#the man; the myth; the motherfucker himself

[roachleakage]

Before I get going into season 3 of Danny Phantom, I feel a need to take the time to enthuse about my all-time favorite antagonist of this series to date. I mean to tell you, this guy dethroned the Box Ghost, and he's still sitting at a solid #2. Though with that being said, it probably won't be too surprising when I tell you who unseated old Boxy, since this dude is so absurdly threatening that so far, he's only been deployed twice.

Yep. I'm talking about the man, the myth, the incredibly attractive legend himself, Freakshow.

Don't try to embarrass me; I've got no pride.

But uh. Moving past my taste in evil would-be clowns, I will admit that Freakshow is a classic example of Danny Phantom's derivativity. Creatively, he's blatantly heavily inspired by other cartoon villains - Jafar and the Joker being the most obvious ones - and visually, he's like if Richard O'Brien decided to work for the circus. Which I'm not remotely complaining about; it's a combination that works very well - it's just, y'know, classic DP creativity.

Anyway, the thing that I find whenever Freakshow shows up is that I am genuinely a little bit scared of him. Not in a "I am no longer aware that I'm watching a silly cartoon for kids" way, necessarily, but in an "oh shit our heroes are in real trouble" kind of way. Which sounds impressive for a guy who has no powers of his own, but... I think that's a big part of why he feels so threatening.

See, while Danny's faced a goodly number of powerful and high-stakes villains, I rarely find myself feeling like he's truly out of his depth. At the end of the day, most of them are ghosts, and he can usually defeat them by doing some kind of ghostly activity, such as shooting them with beams or taking a trip to the Ghost Zone. The few exceptions include Dan Phantom, a guy who could only really be defeated by Danny choosing not to become him, and then this motherfucker.

As I mentioned before, Freakshow is a normal human, a fact that he has a way of using to his advantage. Not because it exempts him from being blasted with beams or anything, but because he isn't constrained by the behavioral patterns or weaknesses of your average ghost. He doesn't have a consistent, unified power set that can be memorized and predicted, nor does he have a convenient Achilles heel sitting somewhere in the Ghost Zone just waiting for some hero to find it. Instead, he exhibits the far more worrying tendency of just having whatever powers he was recently able to get his hands on, and being more than prepared to get his hands on them whenever the opportunity arises.

That's the thing about Freakshow, is that he plans. And not in the grandiose, elaborate habit of Vlad Masters, who puts all his focus on a singular plan at the expense of flexibility. Freakshow's plans are simpler, but generally more effective - he looks out for potential opportunities, and does whatever legwork he can so that by the time one arises, he's ready to seize it and hit the ground running. He is, to put it in a word, adaptable.

And that's genuinely worrying. Because when someone is that flexible, you can never be too sure what they're capable of. Combine that with the absence of conventional ghost weaknesses, and you create a problem that Danny is just... not equipped to solve.

As badass as ghosts can be in Danny Phantom, I treasure those moments that show that they have their own disadvantages. Freakshow is a stellar example of that principle, a guy whose greatest strength - unfortunately unbeknownst to himself - is simply being a human being in a situation where that isn't the norm. Especially to a fourteen-year-old whose biggest non-existential threats are ordinary humans, that's a pretty big deal.

#danny phantom #dp freakshow #I have a lot of feelings about this dude ok. #and he CAN get it

[isaactheterrible]

could you write about sniper and demo bragging to each other about how many cryptids they’ve seen,, and then eventually arguing about which cryptids are real or not? I think it would be swag,, also I like your header

Thank you so much! (Also this request is freaking awesome, I hope I did a good job).

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Demo + Sniper: The Cryptid Discussion

Sniper didn't like the cold. But it was simply one of these nights. The wind blew cold air that invaded his van and the road outside was freezing. He hated these nights, cold and alone, desperately holding onto a far-too-thin blanket for any semblance of warmth.

But tonight was bound to be different. To Mundy's surprise the Scotts Man, Tavish had decided to come on by, probably looking for his drinking buddy for the night. The tall man came in , closing the door quickly but carefully as to not damage the two bottles of whiskey he was holding, one in each hand.

"Nice place ye got here, the cobwebs are a nice touch." Said Tavish as he made himself at home, sitting down on Sniper's table. To his dismay it appears his drinking buddy seemed tense, paying little mind to the Scotts man.

