playing softly in the background as Kei watches his brother practice. You can’t help but smile, when you see that the brothers are slowly reconstructing their relationship.

Kei totally hates how you and Akiteru cheers so loudly at his matches though. Now he has to deal with another person embarrassing him at the stadium lol. (Though he is low key happy you both do 🤭)

You spoil Akiteru with head massages every night, without fail. And in return, he gives you foot rubs every morning.

Here’s how it usually goes: You’ll give him a head massage for a good minute, before patting his head, leaning down to gently pucker your lips against his forehead. Then he’d lift his chin with eyes closed, and that is when you’d give him three gentle pecks on the lips before crawling under the covers beside him. “Thank you”, he’d breath gratefully with a content smile, eyes still closed.

You no longer cuddle every night, especially during the hot summer, but you will link your middle and ring fingers as you both drift to sleep, bodies facing each other in a fetal position. 🥺

And on days when he’d wake up before you, he’ll spend a minute studying your adorable sleeping face with a smile. He wants to protect you from the world, to keep you safe in his arms as you both grow stronger together as individuals.

He has no idea how he’s ended up with you, but he thanks the sky every day for granting him your existence. He loves you so much, way more than he could ever put to words. With a gentle kiss to your forehead, you stir awake to see his warm smile, you’ve grown so accustomed to.

“Good morning, y/n-san. I love you, my lil Tweety.” 😘

---------

Taglist (open): @shhhlikeme @ceo-of-daichi @karasu-hoes @super-noya @nonexistent-social-life

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framecaught · 3 years

Text

[S] Cascade After the Death of Flash

Most of us familiar with Homestuck are familiar with [S] Cascade. This seminal flash animation concludes Homestuck’s fifth act and is still considered by many fans the most important, climactic animation in the comic (even ahead of its successors [S] GAME OVER and [S] Collide).

Many of us may also be familiar with the extraordinary circumstances of the animation’s release. A user called Vivi on the now-defunct MSPA Forums made a commemorative comic documenting the occasion, which, to my view, really captures the essence of the release-mythos. In short: On October 25th, 2011, Homestuck updated after a year-long hiatus with a thirteen-minute flash called [S] Cascade. As fans raced to watch it, the influx of pageviews crashed Newgrounds, the site where the flash was hosted. Hussie temporarily uploaded the flash to megaupload.com. Megaupload.com crashed. The Homestuck website crashed; the Homestuck forum crashed; livestream.com crashed as fans who had “gotten in” tried to stream the video; and, finally, the Homestuck fandom crashed Twitter. [1]

Today, it is hard to imagine Homestuck fans crashing Twitter. Back in 2011, Twitter was a lot smaller, and Homestuck was a lot bigger. But it wasn’t just the long year of building anticipation and the mad scramble to watch the flash which cemented [S] Cascade as one of Homestuck’s most iconic pages. The Flash itself is aesthetically ambitious beyond any previous flash in the comic [2]. Not only does it combine detailed illustrations contributed by fan collaborators with an absolutely fire soundtrack; it manipulates the traditional Homestuck “panel” in a completely unique way.

Among the various stunning moments in the flash, I find Bec Noir’s dramatic release of the red miles one of the most memorable. The YouTuber Precision F-Strike captures my same reaction when I watched [S] Cascade for the first time in this video around 1:20, exclaiming: “My screen is getting bigger! My screen is getting bigger!!” What made this “expanding panel” trick so dazzling upon my first watch? The release of the red miles marks the first instance in which [S] Cascade modifies the traditional size of the Homestuck panel. By no means does it mark the first time the comic as a whole has deviated from its own standard panel size; elongated panels, multiple panels, and links-to-panels have all been regular features of the comic up to this point. However, [S] Cascade is the first page to modify the panel size during a Flash sequence, changing in motion. This novelty, combined with the surprise of the effect, sets the reader up to expect a flash of epic proportions—and [S] Cascade delivers.

