#and ~2000 people have died each week this year | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

japaneseadventures · 12 days

Text

Tsuda Kenjiro - Nichiyoubi no Hatsumimi Gaku 2024.03.10

Highlights/Anecdotes of this episode:

Tsudaken tries to do the narration for his own guest appearance and dies of embarrassment

He blanked out and forgot his lines when he tried to act for the first time in a long while

Clips of his many major and minor TV drama appearances over the years were shown

His role in The Last Man made him trend worldwide on Twitter

Tsuda shared why he started acting and voice acting

He went on a 1-week holiday trip to Prague and got recognized by overseas Jujutsu Kaisen fans 5 times.

Nakajima Kento talked about how he admired Kaiba Seto from Yu-Gi-Oh. He told Tsuda about it when they worked together. On Kento's birthday, Tsuda sent him a personalized voice message, saying one of the most famous lines in Yu-Gi-Oh.

Tsuda played Inui Sadaharu in Prince of Tennis (PoT) and it changed his life dramatically. PoT was at the forefront of the "ikemen" boom at the time, and he could finally quit doing part-time jobs.

Kazama Shunsuke, who voice acted as the main character for Yu-Gi-Oh, talks about how close the two of them were in that series even though they were playing as each other's rivals. They were both newbies to the voice acting industry with no other jobs at the time, so they hung out a lot as they waited for their call time.

Kazama is particularly smug at being aware of Tsuda's charm a lot earlier than most people, and he wants everybody to know that, lol

Tsuda shares how the cast and staff from the TV drama Saiai are really passionate about the drama. Same goes from the staff of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Namikawa Daisuke shares some anecdotes about Tsuda. Sometimes tsuda texts him about eating out together, but then leaves him on read when Namikawa asks when he's free.

Tsuda talks about his latest movie, where he plays as a villain for the first time.

Tsudaken talks about his kids (!!) His daughter in particular is a bit eccentric, just like Tsuda (That's Tsuda and the TV Show host's words not mine lol)

A more detailed summary of the episode under the read more:

On his TV drama/ Movie Discography:

Tsuda talked about experience acting in the hit TV drama Saiai. On his first day filming, he forgot his lines. It's been 12 years since he last played as a recurring character in a TV show, and for his first scene, he had to do a long presentation in front of 30 people. All he could think was that there were a lot of people, and then his mind went blank.

Some notable TV drama appearances of Tsuda:

- Played as a host in Ikebukuro West Gate Park (2000) in his 20s for 21 seconds - A guy hitting on the main character (Inoue Mao) in Hana Yori Dango in his 30s (2005) for 30 seconds ("Ooh, I got more screentime") - A doctor in Jin (2009) for 24 seconds ("Aww, I had less screentime lol.").

In 2023, he trended worldwide on X/Twitter as an actor for his impactful scene in the drama The Last Man. When Tsuda turned up in the second episode, his acting was a popular topic on social media.

He adlibbed in the last scene of Last Man. Came up with 30 versions for that scene, and settled on "Shintaro, are you hungry?" Figured a parent would be worrying about whether his kid is feeling hungry, cold or hot.

On his acting:

Originally was aiming to be an actor, not a voice actor.

When he started acting, he was able to let all his dark emotions out using the lines he had to act out. These were feelings such as "hating people", and "hate towards society". It was the first outlet he found for those feelings, and he found that very fun. He was able to bring out his real self when he acted. Because of that experience, he couldn't give up acting.

Unfortunately, money was tight at the time and his electricity and gas would get cut off. It even came to a point when even his water would get cut off. He kept on failing in auditions, so even if he's been practicing on his acting, he didn't really have a chance to show it to others.

For him, the most painful thing about it all was that he was an absolute nobody. He had no proof that he's actually alive. But he overcame that difficulty because he was obstinate-- He believes that this is where his strength lies. He keeps doing things until he's satisfied with it.

On his voice acting career:

Voice acting was what gave him an opportunity to link with the world of expressing himself.

Says Nanami Kento is a wonderful role to play. That Jujutsu Kaisen's influence is amazing.

During the New Year's holidays, he went on a holiday trip abroad. While he was sightseeing, a foreigner would call out, "Mr. Tsuda?" He said yes, all the while taken aback since he was in Prague. They asked for a photo and a signature. In the one week that he stayed there, it happened 5 times.

When he asked them how they knew him, everyone answered Jujutsu Kaisen. "Nanami, Nanami." He really didn't expect it to be so popular abroad. It made him feel the power of Japanese anime.

While he was struggling with acting, he was invited to an audition for voice acting and he accepted the invitation with no hesitation. At age 25, he debuted as a voice actor for the anime H2.

At age 29 was his fateful encounter with the series Yu-gi-oh Duel Monsters (2000) where he played Kaiba Seto.

Nakajima Kento says his idol in life is Kaiba Seto. It was also thanks to Tsuda's acting that Kento admired Kaiba, and he told Tsuda exactly that when Tsuda did the narration for Kento's movie show. On Kento's 27th birthday, he got a voice message from Tsuda, saying "It's 27-year-old Nakajima Kento's turn! Draw!!" Kento was ecstatic. He thinks Tsuda is really cool.

A year after Yu-Gi-oh, he played Inui Sadaharu from Prince of Tennis. The Ikemen (Hot Guys) boom was rising at the time, and Prince of Tennis was at the forefront of this trend. It changed his life dramatically. He was finally able to quit doing part-time jobs. At around 31 years old. He always felt like he was walking a fine line, so it was a relief to have a stable livelihood.

Anecdotes from Kazama Shunsuke, voice actor of Yugi Moto from Yu-Gi-Oh

Both Tsuda and Kazama Shunsuke, who played the main character of Yu-gi-oh, were newbies at voice acting when they did Yu-gi-oh. Tsuda was still new to voice acting at the time, while Kazama had never done it before. Although they were playing as each other's rivals, they became close since they were both newbies.

They both didn't have any other work to do, so they had a lot of time on their hands. Kazama would contact Tsuda and ask if he came to work early, and Tsuda would reply, "I'm free right now so I'm lurking nearby." And they'd have tea together. We'd talk about what we could do to be good at voice acting like other VAs.

Kazama talked about how worried he was about Tsuda. When he laughs, Tsuda does it in 3 levels of increasing laughter. At times, he'd even do 5 levels, since the animation would also have 5 different clips as the power of his laughter increases. The 3rd level would be his usual laughter, so Kazama thought Tsuda's blood vessels would burst going beyond that lol

Kazama says he's super happy that Tsuda got to have a lot of regular acting and voice acting jobs. But Kazama just wants people to know that he's been aware of Tsuda's charm for more than 20 years now. A lot earlier than most people have lmao.

On what went on behind of the scenes of a popular scene in JJK:

Says there's a particular scene that highlights Nanami. He wondered how he'd do it, since that scene was originally in the manga. The producer told him what the mangaka said was Nanami's feelings during that scene, but Tsuda and the staff are free to play it out as they like. The director also told Tsuda to do it the way Tsuda thinks it should be acted. Leave no regrets. Like in the making of the drama Saiai, Tsuda feels that hit series like Jujutsu Kaisen are made with a lot of love from the staff, and this love is reflected in the tiny details. He believes that viewers could really tell from that.

Anecdotes from Namikawa Daisuke, who he's voice acted with in a number of works

Namikawa Daisuke says Tsuda's acting method is something unique to Tsuda. It can't be learned.

Namikawa describes Tsuda as a sloth with a nice voice. Tsuda: LOL. Say something nicer!

Tsuda would just contact him whenever, going, "I want to eat soon."

Namikawa: I'm not your mom!! When I text back, "When are you available?" He doesn't reply. He probably isn't feeling up to it right then. Staff: How long do you have to wait for a reply? Namikawa: At the latest, he leaves me on read.

In his latest movie My Home Hero, it is Tsuda's first time playing a villain. Said he had fun doing it. He was asked to make the character very quirky, which really pleased him as an actor. Sasaki Kuranosuke would make pleased faces due to the littlest things Tsuda would do, and it really pleases Tsuda in return.

On his family

Tsuda has 2 kids, a daughter in middle school and a son in grade school. It was his first time talking about his children in a show. Says no one ever asked, so he never had an opportunity to talk about it.

During holidays, Tsuda never answer work calls from his manager. He wants his day offs to be dedicated to playing with his children.

Wakako-san was just fangirling over Tsuda this whole episode lol "Ah, so cute!"

Tsuda talks about how his children won't speak with him if they haven't seen each other for a long period of time, and it makes him feel lonely.

His kids watch anime, and some of them are ones he's in. When he mentions this to his children, they're like, "I know." But they never try to talk to him about it. Tsuda: Why??

His kids love Detective Conan, and Tsuda actually is in the latest movie. (The host, Hayashi Osamu, uses this opportunity to flex and share that he's appeared in a Conon work before too LOL)

Tsuda says his daughter is a bit eccentric like him. When he asked her what she'd like for her birthday, she asked for a biwa (musical instrument), leaving him very baffled. In the previous years, she asked for a pocket watch, ship in a bottle, kemari (ball from a sport back in ancient Japan) Tsuda: Huh…

Tsuda says that now that the borders between countries are dissolving thanks to the internet and social media, he wants them to strengthen their identity as a Japanese person who lived in Japan by attending lessons for Nohgaku (a traditional style of Japanese theater).

Says experiencing something is also remembering what's tough. How there's a disparity with your imagination and experience. For example, we all know that getting scalded is hot. But actually getting scalded is hotter than you would have imagined.

Tsuda talked about he wasn't an elite. If anything, acting may be the thing he's worst at. But he believes life has consolation matches. (Meaning, even if you fail once doesn't mean you're completely out of the running) Being an early bloomer isn't everything.

55 notes · View notes

gatheringbones · 7 months

Text

[“February 1986: Fifty freshmen, three resident counselors, and one head counselor are jammed into the lounge that is the designated meeting space for our floor. The room is a cinderblock rectangle edged with low orange institutional furniture—not quite “couches.” We fifty are one “unit,” sort of like a “bunk” at summer camp except that we will share the same dorm floor for the whole academic year. Many faces are red and angry, or red and embarrassed, or red and passionate. The Northeast Gay and Lesbian Student Union Conference is coming to Brown soon, and our head counselor had approved our lounge as a sleepover place for conference attendees. Two stereotypical jocks, in khaki shorts and backward baseball caps, are on their feet and demanding that the H.C. acted inappropriately by doing so. They demand a vote.

One of us, by which I mean one of us five who are queer, stands up too, and points out that we didn’t take a vote on whether the Princeton Marching Band could be housed here, which they were. I don’t remember now if I was the one who said it, or Nils, or Ellen, or who. What I do remember is that although we were all out to each other prior to the crisis, we weren’t out to everyone else.

The jocks finally make their stand: they’re afraid of AIDS. They’ve grabbed on to this thing which is barely a buzzword to them, as some kind of long-awaited justification for all the homophobic shit they would have kicked up anyway. They are practically high-fiving each other for thinking of it, because, after all, what self-respecting, intelligent person would share a bathroom with “that”?

And one of us, Scott or me or someone, finally says that if they think that by keeping the NELGSU Conference out of the lounge they’re keeping themselves separated from gay people, they’re wrong. That if they think they don’t already share a bathroom with gay people, they’re wrong. And, by the way, that if they think gay people cause AIDS, they’re wrong. But the issue of AIDS seems minor compared to the fact that we have just outed ourselves to the group. We have declared “We are everywhere”—and here we are.