"What's up Mundy? Not in a talkative mood are ye? C'mon sit down lad, I got a story to tell ye." He insisted, gesturing to the seat beside him. Mundy did as he was told which Demo took as a signal to start his story.

"Well ye see, I reunited with an old friend recently, I was visiting me mum and I decided to go out with some lads I hadn't seen for a minute, the lot of us went out to get pissed (drunk) and next thing we know we're out on some dock, so I open me eyes to take a look around and you'll never guess what I saw! There's freaking Morag out in the water!"

"Morag?" Sniper asked clearly confused

"Ye know dirty dark brown skin, long neck, serpentine head, 20 feet long, Morag!" He said looking almost baffled at Sniper's ignorance

"Wait, is that some kind of cryptid you have over in Scotland?" Sniper tried to clarify

"Aye, I guess it makes sense ye wouldn't know 'im. I've seen 'im before, back when I had both me eyes, I was a wee (young) lad back then tho. In me paw's (father's) boat, the damn thing swam around us like it was gonna attack us! Gave me a bloody heart attack! Almost peed meself!" Demo joked

"Ye know I understand if ye don't believe me or think I was just a wee lad or drunk. Most people think I'm full of it." Demo said, looking down at his whisky, appearing a bit ashamed to have said his story aloud.

"Don't worry I believe ya mate. I... I've had my own fair share of... Bizarre experiences." Mundy said tensing up a bit.

"I used to go hunting with my ma when I was younger but one time I decided to go out alone, ya see in Australia there is the myth of the Yowie. You see it's said that out in the Australian wilderness there is a large hairy dumb bipedal creature, kinda like bigfoot. A big but harmless cryptid, a gentle giant but I know the truth. It ain't stupid and it sure as shit ain't peaceful."

The pain in Sniper's voice was evident but Demoman knew Mundy had difficulties talking about things like these, maybe if it was later in the night or maybe if the pair was drunker they could talk about it but not now, not like this.

"Ye know, Morag ain't the only spook I've come across." Demo joked, receiving a hesitant chuckle from Sniper.

"Ya seen any other creepy critters?"

"Have ye heard of the Alien Big Cats?" Demoman asked playfully

"Spooky motherfuckers, black cats the size of cows! They killed me mum's sheep." Demo proclaimed proudly

"You sure it wasn't a wolf or hell even a panther?" Asked sniper

"Panther? In Scotland? Ha! Don't make me laugh lad, these spooks ain't no panther and they sure as hell ain't no wolf. I've seen 'em stalking their prey with their biddy yellow little eyes... They attacked me friend Jean!"

"Ah is she alright?"

"Nah she died, it was cancer tho not them damn cats. She fought 'em off! Hit 'em with her cane! They didn't know who they were messin with!"

"I'm sorry for your loss mate." Sniper said awkwardly, not really knowing how to console someone.

"Is alright lad, Jean was a strong lady, fought it to the very end, those damn cats never stood a chance! Attacking a woman with a cane! Those damn felines!" Demo joked

"Hehe, damn cats. Ya know me and my dad got attacked by a cryptid once. The two of us were returning home from the cinema when a damn 6ft tall lizard came at us! We had to hole up in a damn public loo (toilet)! Waiting for that thing to get bored and leave!" Sniper explained

"That's not a cryptid, that's a damn Komodo Dragon!" Demo complained

"Says the guy who lost sheep to a glorified bobcat!" Sniper responded angrily

"I told ye already it ain't no bobcat, it's an alien!"

"Bollocks! What, these animals build their own spaceship to travel to earth? To do what exactly? Eat some sheep and get beaten up with canes?" Mundy argued

Demo looked away shyly, failing to come up with a witty comeback or an intelligent argument. Sniper had to admit it, it made him ashamed to hurt his friend, even if his friend started it. He didn't mean to put Demo in a difficult position.

"Ya know, I was young when the lizard attacked us. My dad probably told me it was the Megalavia to make me feel better, it was probably a croc or something." Sniper said, trying to improve his friend's mood.

"I thought these only existed in Florida." Demo joked

"Maybe they're an old-wives tale. A myth." Sniper said, a sly smile on his face, showing off his crooked teeth

"Ha! that'd explain how big these bastards get! Toothy fucks!"

"You're a good sport, mate."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did y'all spot the ICP reference?

