#let me introduce you too

[tiffanyachings]

it would have been very beautiful. camilla would have had to cook (horrible bone soup)

#HELLO back at it again #tug introduced groundbreaking new findings about soul permeability but my mind bypassed all that in favour of this au #the division of labour is as follows: #dulcie reads the instructions; snacks; and changes the radio station every time she doesn’t like a song #if you complain she will remind you she's literally dying. life is too short and mediocre songs are too long #pal gets stuff from high shelves and battles his constantly fogged up glasses #he tried to help with prep once and promptly got himself banned from using knives for the rest of his life #cam does 98% of the actual cooking #trivia section - #you can tell i am new to this because i arranged them in the wrong speaking order. let’s all practice our right to left reading #cam has a silly novelty apron because a) the idea was unbearably funny to me and b) i need to spread the gospel (aroace cam) #the cookbooks next to dulcie are ‘a few teaspoons of salt’ (by ianthe tridentarius) #and ‘saintly feasts: food for saints and scholars’ which is a real book! though not written by cassiopeia the first #* #dulcie septimus #dulcinea septimus #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #the locked tomb #field sketches #<< i get to have an art tag now!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

More MDZS and Hollow Knight! The cool bugs I found in my backyard have started to unionize.

Part 1 - Part 3

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #hollow knight #Once again not tagging all the characters due to sheer volume #Thanks for the warm and lovely reception on the first part of this crossover! #even people who haven't heard of hollow knight were very sweet and excited. #I redrew and redesigned some of the characters that people were asking to see #and while I still think I could play around with them a little more I'm pretty happy with the results B*) #JGY getting kicked down the stairs is part of his personality at this point. Of course I had to introduce him as such #Im pretty sure its not JZX who kicks him the first time but birthday boy on birthday boy violence is too funny to pass up #Madam yu being mosskin-like but distinctly not from the same clan was pretty important to me when designing her. But I was at such a loss! #By *chance* I saw The Hunter's design and thought 'YEAH THATS THE ONE'. Let milfs be terrifying. #Little apple originally was gonna be 'the girl who's backyard this all takes place in' but ....little bug steed.... #In case you are wondering whether the Lan juniors are suspicious of the fact LSZ has twice as many legs: No. He's 'just like that' to them. #Part three will be in less than a week! Time to see the other side of the crossover! #I am so happy that I can draw silly crossovers and have people cheering me on! Yippee!

[merakiui]

Okay hear me out... You need money fast for some reason so you decide to sell your body - you'll get to have fun while also getting the cash you need. You go to Azul for a few pointers on how to run such business and while he might give them to you for a price, once he has Floyd amd Jade find out just what kind of business you need, he decides he needs to be the first in line. Like please take his virginity. He will pay you well. Hell, he might just pay you enough so you stay with him only...

Other part of the scenario is that your business is now open and all the boys that have been crushing on you are standing in line now. (this is just me wanting to take Azul's and Riddle's virginity... I want to take good care of them)

Omg he's a loser!!! T_T he needs to be the first and last in line, by which he is the only one in line. He probably tells the twins they're free to have fun with (beat up) anyone who even tries to make use of your little business. He is getting laid no matter what and it's going to be with you!!! >:( He boasts it so proudly that the twins can't help but laugh and tease him about his enthusiastic determination. If it isn't a business opportunity or new blackmail, then it's you who has him so eager. He would absolutely make you his contract lover. >_< so pathetic tako... the type to say "it isn't love" after you've signed his contract, but one of the stipulations is that you have to act like you're his loving partner and aaaaa he's so in love and so bad at navigating it with real, truthful rizz.

