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sluttbuttsstuff · 3 years

Note

For the prompts, 49 with doppio? >:3 Idk what it is about him I just look at him and think “oh you’re NEEDY needy, huh?”. Thank you so much, you’re a really good writer! :)

No problem buddy, thanks for the request! >:3

Warnings: not sfw, dubcon/noncon, abduction, dark themes, yandere, etc.

Also, my requests are still open, if anyone else is interested!

Enjoy!

Yandere prompt with Doppio, “You want me to fuck you…? Would that make you happy? Would it make you love me?” afab reader, dub/non con

All you wanted to do now was go home. You had had a long week at work, your parents were nagging you again, and to make things worse you had a headache that would not go away. After an exhausting day that began before the sun was out, and ended after the sun had set, you certainly deserved to do nothing more than go home, eat some junk food in your comfy pjs, listen to a podcast while you took a bath and pampered yourself, and maybe jerk off before bed. Unfortunately, you had a “girls night” tonight.

Your friends (your IRL friends at least) complained that you never went out with them anymore (nevermind that whenever you suggested doing something with them, or wanted to chat or text on the phone they were busy) and had forced you to go clubbing with them to celebrate the three-day weekend ahead. You weren’t much of a drinker, and really weren’t much of a dancer, so you had been given the purses to hold while you waited for them to be ready to go home.

You wrinkled your nose in frustration, glaring into the blurry screen of your phone looking at the late time: this was unfair. You were a hard worker, kind to a fault to those around you, and you deserved better than this. Sitting in a corner of a crowded club, everyone in the place having a great time except for you, tired and alone. At least in your apartment, you chose to be there, and at least no one actively ignored you: places like this just pointed out the flaws you hated about yourself more: you were bad with people, and easy to ignore.

Once one of your “friends” stumbled over to the group’s table, you left them with everyone's purse, mumbling you were going to the bathroom (you didn’t know if she heard you and you didn’t care) and left before anyone could stop you. You stumbled your way to the restroom in heels way too high for you to walk in, trying to clean yourself up and find a quiet place to text your goodbyes so your friends wouldn’t worry about your sudden disappearance. Leaning over the sink counter, you wiped a makeup smear off the corner of your lips, noticing a second too late someone behind you.

“Hey, there’s another sink-” You began to say to the blurred figure way too close to you, before a sudden eruption of pain hit the side of your head, and you were out in a flash…

The next time you regained consciousness was several hours later, but it was still dark when you opened your eyes, trying to remember what happened and where in the world you were. The stale cigarette smell, the unreasonably cold ac, the bedsheets starched so strongly that the sheets felt like plastic- this was definitely a motel. But where, and how long had you been here? As you began to sit up, you heard a surprised, timid voice.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re awake, I was beginning to worry about you! Hold on, don’t move so suddenly, i’ll help you sit up.

Sure enough, as you started moving, your head lit up with painful throbbing that made last night’s headache seem like nothing in comparison. You grit your teeth and clenched your eyes shut, trying not to groan in pain.

“What the hell happened to me last night?” you grunted through your teeth, rubbing your temple as gentle hands helped slowly sit you up propped against cushions.

“Haha, you had a lot of bad luck last night, running into my boss. He was waiting for...an employee in the restroom and thought you were sent after him. He’s a bit paranoid, and he may have...accidentally clobbered you.” The voice apologized, gentle as he handed you what felt like a glass of water.

You forced yourself to open your eyes; it was still dark, but you could tell it wasn’t because of the time of day but rather a lack of light and closed curtains. You looked at..you looked at the person in front of you. Like whoever had attacked you last night, they had long pink hair, braided and side parted. Their eyes were green and wide, and they looked particularly juvenile with a crop top and freckles. They were on the smaller side, perhaps even shorter than you (hard to tell from while on the bed) and their eyes were crinkled in apprehension, like he was afraid you were going to hurt him.

“Erm, don’t worry though, I talked him out of doing anything too..extreme, after all I'm his right hand man! Besides, you seem like a perfectly nice person, I'd hate to see anything bad happen to you. Sorry, I'm rambling! Umm, do you want something for your headache? You were groaning in your sleep, I'm sure it doesn’t feel so good right now-” He went on and on, pulling out some painkillers to take with your water.

After thanking him, you were about to swallow the pill before pausing, looking at the strange man who’d taken you to a remote hotel after his boss had nearly killed you. Sensing your suspicion, doppio exclaimed, “Oh, don’t worry, they’re safe, name brand painkillers! Um, hold on, lemme just-” And he made a show of popping some of the pills you were holding into his mouth and swallowing, sticking out his tongue and opening his mouth to show you he’d ingested it.

Satisfied, and more importantly in a lot of pain, you took some of the pills yourself, much to the relief of the pink haired man.

“Oh good, thank you for doing that! I was so worried watching you asleep, you’ll feel much better now! By the way, my name’s Doppio, it’s a pleasure to meet you! Oh! And I know your name’s y/n because you had your purse and ID on you! Haha, sorry for going through your purse, I was just hoping to find any info on you that might be, you know, important.” he sat on the bed, scooching closer and closer to you.

You cleared your throat, unsure of what to say, and the watchful eyes of Doppio doing nothing to make you feel better.

“Well, um, thank you, Doppio. I appreciate you, um, saving me? Sorry for any inconvenience, I'll just, um-” You try to get up to leave, only for Doppio to place a hand over your leg.

“Don’t go! What, I mean, what if you hurt yourself? You probably have a concussion, and also you haven’t had breakfast? We could eat together and-” Doppio stammered, grabbing your hand and stroking it with his sweaty, cold fingers.

You had to stop him, before things got out of hand.

“Thank you, Doppio, it really was very sweet of you to take such good care of me, but I-”

“Please! You don’t understand, I mean-” Doppio fumbled with his words, clearly trying to make you stay at all costs.

“Doppio, i can’t stay here forever, i need to go home. My friends are probably worried about me by now.” You tried to press on, you didn’t want to upset the man with a powerful boss, but you felt increasingly claustrophobic with Doppio pawing at you.

“You mean those mean girls who left you with their purses all night? Why would you care about what they-” Doppio covered his mouth with both hands quickly, realizing what he just said.

Your blood ran ice cold; how did he know so much about them? Had he been watching you before the “incident”

Using his moment of weakness, you got up from the bed and tried to reach the door; it was time for you to go home, if not call the cops.

Doppio yelped, Throwing himself in front of the door before you could make your escape.

“Please, don’t be scared y/n! I didn’t mean to upset you, I only meant that I can treat you much better than your friends can. I mean, look at how good I've been for you so far?? I didn’t make you dance with me at the club, even though I really wanted to. I didn’t just have my fun against your will in the bathroom stall like the boss told me to do.I saved you from a concussion, or worse! I got you your own hotel room for the night, and didn’t take advantage of you or touch you while you were asleep! I want our first time to be special, after all! Isn’t that what you want?” Doppio pleaded, eyes wild as he tried to smile, trying to calm you.

You were anything but calm however, this guy was clearly obsessed with you, and had been for longer than just one night. Even if at first he had merely seemed like a pathetic “nice guy” you no longer had any pity or time to give him.

“Doppio, get away from the door and let me leave, now.” you demanded in your best authoritative voice. Doppio whimpered, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go at all, you were supposed to love him!

“You can’t! Boss and I won’t let you!” He cried, covering the door with his body. With no other choice, you slid out of your shoes and charged at him full speed. You managed to give him a good blow on the head, and threw him out of the way of the door. He cried, crumpled on the ground. If not for the fact that he had kidnapped you, you might have felt bad for hurting him like this, but you had to think of yourself at this moment.

As you finally unlock and pull open the door, heading towards freedom, you hear the strangest noise behind you.

“RingRingRingRingRing!” Doppio calls after you, in an unnatural, high pitched tone. You try to ignore it, you literally don’t have time for this, but with strength he had not previously displayed, Doppio grabs one of your arms, twisting it behind your back and up to his ear, holding it like a telephone.

There’s a trickle of blood, and one of his eyes is rolled back in its socket, but he calmly says, “Hello, this is Doppio,” Into your hand, as if he was having a normal conversation on the phone.

You scream out, doubled over by the pain in your arm, Doppio silent as he “listens” to his “Phonecall” oblivious to your suffering. Where did all this power come from? He was acting like an entirely different person, and frankly scaring you. Doppio nodded, pulling your hand closer into his ear and intently listening to nothing but air before “Hanging up and pulling you back into the motel room.

He threw you on the bed ( his arms felt much stronger, and more muscular for some reason) before crawling on top of you and pinning you down. You were too stunned, and frankly too scared, to come up with any means of escape, just weakly struggling to throw him off of you to no avail.

“Doppio, please-” You whispered, eyes blurry with tears.

“I talked to the boss, and he helped me figure out what to do. He wants our relationship to succeed after all!” Doppio exclaimed, additude reverted to how he’d first spoken to you. You were confused, you’d neither seen nor heard anyone in or around the room, who was he talking to and how?

“Boss told me that people like you need some discipline in order to be obedient, or you’ll walk all over me. If I can do that, then I can make you love me, and we’ll be happy together, isn’t that what you want?” Doppio told you, stroking your cheek.

“This is not okay, Doppio!” you yell, thrashing against both arms, “Let me go or i’ll-”

...

Wait a minute, both arms?

Then how was he…?

You look over to one side in shock, only to see a floating metallic and red arm holding you down, one on either side. You screamed, overwhelmed by a stalker and strange supernatural forces you couldn’t understand.

“Oh, you can see King Crimson's arms? Interesting, perhaps because of your near death experience with Boss, you can see stands now? Although, it would be bad if you developed a stand, what to do?...” Doppio pondered to himself, speaking apparent babble.

You cried, trying to wake up from this obvious nightmare with no luck.

“Awww, hey y/n, it’s okay, i’m not gonna hurt you! Not if you be good for me and Boss.” Doppio cooed, kissing your cheeks and forehead. “I talked boss into keeping you with us- you’re always so lonely at home, and never have a good time with others, right? You don’t have to lie anymore, I've been watching you for a while. Nobody else seems to, though, they’re too self-absorbed and stupid to realize how incredible you are!” He continued, oblivious to his words not helping, but hurting you.

“You’re perfect for me and boss, we can take really good care of you. Forget this lousy motel, we have mansions and villas all over Italy that we can take holidays to. We have billions of Lira from work, you’ll never have to lift another finger and we’ll pamper you to death. And best of all? You’ll never have to see your awful friends or family again! Isn’t it awful how they treat you? We can get rid of them, so they can’t hurt you!” He finishes, grinning ear to ear, but his eyes hollow and lifeless, staring unblinkingly into yours.

This guy was sick, there was no other word to it. You might have had issues with your family, and yeah your friends could be assholes sometimes, but you didn’t want them killed! What good would that do you, or anyone for that matter?!

Doppio seemed to read your thoughts, “Look, I know it's a lot to take in at once, but trust me. Boss and I have planned this out for a while now, and we’re always going to do what’s best for us, ok? So don’t worry so much, and please stop struggling? Boss warned me if you got too unruly he’d take over and finish what he started last night.

A wave of nausea slithered through you as you remembered, thinking how close you were to dying. You gave up, lying limp on the bed, praying for this to end.

Doppio smiled again, this one almost seeming genuine, and gave you the softest kiss to your lips. It was childish, almost, and he clearly lacked experience, but he gained more confidence from your lack of struggling. With the mysterious hands holding you (stands? King crimson?) his own hands were free to touch you. He started With your cheeks, your face, your hair, your neck, stroking you with feather-light touches, his fingers tracing each curve, digit and flaw like he was trying to memorize it all.

“Finally… I finally get to touch you like this… I’ve been waiting for so long, y/n. Do you know how long I've wanted to hold you?” He whispered, wrapping his arms around your neck, cradling your cheek to his. You didn’t know, and you didn’t want to, but Doppio told you anyway.

“I’ve been watching, waiting...for so long. Following you home from work, listening into your calls, finding your online accounts. I’ve known since I first saw you that you were the one for me, and now I get to prove it to you. I get to show you all the things I've been meaning to do to you. You’ll never be lonely again, not with me around. We’ll never be lonely~”

He giggled the last part, giddy with excitement, as he slid his fingers down your ribcage, your sides, fiddling with the bottom of your shirt. You wriggled, trying to fight him off again, only to your dismay Doppio giggled even harder at your reactions-perhaps because he knew you could never overpower him.

“Ohhh~ still so shy? Don’t be so uptight, y/n, you need to live a little! I know how much you want this; you complain about it all the time on your personal blog-” You could feel the blush on your cheeks heating up your face, desperate to make him shut up, “ How you want someone to have their way with you, to make you forget everything else in life. You’re desperate for someone to truly cherish and understand you; mentally and physically. You want me to love you? You want me to fuck you…? Would that make you happy? Would it make you love me?” Doppio rambled on and on, ripping your shirt off with strength he hadn’t had before.

You yelped, goosebumps forming on your skin as Doppio cackled, rubbing his face on your stomach, and into your cleavage poking out from your bra.

“Yes, let go for me! Show me every emotion, everything you’ve been holding back from me for so long- i need it, I demand it!” He snarled, splitting your nicest bra in half, and biting down on your neck, hard.

You screamed, legs kicking uselessly as the pain blurred your mind and you were operating purely on instinct. Doppio didn’t seem bothered in the least by it, you could still feel his laughter against your sore neck, as he sucked down on it, trying to bruise and mark you. His hands couldn’t help but find their way to your breasts, toying with them and squeezing them with admittedly little expertise. But he was a quick learner, making note of each little gasp and twitch according to how he touched you, and improving his technique from there. He twisted your nipples a bit roughly, already hard from the chilly air and sensitive to touch- you couldn’t help but moan a little in satisfaction. It had been awhile.

Doppio’s moans echoed yours, as he kissed his way down the crevice of your breasts, and licked each nipple in turn. You squirmed, not in fear or anger but pleasure, angry at yourself for letting this strange man win your body over so easily. Doppio kept his eyes on you at all times, studying your face to see how you felt. He’d had to watch you for so long from so far away, alone in your bedroom, or so you thought… it was time to use the knowledge he’d gained to make your body crazy for him.

You jumped at Doppio’s hands, cupping your groin through your pants, trying not to buck into his hands . It was getting harder and harder to deny him, though, why couldn’t you just-?

Doppio pulled your pants down to your ankles, taking your panties with it. He groaned audibly at the sight- your pussy was so wet and dripping, there was still a trail connected to your underwear.

“No, don’t-” You cried, snapping your legs shut, visibly scared at what was taking place again. Doppio was losing patience, crouching down and prying your legs open,

“Stop fighting me, y/n, you clearly want this!” He cried, eye twitching in annoyance. He managed to open your legs again, and buried his face into your pussy. He moaned, licking up a wet stripe against your labia, warm and puffy and so wet for him- he knew you would be, he knew you loved him.

Tears streaked down the sides of your face, this was so much and so intense. Your thighs clamped down on Doppio’s cheeks and neck, squeezing him as hard as you could. Not hard enough, apparently, as he just started giggling again through a full mouth and busy tongue “Ssho good, y/n, why have you been hiding thissh from mee~?” he moaned, tongue circling your clit. You flung your head back into the pillow, gripping the mysterious hands that held you for any source of strength or comfort.

Watching you whimper so pitifully with his head between your legs, obviously blissed out after being so needy and alone for so long, just did things to doppio. He loved the pained, fucked out expression on your face- you couldn’t even keep your eyes open as he snuck one, two fingers into your aching pussy. You whimpered so cutely, and it was all for him and him alone. Finally~

“Y/n, please, i can only hold back for so long, let me make sure it’s not painful… be good for me, please?” Doppio begged, grinding his hips into the mattress before he could help himself. Begrudgingly, you moved your thighs back just enough for Doppio to push them away, when he got a wonderful idea. King crimson, or what Boss had lent him of his stand to use, sensed his thought, and grabbed both your hands in one arm. Doppio pushed your thighs back and up, effectively bending your knees into your chest and displaying your pussy in such a beautiful way. You cried out, surprised by the sudden movements and embarrassed by how exposed you were, but there was nothing you could do about it. Doppio was just too strong.

The other free hand floated down, spreading your lips apart to give Doppio a nice view before pummeling two of his thick, strong fingers inside of you. You screamed, crying as the fingers curled directly into your sweet spot, massaging with robotic-like precision and speed. The sounds you were making were wet, animalistic, and you were quickly brought close to the brink.

“Perfect, y/n! Just like that, let yourself go! It makes me happy to see a side of yourself you never show anyone else- and you never will to anyone but me! Remember, I'm the one making you feel this good, right y/n? You couldn’t possibly find anything half as wonderful from anyone else but me! Me, got it?!” Doppio exclaimed, his voice cracking and becoming much darker, scarier. For a second, you could swear he looked like a different person entirely, wild, angry and dangerous- but you blinked and Doppio was just as before.

Doppio licked his lips, sweating and anxious, this was good enough to make you love him, right? This was what he had to do to make you happy? Boss’s words from before appeared in his head though, and he remembered how Boss had always been right before. Doppio trusted him, and was determined to win you over. Doppio let go of one of your legs-you seemed adequately distracted and restrained to get away from him- and unzipped his fly. In truth, he would’ve preferred to get all the way naked with you for the first time, so you could see and feel the real him as well, but clearly the two of you were too desperate and impatient for him to get fully naked. This time.

You whimpered at the sound of a zipper, feeling the fingers pull out of you. You heard the crinkle of a wrapped, and the muffled groan as Doppio probably rolled a condom onto himself, but you were too afraid to look. The strong floating hand, still wet with your juices, gripped your cheek and forced you to look at Doppio, staring you down with much more restraint and calm than he had been. Doppio kissed your cheek, then your lip, and pushed his warm cock achingly slowly, gently, into your waiting pussy.

You couldn’t help yourself from moaning, grabbing at the hands that held you, thrusting yourself onto Doppio’s hard and hot cock. He bit his lip, feeling you twitch and squeeze around him; he was trying so hard to be gentle for you, why were you still making things so difficult. He chuckled to himself, and motioned for King Crimson to let you go; finally you were beginning to relax and enjoy yourself, and he wanted to enjoy every bit of it.