The result of the debate was a “visitor bathroom” policy (people agreed to mark their bathroom doors “okay” for visitors to use or not), and many lacrosse balls winged blindly down the hallways at us from unseen attackers—as if we couldn’t guess who’d thrown them. By the time the conference actually arrived, the furor had died down, and we had a very festive gay pride week. Openly gay Congressman Gerry Studds gave the keynote address, and I still remember the climax of his speech. He said that if the message of Harvey Milk to the previous generation had been “Come to San Francisco and be gay,” his message to the current generation was “Stay where you are and be gay.” It was the second “We are everywhere” for me, and one that convinced me I should stick with the Lesbian/Gay Student Alliance, even though I seemed to be the only bisexual on the campus (or the only one admitting it). Stay where you are and be yourself.

I picked “bisexual” as one label I didn’t vehemently resist, partly because I liked that the definition of it was so nebulous. I had to “invent” bisexuality, I felt, which fit nicely with my antilabel attitude. It was a word everyone knew, and yet I had no bisexual culture to read about or participate in, no bisexual role models—unless you counted the old celebrity chameleon David Bowie himself. That suited me fine.”]

cecelia tan, from picture this, from a woman like that: lesbian and bisexual writers tell their coming out stories, 2000

#cecelia tan #bi literature #currently reading #history stuff

66 notes · View notes

iamthenerdqueen · 11 months

Text

The Red String of Faith

Idol!AteezXOCs Soulmates!ot8AteezXOCs OCXOC

slight twigger warnings: Polyamory, group of 10, two OC's -feel free to replace one OC with yourself if you'd like- ,eventual smut, listen this is an idea me and my best friend had and is something for fun read at own risk, not edited as always

A/N: Enjoy :)

‘To say that the last twenty years had changed the landscape of society would be a vast understatement. Since the United Nations formally recognised and protected soulmates in December of 2000 the world had experienced a social shift. Monogamy was still practiced and certain cultures still heavily encouraged monogamy regardless of soulmate connection, but it had become more common for people to realize that they were in what is known as a ‘soulgroup’. A ‘soulgroup’ is a group of soulmates with three or more links among the soul connections. ‘

At this point Lyra had to stop reading the book in her hand, her job was fantastic most of the time. Except for right now as she struggled through the boring book about soulmates and soulgroups that had been complained about by a patron of the library system. No matter how far they had come in the last twenty years, the bible belt of the south was still the bible belt of the south and the concept of multiple soulmates or soulmates of the same gender were still considered wrong to many people.

This was nothing new to the twenty-one year old, Lyra and her soulmate Arcelia or Lia as she preferred to be called had known they were soulmates since they were in high school. The two of them both being girls was a hot topic for the first few weeks, but it died down relatively fast when people realized that the two were platonic soulmates. They were friends before they both turned sixteen, and after Lia finally turned sixteen everything made sense. They were made for each other, just in another sense.

But that was years ago, now no one cared (for the most part) and the dynamic duo went about life as usual.

Lyra was beyond grateful that she worked the morning shift, getting off from the Library at one. She would be home before twenty after and then on the way to the Ateez concert before two o’clock, that’s the plan at least.

But nothing goes perfectly to plan, like the door Lyra currently was fighting with. The door’s finicky, you have to pull it slightly toward yourself but make sure not to turn the handle at all or it wouldn’t open, Lyra’s trick was to struggle with it until Lia would come and open it. No rescue today however as Lyra walked into their shared apartment she saw that Lia was on stream.

Most days this wouldn’t be a problem, Lia streamed on Twitch for a living and was pretty damn good at it too. Albeit, most people are good at The Sims but her over 9 million followers on the platform put her within the top 15 streamers on the platform. Pretty damn good at it in Lyra’s opinion.

As quietly as she could, Lyra entered the office space her soulmate used to stream in. Putting a quick finger to her mouth she signaled for those watching the stream not to rat her out, it was a running joke that Lyra would attempt to scare Lia during her streams. But just like always, Lia’s fluffle was quick to point out her presence before she fully entered the room.

“Welcome to the stream, Lyra. What’s up?” Lia turned from her screen to face the new comer in the room, shifting her headset to free one ear to fully hear the brunette standing near the office door.

Excitedly bouncing toward the streamer and her set up, Lyra greeted the stream, “Hi bunnies! I’m stealing her early today because it’s ATEEZ DAY!” Turning from the monitors and mic, Lyra looked to Lia, patting the hand she had extended in a greeting with an unusual amount of energy for the bookish girl.

“It’s just about 1:30, we have to be out of here by two to make it to Atlanta in enough time, Lia.” Lyra’s tone was calm despite her obvious excitement about the concert.

“No way, is it already?!,” Lia quickly checked her phone which had been sitting face down on her desk, “crap! It is! I am so sorry guys, but I have to get off and rush, IT”S ATEEZ DAY!” The Lia’s vibe went from calm to chaotic as she turned back to the stream.

Taking this as the que that they were about to rush before heading out, Lyra said a quick goodbye to the stream, “Bye buns! I have to get ready for my passenger princess duties!” Before making a beeline to her room to change from her business casual library clothes to something more age and concert appropriate then quickly adding some eyeline to her work makeup to better “fit the vibe” as Lia would regularly put it.

There are four things Lyra learned at the Ateez concert.

Everyone was happy to trade little nick nacks and the small bunnies they brought were a huge hit

Lia has A LOT of fans who are also ATINY

Apparently people make soulmate compilations of them being quote “cutest lotonic couple on the internet”

Never let Lia chose your concert outfit with blind faith, you will be in heels and a crop top

Librarian core was a vibe in Lyra’s opinion, just not a great one for trying to feel hot in the front row of a concert according to her best friend and soulmate. Lia was the fashion savvy one of the two, and had given Lyra very little room to say no to the outfit she had out together for her.

The two were both decked out head to toe in black, the vibe most fans had gone with for the concert. Lyra had to admit she felt hot, the crop top Lia had put her in crossed over itself a couple times and tied in the back which paired nicely with the black shorts she wore on top of a pair of fishnets. The red accents in her accessories pulled everything together. Lyra couldn’t help but feel a bit exposed, confidence wasn’t her strong suit. Being a curvier girl with her midriff out made her want to hide. The only saving grace was she got to show off her tattoos on her right leg which were normally covered by dress slacks. Lia was in her element, being a bad bitch came naturally to her.

Lia’s confidence in her curves only added to her aura. She knew how to present herself to the world and didn’t care what anyone else had to say about it. Her ‘concert fit’ as she had dubbed it on her instagram story right before they two walked out the door was a bit more on the nose with its Ateez inspiration. A cute shin length black skirt, and black shirt were nondescript on their own, but her choice of a small black hat and the silver jewelry along with the chunky heeled boots that sat in the backseat as she drove screamed HALA HALA.

The two looked similar enough that they didn’t clash with each other but had a bit of individual flare mixed in. The only thing that the two had that was exactly the same was the lipstick the two had decided to share, a blue-red lipstick that contrasted with their mostly black clothes very well.

In high school, their choir teacher had once told them they blanched each other out. Lia, the outgoing, confident, and loud social butterfly. Lyra, the shy, quiet, and reserved loner. Together, they were able to be more confident if needed in Lyra’s case or calmer in Lia’s. More than anything, however, together the two could only be accurately described as chaotic.

The front row of the venue was split into three sections, the center, the right of the stage, and the left of the stage.

Lia and Lyra were on the left side of the stage, a strategic move to avoid as many of the strobing lights as possible for Lyra’s sake. She hadn’t had a seizure in years, but they always aired on the side of caution. Being some of the first to their section was a blessing as neither wanted to have to weave in between other concert goers to get to their spots.

“Excuse me?” a small voice called from the right of Lia, “Are you Lia? From liasfarm? On Twitch?”

A girl who couldn’t be older than 14 was seated next to Lia with what seemed to be her mom on the other side of her who had obviously encouraged the young girl to say hi.

“Oh yeah I am, Hi,” Lia answered with a bright smile always excited to meet one of her bunnies in person, and even more delighted to see them in a place like this.

“Wow! I’ve been watching you since you were playing Stardew Valley!..” The shy girl quickly faded into an excited one as she began telling Lia how long she had been watching her streams and how much she looked up to the girl who just so happened to be seated next to her

“You’ve been watching since then? I only played Stardew for like two weeks when i started in 2020 before going to The Sims. What’s your name?” Lia had started streaming right after the pandemic hit to give her something to do in her spare time which quickly turned into a full time job and now two years later it was a career.

“My name is Taylor.” The young fan was suddenly shy again not expecting Lia to keep the conversation going.

“It’s nice to meet you Taylor! Are you excited to see Ateez? We got lucky and were able to change the tickets we got in 2020 a few weeks ago, fate huh?” Lia was as charismatic as always, Lyra thought watching the interaction before realizing the girl had spotted her and sent her a small wave.

“Hi Lyra! Oh my god, mom this is the best night ever,” the girl glanced back at her mom who was watching the interaction closely before continuing, “I love Ateez! You actually introduced me to them when you talked about them during one of your streams, the one where you were making the Slytherin common room…” the two talked nearly non-stop for the half hour they had before the concert officially started.

Lia was touched when Taylor explained that she didn’t really have friends and had decided to go to online schooling just before the pandemic because of bullying. Lia almost cried when Taylor’s mom said her daughter saw her as a friend and comfort person.

“Oh! And I make LiRa edits on Tiktok, you two are literally so good together. I hope that my relationship with my soulmate is just as good as y’alls, platonic or not,” Taylor explained as the lights started to go down causing the two girls on her right to grin. They loved the support they got from Bunnies and the internet general.

Lia laughed before whispering to the now group of four that they would be the loudest fans in the whole place or she would die fighting for the title. One thing that neither Lyra or Lia had noticed during the concert was the little red string that attached them to each other had become visible to them again.

But it not only connected them to each other, there were several threads trailing off. Maybe it was the darkness of the venue or the excitement that kept the two from realizing the change.

And so, they went about their time without concern, acting as a group of four with Taylor and her mother, screaming at the top of their lungs all night. Feral was the only way to describe them when Ateez surprised the crowd with a performance of Pick It Up right before the raffle drawing for the meet and greet after the show. Due to the lessening Covid restrictions and efforts to keep everyone safe, fansign generally was done through a plexiglass barrier for this concert, but they were trying something new to ease back into normal high touch.

One lucky VIP ticket holder and their party would be allowed a backstage meet and greet for a few minutes after the show.

“Okay Atiny!” Hongjoong began from center stage, “I have the winner of the raffle in this card, who will join us backstage after we do our normal high touch!”

The crowd went crazy, screams from all over rang out as everyone was excited to see who won. It was insane that no one seemed really upset that it would only be a small group, sure some people would be jealous if they didn’t get chosen but everyone knew that this was one step closer to getting back to how things were before.

“The winner is…” Hongjoong started while opening the card and the rest of the boy-group gathering around to join him in the announcement, “Seat F 73!” The whole group yelled in somewhat unison with Mingi being just a second or to behind the rest, but just as enthusiastic.

The realization dawned on Lyra first, she was the very end of the front row at F75, so that means two seats over won.

“Taylor, Oh My God! You WON!” Lyra yelled over the screams of the other Atiny in the venue as the group searched around for their new winner

“Taylor, Yay! I’m so happy for you,” Lia screamed just as Lyra had while excitedly giving the young girl a side hug and a huge smile. She felt like a proud older sister seeing something amazing happening to such a deserving fan.

Taylor seemed to be in a bit of shock even after Lia let her out of the huge, turning her head to her mom as if to check and see if this was real life.

“This is so cool, i’m so happy for her!” Lyra said as she turned to Lia as Taylor began talking to her mom, probably working out the details for after the show.

“I know! She is so sweet, they couldn’t have drawn a better seat. She really deserves this” Lia said, half watching the encore, half answering Lyra.