Open for business yes!!!! Could you imagine Riddle is one of the first in line and you don't expect to see him and he's so embarrassed and growing even redder by the minute!!!!!! orz he absolutely tiptoes around the real reason he's there and tells you he's not here to sleep with you and that he only wishes to take you out on a friendly outing (a date), so if you would be so kind as to indulge him just this once and maybe then... he's rambling and rambling and it looks so cute to see the usually eloquent Riddle flustered and fumbling over his tongue. You'll entertain him with a day's worth of fun things (tea party, croquet games, tending to the flamingos and hedgehogs, taking a stroll through the rose maze) and at some point in the evening you'll find yourself back in Riddle's room. He is incredibly nervous, but you're so patient with him. <3

It's probably really sweet and soft and slow sex because Riddle's settling into a pace that suits the both of you and it's also his first time so you want it to be endearing and memorable for him. Nothing hardcore or painful for the first time, but you can be certain that after that night he will find himself at your doorstep yet again. And again and again. Bad habits are hard to break, but even more so when you've become a crucial part of Riddle's schedules and he doesn't have the heart to write you out of it. Once the both of you are more comfortable in the bedroom, you will see many fun sides to Riddle (sides you never knew he could have, and from the way Riddle seems surprised even he was unaware he possessed such exciting sides).

#twisted chit chat #scaranya #jade and floyd giving azul rizz tips like: definitely tell (name) that you'll give them a lot of eggs. mers in the sea go crazy for that #azul: you idiots this isn't the sea -_- that doesn't apply #the twins: it applies if you're in octavinelle :) which is technically underwater :) in the sea :) #omg omg wait T_T the twins letting azul rail their lover AAAAAAAA #and they don't tell you anything about it #too many thoughts with this concept... #OHHHH OMG AND MAYBE YOU WERE ONCE ONE OF AZUL'S BULLIES #AAAAAAA OTL the two of you have never officially met so when the twins introduce you the both of you are like '????? wait a moment...' #'didn't you bully me when we were little??? / wasn't i super mean to you??' #and the twins are so cruel to both of you T_T they essentially force the two of you to fuck orz #even though both of you are really uncomfortable with the situation and all of the unresolved tensions between the both of you #mean eels!!!! terrible eels!!!! T^T #omg and maybe you weren't even together with the tweels for sweet purposes #maybe it was an arranged or forced relationship #maybe the twins blackmailed or threatened you into it #and now you have to fuck their octopus friend who is very much not your friend >_< #uuuauauawaaaaa forgive my ramblings ;;;;; #i like the idea of forced dub-con where it is an outside force that pushes you with someone you don't want to be with #(secretly files this concept away for future fics >:D)

[statementlou]

Thinking again about how the other day that anon wrote me wondering why Louis was so popular with older adult women and I had a couple ideas but was basically like idk IS he or is it just the same amount as any other pop star but then the other day BBC posted that video of 1D members doing 1D songs* solo without Louis in it and the post was like go comment on all these platforms and I was like what the heck it's not like I use my facebook for much else- but that meant I ended up looking a few times at the other comments (being mad about Louis' exclusion) and like I KNOW it's FB so ofc it's skewed by who uses that... but like damn, there ARE a lot of middle aged and older ladies for Louis! Like A LOT!! So again I am thinking about it and I would love to know what other people think might be the reason... my ideas plus footnote under cut-

~He’s so fucking SMART and the older you get the more appealing and necessary that is to appreciate someone. ~His music has always been in large part 90s style stuff which may draw in folks who already loved that kind of music because they’re old enough to remember it. ~We’re queer and were drawn into this fandom by crying our eyes out over how beautiful baby Harry and Louis were together and wanted to give them the world and protect them (is this age dependent? see below for why maybe I guess but idk) But my top theory is that ~it's based on the combination of him being this beautiful goodhearted boy all the shitty things we saw happening to him for so long and wanting so much to be able to DO SOMETHING, to make things better for him and give him everything. Not saying this is age based but maybe this works more strongly on older folks than on people who feel like they are in the same boat? Anyway would love to hear if other people think 1) there are more older louies than other celeb fandoms/ the other members of 1Ds solo fandoms and 2) if so what do you think it is about Louis? or 3) no, all these things apply to me but I'm only (whatever young age) so that can't be it

*I have since figured out why they did that and it isn't because Louis is blacklisted or whatever it's because they just pulled their footage that they own of 3 of them playing BBC Big Weekend which Louis hasn't done, and footage of Zayn from his public insta, which isn't something they could do for Louis- to include him they would have had to like get footage from his management or something they can't just use whatever off youtube and it was just a silly SM post they weren't gonna do all that

#not introducing discussion questions to make up for no content when it's only been one day😂 #possibly won't work cause no one is around but I really am fascinated I would love to figure it out #OOH I should do a POLL too... let me figure out what it should be #or should I wait and try to get responses than poll based on them🤔much to consider #but this research goes nowhere withou t you lmk what you think!! #louis tomlinson #idk I just tag now??? lol basically we did that thing and nothing bad happened so now I'm like oh.. that's a thing I guess #why not

[wildbasil]

🐱! Also 🦐?

