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ereborne · 1 month

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1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

#asks #carrionfourth #I have been working on these answers for hours. it's so hard to choose favorites!!#very fun though and very interesting to think some of this through #my bookshelves are grouped a lot more by how they make me feel than by genre so mentally categorizing them was a neat process #I hope you were ready for the enormous wall of text you've inspired!#I feel like it's also a big list of proper nouns with little elaboration but there's no sane way to elaborate on them all #so if anybody would like me to talk more about a given book or author hit me up. I can and will talk about books forever

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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 2 years

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BFCD Black Women in Horror/Monsters & More Masterlist

Black Women in Horror | Final Girls | Slayers | BFCD Monsters & More Masterlists

Izzy Bit |

Old Woman Josie Welcome to Nightvale | Olivia Two Sentence Horror Stories: Teeth

Queenie American Horror Story

Wilhamena Mettle OK Let’s Be Heroes |

Yvonne A Nightmare on Elm Street Series |

Zafrina Twilight | Zoe Head Count |

Children in Horror | BFCD Family Friendly Spooky Season |

*List will be updated throughout October*

#Black Women in Horror #Children in Horror #long post #BFCD Spooky Season #October #BFCD Masterlist #BFCD Black Women in Horror Masterlist #black female characters #monster girls #slayers

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elenajohansenreads · 1 month

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Books I Read in 2024

#24 - How to Suppress Women's Writing, by Joanna Russ

Rating: 5/5 stars

The prologue asks the reader not to view the book as a mirror, but it was impossible for me not to, as a woman, as a writer, and as a student of "literature" both formally (I did take courses on it in college) and informally (how many book reviews am I up to now? Last time I counted it was over 800, so by now I might be close to or even over a thousand...)

I looked into that mirror and saw not only the ways I have personally been suppressed, but the ways I have participated in my own suppression and suppressed others.

I've never wanted to write "literature" or be regarded as a "great" writer; when I was scribbling (to borrow from Alcott) away on notebook paper in high school teachers would joke about The Great American Novel, but chasing that laurel was never my goal. I wrote about what interested me, which has ranged from weird absurdist short stories when I was younger, to fantasy and sci-fi, and finally, what I actually published was romance (though some of it in a post-apocalyptic setting, so that's also blending in some sff/horror elements.) I never felt actively pushed out from the "center," as Russ puts it, of the literary canon; I never wanted to be there.

But that was on a conscious level. Subconsciously, I probably knew I couldn't get there even if I wanted to and tried.

So I'm a genre-fiction author. (I'll still call myself that even if it's been over three years since I published and there's no new book on the horizon--literature authors can take decades-long breaks and still come back with another book and they'll have been an author the whole time, so I'll keep my title and my pride.) I'm quite comfortable and at home in the genre suburbs, away from the bright city lights of the literary canon, but I live there knowing full well that no matter how well genre fiction sells, no matter how romance is the biggest single genre in the industry in terms of both published works and total sale, it will still remain the suburbs. There's no real hope in me that genre fiction will ever get the recognition it deserves from the literary elite--but that's how I'm still participating in the system, because if I didn't still, on some level, think literature was "better" then it wouldn't matter, would it?

I live in the genre suburbs based on what I was reading growing up--my mom was an avid reader and it was almost entirely mystery and science fiction, not just the "classic" science fiction that was largely male in her day (Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, etc.) but also, with the popularity of the "new" Star Trek series in the late 80s when I was a kid, whole shelves full of Star Trek novels, which in her collection seemed to be roughly balanced in terms of male/female authorship. Almost all of the ones I loved best and reread a dozen or more times were written by women. (I love you, Diane Duane, I didn't even know you'd written non-Trek stuff until years later.)

My role models for writing were not entirely female--it's impossible to deny the impact Stephen King in particular has had on my work--but most of what I read in my late teens and early twenties as well was female-written fantasy, romance, and fantasy-romance. (I refuse to call it romantasy. Absolutely refuse.)

So I don't lack a tradition, one of the forms of dismissal Russ points out is used to isolate female writers as anomalies; their works may be exceptional in quality, but they are still exceptions to the "rule" of male dominance.

What I do lack is an awareness of how deeply I've internalized the male-driven standards of "literature" anyway and wield them as a cudgel in my book reviewing. Yes, I often disdain works of literary fiction knowingly for their hollow pretension and constant insistence that only male experience matters, only men deserve to have their stories told, and everything else is lesser than them. But I had not realized how firmly I had recentered what I believe "good" writing is in my own experiences and my own desires and still looked down on marginalized authors that wrote things too different, too experimental, too unfamiliar, and criticized them in much the same way any of the historical critics Russ quotes would be speaking of my work, were they around still to read it.

It was the section on poetry, I think, that really pushed the mirror in my face and made me cringe at my own actions. Once upon a time, a Tumblr poet made it big with her debut, and I read it a few years later, and I gave it a poor review, contending that no matter how heartfelt it was, it wasn't "poetry." I tried to keep the critique of her work about her work, and not about the obviously powerful emotions and pain that spurred it, and I hope I succeeded; but I definitely used the rubric of "poetry" that I had been taught my whole life as the lens to view her pieces, and they all fell short by that standard, no matter how genuine the emotion was.

I did the exact same thing to her that male critics have been doing to female poets the whole time; she wrote it, but it isn't poetry.

I don't think I would have the experience Russ writes of in her afterword, where she realizes she reads Their Eyes Were Watching God, thinks it's bad, but then realizes she's too far away from it (essentially) and does a bunch of educational reading to bring herself closer to it before she rereads, and hey whaddaya know, it's actually really good. If I reread that slim volume of short poems again...I'll be honest, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't like it. But I would no longer say it's not poetry. "Growth only happens in the margins," as Russ said repeatedly. All of her observations about the way men dismiss women stand equally true (as she herself says) for any other majority/minority dynamic, and it's the marginalized authors who have the freedom to be different, to push the boundaries and experiment with style and form and content, simply because they are so far away from the calcified center mass of "true" literature that, by unspoken definition, can only be produced by older, white, middle-class or higher men.

#booklr #book review #nonfiction #how to suppress women's writing #joanna russ

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abbatoirablaze · 2 years

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AOD, Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Chapter 4

Word Count: 804

“I’m only going to tell you this once…you need to get as far away from Ransom as you can….”

“Why are you acting like this, Ari?” Frank growled, angry at his boyfriend and his insistence that he stop working for Ransom, “I’ve been working with you for a year now, and it seems like every single day is a new problem with you. First, I’m not catching on…then I’m getting too close to subjects. Then I-“

“He’s holding you over me.”

Frank stopped talking, surprised by Ari’s confession. His brow furrowed and he crossed his arms, “he’s what?”

“He’s holding you over me…he’s saying that if I don’t accomplish certain things…you’ll be caught in the crossfire…that you’ll just so happen to not make it home…” Ari warned. He stepped up to Frank and began cupping his boyfriend’s cheeks. His calloused hands caressed the younger man’s cheeks and he gave him a serious look, “I love you, Frank…and I need you to know that…but some of the things he’s asking me to do…I need you to find a stronger family than this one…one that can protect you…because I don’t know for how much longer I can…and I know I have gotten on you before about being able to handle loss…but I can’t handle the reality that I could possibly lose you…that something would happen to you or Mary because I can’t protect you.”

“Wh-what are you saying?” he asked nervously, “a-are you saying that Ransom is looking for a way to cut me out? A-am I a loose end to him?”

“What I’m saying is that word on the street is that Pronge isn’t exactly kind to Paretti’s daughter,” he offered, pressing a piece of paper into the younger man’s hands, “he’s supposed to be watching over her for the Paretti’s, but he’s taking advantage of him and his daughter. Nothing is promised, but it’s something you can start looking into…go to him…figure out what’s going on, and Paretti himself might be able to protect you.”

“P-Paretti doesn’t have a daughter…”

“Yeah…he does…just trust me…and look into it, Frank.”

Frank had watched Paretti’s daughter for weeks. Saw the hollowed out look in her eyes; the dazed expression. And he saw the way that a long-haired man clung to her, his hands always all over her. While the elder Paretti seemed oblivious to the comings and goings of what was happening, Frank was painfully aware of the young woman who was obviously being used.

So he worked on the angle. He started hanging around some of the guys that he knew were freelancers. Started offering up information. He did just that until it bought him a ticket straight into Pronge’s poker night.

“Oh you wouldn’t fucking believe it,” Pronge grinned, looking around the poker table as he puffed his cigar, “I’ve got this great piece of pussy…she primo…grade a-just…fuck…She’s perfect boys…and she’s trained just for me. She cums when I tell her to. She takes it without question…she’s perfect.”

“Come on, Pronge…you ain’t gonna share?” Kemp teased, nudging his associate, “heard Paretti specializes in pussy…gearing up to make sure his son knows all about it…even got a tight little thing around him, making him smile.”

“Always has a primo cut hanging by his side to…” Thor smirked, “tight little thin-“

“That’s who I’m talking about, boys,” Pronge smirked, his grin wide and guilty looking, “we’re going at it like rabbits behind closed doors…she’s not that jackass’ piece…she’s mine. Paretti himself turns a blind eye to it…lets me devour the little thing. She wants it too…oh, she wants it bad. She practically begs me for it.”

“Nicola…Nicola Paretti.”

Her eyes went from glossed over, to a look of horror as Frank spoke to her. Her breath caught in her throat, and she took a step back, her hand absentmindedly cradling her stomach. Frank frowned, immediately picturing his younger sister Diane as she stuttered through an excuse, “I-I don’ t know who you are talking about. Y-you must be confused.”

“I’m a friend,” he promised softly, taking another step forward. She swallowed hard, looking around the small bathroom, but saw that the only way out was through him, “I-I know what Pronge is doing to you…”

The terror in her eyes faded and she gave him a serious look, “I-I don’t-I-“

“It’s okay,” he promised yet again, reaching out to her, “I just want you to trust me…can you do that, Nicola?”

“I can’t trust anyone,” she finally responded after a moment of staring at his outstretched hand, “I-I can’t—Bobby…he’ll-“

“Robert Pronge won’t hurt you, Nicola…”

“Y-you’re really going to help me?” she asked nervously, her eyes tearing up, “th-this isn’t another one of his tricks?”

“I promise…” he sighed softly, keeping his hand held out to her, “I’m here to help you, Nicola. Let me help.”

Tag List: @lohnes16, @tenaciousperfectionunknown, @patzammit, @apollonshootafar

#angel of death #two sides of the same coin #ari levinson #soft ari #red sea diving resort #robert pronge #mr freezy #the iceman #frank adler #the gifted #mob au #mafia au

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joeygoeshollywood · 3 years

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My 25 Favorite Films of 2020

Well, this was quite the crazy year, especially for movies. While many films that were slated to be released this year were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year still provided some laughs, tears, and thrills both in theaters and in the living room.

(NOTE: Due to the delayed awards season calendar and postponed Oscar bait films that are unavailable to be seen before the end of 2020, this list will eventually be updated after having seen the following films: The Father, Minari, News of the World, Nomadland, One Night in Miami, Pieces of a Woman, Promising Young Woman)

Here are my 25 favorite films of the year:

25. Kajillionaire

Quirky filmmaker Miranda July is back with her first feature in nearly a decade. Kajillionaire is a bizarre but captivating tale about a family of criminal grifters and how the daughter reevaluates her strained relationship with her parents after an outsider is welcomed into the fold. Evan Rachel Wood takes what could have easily been dismissed as a goofy caricature in Old Dolio (yes, that’s her name) and turns into a heartfelt portrayal of a woman whose lifestyle of freeloading dictated by her parents (played by Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) becomes her own crisis. In many ways, Kajillionaire feels like a fantasy that keeps people asking, “What on earth is going on?” And this time, it’s for the best.

24. Freaky

Revamping decades-old plots like the body-swapping antics from Freaky Friday can either result in a predictable failure or a surprising success. Thankfully, Freaky falls into the latter category. In this horror comedy, a deranged serial killer (played by Vince Vaughn) swaps bodies with his victim, a timid teen girl (played by Kathryn Newton). What makes the film work though are the dedicated lead performances, particularly by Vaughn, who is pretty convincing as young girl trapped in a grown man’s body. With a few good laughs and decent thrills, Freaky is worth the watch.

23. The Outpost

The Outpost is an intense film about the real-life story of small group of US troops isolated by surrounding mountains in Afghanistan, under the constant threat of the Taliban, which ultimately comes to a head in the Battle of Kamdesh. The film captures the harrowing experiences of these soldiers with heart-pounding action sequences, which are fueled by a solid cast including Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom.

22. Uncle Frank

Paul Bettany may be best known for playing The Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he should be celebrated as his title character in Uncle Frank, a touching dramedy set in 1973 about an NYU professor who returns home to his estranged family for his father’s funeral while his niece, played by rising star Sophia Lillis, idolizes him for teaching her to be her authentic self while he keeps his sexuality a secret. Bettany brilliantly balances the coolness of his stature with the internal agony that ultimately hits a boiling point, which is counterbalanced by Peter Macdissi’s fun performance as Frank’s happy-go-lucky lover who accompanies him back home despite his wishes.

21. Hillbilly Elegy

Hillbilly Elegy was panned by critics over politics that had absolutely no role the film. Based on the best-selling memoir by J.D. Vance, the newest feature from Ron Howard shows the journey of a boy who despite all odds growing up in a poor family that constantly struggled with abuse and addition managed to get into Yale Law School and achieve the American dream. While both Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos hold the film together as the younger and older Vance in the present and flashback scenes, Amy Adams as the impulsive, irresponsible mother and an unrecognizable Glenn Close as the no-nonsense inspiring grandmother that turn Hillbilly Elegy into an acting tour de force.

20. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin sits in the director’s chair once again in this courtroom drama about the real-life protesters who showed up in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. With themes that resonate today, The Trial of the Chicago 7 benefits from its sharp screenplay, well-paced editing, and an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Yahoo Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Keaton.

19. Yellow Rose

Broadway actress Eva Noblezada makes her film debut as an aspiring country singer on the run after her mother, an illegal immigrant, is obtained for deportation. Yellow Rose presents a nuanced depiction of US immigration, but at the heart of it is a heartbreaking story of a young woman who struggles between putting her family or her dreams first. Between Noblezada’s powerful performance and solid original music, Yellow Rose hits all the right chords.

18. Palm Springs

Move over, Groundhog Day. While the Bill Murray classic has largely monopolized the time loop film genre, Palm Springs gives it a run for its money. Andy Sandberg and Cristin Milioti star as the unlikely duo who are stranded reliving the same dreaded wedding day involving mutual acquaintances and their desperate efforts to escape the seemingly inescapable. The Hulu comedy stands on its own two feet for the good laughs, the chemistry between the two leads, and the film’s emotionally-grounded plot.

17. Let Him Go

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane reunite on the big screen after playing farmer parents in Man of Steel to rancher grandparents in Let Him Go, although this time they are able to display their full acting chops. In this period dramatic thriller, they set out to find their only grandchild following the death of their son only to discover that the widowed daughter-in-law remarried into an infamous crime family. While both Costner and Lane tug at the heartstrings, it’s Lesley Manville, who plays the ruthless matriarch of the family, that really takes command of the screen. Ultimately, Let Him Go is all about family and the lengths one is willing to go to protect it.

16. Unhinged

In a year plagued by the pandemic, Unhinged led the way to the revival of movie theaters back in August and perhaps in some ways it was meant to be the film to do so as the themes of a rage-fueled society and the lack of human connection carry weight. Russell Crowe stars, as the title suggests, as an unhinged psychopath whose road rage torments a woman and her adolescent son. Unhinged is the epitome of pure entertainment and is why we go to the movies. While it’s not quite the most sophisticated thriller of the year, it’s still one helluva ride.

15. Emma

Anya Taylor-Joy has had quite the year with both highs (The Queen’s Gambit) and lows (The New Mutants). But it began before the pandemic with the release of Emma, which she stars as the iconic Jane Austen title character, a socialite who meddles in the love life of others while refusing to acknowledge her own shortcomings in that department. Supported with a strong ensemble cast, beautiful production design, and comedic charm, Emma is not to be missed.

14. The Invisible Man

ln the era of remakes and reboots, very few are as good as Universal’s latest monster flick revival of The Invisible Man. Elisabeth Moss stars as a woman who believes she’s being haunted by her abusive ex-husband, someone she becomes convinced faked his own death and is stalking her without being able to be seen. Filmmaker Leigh Whannell, the writer behind the Saw and Insidious horror franchises, generates good thrills and high-wire tension with the help of high production value and a terrifyingly-good performance from Moss.

13. Dick Johnson is Dead

Documentarian Kirsten Johnson filmed a beautiful, intimate tribute to her father Dick Johnson, who has been suffering from Alzheimer's in the final years of his life. However, instead of dreading his death, both daughter and father embrace it by having him acting out several scenes of his over-the-top demises. Dick Johnson is Dead may focus on the subject manner of death, but this documentary actually celebrates life and the laughs that happen along the way.

12. The Wolf of Snow Hollow

Perhaps one of the littlest-known films of the year, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is not your conventional indie comedy horror flick. Writer/director Jim Cummings stars as an overly-heated police officer who attempts to get to the bottom of a string of murders in his small, snowy Utah town by what appears to be some sort of werewolf, though he remains unconvinced. Featuring one of the final performances from veteran actor Robert Forster, The Wolf of Snow Hollow uses its quirky sense of humor to stand out from the rest of the pack.

11. The Gentlemen

The Gentlemen is a fun, action-packed, crime caper from Guy Ritchie about the London turf war of drug kingpins. Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Goulding, Michelle Dockery, and Colin Ferrell all round out the strong cast, but its Hugh Grant that really steals the show as the comedically manipulative Fletcher, whose only allegiance is to himself. If you like a stylish film with well-choreographed violence and a fast-paced plot, The Gentlemen should be your cup of tea.

10. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Some of the best play-to-film adaptations are the films that feel like you’re watching a play, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of them. Produced by Denzel Washington, Viola Davis gives a transformative performance as Ma Rainey, known as the “mother of the blues” and the clash she had with a pair of White music producers, but she also butts heads with her trumpet player (played by the late Chadwick Boseman), who also has his own music ambitions. While Davis obviously gives other Oscar-worthy performance, it was Boseman who was able to show how incredibly gifted he was as an actor. And while the world lost him far too soon, at least his last role ended up being his greatest.

9. The Kid Detective

One of the biggest surprises of the year was how good a movie starring and produced by Adam Brody was. Brody plays a washed up former kid detective who attempts to revive his once-celebrated career of solving mysteries by getting to the bottom of a murder in his hometown. The Kid Detective is a brilliant dark comedy from newcomer writer/director Evan Morgan with good laughs, plenty of plot twists, and a career-best performance from Brody, who proves he’s more than just the pretty face from The O.C. we all know him as.

8. Mank

Citizen Kane is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and Mank is a worthy tribute. Gary Oldman stars as the title character Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind the iconic film. David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl) managed to capture the epic scale of the 1941 classic that would make Orson Welles proud.

7. Soul

Soul is one of those rare existential Pixar films that goes beyond being children’s entertainment. Following in the footsteps of 2015′s Inside Out, Soul depicts what happens to the soul of a jazz musician who’s convinced his time on Earth isn’t over. While the universe created to explain how souls work and the plot that went along with it falls short of its emotions predecessor, Soul is still high-caliber among Pixar films and a great movie for both kids and adults alike.

6. Another Round

Perhaps the greatest work from Swedish director Thomas Vinterberg to date, Another Round follows four unsatisfied middle aged men who decide to take a theory of task from a Norwegian psychiatrist, who concluded that maintaining a blood alcohol level of 0.050 will enhance their mental and psychological state. Mads Mikkelsen, who’s best known to American audiences as Hannibal Lecter in the short-lived NBC series Hannibal and the Bond villain in Casino Royale, offers a strong, nuanced performance as one of the four educators who embraces this drinking challenge in a film that provides an equal balance of chuckles, cringes, and emotional gut punches.

5. I’m Thinking of Ending Things

From the crazy mastermind of Charlie Kaufman, the writer behind Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Anomalisa, his latest on Netflix is too a mind-bender. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a surreal, zany, and at times disturbing examination of the human condition as the nameless female protagonist played by an incredible Jessie Buckley mulls over breaking up with her boyfriend (played by Jesse Plemons) while visiting his parents’ house. Accompanied with a stellar production design and a crazy-good performance from Toni Collette as “Mother,” Kaufman newest cerebral feature lives up to his iconic reputation of filmmaking.

4. Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee is one of the few genius filmmakers who is able to blend multiple genres together and his latest film is no different. Da 5 Bloods is an action adventure, buddy comedy, dramatic character study, and war movie all wrapped up into one about a group of Vietnam War veterans who return to the former battlegrounds to find the remains of one of their fallen soldiers as well as some treasure that they kept hidden years ago. With a strong ensemble cast that includes the late Chadwick Boseman, its longtime character actor Delroy Lindo who steals the show with his powerful performance. Da 5 Bloods is easily one of Netflix’s strongest films to date.

3. The Assistant

One of the first #MeToo-era films, The Assistant offers the day in the life of a low-level female staffer of a production company who is haunted by the presence of her Harvey Weinstein-like boss (who never actually appears in the film). However, rather than depicting the dramatics of sexual misconduct, The Assistant uses the common subtleties and nuances of the workplace yet maintains the same tension and heartbreak. Anchored by the remarkable, devastating performance by up-and-comer Julia Garner (Ozark), The Assistant is as important as it is well-done.

2. Sound of Metal

Riz Ahmed gives the performance of his career as a heavy metal drummer and former addict whose sudden battle with going deaf upends his life. Sound of Metal is an incredible experience that gives a rare glimpse in the American deaf community which is enhanced by the remarkable sound design that helps the audience actually hear what the musician is going through. It’s truly one of the most rewarding films of the year.

1. The Climb

The Climb takes the generic “man sleeps with his best friend’s fiancé” storyline and turns it on its head. In his feature debut as writer and director, Michael Angelo Covino leads as the not-so-apologetic adulterer Mike and Kyle Marvin, who co-wrote the film, is the good-hearted Kyle who struggles to whether or not to forgive his best friend’s ultimately betrayal. Not only is The Climb is quirky and hilariously written, it’s a remarkably well-made comedy with some of the year’s best cinematography. Between a strong cast, a superb screenplay, and the extremely-high production value, The Climb is at the top of the mountain of 2020′s best films.

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planjess · 3 years

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Quartale, Heroverse, Drendy and the Machine, Nightmare Frights, PlushieTale, Video Game Mashup, Bush Guardians and Memories Harmony is a Sans Aus/Multiverse I made. In short they'll be called QK!, HV!, DATM!, NF!, PT!, VGMU!, BG! And MH! (For example QK!Dream if that makes sense) please tell me if the word QK!, HV!, DATM! Or NF! Is taken because I don't know and I'll change it

I'll edit when there's new characters in it so be sure to check it out

(All Au is still in work in progress (Edit There's no info about PT!, VGMU!, BG! And MH! Aus in this post since it's too much words))

Quartale

Vial Classic (UnderTale sans)

Propitious Classic (UnderTale Papy)

Itachi Saber (UnderFell sans)

Obito Saber (UnderFell Papy)

Course Storm (SwapFell Sans)

Suwappu Scratch (UnderSwap Sans)

Sutoretchi Scratch (UnderSwap Papy)

Error Glitch Queen (Error)

Gen O Queen (Geno)

Flaw Site Queen (Fresh)

F4ēßh¡?Īñk (Fresh!Ink)

Izanami White (ReaperTale)

Hachiwari white (Underverse/X-Tale/Cross)

Tsukumogami White (Ink)

Toby Axe (HorrorTale Sans)

Hollow Axe (HorrorTale Papy)

Scatter Red (DustTale Sans)

Clans Red (DustTale Papy/Phantom Papy)

Slayer Spade (KillerTale (not quite sure what his au is)

Dusk Sundown (Passive Nightmare/DreamTale)

Dawn Sundown (Dream/DreamTale)

Grey Midnight

Yami Midnight (Corrupted Nightmare/DreamTale)

Tamaken Lustitu (UnderLust Sans)

Tamaken Birunto (Birdtale Sans)

Techno Beater (DanceTale Sans)

Rika Lohan (ScienceTale/Science)

Riffle Rupaul (MafiaTale Sans)

Saturn Star (OuterTale Sans)

Orochimaru Lavender

Miguel Terror

Vince Terror

Berry Nightfall

Cholo Nightfall

Musubi Shadow (AlterTale Sans)

Kingsley lake (StoryShift Sans)

Caramel Hokum (CandyTale Sans)

Evan Emily (Empireverse Error)

Taisaku Weston (Epic Sans)

Niji Iro (Color Sans)

Vill Moreso (Bill Sans)

Eran Janika Queen (Error 404)

Coal Urria (Shattered Dream)

Futer Haloson

Lanian Core

Hopterson Lake

Hopper Lake

Encore Jaxton (Naj!Error)

Ness Aniston (Naj!Nightmare)

Noah Aniston (Naj!Dream)

Nezu Koto (Naj!Ink)

Paul Jaxton (PJ/Naj!PJ)

Cilantro Jaxton (Cil)

Gabriel Jaxton (Gradient)

Paige Ban (Pallet/Naj!Pallet)

Kakashi Harrow (Naj!Horror)

Steven Dutch (Naj!Dust)

Fafnir Jennifer (Naj!Fresh)

Gavin Jefferson (Goth)

Gowther Barnes (Crescent)

Marcelo Barnes (Merciless)

Luther Barnes (Magnus)

Vanya Ten (Colgar)

Snowy Templeton (Nava)

Devon Massimiliano (DS!Dream)

Nadja Massimiliano (DS!Nightmare)

Stern Watterson (DS!Ink)

Max Howard (DS!Cross)

Nino Erikson (DS!Error)

Darwin Awards (DS!Blue)

Yanglight Tangling(EV!Nightmare)

Louis Vuitton (EV!Ink)

Benny Blanco Tequila (EV!Dust)

Jordan Hearts (UnderKeep Sans)

(I might add more in the future so be sure to check)

Genocide Timelines

Blood (Classic)

Lost (Fell)

Shifter (Swap)

Eye (Raspberry)

Balance (Dream)

Destructive (Night/Passive)

Tentacles (Nightmare)

Lag (Geno)

Censor (Fresh)

Glitchy (Error)

Deathly (Reaper)

Sword (Cross)

Splash (Ink)

Skull (Horror)

Button (Dust)

Black Tear (Killer)

Heart (Lust)

Wings (Bird)

Mad (Sci)

Balletra (Dance)

Galaxies (Outer)

Asase (Riffle)

--------------------------------------------------

Heroverse

Lauren Suita (Lust - Black widow, Sapphire)

Robert Oribe (Epic - Raven)

Alnilam Saverin(Dream - Thor, Starfire)

Alnitak Saverin(Nightmare - Loki, Blackfire)

Skarra Kenyan (Dust - Killmonger)

Que Stravinsky (Killer - Harley Quinn)

Trevor Winters (Blue - poisedon)

Dian Parkinson (Ink - Wonder woman)

Hialeah Lawrence (Horror - Hulk)