Before they knew it, the concert was over and the lights were coming up in the venue. The only downside to being in the front row was having to wait for others to file out first, or at least Lyra and Lia were because crowds were not their ideal situation.

Before going, Lia wanted to bid Taylor a quick goodbye and thank her for being such a good concert friend. She was surprised to see Taylor and her mom still beside them, looking as they were about to try and get the duo’s attention as well.

“Lia! Lyra! I have a question before you leave!” Taylor seemed more confident and comfortable now than she had during the whole concert.

“What’s up friend?” Lia answered her attention fully on the young girl now, Lyra coming to stand on Lia’s left also intently listening to the question at hand

“Would you two like to be part of my party and come backstage with us?”

The question and offer of sorts through both girls for a loop, the two shared quick look both feeling awkward. They didn’t want to take advantage of the girl and her mother’s generosity nor did they want her to feel like she needed to invite them to go with her just because she was a fan.

As Lyra readied herself to decline on behalf of the both of them, Taylor’s mother interrupted

“I know it might seem a little awkward, but please don’t feel obligated or like we're only offering because Taylor is a fan. I actually suggested it. You two have been great to share this concert experience with, which is why we are asking. It’s just us and the party limit is six. We don’t want this opportunity to go to waste, please?”

Lyra and Lia were still a bit apprehensive to accept, but it seemed like fate had already decided that they would be joining the mother and daughter, when a security guard walked up asking if they were the winning party.

The group hadn’t realized the main part of the venue had emptied out, before Lia or Lyra could decline Taylor answered

“Yep! The four of us are the winning party, my mom can show you our ticket information for confirmation.”

And just like that they were being escorted to a private green room to wait while Ateez did the normal high touch before coming to visit with them.

The room was nice, large enough to accommodate what would become 12 whole people in a matter of minutes. Some snacks and other refreshments had been spread out across the room adjacent to the several chair and two couches taking up most of the space.

Lia looked calm on the outside, if anything a little quiet, but her anxiety was through the roof with the whole situation. She was scared that she was taking advantage of a fan by getting swept up in this offer but also felt that it would be extremely rude to try and leave at this point.

Lyra was anxious as well, not only did the situation put her in an extremely social situation when her people battery was already low from the night, but she had just noticed the string of fate.

There it was in all its bright red glory, connecting her to Lia as always but eight new strings had appeared leading off behind the door on the other side of the green room. Lyra turned to point out the change in their string to Lia, only to see the subtle look of panic across her soulmates face which was quickly masked with a bright smile as Taylor came to sit in a chair near them.

“Is this your first time doing something like this? You two look a little nervous.” Taylor's Mom, Vivian, asked. Her voice washed over the two anxious soulmates like a calming blanket. She seemed so comfortable in this setting and it helped bring the stress down,

“Yeah, we’ve never even done normal high touch before and were nervous for that,” Lyra laughed out trying to take some of the pressure off of Lia, who despite the break in the tension with the new conversation was still very anxious.

“It’ll be just fine, I work in the music industry in Atlanta. Taylor and I have been around the block before. Taylor’s Dad plays for the Atlanta Falcons also, so we’ve been exposed to this type of stuff for a loooong time.” Vivian’s words were somewhat calming, but also made a lot of sense. It also raised an entirely new set of questions, for both Lyra and Lia respectively.

Before they could fire off with any of their questions, the door opened.

In walked the stars of the night, all eight members of Ateez, in all their sweaty, tired glory. What was most alarming about their entrance was the red string leading between all of them and coming back to attach to the threads connected to Lyra and Lia.

Both of whom are now painfully aware of the changes in their thread and exactly who it connected to. And it seemed that all eight members were just as aware that they were staring at two girls who completed their soulgroup.

A/n: Again not edited, i know its a bit of a mess but tis something from me so the expectations were low

90 notes · View notes

snowdropluck204 · 1 year

Text

Sweetness - Sweet Pea x Fem! Reader

Hello my lovelies! I'm not sure if this fandom is even alive anymore... at least not the Sweet Pea love, but I hope the people who find this story might like it? Just to make sure, Trigger Warning! For anyone who is triggered by the following; Death, illness, gang related activity, injury, guns or knives - Please read this book with caution, there will most likely be mentions of at least one of these in each chapter, but I will give a proper warning for any scenes that detail these events!

Thank you my lovelies (Also, I'm not sure when exactly the series takes place, so be gentle with my dates please!), and enjoy the chapter! Xxx __________________________

July 1999,

Dear diary,

I used to think that Riverdale was the safest place for me, Ricky always had my back, someone I could always trust, someone who loved me and that I adored. And now he's gone.

Ricky was a badass! He was an angel of death and was a big deal in the Serpents, he died protecting his friend! He was so young... He was in the hospital for days, I still think they could have saved him, they chose not to! They saw the snake on his shoulder and chose to give him the bare minimum help!!

Screw this town. Screw the Ghoulies. Screw the Northside. The Southside.

I can't help but feel selfish now. Thinking about myself and what I'm going to do with Peanut. Sure they were a surprise, but they were a welcome one. Ricky was so excited about you, little one. He would have spoiled you rotten.

I know that the Serpents would have taken care of us, F.P is definitely going to be named Godfather now, but they aren't Ricky. And everything in this damn town reminds me of him, of what he was. So I'm leaving. My parents are moving with us out of town, as far away as we can.

I love you so so much Peanut, and I'm hoping one day you'll be a nosy little shit like your dad and find these entries one day, it will be much less painful than telling you his story myself.

Until I meet you, Kathryn (aka mama)

________________________________

February 2000

Dear Ricky,

She's here. She's beautiful. Ten fingers and ten toes, I named her (y/n), the name you wanted, it just seemed perfect for her. I'm going to love her and protect her the way you would have. I've written to F.P, letting him know that he has a happy, healthy god-daughter. I wasn't convinced about him being her godfather, but it's a bit difficult to argue with you now, huh?

Don't think I'm going to let her forget how painful it was getting her out of me though! If this kid ever gives me sass, I'm going to tell her they nearly had to cut her out of me so she can zip it!

I wish you could see her, I was so worried when she first arrived, she didn't make a sound. She hasn't cried since. She just sort of scrunches up her face when she wants something, sort of the way you did when I refused your kisses.

I hope she winds up keeping your eye colour, the gorgeous (e/c). Most people who lose someone say they can't bear to look at others that look like their loved ones. But your eyes, were my everything. My slice of heaven. My oasis. She has my nose, I want her to have your eyes.

I love you Ricky,

Kathryn

________________________________

December 2015

Dear Diary,

It's been a while huh? Being a parent is a bit of a full time job I guess! But (y/n) is beginning to suspect that I'm hiding something from her, she sees me getting weaker, she can tell I'm going places without her. How am I supposed to tell her that I'm running off to the Oncology department a few times a week...?

I want to tell her, desperately. I hate hiding this from her, she's seen me getting weaker for years, she's been taking care of me, ditching school to make sure I'm okay for fuck's sake! She's my angel, she means everything to me.

I can't hide it from her any longer, I'm going to tell her tonight over dinner.

Wish me luck,

Kathryn

________________________________

August 2017

Dear Peanut,

I'm sorry it has to go this way, believe me, if I could have stayed longer I would have, but you wouldn't have wanted that. You need to live your life without having to worry about me, follow your dreams without me holding you back.

I love you so so much (y/n), but I think we both know its time for me. This is the hardest thing I have ever written, and I hope you can forgive me.

With this letter, I have left you a folder, it's just dumb legal bullshit really, but I think there are some things in there that you'll like. I know you found your dad's old recipe books, you and him were so alike my darling.

Hopefully, the stuff in the folder will help you, please don't mourn too long, live your life for me, for your dad.

I love you more than words can say.

Be a good girl (y/n).

Love mama

________________________________

Patient Name: Rick (l/n) Age: 24 Status: Deceased Reason for Admittance: Stab wound Cause of Injury: Gang Fight

Treatment: Patient was admitted with a stab between the second and third ribs (left) at approximately two AM. Patient was given steroids and antibiotics to avoid infection. The wound was more severe than originally believed, the left lung had been punctured. Patient was lost in surgery.

________________________________

Seeing all the memories that I spent the last month avoiding was harder than I had expected. If I thought it was difficult holding my mother's hand as she fought through the cancer and eventually as she passed away, I wasn't prepared for the feeling of resurfacing memories. Mama's lawyer had handed me a large brown folder, a solemn look on his face, struggling to think of something to say to the girl who was now an orphan.

I left the folder in a draw of my dresser after I'd got home, the house felt so empty without her around. Even when she was weak, my mama lit up the room she was in. She was happy and, as cliche and now untrue as it was to say, full of life. Now the house felt cold and dead. My mama was my best friend, my closest confidante, she hasn't been gone an hour and I was already so lost. The worst part was, when I felt this lost, I spoke to my mother.

I went to my mama's room, followed by our dog. I had found him in the park when I was younger, he was just a puppy, I begged and pleaded with mama to keep him, after a pretty big temper tantrum, she finally gave in. Sonic wasn't a puppy anymore, he was nine years old and huge! Mama liked him eventually, when he began exhibiting guarding behaviour, feeling more comfortable with him as a guard dog, a big Rottweiler cross that looked like her came straight from guarding Hades.

Sitting on her bed as carefully as I could, I thought about how strange it was, that everything still was the same, the day was a beautiful, blue sky, the house still looked the same. I contemplated opening the folder now, but it was too hard to think about. Instead, I curled up in the bed sheets, humming a lullaby my mama used to sing, until I fell asleep.

But now I was reading the files. It was a lot of suppressed pain that had suddenly bubbled its way to the surface. My heart felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, there was a photo album full of pictures of me and mama, even some of her and my dad, when they were in high school. I never knew my dad, now I knew why.

Mama had told me he had died, she had just never told me how. Now I knew, someone in a gang had murdered my father. But the diary entries mama had written, my dad was in a gang as well. He died, for another gang member. F.P Jones.

I'd seen the name in the folder too, he was listed as my legal guardian, my godfather, on my birth certificate. I'm not sure just how much I was interested in hunting this guy down, yes he was the person that my parents trusted enough to be my legal guardian, but he was also the person my father took a knife for...

Anyway, I began enjoying myself, looking through all of the pictures of my parents, I even smiled a few times at the pictures of mama and I. The smile faded into confusion when a few certificates and documents were mixed into the nostalgia. Leafing through the documents, I was shocked to find deeds. Specifically to my inheritance and to the house my parents had bought, before dad died. Mama did say she wanted to move away when he'd passed.

Away from Riverdale... ________________________________

The house was bigger than I had expected, a two story suburban dream house, sure it was a bit worse for wear, the wood panelling had chipped paint, some of the windows were so filthy I couldn't see through them and the porch was most definitely a health hazard, but that just meant I had something to distract myself with.

Unfortunately for the house, it would have to wait for some TLC, I was already on my way a few streets down, Sonic trailing behind me, to a separate building, one that my parents had left me money to be able to purchase. It was small, but I knew as soon as I'd seen it, I loved it. It had been my dream since I was a little girl to run my own bakery. I loved cooking and food as much as my father had seemingly.

Mama was right in her diary, I had found dad's old recipe books when I was five, I used a lot of the recipes to learn how to cook, and even more of them because they were claimed as healthy, I was a kid, I thought that because an adult deemed it good, it would make her better. It didn't, but I remember mama's face when I eventually fessed up about snooping through dad's stuff.

Dad had a lot of baked goods in his books, I even managed to tweak a few of them, but he never got to have a place of his own, I was looking forward to this. I would be dedicating my life to something I wanted to do, but also to my parents, forming a legacy I hoped they would be proud of.