After expanding for the red miles, the panel never quite shrinks down to its original size. For the rest of the animation, the plot unfolds within an extended panel-space ripe for dramatic exploitation. At 2:53 the panel shrinks back down to show Bec Noir’s journey to post-reckoning earth, then grows again to get back into the action. At 4:22 it shrinks and breaks into multiple panels to illustrate Bec Noir wreaking destruction in the troll’s session. The proliferation of these moving rectangles mimics a film reel, reminding us that we have technically already seen these events, but underscoring their importance as a conglomeration of memories for the trolls.

Transitioning to the human sessions’ Derse at 4:38, the panel blows up again to its traditional size and adopts an exterior “wallpaper.” This “wallpaper”, as I’ll call it, shifts with the content of the Flash for the next few minutes. It shows the exterior of Derse as Rose and Dave fly through, then it takes on the red and yellow colors of the quest beds; the black and white colors of The Tumor; the red and blue colors of the “mass of two universes” device; and finally the fleur-de-lis pattern of the Felt mansion. During the sequence between Sn0wman and Slick, at 6:08 Slick’s bullet actually pushes out the corner of the traditional frame, extending it back into the full extended-panel space. Then again, during the climactic moment at 10:02, panels grow and shrink and replace others, flashing in time with the soundtrack, drawing the plotlines together and anticipating the finger-frame with which Jade creates the Fenestrated Plane. The animation finishes with John and Jade busting through the Fenestrated Plane, which cycles through the comic’s own panels, culminating the meta-referential panel distortion with this final act of “escaping” from and through the Homestuck panels themselves.

As a result of the extended panel-space established at the release of the red miles, we get to experience the majority of [S] Cascade’s action (and gorgeous artwork) on an enlarged canvas. Just as we go to the cinema to see movies on the “big screen,” Homestuck deploys its own big screen at the start of the flash. Then, all the growing and shrinking between segments contributes to the narrative flow of the flash. The “shrunk” portions leave room for the panel to blow up again once the next climax comes. I think the “wallpaper” effect employed mid-flash is especially effective, as it allows Hussie to continue utilizing the extended panel-space while keeping the frame small in advance of the Sn0wman’s death, at which point it expands again. It’s also important to note how Hussie manipulates our other preconceived expectations, aside from panel size, to enhance the animation’s drama. The website itself gets a special [S] Cascade color scheme and header. In the unfamiliar layout of this Cascade-ified website, readers prepare themselves for the best and the worst—then their expectations are thrown off balance again, for good measure, with the expansion of the panel and the big-screen execution of the flash. With all of this in mind, it’s easy to see how [S] Cascade generated such a massive response.

As you may be aware, as of January 2021 Adobe has discontinued its support for Flash Player, with all major web browsers following suit. This means it’s near impossible to run flash content on any normal computer, and it won’t be long before flash only exists in archival projects. Luckily, the new denizens of the Homestuck website have worked to keep all of the story intact despite the changing media landscape, with some interactive flash pages broken down into videos or screencaps and animations converted to embedded YouTube videos [3]. If you are interested in experiencing Homestuck’s flash content as originally released, a fantastic project called the Unofficial Homestuck Collection has worked to archive the entire comic in a custom browser which natively runs Flash (all you need is 4GB of space on your computer and some time for the assets to download). This archive has been invaluable for my art historical investigation into the comic [4].

As it stands, though—unless forced by a concerned friend to download The Unofficial Homestuck Collection browser—new readers to Homestuck can’t experience the Flash games and animations in their original format. The same goes for folks rereading the comic. In the case of [S] Cascade, significant losses must be mourned. The effect set off by the red miles (the surprise and novelty of your “screen getting bigger”) is hampered by the embedded YouTube format. When you open the [S] Cascade page, now, it presents you with a mid-flash thumbnail, a YouTube play button, and YouTube framing elements such as a watermark and title (pictured above). You can’t avoid already seeing the extended panel-space of the flash page with this new format. Even though the panels within the embed begin in their “shrunk” state and grow to fill out the video frame, the expansion can never be a surprise to the same degree it was in the original Flash format. Flash animations were unornamented by watermarks, titles, and scrubber bars. They were so indistinguishable from regular static panels and gifs in terms of size, image quality, and framing that this gag (pictured below) actually worked. The indistinguishable quality of flash animations from regular gif panels created the necessary environment for [S] Cascade to surprise us by suddenly growing and filling the screen. That drama is inevitably lost in the flash’s new format.