Yumeko Iraq (Outer - Ghost Rider)

Aroma Diffuser (Error - Spiderman)

Matthew Cowherd (FlowerFell - Antman)

Saverin Karl (Classic - Superman)

Chile Willis (Farm - Poison Ivy)

Liam Alabama (Lavender - Groot)

Quentin Tarantino (Asy - billy numerous)

Tanner Lai (Geno - Ironman)

Kaeper Rai (Reaper - DeadPool, Spawn)

Kai Parker (Science - Cyborg)

Bruce Tengo (Blackberry - Venom)

Edwardo Torres (Ccino - Green Lantern)

Xavier Callie (Cross - Red X)

Doris Kearns (Raspberry - Giganta)

Albert Miller (BirdtaleSans - Hawkeye, Hawkman)

Vito Alvaro (Fresh - Doctor Octopus)

Maximo Soler (Fell - Human Torch)

Erith Zo (Swap - Captain America)

Matson Harwich (Alpha - Livewire)

Keith Nicole (cheshire - Cheetah)

Jonathan Woods (Mafia - Batman)

Heng Chua (Gaster Sans - Katana)

Samuel George (UnderKeep Sans - DarkSeid)

Maverick Lee (PokeTale Sans - miss martian)

Quaver Snō (Candy - cheshire)

Vitor Belfort (Color - Aquaman)

Aaron Eduardo (Abyss - Doctor Strange)

Pax Livia (Azure - Beast boy)

Trevor Lawrence (TimeKid - Flash)

Rick Tornad (HeavenFell - Angel)

Nolen Patrick (MonoFell - Ghost)

Grim Shakes (Sugar - big barda)

Colleen Aquarius (SwapSwap - Dark Vader)

Altair Saverin (Alter - Hela)

Katharina Elenor (Neko - Catwoman)

Ging Otavio (Dance - Killer Frost)

Tenya Nezuko (Tone - Jinx)

Jared Lahiffe (Bill - Yellow lantern)

Hero/Neutral/Villain names

Hearts (Lust)

Dark (Epic)

Lighting Strike (Dream)

Showdown Dust (Nightmare)

Tiger (Dust)

Quinn (Killer)

Wanters (Blue)

Wonder (Ink)

Fist (Horror)

Meteorite (outer)

Corinnid (Error)

Dolichoderinae (FlowerFell)

Strangle (Classic)

Hemlock (Farm)

Riot (Lavender)

Double Trouble (Asy)

Steel (Geno)

Duke (Reaper)

Robo Side (Science)

Poison Goop (Blackberry)

Emerald (Ccino)

X Void (Cross)

Giganry (Raspberry)

Eagle Eye (Birdtale Sans)

Doctor Parasite (Fresh)

Flamethrower (Fell)

Captain Star (Swap)

Zapped (Alpha)

Gepards (Cheshire)

Moth (Mafia)

Sharp Blade (Echo/Gaster Sans)

Jester Cards (UnderKeep Sans)

Landorus (PokeTale Sans)

Dulce (Candy)

Rain (Color)

Gem Stones (Abyss)

Ani Shift (Azure/Lamia Sans)

Time Travel (TimeKid)

Heaven (HeavenFell)

Invisible United (MonoFell)

Al bar (Sugar)

Opposite (SwapSwap)

Donkere vleugels (Alter)

Kitty (Neko)

Rasta (Dance)

Silencer (Tone)

Canary (Bill)

--------------------------------------------------

Drendy and the Machine

Drendy (Dream/Bendy)

Nightris (Nightmare/Boris)

Ali (Ink/Alice)

Etor (Error/The Projectionist)

Darren (Dust/The Butcher Gang)

Hollen (Horror/The Butcher Gang)

Kiren (Killer/The Butcher Gang)

Ben Ross (Cross/Sammy)

Roller (Blue/Big Roller coaster man)

Henrik (Frisk/Henry)

--------------------------------------------------

Nightmare Frights

Frights (Nightmare)

Lynx (Alter)

Strava (Shattered)

Cray (CQ Error)

Grime (CQ Geno)

Servo (CQ Fresh)

Cord (NAJ!Dust)

Drim (NAJ!Killer)

Angst (Virus)

Fluid (Killer)

Filth (Dust)

Wraith (Phantom)

Silliness (Horror)

Acid (Fresh)

Lunac (Lust/UnLust)

Malf (EV!Error)

Shiner (EV!Dream)

Warp (Geno)

Pixel (Error)

Scape (Dream)

Lang (Passive)

Livio (DS!Dream)

Tence (DS!Night)

Flames (SD!Dream)

Danger (Explum)

Care (Cross)

Chen (Blue)

Panel (Ink)

Plebes (Parable)

Ke (Epic)

Rito (Bill)

Senseless (Asy)

Caffeine (Ccino)

Cess (Template)

If you want info about them tell me ;v;

#undertale au #undertale #writing #explaining

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sssshhhthefilmsabouttostart · 3 years

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The best and worst films of 2020

Let’s be honest - 2020 was an extremely shitty year for moviegoers everywhere, as the Queen would say an annus horribilis.

Due to the Covid pandemic’s dramatic impact on nearly every facet of human life, cinemas closed, film festivals went virtual and film productions became an intricate mess of insurance and safety challenges.

Yet despite these dire challenges and an unpredictable future, cinema remained very much alive throughout the year, with a wide range of ambitious undertakings snaking their way into whatever form of release seemed viable. Blockbusters receded to the background, allowing a wide range of movies to trickle through an uncertain marketplace that would have been hostile to them even in pre-pandemic times.

So what cinematic gems and unmitigated disasters were dropped upon audiences during the year?

Ladies and gentlemen, may we please offer for your consideration...

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

THE CURRENT WAR - THE LIGHTHOUSE - IN FABRIC - BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY (D) - BOMBSHELL - THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON - THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (D) - LIGHT OF MY LIFE - THE ASSISTANT - THE LODGE - THE GENTLEMEN - THE WAY BACK - DARK WATERS - 1917 - THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY - THE HUNT

2020′S TOP TEN BEST FILMS

10. THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW

Hot off the critical success of his debut feature ‘Thunder Road,’ writer-director Jim Cummings’ refreshing yet effective take on the werewolf genre amped up the dark comedy whilst delivering quite a few chills. Tinged with realistically flawed characters and clever scares, ‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow’ might not have been your typical werewolf flick but it successfully managed to bring that classic legend to life once again.

9. LET HIM GO

Previously last seen together as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents in ‘Man of Steel,’ Diane Lane and Kevin Costner were reunited onscreen as husband and wife again in writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s neo-Western drama ‘Let Him Go.’ Adapted from author Larry Watson’s 2013 novel, the film featured stunning landscapes, full-blooded moments of sudden violence and compelling performances from Diane Lane, Kevin Costner and, most memorably, Lesley Manville’s turn as a gritty and cunning matriarch.

8. COLOUR OUT OF SPACE

Based on the classic short story by HP Lovecraft and featuring another scene-stealing performance from Nicolas Cage, this clever adaptation was an effective horror film with an unrelentingly grim sci-fi bent. In addition to the truly disturbing and inspired images of queasy body horror, ‘Colour Out of Space’ also marked the eagerly-anticipated re-emergence of filmmaker Richard Stanley (his first time back in the director’s chair since being fired from his 1996 remake ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’).

7. THE INVISIBLE MAN

Who knew a remake could be so refreshing? With this updated take on the H.G. Wells tale, writer-director Leigh Whannell did just about everything right, delivering a tense, clever thriller with touches of both horror and sci-fi. As the fascinatingly flawed yet appealing tough protagonist, Elisabeth Moss gave a captivating performance in a film that was chilling in all the right ways, packed with plenty of twists and a deliciously nasty resolution.

6. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (NETFLIX)

Whilst the subject matter of ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7′ shared an uncanny relevance to today’s politically charged times, as a gripping courtroom drama with a stellar cast, the film ticked all the boxes. ‘West Wing’ creator Aaron Sorkin put his trademark traits - razor-sharp wit, rhetorical flair and political insight - to very good use in this masterful retelling of the trial following the 1968 anti-war protests outside the Democratic National Convention.

5. HEARTS AND BONES

In his debut feature film, Australian director Ben Lawrence created a spiritually rich and immersive drama about the relationship between a grizzled, broken war photographer and a Sudanese refugee. Whilst Hugo Weaving was note-perfect in his portrayal as a crumbling man wrestling with his past, equally impressive was first time actor Andrew Luri who delivered a quiet yet memorable performance in what was an affecting piece of cinema.

4. TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL (DOCUMENTARY)

Watching a documentary about the COVID-19 crisis in the middle of a global pandemic might not sound appealing but prolific filmmaker Alex Gibney’s latest work was easily the most essential non-fiction film of 2020. Shot safely in secret for five months, ‘Totally Under Control’ played out like a tightly-wound thriller as it placed the Trump Administration’s inept response to the coronavirus pandemic under the microscope.

3. BAD EDUCATION (HBO)

As far as crime stories go, embezzlement isn’t always the most thrilling subject. However, ‘Bad Education’ turned a relatively simple white collar crime story about a New Jersey school administrator caught stealing money into a compelling drama, thanks to an incisive and nimble script and spot on performances from Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ray Romano and especially Hugh Jackman.

2. MANK (NETFLIX)

Director David Finch’s dazzling portrait of Herman J. ‘Mank’ Mankiewicz, the screenwriter who collaborated with wunderkind filmmaker Orson Welles to write the first draft of ‘Citizen Kane,’ was a cinematic jewel from start to finish. Similar to last year’s ‘Once Upon A Time in...Hollywood,’ ‘Mank’ delivered a layered depiction of the filmmaking process, whilst Gary Oldman continued to excel at immersing himself in playing real-life characters, this time as the hard-drinking, intellectual screenwriter.

1. NOMADLAND

Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s intimate drama about an unemployed widow living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad was a thoughtful, contemplative and reflective piece of storytelling. It may have touched upon mature themes about loneliness, financial instability and restlessness, but ‘Nomadland’ remained an uplifting and hopeful piece of cinema that captured the various bittersweet reasons people choose to live a life on the road.

With an outstanding performance from Frances McDormand, brought to life through the charm of the ‘real life’ supporting cast, great direction and Joshua James Richard’s mesmerising cinematography, ‘Nomadland’ was the perfect film for 2020.

...AND NOW THE WORST!

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS

VAMPIRES VS THE BRONX - BAD BOYS FOR LIFE - THE OLD GUARD - PROJECT POWER - ISN’T IT ROMANTIC - THE RHYTHM SECTION - WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE - I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS - MIDWAY - YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT - BABY DONE - FORCE OF NATURE - CAPONE - THE NEW MUTANTS - DOOLITTLE

10. WONDER WOMAN 1984

To quote Red Letter Media’s resident film critic Mike Stoklasa, “this movie was the cinematic equivalent of the Bluesmobile.” Directed by Patty Jenkins, this 80′s-set sequel to the 2017 DC superhero hit was lethargically paced and featured a completely bonkers narrative that made absolutely no sense. Horribly scripted, disjointed and overstuffed (a runtime of 2.5 hours), ‘Wonder Woman 1984′ sadly jettisoned everything that made Jenkins’ original film so compelling. The result? An appalling misfire.

9. THE GRUDGE

A curiously talented and interesting cast were somehow lured into - and subsequently wasted in - this pointless, tired, reboot/revival of the long-running ‘Ju-On’ Japanese-based horror series. Despite director NIcholas Pesce’s attempt to disguise the rudimentary nature of the plot via back-and-forth timeline jumping, ‘The Grudge’ was just a formulaic paint-by-the-numbers meander through a poorly developed story that existed only to prop up a bunch of uninspired jump scares.

8. BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

There are many movies that have no reason to exist - and this latest misfire from DC Comics was one of them. Directed by Cathy Yan, ‘Birds of Prey’ was a mire of uninspired ideas and recycled genre conventions that got old real quick. Penned by Christina Hodson (’Bumblebee’ being the ‘highlight’ on her resume), the script was as simplistic as it was thin, with needless subplots merely introduced to inflate the film to a decent running time. Even Margot Robbie’s manic performance as the ‘Mistress of Mayhem’ couldn’t save this mess.

7. JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT

What could’ve been a dream film for fans of these two classic stoner characters instead was nothing but a string of cameos and callbacks in a plot-less bore. Director Kevin Smith sucked all the life and fun out of this watered-down story, that suffered from a constant series of awkward and forced jokes that were painfully unfunny. An unfortunate stinker.

6. AVA

This latest foray into the ‘female assassin for hire’ genre was about as cliched as you could get. An emotionally troubled female killer whose male mentor assumes the role of the surrogate father? Check. Pounding dance music score? Check. Obligatory nightclub fight sequence? Check. Confused love interest? You betcha! Humourless, dry and uninspired, ‘Ava’ played out like a poor man’s ‘La Femme Nikita.’

5. FANTASY ISLAND

Hollywood’s obsession with repackaging Gen-X childhoods continued with this absurd attempt to reboot the classic 1970′s TV series as a low-budget horror joint under the Blumhouse label. At a dangerously close two hour runtime, there was simply nothing interesting about the film’s characters or its inane plot about a mystical island that grants wishes (a’la ‘The Monkey’s Paw’). Our advice? Turn ‘de plane’ around if you ever plan to visit this ‘Fantasy Island.’

4. ARTEMIS FOWL

For every ‘Harry Potter’ that explodes into the public consciousness, there always seems to be a dozen or more failed franchises. Sadly, Disney’s ‘Artemis Fowl’ found itself in the latter category. Director Kenneth Branagh’s dull and superficial attempt to transfer this popular children’s book series from page to screen suffered from a lack of character development, an over-reliance in CG effects and featured a lifeless performance from newcomer Ferdia Shaw as the titular character.