My future bakery looked a lot worse than the house did, that was putting it lightly, the windows were smashed, glass was everywhere, the door was practically falling off its hinges and the bricks looked like they had been whacked with a battering ram! Although, the most confusing part about the building, was the old woman sitting on the bench outside, staring at the 'Sold' sign in the window of the door.

I walked up to the woman, cautiously, clearing my throat to avoid startling her, "Excuse me?" I asked, seeing her turn her head to face me, a small smile on her face.

"Oh, sorry dear," She began, struggling to get to her feet, I hurried to offer her a hand, Sonic herding around her knees. "Thank you, such a lovely girl! Oh, and dog!" I smiled at her, curious as to the people my age around here, she seemed surprised I offered to help her, what were the other teenagers like here?

"What were you doing sitting in the cold, all on your own?" I asked, trying not to sound too suspicious, the old woman sighed, staring up at the dilapidated building once more.

The woman smiled, wistful, "This used to be my husband's business." She told me, "He passed on quite long ago now, but he loved this place." She placed a hand lightly against the bricks, I smiled at the woman.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I replied, seeing her nodding in response, "Actually, I own this building now, I'm about to start working on it," I told her, hoping she wouldn't be upset with me.

To my surprise, she grinned widely, clapping her hands in excitement, "Oh, that's wonderful news! I'll be delighted to see the old place back to its former glory!" She cheered. "I'm Ruthie, but such a sweet soul like you can call me Granny, if you'd like, all the other kids in town do!"

I took her hand for a shake, shocked at how strong her grip was, for an old woman, she sure had some muscles! And that was the start of a very odd relationship between the two of us.

Granny was lovely, for the first few days, she would pop by to give me lunch and some hot chocolate, saying that I needed the sugar and some 'pep in my step', but then one day, she picked up a saw, beginning to saw planks for me to use. She helped a lot with the renovation of the bakery, we even kept the name that her husband had used for it, Ray's. We did modify it slightly, now it was Rays, as in 'Ray of Sunshine', but still remembering her husband, Raymond. ________________________________

With the place up and running, I had to force Granny to take a break, in return, we had to make a deal, she could have as many free bakery goodies she wanted, and she would cover the shifts I couldn't make because of school. I was so excited for this, today was the grand opening! Unlike in movies and TV shows, I didn't make a huge deal out of it, even if I was positively buzzing! I didn't deck the place out with banners and balloons, instead, I just flipped the sign on the door and went back to baking, I was gonna let the open windows bring people in.

I was kind of worried about the area, especially considering I'd left my scary teddy bear at home, Sonic would have just gotten stressed each time the door opened. But apparently the Southside of town had a pretty bad reputation, most of the place was pretty run down compared to the preppy, expensive Northside, and was riddled with gang activity...

It had been a couple of hours and I was getting bored! I let my eyes wander around the walls of Rays, the glossy, white brick walls reflecting the florescent lights. All the industrial ovens, mixers and fridges were pretty high-grade, but they weren't the things I loved the most.

Next to the coffee machine, were two framed pictures, one of my parents, happy in their high school days, the other, a black and white photo of Granny and Ray, happy in their own. I was brought out of my reverie by the timer on the oven, pushing off of the counter to the kitchen, pulling the cupcakes out of the oven, relishing in the sweet smell of freshly baked cake.

I felt my heart swell with excitement when I heard the bell above the door ringing, we finally had customers! Quickly, but carefully, cause it was blisteringly hot, I set down the tray of cupcakes on the metal decorating tables, wiping my hands on my apron.

Walking back around to the main shop, I saw three teenagers, probably around my age, two guys and a girl. The guys were staring at the display case, their eyes practically sparkling, it was rather strange to see. One of the boys was quite tall, leaning on the display case, the other was significantly shorter, pressing his hands to the front of the glass. The girl on the other hand was gazing around the room, smiling, her most outstanding feature was her bright pink hair, all three of them were decked out in leather jackets and flannel.

A relaxed smile made its way onto my face, "Hey you guys, what can I get ya?" I asked cheerfully, a bounce in my step. The guys hardly looked up from the display case, the girl shaking her head at them disapprovingly.

"Hey, never seen this place before," The girl said, nodding at the door. I smiled and nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, we only just opened today! We've spent the last few weeks renovating this place!" I told her, offering her a hand to shake. "I'm (y/n), sort of new to town," I told her.

She took my hand, strong grip, something that most of the people here seemed to have. "Toni, congrats on opening! Sorry about those two, usually they're not this rude... Shorty is Fangs, the giant is Sweet Pea." She said, causing me to giggle.

"It's cool, I remember going to places like this when I was a kid and being starstruck by all the pretty cakes, not to mention the fact that there were way to many options!" I joked, happy when Toni laughed with me.

Seeming to wake up from the glutton induced trance they were in, Sweet Pea and Fangs looked up, only now realising there was a second party in the room.

The shorter guy, Fangs, looked at me in awe, "Did you make all these?" He asked, pointing at the goodies, I nodded in response, proud that they seemed to like the look of them, I only hoped that they liked the taste.

"Sure did! Would you guys like to try something, no charge! I need some guinea pigs!" I said, giving a cheeky smirk. The boys shared an excited look, fully prepared to say yes, when Toni interrupted them.

"You only just opened, we can't just take from your stock, at least let us pay for them!" She protested, I smiled kindly at her, it was very sweet of her to consider the business aspect, it was pretty important, but it wasn't why I started this! I wanted people to enjoy my food!

"No worries! You guys are the first people to come in today, well, ever! It would be good to have some feedback about some stuff, if it really bothers you, then feel free to come back another time and buy something? For now! I'll set up a sample plate!" I told her, not giving her time to argue.

I put together a large plate of lots of different things, cupcakes, cookies, pies, tarts, cakes, pastries and some drinks, bringing them over to one of the tables on the shop floor. I'll be honest, it was rather funny seeing these edgy teens sitting in my pastel bakery, I offered them seats before taking one myself.

Sweet Pea and Fangs were practically giddy, getting their hands smacked by Toni as they tried to grab some of the sugary treats. "Hey! If (y/n) wants feedback, you can't just shovel it into your faces! Have some manners, damn who raised you two?" She muttered.

I chuckled, "It's fine, go ahead, maybe start with the cookies? They should still be warm from the oven!" I told them, pointing at the chocolate chip cookies, a simple classic.

They each took a bit, their eyes widening as they bit into the warm, gooey chocolate. "Oh my god." Fangs muttered, his mouth full.

"These are amazing," Sweet Pea added, taking another bite.

I clapped my hands slightly, "Yay! I'm so happy you guys like them," Toni nodding along, giving me some info that was actually really useful. We let the boys keep trying the goodies as we settled into conversation.

"So why did you and your family move to Riverdale, we're not exactly a tourist destination," Toni joked, gazing out of the window at the run down streets of the Southside, "Your bakery is probably the nicest thing to be in this side of town for decades..."

My face soured into a sad smile, "Um, it's just me actually, my parents have both passed away, but they used to live in Riverdale before I was born, they left me a house in the Southside." I told her quietly, looking down as tears began too well in my eyes, already beginning to flood my face. I let out a choked laugh, "I'm so sorry, I never cry, this is so strange..."

I wiped my face, feeling my cheeks burn, I can't believe one of the rare times I cry and it's in public. Hearing the chairs scrape against the floor, I thought Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs were saving me the humiliation and leaving me to my tears. Instead, I felt a gentle hand cup my own and sudden large hands resting on my shoulders and knee.

Looking up confused, I saw a soft smile on Toni's lips, as well as Sweet Pea, kneeling beside my chair, his hand on my knee, leading me to believe that it was Fangs' hands on my shoulders.

Sweet Pea, though he wasn't smiling, had a soft look in his eyes, "All of us have lost someone, we get it. You don't have to be strong all the time, we got your back now." He told me, keeping his voice quiet. I looked into his deep brown eyes, wiping my cheeks and smiling at him.

"Thanks, you guys are being so kind to me, you don't even know me," I chuckled.

They laughed with me, "I mean, you gave us free sweets and you don't know us," Toni joked. We once again, fell into relaxed conversation, the guys joining in this time, whilst still snacking on pastries.

Fangs looked over at me, "So, if I can ask... Who were your parents? If they lived here, maybe someone knew them?" He asked, cautiously, probably trying not to set me off again.

"Rick and Kathryn (l/n)." I told them, playing with the straw in my drink, noting how quiet the three had gotten.

Looking up, I saw them all looking at me like they'd seen a ghost, "What?" I asked.

Sharing glances, they seemed to be mentally arguing about who was going to tell me.

"Spit it out, you guys, I thought we were friends now?" I muttered, trying to guilt them into just telling me.

Sweet Pea sighed, "We know your parents, or really, we know of them..." I looked at him confused, gesturing for him to continue.

"Your dad is a Serpent legend! He died saving F.P, he's kind of the boss now. His picture's been in pretty much every Serpent hangout since we before we all joined." He finished.

I smiled at them, clearly not the reaction they were expecting.

"Thank you, for keeping his memory alive, I'd love to meet some of the Serpents that knew him, I only found out what happened to him about a month ago, mama didn't really like talking about it."

Once again, the conversation started up, but, once again, was interrupted. This time, by Sonic, barking outside the bakery, freaking out the Serpents into standing up, "It's okay, he's my dog! Something must have happened, I left him in the house..." I told them, grabbing the keys to the bakery and rushing out to follow Sonic back to the house, Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs following close behind.

________________________________

So I'm going to end the chapter there! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I based a few characters off of my family... My mum and dog for example... Anyway! I love you guys, see you soon, hopefully! Xxx

#riverdale #sweet pea x reader #riverdale x reader #x reader #cute #love #romance #fanfiction #gangs #injury #death #toni topaz #fangs fogarty #sweet pea

64 notes · View notes

thisnightissparkling089 · 2 months

Note

Everything with an 8 or a 2, plus 50 😊

2. what's your favourite colour?

Purple!

8. would you rather watch a rom-com or a drama?

Depends on my mood, but I typically choose Rom-Com's. Though, honestly, (old lady thought coming on in 3...2...1...)I feel like they don't make rom-com's like they used to in the 2000's. There used to be like 2-3 a year. The last romcom I can remember seeing is Isn't it Romantic in 2019. But I did love that one!

12. i'm giving you a plane ticket, where are you going?

My husband and I have been looking into a trip to Germany, so I'm going to go with that.

18. cotton candy or ice cream?

Ice cream. I just had some the other night from our local shop that was vanilla ice cream with reeces peanut butter cups and pretzals mixed in...😳 sooo good!

20. biggest pet peeves?

Right now, people who choose to consume Fanfiction without interacting is the first thing coming to mind.

21. describe your style/aesthetic

Well, I work from home, so it's mostly sweats or yoga pants or pjs lol. But when I'm going out, I like casual but stylish. Dark wash jeans, blazers, nice tops. In the fall/winter I love pairing outfits with a scarf. In the spring/summer I like flowy tops. Idk that I really have any kind of 'set style'

22. what's your favourite thing about yourself?

My ability to perserve. When the cards are stacked against me and I'm in a shitty situation, I never just give in. I find a way to make things better and work my way to something better.

Also, my ability to find and surround myself with genuinely good people. I like to think I'm a very good judge of character.

23. what's your favourite day of the week and why?

Well, it used to be Friday's, but now it's Tuesday's. Tuesday's are Rookie days and we all get on her and go crazy together and I smile because it's the closest I'm going to ever get to us being in a living room together hanging out and watching our favorite show together.

24. morning or night person?

Night person. I have never been and never will be an early riser.

