#also i totally feel you on the having to raise yourself emotionally throughout your teen years

[inkykeiji]

This is a really random message that is the product of a few conversations I've had with my sister (who also reads your work). Your work makes me feel so incredibly safe and secure. I have a developmental disability (autism) that my parents denied, and it led to me having to raise myself emotionally throughout my teen years because my parents didn't know how to deal with me. I find a lot of comfort in your works because of how dark they are. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but I have a difficult time finding enjoyment in content that isn't very dark. Tag You're It series has been very special to me because of how it deals with toxic family members. In fact, I find a lot of solace in your blog, because you talk so much about dealing with unhealthy family dynamics.

oh sweet anon, this message is so special and precious to me!!! <3

i am so, so honoured and happy to hear that you are able to find such solace in my work and my blog; i genuinely do not have the words to describe how much that means to me. to know that i am able to provide a safe and comforting space for someone other than myself is so incredibly important and special to me; one of my goals with my work and my blog is to help others—whether that means helping others process their own feelings/trauma, or helping others by offering a safe space within my work, or even just providing someone with an hour or two of escapism and entertainment when they need it/when they’re going through a rough time—so to hear this, to receive this message from you, is just so wonderful <33

it definitely does make sense and honestly, i completely get where you’re coming from with having a difficult time finding enjoyment in content that isn’t dark. for me personally, i dislike content that is overly fluffy and tooth-rottingly sweet and excessively/absurdly happy because i find it extremely unrealistic, and consuming content like that actually upsets me more because it feels so unattainable and fake. that’s why i enjoy creating and consuming things with bittersweet endings; because they feel a lot more real and, in my opinion, a lot more hopeful and comforting. it’s also why i find such extreme comfort in the todoroki family; their family dynamics feel so relatable and there’s something so comforting in looking at a character you love or a character who’s significant to you and going ‘yeah, i get that. yeah, i went through something similar, too’. it makes you feel less alone and sometimes, as in the case of shouto for example, it gives you hope, too—hope that you can be as strong as he is, that you can overcome your traumas etc as well, just like he is doing. it can also be very cathartic!!

thank you so much for taking a moment to send this message to me, anon <3 it means the whole world to me <33

#you are so lovely anon <333 #i am beyond happy that i can provide this space for you within my work and my blog!!! #please take care of yourself <33 #enjoy your thursday and stay safe n hydrated <3 #sending you so so soooo much love and strength and health!! #also i totally feel you on the having to raise yourself emotionally throughout your teen years #i did the same #inky.bb #clari gets mail

[stilinsk1]

Cole’s interview for Boys by Girls Magazine, part 3

(part 1, part 2) Sorry for every mistake and typo! It becomes quite powerful though - when you posted a picture we had taken of you, within an hour we had a significant amount of new followers. So it means your have the power to impact people and projects you feel passionate about. Sure, and to curate a kind of artistic lineage, so I think that's special. And that's the duty of mainstream artistry or someone who has received success, in my personal opinion, to curate an artistic collection and lineage that will influence society in a way that can truly bring about beneficial change. And your publication is dealing with the concept of masculinity in a way that's very important to me, and should be very important to all men in our society. I love that when you tweet, sometimes the whole world talks about it. It's funnt, I think people sometimes take my tweets too seriously. My twitter has always been a vehicle for shit-posting. I've never really taken it seriously, so when people do take it seriously, it always takes me by surprise.

We need to talk about 'Riverdale' as well. I just love talking about feelings. It's a passion of mine. Yeah, me too. I love you as Jughead. I just learned that you originally read for Archie.