Boop!! 🐱💜

Oh, my friend….... You know exactly which character is giving me shrimp emotions right now (and always) haha

But specifically I've been thinking a lot about the invocation of Gwyn ap Nudd from Balliol College MS 239 (15th century) , which tells us that people armed with fire and iron would ask for the help of demons by calling out "Gwyn ap Nudd, you who are beyond in the forests, for the love of your lover let us come home." It's interesting that they appeal to his sense of love.

I'm thinking also about how Creiddylad is always a lover and never a wife.

#I'm way too tired to articulate my thoughts #but it's like he introduces himself as “guin mab nud. gorterch creurdilad merch lut” #gwyn ap nudd lover of creiddylad ferch ludd #and also in a sense creiddylad is also punished for being abducted #so i feel like there are remnants of another story here #about adultery. or young unfettered love. for which both gwyn and creiddylad are eternally punished. #thank you for letting me ramble hahaha #(someone please pay me and i will create for you the most in depth book on gwyn ap nudd to ever exist)

[aithusarosekiller]

My friends getting all hyped for heartstopper season two while I'm in the corner like

#I'm still hurt #I can't move on yet #it's too early #good omens spoilers #good omens #ineffable husbands #gos2 spoilers #'but Archie it's heartstopper' #I introduced you to the books years ago the least you can do in return is let me suffer over my other gays

[brookheimer]

anyways now that everyone is feeling adrift and unmoored after succession’s end, might i direct you to (at least seasons 1 through 4/5) of veep?

#decline imo starts towards end of s5 then much more in s6 then MUCH MORE in s7. still worth watching for funny hahas but if you give a shit #about like characterization or appreciate satire that’s less like. On The Nose or Heavy Handed #then i mean just go in to those seasons with lower expectations #but s1-4.5 (lol) are phenomenal and will scratch that succession itch #also the severe lack of amy brookheimer fans is detrimental to my mental health and emotional well-being #danamy is not tomshiv but they are somewhat tomshiv adjacent #god are they fucked up <3 #anyways go waaaatch i mean it #krank lovers let me introduce you to ben and kent #bent. ken. i don’t know #but yeah no sense of humor etc is sooo similar like the writers team on succ is half from veep or smth lmao #also written by a british guy too. until it isn’t and then it sucks (when david mandel takes over around s5) #veep #succession

[help-me-nah]

using my fantasy au as an excuse for some fantasy faction uniform concept art:

Knights of Hawkins

The Enchanter’s Tower

variants, details, and notes under the cut

seasonal uniforms and layers of the average knight:

The pavise in the bottom left is far more accurate of a shield, because the heater shield would be worthless against a demodog (but I put too much work into it to scrap it entirely). By and large the Hawkins knights rely on polearms and shields-- standard knights use wood shields and simple spears, higher ranking knights may train in and utilize more complex polearms, and swords are a status symbol that are generally only wielded by nobility. The marshal has a metal shield with the full Hawkins crest on it as a symbol of rank that gets passed down.

Knights are provided a tabard according to their rank, and two gambesons (a sleeveless one for summer patrols, and a longer one for cooler seasons and hunts). The mail, spear, and shield are standard equipment that are on loan through the duration of a knight’s service. Any additional armor or weaponry they have to acquire themselves.

Court sorcerers don’t strictly have a uniform, but they do have a curated and themed wardrobe. Senior enchanter robes aren’t gendered-- some enchanters stick to one as a matter of preference, some swap them according to mood or circumstance. Alchemists, record-keepers/scribes, and most herbalists/apothecaries fall into the hierarchy of the enchanter’s tower, even though they aren’t enchanters themselves.