25. tea or coffee?

Coffee in the morning, tea at night.

26. you can only read one book for the rest of your life. what book is it?

Hmmm...I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy because it was so damn impactful.

27. you're stuck in a lift with your favourite tumblr account who is it?

Listen, it's a tie right now between @sisterofficerlucychen because we could entertain each other for hours and @queseraone because you'd make friendship bracelets, and we could talk Taylor Swift for hours.

28. do you have any siblings?

1 sister. I always wished I had more!

29. what's your biggest fear?

Dying, and the uncertainty of not knowing what's on the other side.

32. what is your comfort movie/tv show?

Aside from The Rookie, The Golden Girls. I used to watch it on Lifetime with my grandmother when I was growing up. I've seen every episode hundreds of times, and I still laugh like it's the first❤️

38. what is favourite gemstone?

Sapphire, such a stunning color!

42. favourite flavour of ice cream?

The aforementioned ice cream earlier in the post. But I also like Strawberry, Cheesecake, and Cookies and Cream.

48. what's your favourite fruit?

Mangos and Peaches

50. nothing. i just wanted to say that ily. ♡

😭😭 I love you too, you're the best, and I always smile when I see your handle on my page!

#ask game #lovely mutuals #asks #ask me anything

8 notes · View notes

technicallyonappleduty · 10 months

Text

Aziraphale and Crowley Timeline

I made a timeline of the Aziraphale and Crowley relationship based on the TV show, book, stage directions, and Neil Gaiman’s blog. It was designed to track negative space and off-screen interactions for the purposes of fic writing, so maybe other fic writers would enjoy it. Please add anything I missed. I’ll edit as necessary.

Before the Beginning — Nebula rollout

Aziraphale shares his name with a heavy implication that they have not met before.

Crowley tells Nina and Maggie, “We’ve been talking for millions of years,” implying some sort of relationship before Crowley’s fall.

Sunday, October 21, 4004 B.C. at 9:13 a.m. — The creation of the universe

4004 B.C., "just after the beginning" — The Garden of Eden

Crowley (Crawly) tells Aziraphale his new name, which implies minimal interaction since Crowley’s fall. They were aware of each other’s presence in the garden as evidenced by Crowley having noticed the flaming sword.

3004 B.C., Mesopotamia — Noah’s Ark

Crowley follows up on the flaming sword, which implies but does not confirm that they haven’t interacted since Eden.

[3004 BC - 2500 BC: NO INTERACTION as evidenced by Aziraphale’s comment, “I haven’t seen you since the flood.”

2500 B.C., Land of Uz — Job

2000 B.C., Sodom and Gomorrah

It’s confirmed from the TV show that Aziraphale was present (as evidenced by their comment about Sandalphon’s participation)

It’s confirmed from the book that Crowley was not present and did not visit afterwards.

[800 BC - 200 BC: Deleted scene from TV show, Arabian Nights-inspired]

33 A.D., Golgotha — The crucifixion

41 A.D., Rome — Aziraphale runs into Crowley

537 A.D., Kingdom of West Essex — Crowley suggests they stop working just to cancel each other out

[1020 A.D. (BOOK CANON) — Arrangement (non-interference) is established. Then, they extend the arrangement to “hold the fort” for one another.]

[1023 A.D. (BOOK CANON) — Crowley comes back to argue that you need to start people off equal in order to let them choose between good and evil, equivalent of The Resurrectionists in the TV series.]

[1400s: “Papal” scene, cut from TV show]

[1567 A.D. — Mary Queen of Scots dies, this scene was cut and converted to The Resurrectionists]

[1556 AD - 1598 AD (BOOK CANON): Crowley is in Spain when he receives a commendation for the Spanish Inquisition. He checks it out then comes back and gets drunk for a week. Time range is evidenced by the line, “That Hieronymus Bosch,” who is a painter who inspired King Phillip II.]

1601, Globe Theatre, London — Hamlet

CONFIRMED: Multiple interactions between Wessex (537 AD) and now as evidenced by Crowley’s statement that they’ve covered for each other “dozens of times now.”

1650, Unknown — First “I Was Wrong” dance (performed by Aziraphale)

[1600 - 1800, United States: A scene set during the Wild West, cut from TV show]

1793, Paris — The French Revolution

A recent interaction is implied by Crowley saying, “I thought you were opening a bookshop.”

1800, London — The bookshop opens (confirmed that it opened “a couple years” after Mr. Hatchard in Piccadilly, founded 1797)

[Book — Crowley is asleep through most of the 19th century, gets up in 1832 for bathroom]

1820s, U.K. — Aziraphale’s diary excerpt, in which he mentions that he told Crowley the story “afterwards” (although “afterwards” can be a very long time for two immortal beings so it doesn’t confirm much)

1827, Edinburgh — The Resurrectionists

[Confirmed: “It was the last I was to see of Crowley for quite some time.”]

1862, St. James Park, London — Crowley requests holy water

Their understanding of the agreement is, “Stay out of each other’s way. Lend a hand when needed.”

[1862 - 1941: NO INTERACTION as evidenced by the stage directions that Aziraphale has not seen Crowley in a hundred years.]

1941, London

[1960s: cut scene set in America, note: both female-presenting]

1967, Soho — Aziraphale gets holy water for Crowley

2008, U.K. — Antichrist is born

2013, U.S. — Crowley and Aziraphale both begin work for the Dowlings

[“The story starts, as it will end, in a garden” — although technically garden is no longer where it started]

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #neil gaiman #good omens timeline #aziracrow #good omens fandom #good omens fanfiction

44 notes · View notes

katethevampire · 11 months

Text

Ace Attorney au where Mia bought a house before her death that's haunted by all the attorneys besides Phoenix. They all died in mysterious ways. Mia bought the house to try and investigate like she did with Redd White.

After her death Phoenix gets the house (technically Maya inherited it but shhhhh he pays for everything) and they realize, uh oh! There's ghost!

Most of the ghosts died within the last 80 or so years (still working on the dates), all of the ghosts haunting died either in or around the house causing it to have a bit or a reputation... One that Phoenix doesn't know about before agreeing to move in.

Each ghost has their own design related to how they died (and I definitely didn't steal any of them from TBHK /s) Most of them I don't have a cause of death for quite yet so if anyone can give me ideas that'd be great! Also as I haven't finished all the games and just going off of characters I've seen people mention. I'm probably forgetting some characters, if there's a prominent attorney character that I left out then let me know! If I don't add them after than I probably have an idea for them/want them to be alive, really don't like the character (unlikely since I'd REALLY have to hate them), or haven't played their game yet or seen enough to know that they're important (e.i. I know Kalvier is important even if I haven't played his game yet). All of the ? Are things that I need ideas for.

Ghost of | death | who they were/what they did | When they died

Edgeworth | strangulation | a bit past his brat era. | Died maybe a year-6 months before Phoenix became an attorney

Mia | blunt object (same as game) | the same as in the game before her death, the only difference is that she was also trying to solve why so many people, specifically attorneys, had died in that house. | 2016

Apollo | Lost blood circulation | Thinking he was fresh out of law school, just absolute terrible luck, fell down the stairs after seeing Kalvier's ghost | died right before his first trial, some time in the early 2000s (all that voice training for nothing....)

Kalvier | ? | Was a rock star (and prosecutor!) In the 70s or 80s. | After coming back from tour Died from a stalker fan breaking into his house (credit to Tumblr user @cursed-edgeworth the idea!)

Blackquill | Electric Chair | Studying under Metis | late 1960s, executed on false murder charges

Franziska Von Karma | blood loss | went looking for Miles after he was reported dead | She fell into the pool after being shot (maybe by the some person who got to her brother? Both times a strange card was found nearby...) A month before Phoenix became a Lawyer. 2016

Godot/Diego | poisoning | The exact same as the game, except instead of going into a coma Diego died. | Defense Attorney | 2013. When Dahlia poisoned him she used a much slower acting poison, over the course of about a week he got progressively more and more sick, his vision became spotty, coughing up blood, etc. By the end of the week he was dead. (Once again credit to Tumblr user @cursed-edgeworth for giving me the idea!)

Athena | ? | Studying law, trying to save Blackquil (like the games, only in the 60s) | Late 1960s- earlier 1970s. Was killed by The Phantom as a final loose end to tie.

20 notes · View notes

pyonyonmomo · 2 years

Text

May fate bring us together again

Part 1

➻ Synopsis: A couple lived in the middle of a bustling village 2000 years ago. They own a clothing store and have been dubbed a sweet couple by the villagers despite their differences in personalities. Their lives were tragically cut short one day, and the couple died together.

Timeskip , Two people cross paths 2000 years later and feel as if they know each other. That their meeting was not by chance, but due to Fate.

[ Shu Itsuki x Gender Neutral Reader ]

One vast village has such a busy afternoon. Adults were working, children were playing, and despite the hot weather that had descended on the village, no one seemed to mind

As another customer enters the clothing store, the doorbell jingles. The costumer gaze in awe as they are stunned by the beautiful suits and dresses on display for the public to see whenever they enter the small store. "Ma'am, what can I do for you?" you inquired of the customer who had just entered; " Oh ! I remember you. You did order a dress to be made for you weeks ago, correct? ", Remembering the costumer's appearance, you recall them placing a costum order for a dress made entirely for some time ago.

"Why Yes ! I'm here to pick it up. I’m invited to this grand party , and wearing something formal yet fashionable is a must! “. After they've told you their name and given you the receipt, you go to the back of the front desk and look for a bagged dress that matches the description on the receipt. Unfortunately, you appear to be having difficulty finding the dress. With so many orders coming in and out, your mind goes blank whenever you have to recall the more detailed information you have discussed with the client about the dress prior to its creation. Having so many dresses in similar colors doesn't help either; it just confuses you.

" You're the store owner's partner, right?" ", you replied with a ‘yes’ without looking at them; focusing your attention on finding the costumer's dress. " So it is true ! I've been curious about your love story with your dear partner. Is it true he confessed his love to you at the village's mountain peak, quite the romantic spot if I say so myself ~” queried the customer, who was quite loud. It wasn't the first time you'd been asked about your love life. Ever since the public became aware of your and your partner's relationship, they have been eager to learn the full story. From the way he confessed to how long you'd known each other.

They were simply taken aback to learn that the eccentric fashion designer had finally found love, and that it was you. To be honest, the repetitive questions were bothering you a lot; day after day, a person or two would ask the same question; "so how did you two meet? ” , “ where did he actually confess ?” , “ how much do you love him ?” . You know better, so whenever they ask questions like those, you tell them it's a “long story” and try to escape them

The lady costumer today was asking the same question as to those who had asked before , and just as you were about to reason with them to how that question couldn’t be answered; someone from behind you grabs the dress wrapped in clothing wrap

“ The dress has been completed! Small bows and puffs add personality to the Paisley yellow fabric, and the sleeves are finished with a sewn piece of light fabric. When the owner moves, it gains a lot of mass. Giving it a gentle feeling”. Shu Itsuki, the owner of the clothing store and your beloved partner, gently places the packed dress on the counter. "Your order has been completed, thous you no longer have any business with us". Given Shu's intimidating demeanor, the costumer pays up front, without bothering to request a change, and leaves with their dress. You laugh at how quickly the customer left when Shu appeared. "You didn't have to scare them away like that, dear? ", slightly playing with shu, you take the payment left behind by the customer and place it in a box containing all assets from the clothing store.