#tf2 soldier #tf2 #soldier #tf2 demoman #tf2 sniper #medic #pyro #scout #team fortress 2 #team fortress comics #heavy #tf2 heavy #tf2 medic #tf2 spy #tf2 scout #tf2 engineer #tf2 pyro #team fortress heavy #team fortress spy #team fortress medic #team fortress two #team fortress engineer #team fortress classic #tf2 community #tf2 blog #tf2 mercs #team fortress scout #team fortress soldier #team fortress sniper #team fortress demoman

[papatundespainknife]

was reminded again about how much i HATE the shows names for the mikaelsons bc they DON’T MAKE FUCKING SENSE FOR 10TH CENTURY NORSEMEN. So i’m gonna throw out here the names i used for them on my very short lived klaus and elijah blogs (burn out is real lol). the idea here was that these were their names they were given/born with which they later change around to the ones we know them by to you know, keep up with the times a lil better.

first off the last names are now MíMISSON and MÍMISDÓTTIR because tHaT’s HoW nOrSe LaSt NaMeS wOrK.

Mímir = Mikael Mímir is a famous character in Scandinavian myth. He was a wise man and advisor to Odin who was decapitated in the Æsir–Vanir War. Odin did some witchcraft to preserve his head and now keeps it in the well at the bottom of Yggdrasil and asks him shit. It just feels like the kinda thing parents would name their kid with optimism he’d grow up Wise and favored by Odin but then he turns out Like That. Picks Mikael later on because he would be the time to associate himself with a divine messenger warrior angel who 1v1′d Satan. The prick.

Eistla = Esther Frankly the one I’m least likely to actually USE the canon name for outside of meta and general fandom talking and only for clarity reasons. Since she died in the 10th century and isn’t around again until the 21st century for a hot minute there’s really no need to figure out a new name for her. Derived from “Eist/Oast” which means like “Pyre/Embers/Fire/Etc” also the name of Jotunn.

Freya = Freya No notes for obvious reasons. Fun fact tho, Freya is just the feminine form of Freyr which means “Lord/Master” or “Fertile” which tracks with how both Freya and Freyr are associated with fertility. Freya is the Vanir goddess oflove, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future) so I mean, she’s very accurately named lol.

Finnbjǫrn = Finn Honestly again another dude who didn’t really change his name because he was in a box for 900 years but also lucked out that Finn’s both a nickname for his own name and like, A Normal Ass Name to this day. Finn usually refers to Finland/Lapland and björn/bjǫrn means “bear/warrior”. Which like honestly, yes so real, such vibes for my specialest boy.

Eylaugr = Elijah Eylaugr is the male form of Eylaug and is built from “Ey” which means “island” or “floodplain” and Laug which in old germanic means “to celebrate marriage/to swear a holy oath/to be dedicated” and is likely related to the old Norse “Laug/Log” which means “bath (in connection with religious worship)”. Likely picked Elijah due to the auditory similarity to help with like, fucking remembering it and responding to it (honestly a major factor for all of them lbr) but also keeps the holy vibes aesthetic since Elijah is a prophet and miracle worker and I think he’d appreciate that through line of like, aesthetic continuity.

Næskunungr = Nikalus Combination of “Nes” (ness/spit of land) and “Konung” (king). Old Norse neskonungr = 'ness-king', 'small-king'; one who has no more than a ness over which to rule. Which like, god SUCH A BURN EVEN FROM YOUTH. I’d just been looking for something that sounded reasonably close to “Niklaus” on an auditory level but then I saw the breakdown of the parts and was like “oh yeah, that’s Klaus”. Like you could see it as parents being like “aw little king baby :)” or “look at this napeleon complex motherfucker even before napeleon complexes are a THING” and I think that’s beautiful. Goes with Niklaus later because again, reasonably close to Næskunungr in sound and also means “Victor of the people” and I mean...... Yeah.... He’d do that.....

Ragrifridr/Ragnfríðr = Rebekah Built from “regin” (advise/decision/might/power (of the gods) ) and “fríðr” (beautiful/beloved/good/alive/peaceful/safe). She absolutely picked it for the sound and vibes and nothing else but it does mean “Moderator, To Tie, Noose, To Bind, Captivating, Strong Combatant, Hearty”. Which does feel very good for her so like, 10/10 on that front

Kolr = Kol Again another one who gets no notes. Stunning, perfect, flawless. Kol/Kolr in old Norse just means “coal” so like, lol okay I see we gave up around here I guess.