Yes, I was given the script for Archie, and I had read one scene with Jughead and loved him. So I said: 'wow, I've got to try for this role'. I feel like he's a bit like you. Is that a fair or unfair comparison? Like I mentioned earlier - if people are not saying that, you're not doing a good job. That's the currency of a quality role. Your ability to get into character comes from a resonation you have empathetically with the role itself. That empathy is based on your lived experiences, so I resonate with Jughead very much. I mean, I was the cringiest kid in school. Jughead, to me, is the very image of a millennial teenager that many people fear, and that's what I live about his character. I had interpreted Jughead as tremendously pretentious, and it's very funny that whe people watch 'Riverdale' now, he has become a sort of heartthrob figure. Anyone who thinks they can write about their own town as a teenager, to me, that is a really pretentious move. Striving to be unique and non-conformist, I really resonated with him. Then as I got to rea more of his content I found out that he was also te narrator of the show, shich meant that he was the perspective device, which I really enjoyed. So I went in for the audition, and didn't know if I wanted to do acting or not - I was in this strange space in my life. I had just come off watching a ton of "Twilight Zone", and my audition was the whole opening monologue, so I read it just like Rod Serling in the "Twilight Zone", which they loved. When I found out it was going to be a mix of "Twin Peaks" and these other stereotypical campy teen dramas, I thought: 'fuck, this is going to be a lot of fun', and I was fully onboard. You said in another interview that Jughead struggles with vulnerability. Totally. I think Jughead's struggle with vulnerability is something I struggle with, but that's because we are both young men. Jughead turns away from emotional connection when he gets too close to people, as  an attempt to safeguard himself from becoming hurt. Just a product of men being told they can't be weak. That's how I had grounded it: in the inability to be vulnerable in that kind of physiology. Where is Cole with vulnerability, are you comfortable being vulnerable? I am now. Or at least, I'm more comfortable. I think vulnerability is the petri dish for growth. Full vulnerability is something people work at, which I will try to work at my whole life. Every time you enter into a vulnerable state, you enter into a right of passage, in my opinion. So much growth comes from the ability to make yourself vulnerable, because you immediately clarify what makes you nervous, and what makes you feel strong in those moments. I'm a firm believer that history of human survival is essentialy a history of triumph over their vulnerabilities. I truly think that bravely stepping into vulnerability is the greatest and most effective way to grow as a human being. Now, vulnerability for men is one of those things that froma very young age is seen as forbidden or weak. Since men are quite young, we are taught that weakness and vulnerability is something we should avoid, and the truth  is that a person only becomes strong trough recognising their weakness and addressing vulnerability - especially emotional vulnerability - and coming to terms with that. I think those are very important words for young men. The truth is, I was a very socially anxious kid. I was homeschooled, so raised inside a soundstage - not knowing how to interact with the world around me. I used comedy a lot to cover up my vulnerability, as an attempt to diffuse an otherwise hostile or threatening situation to me. And then as I embraced vulnerability when I got older, my own personal insecurity, femininity and all the other concepts that I have within me - I had the condifence to walk around and truly feel like I had mastered a space that was otherwise foreign to me. Especially during puberty, when we're getting all these complicated ideas about sexuality, maturation, social standing and professional pursuit. If we sat back and took the time to analyse why those things made us uncomfortable, we would have the confidence to take the world around us by storm. What are your thoughts around masculinity and how it is changing in the young generation of today? I can only speak from my experience, but in my youth I had experienced the world around me as an intersection between the expectation of confidence in young men and the simultaneous suppression of a large aspect of that confidence, which is an embracing of a more feminine nature than men often carry. I think the definition of masculinity in a wider context nw is undoing a lot of that, which I think is great. It's much more widely accepted to be in touch with other qualities of your masculinity. I'm of a mind that the core tenancy of modern masculinity still resonates with an ancient understanding of out roles within society, whilst simultaneously accepting that society is changing, and adapting to a viw that is fresh. For me, some fundamental tendencies still exist within masculinity, which are a kind of caretaking role, respect for your fellows and an ability to provide. But I think unlike two of three generations ago when the concept of provision was a financial definition, now the concept of the provider includes a) providing and caring for yourself and b) providing and caring for people you love emotionally. I believe part of the redefinition is the ability to recognise what aspects of yourself are affecting your emotions and how can you understand that side of yourself. Understand how to resonate and become more empathetic with the people in your lif. I think sexuality for men, in the States or in the west really, still preaches a lot of elimination of weakness. I can only speak from my own experience, but I am my strongest form when I can fully comprehend why I'm thinking a certain way and what is bringing me to an action. I'm of a mind that true strenght is the ability to take care of yourself without harming other people in the  process. And I think, if your masculinity involves the destruction of anther person's masculinity, because it's an opposition to yours, we have to break down and understand that this is because you ultimately feel threatened by a version that is different to yourself. Masculinity and strenght are the products of your ability to feel secure with all sides of yourself. However you find that security, as long as it's not the destruction of another person's security, is in my opinion, the modern form of masculinity. 