“ Tsk !” , He places his hand on the edge of his brow, looking agitated. "Those ordinary folks should know when to mind their own business. Our relationship is none of their concern, Non !! who do they think they are? Asking all about it , especially in our precious clothing store. No respect !", you can tell he was irked by how many people were curious about your and Shu's relationship. It's a pain, but you're relieved that it didn't have a significant impact on your clothing store's sales too much

You held his hand, hoping to calm him down. "Fussing about it won't get us anywhere; we're still swamped with orders to fulfill." Your touch in his hand did the trick, and he gives you a small and bitter smile. With no time to waste, he summons his assistant, " Kagehira! Get my sewing machine ready! ”. Mika Kagehira , A young man with mid-length tousled black hair and two different colored eyes peers his head at the end of the staff room, “ on the way teach !!”. Mika, the assistant, went to the supply room. He tilts his head toward the almost empty cabinets for fabric, expecting to see it there. With so many orders coming in and having to assist Shu with his work, he overlooked to notify him that there was little to no fabric left to be used. “ hehe, Oshi-saaan!-”

Shu sighs visibly after Mika tells him that they don't have any more fabric and that he forgot to inform him sooner. He was quite strict about such things; not having fabric, especially when they were swamped with orders, was unacceptable. So he had decided to order more fabric from a material shop he trusts after giving him a few lectures. Mika will look after the store and Mademoiselle.

" I'll join you!" you said as Shu wore his glamorous hat. He had intended to leave you behind with Mika to keep an eye on the store, but who is he to turn down your offer to assist him? You both get to spend quality time and work together! a win-win situation.

“ then let’s be off. The sooner we come back , the sooner we can work on the orders “. Your face lights up with delight as he welcomes you to join him in acquiring additional materials. You dash to get your umbrella in order to shield yourself from the blinding sunlight, and you both quickly exit the store.

During the walk, there were definitely people giving you and Shu looks and whispers. You'd be lying if you said you didn't mind being talked about because of a stupid Rumor. However, in your case, you and Shu's special relationship isn't just a rumor. When you look at Shu to see his reaction towards the glances and whispers, you see him wear his usual confident and stoic expression. He wasn't bothered by the stares because, as an eccentric labeled by the public , he was used to people staring or even talking about him. But it was quite nerve-racking for him to deal with it right away, you chuckle. He gives you a puzzled look, but dismisses it as he begins enlightening the walk with his plans for the ordered dresses and suits.

When the two of you arrive at the sewing material store, you join him in ordering the color, size, and texture of fabric he had planned to order ahead of time. You carry a few items, some of which are light weight fabric and white thread. Shu looks around as you both approach the silk fabric station, glancing at each fabric as if he was already planning how he would use its soft and shiny fabric for his wonderful creations. "wisteria colored silk fabric, on the top left. One roll of it," he told the store employee. The worker instructs Shu to wait for them at their spot as they are going to retrieve the fabric from another room, leaving him and you after they have finished talking. You wondered why shu would order a wisteria colored silk fabric, given that there were no orders indicating the fabric color was wisteria. " What’s the fabric for? " you finally asked, casting a curious glance at Shu, who was still looking around the room filled with various colors of silk fabric.

He lets out a short chuckle and says, without looking at you, that he wants to create something with it. "Art has no boundaries, and I'm ecstatic to see how my creation turns out," he said. You didn't understand what shu said, and you wished Mika was here to translate what he had just rambled about

After a few moments of waiting the worker returned to Shu with one roll of the silk fabric he had requested. He finishes their fabric shopping and pays, satisfied with the quality. There was no way you could both carry the amount of fabric you had just purchased back to the store in one go. So you both only carried the ones that are frequently used, while the rest would be delivered to your store the next day.

When you and Shu return to the store, Mika greets you with a welcoming smile. He assists you in transporting all of the items you both purchased to the supply room. Shu returns to his workstation to continue working, and while he was distracted, you went to Mika to inquire about something.

“ ehh? Wisteria colored silk fabric ?”. He seemed to know something about the fabric you had asked about based on his reaction. Wisteria was a color you adored, so why would shu suddenly request it when it wasn't required at the time? Unless..“ ohhh! Someone of noble rank approached Oshi-San earlier and asked him to make some fancy clothes. He most likely didn't tell you because it was requested of him only recently~~”.

“then how come you know about it ?” , you sigh as you thought of it no longer. It wasn't uncommon for people to approach Shu personally to place in an order, so you didn't dwell on your curiosity anymore. Instead, you began to work on a crochet part of the sleeves, creating detailed floral patterns that matched the theme of the dress a costumer had ordered.

Shu sighs in relief behind the wall where you were working. In his mind, he was slightly praising Mika for covering up the secret surprise he had arranged.

“So even though all my creations are flawless, yours would be the most exemplary one I've ever made” ,

He smiles slightly, feeling the wisteria silk fabric on his table, before opening his sketchbook and continuing to illustrate his next masterpiece

⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀ ⤀

#enstars #ensemble stars #happy elements #shu itsuki #shu itsuki x reader #mika kagehira #valkaryie #part 1 of idk how many #mademoiselle #ensemble stars x reader #enstars X reader

122 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 1 year

Text

S5 Ep 42 Pt 1: It’s All In Your Head

Every week with long covid is like a new batch of symptoms. Last month’s symptom, among other things, was “words no work no good,” and so we just uh...didn’t do an update. I probably needed to chill and nap anyway. Not that I’m fully better yet, today I did laundry and pulled out a blue shirt that I clearly own and bought with my own money--but I have no memory of it. Zilch.

The brain is amazing, that with this brain fog, I can’t remember my blue t-shirt, but I can remember Yugioh. Weird, right? So anyway, thanks for your patience in this weird time of my life, glad to have a blog to write about anime in that is so chill with our very long breaks.

Also, I finally went through my old caps to toss old pictures so that way I can make new stuff, and guess what I just realized?

Kisara is not a dragon!

Seto’s girlfriend isn’t a dragon! She’s just on top of the dragon, I can’t...I just can’t believe this.

Truly a crime that this season, the final ultimate season of Yugioh, is what I’m doing while on Long Covid fruitloops, so I can miss every damn point that this show fires at me. But, at least, I hope it’s funny to read. It is like every single update where I realize I was wrong about the obvious, and don’t worry, it’s gonna happen again in like 4 seconds. My borked brain.

Anyway, Yugi and Co have walked all the way to the palace. Because we’re still on S4 time and space conventions where Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, and San Fransisco are all next to each other. Like Yami fell in the Nile in a fight that was just outside of the city--but I assumed he got pulled way out there. Either way, it’s a kid��s show, never think about geography.

(read more under the cut)

Yugi can conveniently walk through doors now, and after a quick shoutout to his homie Yami, they phase through.

Including Tristan who is...

Well,

APPARENTLY TRISTAN WAS POSSESSED.

Freakin, my brain is a bunch of salad dressing, lmaoooo even last episode I was like “wow Tristan is drawn kinda evil and I don’t really get why” and it was RIGHT THERE. He’s been possessed probably since Bakura grabbed him by the neck right in front of me. I somehow missed this!

And like, I figure, if I try and wait out long covid it may take a whole other year, so like this is just me now. I started this blog as like a competent analysis (ish), and now I get to the end of S5 giving you just an incoherent rorschach. It’s kind of fitting for this show really, everyone has to end up at least a little bit of a mess. Keeps you humble. Even me. I also have to become the mess.

Anyway, speaking of becoming a babbling incoherent mess, we go back to Bakura, who has fully lost his game in Battle Basement of a 7 vs 1 game.

Only in Yugioh would they make a 7 vs 1 game feel evenly sided.

And as I wonder if I’ve already made that joke four months back and have forgotten, they all watch Bakura do a mad dash to screw them over one last time.

And while they stood there and just allowed Bakura to fumble around with the doom rocks made of human souls, from no where, Aknadin stumbles through the door all day drunk like freakin Kramer.

And no, in the show he did not reveal here that he was Seto’s dad, but he does in like 2 minutes so I didn’t really care about where I put it. The big thing is that Aknadin’s gone full-tilt cray and not even he can fully explain his motive anymore.

That’s when they realize Aknadin’s babysitter, Shada, has been punk’d on the bottom of skull tablet basement. Which like, Imagine the day that Shada’s been having. I guess Aknadin just left him at the base of like 10000 human skulls then, hahaha.

I have checked my notes and I decided that 2000 people died in Kul Elna a few months back but eh I don’t feel like changing this cap. Overall, I have no freakin idea how many people lived in this freakin town and they can’t tell us because 4Kids would never allow it.

Which is when Bakura decided to teleport his bean into another bean because this bean is broke.

Which is when we met this guy, a guy we’ve only met for like 4 seconds of the show so far. Hello there, Original Bakura.

Straight up, he wasn’t on screen long enough for me to over-analyze his accent before he was a small mound of dust on the floor.

Ah the death count! Oh damn it, I write these notes on the caps sometimes, expecting I’ll put an actual number there later but lets be real, I just need to publish this episode, so let me open the Google doc...

7,805,847,572

Yeah that’s how many people have died in this kids show so far. We’re right on track. Thanks Bakura, for another death, but no you have not caught up with Dartz. Although I will hand it to him, Dartz didn’t end up killing himself nearly as many times as Bakura has.

Speaking of dying and being dead on a kid’s show, in enters Shada.

So lets go see what Yugi’s up to hm? The four have decided to separate in this Egyptian palace to each find Yami’s name. Mind you...there’s some flaws with this plan.

The flaw being that none of them have graduated high school or know freakin anything about Egypt, other than they hang out with an Ex patriot Egyptian. (2 ex-patriots if you count Yugi’s Grandfather. Although honestly, are you an ex-pat if you are reborn in a kid’s body on the other side of the world? You are, right? You are). But, whether or not Yami can or can’t read Egyptian in Canonical Yugioh, we know that Yugi apparently super can’t when Yami isn’t in his bean.

And Joey just can’t focus for the life of him, which, damn, relatable. But, he did find a room full of women.

He also went to the only room with like lots of water. Real pissed focused mind here, and no the piss plotline will not be resolved.

Tea, still GOAT.

This castle, man. I love the complete disregard for interiors that this animation team has. Like...what even is the purpose of this weird maze room with masssssive stone tiles, Yugioh? Like...what is this even supposed to be? Why are the tiles so SHINY?

Anyway, lets go back to Shada and hear his excuse for what the hell happened last episode.

Which is when Aknadin decided to just start cursing everyone, which he would have done earlier if he wasn’t constantly in a sick bed this season.

This very well might be a yugioh card effect that turns you into a rainbow filter, but it also looks like a complete mess of artistic directions on the screen.

Which like, after that cutesy filter, lets pull our eyes out.

Which is when Yami makes the biggest logical leap known to man.

That’s right! Yami has figured out that this entire time, this entire arc, he’s been sleeping at this RPG table that Bakura’s built in his mom’s basement Yami’s Puzzle Necklace.

In fact, when Yami wakes up to all of this, wearing his normal ass school clothes, and Bakura sitting across from him in his popped collar duster jacket, Bakura says something on the line of “bout time you woke up.”

the fic shippers must have had a FIELD DAY with one.

Anyway, everything is a lie, Bakura is controlling people like puzzle pieces, which not only explains why Aknadin’s motives went a 180, but can lead us to believe that Yami also COULD control everyone else, but just chooses not to. Just like he does in real life.

I think, overall, you just have to go with it. We’re playing D+D, except it’s about your embarrassing past. Like if you made D+D about your middle school experience and you can’t remember your first name.

What a way to die, really. What a weird ass way for Yami to almost die.

Anyway, here’s a link for those new here to read these from the beginning. I have the 2nd part already drafted up, should be up in a few days and not an entire month, haha. Hope your 2023 is looking up!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #Yami Yugi #S5 #ep 42 #Bakura #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #recap #photo recap #tea gardner #tristan taylor #seto kaiba

38 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

Photo

[Portrait of my mother, taken by my son :: 2000]

* * * * *

Always a day late [and a dollar short] :: remembering the anniversary of my mother's death.