#concept art #worldbuilding #stranger things au #fantasy #fantasy au #not gonna put this in main tags because it's too niche I think #fic art #(sorry fred for using you in concept art when I killed you off off-screen before the story even started) #also the daily wear knights and squires have underneath wouldn't actually all be in browns and beiges #i just didn't want to introduce a bunch of random colors to the palette #also higher ranking knights would generally have helmets or get help acquiring a helmet #I just hate drawing armor enough that a handful of dumb-looking attempts at helmets with enough peripheral vision was enough for me #lmk if anyone would like alt text because tumblr will not let me add them directly to these images

[xieyaohuan]

Butchlander-Butchie Peaceful Coexistence Appreciation Post

I found this great blog entry in Japanese and am reading it in translation right now. Anyway, since we just talked about this today, I feel like the post is a great example of promoting Butchie-Butchlander peaceful coexistence, and since I feel like there is not enough content like that, i thought I would share some of it here.

Anyway, I'm including my personal highlights below. The translation is automatic and has some mistakes, but none that most readers cannot handle, I think.

I'm loving their character intro to Homelander:

By contrast, here's their assessment of Season 1 Butcher:

A tough but fair assessment of Season 1 Butchlander:

A reassessment of Billy Butcher, enter Butchie:

There's clearly some Butchie over Butchlander bias at play here, and i disagree, but there's room for peaceful coexistence and I'm listening.

Season 3, and Butchlander is back in the game! Yes. Billy Butcher does have a pattern...

Still, coexistence:

And another convergence of themes, Hughie and Homelander might appeal to Butcher in similar ways after all:

Finally, a fair word of caution from the author about any Butchlander mpreg scenarios (I think):

There's a lot more in the post, and I hope I will be forgiven for the editorial choices I made here in support of my Butchie-Butchlander peaceful coexistence agenda, but you can always go read the full post in the link above!

#butchlander #homelander x billy butcher #butchie #billy butcher x hughie campbell #butchlander-butchie coexistence appreciation post #billy butcher #homelander #hughie campbell #translations #(bad auto translations too but the meaning is clear I think) #japanese the boys fandom #I want to introduce more content from other languages here #I always feel like we're missing out because of our linguistic divisions #if you are the author of the original post I hope you are okay with this format - if not please reach out and let me know! #I loved your post and also your butchlander art! #the boys #bridging the gaps in the fandom

[esterigermaine]

Headcanon:

So with Astarion living off of blood for a ridiculously long amount of time, I like to think he'd end up pretty sensitive to taste and/or texture if he ever ended up cured.

Maybe not permanently, but he'd probably have to work himself up to really strong/complicated flavors or end up needing to experiment with food a little. Start with small stuff like simple broths, a couple of lightly seasoned meats/breads/veggies/sweets on their own to get used to each thing's individual flavor before trying to combine foods/flavors into some overwhelming chaos of everything at once. I'm not sure how he would do around strong/smelly cheeses, but he'd probably be okay with them since vampire smelling didn't lead to suffering.

Granted, the opposite may also be true because taste and smell are closely linked and he could still smell. The main idea is that taste and smell also differ

#astarion #bg3 #spoilers #headcanon #like imagine introducing someone who spent their entire lives eating only plain toast to other things #the richness and amount of flavor in somethings could definitely be a little too much for them to handle at times #like me and spices #i'm irish and the bland food stereotype is true #and I like the taste of jalapeños but I'm always stuck sitting there crying and chugging a drink but it is tasty #and what do you mean most of my friends can eat medium salsa no problem?????? #point is yall are missing out on this idea #let him experiment a little #not trying to start fights #i just toss out ideas that come to me because others might like the same ideas #personally I think he'd particularly be interested in softer meats and the variety of drinks in the beginning #but may eventually come to accept things like raw carrots #because wtf kind of texture is that? wet and crunchy is such a weird texture and you cannot convince me otherwise #i wonder what sort of preferences he would have #like would he stick with things similar to what he is used to like only partially cooked meat #or would he end up preferring other things since he wasn't able to enjoy them for 200 years #just totally ignoring any sort of texture or flavor that reminds him of his time as a vampire #i mean we definitely know he will still have some expensive tastes but after what he has been hrough he'd probably be satisfied with whateve #as long as he wasn't starving #i mean he would probably have some overindulgence issues with everything vampirism deprived him of at first #he'd sunbathe nude for an entire day to maximize the amount of sun he could enjoy and then bitch about getting sunburned later #point is he may want to jump into things right away but sensory wise it would probably be an absolute nightmare for someone not used to #maybe he will want a bite of whatever any of his companions are eating #giving a new meaning to the existing idea that the party gives him snacks #since he isn't drinking from yall anymore #food