3. HUBIE HALLOWEEN (NETFLIX)

A month before last year’s Oscar nominations were released, Adam Sandler joked on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ that if the Academy snubbed him for his role in the film ‘Uncut Gems,’ he would make a movie “that [was] so bad on purpose.” And that’s exactly what happened. Supposedly a comedy, ‘Hubie Halloween’ was unfunny, disposable and completely devoid of any originality. Sadly for audiences, Sandler signed a four-movie deal with Netflix last year, worth up to $275 million - so we can expect to see more of this shit soon!

2. ALIEN ADDICTION

Aliens visit New Zealand and get high smoking human faeces? Someone should have advised Kiwi director Shae Sterling that audiences have moved on from such puerile comedies as this abomination. Suffice to say, if anybody ever admitted to finding this film remotely funny, they’d probably be outcast from society. An embarrassment to all those involved.

1. THE BEACH BUM

Director Harmony Korine’s generic stoner comedy about a prolific poet who drifts through life in a drug-induced haze had all the natural high of an unfiltered, soggy joint and was easily, hands down, 2020′s worst film.

‘The Beach Bum’ was a pretentious and uninteresting movie whose lead character, considered to be an ‘artistic genius,’ was nothing more than a relentless shithead to everyone around him. As Moondog, the semi-naked, bongo-playing, pot-fuelled beat poet, Matthew McConaughey was insufferable and grating in his portrayal of a character you would quite easily want to punch in the face - repeatedly. Blazed and confused, ‘The Beach Bum’ had no plot, no class and no entertainment value whatsoever.

MOVIE POSTERS

From the classic to the abstract, here is just a sample of some of the best poster designs from a highly unusual year of movies.

...AND FINALLY, WHEN WHEN IT COMES TO DIRE-LOG, THEY SAID WHAT!?

“I've never wanted anything more. But he's gone, and that's the truth. And everything has a price. One I'm not willing to pay. Not any more. This world was a beautiful place, just as it was, and you cannot have it all. You can only have the truth. And the truth is enough. The truth is beautiful” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

And who could forget this little chestnut of advice...

“That is the only truth and truth is all there is. You cannot be the winner because you are not ready to win. And there is no shame in that. Only in knowing the truth in your heart and not accepting it. No true hero is born from lies” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

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capsicle · 4 years

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name: rosie

age: [checks smudged writing on palm] 26

pronouns: she/her

star sign: gemini (love me some twin symbolism)

favorite piece of gothic horror or dark academia: truly this is like picking amongst my children but the classic staples of dracula, frankenstein, edgar allan poe, the whole lovecraft/arkham vibe!! also here to stan for the entierty of the secret history.

favorite spooky movie/show: depending on the like ~mood, here are a few to showcase range: sleepy hollow, hannibal, the cabinet of dr. caligari, crimson peak, penny dreadful

what’s your halloween costume: tbh i haven’t thought about this but like diane in bojack horseman is a very real possibility

#thirdeyerp #this is my first time on tumblr in four years send help #also greetings friends it's lovely to meet you all!!

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artdaily7 · 4 years

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Sonnet XV by Maximilian Voloshin Pure pearl of silence brooding on the sky, Presider o'er conception, lamp of dreams, Altar of nightly spells, of crystal gleams, Queen of the waters where thou lov'st to lie, With what desire, where the long waves sigh, Through my dark crucifixions, toward thy beams, Toward Dian, toward fierce Hecate, there streams The vision yet unlived that shall not die. How strange thy diamond delirium shines In thy fair hollows, in thy joyless lines, And in the flashing mica of thy seas. In listless ether thou art horror's face, Thou, longing's cry, whom icy gaolers freeze, Thou, dead world's avid corpse, cast out on space. Zinaida Serebryakova 1909 At the dressing-table. Self-portrait, oil on canvas, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

#Maximilian Voloshin #Zinaida Serebryakova #Serebryakova #Zinaida #At the dressing-table #Sonnet XV #Sonnets #Poetry #Poems #Art #Painting #Fine Arts #Russian Painters #Female Painters #Self Portrait #Voloshin

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jazzy-art-time · 4 years

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[ This was a blurb or summthin that I had in my notes! I found a lot of writing things in my notes on my phone that I never uploaded/completed? This one WAS complete so... Figured I would upload it?? ITS BADLY WRITTEN BUT.... whatever.] [ WARNING, CONTAINS: Violence, blood, gore, swearing, child endangerment/child harm. As well as suggestive stuff being mentioned! Take care if you read ] - - The world was fading in and out.

Jody’s eyes slowly attempted to adjust to what had just happened. Her head and body aching from the sudden jerk and turns. Her hearing had not yet returned but she manages to sit up slowly.

The carriage was on its side, the glass windows were shattered, scattering shards around her. Some appeared to be stuck in her arm, the young scraggy winces as she notices a rather large piece stuck in her shoulder. But otherwise she seemed fine, other than her head aching. As her hearing slowly returned she attempted to look out a torn hole in the roof, which was now on the side, to see if anyone else was still around.

She was returning from a special event being held in her kingdoms court. Jody had no idea what it was about really, but due to her royal status as the King’s eldest daughter, she was required to be there. She hardly paid attention the entire time, she just wanted to go back home away from father to play with her baby sister. She was learning how to walk and Jody, although not fully experienced herself, was excited to teach her. She would been finally be able to take Diane out for a walk in the garden without having to carry her in all those ridiculous protective blankets.

Her parents... Mom and Father, where was their carriage? The Scraggy grabs her head in pain as she attempts to get a firm grip on reality, desperately searching for her parents location. The dark forest did not seem to have any signs of them, the slight patches of light through the tops of the trees not helping in the slightest.

She peers over to her side and squeaks in alarm, as one of the lanterns from the side of the carriage had shattered open and was starting to set fire to the seating. Quickly as she scrambles out to avoid the flames, a loud screaming blares into her ears. Although she had escaped the small fire of the chariot, there seemed to be a even bigger threat, the creature that appeared to have knocked them over.

It was two ursarings, feral by the looks of their hollow non-sentient eyes and matted fur. Their teeth flashed yellow and red as they growled over a pile of unknown flesh. ..... However the larger one of the two appeared to have a familiar bit of lace stuck in his fangs.

That pile of flesh and bones must have been Daisy, A member of the help who helped Jody get dressed every day and tried to teach her proper manners. Jody never did enjoy how rough she got when she would smack the young scraggy with a ruler when she misbehaved but, she didn’t deserve this.

As much as Jody wanted to cry and scream for her mother, her eyes darted towards the source of the screaming. The driver appeared to be pinned underneath a broken part of the wooden carriage, legs crushed by the weight and seemed to have hit his head rather hard on the ground. But his screaming wasn’t directed towards that fact.

One of the ursaring began to move towards him, their snarling and claws dragging across the ground the only sound aside from the poor man’s shrieks of terror. He was pleading for his life, not to the ursaring but to whatever god was willing to listen. Between the prayers of promising to be a better man and fighting that he was too young to die just then, was pure screaming of terror and agony as he attempted to move the chariot crushing him.

Jody shrieked in horror as she suddenly saw the man’s head being ripped from his body, a piece of his spine still dangling down from the jaws of the large bear. Her loud shriek did not go unnoticed however, as the ursaring in the distance had turned towards her, obviously not aware of her existence until she accidentally made a sound. The other continued to bite and claw at the corpse on the ground, no longer the driver, but merely a meal.

She couldn’t move. The only thing moving was her heart beat thudding in her chest harder than it ever had, even the ritual with that priest before wasn’t as terrifying as this. The ursaring remained its course towards her, its hollow rage filled gaze fixated on her, ready to bust out into a sprint after her if she dared even moved. This was it.

She knew she couldn’t outrun this beast, even if she could, she would tire out way before it did. She had felt fear before on multiple occasions, but this felt worse than anything she had ever experienced. She was trapped in a open clearing, no possible escape, the helplessness she felt began to practically ache as she watched the beast grudge towards her at a leisurely pace.

Jody didn’t know what Death was fully. Her only real knowledge is that if a person ‘died’ they just wouldn’t be around anymore, like when Aunt Dutch went on her fancy vacations but it was for a very very long time. Jody didn’t know the pain that came with death, but somehow she knew that whatever the bear was going to do to her was going to be one of the most agonizing things she would feel.

She didn’t want to die, she wanted to be with her mother and sister. She wanted to see Diane walk and teach her all the things she had learn in private lessons. Just to place her pretty princess cap over her siblings head one more time to watch her tiny body get hidden inside, only to remove the cap quickly to watch her baby sibling squeak with delight. She wanted Mother to hug her or read her that one book about the puppy who got lost but found a new home. She wanted to watch her father get beaten up by.. well anything, maybe watch a maid accidentally drop a vase on his foot again. But she knew, that there wasn’t going to be a chance for any of those anymore. The last thing she said to her sister was a kiss on the head and a goodbye, with a promise to show her how to play with dolls. Her mother’s last words was that she would see her back at home and she was going to make honey biscuits. At least none of them were sour, her final conversations would have at least been kind.

Jody shakily covered her eyes, she didn’t want to see what was going to happen next, maybe once it was over she could uncover them. The ursaring took a sharp inhale at her sudden movement and let out a raspy snarl as it began to charge at her, leaping with its claws extended at her.

Jody’s grip tightened on her face and curled her tail around herself protectively at the sound of the beast bounding closer and closer. Any second now it was coming and it would be over quickly, right?

.....

....

Any second now the pain was coming!

...

Maybe death isn’t painful at all?... Jody waited patiently once more with her eyes covered, surely it was gonna happen!

...

drip

.....

drip

Here it was! Pain! Agony! Death!..... This is it! Dripping oozing death!

....

drip

....

drip..

...

Jody continued to feel wet drops on her forehead as her eyes remained covered.

Wet? Was death wet? Was this supposed to be painful? Maybe she was strong and she didn’t feel the pain?

....

drip

.....

Slowly Jody peered between her fingers curiously, was she dead yet? The scraggy quickly recovered her eyes once more out of fear. Nope! Not yet! Maybe just a minute more then death?

...

Nothing..

She once again peered through her fingers, what was taking so long? As her sight refocused on what was in front of her she got confused. It was the bears chest! What was it doing? Was it standing over her? Was it waiting for her to look at it? Does death require you to look at whatever’s killing you? Jody stared at the beasts chest between her fingers in confusion. The bloody matted fur had blood slowly oozing down it in streams, but it wasn’t the same blood from before from what was left of the maid... Jody uncovered her eyes fully and slowly began to look up to see what the creature was doing and figure out what was dripping on her. Snapping her head upward to face the creature’s head, almost accusingly of taking so long with killing her.

But there wasn’t a head.

A mangled stump where the head should have been was dripping blood onto her face. Slowly more and more blood began to poor out as the body shuddered and fell over in front of her. Jody shakily began to wipe the blood from her face and eyes to get a better look at what had unfolded before her. What happened? Heads just don’t go away! Was this how peek-a-boo was supposed to go and it turns out Mother was just really bad at it? She nervously looked over where the other beast was, it was staring in her direction snarling loudly, slowly getting into a defensive stance.

Why was it looking at her like that? She didn’t do anything! Jody trembled in place as she stared at the other beast. Her eyes squint a bit at it, it wasn’t staring at her exactly was it? Jody wasn’t that tall, well she would like to be that tall but sadly she wasn’t. Maybe if she was that tall she could kiss mother’s cheek without help! But it certainly was looking in her direction although, but it seemed it was looking behind her almost?

Her head attempted to slowly turn to look behind her to confirm her theory, only to jump as the dead ursarings head is suddenly dropped right beside her. The tiny lizard squeaks in horror and quickly scoots away from the decapitated head. It was smelly and dripping blood like crazy, gross! Scary! She whips her head behind her to spot the culprit of the action and freezes.

It was a big houndoom. Was it? Something was off about it, it looked more mangled than others. Standing on hind legs like a sentient person and not a feral beast. It’s fur was shades of dark reds than black. The most of its skeleton appearing to be on the outside of its body. It’s horns curled around the sides of its head and it’s face... of lack of face... seemed to be covered by a glowing red star. Jody’s blood slowly chills as she seems to somehow recognize the star marking, the fear was lukewarm and somewhat hazy. Her memories seemed to be almost repressed. Memories of walking into the darkened room with the priest... a chill and a outline of a dog... a bright red star... then a bite.... Pain and screaming.. All of the memories seemed to be trapped in her head so she couldn’t fully remember what had happened..

Did a dog bite her? Maybe... the fear in her chest felt like she had been bitten by this creature before.. But why would a man bite her? They didn’t look feral!

Thoughts scrambled in Jody’s head as she attempted to remember, grabbing her head in almost a pained stance. The houndoom however, merely looked down at her with a grimace. Clearly not enjoying the sight of her there. Jody couldn’t help but whimper a bit as it faced towards her, hoping it wouldn’t take off her head like the Ursaring that once stood before her.. she needed her head! The Houndoom simply made a motion as if it was rolling its eyes and walked past her, not interested in dealing with her right that second.