Here is Ruth again. The anniversary of her death is here. The beginning of this blog was the end of her life so this is also an anniversary for this blog.

What to say about my mother 20+ years after her death? I'm getting closer to the age she was when she died which is disconcerting. A part of my experience of time is frozen with her death. Still. As I remember her I appreciate her more and know her less.

I had a lot of long [all night long] conversations with my mother in the several years before she died.If you've ever had a searching conversation with a schizophrenic it's a fascinating experience. We jumped from reality to reality in a way that is very hard to describe. As a matter of fact I can't recall any of the content of these intense conversations. They had the quality of meditation or prayer. Of listening. Both of us intensely listened.

I think those conversations were to prepare me for the conversations that we have now, now that she has died. They may die but they don't really go away. In those conversations we were memorizing each other. We were recording the whorls of the fingerprints of one another so that we wouldn't ever be lost to each other.I guess that's just my fantasy or how I explain things to myself.

I'm watching our home movies that show our trip on "The Flying Cloud." There's a lot of film of people's backs. We see them going but not coming. I just want a good long look at their/ our faces. One of the things I do is look at people's posture so I'm analyzing my family's posture on the film. We are people who are very bad liars and even worse at hiding how we feel. My mother loved that trip. I guess my father was already planning to leave us, so this would have been a "fuck you" trip.

It's always bugged me that our mother loved it so much, as if it represented a new beginning. She had always wanted our father to do something nice for her. So she got a "goodbye cruise."

My mother had a hell of a temper. She could swear using words I still don't know the meaning of. She was swearing in tongues - divine words of frustration and condemnation. After our father left I heard her say many times that now her life was over. But it wasn't. Not by a long shot. Then in the year before she died, she said that it had occurred to her that she might live to be 100 so she should maybe make some plans.*

Now I'm at the place in the home movies where the super-8 movie camera mostly shakes and whites out. It provides just a tiny peek and the tiny tykes my brothers and I were - appearing and disappearing with a quick dash of my mother then my father. I think it was 1949 or 1950. Can't we just have a sustained look at someone? Can't we just look and look at them? It is just out of the corner of an eye before it's gone.

That was my mother. We didn't really get to see her. Just glimpses of her and then her back as she was cooking or walking away or working on one of her projects. Projects made out of clay or ripping the sofa apart to put on new upholstery, where the incomplete project lay on the living room floor for weeks.

There was more a flavor to her - or a spell.

I look at photos of young teenage me and think - she had no idea that she had the power to cast a spell.

My mother didn't know her powers, her magical self. That's the real shame of her and her life trajectory. She possessed so much magic and never really knew. Because there wasn't anyone who could or would tell her.*

“(and I think silently: love is a bow-string pulled back to the point of breaking)”

— Marina Tsvetaeva, trans. by Elaine Feinstein, from Bride of Ice: “Poem of the End”

And death shall have no dominion

Dylan Thomas - 1914-1953 And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. No more may gulls cry at their ears Or waves break loud on the seashores; Where blew a flower may a flower no more Lift its head to the blows of the rain; Though they be mad and dead as nails, Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, And death shall have no dominion.

[from a post on “Alive On All Channels”]

#Mother #Ruth #remembrance #anniversary #Alive On All Channels #Dylan Thomas #words and writing #my reflections #Marina Tsvetaeva #portrait

16 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

Text

Raising money for Locus Magazine

Update: The naming rights/Tuckerization from this fundraiser sold almost immediately after this post went live, so we’ve added another one.

Update 2: This one sold, too.

Since 1968, Locus magazine has been the paper of record for science fiction, fantasy and horror literature; it’s been through several iterations, but the current one — a crowd-supported nonprofit — is the best yet. They’re raising $75k on Indiegogo to fund the next year’s operations:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/locus-magazine-science-fiction-fantasy-horror#/

I started writing a bimonthly column for

Locus

in 2006; I’ve written six columns per year for them ever since, without missing a single one, and every one of them is open access on the same day it comes out in print:

https://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/07DoctorowCommentary.html

After Locus founder Charles N Brown died in 2009 — in his sleep, on a plane, coming back from an sf con he’d covered for the magazine — his staff took over the magazine and its vast archive of science fiction ephemera and restructured it as a nonprofit. Brown’s collection went to Duke University:

https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2019/01/11/locus-archives-documents-the-history-of-sci-fi/

The magazine pressed on, continuing as the best source of industry news, thoughtful reviews (including short fiction reviews, a rarity these days) and opinion, as well as its essential annual recommended reading list and its Locus Awards. I devour each issue.

Earlier this year, the editorial team wrote to me and asked me what I could donate to the fundraiser. My contribution is a “Tuckerization” — naming rights for a character — for an upcoming Marty Hench novel, one of the sequels to my forthcoming Red Team Blues (Tor Books, 2023).

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

Red Team Blues is my first noir novel, a detective story whose hero is Marty Hench, a Silicon Valley forensic accountant who’s spent 40 years unwinding every finance scam tech, and who, on the eve of his retirement, is roped into a bloody, deadly cryptocurrency heist.

This is one of my lockdown books (I have seven books forthcoming as of this writing), and it was a wild ride to write. I love noir fiction, but it has an odious side: the prototypical noir hero is a veteran (in early noir, he’ll be a WWI vet in the interwar years; in later noir, he’s a WWII vet in the 50s or 60s), who has come home to a changed and fallen world.

Everywhere these heroes look, the wrong people are participating in society as his equal: queers, women, people of color. The foundational vibe of noir — a simmering rage at the state of the world — is grounded in incredible, reactionary bigotry.

Marty Hench is also bitter about what his world has become, but the invaders he rails against are the crooked finance bros who parasite off of the genuine excitement and creativity of early techies who want to help everyone “seize the means of computation.” He is furious at them, and he expresses his fury by unwinding their baroque scams and busting them, but the supply of finance bros is limitless, and for every one he slays, five more pop up.

I finished Red Team Blues in about eight weeks and handed it to my usual first readers, from whom I got unusual responses. The day I finished it, I woke up at 2AM to find my wife sitting up with the bedside lamp on. I asked her what she was doing, and she looked up from the book and said “I had to find out how it ended.”

Then I emailed it to my editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden. The next day, he emailed me this:

That.

Was.

A! Fucking! Ride!

Whoa!

Then he bought it, and two more books in the series.

Now, attentive readers will have noted that Red Team Blues is Marty Hench’s last adventure. That means that the rest of the series will be an indeterminate number of prequels, explaining how the Marty Hench of RTB came into being. The next book in the series is The Bezzle, set in the mid-2000s, which sees Marty go up against a corrupt prison IT baron who waxes unimaginably wealthy by eliminating prison mail and visits and replacing them with high-priced, per-minute “visits” and emails on a “free” tablet; I finished the first draft of this one last week.

The book after that, Picks and Shovels, is Marty’s first adventure, telling the story of how his obsession with early computers led to him flunking out of MIT, then discovering the miracle of spreadsheets at a community college accounting program. Everyone else in his class wants to use spreadsheets to hide money, but Marty wants to use them to find it.

Marty follows his roommate out to Silicon Valley, where he lands his first job: helping track down an insider threat for an early PC company called The Three Wise Men, a predatory affinity scam run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an orthodox rabbi. The action gets going when Marty figures out that the “insider threat” he’s been sent after are on the side of the angels: a rival tech company founded by three women who’ve left Three Wise Men to compete with it.

They’ve also left their faith: a queer orthodox woman who renounces due to her rabbi’s homophobia, a Mormon woman who leaves the church over its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and a nun who throws in with radical Liberation Theology over the dirty wars in Central America. This one is about halfway done and will be finished by spring.

Each of these books is a period piece, steeped in a highly specific time and place: Silicon Valley in the grips of the crypto bubble; central California prison towns during the Trump years; San Francisco in the heroic era of the first PC bubble.

The Locus Tuckerization will let you name one of the characters in one of these sequels. It’s a chance some (minor) immortality, but more importantly, it’s a chance to sustain a magazine that has promoted and aided the careers of every working sf/f/h writer in the field, including and especially me.

It’s not just the Tuckerization, of course! There are lots of other wonderful premiums in the crowdfunder:

exclusive access to a deleted scene from Mary Robinette Kowal’s Spare Man, a signed manuscript for an as-yet unpublished novel, and/or a 30-minute Zoom with Mary Robinette;

many signed books from authors’ own collections;

a signed, handwritten apology from Kelly Robson because she’s “soooo sorry they totally wrecked you with their story”;

a private Zoom chat with legendary editor Ellen Datlow, or sf writers Stephanie Burgis or Justina Ireland;

a story critique from award-winning writers Kate Heartfield or Sam J. Miller;

a Tuckerization from Wole Talabi.

More awards are going up daily, and the campaign closes in 10 days. As of this writing, they’ve raised $54,539 of their $75,000 goal.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/locus-magazine-science-fiction-fantasy-horror/

[Image ID: A reworked classic red-border Locus Magazine cover; the cover illustration has been replaced with the cover for Red Team Blues, a minimalist image of a man escaping through a keyhole by Will Stahle. The man's face has been replaced with a dotted-line bordered grey oval with a question mark in its center. The Locus issue number has been replaced with Locus's 'Indiegogo 2022' wordmark.]

#pluralistic

24 notes · View notes

constantviewings · 4 months

Text

A (Not So) Weekly Wrap-Up

Saltburn

Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

From what I've seen, the opinions of this film are pretty hot and cold and I fall somewhere right in the middle. I had a lot of fun watching it, but it still has it's flaws. Starting off, I love the look of this film, the warm lighting and the film grain just makes me think of a home tape from the 2000s. Also, the cast are great, Barry Keoghan is an obvious standout but doesn't overshadow the great performances from the rest of the cast. I know people read this as a class commentary, but I think it's more about obsession than class as somewhat proven by the reveal at the midway point. My only gripe is that the montage at the end showing Oliver's perspective feels like it's overcompensating, maybe most of those shots could have been left where they take place and we just get to see the monologue?

Rating: 4

Final Destination (all movies)

After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have Death hunt them down, one by one.

I'm not reviewing these movies one-by-one because, as we all know, they're basically all the same movie. I'm only going to point out two in particular, Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination. The third installment of this franchise is my personal favourite, I like that the mystery changes from the order of death to how each person will die; it helps it feel fresh even though it's the same movie three times over. The Final Destination is my, and most people's, least favourite: the effects are so fake looking and none of the deaths are really that memorable. At least with the others you can remember 'the train one' and 'the eye one' the only half decent death is the guy who dies in the pool, but only because it's so dumb.

Rating: -4

Ghosts (UK)

A cash-strapped young couple inherits a grand country house, only to find it is both falling apart and teeming with the ghosts of former inhabitants.

I binged this entire series in maybe a week (?) after realising I'd spent years putting off watching for whatever reason. Honestly, I love this show, I laughed and I cried. What a great little show and I can't wait to see what the team do next.

Rating: 3

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Since I'll never see the tour live, I guess this is the next best thing! 2023 saw me re-entering my 'Taylor Swift Era' and this movie is the perfect nostalgia trip while also introducing me to the music I hadn't listened to in the meanwhile.

Hell Camp

Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.

Holy crap, this is actually fucked. Like, I understand the organisers were sugar coating it to the parents, but the fact they didn't believe their own kids is insane...wow.