On the other hand, the YouTube format presents some obvious benefits for readers. For one thing, you can now scrub back and forth in the animation, pause it, and even see its timestamps. This is beneficial to any reader who wants to revisit key moments and enormously helpful for someone like me analyzing the animation in detail. I would argue that the inability to pause the animation in its original format contributed to its monumental quality—readers couldn’t pause to breathe, and the comic took merciless control over the pacing—but of course the inability to pause something is also terribly inconvenient. Furthermore, the video format solves an issue that plagued Homestuck readers (including myself) throughout the comic’s lifetime: it’s inaccessibility on mobile devices. Adobe Flash famously failed to transition into the world of mobile touch-screens after Steve Jobs decided not to support it on the iPhone, writing a letter denouncing the software for its errors [5]. With Flash no longer functioning, the reformatted pages in Homestuck are all compatible with mobile devices, meaning readers can now enjoy the comic while lying sideways in bed like we always dreamed. Among other considerations, Adobe Flash was a complete pain to work with [6] for many large-scale projects, and its technical limitations cannot be ignored. On the whole, the death of Flash speaks to a greater evolution in our 21st century media sphere—the growing importance of mobile browsing, the shift from web-hosted games to apps and game launchers, and the increasing “convergence” of platforms into all-purpose devices. While much of Homestuck’s impact and charm resulted from its innovative use of Flash, like the example I’ve given in [S] Cascade, the unique bubble of history in which Flash existed should be fondly remembered and effectively preserved as we continue to navigate the comic’s legacy.

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Happy 4/13! If you liked this post, you can follow the blog on tumblr for updates or, if you don’t frequent tumblr, sign up for the mailing list to receive an email whenever I publish a new mini-essay!

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[1] I unfortunately can’t say I was around for the original [S] Cascade release (I started reading the comic about two years too late). However, even during the Gigapause, what I’ve called its “release mythos” was still widely retold. The events themselves are documented here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Cascade_(Homestuck). Thank you to @imploder for having saved Vivi’s comic on tumblr!

[2] Hussie wrote about the making of [S] Cascade on his tumblr, now archived here: https://wheals.github.io/tumblr/tumblr.html#about-eoa5-part-1. This gives some insight into the massive undertaking. Previously, the longest animation in Homestuck was [S] Descend, an animation which Hussie calls “Cascade Lite” in his author commentary in Homestuck Book 3. [S] Descend was the first animation to significantly incorporate multiple plotlines moving along at once. Hussie describes this narrative style as an “action-collage” (also in the Book 3 commentary). [S] Descend was also (to my recollection) the first time Hussie significantly incorporated assets from contributing artists into an animation, which he explained was partially to keep the production moving faster. Ironically, during the production of [S] Cascade, organizing contributors turned out to be much more of a hassle—but ultimately Hussie deems the myriad of captivating art styles “a big plus” in his post.

[3] Although some are completely broken, now :(. RIP silly flute refrain.

[4] I seriously cannot overstate how grateful I am for this project.

[5] This article does a great job of explaining the history of Adobe Flash and its eventual demise.

[6] Hussie goes over some of the issues he had with the software in the post referenced at [2]

#essay post #homestuck analysis #media studies #adobe flash #homestuck cascade

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gossip-girl-of-middleearth · 3 years

Note

Please tell us about the cinema, I beg you

Oh boy...that accursed night. If you think fanfic plots are chaotic, just wait for this story.

Story under the cut:

So, I just got this job at my small town’s local theatre. I genuinely enjoyed it, and was quite content with the way things were going—fun shifts, cool coworkers, and a nice boss. So I thought.