Without thinking, you wrapped your arms around Doppio, holding him close to you. Your mind was a mess, your body even messier, you didn’t know what to think or do about your abducter/rapist fucking you so tenderly, and you were tired of fighting. So you let him fuck you, slowly and gently and way way emotionally. Doppio wiped away new tears you hadn’t realized were there, shushing you, “It’s okay, my sweet y/n. Just relax and let me do the work. Don’t fight it any more, just let go.” He whispered, pressing kisses into your lips and cheeks far too sweetly.

So you did, you relaxed and sank into the mattress, pulling Doppio down with you. He let go of your thighs, and held you tightly to him as he fucked-no, made love to you. He gradually picked up the pace, huffing and whispering words of admiration to you about your body, or how much he adored you. You took it all limply, the fight having gone out of you and desperate for comfort. The floating arms, which you had forgotten about, reappeared and stimulated your nipples and clit, bringing you closer and closer to the edge.

Doppio sped up as well, he knew this would have to end, but he wanted to make it last as long as possible. This was your first time together, after all. He wanted to make it special. Your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper and closer into you. You could feel the spongy head of his dick rub your inside so sweetly, you were starting to get addicted to the feeling. Doppio buried his head into your neck, mumbling nonsense as he pushed in deeper and deeper, faster and faster, as his restraint gave way to passion.

“Y/n I- I don’t know how much longer I can last, but-” He kissed you, as the stroking of your clit sped up. You groaned loudly, you were so close, “Just a bit longer, please~” You begged, biting your lip. Doppio took a deep breath, steeling himself as he was determined to make you come first. He pounded into you, urging you closer and closer, four sets of hands circling your body and drawing out noises and gasps from you out of your control.

“Almost there, please, almost~!!!” You cried, throwing your head back with a final sigh as you came hard and fast, your core heating up and washing over you as Doppio helped you ride it out with clit rubs. Your walls fluttering around him, the face that you made as you came from him, for him, it was too much and he quickly filled his condom inside of you, moaning even louder than you had as he thrust without abandon into your wonderful, most precious place. He didn’t want to stop, thrusting almost to the point of overstimulation, before he had to stop, and collapsed on top of you. He cooed and kissed his praises and thanks into your shoulder and skin, before he noticed the soft sound of you snoring. Poor thing, he chuckled to himself, you’d really worked yourself up.

He reluctantly pulled out, after indulging in 5 minutes of cuddling your sleeping body and listening to your heartbeat. Doppio cleaned the two of you off, and tucked you into the covers of the motel- now would be a good time to set up moving you into your new home. After all, The whole reason you were in the motel is because the moving company Boss had hired to move your things into the main base would take several hours to complete their job, and Boss didn’t want anyone seeing you or Doppio at home. Doppio ruffled your hair as you slept, pulling out his cellphone to check in with Boss and give him the full update he’d requested.

Tonight was going to be very busy.

#sluttbuttstuff #fic #mine #jjba #jojos bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #vento aureo #golden wind #doppio #vinegar doppio #yandere #reader #yandere x reader #doppio x reader #not sfw #yandere prompts

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kolbisneat · 3 years

Text

MONTHLY MEDIA: March 2021

Hey March was a weird month what with all the pandemic anniversaries and such but here we are. It’s March. Goodbye March.

……….FILM……….

Attack the Block (2011) After about 20 minutes my partner asked if this was basically a British episode of Goosebumps and....she’s not wrong? I liked it back when it came out but it’s aged really well. Tight script and casual class politics along with the very good space stuff.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) It turns out I’d remembered so little of this movie that it was essentially a fresh viewing. The artistry and ambition still holds up today plus a noir set in L.A. is always good time. But then you add cartoon hijinks and it’s all just that much better.

The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears (2021) So we watched the ep on Britney Spears and...it didn’t really seem to cover all that much. It kept feeling like it was about to start and then after an hour and a half of that it just sorta wraps with a small legal victory. I know this isn’t fiction so I’m not expecting a happy ending, but I don’t know what it wanted to say.

CBS presents Oprah with Meghan and Harry (2021) I mean I don’t think anything said or shared was surprising anyone. Though I appreciate Oprah not letting either of them sidestep a question. Either answer or say you won’t; none of this fancy poetry.

……….TELEVISION……….

Great British Bake Off (Episode 9.01 to 9.04) This is our first season without Mary Berry, Sue, and Mel and it’s a real shift! But despite all the new faces, it still feels very much like the good-natured GBBO I’ve come to love. Great stuff.

City of Ghosts (Episode 1.01 to 1.06) I hope all that I’m seeing about this means that Netflix will greenlight another season and more television like this. The artistry is fantastic, the concept allows for both whimsy and poignancy, and it’s casually funny in a way that I can’t fully describe. Great stuff.

WandaVision (Episode 1.09) So this didn’t quite stick the landing for me. I figured there’d be some blasts and magic and zooming around in the sky, but I also assumed we’d get some resolution (maybe even consequences) for what Wanda did to the town. Sure, she’s not the villain and it wasn’t intentional, but the show appeared to be built around this theme of denial and acceptance yet abandoned that in the end. But I will give it this: it really has sold me on the relationship between Wanda and Vision.

The Night Manager (Episode 1.05 to 1.06) You know I think I’ve been so primed by Bond films and action set pieces that, while I won’t spoil the ending, I was pleasantly surprised by how it wrapped up. It was a nice change of pace.

The Bachelor (Episode 25.09 to 25.12) What a season. It was a mess, sure, but I also think it was the uncomfortable mix of stagnation and progress. The show needs to evolve and I feel like the finale and aftershow really highlighted that the change has to happen. Maybe it’s starting to happen already or in future seasons it’ll change whether production likes it or not.

……….READING……….

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Complete) Really fantastic read and such an effortless blend of science fiction and...necromantic fantasy! Dark and gross and light and funny all at the same time. 100% recommend and am very excited for the next entry despite this feeling whole and complete on its own.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) I want to work my way through the series (or at least the original 14 written by Baum) so we gotta start at the beginning! There’s such a light air about the book that everyone kinda just rolls with everything. Sentient objects and talking animals and lots of murder are just met with a “Great! on to the next adventure!” and I love it.

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) It’s really great that the second book has a lot of the same core components (human child meets a bunch of wacky sidekicks while on a very small adventure) yet casually expands the mythos and world. It even builds on the plot established by the first book (the main conflict revolving around Scarecrow being overthrown as leader of Oz ever since the Wizard disappeared). Great stuff.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) Bringing back Dorothy and it’s really a merging of characters from book 1 and 2. If anything, this series is shaping up to be about making friends and the genial conflict resolution is really heartwarming. Now i’m keen to watch Return to Oz.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum (Complete) This might just be me but I find a mostly human cast (outside of Jim the Cab Horse) to be far less interesting than the diverse adventuring parties of the first three books. Lots of fun stuff in here and playing fast and loose with the world-building works well; highlight the fun parts of a land made of wood and then continue on to the next location! Great stuff.

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 9 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) It feels like everything is starting to come together and wrap up and I’m totally here for a story that knows what it wants to do. And while there doesn’t seem to be as much room cooking with the overarching plot that is driving the story, it never feels like it’s moved away from the heart of the characters and for that I can’t recommend it enough. Excellent world-building, excellent cast, and really great humor.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection Volume 9 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Mateus Santolouco, Dave Wachter, Pablo Tunica, Sophie Campbell, and many more! (Complete) The human/secret agent stuff will always be boring to me (even if they’re hunting the turtles) cause that’s not what I want in a comic. I don’t want Batman hunting burglars, I want bright colourful villains for our bright and colorful heroes. Luckily we get into a pocket dimension for a toad god and his relatives during the second half of the volume. Overall, still my favourite ooze series.

……….AUDIO……….

Musicalsplaining (Podcast) Great host dynamics and hot dang I love a good musical.

……….GAMING……….

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The group has taken a break from the infected giant colony to sort out some Pirate drama! Further session breakdowns are over here on Reddit!

Dungeons & Designers (Podcast) I had the rare chance to play in a D&D campaign instead of run it and it’s even up online! They also air the sessions through their podcast!

And that’s it! As always, let me know anything you think I should check out and thanks for reading.

Happy Wednesday.

#Monthly Media #Kolbisneat #Andrew Kolb

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go-events · 4 years

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GO Rom Com Spotlight: @fremulon

The delightful @fremulon (also curtaincall on AO3) has claimed When Harry Met Sally to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.

For reference, here’s a little background about the source material!

About When Harry Met Sally: In 1977, college graduates Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) share a contentious car ride from Chicago to New York, during which they argue about whether men and women can ever truly be strictly platonic friends. Ten years later, Harry and Sally meet again at a bookstore, and in the company of their respective best friends, Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher), attempt to stay friends without sex becoming an issue between them.

We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @fremulon a little better!

* * *

goromcom: So I know everyone must be getting sick of my little quirk of pointing these out by now, but when I open a chat with you, Tumblr tells me that you post “about #b99 and #parks and rec." Big Mike Schur fan?

fremulon: Oh, yes, I am a big Mike Schur fan--my url, Fremulon, is actually the name of his production company! I think his shows tend to strike a really nice balance between being funny and making you care about the characters/plot, and that's something I'm always trying to do in my own writing, as well.

goromcom: I’m a big fan too! B99 is such a relaxing change from the usual tone of police/crime shows, and of course I was just bawling for a week over the series finale of The Good Place.

But on to your rom com!

You chose to adapt When Harry Met Sally. Has this movie been a favorite of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?

fremulon: It's definitely one of my favorites! I also have a personal connection to the movie, since my parents watched it on their first date. And I thought that the themes and characters would be a good choice to adapt for Good Omens--I've seen a few people around the Internet point out the similarities between the stories.

goromcom: You know, I didn’t see it before, but now that I’ve thought about it, I can see the parallels there! Very interesting.

What's your favorite moment of When Harry Met Sally, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?

fremulon: HA. Okay, well, I'm not sure if it's my favorite moment but it's for sure one of the most memorable--I'll keep it PG and just say "the deli scene." And I had to think through how I was going to work that, since it plays very differently between two men (or, male-shaped beings) than between a man and a woman. So the conversation's going to be a bit different but the, well, the climax, if you will, of the scene is going to stay very similar. After all, Aziraphale does make interesting noises while he eats...

goromcom: "Climax.” I’m dying. Ahem, moving on. Do you plan to stick very closely to the story beats of the original story, or make bigger changes?

fremulon: Well, the good thing, or maybe the tricky thing, is that it's not a very plot-heavy story--there's much more conversation than action. Which luckily happens to fit in pretty well with my writing style! So the main arc of the story, such as it is, will be very similar, but some of the side plots are going to have to change.

goromcom: It sounds like a great fit, then! Lean into the meat of the story but then get to do a little plotting work with the B/C storylines. Lovely.

What's an interesting decision you've made in your planning so far--a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, or some other plan you have to paint Good Omens all over your rom com?

fremulon: I've decided to keep Aziraphale and Crowley an angel and a demon, instead of making them human. So the central question that they have to contend with is going to change from "men and women can't be friends" to "an angel and a demon can't be friends." The original movie is unfortunately pretty gender-essentialist so I'm also excited to bid that a strongly worded farewell.

goromcom: Yeah, I agree, it’s a much more interesting central plot idea without gender stereotyping entering into it. There are plenty of meatier differences that people have to overcome to be friends or romantically entangled than just the genders we identify as, right? I’m looking forward to this take.

But I don’t want you to give too much away, so I’ll move on to the last question. It’s stolen from The Good Place: The Podcast, so you may have heard this one there as a Mike Schur fan. Tell me something "good". It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.

fremulon: I was just at the library yesterday, so I'm going to say LIBRARIES are good! I am so, so glad to be able to access books legally for free (and since I do most of my reading on my Kindle, I don't even have to leave the house to download ebooks). And libraries provide lots of other really important services, too; Internet access and printing, for example, or youth programs. Support your local libraries, friends!

goromcom: Always a worthy cause, libraries--an important resource for the community that is historically underfunded and in the crosshairs of some of our smaller minded politicians.

Stay tuned for the debut of the GO adaptation of When Harry Met Sally, coming soon!

#goromcom #goromcom spotlight #good omens #fremulon #when harry met sally

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unexpectedreylo · 4 years

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Closing Arguments For Reylo

After it seems like we’ve spent a year anticipating this movie--from the film wrap in February to the teaser trailer in April to the Vanity Fair stuff in June to the D23 trailer at the end of August to the Road To TROS stuff to this final trailer and the onslaught of press for the film--we’re finally in the home stretch.

Who will live? Who will die? Will Reylo ride off into the sunset, a HEA at last for a Star Wars couple, will it end in tragedy or worse yet, will it end in a vague incoherent muddle? After all, no fairy tale ends with “they lived ambiguously ever after.”

I think we’re all going to be nervous sitting in the theater come Dec. 18-20 because whether we believe “leaks” or not, we’re just not going to know for sure until we see the film. I’m almost as nervous about their misusing/under-using Adam in this film as I am about the filmmakers blowing Reylo.

Yet of all of the sequel films, I’m the most confident about this one going in. This is the last film in this story and it’s not going to end with the message that the Skywalker family was somehow a mistake or some curse upon the galaxy that needed to be eliminated, while the few positive aspects about the Skywalkers are handed off to Rey because she’s such a nice girl. It’s not going to end like Romeo and Juliet. It’s not going to end without redemption for Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. The final chapter in the series is not only going to redeem him but everyone else who screwed up before him. It’s going to end this conflict and a Jedi Order 2.0 is going to arise. There will be a big party at the end. It will give you cavities and possibly blood sugar spikes.

As far as I’m concerned, Rey and Ben being together--in LOVE--is an integral part of that happy ending. Cinderella gets her prince. Beauty finds true love with the man who had been the Beast. Anastasia marries Christian Grey and has a baby. There’s just no such thing as a heroine who cheerfully ends up without her lover and in spite of what a lot of people think, Star Wars spends far more time utilizing traditional storytelling tropes (though in new ways) than subverting them. Like I wrote in my piece about gothic romances, the woman gets the man, the manor, and the money. Rey walks into TROS already with the metaphorical substitutes for the manor (the Falcon) and the money (the objects associated with the Skywalker family). She’s already in with her potential mother-in-law. All she needs is for Ben to show up to the metaphorical/literal wedding.

And everything is pointing toward that happening. I’m not saying TROS will end with Ben and Rey in a wedding or Rey waddling about preggers. Maybe it will end that way, maybe it won’t. But it will at minimum pair them together a la Han and Leia at the end of ROTJ.

First, let’s take on the only legitimate, in-universe obstacles to Rey and Ben being in a romantic relationship. No, I don’t mean that they could be related. What I do mean is that there are two things that would prohibit romance: one is obvious...no Bendemption. But I’m certain it is going to happen. The other is the old school Jedi prohibition against forming attachments, including romantic relationships. Many fans expect this deeply unpopular rule to be cast aside. But in the name of fairness, it bears pointing out that so far, this deeply unpopular rule hasn’t been cast aside in the movies. Sure there was a bit in the TLJ novel implying Luke wasn’t fond of this deeply unpopular rule but on the other hand, he lived it. Generalissima Leia did lots of other things but never became a Jedi herself. Maybe she was too busy. Or maybe she’d rather bonk Han to her heart’s content than become a space nun. There’s been some recent news that Leia was originally set to finally take up the Jedi mantle in the last ST film, something that obviously changed after Carrie’s passing in 2016. Note that this would have been after Leia had become a widow. Several months ago I’d listened to a podcast containing an interview with former Lucasfilm employee J.W. Rinzler. He revealed that while the expanded universe was allowed to go nuts with Jedi romances and marriages, Lucas kept grumbling that “Jedi aren’t supposed to marry!” He disliked Mara Jade partially for this reason.

Of every argument against Reylo happening that is the one that no one seems to take seriously yet it’s far more likely to be an issue than a sudden revelation of Rey Skywalker-Solo. The question is were Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams willing to say, “Hey George, your rule sucks so we’re gonna throw it out” to Lucas’s eternal annoyance? Or, is the coupling of Rey and Ben supposed to have happened all along, even in Lucas’s drafts? Are Rey and Ben a glaring exception to the rule?

My argument is that they are going to be an exception. Reylo is not just about hot people hooking up, it’s about mystical forces coming together in a union that will bring the peace and stability that has evaded the galaxy since the Clone Wars. In other words, it’s a divine marriage. Ben and Rey are not ordinary Force users. They are extraordinary among the extraordinary. We already know Ben’s tremendous raw power comes from being literally the great-grandson of the Force itself. Rey I’m sure is something very similar, a demigoddess of sorts. Ben and Rey will demonstrate one can love deeply without it corrupting into selfishness, possessiveness, obsession, and everything else that led Anakin into believing killing his comrades to save Padmé was a really good idea.

Okay, let’s look at some hard evidence.

What’s the one word that keeps coming up over and over again with Rey and Kylo/Ben?

Intimacy.

Or some variation thereof:

“At the premiere I heard somebody in the balcony say, “Yesssss!” You can see Adam was training hardcore throughout the whole process. It’s fun but it also has a specific purpose, which is the increasing feeling of uncomfortable intimacy. That was sticking with the theme of trying to give Rey the hardest thing you could possibly give her, which would be unavoidable intimate conversation with this person that she wants to just hate. This was just one more way of upping that ante.”--Rian Johnson, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2017

“It’s all about those Force connection scenes. The keyword being intimacy. And the idea that this was a way to just, why not step that up?(...)And so it was just another way of kind of disrobing Kylo literally and figuratively a little bit more, and pushing that sense of these conversations becoming increasingly more intimate.”--Rian Johnson, People magazine Dec. 23, 2017

“They just had this horrific fight, but Rian wanted this incredible intimacy and this cascading, twinkling waterfall of sparks from the fight before.”--Ben Morris, ILM Visual Effects Supervisor, Collider Dec. 25, 2017

“Even to the point where Adam flew to Ireland just to be off camera for Daisy’s stuff, which was essential because they’re such intimate conversations.”--Rian Johnson, People magazine Jan. 6, 2018

“That came about first and foremost from wanting a sense of intimacy”--Rian Johnson, Force of Sound Documentary Feb. 20, 2018

“And have it, you’re in their heads with just that intimacy.”--Matthew Wood, Supervising Sound Editor, Skywalker Sound Feb. 20, 2018

“Having a big sound there just didn’t have the intimacy that the scene demanded. It can be so hard to get the balance right to where the audience is feeling the same thing as the characters.”--Michael Semanic, Re-recording mixer Skywalker Sound, Postperspective Feb. 21, 2018

“But we fall back on romance because it's the best analogue we have. Rey and Kylo's relationship is more intimate than that. They've literally been in each other's minds. Rey's seen his deepest fears; he's seen the past she's buried. None of us have had that experience.”