[vagueconfusion]

For any of my mutuals/followers who like Sleep Token are there any particular songs that when I find clips of I should @ you for? I post a lot in general and I just realized that the clips I find might get lost in all that

#also idk how many of you listen to them at this point. i've introduced a couple? #also sometimes the fanart gets reblogged but idk how much of that is like. fans. or just people who think the art is cool #which is valid a lot of the fanart doubles as Pretty Cool Art on its own #if anyone wants general @'s whenever i post clips that works too? just let me know? #or if you want like. a general clarity or something specific you want to see clips of? #either in what i reblog or find

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Can't sleep brain too full of death

#sfw #personal #ok to reblog #so uh Fiona and Cake spoilers but #there's a lot of death and almost all of it always happened and never unhappened and I'm not ok actually #the universe where the Lich succeeded... if you don't blink you can see it happen #and then there was nothing nothing in the universe Everything Died #and then BMO... even without thinking about how horrifying it would be happening to flesh that's gonna haunt me... #Vampire world introduces itself with Simon's rotting corpse which remains even in present time #The Star... whose servants TEAR THEIR OWN HEADS OFF IN FEAR OF HER #and everyone died like it was nothing #I love this show so much but the death... all the meaningless death... #I'm too far removed from the idea of the narrative I'm too deep in the universe I can't see it as plot I see it as though I lived it myself #“so don't watch things you know will be upsetting you” unfortunately I love these characters and it was worth the pain of watching #I need to sleep please let me leave these thoughts and process my feelings later when I'm not alone and eating my own sleep time #please #Fiona and Cake spoilers #spoilers #cw death #tw death

[designernishiki]

it really means the world to me that little 12 year old daigo mentions that kiryu used to hang out with him a lot, meaning a teenage kiryu (and likely a teenage nishiki as well) basically babysat an even younger daigo on the reg for some amount of time. i wonder what shenanigans they got up to

#if im remembering correctly i think they said something about going to the arcade but yeah other than that #they’re so… different. I feel like kiryu would try to teach him a sport and daigo would fucking hate it #unless he could manage to change the rules around so that he can hit nishiki with the ball a bunch of times #and I mean it’s not like kiryu would be helping him with schoolwork #like let’s be real here #all jokes aside I imagine it really meant a lot to daigo to have someone treat him like a normal kid and encourage doing #stupid normal kid things instead of whatever his other caretakers had him doing #kiryu (especially at that point) is just a big child at heart in his own way- probably more than daigo was ever really allowed to be- #so it’d be a nice oasis from the cold strict monotony of daigo’s typical life. #that and kiryu (and probably even more so nishiki) is actually somewhat physically affectionate unlike probably anyone else in daigo’s life #and isn’t afraid to like. ruffle his hair or pat him a little too hard on the back or what have you #man those two have known each other basically their entire lives huh??? #like damn it’s just now really hitting me that they’ve known each other like. at least 35-40 years? #could be longer depending on if kazama introduced them prior to kiryu becoming a yakuza and all that #kiryu’s just sort of been. always there in daigo’s life. that’s sorta wild #anyway time for me to stop talking #rambling #daigo #kiryu

[soulsxng]

Good evening/afternoon/morning, my friendos. Today, I am being enabled to add to my fae children and give some of the angels some rivals

I don't have names for them yet (If I've gotta fuck with fae names, it's gonna be a minute, okay--), but they're both originally from Unseelie; high ranking and long standing knights serving the former ruler before their assassination by the hand of the current ruler took place. Though they were given the choice to switch sides, they decided against it, and instead slipped away before they could be imprisoned or killed.