Heðinn = Henrik Heðinn means “jacket of fur or skin” in Old Norse. I’ve already given some leeway in places like Finn’s name which is more finnish than it is norwegian but I gotta draw the line somewhere and I’m doing it at Henrik’s german ass name. Again another one who would’ve never used their canon name because he’s Fuckin’ Dead. Tried to pick something was from the right rough area and sounded similar enough and then I saw the meaning of this name and was like “oh that’s some nice foreshadowing if I’ve ever seen it”.

BONUS ROUND--

Since I’m the boss now and say that Sage is from the same time period here’s a more timeline appropriate name for her too

Sannhild = Sage Built of the Old Norse: sannr (true/truthful) and “hildr” (battle/fight). Mainly picked for the auditory closeness to Sage and vibes.

#mikaelsons #meta #tvdu #sage tvd #it's my blog so i get to put in the effort that the writers actively refused to put in

[madrone33]

Just found this in my docs! Apparently I wrote down my reaction when I first listened to Ulysses Dies At Dawn last november, soooo :D

Started listening to Ulysses Dies at Dawn by The Mechanists. First song is The City, let's gooo (19:44).

Just finished listening to Ulysses Dies at Dawn. Oh, shit, I just realised why the album is called that, fuck. My heart. His death was simultaneously heartbreaking, peaceful, and triumphant. I had no idea it was going to end like that. Amazing (22:24).

Ok, some rambling about it before I re-listen with lyrics:

The whole idea of trials, and each character's backstory getting introduced with them is cool. It lets the mystery soak for a bit, giving breadcrumbs out, and letting each character have time to breathe.

I like how the blind guy is almost exclusively referred to as "that motherfucker" XD. Ironic.

Ok, but the sphinx disease is legitimately horrifying. Wow, the Olympians are just straight up villains in this huh.

I think Daedalus has the coolest vibes (apart from Ulysses) 'cause he's just so smooth all the time. Calm and collected and unconcerned... until the end when Ulysses switches it up on him lol.

The line "Currently beaten, battered, bloody... Unbowed. Spits out a mouthful of teeth and disdain" perfectly encapsulates Ulysses' character. I love it.

Ulysses being this super smart inventor tactician dude is awesome. I was stunned by the Trojan Horse twist. Broken Horses was amazing, I had literal chills. Interestingly, it almost reminds me of Hell’s Comin’ with Me by Poor Man’s Poison? Also, the signal Ulysses designed for the Trojan Horse sounds a lot like the V-Day signal in Kingsman. Brutal.

The beat to My Name is No-One sounds like an alarm, like how False Peace by Precious Jewel Amor utilises the prison alarm as percussion, which is very cool. And the song is hilarious. Just waltz in, it'll be fine :D Love the way it fades out after he gives his name away, ending on an unresolved note a lot like in Remember Them from EpicTM. Yo, speaking of Epic, I kinda love how the electric guitar in this song unintentionally mirrors the way Odysseus in Epic has the electric guitar as his instrument when he’s doing badass shit.

And then Ulysses going from idealistic to traumatised, and you don't even see the extent of his hope for the world until right at the end, when it's already gone. Like, shit bro.

Love how even though he spends like- almost the whole thing being drunk and getting beaten up, he still always seems in control somehow. The only time he isn't is in Underworld Blues when he's begging to Hades. I'll have to relisten to that to figure out what he wanted, actually. It was a bit unclear. Did he just... want Hades to kill him or smth? Make sure his brain wasn't on the network? Yeah, I'll need the lyrics.

The twists on all the lore are honestly so great. From mythical and magical, to futuristic and mechanical. You can clearly see the real world myths all their backstories come from.

That simple, blunt "No" from Ariadne was great.

I love how in Torn Suits all of the mercs are singing about why they can't die, and how they're going to use the money to escape the City's hold on them. By running, or paying off debts, or taking a loved one back, or ruling it. But then Ulysses kills them and willingly dies himself, giving his body to the earth and escaping the City more fully than they ever could. Hell yeah, fuck them.

As soon as I heard the password was 'Elysian', I knew it was something about death. His death. And something about it will be peaceful. I was right.