'Riverdale' season two! Season ne left us with unanswered questions. What can you tell us, and what's in store for Jughead. Jughead was originally Archie's conscious, and in the final episode of season one he was revealed as the soul of Riverdale - as the moral underpinning of a society that is going to through tremendous moral fluentation. The audience can view Jughead and whatever happens to Jughead as either an enlightening or destruction of the soul of Riverdale. If the sould of Riverdale is being confrtonted with these problems, what does that mean for the town as a whole? In this season he finds himself with one foot in the north side and one foot in the south side, with an impending civil war on the horizon - shaking his previous standing, of conscientious objector and this observer, forcing his hand into play. In this season, Jughead  is very much learning that you can't make everyone happy, and that his fear of involving himself in the issues that are surrounding him was actually a fear of him suffering or making anyone displeased with him as a person. He has to address and embrace the fact that he's going to make people unhappy, and that it is part of his life. All this drama, but one thing is central throughout the show; those kids would do anything for each other in the midst of all that chaos. Yes, what 75 years of it being a comic has allowed us to do is not having to explain how deeply connected the characters are episode after episode. These characters are so well established in the comic lineage that people don't need a backstory on them, which has given us a lot of flexibility. Having taken time off from acting to live in 'the real world', now having returned and also doing your own photography - how do you feel you're developing as an artist? For the longest time I was working on projects and taking jobs that I didn't really resonate with the way I do now with my projects. My photography gave me a tremendous amount of self-confidence, which comes back to masculinity and all those things we talked about. The ability to express myself in a vulnerable way and show my eye in a curated personal gallery space, game me great confidence. That confidence has now lent itself to a personal artistic lineage taht has given me a foot in the door to the creation of passion projects that I would never have had the ability to do if I hadn't made myself vulnerable enough - which I'm very thankful for. I think, my acting and my photography are two completely different arts. acting for me is an empathetic creation of a character you're trying to breathe and weave life into, but you're essentially a cipher for other people's narratives. You are playing with the tools in someone else's toolbox. Photography allows me to express precisely what I want to express, using all the tools in my own toolbox, with the assistance of people who want to play the part of cipher for me. I think the meeting of both of those worlds will eventually culminate in a directorial professional pursuit. I'm trying to find ways of blending those two worlds, so I could come out with narratives and stories that truly resonate with people people from both an acting perspective and a photographic perspective. You mentioned that there is a certain loneliness that comes with celebrity. With the success of your return, without your brother this time, putting you right back in the limelight - how are you handling this now? I experience it in a different way now, because I made the conscious decision to return, and I understand that fanaticism is part of celebrity culture. The loneliness that comes with it now is something I'm much more prepared for after I took rim away to understand myself. When I was a child it was a much different story, because I hadn't made the choice to immerse myself in a world of fanaticism. It also had repercussions, which it took me a long time to deal with. Some people find religion, some people do drugs, some people branch out sexually - everyone has their own way of dealing with it. I chose education. That's a pretty healthy way of dealing with it. I thought it would be. Me choosing education also gave me an ability to be much more prepared for what I'm immersed in now. It feels better. What dreams are next on the agenda for you? I'd like to start doing films. I would like to act in a challenging roles, and make films as well. I think the culmination of my acting and photography is the inevitable conclussion of a sort of directorial debut.  I think you're too much of a creative to eventually not get involved in making movies. I truly believe that. You have too much to express. I hope, eventually, but I also feel like I need a lot more time and experience in other aspects. I think acting wise, my brother and I have consistently been in competition with an image of ourselves in the past, and the industry's image of us as studio money makers and our ability to pull an audience. Now that I've been trained well enough, I'm more prepared as an actor to take on the kind of challenging roles that I aspire to. What type of roles would you like to play? Just different. Every time. But human roles where each one is different from the next - something I can sit back and be proud of. I'd love to see you do some really emotive roles. Your performance as Jughead already hits me straight in the heart. Excellent, I appreciate taht. The only thing that's stopping my brother and I now is other people's perception. I think you're doing a really good job in changing that perception. That's the hope, and over time and by doing the right thing consistently, I think people will start to get it. That was the long-term grudge to bear when we were going to college and thinking about how we were going to play it right and be comfortable with this. For us, the answer was always to do something interesting, and simply: be good people. What mark do you want to leave on the world? For years and years I looked at the arts as something less than the sciences. I thought the truest way to make my mark on the world would be to push human knowledge forward in some way or shape. I started taking archaeology as a an attempt to leave a mark on the world, and I had taken a class about palaeolithic civilisation and I brought up art as a luxury - essentially I was saying that art was something that came after the bellies were full, the sleep was had and the thirst was quenched. My professor corrected me pretty firmly in front of the entire class, and said that art, storytelling, myth and oral narration was hands down the only way humans were able to survive. The ability to portray a message was redefined to me as necessary to life itself. Artistry, if we look at it historically, is always the product of its time period. The greatest artists were always the ones that had a full comprehension of the society around them, and the ability to tactfully push the edges of their society - broaden it just a bit. Now we live in an age where the boundaries of society are no longer strict and inflexible, but rather something all-encompassing. Figures like John Lennon, Gandhi and Martin Luther King JR. - all these men had one thing in common: they all preached peace and love as the fundamentals to the operation of a healthy society - and all those guys were murdered. So I've got to figure out a way to preach that without getting murdered, haha.