For a short while following this, they were displaced knights that were trying to keep under Unseelie's radar...until some of the Tuath Dé Danann found them and took the pair under their wing. The two knights now serve these former deities in the Otherworlds in gratitude for the mercy they were shown unprompted.

#[Bleddyn -headcanons-] #[Laisren -headcanons-] #RETAGS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NAMES NOW! #I've told a few people this already but I've been wanting to use these two for a while now #and have them be kind of...opposites in a way of some of the angel knights like Sarakael #I knew I didn't want them to be demons because I didn't want them to be actual enemies #more like rivals #and I have said on a few different occasions that the Otherworlds does hold a sort of weird sense of competition with Heaven #so this actually works out really nicely! #Nova let me bounce ideas for them off of her and as always Nova I love you for that alsdknfa #I think they might be the first fae that I've had that are part of the Unseelie/Seelie group #And they're the first actually new muses that I've made in a long time too! Most of mine are just muses that I've had for a while #that I just hadn't introduced before #but ye! I'm excited about them!

[hassianlovebot]

i wanted to say thank you for your nice comment on my tamala gifset.. i was legit scared i'd get nothing but negative comments since the majority of fans seem to hate her

oh no problem! your set was beautiful!!

and yeah i get what you mean. i mean,, i guess i kind of understand the hate but some of it seems so,, weird too? like hassian is my favorite character my special little blorbo even, and tamala leading him on and breaking his heart like that sucks no doubt!! but also like,,, i support women's rights and women's wrongs!!! she's hot!!!!!

ajkdhg but seriously even beyond her being really attractive, i think she's also really interesting and i'm hoping that the devs have more planned for her! her using magic is SO interesting and i can't believe some people are ignoring that just because of what happened between her and hassian! i mean don't get me wrong, people are allowed to dislike characters, it's all fiction it's whatever yknow? but i also kind of thought people got past that whole "if a character is evil or morally not the best, that means you can't like them or you're fucked up" like,,, what happened to liking hot lady villains 🤨

#i mean she's not Really a villain but you get what i mean #i really really hope the devs dont change their plans for her just because people dont like her though #whether that means making her an actual villain or getting rid of any future plot lines with her #like... isolated witch in the woods using illegal magic you can't convince me she's not important to the story??? #also not to be That person but some of it seems so misogynistic too like ajdhg #was leading him on wrong? absolutely! but did she need to commit to a relationship with a guy she didn't love? no??? #its so weird to me that some people think she shouldve just agreed to be with him like dude... #answered #but anyway try not to worry so much!! ive seen a lot of tamala likers on tumblr!! #ive def seen some haters too to be fair but i feel like Most people will just ignore her content and not leave mean comments #unlike some places (ahem reddit) #im not saying that every single tamala hater is misogynistic btw im just saying some of the hate definitely is #i think since so many fans like hassian and we were introduced to him first its natural that people would prefer him #but the hate she gets for literally just.. wanting a fling is so weird #like its not her fault hassian falls hard?? and its not his fault that she doesn't?? #could she have let him down nicely oh yeah def but she did Not need to just agree that logic is Insane to me #oh god im rambling now oops #aldgh #Anyway always happy to see another tamala enjoyer!!

[agentravensong]

post-hamlet thoughts

tl;dr my college did hamlet and i was in it and it was cool

first of all, in case i hadn't made this clear already, this was entirely student-produced. i mean, we got some money from the theater department, but people-wise, it was all students.

i've told the rest of the cast this time and time again, but they're so good. insanely dedicated and humbling in their talent.

our hamlet, horatio, ophelia, and laertes were all freshman, and they were all stellar. ophelia and laertes broke my heart every night in the second half with their anger and their sadness. horatio always brings top energy to scenes and had lots of funny moments (espec counting his doubling as the second gravedigger) but also made me feel things (we staged act 4 scene 6 as him alone on stage reading hamlet's letter to the audience and he killed it every time). and our hamlet was just incredible; a pleasure to act against as guildenstern and a pleasure to watch / listen to in their more emotional scenes.