And ARGOS!! The doggo reunites with his human, and yeah he still dies, but Ulysses practically goes with him! Also, are dogs extinct in this world, like horses? Did Ulysses manage to find the last tree and the last dog?? Damn, dude. Mad skillz.

Bro, I was wondering where Penelope was going to fit into all this, 'cause in The Odyssey, practically his entire life purpose is to get back to her, but here there was... nothing stopping him I thought? I thought either he was in huge debt to someone and was stuck in a completely different sector than Penelope, or he was staying away out of guilt and shame over his actions in the war. But then it's revealed that he is trying to get back to her... in death. Like, fuck bro, that's really fucking sad. Dude's been passively or actively suicidal for the past few decades, and then he finally gets to rest with her... Fuck, man. Hits hard.

Ulysses sounds a lot like Joel from The Last of Us games when he sings softly. It helps that Elysian Fields is literally just Wayfaring Stranger lol. Also gives the same feeling as the endish part of AC: Valhalla, after he talks to the king and rides away and Twilight of the Gods starts playing.

The cover art is so cool, as well. And the last ones? The plain wooden table, bare of any media or research or advertisement. So good. No more secrets. No more lies. The truth, laid out in the open, plain as can be. Nothing more, nothing less. And then the vault, blood splattered enemies dying, grasping for artificial life in the cold grey, while Ulysses lies under the living tree, surrounded by sunlight and green with his loved ones, at peace with his death. Amazing imagery.

The drums at the end of Elysian Fields are like a funeral march or the drums that play on Anzac Day. So good.

Okay, I think I've written all I wanted to say, so imma go read the lyrics now (22:56).

Finished listening with the lyrics! Love it even more now (01:44).

#udad #ulysses dies at dawn #immediate reaction #rambles #essay #my posts #long post

[bangtanstanst]

double trouble | 0

WRITERS; @jooneos @bangtanstanst​ GENRE; fluff RATING; teens & up (applies to this chapter alone) PAIRING; platonic jeon jungkook/f!reader (for now👀) WORDCOUNT; 2′030 AU; tattoo parlour!au, roommate!au, flower shop!au WARNINGS; swearing, pining, tattooed!jungkook, jungkook’s nipples are pierced so yOU KNOW

› SYNOPSIS; a bet with your roommate jungkook gets you in a world of trouble, though you’re not exactly complaining. after all, who wouldn’t love trouble when it comes in the form of the man, the myth, the legend; the tattoo artist across the street, christian motherfucking yu? › NOTE; oof here we gooo!!! we’ve been dying to share this for MONTHS, hope you guys enjoy it!!! › DISCLAIMER; the prologue is the only sfw chapter in this series!!! the rest is all going to be explicit so beware!!! › MASTERLISTS; series | jooneos | bangtanstanst

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“I think that’s the last one!” Jungkook says from the threshold of your new apartment, a little out of breath. He groans and heaves the last box out of the hallway. The muscles in his arms shift, pulling at the tattoos that ink his body. You exhale shakily, dragging your eyes away from him, and you pointedly stare at the box you’re carrying to your designated bedroom. You very nearly trip over your carpet in your distracted state, yelping as you catch yourself, just barely. Sweat sticks uncomfortably to your back and makes your shirt cling to your body. You wiggle around to try to make it come loose as you walk on, huffing when it doesn’t work. You dump the hefty box of books on your mattress and walk back to the living room, carefully avoiding the treacherous rug as you go.

Bright white walls reflect the soft November sunlight that filters through the windows and warms the light wooden floor under your bare feet. Jungkook stands in the middle of the living room, looking over a sea of cardboard boxes. His eyebrows are pulled into a deep frown, a few strands of curly hair have escaped the makeshift bun he’s pulled his hair into. 

“Twenty-two, twenty-three… Yeah, that’s all of them,” he says, relief palpable in his voice. He clears a couple of things from the IKEA couch, one of the only currently unpacked pieces of furniture, and makes room for you and him to sit on. 

“Oh, thank fuck,” you wheeze as you sink into the fabric of your oh-so-beloved couch. It dips when Jungkook plops himself onto it next to you.

“The stairs really take it out of ya,” he says, panting heavily.