Jody watched as the Houndoom stood in front of the beast in a non threatening stance and began to speak. “Run along now. You’ve eaten a entire maid, you don’t need anything else you lard filled maggot” His voice sounded bored and irritated, not even bothering to make eye contact with the beast before him, instead looking at his nails with a look of disgust and flicking off chunks of ursaring flesh from them. The bear in front of them snarled threateningly, fur rising on every point of its body in pure rage. The houndoom’s body glanced over at the corpse of it’s fellow bear, smirking a bit. “Oh, was that your mate? Guess you’ll need someone else to court now darling.” They let out a cocky laugh at the beasts expense, clearly taking some pleasure in this fact. Tail swishing back and forth with a slight swagger in his step as he continued forward to the bear. “Don’t worry, you’ll be together again soon.” Jody didn’t bother to see what happened next, in fact, she was already a good 18 feet away after he uttered his last sentence. Jody knew that he was going to mutilate that bear just like he did the first and she didn’t want to be around to be in the cross fire. The scraggy struggled to sprint in the dense brush and weeds, her overly puffy dress snagging on anything that came close. Legs wobbling as she still hadn’t quite perfected the balance of being on two legs, most her age probably could walk perfectly by now but, she was very coddled and didn’t walk much in the castle.

The roar and screeching in the distance behind her was all the motivation her adrenaline needed to keep pounding forward, well balanced or not she was determined to keep getting as far away as she could from that place. Not caring if she was heading deeper into the woods, farther and farther away from the path home. She just wanted the hell out of there and away from that... thing. The scraggy kept running and running, a good 15 minutes had passed without her stopping, to her however it felt like a eternity of running. Jody stops by a creek, panting and heaving heavily, her lungs feeling as if they were on fire. Falling to her knees suddenly as she continues to gasp for air, holding her arm tightly. The side with the glass shard began to hurt much more, as the various bushes and thorns had scraped up her skin. The once beautiful pale pink gown that she had specially made, father said it costed a fortune and rubbed that fact in her face, was absolutely destroyed. She desperately tried to cover up parts of her that were exposed, both due to the freezing night air as well as embarrassment. Everyone always said a ‘princess must be modest and never show too much skin’ , Jody didn’t know if that fact applied to gaps on the side torn open by thorns, but she didn’t want to find out. The thought of Daisy finding out about her showing too much skin and ruining her gown filled the scraggy with anxiety, before Jody stops suddenly and slumps down That’s right... Daisy is dead. As her breathing slowed, she hugged her knees and stared at the small body of water before her, thinking about what she was to do next. She couldn’t find her way home, the only way back was to go near... the carriage accident... She certainly wasn’t doing that. She was taught to never talk to strangers, too many people would love to ‘kidnap her for ransom’..... whatever that means. But Mother seemed horribly worried about it, even when she was sick in bed she would always tell Jody to never go outside without aid. So it must be pretty bad... Maybe if she waited here long enough, they would come and find her! Maybe Father would send out a search for her this time! She didn’t like him much, but she knew that since Father had the Priest take her into the dark room with her, he seemed happier! Mommy seemed to get better after that too so maybe she was on the good list now! She was a good girl! Surely they would come look for her! Yeah! Jody wiped away the tears in her eyes with determination. If they were gonna find her, she would need to look pretty! She looks at her injured shoulder with squinted eyes, she would have to deal with this first before she can clean her dress. With the glass shard in her arm it would just keep bleeding and ruining the dress more and more. The scraggy grasps the edge of the shard slowly, wincing in the process, then yanks suddenly in a feeble attempt to pull it out. The scraggy shrieks in pain and grabs her hand whimpering, the shard still in her shoulder and in more pain than ever, as well as a fresh cut mark on the palm of her hand. The sharp edge of it easily cutting through her flesh when she attempted to rip it out, not even budging the shard. Jody curls into her body a bit, hugging her hand and trying her best not to cry, failing miserably. “Were you dropped on your head as a infant or is this just natural stupidity.” The sudden voice beside her caused Jody to yelp and fall to her side. Her teared filled eyes staring at the thing beside her. The houndoom from before was crouched next to her, his large body looming over her almost like a tree. The lack of eyes didn’t stop the feeling that it was staring right into hers and it didn’t seem happy. Jody’s instinct was to instantly jump into the tiny creek in front of them, her body lunging forward into the ankle deep water. Laying on her back she stared at the creature in front of her with fear, perhaps it had come back to kill her off like it did the ursaring! But it was a houndoom, it couldn’t go into the water! She had read that fire types are only okay in hot water but cold water they were helpless! The creek water only went up to her wrist, but she felt safer in the water than she did on land next to it. “Oh I get it, you’re both. Naturally stupid with a bit of help by a clumsy nanny.” The houndoom seemed more irritated by the second. Leaning forward and grabbing each of Jody’s temples with its claws and lifting her out of the water. The scraggy wiggled and squeaked in pain at the claws digging into her skull but couldn’t even wrap her hands around even one of his fingers. The houndoom shook her a bit to cause more discomfort and pain as he continued to speak in a low grumble. “Do you honestly think THAT tiny creek is going to hinder me in even the slightest?” The houndoom tosses Jody onto the ground like a piece of crumbled paper, landing face first into the dirt and grass below. Any yelp or whimper made by the scraggy was muffled and more of a wheeze of pain. The houndoom stood up, now towering even taller before her and let out a audible snort of disgust. “I swear I know children are just starting out life but good god you are the stupidest I’ve ever seen yet! ‘oh im gonna run away on my tiny wobbly pretty princess legs and think that this mere piss of a creek will protect me!’ fucking pathetic.” The canine spat at the child below him, her mere existence seeming to cause him more and more irritation. Jody attempted to push herself up only to fall down on her stomach again, the pain and exhaustion clearly setting in at a fast pace. The houndoom grimaced at the sight and began to slowly pace back and forth in the small clearing they were in, footsteps booming in Jody’s ears. “I just don’t get why I got the shit end here! I went from a fuckable whore to just-” the houndoom’s voice snarled and tiny embers sparking from its teeth “-A CHILD.” The tiny scraggy’s body easily got lifted by the canine’s tail as it held it up to his face “What even worth ARE YOU to my Mistress Abyssmial? Pathetic.” The tail holding up Jody suddenly swipes out from underneath her, causing her to fall to the ground with a thud, knocking what little breath she had out of her lungs. The creature above her scoffs and bends down to her level. “You know, I was planning on fucking your mother... Whether she agreed or not. Tight ass ‘n whatnot. Prolly could take in whatever I shoved in.” The houndoom smiled and cocked his head to the side. “Maybe THAT’S why my Mistress allowed that king to pawn the curse onto you, worried I would enjoy fucking your mother more than her-” “s...stop talking about my... m-mommy... like that.” The houndoom slowly turned his head back to the child, who was attempting to sit up once more. “I.. d-don’t know what you.... a-are saying but... S-SToP iT...” Jody’s words were a pathetic hiss as she struggled to get off her stomach. The houndoom’s previous irritation quickly melted into uncontrollable amusement at the child’s efforts to be threatening. “AHAH... Really now? Telling me to stop but you haven’t the slightest fucking idea what I’m talking about. Don’t even know what fucking is, betcha don’t know what a cock is either. Guess I can’t say about how your mother would be choking on it.” A wicked smile slid across the houndooms face as it spoke in a cocky manner, he knew she didn’t know what any of that was, but the mere fact of the child getting so riled up over it filled him with joy. Jody slowly managed to sit herself up enough to hold her gaze into his. “I d-don’t know... w-what that m-means.. But you s-sound... like... FathEr.....” The scraggy’s voice merely a raspy hiss, he pupils narrowing as she gazed at the powerful creature looming over her. “I DON’T LIKE FATHER.” The scraggy spit in the houndoms face and continued to hiss at him. Jody barely had time to duck or even blink as the houndooms hand suddenly slammed against her head, forcing her face into the dirt before being yanked up, the creatures hand’s slowly crushing her head. He wipes the spit off his cheek with a sneer and holds Jody up to his face. “You really are fucking stupid kid. You have absolutely NO idea who you are dealing with, do you.” Jody struggled under his hand, shrieking a bit and desperately trying to get out of his grip, fists banging against his fingers feebly. “I save your worthless ass from wild bears and you spit on my face? Spoiled bitch! Did I hurt your feewings? Boo fucking hoo princess. You could be gut deep and shat out by a wild animal by now and I could be back where I wanna be. But no, instead of letting the kid die for once, I showed some kindness and you SPIT. IN. MY. FACE. All because you have some stupid daddy issues. I expect an apology.” The houndoom’s grip on Jody’s skull tightens even more as he speaks. “Right. Now.” Jody’s eyes struggled to focus on the houndoom in front of her, the pain just wouldn’t stop. Her shoulder... her legs... her lungs... her head... everything hurt so much... Why wouldn’t the pain stop. What did she DO? What has she possibly done to have any of this happen? The scraggy’s eyes filled with tears as she heard the houndoom laugh, he began to make more comments about her but she stopped hearing anything. Her eyes focused on the glowing star replacing the houndoom’s face.... That star.... that glowing.. red star... Her pupils slowly began to dilate as everything in her sight began to get fuzzy and dark, only the red star remained clear... That red star... That evening.... The Priest.... The Dark room... The bite.... no... it wasn’t a bite was it?.... It was just... that red star.... That. God. Damn. Red. Star. Jody’s teeth began to grind and lips curling into a snarl as her eyes focus more and more... more than even possible. It was Father’s fault. That red star was here... was there in the room.... was on Mother when she was sick.... because of FATHER. Jody felt a burning on her cheek but the pain didn’t seem to bother her. No pain seemed to bother her right now. All that mattered was that red star. The world slowly came back into view as her hearing began to return, the world appeared to have lost some color. The once blue hues of the evening suddenly appeared more... gray... Soon enough The houndoom’s voice beginning to ring clear again, but it didn’t matter to her. She wasn’t listening to him anymore. “I. SAID. STOP. TALKING.” The scraggy shrieked and suddenly swung her legs forward, scratching the houndoom’s face. Caught by surprise, the beast suddenly dropped her to grab his face in slight pain. Jody landed with a hard thud but sat back up again with a pained wheeze, eyes glaring up at the houndoom with hatred. “W̵h̶A̷T̷ ̸T̵h̴e̴ ̶F̴U̶C̵ ̶K̴ ̶W̵A̶S̷ ̸T̴H̸A̷T̴” The houndoom snarled down at the scraggy and raised a hand up to smack her, she didn’t hurt him all that bad but he still was insulted and wanted her to pay for it. Jody however, now showed no fear, the scraggy stood up in a defensive stance, a mixture of high pitched snarls and hisses spat out from her. As the creature swung down at her, the lizard jumped onto his wrist and began to bite and claw at his flesh, any attempt to cause pain. Swatting his arm up and down several times, the houndoom manages to fling the scraggy off of him, clutching the minimal yet surprising damage to his skin. Jody lands on her back a little bit across the clearing, but huffs and manages to stand up again, although a bit lopsided with a limp. The houndoom looked over in almost surprise as he noticed the scraggy’s defensive posture, as she was once again hissing and snarling and spitting. His anger appeared to subside at the sight, not impressed but... almost. Took a lot of balls to stand up to a demon such as himself.... hell it’s surprising the kid hadn’t pissed herself and or already died. His posture changes from hostile to more relaxed, shrugging off the tiny assault he just went through. Slowly circling the scraggy, he stared her up and down, watching her continue to hiss and spit and attempt to attack his ankles, even allowing her to throw pebbles at him. The houndoom gets down on his knees in a attempt to get to her level, grabbing her by the scruff and once more holding her up to his face as she continued to thrash and shriek in anger at him, attempting to scratch his fingers. He observes her up close, grabbing her tiny hands when she attempts to get at his face, attempting to observe his tiny features as closely as possible. Jody doesn’t take notice of his observing of her features, all she felt was rage and thrashing about attempting to hurt the creature holding her further was all she could focus on. “What colors do you see right now child?” He grabs her cheeks and turns her face back and forth, observing the star on her cheek before forcefully opening her mouth to look at her teeth. Jody angrily shakes out of his grasp and stares at him in rage and confusion. “WHAT.” her voice was tiny but stern and shrill, how DARE he ask a question while she is mid battle with him. “I said What colors do you see right now. I need to know, don’t bother refusing because I’ll just force it out of you.” He grasps one of her feet and observes it as he awaits her answer. Jody is hesitant at first, but realizes his words prolly ring some truth to them. She attempts to yank her foot out from his grasp as she hisses with gritted teeth. “BLACK AND WHITE...” The houndoom stops momentarily and curls a lip. “That it?” Jody’s focus once again lands on the star on his face, once more fueling her with rage. Between the world’s gray scale coloring, that damn star on his face glowed strongly and almost blindingly. “AND RED!!” the scraggy shrieked and attempted to lunge at his face with tiny claws wailing back and forth violently. The houndoom jolted at the comment and froze for a second before letting out a deep sigh and slowly lowering Jody to the ground. “Fucking...hell.... just...” The houndoom inhaled in frustration and rubbed his temples in thought, so this is why Abyssmial let the curse transfer to the child before him, much to his distaste. Jody took this as a opportunity to begin assault on his knees, biting and slamming her fists against his kneecap. The man merely stared at her, she wasn’t doing any damage to him, but that certainly wasn’t stopping her. He continued watching her shrieking and hissing as she assaulted his knees and thighs, she had begin to crawl into his lap and scratch at his stomach in fury. With a loud sigh, he grabs her by the scruff and holds her out in front of him. “Alright... Look uh... Kid.... I’m not... Used to this... Most kids I deal with tend to die instantly either by rot or summthin’ killing them but.... It looks like you and I are stuck together.” the scraggy freezes at the comment, Jody begins to slow down a bit with her attack and stares at him, panting heavily with eyes squinted in confusion. “Listen.. This whole.... seeing in black and white and red thing... Isn’t normal for most... victims of this thing. It means you’re different, not really special but,... different.” The houndoom slowly sets her down as he continues to speak. “I can’t go anywhere as it is, but now it looks like I REALLY CANT... Guess I’m... BOUND to you I guess... I haven’t been bound to someone with this bullshit in like 35 years so...” Jody merely stares up at him, not sure what he is saying but holds back her fists of fury long enough to listen. “Oh right kid uh... children don’t.. get or know about... uh. Listen. I CAN’T go anywhere, I would if I could. But I can’t. We are stuck together and nothing can stop it.” Jody’s face turns into a rage filled grimace at the mere sentence. She didn’t want to be around this guy, she wanted to go home and be with mother and Diane... to forget this night ever happened. She didn’t ever want to see this man again! The houndoom clearly read her expression and almost had a simmilar one, he inhales sharply and continues talking anyways. “If we are going to be stuck together, might as well try to get along.” He held out his paw for her to take, only to be met with her slapping at it in anger. Another loud sigh leaves his lips and bites his tongue a bit in thought. She’s just a kid, a fucking violent and stupid kid but... still a child. He had watched the kid a few times, she liked dogs or something. Maybe that would put her more at ease. The large creature suddenly cloaks himself in a shadow, startling Jody as she jumps back in surprise as the anthropomorphic houndoom creature suddenly morphs into a shadow. A more feral form, cloaked entirely in pure black, the only color being the red star prominent on his face, glowing red teeth and the token houndoom skull pendant on his chest. The scraggy stood back, still staring at the star on his face with a hiss. The creature makes a eye rolling motion and steps toward Jody slowly. Shaking his head the star slowly disappears, revealing two white eyes. “There, it’s gone. Better?” The creatures voice was low now, much softer. Jody stops for a second, staring at the creature in front of her. She knew it was the same man from before but... he looked like a puppy now... but no.. she knew he was still the bad man. But... couldn’t help being more at ease with his new appearance. As her breathing slows, her anger slowly subsides and color begins to return to her sight, the burning in her cheek mark dying as well. The houndoom continued gently patting toward her and forces his head underneath her palm, embarrassing but anything to get her to calm down. Jody jerks at this sudden gesture but slowly begins to pet him anyways, although cautious. She gently pets the creatures head and speaks softly in a lowkey hostile tone. “...who are you....or...wh..what.. you aren’t...a puppy...” The houndoom lets out a sigh of relief, beginning to worry this was going to last all night. He stood up taller and looked down at the child below him. “My name is Abigor... I’m a demon... not like... you would know what that is...because you’re like...a fucking kid jesus christ i’m gonna have to explain-..h.hhhh...” Abigor walks behind Jody and nuzzle her from behind. “I’ll explain it more to you on the way back home. I don’t have time to wait for you to get older to explain all this shit.” Jody stands up straight and whips around and stares at him in anger, teeth slightly gritted in silence. Abigor groaned, he knew what that look was implying. “Okay look. I won’t say anymore shit about your mother and I wont try to hurt you anymore, for all the time we have to spend together I wont say or do shit like that again. Sorry I did it in the first place. Granted You ain’t got no reason to believe me on that but whatever. Dog’s Honor or whatever you kids believe in.” He continues to nuzzle her along in a attempt to get moving. Jody stumbled and limped as she tried to walk, a bit more at ease with his ‘promise’... She didn’t fully believe him but... He DID apologize and say not to do it again... So this... creature that had hurt her and terrorized her... Already had a step up on her father. So that was enough to subside most of her anger. “....my.... Name is Jody...” Abigor huffs a bit in irritation. “Yes I know your name. Now hurry up, hop on my back or something. I don’t have all night and neither do you” He forcefully slides his body under hers and pops up with her riding on his back. Jody resists a bit and slaps his horns in anger, but remains on his back. Her entire body ached and was in severe pain once more, not having to walk was a blessing!... even if it was riding on the back of this... thing. As Abigor continued to walk onward, assumingly back towards the castle, Jody gently grabbed the canines horns for safety not to fall off. They continued on in silence before the nagging question finally left the scraggy’s lips. “Are you the real reason why Mommy was so sick...” “...I was the one causing it. But your father started it, but nothing is going to hurt your mother anymore. You’ve taken your mothers place now, its your job.” “....what job?” “.... “ “.....” “That’s going to be a long story”