“My point is romance may not be the endpoint of that. (Though it may be.) The analogue may be misleading, because it's an analogue. Their connection is deeper and stranger and far more complicated. I think TFA/TLJ covers those complications wonderfully, with Ep IX promising more.”--Jason Fry on Twitter Nov. 26, 2018

“At times it’s more intimate, sometimes less intimate.”--Adam Driver, Entertainment Weekly, December 2019

Relationships that are intimate aren’t necessarily romantic or sexual in nature but in modern parlance, it’s often used as a euphemism for a romantic or sexual relationship, or for sex itself i.e. “Tyler and Kaitlyn weren’t intimate until they got married.” Because of that, it would be hella weird if they described a familial or friendly relationship in this way. If I didn’t want my audience to believe there’s anything that could possibly be sexual happening between my characters--especially between an eligible attractive man and an eligible attractive woman--I would avoid using the term “intimate.”

If that doesn’t sell it for you, consider these statements:

“It’s the closest thing we’ll ever get to a sex scene in Star Wars”--Rian Johnson re the hand touch in TLJ. (Who the hell says that about cousins? Or just friends?)

“it is certainly true there is a romantic drama...”--Rian Johnson, some Japanese interview from 2017. (By the way this was misquoted into stating there was no romance in TLJ at all.)

“I (Rian) disagreed with John (Williams) twice regarding the score. For example, there's a scene where Kylo Ren and Rey touch hands, before they are interrupted by Luke Skywalker. When John wrote the score (for this scene), he was very protective of Rey's character, exactly as is Luke. Kylo ('s presence) was menacing, musically speaking. It's a valid point of view, but I didn't think of the scene like that. I wanted it to stay on Rey's POV: I wanted that we could believe in this romance.”--Rian Johnson, Classica magazine April 25, 2019 (Note: this is an interview from English to French then translated here and here back to English but the word “romance” is the same in both languages.)

The above statements and various others we’ve all seen over the years are helpful to explain what we’ve seen in the past two films: they’re building toward something.

On one level, the filmmakers are building toward another alliance between our space children, like what they had in TLJ. It’s obvious that they will need to team up to defeat Palpatine because who else could? It’s also obvious that they are key to the Force being in balance. There has been interesting speculation on Twitter about how those forces will come together and the symbolism of a marriage by uniting mystical objects.

But being Force buddies in a tag team match against Palpatine isn’t quite high enough stakes. Nor is “might makes right” the message of Star Wars. These two have to be willing to fight for each other, to the death if necessary. They have to have something to live for as well. They have to have the secret sauce that Darth Sidious doesn’t have. And what I’m talking about is love. Not just the compassionate love of agape (that’s what Anakin was talking about in AOTC but he meant it differently of course) or the friendship love of philia but also the powerful, creative love of eros. It’s basically what was happening in the throne room scene in TLJ. They were fighting for each other and the future they saw when they touched hands. Come on, nobody is going to do any of that just to find an apprentice or to convince someone to join an insurrection you barely spent any time with yourself.

A divine marriage between the two most powerful Force users will end the war and herald in a new age. Either they are a new incarnation of the Prime Jedi or they will become the mother and father to this incarnation.

Plus they will kiss and get in a lot of nookie. The end.

Credits: r/starwarsspeculation, @reylo-evidence-collection, r/starwarscantina, @reylo5 (Instagram),

#reylo #reylo fandom #reylo fam #rey x kylo ren #rey x ben #tros #bendemption #hea

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heythrrdelilah · 4 years

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Lights, Camera, Love (Tom Holland x Reader) part 2

A/N: I miss writing so much! My classes have been crazy, my Navy stuff has been crazy and i have a podcast now. (it’s on anywhere you listen to podcasts, spotify, apple, google find the link on the name: Potterworld: A Harry Potter reread podcast) So, you can imagine why i’ve been gone. I plan on finishing out the final ship request. this weekend. I hope you like part 2, hopefully next chapter will be more progressed and have a moodboard. Also, In my asks, i was told people don’t like my Tom stuff and would rather have me stick to Supernatural? I also plan on Harry Potter stuff so lmk what you think!

Word Count: 2,410

Warnings: Fluff, talk of eating disorder, cheesy romantic crap (shrek...? no?) Endgame talk

Pairings: Tom Holland x Reader

“Pasta sounds nice. Sounds like a deal,” You smiled up at him before walking back to your seat once your mug was filled. “Black coffee?” Toms voice gently came to the seat next to you. You nod simply. “Bold. I’ll have to keep that in mind,” His voice trailed off with the sound of the directors and other actors coming in. Everyone said their hello’s and You were introduced to your fellow castmates. “So, I would just like to welcome everyone to the cast who wasn’t in before,” The heavyset man nodded towards you. The director began to do the introductions and table readings were to begin. Your scene was coming up soon, after an hour of anxious waiting. Your heart was beating fast and the fact that you were sitting in a room full of experienced, Big-Screen actors began setting into your mind. Your palms began shaking as you flipped the pages. You were nowhere near this nervous when you went in for your audition, but now there were five times as many eyes on you. Counting on you. Your breathing sped up as you spotted Gwen’s name at the bottom of the page. You were coming soon.

“Damn!” Tom shouted in the seat next to you, he had spilled his coffee all over the floor and the ankle of his jeans. The whole room stopped and began to call Clara who had stepped out for some lunch. “Agh, I got some on your white sneakers. Lets go clean off,” Tom stood up quickly, grabbing ahold of your wrist, not letting you argue. When you got out of the room and the door closed behind you two, you spoke quickly, “It’s okay. It can come out. Plus, It’s just shoes.” He shook his head, dropping your wrist. “Forget the coffee. It was just an excuse to get you a minute to relax. I understand the nerves. Even though i’ve been on film prior to Avengers, I was extremely nervous my first table read. Read as if you were in your bedroom. Everyone will love you. You got the role, now breath, then rock their socks off,” Tom spoke calmly, looking at you intensely. How did he know you were self imploding? Were you shaking your leg too aggressively? Breathing too deeply? You wondered for a quick moment if the other actors had noticed as well, before tom responded, “I know the signs of a panic attack when I see one. So, lets do this together?” You nodded and took three breaths before going back into the room. Everyone was chatting while waiting.

The table read began once more, when it came to your line, you looked at the gentleman, who was an absolute sweetheart so far, next to you. He nodded giving you a thumbs up and you read your lines as if you were practicing in your room. You made a mental note to thank Tom later for the advice.

The table read went smooth, so smooth that everyone ended with chatting about plans afterwards. “So, looks like you owe us a hangout,” Tom smiled at you, placing his script into the muffin basket he had opened. You nodded, picking your basket up from the floor. “Thanks for the advice. I don’t know if I would have survived without it,” You stood up to face him. He smiled down at you, “No need to thank me. We all went through it. Besides,” He paused to smirk at you, “You were really good. Spider-gwen will be my favorite character if you keep that work up.” you rolled your eyes at him. Characters are whats written. Your acting is sub-par, at least to you, so there will be no way he could say you’re his favorite actor. You decided to change the subject, “Well, I find it interesting they even added her as an avenger. I guess after into the Spider-Verse, with Spider-Gwen becoming a trend, they wanted what will sell the most tickets. Follow the trends.” You giggled, looking up at him. “I can tell you one thousand percent, that what you just said… is a fact. Heard the PR team talking to the writers about it last press conference. Just like that Birds Of Prey was only made because of the insane amount of hype Harley Quinn received,” He answered becoming deep into the conversation. He seemed like he thinks about this kind of stuff himself. Before you could say anything in response, your felt a hand land firmly on your shoulder, and saw one on Tom’s. You turned to see Chris smiling down at you both. “I want pasta. Who’s joining?” He chimed, rubbing his stomach. “Didn’t you have 4 whole sub sandwiches at lunch?” Tom asked, looking horrified. “You should know by now, after so many times together, I eat. Let's get moving, " He chuckled, his tone low. Tom shrugged at you, grabbing his basket and reached for yours. You shook your head and quickly took ahold of it, “I got it thanks. So, can I get the address?” Tom looked as though a lightbulb went off in his head. He shook his head, taking his phone out, “Give me your number and I’ll add you to our group chat!” You took ahold of his phone, Chris holding your basket long enough for you to enter your phone number into Tom's phone and hand it back.

You felt your phone buzz, notifying you of the group chat. “I can actually ride in your car if you’d like to show you where our usual pasta place is. That is where we are going correct?” Tom turned to Chris, who was returning your basket. Chris nodded, smiling down at Tom cheekily. Tom flashed a glare at Chris and waited for your response. “Well, I do not drive a fancy car. Plus, wouldn’t you be leaving your car?” He shook his head at you to inform that he had a car here in the US, but he rarely drove it to work. He arrived with Chris. “Well my car is available to whoever needs it,” You awkwardly offer, moving towards the door. The two men followed you out the door.

You all engaged in small talk on the way to your parking spot. Chris held your door open for you, allowing you to step in and roll your window down. Tom placed his basket in the small backseat, and got into the passenger seat. “See you lads there,” Chris waved through your window, allowing you to back out of the parking spot. “You can pick the music,” You stated, placing your car in drive and turning the knob on the radio to the bluetooth setting. He shook his head and clicked the knob, turning the radio off. “We are castmates and we will be spending months, to a year together. I think it’s only appropriate we learn a bit about each other,” He smiled, turning in his seat so that he was facing you, half of his back leaning against the door. You felt a flutter in your stomach. It felt like your life was a dream. You were cast in an avengers movie, driving to a cast dinner, and Tom Holland was in the passenger seat of your Camaro, asking to know you.

“Well, I am 20, I am a nurse, well, I guess prior now that I am aware of the full-time. I have always dreamed of acting, I also had no idea I had a lead role. I was told I was here for Mikayla. That is what i had auditioned for,” You spoke, following the directions Tom had pulled up on his phone. His eyes widened, “wow, that is extremely uncool that they didn’t tell you. Did your agent know?” You shook your head at him, “I do not have an agent.” His mouth opened wide, “You don’t have an agent? I’ll get in contact with someone if you’d like. You’ll need one. Also, you won’t even need your nursing job after this. This is going to sound cocky, but once you star in a big screen film… it’s not hard to get another,” He explained. He was right. You thought about how many times you’ve seen the same celebrities bounce around to different films. It was rare you see new faces on the movie screen unless it was an Indie type of film. The truth was, you would probably have to resign from the hospital for this movie alone. It was good to have a sort of job security in that chance that this will be your only film. You made a mental note to talk to your boss on your way home. “Tell me more about you,” He spoke, breaking the silence, “Other than the fact you’re a raging transformers fan.” Your eyes widened and you gasped. “Was it really that obvious?” You retorted, pulling into the entryway of the restaurant.

He stepped out of the car, waiting for you to do the same and meet him by the front of your car. “Well, bumblebee themed car, bumblebee keychain hanging from your keys, your phone screen is an aesthetic with an old bug in the fashion of a bumblebee. I would say, yes.Pretty obvious,” He confessed, eyeing you with a smirk. “Well, since you’re making fun of me, I may not let bee give you a ride home,” You walked over to the door of the restaurant and held it open for him. “Well, that is a bit backwards isn’t it?” Mark Ruffalo laughed, walking in behind you all. You let out a slight laugh and responded with a simple, “ladies first, am i right?” This caused Tom to raise his hands in defense, making the whole cast laugh.

“The usual table?” The hostess smiled, counting the group, grabbing the menus. Chris winked at the short, copper-haired girl, “Only if it’s available.” Walking to the table in the far back of the restaurant, you could hear gasps coming from nearly every table. This made sense to you, considering they were big time movie stars walking through an everyday restaurant. The table was a giant circular booth that everyone could fit around. The lights were dim and the sound was low. Tom and Chris both let you scoot in between them. After the hostess waitress passed the menus around and got drink orders she left. “Come here often?” you ask everyone, remembering the waitress and Chris’s conversation. He pushed his blonde hair back and winked, “We love pasta.” The lack of women around the table became well known when the waitress came back and asked for everyone's drink order. The men were rattling off beer types and you heard not a single woman's voice. You ordered water and then looked down at your menu. Come to think of it, you were the only woman actor in the room for the table read. You had previously watched the Avengers Endgame movie and noticed they killed off black widow. “Do the women not come out?” You whispered to Tom behind your menu. “Well, there isn’t many left. Brie Larson will show up, however, today’s scenes did not include captain marvel so she doesn’t need to come,” He explained flagging down the waitress at the same time.

This made a lot of sense and you hoped that Tom hasn’t become annoyed with your questions. You were sure to have more because this was your first film.

As the waitress made her way back, all of the men sitting around the table ordered their variety of different dishes. When she made it to you, you decided to go with shrimp and broccoli fettuccine alfredo. “That is a big dish, by the way. They give you a lot of food here, It’s why we like it,” Chris nudged you, chuckling. You rolled your eyes, “I eat for five. So, we will see.” Tom smirked and ordered his food as the last person at the table. He ordered the same. “Lets see who can finish more then?” Tom challenged, “Most women are frightened of carbs or go on extreme diets. Some eat and cry later while exercising daily. Which are you?” You laughed at the assumption. Tom was forgetting one thing, metabolism. “Listen sweety,” You lifted a brow at him. The whole table made loud oo’s and ah’s followed by laughing. Tom smirked at you, chuckling slightly. You continued, now smiling wide, “I have a fast metabolism. Even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t care about how I look enough to be too worried.” This was only partially true. You had struggled before with eating disorders, but as part of recovery you had to have this mindset. So far, you are a few months in and doing great.

“So, are you from Atlanta?” Anthony Mackie asked once the food came around. You shook your head, “I’m from (your home state/town). How about you guys?” Tom shook his head and threw a breadstick gently, at your face, “no time for that!” He picked up his fork. You hadn’t realized it would be a full on race. “Alright start placing bets,” said Cumberbatch, finishing his beer. Chris placed a 20 on the table, “I’ll go with the girl. Seems promising.” The cycle of bets began. Soon enough, the table made sound effects to mark the start. You began shoveling the absolutely delicous food into your mouth. Anything and everything lady-like went out the door. You tried savoring the flavor with every bite, but from your view, Tom was chewing quickly. You picked up your speed.

“The lady wins!” Shouts Anthony, splitting the money between everyone who bet on you. Tom wrapped an arm around your shoulders, “I have underestimated you.” You smiled and looked to the floor. You became seemingly embarrassed of how unlady-like that was. “A woman who can keep up. I like that,” Tom removed his arm from your shoulders, letting his hand fall to the middle of your back. You felt your heart flutter momentarily. Why did this make you nervous? Even though his hand was only there for a fraction of a second, it felt like hours in your mind. You knew so far, Tom was gentle, sweet, funny, and competitive. You were developing a crush on him with every moment and you were determined to not let that happen. This was business. He was just being friendly because you will have to spend so much time together.

Lights, camera, love tag list

@theetherealbloom

@eridanuswave

@coni-martina

#tom holland fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland fluff #tom holland x reader #tom holland #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfic #chris hemsworth #tloveswriting

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houseofvans · 5 years

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ART SCHOOL | INTERVIEW WITH JUSTINE JONES

Baltimore based artist and illustrator Justine Jones creates her vein of psychedelic fantasy horror drawings–filled with tiny black lines and an occasional pop of bright colors–which have been featured on the covers of Kobold Press and Warlock magazine. Using the hashtag #VisibleWomen to amplify the voices and portfolios of women comic artists, Justine has be able to do more illustrative work and character design. We’re excited to find out more about Justine’s artistic journey, her love of role-playing games, comics, art, her influences and much more. . . Take the leap!

Photography courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself? Hi, I’m Justine! I’ve lived in Baltimore Maryland for the past decade and currently live in a small apartment downtown with my partner and my shiba inu Mo, who is a cool and grumpy guy.

How would you describe your work to someone who is just coming across it? I used to call it storybook surrealism, but now I guess it’s more like psychedelic fantasy horror? Monsters and Wizards. Lots of tiny black lines, sometimes with lots of bright intense colors.

How did you start from doodling and drawing to what you do now? I feel like it sort of happened organically. When I was younger, I would do just pencil drawings, and then in my late teens, I got more into using micron pens. I didn’t really discover color until a few years ago, so I’m a huge color noob. I think a lot of it also came from working in comic shops for years and going to conventions. Seeing all of these amazing artists grow, and thinking hey, I could maybe also do that! I first started with t-shirt designs because it just seemed really fun, and I used to have a really hard time selling prints. People don’t need more prints, but they can always use clothes! Now i’m getting more into illustrative work and character design, and I’m loving it!

Who and what were some of your early artistic influences? When I was a baby, my dad hung an Aubrey Beardsley print over my crib. My mom thought it would make me deranged, and maybe it did, but it also made me love ink work and Art Nouveau style haha. I was obsessed with sword and sorcery stuff and loooved cartoons like He-Man and She-ra, and later, Pirates of Darkwater. I also spent a lot of time in elementary school copying sexy comic book ladies from 90s comics, and I know that is pretty far from what I do now, but it’s honestly how I learned to draw. I also copied a lot from children’s storybooks when I was little.