You groan in reply. “The one downside to living on the top floor, I guess,” you mutter under your breath. You shuffle on the couch until your head rests on Jungkook’s shoulder. His arm wraps around you in a nearly instinctive motion, something you’ve grown accustomed to over the past four years of living together. His bicep shifts as you adjust yourself on his shoulder and you smother the wave of decidedly-not-platonic-affection that runs in shivers down your arms. 

“By the way, we share a wall now, that means no three AM workouts,” you warn, twisting your neck to look at him.

“Why not?” Jungkook pouts at you, his pink lips purse cutely as he looks at you with big puppy eyes. Honestly, it’s unfair; he’s not supposed to be cute and sexy. There’s got to be a rule against that somewhere, no?

“I don’t want to hear you grunting and moaning in the middle of the fucking night, that’s why,” you grumble and shove his shoulder.

“Psh, you love my grunting moans,” he jokes and you jab his chest in retaliation, ignoring the faint pulling pain in your muscles. His white shirt clings to the ridges of his stomach as he breathes hard, still recovering from the countless trips up and down the seven flights of stairs. Long dark curls fall artfully into his face and cling to his temples, sweat beads on the column of his neck and the silver barbells that pierce his nipples stick out against the soaked fabric of his shirt. You’re reminded again just how unfair the entire situation is, how he looks so effortlessly handsome when you’re sure you look like an absolute wreck.

You let your eyes run across the sharp cut of his jaw, getting stuck momentarily on his soft looking lips. Stop that, you admonish yourself. You avert your eyes quickly, looking at your lap as your cheeks heat embarrassingly. “Ugh, gross,” you joke instead, tucking away the warm feeling Jungkook gives you every damn time you look into his stupid, sparkling eyes. He grins at you and your heart skips a beat. Stupid crush. 

A familiar, comfortable silence stretches between you and you pick at a growing blister on your palm. Jungkook shifts on the couch, his thighs strain against the ripped material of his jeans and you carefully avoid looking anywhere near him. Your gaze trails over the sea of moving boxes and moves over the naked walls of your apartment instead. Keep it together, you tell yourself. You’ve been friends with him for forever, you can’t let your crush on him ruin everything. Besides, it’s not like someone like him would go for someone like you anyways. 

“Can’t believe we did it,” he mutters and stretches his legs out, your eyes involuntarily flicker over to watch the movement. Inked details shift underneath the ripped knees of his jeans and you gulp heavily. His head falls back against the couch cushion as he lets out a content sigh.

“Yeah,” you agree, a little dazed as you try not to stare at the column of Jungkook’s throat, it moves in soft bobbing motions as his breathing slows gradually. You drag your eyes away from him and look around your new apartment instead. The couch looks out onto large windows and beyond, the small university city you both decided to stay in after graduating spreads out before your eyes. Bare trees and smoking chimneys sprawl out as far as the eye can see. You sigh, letting your eyes run over the landscape. It’s only eleven am, the light is still soft in its wintery glow and frost shines like jewels on the rooftops. You prop your feet on the still unpacked coffee table; the heavy boxes make for a decent footrest. The piles of packed furniture call back your attention and you look around the room. To your left, directly across from your room, is the small, open kitchen with an island that spills into the living room. You sigh happily; it’ll be a great place once you’re all moved in.

You tick ‘carry boxes up’ off your mental priority list and go over what else you need to do today, groaning when you remember the next, admittedly pressing item on that list. “Oh fuck, we haven’t gone grocery shopping yet,” you say, somewhat dreading having to get up from the comfort of the couch. As if moving out of your old flat and transporting all the boxes and furniture in Jungkook’s beat-up old car wasn’t exhausting enough.

Jungkook whines and rests his cheek on top of your head. “My arms have liquified, Y/N. I can’t even lift a finger right now,” he says, sighing dramatically and flopping his arms uselessly as if to prove his point. You scoff. 

“So being ripped to hell isn’t even useful?” you tease him and poke his hard stomach.

“Sure it is – I get all the ladies,” he answers and you can practically hear the way smugness twists his words.

“Oh, jesus.” You roll your eyes even though he can’t see you. He laughs anyways and you smile too.

Jungkook hisses when you move your head. “Fuuuck, my arms huuurt,” he whines and you laugh in schadenfreude. “This isn’t funny! How the hell will I ink anyone tomorrow if I can’t even use my fucking arms?” he complains and sinks lower into the couch.

“Oh my god, that’s right! Tomorrow’s your first day!” You move away from him to look at him.