and everyone else was great too! our polonius was always funny but also had genuine moments of connection with his kids; our cladius brought some great depth to the role (his take on the monologue in act 3 scene 3 was great) while still being despicable, especially in his manipulation of laertes; our gertrude brought our director's take on her to life impeccably; and, of course, i had a wonderful and hilarious partner in our rosencrantz :)

not to mention our quartet of players (who also filled out the other miscellaneous roles) who had a ton of great moments. shout-outs in particular to the guy who doubled as the first gravedigger and sang his sung lines as a sea shanty (honestly, i think he could have been a great guildenstern or rosencrantz in another universe).

the crew, of course, was also amazing. there were like 150 cues? my friend (the writer i mentioned in this post) did a fantastic job with the lights. the people behind the staging and makeup did just as well. and the costumes were so fun! everyone looked great; we had a consistent black-white-red-brown color palette that tied it all together. special shout-out to the player king wearing a white shirt with a black cape while cladius wore a zipped-up leather jacket and a white cape.

oh, and me and ros? we got fedoras :) i may share a photo later. maybe.

we did our show in the college black box theater (inside the fine arts building), which i do not currently have the brain cells to try and explain the layout of. it's a kind of weird space, but i think we made the most of it. for the majority of the show i was off stage left, meaning i was hanging out at the top of the stairs which serve as the main entrance and exit to the theater (sitting/standing where i couldn't be seen by the audience obv). you can't really see the stage at all from there but you sure can hear the actors, and by the time of the show that was (mostly) enough for me.

as far as how the actual shows went?

friday was our most engaged audience. their laughter was greatly appreciated in the early scenes ...slightly less so when everyone was dying in the final scene. i mean, i get it, people start dropping like flies and actually foaming at the mouth and spitting out (fake) blood; it's a lot. i applaud hamlet and horatio for staying in character through it. everyone did a great job that night; it was probably better than all our dress rehearsals as a whole.

saturday, at least from my pov, had kind of weird vibes at the start? i don't know how much of it was people getting to bed late the previous night, how much of it was overconfidence, and how much of it was people getting in their own heads, but it was our lowest energy show. the audience wasn't as audibly engaged either, but they did give us a big applause. i felt more good than bad about it by the end, for sure.

especially in retrospect, because, despite us having a smaller crowd at today's matinee, everyone was back on the ball. the ending in particular i think was the best we've ever done it. it was probably my best performance as well.

to be clear, i wouldn't rate any of our three shows below an 8 out of 10, for what that's worth. everyone gave so much to their performances; the funny bits were funny even when the audience didn't seem to think so, and i was always getting caught up in my feelings in the second act. you can't ask for much more than that.

now, here's a compilation of things from the production in no real order:

i already posted about this, but having the blood stains on stage where people die from the beginning of every show? *chef's kiss*

i'll also restate the thing i mentioned in the tags of that post: characters who were murderers had symbolic blood makeup after they killed someone. cladius had a bloody ear from the start of the show, the meaning of which becomes clear once you see the player king get poison poured in his ears; hamlet got blood on their face during intermission that's meant to be polonius's blood; and, arguably most significantly, gertrude had bloody handprints around her neck when she entered at the end of act 4, which, in addition to her hair and arms being dripping wet, is meant to suggest that the story she tells about ophelia's death is, in fact, a cover for something less accidental.

as mentioned above, our director's take on gertrude in general was, from my understanding, pretty different from the standard. to quote from his character spines, "you fundamentally want to prepare your son hamlet to be king; you are playing essentially a game of chess to do so." it was really compelling to see in action. the way she performed act 4 scene 7? chilling.

speaking of those character spines, the first line of horatio's is literally just, "You are in love with Hamlet." and boy howdy did that come through

prime example of that (other than just, all of his and hamlet's interactions, which were wonderful): when horatio finished reading the letter from hamlet, he sniffed it, in a very sweet and very not-platonic way

it was an unintentional running gag throughout the whole process that other cast members would forget between ros and me which character we were playing - to the point that every performance, when hamlet first greeted us, even though i would get to them first, they addressed me first, and it's written that they say my name first, they would call me rosencrantz and our ros guildenstern. ...someone should write a play about that.