What are some things that inspire the drawings you make? What are some of your favorite creatures and beings you like to explore in your art? Video games are a huge inspiration to me, from SNES JRPGs, to games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Also folklore and mythology from around the world, and fantasy artwork from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Basically anything fantasy. My favorite things to draw are wizards and monsters. I love body horror, anything disgusting and beautiful at the same time. I take a lot of inspiration from Manga, like Berserk, or anything Junji Ito. I’ve done a lot of Illustrations for Clark Ashton Smith stories, which I find endlessly inspiring, visually. Just like, fantasy/ sci fi/ dying earth type stuff.

When did you start collaborating with Kobold Press on creating some awesome fantasy art covers for their publications? I remember getting the email from them when I was on the way to Necronomicon Providence in 2017. I thiiiink they found my stuff through the visible women hashtag on twitter? I was very excited because I owned some of their adventures from back in the day when I played Pathfinder!! Plus, I have always always wanted to draw things for table top RPGs, so it’s been really cool to actually do it! The Warlock mag that I’ve been doing covers for is awesome because it’s going for an old school DND vibe, but it’s all things that are made for 5th edition. You can get it on their patreon, and I hiiiighly recommend it to anyone who plays 5e dnd!!

Take us through your artistic process? What’s a typical day in the studio like? Haha extremely chaotic! I don’t even have a real set workspace, which I really need to change, I just draw where ever. Just chill out, listen to music or a podcast, and draw. If I’m further along in a drawing and don’t need to focus so much, I’ll watch movies or video gameπ– let’s plays while I’m drawing. I also love to listen to/ watch things that are in theme with what I’m drawing, to give me some inspiration. I try to go to coffee shops to change things up sometimes! Basically I just do a bunch of sketches until something materializes, and then I will just slowly refine the sketch. I guess it’s not that exciting, but it’s cool to see the first sketch and the finished product because in my head, the sketch always looked like the finished product, but when you go back to look at it, it’s usually just indecipherable scribbles.

What are your essential art tools and materials? 90% of my art is just done using a .05 mechanical pencil and micron pens. I also draw everything on smooth bristol. If I have time and want to make my lines super crisp before I scan them in, i will use a light box. Then for color, I generally use Kyle T Webster brushes in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet. If I’m on the go, I like to draw things in Procreate on my iPad Pro, but I’m definitely not as good at doing detailed lines digitally.

What do you do when you’re not drawing or working on projects? How do you unplug? Haha, I wish I ever truly unplugged, I think my brain is now melded into the internet! But mostly I love to play video games. JRPGs and anything From Software/ Soulsborne (currently obsessed with Sekiro!) I also love comics and manga. I’ve been reading The Girl From the Other Side, which is a beautiful dark fairytale Manga by Nagabe. I also just got one called Witch Hat Atelier, which has the most amazing art! My partner also owns an insane amount of board games, so we play a lot of those. I’m obsessed with coffee, and work part time at a coffee shop, and my favorite thing in the world to do is eat good food.

What has been the most challenging project you’ve worked on? How did you overcome those obstacles and what did you take away from it? I made a kind of cosmic horror short story in mini comic form last year for SPX, I had very little time, and it was my first time actually writing a story/ dialogue to go with my pictures. It was insanely challenging. I ended up with a finished product that I’m really proud of and that I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on. I think it really drove home the fact that I just need to stick with things and finish them, even if I don’t feel like they’re perfect. I’m never going to have the time that I want, and I’m never going to feel like anything is perfect. I can still make a great thing!

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and pursue art? Don’t spend 4 years doing nothing, but playing World of Warcraft (Or doooo?). Uhhh, believe in yourself. Be nice to other artists. Draw all the time! Immerse yourself in things that inspire you! Also, like I said before, things don’t need to be perfect. Let go of perfect, because sometimes it’s an unattainable ideal. Just do as good as you can, and don’t beat yourself up so much! I’m horrible at advice!!!

What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks? Haha, I moved to Baltimore to go to MICA like, 14 years ago, and then realized I was poor, and would never be able to go to MICA… sooo… I never went to real art school. I wanted to go so bad, and I still wish I’d had that experience, but I want other people who can’t afford it to know that you don’t NEED it. Things are a bit harder, but you can find so much free info online if you have the drive, you can teach yourself so many things. Don’t get discouraged just because art school isn’t gonna happen for you.

What are your favorite style of VANS? I love my lavender/ sea fog Authentic Vans, because they basically go with anything, but I am always eyeing those Sk8-His.

Anything you can share that is coming up? Ahhhh, I have some realllly cool things that I can’t share yet, but just everyone keep an eye out (It will be very exciting, i swear)!! As for things I can share, I’m working on some new t-shirt designs, and another comic, and also plan on drawing some more cool wizards in my spare time. So if you wanna see some cool wizards, uhhh, come to my Instagram–you guys! Let’s hang out and look at wizards. And talk about wizards. And if you don’t like wizards well, don’t come I guess.

FOLLOW JUSTINE: INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | TWITTER | STORE

#Art #Vans #Vans Art #Justine Jones #Vans Girls #Comics #illustration #Art School #Interview #Baltimore

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littlecountrymouse · 5 years

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Space Cowboy podcast episode 19: An interview with Michael Vlamis transcript.

So guys, I got a heap of messages from people saying they’d like this thing transcribed, because not everyone can listen to podcasts. I do this for a living, but also do it occasionally for my dad with Alan Alda’s podcasts because he’s mostly deaf and can’t understand them. So I’ve typed this sucker out for you all on my phone today. It’s not perfect, and I had to go back and edit it for clarity because holy shit, Vlamis says like A LOT. But it’s beautiful, and hopeful, and the biggest take out from it that I cranked the volume on and checked with my work software is that Malex LOVE each other right now, in the present. Screw this ‘loved’ shite, it’s current day, baby. They just gotta learn to talk and be honest and vulnerable with one another for it to work.

Liz: Welcome to Space Cowboys, a Roswell New Mexico podcast here on purefandom.com. I am Liz Prugh, joined by my co-host Meg Bonney.

Meg: Hello, hello.

L: And while each week we normally give you amazing one-of-a-kind theories on the fabulous TV series Roswell New Mexico, the show was on hiatus this week, which was a big bummer because we forgot. But we didn’t forget about you listeners, we’re bringing you a special episode. Meg, give us the details.

M: On this week of Space Cowboys we’ll be talking about hair care and hair products, and - just kidding. So we don’t have a recap, obviously, because there wasn’t a new episode. But we chatted with our favorite midwestern curly haired cowboy, Michael Vlamis!

L: Woowoo!

M: He talks about why he loves his fans so much, and it will melt your heart, and how he maintains those gorgeous curls, and Malex, of course Malex.

L: All things Malex. So make sure you guys keep tuning in, and check out all of our other amazing podcasts on purefandom.com and we’ll catch you next week for a new episode. Enjoy this lovely conversation with the even more lovely Michael Vlamis.

*Space Cowboys intro theme piece.*

L: Hey listeners, welcome back to Space Cowboys. We have a very special episode for you, we have Michael Vlamis, who plays Michael Guerin on Roswell New Mexico, what’s up Michael?

MV: Woo! How you guys doing?

L: Awesome.

MV: I am happy to be talking to you guys, this is fun.

L: It’s a good vibe for all you listeners, we all have really really curly hair, and we’re all from the midwest, so it’s a great space right now.

MV: The curls are very hard to manage, I’m gonna, I’ll be real with you. It took me like twenty-six years of my life to figure out what to do with my hair.

M: We were just talking about how it’s so hard to manage our hair, and it took us so long, and we’re the only ones who know how to deal with it.

MV: Yeah, nobody else knows. Nobody knows the trauma. When I was a kid I wanted straight hair, I wanted one of those bowl cuts, and my mom was like, honey you’re never gonna have that, your hair is not straight, and it was sad but I’ve come to terms with it finally.

L: Yeah, and you rock it now, I love it.

MV: Yeah, thank you. It gets wild in some of those episodes, I see it blowing in the wind and I’m like ‘oh, man, that’s it? There you go.’

M: Giggles

L: It has a life of its own, Meg and I were just saying we’re still living that Herbal Essences life, like we’ve tried the expensive stuff and I dunno, you just, you gotta stick with what works.

M: Mmhm.

MV: Honestly, this might gross some people out, but I hardly ever wash my hair. I hardly ever wash it, the woman who cuts my hair, she says you don’t wash it, your hair gets oily when you’re not a - we’re like turning into a hair campaign now, I love it - when you uh, you wash it too much and it just creates more oil, so if you’re not washing it, then uh … you know. I still use conditioner though. I smell okay, I will say that. I smell okay.

M: Well, there you go, that’s all you need.

MV: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for having my back.

L: We got you. Well, that’s a perfect segue into this next question into your love story on the show. Let’s talk about - Tyler Blackburn’s here - no, I’m just kidding.

MV and M both laugh

MV: Oh, that’s great.

L: So when we recently Carina, of course the amazing showrunner of Roswell New Mexico at your ATX screening in Austin Texas, and she said it was very important to have the Michael and Alex story start in the darkness and come into the light versus the other way around, which is the way we see a lot of LGBTQ relationships on TV. What darkness do you think that both Michael and Alex need to overcome in order for them to be like ‘okay cool, we both deserve to be happy and love each other?’

MV: Oh my gosh, that is such a deep, tough question to answer cause there’s so many things, and when it comes to Michael and Alex a lot of like who Michael Guerin is is a lot of the feelings that I have, and I draw straight from what I’ve had to overcome, and like similar to Michael Guerin, you know, he’s been an outsider his whole life, right? And so has Alex, they both have these secrets, and I think the biggest thing that you have to overcome is accepting who you are, that your secrets don’t always need to be kept so close to the chest and I think it’s the vulnerability, it’s accepting that it’s okay to be vulnerable and you’ll still be liked, you’ll still be accepted. And if people don’t accept you for your vulnerability then you don’t want them in your life, and I think that’s like, that’s the biggest thing, is that you can be honest with yourself and with others. And, I mean obviously the two of us, I mean, we didn’t even tell each other that - we had been separated ten years and we never even told each other that we loved each other when we did, you know? And I think that’s a mistake a lot of people make and I make in my own life, which is like, the things that are hard to say, not saying them, and I think that’s the biggest thing you have to overcome, that it’s okay to be vulnerable.

L: Aww, I love that. Also I’d like to just say that I love both of you, just so that doesn’t become an issue and I didn’t tell you.

MV: Laughs. Okay, thank you.

L: So speaking of Michael and Alex, one of our favorite scenes was that flashback with you playing the guitar in the shed. So I just wanted to know, are we gonna get to maybe see more musical moments, or maybe is that something that you’re gonna try to save for next season, if we knock on wood get next season?

MV: Oh man, you know, I can’t give anything away. I can’t give too much away with that, because - just know that you know, my hand is messed up in the show and that’s why I stopped playing guitar, and a big part of me kinda disappeared that day in the toolshed, like an identity, you know, something that - in that scene that talks about how my entropy changes when I play music and I kind of escape my life and all the chaos going on in my head. So definitely know that it’s something that Michael Guerin is very passionate about, and he would love to get back to, but he’s gotta do something about that hand if that’s ever gonna happen, you know?

L: Mmhmm. So, we’re both super sci fi nerds and you probably, you probably can’t answer this next question, but we recently learned that Guerin is building a spaceship, and it would be so rad -

MV: Yeah!

L: If you guys went to space. Do you see that happening in the show, do you want it to happen in the show?

MV: Um, you know what, I would love to see, to see something like that happen, but I think what’s more interesting than going to space is the choice of going to space, you know? It’s not necessarily being there, but it’s the choice that I’m actually going to leave all these people I love. Because I don’t know, even if I do go to space am I even going to be able to bring everybody, do I wanna bring everybody. It’s kind of like - Michael Guerin, his whole life has been building this spaceship to go back to his family, but like at the same time he’s also running from something. But he’s also running towards something that he believes wholeheartedly in which is like family and his origins and things like that. But I would love to see a moment come where he has to really decide you know, am I going or am I staying, and I think that could be a really powerful scene.

M: I’m team space, I say send everyone to space, let’s just start over on a new planet. I would love to see that.

MV and L laugh.

MV: Yeah, we would probably end up polluting it though, but yeah, you know, it would be nice to get a little fresh start every now and then.

L: Yeah, totally agree. So with so many reboots and reimaginings on TV right now, a lot of fans tend to compare them to the original, or even just there’s kind of backlash surrounding it. What has the fan experience been for you so far in this process?

MV: Oh my God, honestly overwhelming. I honestly didn’t really know what to expect, this is my first TV show, I’ve never had like, I’ve never really had fans before or people that blindly support me because of a character that I portray. I’ve had some success in the past where that’s happened a little bit, but not like this. And all I can say is that I feel so lucky that I get to through acting, what I love doing most in my life, I get to give people an escape and challenge their thoughts and get them to open up, and a lot of these fandoms that are following me, especially like, on instagram is kind of where I spend the most of my time with social media, I think it’s the app that I enjoy the most, it’s so visual you know? And I love making my instagram into, you know, I like that it almost looks like a magazine spread or something of just like, my humor and what not and I enjoy that, I really reveal a lot about myself on Instagram. And I think people appreciate that, so I get like, there’s LGBTQ Vlamis accounts, there’s malex accounts, there’s Michael Vlamis Italia, um, it’s people in Italy, and it’s so wild. And the messages that they send me about how my character and my love story with Alex has opened them up with their life and helped them get out of a dark place is honestly why you do the job. Because sometimes acting can feel like such a selfish career at times, and I think a lot of actors are very selfish you know, like you’re the center of attention, you’re doing this you’re doing that. But when you can actually help the world and it’s bigger than you is when it’s most important. And luckily I’m in a position where that’s happening right now, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s very rewarding.

L: That’s awesome, and I’ve seen a lot of those accounts too, and when we’re just tweeting about the show in general and like, their tag is your name and that’s gotta be pretty wild to see.

MV: Oh it’s so wild, it’s so funny for all my friends too, because now all of a sudden any time they post a story or something, like the fan accounts are reaching out to them, and they’re like, ‘oh, oh, what’s Michael doing right now,’ or they’re reposting pictures of my roommates just because they’re in my life, so now they’re all kind of experiencing a little bit too, which is, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re having a lot of laughs with it and we’re all really grateful about it.

L: That’s awesome. I love that. Okay, so, I don't know if you can answer this but I’m gonna ask it anyway because, I don’t know if you listen to the podcast and you can lie and say you listen to every one religiously, but we talk about a lot of theories, and one of the biggest theories we’ve been talking about recently is the fourth alien. And we think we know who it is, but we wanted to know what was your reaction when you learned about the identity of the fourth alien, and have you really seen anyone guess it correctly?

MV: Oh man. I have seen one person online guess it correctly, I will say that. And it was one of those things where I almost didn’t even want to like interact with the post, because I didn’t want to give anything away whatsoever. But this one specific person did guess it and I don’t think that’s giving it away too much because so many theories are out there that I don’t think anyone’s gonna find this one person that guessed it right, but somebody did. And when I was shooting the show, the fun thing about the show is that I never knew what was gonna happen every episode right? Like they would sit us down and talk to us about major story points and what’s gonna be going on with your character and kind of the necessities of what you need to know in order to give an honest performance. But I didn’t know what was going to happen actually, how we were gonna get to where they said we were going. So every episode when I read it it was a surprise, I was blown away, it was like ‘oh my god, this is happening in this episode? This is crazy, this fun, it’s exciting.’ And when I found out who was gonna be the villain I was a little taken aback because even I didn’t see it, and I think that’s what’s fun about the show, is that of all the theories, everything, I’ve seen one person guess it and that’s how we wanted to do it, right, we didn’t want to give anything away. I think Carina did an amazing job of like, revealing who the fourth alien is and you know, what they stand for and why they’re coming from the place they’re coming from, so I was almost like a viewer on the show, I was just learning kind of as the episodes go what was going down. But once I knew who it was a lot made sense and at the same time I was just taken aback that okay, this was the person who is doing all this, and it was a lot of fun for me to discover as well.

L: Ooh, that’s so fun, we can’t wait.

Mv: Yeah.

L: So music is also a big part of the show and we know what nineties songs that Liz Ortecho plays on the jukebox you know, she’s got her Counting Crows and her Third Eye Blind. What song or songs, or we’ll even make it easier for you, what bands do you think Guerin would pick or that he has on his iPod?

MV: I can tell you what song I am most proud of having in a scene that I’ve done thus far and that was in the flashback episode, that was episode six when you see our first kiss. I remember reading the script and originally in the script, when, because Jeanine and Nathan have a very touching moment in that scene too, right around that scene where I kiss Tyler for the first time, and the song that’s playing in the script is ‘First Day of my Life’ by Bright Eyes, and I’m like a huge Bright Eyes fan, and when I saw the episode cut together they played that kiss over our song as well and honestly that was like one of the coolest moments for me, to see a band that I grew up on, a band that I have just screamed at the top of my lungs in my car or just listening to to find an escape, going through a breakup or something like that, to have that song that means so much to me play over my kiss with someone that I love in the show was a really, really special moment. And I could sit here and say that Michael Guerin is the type of guy who’s just listening to like, old school country or some John Denver or some rock n roll or something like that, but I think at the end of the day Michael Guerin is a big softie. And I think that a song like Bright Eyes not only affects me but affects Michael Guerin, obviously because I bring so much of myself to the character. But definitely, the guy puts on such a tough guy act and he’s like this bad ass sex symbol, but at the end of the day he’s a sad vulnerable boy who just wants love and acceptance.

L: Aww, that’s so sweet!

M: I know, right?

L: I think we actually just talked about that in our last episode about how he wants everyone to thinks he’s such a badass, but he’s just this big old heart on his sleeve guy, and I love that you picked more of a softer, vulnerable song, I like that. Back to the malex relationship, obviously I’m single-minded here, but it’s been so special for the fans and for us to even get to talk about it week to week. But what can you tease about their bond in the rest of the season?