#its Eh but whatever I'm not good at writing!#JodyBennet #AbigorHoundoom #not art #text post #long post #writing #child endangerment #violence #gore #sfw #ask blog stuff

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falselyprofound · 4 years

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At the end of the day, what's your take on Bojack's character as a whole?

Hooboy. Where to begin?

The short answer is that I think Bojack is a really well-written character, and the perfect protagonist for the show to explore its central themes with.

He is absolutely a stupid piece of shit who spends a good chunk of each season making everyone’s life miserable, including his own. But the show also does an excellent job of showing how he got to where he is at the start of season one - and his slow but gradual progress in turning himself around.

(Spoilers for all six seasons under the cut. This post got real long and unfocused and rambly.)

So, speaking broadly on Bojack’s character.

Bojack is the product of two generations of parental abuse. He often internalizes things his parents have said to him without realizing it, who in turn have often internalized things their parents said to them. “It’s not Ibsen” is his mother’s criticism of Horsin’ Around, “don’t stop dancing” was borne from his mother making him perform, “do you get it” was likely picked up from his father, his S1 obsession with writing a book was likely inspired by his father’s many failed attempts at writing a novel, and both parents have been shown to drive him to drink - even when he was a child. All of these little things he, in turn, has later shoved onto other people. The more fortunate ones were old enough and stable enough not to take his bullshit. …And then there was Sarah Lynn.

He’s an addict, and his attempts to sober up repeatedly fail in worse and worse ways. But each sobriety streak lasts a little longer than before. And each time he goes off the wagon, the fallout is worse than ever before.

He’s too proud to consider therapy at first, instead choosing to hoist his problems onto anyone who will listen. This often results in him falling in love with people who aren’t doing anything beyond listening to him talk/treating him with the bare minimum amount of respect (Princess Carolyn for being his agent, Diane when she’s interviewing him, Wanda for not reacting to his celebrity status). For those where romance just isn’t an option, he still often gets super clingy and sabotages them at the first sign of them leaving (ruining Todd’s rock opera, following Hollyhock around on campus so much she has to leave and change her number). And even outside of that, he still expects totally normal people to drop everything to aid his impossibly difficult problems (”tell me I’m a good person”, “call me back if you don’t want me to go swimming”).

He’s aware of his faults but unaware of how to fix them, often resulting in him abandoning the messes he’s created (i.e. ditching Herb for 20+ years, ditching most of the people he slept with in the 80’s, abandoning Brad’s TV show and never going back, “the number you gave me was for a sandwich shop in temecula–” “IS THAT RIGHT”). When he can’t do that, he often attempts to pave over his core issues with grand gestures rather than deal with the pain of self reflection (“writing the book that will make everyone love [him] again” by making himself seem as cool as possible, trying to sabotage Diane’s wedding, rescuing Todd from the comedy boat…)

And he clings too heavily to an idealized version of the past. Boy howdy, I could write so much on the end credits song (and when they choose not to use it for an episode). I honestly can’t stress enough just how much Bojack is fuckin’ obsessed with trying to recreate the cheesy, hollow life he had for himself on Horsin’ Around… and yet, paradoxically, he seems unable or unwilling to put any actual effort in to building the healthy family bonds Horsin’ Around promotes.

He refers to the members of the cast as his family multiple times (”Still Broken” is a good example of that) but abandoned Herb, ignored Brad and Joelle to the point where he knows nothing about their adult lives, and his only interactions with Sarah-Lynn were to reinforce the same dangerous horrors of Hollywoo he’d been subjected to, which ultimately lead to her death.

I’ve written meta on his “there’s always more show” philosophy from “Free Churro” and how it relates to Horsin’ Around in the past, but I feel like that’s worth revisiting in the wake of “Angela” and “Nice While It Lasted”. That’ll be a post for another time, though. (Also, shout-out to the writers for juxtaposing the Horse’s death in Horsin’ Around with Bojack’s survival in the s6 finale. Eat shit, reddit, I was RIGHT.)

Anyway - Bojack’s clinging to the past isn’t just limited to Horsin’ Around either… as we unfortunately see with Penny and Charlotte, and how he sabotages his friendships with them + their entire lives. “Escape From L.A.” makes me legitimately sick to my stomach every time I think about it, but it’s an important episode. It hammers home how truly dangerous and destructive sticking with his current mindset is. While I could write a shit-ton of meta about that one episode in particular, I’m… not going to. That and “That’s Too Much Man”, are… just really too upsetting for me to want to write meta on.

(God, I could go and on and on about all the shit he’s done and just what his deal is, but this post is getting long and rambly enough as it is. So let’s just… skip ahead for the sake of pretending to be brief.)

In any lesser show, all of these things would compile into a really nasty, unlikable character. But Bojack… actually makes progress on turning himself around.

It takes a lot of fuck ups, and several people’s deaths, and countless people walking away, but progress is made every season. He sobers up, mostly. He learns to stop holding people back for the sake of his own selfishness, mostly. His mean sense of humor starts to fade away, he learns to let go instead of literally always resorting to sabotage, he learns to be less paranoid, he learns to accept his faults instead of lashing out at people. Mostly.

He backslides. He comes close to giving up. And he definitely can’t ever fix most of the shit he’s done. But at the end of the day, Bojack remains alive, and finds new, less destructive ways in coping with himself. Always in small ways - and never in the grand, showy gestures that are traditionally used for TV.

Is he a good person? A bad person? I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a question with a definite answer. It’s certainly not a question the show has ever tried to concretely resolve, because this has never been a show about getting closure.

Ultimately, I don’t think I can propose an answer to that question either.

But as a character? Man. What a good piece of writing he is.

(And I do find comfort in watching his attempts to better himself, even after so many failures. My screw-ups are tiny in comparison. If he can find ways of dealing w his fuck-ups, then so can I.)

#bojack blogging #bojack horseman spoilers #pointless post #talkin about bojack is rough man #bc while i might empathise w some of his bs #i sure as shit aint gonna excuse ANY of it #Anonymous

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takeeachdayonebookatatime · 4 years

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current book I’m reading

about the book: the Synopsis is form goodreads

The Accident (Point Horror, #16) by Diane Hoh She appears in Megan's mirror one day, nothing more than a wispy, shadowy plume, glowing with an eerie light. Her voice is faint and hollow, like a distant echo. The voice of a young girl.

Strangest of all is her request.

"I beg you to trade places with me, Megan. For just one week. Let me live again."

Megan is overcome with fear. Yet she is drawn to the shadow in the mirror, unable to look away. Fascinated by the oddly soothing voice, she listens to a tale of a horrible accident many years before. A tale she would never forget.

Gradually, Megan begins to realize that she has no choice. As terrified as she is, she knows she must make the trade....

#books #read #reder #reading #dianehoh #theaccident

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mothermaidenclone-blog · 5 years

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters or It’s All About That Queen Bee Though

Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a very cool movie. Yes, it was pretty stupid, but was it also a gloriously fun, utterly ridiculous romp? Definitely. Warner Bros. knew we wanted to watch a bunch of massive monsters beat the ever-loving shit out of each other, and they certainly delivered on that front. As with any Godzilla movie, the main problem was that they spent too much time on the tiny, insignificant people and not enough on the aforementioned battling titans. However, there were some notable ladies featured amongst the squishy humans.

*Godzilla: King of the Monsters spoilers follow*

The first on screen conversation takes place between two women, Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). Dr. Russell is evidently an exceptional scientist, as she has invented a device to communicate with, and to some extent control, the titans. She is also portrayed as brave and compassionate, risking her life to run to the aid of Mothra with her ORCA device. In addition, she wants her daughter to be strong and to experience what life has to offer, helping her to stroke Mothra once it has calmed down. She then guides her through the horrors of being held captive with the advice, “Eyes straight ahead, deep breaths, just like we talked about.” She isn’t shielding Madison from what is happening, but trying to help her to cope with it on her own.

However, it soon turns out that Dr. Russell is one of the villains of the movie, as she approached the eco terrorist Jonah Alan (Charles Dance) rather than being abducted by him, as it first appeared. As such, she is responsible for countless deaths in the movie, regardless of whether or not she is acting for the greater good of the planet. On the other hand, she is unwavering in the defence of her decisions and ethics, and even after the movie has declared her a baddie she is still portrayed as rational and somewhat empathetic. She justifies her actions as being for the benefit of her daughter, and perhaps her daughter’s whole generation: “I couldn’t be more sane and Madison couldn’t be stronger. At least now she has a fighting chance.” At least Dr. Russell is granted a redemptive end - she dies saving not only her family, but arguably the entire planet, from the destructive forces of Ghidorah. It’s still shitty that she dies, no two ways about it, but at least she is granted some agency. Once a film like this declares you a villain you don’t stand a chance - it’s a noble sacrifice on her part and she isn’t just squashed by a giant monster foot while delivering a monologue about how her plans were right all along.

One of Dr. Russell’s plans does come to fruition, and that is that Madison becomes an incredibly strong young woman. She goes from slyly flipping off Jonah at the start of the movie to literally standing down Ghidorah and screaming right back in his fucking face. Now, it could well be argued that these are not the most considered of actions, but it cannot be denied that Madison has some nerve. In addition to being categorically courageous, Madison is also intelligent and principled. When she sees that Ghidorah’s rampage is becoming uncontrollable, she not only steals the ORCA from under the nose of a group of highly organised armed terrorists and escapes their fortified secret base, taking the time to appropriately supply herself for her journey (like no one in movies ever does!), but she also figures out the most effective location to broadcast from and operates the ORCA independently. Kudos to Madison, she knows what she’s doing. She does end up having to be rescued by her parents but two things are worth remembering at this point: firstly, Madison has just done her bit to save the entire planet and secondly, she is still a child. She’s more than allowed to run scared for a moment when a three-headed, lightning-breathing dragon from space is trying to cause the end of days.

Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) reprises her role from the first film, and we are treated to a brief reminder of what a competent, intrepid scientist and eloquent, fearless defender of Godzilla she is before she is unceremoniously felled by Ghidorah. I didn’t even notice her death, and while it’s true I might have been taking notes and missed it, I was informed by a small piece of text on a character’s computer screen, which seems like an unnecessarily dismissive way to end the life of such an intrinsic character to the series.

Perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the loss of Dr. Graham, several new named female characters were introduced, and credit where credit’s due, pretty much all of these women are immediately addressed by their name and title. This not only shows them the respect they are due, but saved me the kind of IMDB credits trawling I usually have to do when writing a review. We meet another of Monarch’s top scientists, Dr. Ilene Chen (Ziyi Zhang). She is notable not only for her scientific competency, but also for her heritage, as she reveals she is the direct descendant of one of the female founders of Monarch, and shows a selection of photos of completely badass looking explorers and scientists that make up her family, all of whom are women. Her twin sister, Dr. Ling (also Ziyi Zhang) also briefly features, although she is seemingly working for the terrorists. We don’t see much of her except for an appropriately awed look at the hatching of Mothra, but it’s safe to assume by her presence at the site that she is an equally accomplished scientist. Dr. Chen is also notable for being an advocate of not blowing Godzilla to smithereens, pointing out that, “slaying dragons is a western concept.”

Another new female character is Colonel Diane Foster (Aisha Hinds), an extremely competent officer and woman of colour, who seems to be in charge of the military branch of Monarch’s operations. She continues to excel throughout the movie, surviving the attack that killed Dr. Graham and continuing to lead others safely through danger until the end. Foster is shown to be a strong leader as well as a distinguished field officer - she is a highly skilled sniper who cares deeply about saving innocent lives.

Black women continue to occupy positions of power, if not leading roles, in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as further exemplified by Senator Williams (CCH Pounder), who presides over the Monarch hearing at the start of the film and appears to have the power to turn the whole organisation over to the military if she so chooses. Women do very much inhabit the world of this movie, with many women being present of all sides of the conflict as scientists, soldiers and terrorists alike. Although I’m not sure we hear all their names, many are credited, including Asaj (Tracy Garrison), one of Jonah’s team, First Lieutenant Griffin (Elizabeth Ludlow), Lieutenant Bottin (Natalie Shaheen), G-Team Officer Harryhausen (Shauna Rappold), Argo Officer Arvin (Skylar Denney), Argo Officer Cross (Kelli Garner) and a news anchor (Fiona Hardingham) who is one of the first voices we hear in the movie. The fact that two of these characters are named for practical effects superstars tells me that they held a special place in the hearts of the movie makers.

However wonderful all of these women are, let’s talk about the real leading lady of this movie - Mothra. Not only is she utterly radiant and resplendent, she can hold her own in a fight - penetrating Rodan with her stinger - and apparently has the monumental power of the ability to resurrect Godzilla. In short, she’s amazing. She is also the only titan to be named as female, which makes it all the more shitty that she’s the only one - other than the big bad Ghidorah - to die. It seems even female kaiju aren’s safe from the played out and tired fate of dying for the benefit of their male counterparts. Now, my little brother (who is more of a Gozilla expert than me) texted me as soon as he knew I’d seen the movie to tell me not to worry and that Mothra is apparently immortal, because he knew I’d be so cross and sad about this. Thanks, baby bro. However, as this is not addressed in the movie, I have to stand by my initial assessment that Mothra’s death is pure garbage.

Overall, the women in Godzilla: King of the Monsters are incredibly strong and adept in a wide variety of fields ranging from science to combat, are without exception incredibly brave, and most of them hold to a high moral code. Furthermore, for a monster movie where presumably thousands of people are slaughtered, their mortality rate isn’t too bad. I think one more named male character dies than female, but this doesn’t make the loss of talented female scientists on screen any easier to swallow. Also, they killed Mothra, so I can never forgive them. Well, not until she comes back in a sequel and fucks up some even bigger bastards because you know I will watch another Godzilla movie, no hesitation. On balance, this is an absolutely ridiculous movie about giant dragons murdering each other, so I think we’re lucky that so many competent human women were featured at all.

And now for some asides:

Umm, excuse me, was that casually Atlantis? And did you blow it up?

Also did this movie low-key endorse hollow Earth theory?

Thank you, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for the gift of someone ejector-seating straight into Rodan’s fiery maw. You truly know your audience.

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 6 years

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What other fandoms are you familiar enough with to use as an AU prompt? Pokemon Trainer AU? Homestuck AU (they'd still probably die but at least there are lots of ways to come back to life)?

I’m not that familiar with Homestuck, definitely not enough to do an AU. I read the novelizations of the Pokemon show as a kid but never saw the show or played any of the video games. I did play the super-obscure Pokemon board game, but most of my trading cards were printed in Japanese (I had a strange childhood), so my experience there is, uh, probably not quite overlapping with everyone else’s.

Anyway, if you want list of all my fandoms… Boy howdy. I don’t think I can come up with them all. However, I can list everything that comes to mind between now and ~20 minutes from now when I have to end my procrastination break and go back to dissertating. So here it is, below the cut:

Okay, there is no way in hell I’ll be able to make an exhaustive list. But off the top of my head, the fandoms I’m most familiar/comfortable with are as follows:

Authors (as in, I’ve read all or most of their books)

Patricia Briggs

Megan Whalen Turner

Michael Crichton

Marge Piercy

Stephenie Meyer

Dean Koontz

Stephen King

Neil Gaiman

K.A. Applegate

Ernest Hemingway

Tamora Pierce

Roald Dahl

Short Stories/Anthologies

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

Dubliners, James Joyce

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

Who Goes There? John W. Campbell

The Man Who Bridged the Mist, Kij Johnson

Flatland, Edwin Abbott

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison

To Build a Fire, Jack London

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bier

At the Mountains of Madness/Cthulu mythos, H.P. Lovecraft

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

Close Range: Wyoming Stories, E. Annie Proulx

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Bartleby the Scrivener (and a bunch of others), Herman Melville

Books (Classics)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Secret Annex, Anne Frank

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

The Stranger, Albert Camus

The Call of the Wild, Jack London

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Atonement, Ian McEwan

1984, George Orwell

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

The Iliad/The Odyssey, Homer

Metamorphoses, Ovid

Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

The Time-Machine, H.G. Wells

The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Thomas Stoppard

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Books (YA SF)

Young Wizards series, Diane Duane

Redwall, Brian Jaques

The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Diana Wynne Jones

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix

The Giver series, Lois Lowry

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

Unwind, Neal Shusterman

The Maze Runner series, James Dashner

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede

Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

Coraline, Neil Gaiman

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Poppy series, Avi

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Tithe, Holly Black

Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause

Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Haunted, Gregory Maguire

Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

East, Edith Pattou

Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O’Brien

The Looking-Glass Wars, Frank Beddor

The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

The Landry News, Andrew Clements

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson

Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer

The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

Generation Dead, Daniel Waters

Pendragon series, D.J. MacHale

Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Define Normal, Julie Anne Peters

Hawksong, Ameila Atwater Rhodes

Heir Apparent, Vivian Vande Velde

Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Keys to the Kingdom series, Garth Nix

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken

The Seer and the Sword, Victoria Hanley

My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

Daughters of the Moon series, Lynne Ewing

The Midwife’s Apprentice, Karen Cushman

Island of the Aunts, Eva Ibbotson

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabin

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs

The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Hope was Here, Joan Bauer

Bunnicula, James Howe

Wise Child, Monica Furlong

Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg

The Twenty-One Balloons, William Pene du Bois

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, Gail Giles

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer

Blue is for Nightmares, Laurie Faria Stolarz

Mystery of the Blue Gowned Ghost, Linda Wirkner

Wait Till Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn

I was a Teenage Fairy, Francesca Lia Block

City of the Beasts series, Isabelle Allende

Summerland, Michael Chabon

The Geography Club, Brent Hartinger

The Last Safe Place on Earth, Richard Peck

Liar, Justine Larbalestier

The Doll People, Ann M. Martin

The Lost Years of Merlin, T.A. Barron

Matilda Bone, Karen Cushman

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

The Tiger Rising, Kate DiCamillo

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

In the Forests of the Night, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

My Teacher is an Alien, Bruce Coville

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Andrews Edwards

Storytime, Edward Bloor

Magic Shop series, Bruce Coville

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket

Veritas Project series, Frank Peretti

The Once and Future King, T.H. White

Raven’s Strike, Patricia Briggs

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy, Gregory Maguire

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White

Half Magic, Edward Eager

A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle

The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan

Maximum Ride series, James Patterson

The Edge on the Sword, Rebecca Tingle

World War Z, Max Brooks

Adaline Falling Star, Mary Pope Osborne

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi

Parable of the Sower series, Octavia Butler

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov

Neuomancer, William Gibson

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth

The Martian, Andy Weir

Skeleton Man, Joseph Bruchac

Comics/Manga

Marvel 616 (most of the major titles)

Marvel 1610/Ultimates

Persepolis

This One Summer

Nimona

Death Note

Ouran High School Host Club

Vampire Knight

Emily Carroll comics

Watchmen

Fun Home

From Hell

American Born Chinese

Smile

The Eternal Smile

The Sandman

Calvin and Hobbes

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

TV Shows

Fullmetal Alchemist

Avatar the Last Airbender

Teen Titans (2003)

Luke Cage/Jessica Jones/Iron Fist/Defenders/Daredevil/The Punisher

Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter

Supernatural

Sherlock

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Firefly

American Horror Story

Ouran High School Host Club

Orange is the New Black

Black Sails

Stranger Things

Westworld

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Jurassic Park/Lost World/Jurassic World/Lost Park?

The Breakfast Club

Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane/The Cloverfield Paradox

Attack the Block

The Prestige

Moon

Ferris Bueler’s Day Off

Django Unchained/Kill Bill/Inglourious Basterds/Hateful 8/Pulp Fiction/etcetera

Primer

THX 1138/Akira/How I Live Now/Lost World/[anything I’ve named a fic after]

Star Wars

The Meg

A Quiet Place

Baby Driver

Mother!

Alien/Aliens/Prometheus

X-Men (et al.)

10 Things I Hate About You

The Lost Boys

Teen Wolf

Juno

Pirates of the Caribbean (et al.)

Die Hard

Most Disney classics: Toy Story, Mulan, Treasure Planet, Emperor’s New Groove, etc.

Most Pixar classics: Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles

The Matrix

Dark Knight trilogy

Halloween

Friday the 13th

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Descent

Ghostbusters

Ocean’s Eight/11/12/13

King Kong

The Conjuring

Fantastic Four

Minority Report/Blade Runner/Adjustment Bureau/Total Recall

Fight Club

Spirited Away

Disturbing Behavior

The Faculty

Poets

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Marge Piercy

Thomas Hardy

Sigfried Sassoon

W. B. Yeats

Edgar Allan Poe

Ogden Nash

Margaret Atwood

Maya Angelou

Emily Dickinson

Matthew Dickman

Karen Skolfield

Kwame Alexander

Ellen Hopkins

Shel Silverstein

Musicals/Stage Plays

Les Miserables

Repo: The Genetic Opera

The Lion King

The Phantom of the Opera

Rent

The Prince of Egypt

Pippin

Into the Woods

A Chorus Line

Hairspray

Evita

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Fiddler on the Roof

Annie

Fun Home

Spring Awakening

Chicago

Cabaret

The Miser

The Importance of Being Earnest

South Pacific

Godspell

Wicked

The Wiz

The Wizard of Oz

Man of La Mancha

The Sound of Music

West Side Story

Matilda

Sweeney Todd

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Nunsense

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown/Snoopy

1776

Something Rotten

A Very Potter Musical

Babes in Toyland

Carrie: The Musical

Amadeus

Annie Get Your Gun

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The Final Battle

Rock of Ages

Cinderella

Moulin Rouge

Honk

Labyrinth

The Secret Garden

Reefer Madness

Bang Bang You’re Dead

NSFW

War Horse

Peter Pan

Suessical

Sister Act

The Secret Annex

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Disclaimer 1: Like a lot of people who went to high school in the American South, my education in literature is pretty shamefully lacking in a lot of areas. (As in, during our African American History unit in ninth grade we read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… and that was it. As in, our twelfth-grade US History class, I shit you not, covered Gone With the Wind.) There were a lot of good teachers in with the *ahem* Less Woke ones (how I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bluest Eye) and college definitely set me on the path to trying to find books written/published outside the WASP-ier parts of the U.S., but the overall list is still embarrassingly hegemonic.

Disclaimer 2: There are a crapton of errors — typos, misspelled names, misattributions, questionable genre classifications, etc. — in here. If you genuinely have no idea what a title is supposed to be, ask me. Otherwise, please don’t bother letting me know about my mistakes.

Disclaimer 3: I am not looking for recommendations. My Goodreads “To Read” list is already a good 700 items long, and people telling me “if you like X, then you’ll love Y!” genuinely stresses me the fuck out.

Disclaimer 4: There are no unproblematic faves on this list. I love Supernatural, and I know that Supernatural is hella misogynistic. On the flip side: I don’t love The Lord of the Rings at all, partially because LOTR is hella misogynistic, but I also don’t think that should stop anyone else from loving LOTR if they’re willing to love it and also acknowledge its flaws.

#literature #fandom #booklist #about the blogger #long post #long ass post #books #nothing to do with animorphs #Anonymous #asks

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olderjustneverwiser · 6 years

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Too Good to Touch (Spencer Reid)

Masterlist

Well, I did it. Finished my first Spencer Reid piece. This is based off Reasons Not to Kiss Her, a poem which you can read here. I recommend reading the poem before reading this because it may make more sense that way.