#cole sprouse #cole sprouse for boys by girls #boys by girls magazine #i'm so proud of this man #he is an amazing person/genius #m1ne

[thesunglassesgamer]

The Talk, (Pt 2)

The second part of my current project. I like this part especially, because it goes over the hard choice Marco has to make. Star’s character is a bit weird, but considering the most recent episodes, it’s not completely unreasonable. Also the ending is a bit rushed, but eh, I was running out of time. I am uploading these each Sunday, so expect a regular upload. As always, comments, reviews, and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy!

No one spoke. Marco, after staring awkwardly at the two girls for a short time, realized that it would have to be up to him to do something. He looked down at his feet, tried to think of something to say, and eventually just let out a small sigh.

"One second," he muttered. He took his first step down the stairs and tripped. Go figure. He fell, hitting every other stair on his way down and letting out little sounds of discomfort with each hit. By the bottom of the stairway he had taken some nasty bruises, but nothing that wouldn't be gone within a week. They still hurt, though. Quite a lot, in fact.

On the upside, his accelerated journey down the stairs had broken the awkward tension by scaring the heck out of his two friends. "Marco, are you O.K.?" They both exclaimed in very different tones. Star was used to seeing Marco get tossed around and hurt, and thus wasn't as worried as Jackie about the fall.

Marco coughed a bit while standing up. "I'm fine," he wheezed pathetically. Jackie went over to help him but he shook his head. "Really, I'm okay," he responded again, this time with some dignity. They both went over to the couch and sat down, Marco in betwixt the two girls. As he sat down, Marco could start to feel the awkward feelings from before come back. He quickly attempted to keep it away by asking, "So, you uh, um…" Well, fuck, he thought to himself. Attempt failed.

"Uh, yeah," Star replied in a small voice. Marco relaxed to her voice. It had told him two things, that A), he wasn't the only awkward one in the room, and B), Star wasn't as emotionally battered as she had been earlier. Or at least he hoped she wasn't.

Jackie breathed out a short huff of air. "Maybe I should go, let you two-"

"No." Marco's voice had rung out, soft but confident. It surprised everyone in the room including himself. "This affects you as much as it affects me and Star. Besides, you're the one who brought it up."

Jackie stared at Marco, taken aback. Her face changed to shock, then thoughtfulness, and finally to sober agreement. "You're right, I guess."

Marco nodded, saying "Right," as he did. He was about to say something else, but he caught himself. The young, dorky teen was stuck in the middle of a very large social problem. If he didn't think out his next words very carefully, he could hurt the feelings of his friends horribly.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that everyone was going to leave that couch upset. Jackie was his girlfriend, and more importantly, a wonderful person. When Marco had first started dating his lifelong crush, he had prepared himself for two terrifying possibilities: One, that Jackie would turn out to be a total bitch and break his heart, or that two, Jackie would turn out to be sweet but not into him, and consequentially break his heart. Neither of those scenarios came true. Jackie turned out to be even better than he had imagined, and surprisingly into him. He couldn't just leave her because Star admitted her feelings to him; Jackie deserved better than that.

But Marco also couldn't tell Star that he wasn't into her. If she really did have a crush on him, then she'd be heartbroken upon hearing that he didn't reciprocate. There was the very likely possibility that it would hurt or even tear their friendship apart. Eight months of wonderful adventures, emotional struggle, and complete respect and honesty would be thrown away in a single evening. The last thing Marco wanted to do was to hurt his friend, especially after she had lost Glossaryck and her book. Marco loved both girls sitting next to him. But at that moment on the couch, he understood how different his love for both of them was. And it would've been a dishonor to their relationships if he didn't tell them the truth.