I was only two weeks in when the “incident” occurred.

At the theatre, we had to collect a walkie talkie radio at the start of every shift, and sign it in and out with a piece of paper in the office.

It was a little clunky and annoying when cleaning cinemas with vacuums, but nothing to cry over.

One night, I’m put to work with a new supervisor I hadn’t met before and some new coworkers (they’d all been there a while, but this was my first shift with them).

For a little context, I’m 19, and most of the other employees were like 15-17. So, I was basically being bossed around by pretentious, power-tripping kids. Fun.

King Kong vs Godzilla had just been released, so of course, the theatre was packed that night — 130 people per room.

Now, we usually have 20-30 minute intervals between sessions to clean the cinemas, but with the release of a new movie, it was cut down in half, sometimes less.

I was cleaning the most popular cinema that night, and was first told to take my time, as it needed to be spotless. Also, side note, can people please not throw popcorn everywhere? It’s a pain to clean. Then again, I don’t work there anymore nor ever will, so do what you want, I suppose.

My little coworker told me to take my radio off my belt and put it aside to get a good vacuum going through each aisle, as it apparently made it easier, as the cord would sometimes get wrapped around the radio stem.

Fair enough.

I did so, and left it on the wooden platform of the rows to begin vacuuming. He leaves and I get to work.

However, he comes rushing back a few minutes later and says, “what the hell are you still cleaning for?? We’ve got a hundred people waiting outside???”

I’m over it™️ at this point because I only took this job to see the behind the scenes of how a cinema works. I shrug and go, “okay”

I pack the vacuum up and try to leave hastily, as he’s being very antsy and pushy.

He gets frustrated and grabs the rest of my cleaning crap to leave, and tells me to hurry up behind him.

My hands are full and I can’t grab the radio, so I say, “what about the walkie talkie?”

I swear I hear him say, “leave it, there’s no time!”

I shrug and think it’s weird, but trust him to know better.

However, once I dump my crap and prepare to leave, as a hundred people are pushing in behind me, my intuition tells me to grab the walkie talkie.

I rush back in to where I left it, and find it missing

I have a brief moment of “oh shit”

However, I think to myself, “it’s okay, you only took this job for shits and giggles. If they fire you, you have your other job anyways. What’s the worst that can happen?”

If only I knew.

An hour goes by into my shift, and I’m cleaning another cinema with the same coworker. I’ve kind of shoved the walkie talkie thing to the back of my mind, because I was doing a closing shift that night and could probably get away with not facing my manager about the sign out sheet.

However, at one point the boy goes, “where’s your radio??”

Sheepishly, I say, “uh...I left it in cinema 3, like you told me to?”

He sort of pales and I think this little skinny high schooler is about to pass out.

He starts yelling at me and tells me that I need to get my flashlight and start checking every single row in there.

I go, “fuck no, the movie is still going? You want me to flash a torch in the peoples’ faces during King Kong?? The one cinema hosting the entirety of the sweaty balls side of reddit right now???”

He gets very shitty and says, “I’ll do it myself, wait here.”

By now I know I’m in the shit, but shrug and remember I can always escape through the vents if need be.

Now, there was this really fucking annoying 15 year old boy I was working with that night, who’s the definition of the “well aCtUaLlY” guy irl

He comes sprinting into the theatre I was cleaning, and starts literally interrogating me over this walkie talkie. Like, he thinks he’s the “bad cop” or some shit. Other coworkers closer to my age had already warned me about him before I even met him.

The other boy I was working with apparently couldn’t find it, and just didn’t want to deal with the consequences that night so much, that he called his mum to come pick him up early.

Weakling child.

It was at this point that I quietly arrived at the conclusion of “they think I stole it”

I didn’t understand why, it’s a fucking walkie talkie? What’s the big deal? Go get a Dora the Explorer one to replace it from Target??

I let my inner Mickey Milkovich come out, and play cool.