This is different than anything I’ve written before. It came from a personal place, and it’s also pretty self-indulgent at times.

Spoilers of basically every bad thing that has happened to Spencer during all 13 seasons, so watch out! And a thank you to @of-salt-and-moon @moresvuheadcanons @ventixx and @am-i-right-counselor for their help! Enjoy!

one

She is soft. Spencer knew this the moment he met her, that day all those years ago when she quite literally ran into him outside of a coffee shop one morning. She was rushing to get to work and she was trying to balance her full cup of coffee in one hand, her phone in the other while trying to adjust her purse strap on her shoulder and had not noticed the man in front of her. In her defense, he also wasn’t paying attention. He was too caught up in his latest case that he didn’t see her coming.

She immediately begins apologizing after they collide. Luckily the coffee didn’t spill on either of them, as most of it hit the sidewalk apart from a few specks that landed on Spencer’s shoes. He insisted that it was fine, and allowed himself to look up for the first time since their meeting to see her face. He was so caught off guard he almost didn’t register her question.

“Can I buy your morning coffee?” Her face is expectant and her voice soft and silvery, and he soon realizes that he should answer before he looks foolish. He shakes his head no, tells her that it’s fine.

She continues, “Please? I’m going back in anyway, I’ll just be right behind you in line. I can’t function without coffee.”

She ends her statement with a loud laugh and Spencer swears he has never heard anything so lovely come out of someone’s mouth. So he agrees, and she smiles, and when she extends her hand Spencer can’t help but take it.

Spencer remembers that day perfectly, but he can’t let himself act on his feelings. She is soft, and so is he, but the world is too harsh, too mean. He has seen what the world can do to a person. It can cut them up until they are no longer themselves, and he cannot stand to see that happen to her.

two

She is not the first person Spencer has loved. He knows that she is not the first person to love him, either. His mother, of course, and his team. Morgan, and JJ, and Blake. They all love him, and he loves them, but he does not know how to love. Lila wanted to teach him, but thousands of miles stood between them and before long he was sure she no longer thought about him in that way, and it wasn’t like he really cared about her anymore anyway. Maeve loved him, but their love affair was cut short by a bullet.

He loves her. He is truly, deeply in love with her but he does not know how to love her. He has never had the practice or the lessons on how to treat the person you love. He knows the basics; be kind, make them laugh, and he already does those things for her. But he does not know how to make her feel wanted and loved. And at this point he is too scared to try.

Spencer dreams of loving her. He thinks about finally undoing the not-doing with a kiss that leaves them both breathless, but would his lack of practice show through? He dreams about everything, about slow dancing in the kitchen and holding hands, about loving her in the most intimate of ways, showering her with pent up kisses and praise but he is so scared to hold her in that way. He is too much, he has too much baggage. She knows all of it, and she accepts it, but he knows deep down that he is scarred too deeply to give her the love she deserves.

three

She loves him, so much. Spencer knows that the people he has in his life love him, JJ, Morgan, Garcia, his godsons. They love him, they have told him as much but they do not love him like she loves him. Spencer sees it in the way she looks at him, her pupils dilate when her gaze falls to his lips. He sees it in her texts, telling him to get home safely, to come back in one piece. He sees it in the way she holds him, always asking before she does because she knows how he is but her touch is always warm and loving.

Does she really think that he doesn’t notice? She tries to hide how she feels, but Spencer is good at his job, and he notices everything. Spencer knows that she loves him outside the realm of friendship, but she is waiting for him to make that move. She knows his past, knows he is scared to love anyone. She does not want to push him and that makes him love her more. It makes him want to tell her how he feels for her, that he aches when he has to leave her. He wants to tell her that he knows that she loves him, but he is scared. He is so scared to drown and take her down with him because he does not know how to be loved.

four

She is beautiful. She has always been beautiful to him, though through the years his definition of her beauty had changed. When they met, of course the first thing Spencer had noticed about her was the way she looked. Her eyes shining bright and full of kindness, her smile that nearly knocked him off of his feet. Sure, Spencer had seen countless beautiful people in his life but she was something different, something that, for once in his life, left Spencer’s mind blank in search for a word or phrase to describe it.

Being a man of science, Spencer has never believed in love at first sight, but meeting her challenged his beliefs. She was beautiful, sure, but Spencer knew in his gut that she was so much more than that. The more they saw one another, as their friendship grew and he learned more about her mind and her heart, he learned that she was not only lovely on the outside. No, she was a good person. She genuinely cared about the people around her, about her world.

She is beautiful, so beautiful that Spencer has always been scared to touch her in that way. Scared that he may make her dirty; leave her damaged in some way, like he is. Every hug they exchange, every time Spencer curls up against her body after a long, harrowing case, him clinging to her tightly as she holds him close, he reminds himself to hold back.

five

She always knows; whenever he calls after a case that leaves him gutted and feeling hollow, she hears the difference in his voice and begs him to visit her. Every time, he goes to her place; when he’s too tired and empty she offers to make the drive to his apartment. She is there for him, always, like good friends are. She knows the horrors of his job, she’s heard his screams when he has nightmares and he has told her stories of what he’s seen. Children murdered, women defiled and mutilated. He has truly seen the worst of what humanity has to offer, so she always tries to show him the good.

This one, this case was hard on Spencer. She could tell by the way he hung his head as he walked into her living room, the look in his eyes. He says nothing, he just walks into her open arms and wraps his arms around her, finally letting his dam break, and his tears fall onto her shoulder.

“Come on,” she whispers, “Let’s sit on the sofa and you can tell me about it. Or don’t, I’ll just hold you,” so they do, and she holds him until his cries subside and all he is left with are a few sniffles. He stays quiet for a long while, except for a ‘thank you’ and they sit there, she holds him like his body is glass and he could break at any moment. At times, that is how he feels - like he is so close to finally breaking. And he is terrified to break and leave her to pick up the pieces of him.

six

She is so full of life. She knows how to live, and Spencer loves the moments when she makes him forget about his life and reminds him to live, too. He treasures days like this, when he’s off and doesn’t have to think about murders and rapists and terrorists and he can be with her. They never do anything extravagant or extraordinary, but these are the days he enjoys the most.

Sometimes they sit in a quiet coffee shop, or rest under a tree in a park. Other days, the two of them lay on her couch, watching bad movies and eating greasy takeout. It is these days that he is reminded how much he truly loves her; she is so comfortable and she is home. They lay together in a way that they probably shouldn’t; limbs tangled together under a blanket on her small couch, so close that he can smell her hair and the chapstick she uses, and he fights with himself every time. Wanting to kiss her, to finally do the thing he has been thinking about doing for so long.

Then he remembers Maeve, the first woman he fell in love with. He remembers Diane, the gun that she held to Maeve, and the inevitable gunshot that he can still hear plain as day in his mind. He can still see the light leave Maeve’s eyes as she died, murdered right in front of him. Reminded that he never got the chance to even kiss Maeve, he tells himself that this is for the best. He could not bear to see the same emptiness in her eyes.

seven

She would catch him, and he knows that. She’s told him as much; that she would be there for him no matter what came at them, but did she know the extent of that? Did she truly understand what that may entail? It was no secret that his mind was full of horrors, but it was so much deeper than that. Ever since he was young enough to understand his mother’s disease, Spencer has been afraid of his own mind. Not just of what he could do with it, but what it could to do him.

Spencer’s twenties were filled with worry; knowing that oftentimes schizophrenia showed itself in that time frame. He was able to breathe a sigh of relief once he hit his 30s, only to have another disease haunt his mother. It killed Spencer to know that one day his mom may not recognize his face or remember who he is. Dementia would most likely be in the back of his mind until the day he dies, always wondering if he will wake up one day and not remember his time at the BAU, or his mom, or her. More than that, though, he worried about her witnessing his seemingly inevitable fall down into the darkness that is dementia.

His father had left him and his mom because of her disease. It got to be too much for him to handle, understandably. After taking care of his mom himself for a short time, a small part of him understood. Would he one day become too much for one person to handle? Too much, that even love could not make them stay? Throughout his life Spencer has witnessed countless marriages end for different reasons. Hotch lost Haley to a bullet, a disease tore his own parents apart. Spencer could not make himself build a life with her just to have it taken away.

eight

She is sweet, but she has her sour days. Days when the world and the people in it get to be too much for her, so she retreats. She hides out, calling in to work, barely having the energy to drink a glass of water or wash her face. He hates when she is like this, and he is relieved when she agrees to let him check in on her.

The sight he walks into always manages to make his heart ache; a dark living room, a tired and distant look in her eyes as she answers her door. No smile to greet him, no joke about his unruly hair or crooked tie. She mutters a greeting before falling back onto her couch, and he follows suit. Asking permission before he hugs her or rubs her back, even though her answer is always the same. She leans into him, and depending on how bad it is, she opens up to him.

It’s not like she’s naive or gullible, but she wants to believe that there is still good in the world. She wants to believe that people are inherently good. If she doesn’t, she’ll drive herself crazy. Part of Spencer is thankful for that, After all the bad he sees on a daily basis, he likes that she reminds him of the good. It’s times like these, though, that he wants to grab her and beg her to grow a tougher skin. He wants to tell her that the world is not good, but he doesn’t. He knows that she doesn’t need that right now, not while she’s feeling the way she feels.

Spencer knows all too well what it is like to hate yourself; to feel empty. To hate everything around you. All too often he feels the same. Not suicidal, but wanting the world to stop for a while. Wanting to feel something other than despair for once. He hates that she feels that way and he does everything he can think of to help her.

Spencer looks down at her while she’s in his arms and he wonders if he is partially to blame for her pain, if he could make her happier if he would just be open for once and allow himself to love again. He is scared to hurt her, but he wonders if this, his silence, is hurting her. It is a vicious circle that he does not know how to break.

nine

She is good. Not just in the way she acts, but in the way that she is. She still believes there is good in the world and always tries to find happiness in the little things; she always finds the silver linings.

Spencer vaguely remembers a time when he felt the same. When he first joined the FBI he was full of optimism. He knew he could have done anything with his life, having three PhDs at the tender age of twenty-three was more than impressive and they would have taken him anywhere he would have wanted to go, but he chose the FBI at Quantico. That decision continues to keep him up at night, wondering if he made the right choice. If the heartache and the pain he had endured were worth it.

He knows he cannot logically blame all of his problems on his job. Not even his addiction. Even though he would have never taken dilaudid if it wasn’t forced into him while he was held in Georgia, it was his choice to take it again once he was back home. It was Spencer who sought out dealers in D.C., not Hankel, his captor. He came very close to ruining his career, as well as any chance of a nice future, for a high.

Spencer is sure he came close to making his mother’s mental state worse when he tried to care for her himself. Years of guilt over hardly visiting her finally got to him and he made the decision to move her in with him. How was he so ignorant to believe that he could help her? He had hired help, but it was idiotic and selfish for him to think that she was better off with him.

His journey to help his mom had done more harm than good, eventually landing him in federal prison. The charges were dropped after proving that he was framed for the murder of Rosa Medina, but the damage had been done. He still woke up in cold sweats, those prison bars still haunting his dreams at night.

Spencer was damaged goods, his career and life were in jeopardy until he cleared his name and got reinstated into the bureau, but still, he feels flawed. Cracked. Ruined.

He manages to ruin everything he touches, and he cannot ruin her.

ten

She knows about every bad thing that has happened in his life. She knows about his mother, his father leaving. She knows about Tobias Hankel and the dilaudid, and about Gideon. He has told her about Maeve’s death, and Emily and Blake leaving. Cat Adams, being framed for murder, ultimately being sent to prison. He has had enough sadness and heartbreak to last a lifetime and she knows about all of it. She saw him in prison, of course she bugged Emily enough until she agreed to let her visit him. She knows about his past, his fears, and insecurities.

Spencer has told her about the time in high school when some older kids found out about a crush he had and stripped him naked in front of the whole school, which is where his hatred of his body came from. He has told her about being so young in high school that he never got the chance to go to dances or have any real fun, he feels like he couldn’t have a childhood because his mind was so big, there was so much to learn. Besides, no one wanted to hang out with a 12 year old child prodigy in the twelfth grade anyway. She knows that after Hankel was dead, Spencer stole his drugs and continued to take them just so he could feel something, and how he hated himself for it.

She knows about all of the bad in his life, and the bad things he has done. She knows, and she loves and accepts him all the same. Still he cannot bring himself to take that leap and let himself fully love her. She is too good, too light to be buried in all that he has experienced.

He loves her. God, he loves her and he is so tired of being alone. He’s tired of being scared, being selfish; he’s tired of fighting. He has had so much sadness in his life, he deserves happiness. He deserves someone to love him, and so does she.

Back at her place, they’re watching reruns of a TV show they both like. They’ve seen this episode so many times they can recite it from memory, but still there is no place either of them would rather be. Spencer looks over to her, and she feels his gaze on her so she turns her head and her cheeks turn red. “What?” she asks.

Reaching for the TV remote, he pauses their show and scoots closer to her. The look of embarrassment on her face turns to one of confusion as he does so, and she is about to ask him another question before he grabs her hand, briefly rendering her speechless.

“I love you,” he breathes, “I’m in love with you. I’m sorry I haven’t said so sooner, I was just scared.”

When she finally speaks, it is a low whisper, “Scared of what?”

“I don’t know. Hurting you, being hurt myself. Scared of everything, really. But I’m being honest, I love you. So much. Do you love me?” He knows the answer, but he needs to hear her say it.

She doesn’t say those three words, though. Instead, she squeezes his hand and gives him an answer in the form of a different three words, “Spencer, kiss me.”

And so he does. He presses his lips to hers slowly, finally doing the one thing he’s dreamt of for so long, and he can’t help but realize how perfect and right this feels.

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