MV: Oh boy. You know, I don’t wanna give anything away, but I can say that everything does come to a head, you know. And I think that even if we do say it or we don’t say it, you really know how we feel about each other, but you know, I don’t know if - I wanna be really careful with my words, because I really don’t want to give anything away. But I will say that in the next few episodes Michael and Alex get to really spend a lot more time together, they kind of bond up as they try to figure out this alien conspiracy, and you see how apparent the love is and I can’t say where we end up at the end of this season, but I will say that everyone will have a very clear idea of how we really feel about one another. Because right now, even though like, I think it was episode nine maybe that Shiri Appleby directed outside the trailer, you know, we tell each other that we love each other for the first time, and now it seems like, okay, we’re getting to know each other almost on a friend level because we never really got to be friends, we were broken up from each other for so long after that traumatic incident and everything happened so quickly, and all of a sudden he was gone off to war and I was doing my own thing, so I can’t say what the resolution is but you definitely get to see each other spend much time together, get to know who we are and set up anything that may be able to happen in the future or by the end of the season amongst the two of us.

L: That’s awesome, we’ll take it.

MV: Yeah!

L: I think it’s *inaudible cross talk for a second.* It’s apparent too, like there’s no doubt that you guys love each other, it’s just all the noise getting in the way a little bit.

MV: Yeah, that’s the problem. I go through this in my everyday life, you can love someone so much but maybe they’re just not right for you and that is a horrible feeling, something so hard to deal with and you never really know. Cause is love enough, or is it personality traits that need to align or family background or taste in different aspects of life, do all those things need to be in line too, or is love enough? And as a hopeless romantic I like to think that love is enough, but I don’t know, as I get older I’m not sure. I think it’s more than love, it’s compatibility, that these two guys up til now have just not been compatible because they haven’t been completely honest with one another. So it’s interesting, it’ll be interesting for you guys to watch too as the characters become more honest with one another where they end up.

L: Well, we’re so excited and we’re so grateful that you took the time to chat with us today, this was so much fun.

MV: Yeah, it was a blast. I appreciate you guys wanting to chat.

L: Don’t forget, listeners, important things to note from the discussion today. If you have curly hair wash it every other day or every few days.

MV: Laughs. Yep. Yep.

L: No matter what happens Malex still loves each other and let’s just accept what happens, whatever does, for the rest of the season. The fandom has just been so positive and so awesome thus far. It’s been great for us so it has to be even better for you. We’re just waiting for that season two renewal.

M: Mmhmm.

MV: Woo! I’m waiting too, I’m hoping they’ll let us know in the next uh - they gotta let us know by May, right? We got upfronts in May, we have to know by May.

L: That’s what we’re hoping too.

MV: That’s what I’m hoping too. And the show I heard goes on Netflix May first, I think Carina tweeted that out. So I think once that happens that’ll get a lot more people knowing about the show and watching us, and that’ll help the decision by the studio as well.

M: Oh yeah.

L: Woowoo!

MV: Yeah!

L: Well, thanks again for tuning in, and cheers to you! Thanks for joining us.

M: Yeah, thank you.

MV: Thanks, Meg, thanks Liz, I appreciate the support and good luck with everything. So I’ll be cheersing to you if I found out we got that season two.

M: Heck yeah.

L: Awesome, hopefully by the time you guys get season two, my second is due on May twenty seventh, that’s my due date, so Meg has been drinking without me -

MV: Oh!

L: And I’m like, ready to play that drinking game.

MV: Yes! Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?

L: No, we’re gonna be surprised again, so.

MV: Wow, that’s fun!

M: I was just gonna say we could name it after Roswell if we get that pickup, so CW, if you’re listening, you can name Liz’s baby, it’s fine.

L: Yeah, Pedowitz, I’ll name the baby after you if you renew Roswell.

M: Have little Marky.

MV: Yes, I love that. Well, congratulations.

L: Thanks so much.

#roswell new mexico #malex #michael vlamis #interview #space cowboy podcast

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gothmedia · 5 years

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Youtube Drama

Okay, everyone’s freaking out over the drama going on youtube, but everyone’s just speaking over each other and completely missing any of the points being made. So, since a little clarity is always appreciated, we’re going to go through each point people are making, their misconceptions, and how they effect the subculture at large. 1. I’m too poor to be goth? A bunch of babybats have come put of the woodwork as of late saying they can’t afford to be goth. By this they tend to mean, they can’t afford to buy name brands such as Killstar or Punk Rave. They can’t afford to put together extravagant outfits and dress that way every single day. They can’t afford limited edition vintage Bauhaus vinyls or regal black velvet thrones to adorn their bedrooms. But do they really need all that? No. You just have to have an appreciation for the subculture and music. That’s it. You don’t need to buy an entire wardrobe worth more than a car. But this sentiment only goes so far. The older goths can’t reach the ears of the new comers as much and so the worry sets in. Heck, I still worry sometimes if I look “goth enough”. But I’ve been in the subculture for over a decade now and I realize that no matter what anyone says online, I’m still going to enjoy Sisters of Mercy and I’m still going to go to events and try to support the local scene. So what if I don’t have expensive clothes? I’m going to enjoy myself anyway. The subculture doesn’t revolve around Killstar’s marketing and that’s one of the reasons “#gothisnotkillstar” came about. (More on that later in the week!) You don’t need Killstar to be goth. You don’t need Punk Rave to be goth. You don’t need Demonia or Tripp or any of these expensive, fancy outfits to be part of a subculture. You are enough. Sure, seeing others post about their wonderfully spooky lives with their wonderfully spooky possessions on Instagram and Youtube is neat, but you have to remember that NO ONE is that way all day every day. Social media is something people curate and have control over. They’re only showing what they want you to see, but they too have to take a break and become a normal person once the camera is off. 2. DIY or Die. On the other side of things (Though this argument is more rare than the latter), you get people who are completely rejecting the consumerist approach to goth and are telling people that they need to only ever DIY all their clothes and goth completely rejects a fashion orientation at all. Which is also garbage. Yes, Goth is a music based subculture but it did have a strong style influence right from the get-go. Did it always look the way it does now? No, the style evolved over time into it’s own, highly identifiable self. Do you have to look like this 24/7? No, that’s ridiculous. Like hell I’m going to get dressed in a studded vest and custom chain belt to walk a block to the corner store to pick up Tums when my stomach hurts. I don’t even wash my hair to do that. For such a strong stance against name brand fashion, this group sure likes dictating what people should wear, saying DIY or die. I admit, DIY is pretty fun once you learn how to do it and you do truly get unique clothing and accessories out of it, but it does take time and skill. For a lot of the more intensive projects you need to learn how to sew, dye, paint... Sometimes attempts don’t work out like the time I tried to turn black boots red with a spray-on rubber that ended up cracking off. Sometimes materials like lace or studs or chains are expensive, sometimes you can’t find anything good to work with in thrift stores, and sometimes you’re just really bad at sewing. Not everyone has what it takes to DIY. That, however, shouldn’t turn people away from it. DIY is something that takes time to learn, but the process of doing it is really fun! It’s fun creating new and interesting looks, figuring out how to mess with something to make it your own and you end up with a one-of-a-kind piece all your own. But it’s not necessary. You don’t have to have a completely custom wardrobe just like you don’t have to have Killstar.

3. What any of this has to do with Youtube. So, what does this have to do with Youtube? Well, think of the most popular goth youtubers. You think of two. They’re pretty and very fancy and do a lot of haul videos with brands like Killstar. Is that a bad thing? Yes and no.They are their own people and these are their channels. They can make videos on whatever they want to and no one really has a say in that. Also, if an expensive clothing company sent me a box of free stuff and said, “You can keep this if you make a video,” I’d probably make a video. Everyone likes free stuff. It’s helpful to see some of these brands on actual people, too. I like the fact that neither of these people are a size small. Almost all marketing for brands such as Punk Rave and Killstar are on extra small models and that just isn’t everyone. I want to see how the dress will look on someone who isn’t model thin because I’m not model thin. If these brands advertised with models in a variety of sizes, shapes, skintones, and disabilities then maybe more people could see themselves in these outfits as well, but as it is they don’t and the only way anyone sees something that looks remotely like themselves will be these try-on hauls. But what happens when that’s the epitome of goth youtube? New-comers to the subculture will think that’s what goth in it’s entirety is. I’ve met a few new goths who are like this and were shocked when I said I didn’t own any Killstar. It creates a mind-frame that to be in the subculture you have to buy this one (frankly overpriced) brand and that’s it. Is this the fault of BlackFriday and Toxic Tears? Sort-of?They’re considered influencers now. They INFLUENCE the younger generation of goths and they influence how people outside the subculture see goth. Sure, they’re popular, but they’re popular because they’re not only watched by goths but also people into fashion and mainstream viewers. They refuse to do anything outside of fashion to avoid fights about music and the “gothier than thou” crowd, but they fail to realize they’re creating these people themselves. There’s a handful of people in youtube comments who go on the pages of lesser known goth youtubers telling them they need to look extreme to be goth and they cite It’sBlackFriday and Toxic Tears as examples of how a goth should look. They also deride the people who delve deeper than the fashion as elitists, a word that’s simply getting out of hand now. If someone wants to talk about the subculture and it’s music you get tons of little gothlings telling them that they’re gatekeeping the subculture and that you don’t have to listen to goth music to be goth. Then they turn around and gatekeep on what name brand clothes others aren’t wearing which is frankly silly. The subculture is more than clothing and you have to dig a little deeper to find other goth youtubers with more than fashion and hauls on their channels. Speaking of hauls, that’s another point of contention. It’s not only that these name brands are all over youtube now, but that they’re being advertised by people in haul videos. In these videos, the youtuber gets sent a large package of free things from the company and is told that they can keep the items if they make a video on it. Good for them, but the viewers are the ones who will be spending money on these items. Yes, the youtubers say their reviews are non-biased, but they were just sent several EXTREMELY expensive pieces of clothing for free. The dress might be nice, but is it $300 nice? Specifically from Killstar, many of their clothing items are similar to those found elsewhere for much cheaper. How does this get fixed on the web, then? A solution that makes everyone happy. For one thing, influencer youtubers could do a bit more than fashion. It’sBlackFriday used to do really funny skit videos with Mr. Owl back in the day and they are missed. Toxic Tears had two videos for “What not to say to goth girls” and I’d look forward to a third one. Funny videos about the subculture are sorely wanted because now-a-days we take ourselves WAY too seriously for people who look like rejects from Dracula. If they want to keep the fashion spin, they can talk about the history of the fashion as well. Where did all the circus and cabaret themed stuff from the mid 2000s go? I miss it. They can showcase designers and small businesses within the subculture, not just big name fast fashion companies. Places that make truly unique clothes, places that fit all sizes and shapes. They can point goths in the directions of other youtubers/podcasts/blogs that they might learn from. Simply teaching babybats about goth isn’t an elitist thing to do. The newcomers should WANT to learn more if they actually like the subculture. And overall, they need to space out the haul videos. Not only is it making the impression that one needs a five thousand dollar wardrobe on hand at all times to be goth, but it also makes for a really boring playlist. Toxic Tears has started doing some little DIY stuff which is pretty cute and hopefully It’sBlackFriday will do something or other. Perhaps vlogs about goth festivals? I know she’ll be attending one on the other side of the country soon so that should be interesting. This can be fixed, it just needs a little work and it needs us as viewers to stop having such a stick up the ass about what goth should look like. 4. It’s okay to shop at Walmart. Or Target. Or any regular store at the mall. In fact, I suggest getting all your basics at super cheap places like these. You shouldn’t be breaking bank on a black t-shirt and jeans. You could also go thrifting. I recently found a blazer that I loved in a thrift store. (They also had a Shrine vest for $20! You never know what you might find.) But never feel bad because you got something from a “mainstream” store. Not only are they good for basics, sometimes you can find pieces to practice DIY on (I did this with a vest from Target.) or sometimes they sell something that just speaks to your aesthetic. (Black lace and fishnet were really in last fall season.) It’s okay if you have normal clothes and aren’t goth all day every day. I have a day job where I wear a yellow polo and kakis and sell churros. Am I less goth? No. Some may claim that not being decked out all the time will make me a weekender, but I’m still running this blog and try to contribute to the subculture. But I have bills to pay. I have a cat to feed. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a bit of freedom of expression just to get by and you can get back in black and fall asleep to Thoushaltnot on the way home on the bus. Just don’t worry about it. You don’t need to DIY everything you own. You don’t need to buy name brand boots. You don’t need to be Instagram ready 24/7. Just enjoy the subculture. And maybe look up some of those other youtubers. Angela Benedict has some great storytime videos on drama not partnering to Killstar.

#gothgoth #goth #gothisnotkillstar #drama

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thecompostpile · 4 years

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I try to write about every movie I watched in 2020:Greener Grass

Greener Grass

1/17/20

Man I don’t know what to make of Greener Grass. It is an absolutely batshit movie that is so beautiful and funny and weird. I found out about this movie through a podcast called Switchblade Sisters where the writers/directors/stars Joycelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe talked about their film in references to Polyester by John Waters. While neither had seen any John Waters movies before making this they quickly fell in love with his style of movie.

Greener Grass creates a village where everything seems perfect. No one wants to share how they are really feeling. A few scenes stick in my mind of encompassing this best. The first comes around the middle as we are getting more and more used to this strange town where everyone rides in golf carts. Four carts all meet at a four way intersection. Each one wants the other to go yet none of them will go. Everyone waits there smiling while they tell the other to go. It is the exact thing I hate when people are driving and let another person go instead of them going on their turn. Your niceness isn’t helping anyone only going against the rules of the road and convincing the people behind you. It is an empty gesture made to make the person doing it feel good for themselves.

That is a theme running through Greener Grass where everything is just to look good and no one ever shows any real emotions. Everyone wears the same colors. Everyone drives the same golf cart. All the houses look the same like toy houses. While the two couples are having dinner two waiters walk into each other and drop all the food on the ground. Instead of getting net meals sent to the table the family just moves to the floor and eats off the floor like it is no big deal. There was no reason to eat of the floor the waiters apologized and would bring new plates but the families wanted to be polite no matter what and so they ate off the floor only causing themselves discomfort.

I really loved this movie it stood out as something special in 2019 after I saw a lot of different movies. This was really different not the same cool A24 but actually different. It seemed like a fever dream. If Jon Waters directed a movie written by David Lynch or something like it. PErsonally I am always impressed with that absurd kind of humor. The type that I could never be able to come up with if I wanted to. While Greener Grass maybe never had much of a plot that it followed the jokes throughout it all landed and were weird and delightful. By far the movie I have laughed out loud the most to.

One of the best bits that I think best explains the world the film takes place in is the television shows the families watch. I’m obsessed with anything that has fake tv shows in it. It is a great way to world build. It just creates a more dense world where anything can happen. Mocking television is so fun because it is so easy so much television is absolutely absurd and took that to an extreme is great.

So while I think plot wise there is room to grow for these two first time directors, the content of the movie was really strong. It certainly had a vision and went out of it’s way to make sure that vision, that world they had built was seen out to the best of their abilities. I am hopeful that these two have more movies to put out in the future but will certainly be revisiting Greener Grass soon.

#greener grass #upright citizens brigade #movie review #I try to write about every movie I watched in 2020 #amwriting

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forreasonswretchedandivine · 4 years

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Tagged by: @kimchi-fried-ice (feel free to say hi whenever! I LOVE your blog, and you seem very nice I’d love to be friends!:))

Nickname: it’s practically my actual name, but it’s tidge. When I was little my basketball coach would always say my name as tish lol. Then my family started calling me that because they thought it was hilarious, and my mom said it in front of my theatre friends and they started doing it too. It’s honestly grown on me, and I let just about everyone call me tidge BC it usually leads to me telling them where it came from. Also I think it’s cute:):)

Height: 5’5?? 5’6? People always say I should know this but I just never do🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️.(side note: if you’re taller than me and also a girl who likes girls HMU😚)

Hogwarts house: I’m like the only one of every person I know who’s consumed 4 Harry Potter things( read first book, watched first 3 movies) but I took a quiz and got slytherin? Sounds about right from what I know lol. I’m nice, but I’ve got major RBF and I’m ALWAYS down for a little drama

Last thing I googled: “where to catch dreepy in Pokémon sword” that elusive motherfucker has a 2% chance of spawning in the wild area and I almost exploded after 2 hours of running in and out of like 3 different tall grass areas. Didn’t find one BUT I found it’s evolved form, which was fine because looking any longer may have killed me

Song stuck in my head: From Eden by Hozier and high five by Sigrid. They are both bangers in their own respect, and the are playing ln my head at the same time right now. It’s kinda nice!

Following:253! Though a few of those are inactive now, I’ve had this account since middle school

Followers: 27 total but 10 are inactive, and I’m pretty sure one is just a spam account that was VERY convincing

Amount of sleep I get: I try for 7-8 and get it most of the time, but some nights I get hit with that good self hate™️™️ and stay up later because why not? Or I’ll be up till 3 in fugue state trying to finish homework/ projects that I procrastinated on lol. I take lots of naps too BC they are soooo great

Lucky number:13! I have no basis behind this, other than because I want it to be, and because people say it’s bad luck. So far it’s been pretty great to me!!

Dream job: 😬😬😬 welll over the past 2 years, especially since I transferred colleges and had a bit of an unexpected major chance( technical theatre> studio art) My career path has been pretty unclear and I’m still not really sure what I wanna do. I’d love to get back into something theatre related because I’m pretty good at it, but lately the art I’ve been doing makes me very happy and gives me a personal sense of accomplishment that theatre never gave me. I’m hoping to find some sort of intersection between the two, so I can be able to make something for either a play or musical, then when I’m done just go chill somewhere for a little while and take a nap. Or like make some cool painting or drawing, make some money from it, then take a few weeks off of doing sutff, repeat. So I guess the short answer is: make art that I enjoy, get paid, not work every day:)

Wearing: what am I wearing?My, my, how sexual!! Just kidding;);). Black boots, high waisted skinny jeans, an button up shirt with a stranger things demegoron pattern, tan cardigan, and a little trans pride pendant I made to remind myself I am valid, and to signal other trans people!