#Film Reviews #Saltburn #Final Destination #BBC Ghosts #The Eras Tour #Hell Camp

2 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 4 months

Text

Herd sentiment among pundits and others who analyze the direction of Chinese affairs has always been subject to sudden shifts. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, China was mostly a neat geopolitical story in the West: Mao Zedong had died, and what perished with him was China’s long-standing focus on autarky and decades of overt opposition to the capitalist world order. Western leaders and media cheered on the rise of the smiling and friendly-seeming Deng Xiaoping. Though they were hopeful about China’s economic growth, few expected the country to rapidly emerge as an economic competitor of the first order.

In the 1990s, this began to change in a remarkably brief period of time. By the early 2000s, China increasingly came to be viewed as an unstoppable economic juggernaut.

A new shift has occurred recently, and if anything, it has been even more dramatic. Here and there, and then suddenly almost everywhere, opinion shapers and experts have been saying that the great Chinese growth engine is broken and that the country is no longer destined to lead the world in the decades ahead.

Among specialists who follow China most closely, the two main causes cited for this new conventional wisdom have been known for years. The first is that China’s growth model has been overreliant on policies such as financial repression and extraordinary levels of investment. Here, repression has nothing to do with the usual political usage of the word. It means, rather, that the state controls domestic interest, exchange rates, and capital outflows in such a way that citizens receive little accrual or benefit from their high rates of savings. Instead, these are captured by the state and channeled into industries that are favored or prioritized by bureaucrats, including many that are state-owned.

Some of the problems that might arise from financial repression can seem apparent even to lay people. Bureaucrats tend to know little about business and are unlikely to be in the best position to make the smartest and nimblest economic bets about the industrial future. Some features of this setup may be less than obvious, though. When the state captures and invests the nation’s savings according to its own whims, capital becomes scarcer and more expensive for private investors. This also suppresses the domestic consumption that most mature economies depend on for growth. Finally, as the state channels more and more investment into industries of its choosing, average return on investment falls. China is now at the point where it must invest huge amounts of capital to produce each new dollar of economic growth, and everything points to this continuing to worsen.

The other big factor, by now almost universally cited by the new China skeptics, is the country’s dismal demographic situation. Every week seems to bring new stories about either the rapid aging of Chinese society or the growing reluctance of women and couples to have children. To be fair, the numbers are truly shocking.

As good a benchmark as any of where the mainstream media stands in its appraisal of China is an article last week by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. In it, Krugman, a Nobel laureate in economics, expatiated at length on these two factors. For the economic repression argument, he cited Michael Pettis, a Beijing-based specialist in China’s economy whom I’ve been reading and quoting now for well over a decade. He also referenced China’s demographic problems, which I’ve been laying out for just about as long.

Like many others, only with far more expertise, Krugman has turned some of his attention to the question of whether China can find its way out of its economic conundrums and return to a brighter economic path. He is not optimistic, though, and although I agree with his overall conclusion, I differ somewhat on the reasons for this.

Krugman notes that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government is unwilling to wind down financial repression by bolstering China’s weak social safety net, which, in turn, might lead to a much greater contribution of consumer spending to GDP and to growth. Krugman attributes this refusal to an ideology of anti-“welfarism” and hostility to supposedly “lazy people” that reminds him of the governor of Mississippi. It is true that Xi has spoken in this vein, but his social safety net problem runs much deeper.

Xi is not just ideologically hostile to the creation of more generous health, retirement, and unemployment systems. The real problem is that China has waited this long to grapple with these issues in the first place. Beijing was slow to take aging and population decline seriously, putting them off until they could no longer remotely be denied and then all but panicking. The country is suddenly now awash in campaigns urging young people to create bigger families, and these are unlikely to work.

China should have begun a much more generous funding of social insurance and welfare programs when it was still enjoying the full blush of its economic boom. This is when Beijing could have best afforded such things and when they would have had the greatest impact. Now, with deaths outpacing births—and a corresponding decline in the number of young, working-age people and a boom in retirees—funding chronic illness care, nursing homes, and general retirement feels like a crushing burden to the country’s leaders, especially with economic growth already slowing.

This is not mostly due to anti-welfare thinking at all. Rather, it is about what looms as an increasingly excruciating choice between guns and butter, as I wrote in a 2016 essay. Both there, and in my 2017 book, Everything Under the Heavens, I argued that China saw the present period as a window of opportunity that was bound to close. Beijing hoped to use this window to make big geopolitical advances and lock them in through a combination of impressive economic growth and extraordinary military modernization before the costs unavoidably associated with aging forced it to switch direction and prioritize social needs at home.

Signs of this strategy can be found nearly everywhere one looks, from China’s muscling into the seas of the Western Pacific, where it has rebuffed its neighbors’ territorial claims while building artificial islands that host military outposts, to its enormous capital expenditures on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Now in something of a retreat, the BRI is the program through which China has invested massively in infrastructure projects throughout Eurasia and other regions of the world.

I don’t just find fault with Krugman’s statement of the new conventional wisdom, though. I also fault myself. I saw China’s window of geopolitical opportunity closing in the face of swift aging and population decline sometime in the 2030s. The reality is that the window has already begun to narrow.

2 notes · View notes

music-addiction-disorder · 1 year

Text

Once again, my question is...

"WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE,

TROUBLE STUDIO ALBUM?"

Note:

2013's "The Distortion Field" is the first and only studio album so far that doesn't feature Eric Wagner on vocals, but instead Kyle Thomas also known from bands like Exhorder, Alabama Thunderpussy, Floodgate, Heavy As Texas, Pitts vs. Preps...

Ps, if you vote please also reblog, the more people will do so the more this post will spread and the better the outcome and results will be. A big "thank you" in advance to anyone who will partake in this! Yours truly: @necro69mancer 🤘🍻

Oh, and also... suggestions for future polls are always welcome! 😎

Last weeks poll ended with almost 40 votes and two winners! It was a draw between Nirvana "Nevermind" (1991) and Alice In Chains "Dirt" (1992), with each 20,5%. I myself voted on Alice In Chains. All 10 bands are amongst my favorites... but Alice In Chains has that something special that keeps me coming back to their music, even to this day.

"PART ONE - THE TROUBLE STUDIO ALBUMS"

I initially was trying to make a poll about the late Eric Wagner's greatest Trouble albums and his side projects. But i soon realized there are simply too many awesome Trouble albums that would have been left out if i was trying to fit it all into one poll. So yes, there will be another poll featuring some of the best side project releases from the core members of the band. 🤘

Trouble is an American doom metal band from Aurora, Illinois, formed in 1979. They are often considered one of the pioneers of doom metal, and have been referred to as one of the genre's "big four" alongside Candlemass, Pentagram and Saint Vitus. The band created a distinct style, taking influences of the British heavy metal bands Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, and psychedelic rock of the 1970s.

youtube

Trouble's first two albums, Psalm 9 and The Skull, are cited as landmarks of doom metal. To date, they have released eight studio albums. Although never officially disbanded, they went inactive after original singer Eric Wagner left in 1997. He rejoined in 2000 and left again eight years later; he was first replaced by Kory Clarke and then by current vocalist Kyle Thomas, who had also filled in for Wagner during his initial absence from Trouble. Wagner died in 2021.

youtube

Rob talks with Eric Wagner on their tour stop in Arlington, TX on 8/6/21. Eric passed on August 22, 2021, this great interview was recorded only 16 days earlier...

Core members include Wagner, guitarists Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin, and drummer Jeff Olson. Early lyrics had a spiritual nature; Metal Blade Records initially marketed Trouble as "white metal" (in contrast to the rising black metal movement) in the 1980s.

(Wikipedia)

youtube

@goblinkleaver @beardedguy1369 @1000deleting @wayward-cat @wolvesofodinedinburgh @manuaani @moonstar-magic @gloria-glitter @maidenintexas1 @machetazos88 @inkedupblondie @very-old-biker ...

8 notes · View notes

stop-saying-tootsie · 9 months

Note

48, 41, 43, 44 (cap and pat) and 38 :)

oh hey eli

48. What do you think the ghosts' jobs would be in a modern living-human AU where they're all just chaotic housemates?

my favorite kind of question >:)

i will preface this with: i am projecting as an elementary education major at university, and honestly i haven’t seen the show in so long that i don’t know if these are based off true characteristics, or the version that i’ve created in my mind bc of fan theories

robin - astronomer, no question, he’s so smart and would love mapping the stars and discovering new galaxies

humphrey - everyone (including me) puts him as a principal type, which i do agree fits pretty well. i think he’d enjoy being around kids and they’d definitely find him entertaining. also part of me wants him to be a chef for some reason

mary - she’d have a stand at the farmer’s market every week with really cool baskets and tons of food to sell, and cap would help her garden bc i said so

kitty - i really think she’d be a teacher, but definitely for much younger grades, she’d be so fun for primary aged students

thomas - do y’all remember trish from austin and ally? yeah that’s thomas in a modern au

fanny - she’d have no job, she came across a large sum of money after her husband died so she just sits at home with dante all day <3

cap - get this man into local theatre !!! (pat would drag him along and before you know it cap is the star), otherwise he’d probably enjoy a quiet job at a library, without much talking

pat - he’d definitely still be a scout master, and honestly he would make a fantastic teacher. he’s got the optimism needed for it, and he’s great at motivating people, so yeah absolutely

julian - he’d be fired from his MP job so he��d try to get into local government, and would fail, so his entire life is just attempting to campaign and mooching off the others

41. Let's settle this once and for all. Who's the real leader, the Captain or Pat?

i gotta give it to Pat. as much as i adore Cap, he’s too rigid </3 obviously in the military or other instances he’d be great at leading!! but with the ghosts, Pat just fits the vibe

43. You've heard rumours of a tenth upstairs ghost who doesn't often venture out of their room to visit with the other residents of the house. Who are they? (i.e. make up a ghost OC. I know i'm putting you on the spot. I just want to see what you come up with.)

okay i’m terrible at coming up with OCs oh god

it’s a teen who snuck into the house in the early 2000s and is honestly too embarrassed to show his face. he’s probably 16 or so, and was supposed to be meeting a “friend”, but got stood up, so he figured why not drink some of the alcohol that was up in the attic,,,it was not alcohol (honestly who knows what it was, one second he was fine and the next he was looking down at himself)

the reason he doesn’t venture downstairs is because he’s got a massive crush on like. pretty much all the ghosts, and mike and alison, but surprise!! he found out after a couple years that he can turn invisible (which was a relief because he thought every time he DID go downstairs, they just ignored him)

so he definitely listens in on all their convos, which frankly solidified his crush on most of them weirdly enough

also he wears jorts and a hawaiian shirt (he’s just like me fr)

44. me a song you think [insert character name here] would like, or a song that reminds you of them!

South by Hippo Campus is SO Cap and i’ll die on that hill BUT. a possible contender is The Astronomer from Ghost Quartet, very nice song and idk!! feels a bit like Cap!!

for Pat hmmm…i really like giving him ABBA or Queen songs, they’re just so perfect, so we’re going with Radio Gaga <3 (i swear at some point i did a post listing several songs for each ghost, and i literally have the playlist, but i can’t find the post no matter how hard i look so maybe i never posted it </3)

sorry to reuse these songs bc i’ve definitely provided them as answers before, but i haven’t listened to anything but will wood in months so i have no new music options

38. It's your turn to pick a movie for film club! What are you watching?

oh this is so much pressure coming from you eli

my personal favorite movie is richard jewell, so i would obviously choose that just to make them watch it. though i do think they’d enjoy the suspense, and absolute shitshow the FBI is

i may also go for Luca, because i think they’d all like it (cap may resonate particularly well)

and then of course the barbie movie <3 everyone needs to see it once in their life (or death)

#thanks friend :)#bbc ghosts #six idiots #them there #ghost quartet #le-scenariste

2 notes · View notes