It was also at this moment that Marco realized that he had been stuck in contemplation for over two whole minutes. Both Star and Jackie were looking at each other's eyes, trying to see if the other had any idea what Marco was doing. "Uh, Marco?" Jackie asked, nervous about his behavior.

"Oh, uh, right, sorry," Marco muttered, his face flushing red. He took some deep breaths to prepare himself for his speech.

"Right then," He said, his dread seeping back in. He looked Star in the eyes before saying, "I love you, Star." Both girls' eyes opened wide, but before they could respond further, Marco put up his hand. Grudgingly, he finished, "But not in the same way that you love me."

Star's heart fell into her stomach. She'd waited patiently, more patiently than ever before in her life, for his answer. She had hoped, in some wild, fantastical place in her mind, that Marco would laugh heartily, kiss her on the lips, and proclaim that he'd been in love with her from the start. And yes, he'd admitted that he loved her, but she knew it wasn't romantic love. Real love.

Marco saw the look on her face and quickly tried to explain himself. "I would call you my best friend, Star, but you aren't. You're something more. I've never met anyone like you, and if for a second I thought I would lose you or if you got hurt, I'd be a total wreck. You're like a sister to me, except that I trust you more than any one in my family with my life. Please, I don't want everything we've done for the past eight months to fall apart because of this."

Star's face looked like she was about to cry. And then it went blank of emotion. "It's alright, Marco," she replied dully.

Marco's heart fell. "Star-"

"No," she said calmly. She spoke with ice in her tone. She was clearly trying to keep her emotions down, but one of them was escaping: anger. Sparks of green electricity sizzled around her. Marco backed off unconsciously. He wished he hadn't. Star's mood only grew worse.

"I'll be upstairs. If you really love me, you won't follow," Her voice sounded heavy, ready to break into anger or tears at any moment. Marco was about to argue, but a familiar hand rested itself upon his shoulder. Jackie didn't say anything but the message was clear: let her go.

And so Marco, against his better judgement, watched Star pout up to her room. The slam of the door was very loud and echoed throughout the house. Marco felt exhausted and depressed. He'd hoped to be able to explain his feelings properly, but now he wished that he hadn't talked at all.

"She needs time to cool off," Jackie reassured him. "And honestly, it'll probably work out better next time if I'm not here."

Marco sighed. "I don't know. She's never been this mad before. And she's done rash things before… Gah, I don't know what I should've done."

Jackie suggested, with a bit of wry in her tone, "Maybe you should've left out the sister line."

Marco gave her a miffed look before responding, "I didn't see you giving any suggestions."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "You know why she's really upset? Because it isn't just that you don't romantically love her."

Marco frowned. "No, I don't."

"It's because she thinks she's been replaced. That you don't care for her at all. That she isn't the most important person in your life anymore. Hell, Marco, you might as well have told her that now that I'm here, she's irrelevant and can leave now."

Marco looked skeptical. "Really?

Jackie shrugged. "At the very least, no matter how much you say that you love her, she's not going to feel that love while you're with me." Jackie looked away from him, tensing up. "Sorry."

Marco shook his head. "No, no, we can't blame you. It's not your fault. I should've picked up on her feelings earlier."

"Marco, you can't-"

"Watch me."

Jackie's' eyebrows raised. "Oh, so you have to take all of the blame?"

Marco shrugged. "Might as well. I'm the one who's going to fix the problem."

Jackie's eyebrows raised again, though this time more seriously. "Wait, what? How?"

Marco nodded confidently. "I need to show that I still care for Star while keeping my relationship with you. The answer's simple." He nodded towards the dimensional scissors Star had left on the coffee table three days ago. "Glossaryck and the book."

Jackie's jaw dropped. "Marco, you can't be serious! Didn't that little green bird try to kill you two?"

"He almost succeeded, too." Marco agreed. "But another talk with Star is, at best, going to make the next few months really awkward. You said it yourself. I need to show that I care."

Jackie was about to argue, but stopped herself. "I'll go with you. Let me use the restroom and we'll go." She left before Marco could argue. By the time she returned, Marco and the scissors were gone. All that was left was a note. It read:

"Sorry Jackie, this mission is too dangerous for you. Both Star and I have had a lot of practice battling Ludo, and you're only got one night under your belt. Don't worry, I'm getting help from Buff Frog (hopefully). I'll be back before you know it. -Marco"

#starco #jarco #star vs the forces of evil #first part of this really gets a good amount of details #second part #eh