Favorite song: (TAZ balance spoilers) idk if this counts but any version of lucetia’s theme from taz, written by one GRIFFIN TEAR MY HEART OUT ANDREW MCELROY. It’s just so beautiful, and it always makes me feel such strong emotions because every time it plays on the podcast there’s like a major plot development or moment of growth for lucetia, and I JUST. I literally ascend when it plays during the finale when she’s about to stop the hunger, just ugh so good

Instruments: I played the baritone for like a year in middle school. To summarize how that went: I was not very good:/:/

Random fact: I’m always telling myself that this probably isn’t something I should be so casual and open about, but then I tell people anyways. When I was 3-4, my sister was getting on my nerves and we were both on the kitchen counter for some reason. So to get her to stop, I took a knife and cut almost completely through her finger. Needless to say that got me in a bit of trouble with my dad, and to this day most of my family gets on edge when they see me with a knife. Which I find funny because In my teen years and now, I’ve gotten really into buying knifes and swords like some sort of blade gremlin. All of that probably made me sound very unstable, but I promise I’m not, just like sharp things. Im like 30% unhinged at all times AT MOST.

Aesthetics:????? I’m really into symmetry and matching colors of that counts as an aesthetic. My room is probably the best example, because everything in it is organized in a weird messy kinda way. I know where it is but it’s not where you’d think(ex: The sword I have hung next to my window) again I am very much a gremlin girl, and while I keep a lot of weird stuff, Im also very organized and creative so I end up using some broken things to make something new(ex: the bow and arrow I made out of a walking stick, some rubber bands and a 5 mechanical pencils). This description is probably also a good example of my aesthetic, which is to say messy, and slightly incoherent, but prepared and practical. In terms of clothing, it’s a sliding scale between “ For all intents and purposes I was not planning on leaving my room or being perceived physically by others today, but a friend wanted to hang out, and I love my friends so here I am looking like this” And “ I am an ethereal being of pure beauty and elegance, but watered down a bit so I’m still very well dressed, but minus the elegance, and plus a lil slut and probably some black boots”. It should also be stated that my gayness is part of both of these in varying degrees of intensity

I tag: @rosebudyke @negative-ghostriderr @sunshine-nb @severedned @seraphlesbian (y’all don’t have to if you don’t want to tho,but if you want message me! You all also seem very nice☺️)

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emuftw · 5 years

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Dreamboy theory part 2 -Dane, Critch and Luke

So I know I am officially late to the party with putting out part 2 of my dream boy theory after the final episode has been realised, however, as its only been out for a few hours I wanted to get it out before I had a chance to proper listen to the episode. I haven’t listened to the last episode yet so this is what I THINK is going on. As always, there’s some reference to abuse (quite heavy in Luke’s section) so TW if applies. This is also a fan theory and will be probably wrong at the point of posting so ya know, don’t take too seriously!

In my last post we identified some of the key features of what I suspect is going to take place in the finale, with the main idea being that actually there is nothing supernatural going on and rather Dreamboy is actually a highlight of how some of life’s creepiest horrors are that which comes from everyday life. I’m hoping in this part to talk more on where this is highlighted and normal mundane stuff can, with the correct use of tone can make everyday life seem so much bigger than it is.

An example of how this can be proven is Cora Dela Roach and her “death Dreams”. At first, this idea of someone having dreams about people dying can be seen a very jarring and supernatural. However, at the start of the episode we are told that she is older than we think, and as someone who works with a lot of older people, the convocation of death comes up quite regularly. That talk of mortality as ones gets older comes with age, be it in day or night. I know that one of my mum friends who fit the bracket of her age regularly thinks and dreams about her death. In the same episode, we can tell that she has a general fondness for Luke, which means she’s probably is concerned for his safety which could link in with why she is dreaming of the worse.

The idea of “stress dreams” can also be seen with Dane and his dreams. Dane, has reoccurring dreams of the “Giant freaky fish” has seemed pretty abstract however there are ways that these dreams are not as “freaky” as they seem. (Please note: I use the term “stress dream” as that is what I call my dreams, if there is a more formal name then apologies) Firstly, it should be noted that Dane admits in the first episode he has weird dreams, with either his mom in it or being fucked at a meat counter being watched by old ladies, so in actual fact a giant freaky fish dream isn’t too far of a stretch here. Often its very common for someone who see’s something that they encounter in the day to then dream about said thing at night. With Dane working near “the lost ocean” it wouldn’t be unusual for that to carry over to his dreams, with floating in an ocean and giant sea animal being there. We can also add that the dreams start to take a more sinister turn after the death of Esmarelda, where we can assume that Dane fell asleep shortly after. It’s only after then Dane begins to start thinking about fish in a more morbid fashion.

But wait! I hear you ask, “What does this have to do with Luke and Dane sharing dreams? And the fact that Danes dreams are reoccurring?” Whilst I do have a theory of this, I will talk about this in more details in Luke’s section. With regards to the reoccurring dream, I would like to think that Dane is currently having some known as a Stress Dream because of where he is in life

Definition break! Stress Dream is not a formal term or medical definititon, but it’s a term I coined when I talk about my own dreams which are reoccurring! A “Stress Dream” is a dream which comes about at high points of stress and can have a reoccurring theme, however not exclusively linked. For me, when I am under moments of high stress of work, my stress dreams are of me being killed/ put in danger in a variety of ways. There not pleasant, but there are also a sense of weird over tone to them, such as my stress dreams having a very “Home Alone” feel to them but always end with me dying.

The first time I listened to Dreamboy all the way through, I couldn’t help but feel like I resonated with Dane as he was having Stress Dreams like I do, but I couldn’t figure out quite why? It was only after the second listen I realised that it’s to do in what he said in episode 1, and that he’s TIRED. Tried can link into many things in life, with being busy with work, to emotionally tired with life and I can imagine being in New York of all places makes it doubly so. With Dane being tired it would mean that he is pretty sure going to be taking these Tired thoughts with him to sleep, as you can see in episode when he starts off his dream about the presidential waltz and ends back in the water.

Speaking of Tired people, I also Believe Critch is also someone who is not actually the “Bad Guy” of the series but rather someone who is VERY misunderstood and we are being lead to think one way. Critch’s theory is interesting as whilst in the podcast itself there hasn’t been much talk about him as a character, Creator Dane and the Dreamboy team actually mention him quite a lot on social media and bonus episode.

Critch is portrayed as someone who we should not trust, from the way he smiles and talks to having negative interactions with nearly everyone he speaks to. However, I don’t actually thing he’s “up to something” but rather just a guy down on his luck. In the show, we find out he pushed for the Zoo and the Jupiter moons ride as his big way to make a mark on the stonewall fortune, only to have it flop and put the Zoo into more Debt. Being down on his luck, He’s just seems to be trying to find ways to have the Zoo stay open and live up to a long family name. I mentioned in my previous post that with Zoe already being dead, he is just trying to prolong the inevitable loss of his main attraction; however, there are a few notes from outside the show that can lead to him also being a Very tired guy down to his last ties of luck.

On Twitter a few weeks back, someone tweeted the Dreamboy team with their own fan theory that Critch wasn’t all out bad. Whilst a couple of members of Dreamboy did like the post, Patrick (WHO I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS NEXT BIT) actually ended up commenting on the post with the shifty eyes. Unfortunatly, I’m not sure how Patrick fits in with the Dreamboy team however I can tell he works with them closely and often the team comment on twitter when something is a particularly stand out to them. Also In the most recent bonus episode, Ellie and Creator Dane talks about in the original off Broadway production of Dreamboy, Critch actually originally had a solo song, in which in it he reflects how back in the old days things were so much easier and could just sign things away at a flick of his finger. I suspect in episode 8 we will find out more of this side of his past and the pressure he has felt from his family to succeed as well as how it will tie the entire story together.

With these two out of the way, I did want to have a section on the original Stonewall and his PTSD with the stone ring however as I am in a rush to type I will post this after the finale, as I want to talk to our poor tortured Boi himself: Luke.

Luke is probably one of the more complicate and mysterious people in the show, but again, there’s not a lot of evidence to show he has link to anything super natural other than he “shares the same dream” with Dane, Which I think is a lie. I DON’T think Luke and Dane are sharing the same dream, but rather it’s a cry for help from someone who has been abused/grew up in a cold home. Whilst I did bounce some Ideas around with if it was just a loveless home or abusive, I couldn’t really find any key correlation, however, for the sake of this theory we will go with an abusive house hold growing up, which why he A) doesn’t live there now and is camping on the floor in the abandoned house rather than communiting B) seems embarrassed by Dane when he mentions that his nickname as a kid was panda by his nan as he probably lied to her about his home situation and C) the burse on his neck when Dane touched made him react so negatively when touched as he didn’t get it from sex. Its also the reason why he at times seems older as he is, as its shown in common research that children from child abuse often have a sense of maturity to them that is abnormal in their age group. Whilst Luke is 19, he can still count as a legal child as he counts as a vulnerable adult with the age bracket for these guys being 20 in the UK.

We can assume the when he moved at 13 this may have got worse due to his nervousness around the subject when Dane talks about it in episode 4 , however this is up to interpretation. It’s also why the logical of knowing where the pain is coming from, as this was a mentality I adapted back when I looked for reasons to be self-destructive back when I was his age.

This in turn all Links into why Luke is so keen in saving Zoe. In episode 7 for the first time we hear Luke Properly talk about his family, with that he and his mum use to come to the zoo lots as a kid to see zoe, which would explain why he is so emotionally attached to the place. It is one of the few places where Luke actually has nice memories growing up, and not of that of abuse or harm from his family. Trying to protect this one last memory from time is a why he broke down when he found out Zoe is dead.

“But wait!” I hear you say “you still haven’t explained the dream thing!”

The reason I think Luke isn’t having the same dream as Dane is due to his upbringing and him lying. I should say off the bat I don’t think Luke is being evil here and manipulating Dane to stay with him lying. But rather, the odd white lies to make a guy who Luke genially seems to get along with to stick around a bit more.

When Luke first finds out about Dane’s dream, he seems confused, as anyone would if someone at a bar just told you he has a dream of a weird freaky fish. This doesn’t seem that odd or supernatural but by the time Luke tells Dane he too is having a dream, he introduces the idea that the fish is called “Dreamboy”, which was mentioned in the song that was sung by the drag queen just before they go outside to make out. It seems like an odd coincidence that a key part of the song is now what he happened to call the fish?

Also, prior to this, back at the abandoned house, Dane literally came rushing in as soon as he seems Luke being hit. He also seems to not be aware of who Luke is, which both of these together seem to be a big change in Luke’s world of sex and abuse. We can assume that they spoke a little more in the club and to the walk to the zoo in episode two meaning by this point, Luke will have probably made a clear idea of if he wants to see Dane again and the best way how? Tell him you’re seeing the same dream as him. This is why Luke is so calm about the whole situation and why he doesn’t seem phased by the whole thing.

It’s also why he didn’t text him back when Dane says he had another dream? Case how could he when he isn’t having the same dream. It’s also why he’s so off when we see him at the rally case now he’s gotten to know Dane with every other episode, both the good and the bad, and actually realises he properly needs to come clean about the dream thing. Only he’s cant as he’s worried it will then make Dane angry which will make him leave, which is the last thing he wants.

So this is a much shorter version of my final theory (I know crazy right?) with what I think is going on with the main characters in Dreamboy. Like I said, I know the final episode is now out but I just wanted to voice into the void of what I think is going on! There might be a part 3 at someone once I listened to the finale to talk about what I think will happen in season 2 as well as the “magic disk” theory as well, but that will be at a later date when I’m not already 10 minutes late for work!

Stay Groovy!

#dreamboy #dream boy #dreamkittens #dreamboy podcast #Dreamboy pod #podcast #WTNV #night vale presents #Luke #Dane #dane terry #LGBT #fandom #fan theory #gay #tw: abuse

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terrible-tulip · 5 years

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It would appear that everyone’s angsty “Lars outlives everyone” headcanons were right on the money.

Well, technically, it was confirmed as far back as SDCC ‘17 that Lion is roughly two hundred years old (the lion with the heart nose in the Buddy’s Book flashback was confirmed to be him at the panel), so it wasn’t exactly a headcanon so much as an angsty foregone conclusion.

However, in this podcast, we were also told that Steven apparently can choose his time of dying, but is otherwise immortal, so perhaps Lars won’t outlive everyone after all. Since he doesn’t have a choice and has to live until he dies from old age (unless he falls in battle, I’m assuming) and can’t really choose to live beyond that (not that he’d want to), I can imagine Steven sticking close to him after the rest of their peers have passed on until his time comes, then following his fellow gem/human hybrid to the grave soon after. I dunno, I can’t imagine Steven choosing to die while Lars is still alive as I’d imagine by that point they’d be each other’s last link to humanity on a level that they can both connect to and Steven would be too aware of the painfully lonely existence Lars would be trapped in without him (and his own role in placing him in that situation). Lars and Steven will also have the gems until the bitter end.

The cruel part isn’t even that Lars will outlive the other humans (except Steven), but that he will also still be aging at an incredibly slow rate which means that he’s going to be eventually stuck as an magical ailing old man for perhaps centuries after all his mortal loved ones have pass on before the end. So basically, Lars is gonna end up like the Ice King (only not immortal). Oh wow that’s sad. I guess the Off Colors would be his Marcelines.

While an angst-loving part of me likes Kat Morris’ idea of Lars still having to eat occasionally and tasting nothing (even though it doesn’t actually make sense to me and is, like most things associated with Lars’ resurrection, a recipe for depression and despair, and not just because Lars likes to bake either), the idea of Lars slowly aging to death and living longer than he wants is just too cruel. The fact that he will eventually outlive Lion (as lions already have a much shorter lifespan compared to humans and Lion was resurrected two centuries before Lars as an adult Lion) is also really sad. It’s nice that Lion won’t be alone in the end, but the idea of Lars having to watch Lion slowly age and then die, then having to experience all that for himself alone with no one who can relate to what he’s going through because other organic beings age at a normal rate and gems don’t age at all, is just heartbreaking.

It is interesting, however, that this is yet another way that Lars and Steven parallel each other as the podcast confirms that the gems will outlive Steven and Lars will outlive the other humans.

I have a theory that Lars’ purpose in the story ultimately revolves around the subject of suffering (why people suffer and how to deal with misfortune and suffering), because he’s brought up the topic offhandedly on the show before and some of his current mentality arguably further reflects this, along with the implication from the podcast that Lars’ personal growth will largely focus on him learning to master his emotions. Otherwise, the amount of pain, real and speculative, the writers have thrown at him, not just this season but in all seasons, has become a little disconcerting and comes across as needlessly cruel.

(Edit: please note that while characters also tend to suffer for the sake of a theme regarding overcoming adversity to earn their happy ending, in Lars’ case, adversity has arguably already won in that particular way. There’s no real happy ending for him in the long run. Other than peacefully dying happy and aware that he’s wanted, forgiven, loved and not a bad person in the series proper, it seems the only real happy ending Lars can get at this point, the only triumph he can have over everything bad that’s happened, and will continue to happen, to him is finding inner peace and coming to terms with himself and his lot in life. Of course, it’s actually kinda impressive that a kid’s show might actually be exploring the fact that sometimes people are just unlucky in life, regardless if they’re good or bad, and there’s nothing they can really do about it except find peace and happiness inside. On the other hand, it would be nice if someone would just throw Lars a bone that isn’t full of hidden splinters now and then).

On a slightly funnier note, Lars being long-lived rather than truly immortal makes his implied final fate also sound very similar to that of Lord of the Rings’ Arwen. True, he can choose to leave Earth to live out his unnatural long life among the gems. Or he can stay, watch his loved ones grow old and die without him and slowly pass into distant memory, and then wander the Earth alone until he grows old and dies as well in a world completely changed by time. Given the whole “Earth is special” thing the show has always had, I think it’s pretty obvious what Lars’ choice would be.

#anonymous #answering asks #steven universe #lars barriga #apof post #apof meta

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vacationcalendar · 3 years

Text

8/10/21

Wait, I missed 2 days? Ah fuck. You know what, let’s not focus on it. I don’t really feel like going full journal-mode today. Suffice it to say the winddown from doing WEED (and the socializing from that 5k most likely...) was much bigger than I was hoping it would be. And I might just be in the middle of an existential crisis! Moving on!

Hmm, so what to go over today. I think it’s high time we put some effort into something we care about. Writing good. Writing goodly. I was gonna say the novel, which I have to commit to calling something. I keep forgetting I was going to settle on The Franz Lion like almost a month ago. I do want to do that. So let’s. Ok, I wanted to write like a poem or something today as well. Or rather, I wanted to write a poem like 3 days ago and then fell into a K-hole. I know that’s not the proper usage of the term K-hole, but it’s such a great phrase, and who the hell is using ketamine these days? We’re wasting K-hole as a culture. So I’m gonna do my part to fix that. I remember some indie artist was being interviewed (if memory serves, she was being interviewed by Matt Besser for an Improv4humans episode. This is the exact reason I like podcasts by the way. Matt Besser is a fundamentally interesting person and was given, through the medium of podcasting, free reign over what to talk about. And he chose to dig into an indie artist’s catalog that largely covered depression, so he could turn around and do improv comedy about it. The end. That idea was completely solipsistic, if I’m using that word correctly. Ok I checked, I did not. I just meant that this creative endeavor existed entirely for its own sake, which as far as I can tell does not have its own word), and she calls the feeling I’m describing as going on a journey to the center of the earth. I always liked that, but like, we can get that down to one word for sure. K-hole. I admit I can see problems with that; maybe we call it like a natural K-hole or something like that. Put a pin in this.

So a poem and maybe some free writing centered around TFL (handy!). Maybe we can do both at once here.

We all die once. We are born as many times as we need.

Not a poem, but this is the critical thesis of The Franz Lion. My instincts tell me this is more attached to the ship in the novel itself, but that theme should be present throughout the whole story if I can manage it. What other themes do I need to keep with me?

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Ok I left for over an hour, what’d I miss? Oh, wait! Let’s make it an hour and five minutes. lemme do laundry........ Ok. Fuck that is so easy, I should have the cleanest clothes, it’s too easy not too, man. I mean, the bedsheet is its own thing, that doesn’t count. Clothes and pillow cases and towels, forget it. Ok, let’s jam dude.