He’s grinning, big and toothy, clearly excited about his new job. “Yeah! I’m so fucking ready, it’s such a cool place too,” he gushes and you smile. It’s nice to see him like this, so openly passionate. His cheeks flush slightly with excitement and you resist the urge to poke the faint dimple that appears when he smiles. Your heart flutters painfully in your chest. “It’s called Rome, which is already the coolest fucking name ever. And the owner is just super chill but he loves tattooing so much?”

“Wait, wait, wait. Rome?” You sit up a little straighter at the name. “That’s right across from Saku! Why didn’t you tell me?!” You slap his chest admonishingly.

“Seriously?” he sits up, eyes sparkling as he blows a strand of hair out of his face.

You nod furiously. “We can meet up for lunch!” you say excitedly and Jungkook hops up and down on the couch. You’d started working at the flower shop, Saku, during your senior year of college, and you’d fallen completely in love with it. After graduating, you’d asked your boss, Eric, if he’d consider letting you on as a full time employee. And just like that, you’d been set from the start – unlike Jungkook, who had struggled for months to find a tattoo parlour hiring new artists. Then one day, he’d come rushing to your old college apartment, ragged and out of breath, his hair a wild mess as he’d picked you up in his arms. He’d twirled you around the room, screaming with delight that he’d finally gotten a job. You still remember the way his eyes sparkled brightly, shining wonderfully as he looked up at you. You’d almost kissed him that day. 

“This is literally the best job ever,” he says and you nod in agreement, giggling at the prospect of seeing your best friend every day. You lean against him again, enjoying the warm, solid way he feels. “I hope the boss is as cool as he seemed during the interview, though, because he said he’s a bit of a hard ass,” Jungkook continues and he worries his bottom lip.

“Wait, is he the one who owns that really loud motorcycle?” you ask, practically feeling the heavy sound of the humming engine you hear every single morning reverberate through your chest. You remember the one time you’d run into the guy at the ramen restaurant next to Saku; he’d held the door open for you, smiling dazzlingly at you. His eyes had softened somehow and when the wild curls of his hair had fallen into his face, you’d resisted the urge to brush them back. Heat sizzles through your veins at the memory. 

“I don’t know?” He shrugs, frowning at you. “I think so, though, he seems like he’d own a bike.”

“Oh my god, he’s your boss? Even more reason to go over and pick you up for lunch, then,” you say, grinning darkly at Jungkook.

He frowns, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “Why did you say that so weirdly?”

“Because he’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen and you just gave me a legitimate reason to go over and drool all over him,” you admit immediately, wistfully remembering the man’s dark curls and full lips. You’re not even hesitant to tell Jungkook – you’ve always been honest with him, about everything. You’ve been friends since kindergarten, roommates all throughout college, and now that you’ve graduated, you’ve moved into a better apartment, together. There’s something about Jungkook that immediately puts you at ease – it’s almost as though any and all tension just melts out of your bones when you’re around him. It doesn’t feel weird to open up to him. When you’d broken up with your ex, you’d turned to Jungkook to console you. When Jungkook had told his parents he was going to take his art degree and become a tattoo artist, they had threatened to disown him. And you’d taken care of him, letting him be mad and angry and sad as he paced the narrow space of your college flat. There’s an unspoken agreement between the both of you; it’s always you and him, together, against the world. It’s been this way for years, and despite your highly annoying and always-present crush on him, you can’t deny that having him as a best friend is the cherry on top of your daily life.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve botched a flower arrangement because I was looking at him through the window,” you add and sigh dreamily.

“You sound like you wanna get into his pants.” He raises an eyebrow at you. You shift a little, feeling yourself blush under his stare. Jungkook wrinkles his nose and his lips turn down in disgust. “Please don’t fuck my boss, Y/N,” he says.

You can’t help the mischievous grin as you look up at him. “Can’t make any promises, baby.”

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› MASTERLISTS; series | jooneos | bangtanstanst › TAGLIST; freckleyoon​ jooheonbee​ ajokeformur-ray jinitude hobisdreams​ ultraanonymousey k0modob1ue jesuislalune bloom-oppa fawn08 thesilenthill copa-c-havana jiminisnotavirgin theravengoddess your-cherry-bomb chogiyeol-utopia mercurygguk bapbaptothetop fleur-dreams (tags were removed in moving posts, but if you're on the list, you will be tagged when new parts go up!)