Him: you fucking stole it

Me:

This 15 year old Ben Shapiro-looking fucker starts grilling me, and literally places me under theatre arrest. I wasn’t allowed to leave the room I was cleaning, in other words.

He gets uncomfortably close—just me and this weird boy in this dark theatre—and goes, “I want you to be brutally honest with me...did you take the walkie talkie? I won’t tell the manager that you did.”

If you guys know me well enough from my blog, then you know this boy suffered a great deal of aggressive sarcasm in response.

He gets pissed (brown-noser), and tells me to continue cleaning, as he leaves the theatre.

Only ten minutes go by until he comes back, but this time with “good cop”.

I roll my eyes, and turn the vacuum off.

They stand at the bottom of the cinema blocking my entrance with their arms folded, and start interrogating me about stealing it.

I give them some more Mickey Milkovich sarcasm, as I had already explained to them a hundred times what happened.

They involve the manager (snitches) and now I’m really in trouble.

They force me to go into the cinema whilst the movie is still playing to look for it. Begrudgingly grabbing my flashlight, and preparing for rightfully angry people as I search their crotches in the middle of a highly anticipated movie, I head inside theatre 3.

Fuck doing that though, I watch the movie instead with the people and eat some popcorn.

Figuring a reasonable amount of time to search had gone by, I sadly leave the cool laser battle scene, and head back out.

Me: “I searched and couldn’t find it.”

Power-complex 15 year old with a punchable Ben Shapiro face: “Did you look everywhere in the cinema??”

Me: “Yeah, I shoved a flashlight up seat 33’s asshole and checked it myself.”

Some more pissy exchanges take place, and I’m told to go clean another cinema.

I’m having fun at this point, because I’ve worked enough jobs to know this situation was being dealt with incredibly immaturely by the other staff.

Regarding accidents like these in the workplace, and given how big the cinema chain is, they should know insurance covers a simple walkie talkie, and that assuming the new employee stole something which is misplaced is a bad way to integrate them into your company. It’s simply a bad look for your business.

I’m cleaning another cinema when all three come in, and tell me they’re going to put cinema 3 on lockdown when the movie ends, and check everyone’s bags.

I’m amused at this point, so I really just go “damn bro that’s wild”

They do exactly that, and it’s as awkward as you can imagine.

People are angry and annoyed—all 130 of them at 9:30pm huddled in a group, having their bags searched for a damn walkie talkie.

After discovering no one had actually stolen it, like I said, they start interrogating me again.

“Are you sure it was cinema 3??? Is your memory perhaps failing you???”

“If I say yes, will I go home sooner?” (my shift ended 15 minutes ago, and I wasn’t allowed to leave)

Naturally, I stayed another 40 minutes, and had to search the entire building. I’m talking arcade, toilets, offices—everywhere.

It is eventually deemed completely lost, and I basically end the night saying, “well, I ain’t about to strip nude for you all for a full body search, and although I’ve never had such a fun shift anywhere else, I’m not a fan of work environments that promote skepticism and cohort-wide distrust. I ain’t coming in next week, or the week after that, or the...well, I think you get the point.”

I leave my badge behind, and basically book it out of the cinema an hour after my shift was supposed to end. I worked illegally longer than I was supposed to, and wasn’t given the legal shift break.

I received text messages and emails from the head office shortly after, asking if I was coming back, and ignored them for a little while, as although I can handle irl confrontation, virtual ones spook me?

Anywho, the walkie talkie actually costs $1000, but as mentioned before, I, an adult, recognise insurance covers these sorts of things, especially in companies as big as these.

So, moral of the story, don’t leave 15 year olds in charge of adults, because most of the time, they’re too young to realise what insurance policies are :)

#I have so many more stories like this #and I’m pretty sure I left a few good details out #but it was like 2 months ago so I don’t remember #was a wild night #and I can’t wait to tell it around a fellowship campfire #or to my kids #I’m not kidding when I say I am literally Alvin the chipmunk given how many times I get myself into trouble and sticky situations #xoxo gossip girl

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