Theming attached to the Franz Lion. Birth, or rather rebirth by means of leaving an old life behind in search of a new one. I think an interesting topic I can go into will definitely be my personal style of leaving behind old things/relationships to discover new ones; even when the old ones were nice. I think that personality is currently underrepresented in culture. Moving on from a close friend, because you are a rolling stone, and that isn’t a bad thing. To never stop exploring the world is to never stop learning, and that might be the fundamental goal of the human experience. Never stop learning. This is what to me makes Weaver a compelling main character. At his core he is a learner. That’s the center bubble of the web flow chart. He wants to learn about everything. He devours the lore of this world voraciously enough to satisfy the equally curious readers, and hopefully in a way that helps move the less interested readers along with him. This is what can keep him on the ship longer than a standard “hero” type would want to. He isn’t forced into taking any political position on the ship, and while he suspects he will choose to change things soon, he’s more interested in understanding it more than he is impacting it. Like, Luke Skywalker joins the rebellion second one of the Star Wars because that’s the point; the empire is pure evil. They are just big strong bad guys that need to be risen up against, despite the odds. This is a different story. It may be hinted at from time to time that there will be a powerful act of “darkness” (destruction?) that may come into the foray of every day life, but it’s not so clear what the likelihood of that is or even if it’s that bad at all. Weaver will see as many wretched people as he will compelling characters. There will be no uber-worthy side to take up arms with and help. He’ll have to decide for himself how much conflict he’s willing to endure.

And I think Weaver’s curiosity should be the ultimate reason he stays with Kat like he does. Kat is an enigma. Kat holds so many answers that Weaver so desperately wants to uncover, and reveals nothing. Kat’s existence on the ship means so many things: What does a champion do? What exactly are the makings of a champion, could I be one? What is your responsibility when you have the power to make a difference? And then Kat’s inner darkness keeps Weaver around: What is so hard about living life? What does failure really mean? Who is this person I’m looking at right now? Weaver knows that knowledge can conquer fear, and he’s naturally drawn to trying to best understand the world around him, so why can’t he help Kat? What piece of information is he trying to find out to help fix this problem? It seems by all accounts that Kat doesn’t WANT to get better, but then why doesn’t she leave. It’s like the act of trying to help is the main source of the pain she’s feeling, but she doesn’t have the strength to abandon him/the ship. Is he torturing her? But he’s seen her come alive before. Like she’s escaped her mind and is running around like a refugee.

Now I’m thinking Weaver should have a stronger reason to stay attached to Kat. Looking at it now, I think I’d wander down a path that more resembles real life, where Kat runs out of good will and gets left behind, left to her own devices as a last ditch attempt to bring her into the working world. I don’t want to do that in the book, necessarily. I don’t have Kat as the POV character, and I don’t have Kat as the fundamentally curious one constantly asking what the fuck is wrong with her. That book would just be too hard to write. And I wouldn’t want to read it anyway. So Weaver should stick with it as long as he can, hopefully til the end of the story or whatever. So currently, he stays with her because he at first is mezmerized by her. She’s a champion! A legendary warrior, and in this world, fighting is an art. Watching a master etherist(? gotta pick out some more vocab...) is like watching a sunset. It’s the closest you can get to objective beauty. And as someone who just found out he’s an etherist as well, this is his only source of ethereal knowledge. It’s understood relatively quickly in the book that the way champions work makes it more than likely that Weaver will become the Wind Champion at some point in his ethery journey-

NOTE: elements attune to people, not the other way around, so as long as people can muster ethereal attunement to an element, that element will have a champion that sort of represents the element. It’s like the queen on a chess board. Nations will have a King, but the champion is the one with the agency. Since for all the crew knows, Weaver is an ethereal breed of one, he will become the champion of Wind by default, once he possesses the power to channel the element properly. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s not SO MUCH a random process that decides the champion; like Nature selects the champion and then nation’s send out “oracles” or something to find it. Nature more or less identifies the champion by flowing through the worthiest candidate when the time to select a champion occurs. Like our champions in the book weren’t decided by some ironic fate that will weave them together in a compelling way. They are literally the most innately talented at the time of selection. It would be like the universe selecting the most talented violinist one day. We’d have a couple guesses and they’d probably all be wrong, but the universe wouldn’t pick someone surprising; it would pick someone who has found the violin as an artform and plays well. But displaying talent is external and having talent is internal. Maybe it’s a bit like lightning picking the best path from the clouds to the earth. It moves everywhere seemingly randomly but eventually it decides where to strike and it’s through the best conduit in the area. And that’s guaranteed. It starts from a place that we can’t know where it will strike, but it never strikes somewhere surprising. So the crew deduces quickly on that having the one and only Windy-billy on the planet means the angry winds (I kinda want a fun word for Earth in this story, put a pin in that) of this planet will flow through him the moment he could allow it.

It’s why Captain Ettis would move heaven and earth to teach Weaver in the first place. But it’s also the exact reason Weaver is magnetized to Kat. She is the worthiest Light etherist, objectively; but she seemingly has no ambition. Kat frustrates Weaver and the Captain and everyone almost by design, and they can’t wrap their heads around it. So it seems to me like the frustration that *depression* will lay onto the cast should factor into the progression of the plot. Like the amazing promise that is the company of Kat (last name here ;P) is never ever delivered upon and that should bring them to a crossroads. My the crew of the Franz Lion abandons her and looks for a new way to get Weaver attuned to the Wind in some way. I know the first thing they should want to try is to look for old books about Wind Ethery (I don’t know how hard to make this yet. It could be relatively simple, but it doesn’t do the trick for Weaver, because that’s not what Wind books were meant for. Or it could be like highly illegal to possess Wind paraphernalia, and the book would be super helpful, it’s just the act of procuring a book would be the struggle. That honestly does not sound as interesting to me, but I can see how that would help center the narrative a bit. The reader knows what to be looking for. hmmm...), but once Kat comes along, they see a real chance to achieve their original goal, even if they are keeping Kat on board at their own peril. That’s honestly a perfect reason to want to leave Kat behind once she proves unreliable as a resource for Weaver. But when the Franz Lion sails off, this is where I want Weaver to stay with Kat. So why would he do that? Does he feel like he’d rather be with her, he’s rather help her, than help get himself to champion status? Maybe seeing her suffer shows him that being a champion is not some end-all be-all reward like he once thought. I think it would be really helpful for the story is there was some external force that coincided with Weaver’s choice to stay. So if Weaver leaving the ship= choosing Kat’s longterm success over his shortterm success (he can always become the champion later, it’s a destiny). Ok, here’s my first thought. War has been declared between the Light Kingdom and someone else (multiple kingdom’s maybe?). Word has gotten out that the champion of Light has disappeared, and -

NOTE: Couple things for world building. I think the kingdom’s should be pretty straightforward. There is the main city where the capital is. Then there is the Nation’s territory. Everyone operates more like a confederacy. Each city has its own shit under control. But the kingdom collects taxes and shit (look into this maybe O_O) and they can conscript soldiers in times of war. Also in the book, the seven (six, plus Weaver) champions have all been chosen within the same year; an unheard of event. New champions are only chosen when the former champion passes away. So for the first time in history (documented history), the champions are all green and untested. So some of the more ambitious champions have taken this as a major opportunity to further establish their empires, I guess. I think battle and territory expansion is a little easier to come upon in this world than my instincts tell me should be happening. The geo-political culture is far from solved in this world, as would be any world at this technological stage (check out a game of Civ VI or something).

The light champion is AWOL and the Aqua Nation and Erd Nation have champions that are poised to demonstrate their strength. This is a surprise to few; 7 new champions in one year has made the world very volatile. I think there might be room for some more dramatic tension by revealing just how Machiavellian the Aqua Champion is. Like he isn’t just going to war on the Light/Aqua border, he wants to perform a second Abandonment.

NOTE: “The Abandonment” (name subject to change) is what the world says to refer to the infamous moment in history where the world lost the ability to commune with the wind. A lot of people mourn the abandonment, like one would mourn losing their sense of smell. We have moved away from our oldest home. Our place in nature is turning grayer before our very eyes. But unsurprisingly, The (great?) Abandonment (of the Wind?) had many proponents. That’s why it happened in the first place. 7 different nations were left to share the resources and land of the world and champions would always defend their homes well enough to keep every kingdom relatively large and unmoored. The abandonment was only possible in the first place because a terrifying regime powered by an unprecedentedly strong champion and a seemingly psychotic king challenged the entire world for supremacy. The other 6 nations for the first and only time rose up together to push back and defeat the armies of the Wind nation. The king and his champion had many opportunities to surrender and end the war peacefully, but they fought tooth and nail until the very last moment, which led to their complete obliteration. Once the forces of wind were completed eradicated, the 6 nations found themselves looking at an interesting choice. The number of Wind etherists were so few, and the land they occupied was so small, the other nations would be able to enact a complete takeover of their nation. There were talks of genocide, and as unthinkable as it sounded, executing this process would kill less than a 50th of the people that had already died in this war. The crimes of the Wind Nation were heinous enough to deserve a punishment like this one, and in reality a lot of people were scared that a second champion would emerge from the remnant of the nation soon, and they might try to squirm out of the checkmate they’d been placed in. This urgency to act and the outrage from the rest of the world let the power-hungry leaders fall to their worst instincts: splitting the earth 6 ways was a hell of a lot better than 7 ways. So the elemental coalition army executed its prisoners and put all the women and children in prison camps. They marked them all a Wind children and moved them all around the world in camps overseen by each Nation. They lived out the remainder of their lives as second class citizens, unable to practice or even mention ethery, and unable to have children. The final act of eradication lasted one lifetime and needed only a fleeting apathy to execute.

Hmm, now I’m realizing I already have the ivories. People with no ethery, no communion with nature. They either could be the product of the eradicated Windys, or they could merge with the Windys. That makes more sense; to go from no Ivories to lots of Ivories, just because of the cleansing of Windys, doesn’t really work. You can’t strip a people of their natural connection to the elements like that. I think I should leave any Windys left after the war to be branded Windys (although I don’t like the brand idea that much, brands are so automatically associated with Jews, and the Windys already started out like a pseudo Nazi party. I do think their motivations will be a lot more “world domination”-y than the Facism/genocide stuff)

How bout this? The world coalition captured every Windy, then once the next champion emerged they picked an agreed upon location to jail him for life. So they’d always know where the wind champion was. And he wasn’t as strong or as crazy as the last one, so he went away without incident. Then all the remaining Windy citizens were broken up into little groups and carted off to ivory settlements all over the world. They could live their lives normally like the ivory folk under the promise to never perform or teach wind ethery ever, under penalty of death. The land that belonged to the Wind Nation was divided up among the other nations. Since it wasn’t right in the middle of everything, compromises were made. Certain Nations got bigger shares of the land by giving up land that already belonged to their kingdom. Like the Light kingdom got a big piece of the Wind nation in exchange for giving up part of their border to the Fire Kingdom, since the Fire Kingdom was so far away from the Wind Kingdom. This part was very complicated and took a long time, and ensured that no Kingdom was particularly satisfied or allied with anyone anymore. Think world war 1 leading to world war 2 MINUS THE FACISM.

A bunch of survivors obviously saw it to be very important to keep Wind ethery alive and tried to teach it to their children in secret. All the books and libraries etc. in the Wind Kingdom were destroyed. Some people tried to recreate ethery books on their own; they’d hide them in their homes. But Soldiers of each kingdom were obviously tasked with the finding and destroying of these sorts of practices. And you were instantly executed and made an example of in your town. And you can imagine certain kingdoms were less tolerant than others. Taking part in this time in history would place your sympathies with the wind people. Dragged into global conflict by their mad king and his calamitous champion. And now your very essence is being scrubbed from history before your eyes. It’s an exceedingly wretched time to bear witness to. But this was maybe 3 entire generations removed from our current setting.

So yeah, The Abandonment was a huge deal. Many people still mourn this time in the world’s history. But so many more feel an unearned sense of freedom from it. Freedom from the scourge of tyranny. Freedom to live out their wonderful lives as the true ethereal race. If only we could abandon the other 5 natural abominations. People like them rather enjoyed how “honest” and “friendly” the wind felt without a ugly face hiding behind it. Surely if the world were to do without humans unnatural handling of nature, it would be a better place to live. Their element notwithstanding of course. People are fucking idiots. This viewpoint is meant to be instantly hated by the reader, and at the same time being instantly understood, and the reader feels no compulsion to reason with this viewpoint. It’s all too familiar.

At the same time, it leaves a lot of room to explore an actual thought. If humans could bend nature to our whim, should we? Isn’t that what we’re doing right now in the real world? Stealing water and wind and rock to make electricity and heat? Moving everything around for the sake of conveniencing ourselves? Surely the goal of a humanity that could move the world around as it wanted would be to find it’s natural equilibrium. People in the book say the wind is sad now that it was no way to talk to us. But is it actually sad? Or are we just deciding what we want the world to look like? If the wind could really talk, it should incumbent on us to listen. I think that should come into play when you see how industrious the ivories are. They have no communal channel with the elements, and they’re begun to take off down the path of industry. It’s early but we get some hints that they seem to be on the path towards the modern day humans of Earth. And modern humanity is nothing if not a cautionary tale of find your own balance with nature. Someone, maybe Weaver should come to understand that we need to wield our ethereal power as SERVANTS not MASTERS. Like how Jesus said to love thy neighbor, as a servant. you get it. That seems like it’s a big enough hook to hang a bit of the plot onto at some point down the road.

Where was I? Oh my god, the plot. Like 2 thousand words later. Jesus.

So once word breaks out that the Light Kingdom is going to war, and it look sbad for them, Kat let’s slip that her new plan is to kill herself. She would be doing a great service to her country, giving them a new champion in her stead, and she can’t handle being around anymore anyway. The weight of her responsibility to be great has crushed her beyond her capacity. So once she’s been kicked off TFL, Weaver follows her. (again, WHY does he follow her? I don’t *love* the idea that he follows her as a way of being there to stop her from killing herself, but that checks out logistically) Weaver can tell something is wrong and he doesn’t want to lose her. He’s like 17 so it feels extremely natural that he has worked himself up to a point of loving Kat, as a teenager is able to do. So when she turns to this dark point, she has exhausted almost all of the good will around her, and Weaver is thoroughly perplexed by her. She bears an enigmatic quality (I wanted to say that sentence like 3 hours ago... lol). He clearly has found it difficult to like her, but he just can’t help himself. And when he finds out she’s planning to kill herself (this is honestly a perfect story beat. It works for the plot and the theme and it is the biggest part of a story about depression you can add), he stops her.

I think naturally because this is me writing this, I’m not going to let Weaver stick to his guns to fervently about preventing a suicide. There are a lot of questions that are raised by this. How much damage has this act done to the light kingdom? Does Weaver have a duty to bring Kat to “fighting shape”? Is it ok that Kat has failed to protect her kingdom? Suicide was the easy way out, can Weaver do the hard work for Kat? He doesn’t have control here.

Wow, this is a heavy scene. I’m letting it wash over me right now and it’s making me get a little teary. This will be a huge part of this book, I’m just realizing. And mechanically it fits perfectly. What part of the book would this be? I can literally see this as a part of the book people would try and skip over as they read it again. Like, they’d look it up and people online would say go to page 347 to pick back up after this scene had subsided. Now that we’re talking about this I know another part I have to include if I want to do this right, is I have to include the death of the King in the Light Kingdom (I’ll give him a name obviously). It’s one of the biggest emotional arcs I can possibly imagine for Kat, and it needs to happen early enough to let her deal with it throughout her story. The initial spiral. The DABDA, I suppose. Whenever I imagine myself going through grieving, especially 10 years ago, I’d jump to Depression and rot there for the rest of my life. But I know that’s impossible. But I also know that DABDA is natural and healthy, and Kat is not healthy. It will look different for her and it will not be fast.

This is interesting. The more I dream up stuff to include in the book, the more I had interesting philosophical quandries, and the less I think of compelling action sequences. The longer I live, the further the balance shifts it seems. I need to make sure I’m keeping in mind a reason why you’d pick up this book in the first place. Something cool has to happen right?

I do think the first sequence in the book is cool. A terrorist attack where Weaver ends up stowing away on a pirate ship, then being captured and nearly executed; only to be saved by the possibility that he might be someone very special, if he works hard. That’s a fine start. Then there’s the tale of the White Witch. That’s also cool. What else? Kat’s entrance aboard TFL, and Kat sinks those two ships. I don’t see why any of that cool action needs to be cut. And every moment in between can be getting to know the crew and this world. Certainly green seas and the overwhelming force of the “navy” (The Aqua military should have a name like that) is compelling. I’m starting to think also that Weaver is kept at arm’s length of the specific plans of Captain Ettis. One, he doesn’t know anything anyways. Why would going to Landwing matter to him or not? And if we just keep ourselves concerned about the story through Weaver’s eyes, we don’t have to sweat ALL the details right away. JK Rowling didn’t worry about the Deathly Hallows in the sorcerer’s stone. I don’t think she worried about shit. Now I’m thinking again about the suicide scene. I have to be very careful about that thing. That’s what can make my book go from fun YA action adventure, to ADULT action adventure. I think I need to make sure that the leading idea to kill herself has to come from the selfless place of trying to be helpful to her people. She doesn’t know how to be a champion to her people. She doesn’t know how to help; but she can think of one way. To be honest, she’d thought about it for a long time now. If she were to die, the light would find a new champion. One who didn’t run away. One who wasn’t too cowardly to fight for something greater than herself.

It can’t go the other way, where she’s like I can’t endure the pain that comes with living anymore, and actually I’ll be helping out along the way. I’m a coward, a wretched monster that doesn’t belong here. I need to go home, and when I do my family will be able to go on without me and be ok. They don’t realize that keeping me around is only hurting them.

Do you get it? This is going to take some serious effort to get right. I think we need to leave it up to the reader to place the connection of depression and suicide on their own. Like, Kat found a noble reason to try and tap out of life, but here on Earth, people will feel like Kat sometimes even without the plot demanding it. You get it. I think we should save it for when we know a lot more about this book to write this scene though. For the sake of nuance, and I’d like to be a better writer by that point as well, haha.