i might have posted about this already, but in ros and i's first scene with hamlet, when the two of them start talking about child actors, hamlet made us sit in the thrones, and we would make moves to leave of varying boldness that they, of course, never let us follow through on. this then got basically repeated in act 3 scene 2 except that horatio got to join in on the fun of relentlessly mocking us

(the thing where hamlet handed me their copy of william shakespeare's complete works while they dud the "what is a man" mimi monologue got dropped at some point in the dress rehearsals, unfortunately. they did flip through it with the players though)

during the play within a play, polonius would keep falling asleep and ros and i would keep waking him up

(we also got to do some fun silent banter back in act 2 scene 2 while hamlet and the players were doing their thing)

then the bit after that with the recorders, aka guildenstern's defining moment, was just so fun. hamlet and horatio basically sandwiched ros and me between the two of them, and hamlet and i played off each other very well (at least imo), and though i couldn't see what horatio and ros were doing behind me i know that it got some good laughs. and i could tell every night that the scene landed despite the shakespearean language barrier, so i can't help but be satisfied.

my other best moment was when the king told me to go get polonius's body from the stairs and i got to slump and make a "do i have to?" face before my (final) exit. i managed to actually get some chuckles from that tonight, from the crowd that, again, laughed the least in general, and i can't put into words how euphoric i was to have that be my last moment playing guildenstern.

from the rest of the second half of the show, which i am not in, i will highlight a) the gravedigger eventually realizing after shoveling for minutes on end that he's been shoveling literally nothing (love me a good little fourth wall break) and b) when hamlet and laertes come to physical blows over ophelia, horatio, on his line, steps between them, draws laertes's sword, and takes a stance pointing it at laertes to hold him off, all in basically one glorious motion.

oh, and the ending, of course.

as i alluded to way earlier, we had fake blood and alka-seltzer tablets that the people who died in act 5 scene 2 used to great effect (particularly the people who died via poison)

speaking of that scene, the sword fight was very neat! well-choreographed and well-enacted. real foils btw

and the way hamlet and horatio performed the ending? more than anything, the way hamlet said "give me the cup; let go!" - that shit hurt, in the best way, every night. (and though hamlet died in the king's throne (with the king's crown on), horatio held / clung to them the whole damn time)

for a lighter final note: our polonius doubled as fortinbras and came on at the ending in this huge, heavy, vampire-ass cloak, accompanied by our director as the messenger from england who announces my and ros's death :)

thankfully, we did record our last dress rehearsal, so we do have a version of it that we'll get to watch back in the future. i won't be able to share it with any of y'all (we will apparently be in BIG trouble if we post it anywhere online) but it'll be nice to have for me.

funny thing that happened while i was typing this long-ass post out: i kept using present tense and then realizing i had to change it to past tense. and by "funny" here, i mean, uh... oof.

we never got a perfect run-through where no lines were skipped over, but, i mean, it's fucking hamlet. we did this shit in like a month and a half (with a week lost to spring break); it's more than impressive that the show turned out how it did. it was a group labor of love, and one of the best things i've ever gotten to be a part of.

and i miss it already.

...at least there's movie night on tuesday :)

#hamlet #so excited to introduce these guys to rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead. they'll never see hamlet the same way again #man. i've really missed acting. or rather... being part of a production like this #shout-out to whoever was originally cast as guildenstern but dropped out because they didn't realize a shakespeare play #would be a big commitment #and thereby gave me the opportunity to be in the show despite having been too busy and insecure to audition #i might come back and add more to this tomorrow if i remember more things that i want to have a record of #i could talk more about how rehearsals went #or about the few places in which i may have perhaps done things differently than our director if it wasn't his show #but i think for now this is enough #thank you all for following along on my hamlet journey #i will say that there is a greater than 0 chance that i'll post some shitty hamlet fancomics here in the future #so. if that's something you really want. let me know. i guess. #and again i don't think any of the cast have tumblr #but if you do and you see this: pls never stop acting #i've got your back <3 #yes i am posting this at 1 am when i have class tomorrow (today technically). what of it