Ok, I want to call it here. I’m losing track of where I am and tumblr gets super laggy when my WC gets this high. Goals for next time:

1. More vocabulary. Lock down some actual words. We can always replace them later. 2. Try to write the boat scene between Ettis and Weaver. 3. Get some details about crewmen down. It has to happen at some point.

Ok, let’s call it here. Love you, bysies <3

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go-events · 4 years

Photo

GO Rom Com Spotlight: @heavens-bookshop

The enchanting @heavens-bookshop has claimed How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.

For reference, here’s a little background about the source material!

About How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: An advice columnist, Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson), tries pushing the boundaries of what she can write about in her new piece about how to get a man to leave you in 10 days. Her editor, Lana (Bebe Neuwirth), loves it, and Andie goes off to find a man she can use for the experiment. Enter executive Ben Berry (Matthew McConaughey), who is so confident in his romantic prowess that he thinks he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days. When Andie and Ben meet, their plans backfire.

We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @heavens-bookshop a little better!

* * *

goromcom: You know how if you open a Tumblr chat with someone you haven't chatted to before, Tumblr tells you two things they post about? I wanted to tell you that yours reports that you post "about #yes and #oh my god." I think those are actually lovely tags, and they show that you are frequently quite excited and supportive of the things you reblog and post! :)

heavens-bookshop: Hah, that's hilarious! I suppose that's understandable seeing as this is a blog I made just for Good Omens stuff! Anything I post or reblog here is content that I utterly enjoyed engaging with and want others in the fandom to see.

goromcom: That’s really great; I love the positivity.

You chose to adapt How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as your rom com. Has this movie been a favorite of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?

heavens-bookshop: It's not really a favourite, although I do have some fun memories attached to it, I guess! I went to see it at the cinema when it was released, I was in high school and I went with a few of my friends. The film was okay, but I had much more fun afterwards just hanging out with everyone! I picked it out from the list because I felt like the main concept was one that lent itself pretty nicely to a Good Omens AU, where your two main characters have opposing goals (but develop feelings for each other along the way...)

goromcom: Definitely can see the parallel there, and also, I think the movies we see with friends in high school stick with us in a way movies you see later on just never will.

What's your favorite moment of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?

heavens-bookshop: Well, there's a scene towards the end when the two main characters are heading out to a fancy event, and Ben arrives at Andie's place to escort her to it. When she walks out of her building, she's in a really beautiful outfit and it takes Ben's breath away. I am really hoping to have a similar moment in my story, with Aziraphale playing Andie's part, and Crowley playing Ben's part. I've worked it over a few times in my head, but we'll see what happens when I get down to writing it!

goromcom: Sounds quite exciting!

Other than recreating that moment, do you plan to stick very closely to the story beats of the original movie, or make bigger changes?

heavens-bookshop: I plan on making a lot of changes. The overall premise is a fun place to start from, but when I re-watched the movie a few weeks ago, I got some pretty severe whiplash from how badly it's aged (I think this is something to be said for a lot of media in the genre). Much of the story revolves around the whole "Men vs Women" thing, and involves some awful misogynistic and homophobic tropes that I am very much throwing in the bin. So we're ditching the "haha aren't women clingy" narrative in favour of playing up Aziraphale being the standoffish fussy bastard we all know and love.

goromcom: It’s definitely been a recurring theme among the participants that their source material really hasn’t aged well! It’s a testament to the GO fandom, I think, and the lovely people taking part in goromcom, that everyone is seeking to smooth out the rough edges of the source material.

What's an interesting decision you've made in your planning so far--a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, or some other plan you have to paint Good Omens all over your rom com?

heavens-bookshop: Well, for starters, I updated some of the concepts - instead of working for a magazine, Aziraphale works at a Buzzfeed-esque website called Paradise where he writes an advice column. Crowley still works for an ad agency, but instead of trying to win a deal with a diamond company (which was very tied to a lot of outdated views on the roles of men and women in relationships), it's a dating app. I've also changed the location to London, mostly because I'm way more familiar with it as a place. I also wanted to include a few more of the women in Good Omens, so Aziraphale's two work BFFs are Anathema (who writes horoscopes) and Madame Tracy (who writes for the spirituality section).

goromcom: Okay, be right back while I go write in for advice from Aziraphale.

But after that, our last question, one I am blatantly stealing from The Good Place: The Podcast. Tell me something "good". It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.

heavens-bookshop: I would like to mention two UK-based charities that have had a special place in my heart for many years - Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie. When I was a teen, my mum was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and we pretty much provided all her end-of-life care at home. Macmillan and Marie Curie gave us a lot of the resources we needed to do that. Macmillan was a wonderful support system for my mum, and not only looked after her medical needs but also sent someone she could talk to about the emotional ordeal of facing a terminal illness. Marie Curie sent a registered nurse to stay with my mum through the night in her final weeks so that we could try to get some sleep while secure in the knowledge that she was being looked after and had someone by her side. They both provided us with some peace of mind during an incredibly rough time, and I will be forever grateful for all the work they do in supporting the families of people with terminal illness. If you're in the UK, I'd really recommend donating to either of these charities if you ever have the chance.

And so that I'm not just ending on a sad note, I will also tell you about my wonderful cat, Luna. I adopted her shortly after I moved to Texas in 2016 - I had moved all the way from the UK, on my own, and Luna kept me company on those days when I felt alone and completely out of my depth. She's followed me everywhere I've been since, even coming with me when I moved to Canada a couple of years ago (yes I moved a Texan cat to Canada in the middle of February). She is weird, very loud and talkative, has an ongoing vendetta against my running shoes, and I love her to bits.

goromcom: I had a hospice support team for my father’s end of life process, and I will love all of those people until the day I die. I am so glad your family had that sort of support as well. I’m so sorry about your mum.

It’s so wonderful of you to come back around, too, and mention how uplifting having your pet has been for you. I am so happy you have Luna by your side. I also have a talkative cat (with a space-themed name, as well, Nova) and so many days that would be bad are better with a little furry friend with you.

Keep watching for @heavens-bookshop‘s thoughtful GO retelling of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Coming soon!

#goromcom #good omens #goromcom spotlight #heavens-bookshop #how to lose a guy in 10 days

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notesfromthefielddesk · 3 years

Text

Episode 6 - Tsing part 1

Episode link; https://open.spotify.com/episode/3x0cMRYDmN5M8lDCZIZxEK?si=07ec23a2d8ac485e

The sound of a temple bell is heard in the cedar forest at dusk,

The autumn aroma drifts on the roads below.

The moving cloud fades away, and I smell the aroma of the mushroom.

Oh Matsutake:

The excitement before finding them.

This episode isn’t about Japan. It’s not about Mushrooms. It’s about living in our own mess, it’s about international relations, it’s about capitalist trading. But the same way we can trace politics through cows, or social relations through cockfights, the art of anthropology is in noticing the small things which might teach us more. In the face of global capitalism a mushroom might seem humble but that is what Anna Tsing would call a problem with scale, because as the most valuable mushroom in the world it couldn’t be further from ‘humble.’

This is notes from the field desk

(Theme)

(Sounding sleepy)

It’s about, ummm quarter to five. I’m in Tsukiji whole-sale market in Tokyo. I’m maybe jet-lagged but that would make it like 9pm to me and actually I feel significantly worse than that. I’m here this early because the auction runs from around 5am to six fifteen. Whilst the market is famous for its tuna auctions, if you’ve seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi then you’ve seen the market and it’s ginormous frozen tuna, but they also sell mushrooms here. This market is in fact so famous they had to ban tourists on several occasions. Thankfully it’s not currently one of those times,i’m sat in the tourist section, i’m in the back because of the desk and well because the guards said I was a disruptive influence.

I’m paraphrasing he actually said “move it, Deku” before shoving my desk to the back. My translation app couldn’t really figure out Deku so if anyone could help me out with the meaning? It doesn’t really matter, seen as almost everyone is here for the Tuna, I have a pretty clear view of the auctioneers arranging matsutake on a trestle table. The staff are wearing, what kind of look like, bowling shirts (kind of questioning) and baseball caps which have a little board on the front which have some kanji which I can’t read. Really someone else should have come on this trip.

This is maybe petty but to be honest now I’m doing this because I have to, i’m not enjoying it as much. Is there something wrong with me? Anyway that’s a discussion for another time.

They are organising the mushrooms by, size, value and origin. These mushrooms have probably been sorted at least twice before by value but origin has a significant impact on their eventual sale price. As one Japanese importer explained to Anna Tsing “Matsutake are like people, American mushrooms are white, because the people are white. Chinese mushrooms are black, because the people are black. Japanese people and mushrooms are nicely in between.” Okay, I recognise that we’ve gotten slightly ahead of ourselves here. How does a mushroom come to cost between 1000 and 2000 dollars per pound?

Matsutake first appears in a poem from 8th century Japan which praises it’s smell which would go on to become synonymous with Autumn in Japan. The mushroom had started popping up around Kyoto and Nara, areas which had been deforested for timber and fuel. In fact, deforestation is the reason why matsutake became common in Japan. This is because these mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship with red pine trees. Red pines tend to grow most successfully in mineral rich soil left by deforestation and could grow more easily without the shade from broadleaf trees which had been cut down.

This is the start of Anna Tsing’s interest in these mushrooms, not because she’s just really into foraging, although she is, but because of what they symbolise, think Geertz. In the wake of capitalist ruin, here read deforestation, this mushroom thrived. This is so generally understood about Matsutake that people say the first thing to grow after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima was a Matsutake.

Written in the wake of the 2008 financial crash and with the results of climate change becoming undeniable Tsing wants to find a way that people can pull off the same trick. And she found a parallel in the forests of Oregon, but that is for next week.

So how does a mushroom you literally find in the trash become the most expensive fungus in the world? Well by 1900 in Japan it had become the culturally ubiquitous idea of Autumn. Think lambs in spring or incredibly drunk, sunburnt bald men with a union jack tattoos and British summer. Matsutake were everywhere, in Kyoto, they became the generic term for mushroom. So far, so cheap commodity right? But then in the 50s people stopped using wood as their main fuel, woodland was cut down and paved for suburban development, broadleaf trees grew back and in the shaded forest, Matsutake started to disappear. By the 1970s Japanese Matsutake were incredibly rare. This coincided with rapid Japanese economic development. The culturally significant and now rare mushroom became gifts, bribes and perks for businessmen. Consequently the price skyrocketed.

Huge demand but limited supply in Japan meant the international market suddenly gained importance. And non-Japanese mushroom pickers from around the world flooded into the market.

Oh hold on the auction is starting. I wanna see if I can buy one.

Umm I have no idea what is happening.

Excuse me. Nope ignored.

Umm.

Hello.

13,000 yen!

(Awkward silence. Fade out.)

Okay so umm, I won the auction. Is that how you say it? But I bought one mushroom for 120 dollars and then they asked me to leave. So we’re set up in a cafe outside the market. If you’re wondering, yes, the guy who has been following me is here.

Hi mate. You alright? Cool.

He was in the auction too but I've decided to live and let live. In part because of what i’ve learned from reading Tsing.

I guess uhh lets see what the fuss about this mushroom is about.

Smells mushroom nervously

Yep smells like dirt. Cool. What am I going to do with this now?

Okay smells like dirt. Great. That’s 120 dollars for some dirt. I don’t even like mushrooms what the fuck am I doing. Okay, I guess we should talk about isolation and contamination which is where Tsing starts to get confusing, so, sorry about that. I can really understand why the students don’t get it and I think if the last few weeks have proven anything it’s that the students seem to understand anthropology better than I do. But I’ve done the reading and I've got notes so let’s give it a shot.

Tsing says capitalism is based on a growth and progress model. Wow, we’re off the rails already. In other words, and I'm not an economist so don’t @ me, the health of an individual, company and nation under capitalism are measured by their ability to generate more than they did previously. The aim is for GDP to grow, for company profits to increase, individuals to earn more etc. One way to achieve this end is to focus on scalability. Which is the ability to create more of the same product without changing the product. This is often achieved through isolation.

Yikes this episode is like “dictionary corner.” For isolation think of old Henry Ford and his assembly line. Instead of 5 guys working on every aspect of a car, the assembly line isolates each component and has one person make that part. Now you can make lots of cars quickly. Take this podcast, I write it, record it, edit it, and upload it. If I hired a writer, an editor and a social media person. I could just record the episodes and we could all be working simultaneously, produce more podcasts, get more listeners, then maybe this podcast could generate a profit.

Good news right? More of everything is made more quickly for less money, which means we can all have a car. Or a podcast. But Tsing sees some problems. She takes a different example of scalability. Portugese sugar plantations in Brazil. Sugar cane was grown by splitting a sugar cane and sticking it in the ground. Functionally it was a clone brought from New Guinea and planted in Brazil. As a farming product it couldn’t be more isolated. Unlike a matsutake say, which can’t be scaled because it grows almost by random in relation to the soil and the trees around it, the sugar cane has no relationship to its surroundings.

Now let's talk about the farm workers. Sugar plantation workers were slaves brought from west Africa to Brazil. Like the sugar cane they were isolated with no social relations in Brazil which prevented escape. This is why slave traders split families, social and cultural groups. Their alienation and isolation made them a controllable, standardized workforce. Portugal made huge profits from this and could keep the uncomfortable effects hidden, seen as the whole project took place in west Africa and south America, far away from the Portugese eyes. This is maybe the first example of what academics call “space-time distanciation” I know what the fuck is distanciation other than a great way to be the most hated person at a dinner party or the pub.

Basically it’s just a bullshit way to say doing things from far away but in real time. So like ugh I don’t know, (Rising anger) a kid in America can snipe you on COD and call you a homophobic slur and you experience it as it happens even though he’s thousands of miles away. And however much you threaten him he won’t experience any consequences because he’s far away and you’re thirty and trash at shooters. (awkward pause) Not a real thing that happened to me, just a random example.

So this scalability and distanciation were created and spread around the world by European colonists but it was Japanese markets which modernised the idea. In the 60s to the 80s Japan actually gave American economic dominance a little scare because of its shift to outsourcing. Instead of Japanese companies making products in Japan where labour was expensive they made products abroad where labour was cheap and took advantage of increasingly speedy global supply lines to turn huge profits.

Matsutake picking is an example of this which we’ll talk about more next time but in short, casual workers pick and sell them for a fraction of their market value in America, the middle men then transport it to Japan where it’s market and cultural value is increased and sell it for a huge profit.

Another example would be fast fashion. Everyone remembers the scandals when it came out that gap or nike or primark had their clothes made in terrible conditions. A lot of brands defended themselves by saying they had no idea about the conditions. To an extent this is true, but it was deliberate ignorance. They put their production in the hands of intermediary companies in countries far away from their shareholders, employees and customers creating plausible deniability.

There is another problem which is obvious really. Scale can only go so far, which is until all the resources are gone. Then the project has to move on and do something else. Think of Japan after they had cut down all the trees. Or if you really want to depress yourself, fossil fuels.

Okay, okay what’s the point! Tsing says all this stuff, the distanciation, the scalability, the obsession with more profits, the isolation is the cause of the precarious lives more and more people are experiencing. Think of zero hours contracts, or uber driving or amazon workers pissing in bottles. It’s easy to cut wages, to allow bad working conditions, to strip mine the rainforest when we are distanced from the consequences. So long as it happens somewhere else, to someone else, when we have no relationship with the products we consume, or create. Think of the podcast again. If I hired all these people it would be more efficient but then I wouldn’t have the same relationship with it. I would become alienated from it. That’s how little by little people have less of an understanding of the things around them. That’s how we can separate the petrol we put in our cars from the environmental damage that doing that causes.

Wow. Depressing. Jesus. Remember when this show used to be about cows and magic?

(sigh)

Taking things seriously sucks. Okay but Tsing reckons that by looking at these expensive mushrooms there is hope. Capitalism can make us feel lonely but looking at Matsutake reminds us that even in capitalist ruins like a destroyed forest new things can grow. Those things grow from relationships, the encounter between the mushroom and the pine tree and the soil from deforestation. It’s a reminder that we aren’t actually alone that there aren’t any “challenges we might face without asking for help from others, human or not human.” Through relationships we change and Tsing says “The important stuff of life on earth happens in those transformations.” So you know, join your union, talk to your neighbour, forage for mushrooms. It might just make the world better. And if it doesn’t, well at least you have some friends and mushrooms. Wait did i just say join a union? Am I woke? Must be the jet lag.

Time for the extract;

How does a gathering become a happening, that is, greater than the sum of its parts? One answer is contamination. We are contaminated by our encounters; they change who we are as we make way for others. As contamination changes world making projects, mutual worlds - and new directions - may emerge. Everyone carries a history of contamination; purity is not an option. One value of keeping precarity in mind is that it makes us remember that changing with circumstances is the stuff of survival.

But what is survival? In popular American fantasies, survival is all about saving oneself by fighting off others. The “survival” featured in U.S. television shows or alien-planet stories is a synonym for conquest and expansion. I will not use the term that way. Please open yourself to another usage. This book argues that staying alive - for every species - requires livable collaborations. Collaboration means working across differences, which leads to contamination. Without collaborations, we all die.

The problem of precarious survival helps us see what is wrong. Precarity is the state of acknowledgement of our vulnerability to others. In order to survive, we need help and help is always the service of another, with or without intent. When I sprain my ankle, a stout stick may help me walk and I enlist its assistance. I am now an encounter in motion, a woman and stick. It is hard for me to think of any challenge I might face without soliciting the assistance of others, human and not human. It is unselfconscious privilege that allows us to fantasize - counter factually - that we survive alone.

How do you conclude something as complicated as this? Okay how about this. Often you’ll hear people talking about capitalist alienation and it’s not really clear what that means. I think what Tsing is saying is that capitalism wants people to be individualised. That way labour can be scaled up, because the products aren’t related to the context that they are made in. So you can make a ford car in a factory in Detroit or Dhaka and the product will be the same. But Tsing is giving us a warning and a reminder that we aren’t individuals. That we have a relationship with everything around us and forgetting this can destroy our surroundings. This means humans and non-humans too! If we’re going to survive late capitalism and climate change we have to re-engage in these relationships.

#anthropology #foraging #mushrooms #matsutake #japan #arts #arts and entertainment #podcast #society #tsing

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