Let us know if you’d like to be added!

#we're just transferring all the dt posts to a single blog - apologies that it's not a new update! #jeon jungkook #jeon jungkook imagine #jeon jungkook blurb #jeon jungkook fic #yu barom #yu barom fics #yu barom imagines #yu barom fanfic #yu barom smut #jeon jungkook fluff #bts jungkook #bts jeon jungguk #christian yu #christian yu smut #christian yu imagine #christian yu fic

[fuckinghomepage]

MARCH 1, 2023

IT'S FUCKING WEDNESDAY.

WORDS OF WISDOM OF THE FUCKING DAY:

A GREAT MAN IS HARD ON HIMSELF; A SMALL MAN IS HARD ON OTHERS.

EDUCATE YOUR IGNORANT ASS:

100 DAMN FINE TIPS FOR A LIFE WELL LIVED. more>>

FUCKING MIND-BLOWING BOOK OF THE DAY:

THE MYTHS OF MOTHERFUCKING CREATIVITY. more>>

USEFUL SHIT OF THE GODDAMN DAY:

BUY A BIT OF LAND. more>>

WEBSITE OF THE FUCKING DAY:

WRITE FIVE HUNDRED WORDS A DAMN DAY. more>>

AWESOME-AS-SHIT VIDEO OF THE DAY:

WHY 82% OF MEXICO IS FUCKING EMPTY. more>>

[calehenituse-brainrot]

I dunno what you're going through, but allow me to gift you a fic! ❤

.

*ehem*

.

You've never been good at cooking. Well, it's not like you make the kitchen explode or manage to bring a dead fish back to life, but sometimes the soup would gain a mouth and the fried chicken (which you decided to fry whole instead of cutting it into pieces... Why...) would try and fight you back via fist fight.

There are also times when the lemonade you make would turn purple instead of pink, and wouldn't taste like lemonade but fucking strawberries and you just have to wonder how that even happens.

Where were you going with this?

Oh, yeah. You can't cook.

And it's not your fault. The instincts of being a witch is hard to let go, especially if this is how you've been since birth.

But then you've gotten memories of a past life. You've suddenly remembered a man with reddish-brown eyes and small smiles. Warm hands and soft lips. Arms wrapped around perfectly around your body. Waking up felt cold and lonely, and suddenly you've gotten a craving from a past life that you can't recreate because your new life instilled all necessary skills to survive.

Craving for the man.

And then craving for the food. Because food is number one in comforting a person.

But, well...

Witches are still not accepted, and should people find out about you, you'll be burned at the stake.

But, maybe you're gonna be found out sooner than later because you're losing against that motherfucking fried chicken. You should be winning because of your knife and your make-shift shield that's the cover of the pot, but the fried chicken is also somehow a master of martial arts and bitch slapped your weapons away before you could even attempt to stab it.

"What kind of witch-craft did I even--"

You looked towards the recipe book.

And found out that it wasn't a recipe book but your Witch's Tome 101 for Dummies.

You cursed and uncursed your past self. And then, you undid the curse on the chicken.

Well, you tried.

Because now the chicken decided you weren't worth the trouble anymore and opened the locks of your window. THE CHICKEN DIDN'T EVEN HAVE FINGERS HOW THE FUCK DID IT EVEN--

You tried to stop it, tried to grab it before it could happily jump into freedom, but it jumped and will now be seen by hundreds of people.

This is it. This is how you'll die.

The fried chicken is running loose in the city all because you had a dream of a past life and craved for food from it.

(Actually, you craved the hot man in it, so the next best thing was the food.)

Ha.

Hahaha.

You're so dead...

A knock on the door has you hitching your breath. Your forehead is somehow beaded with sweat, and you have to wonder if the people are now out to get you.

It hadn't even been minutes since the fried chicken decided it wanted a life for itself outside the four walls of your home.

With shaking hands, you unlocked your door, and slightly opened it to see who's at the other side.

A man... A beautiful man, mind you, was standing at the other side of the door with a scary swordsman behind him.

And... Shiiiiiiiiit...

The scary swordsman has the fried chicken wrapped up in thick rope. Serves that chicken right! BUT ALSO--

"Miss? I think you should let us inside."

You gulped.

You suddenly remembered who this beautiful man is.

Cale Henituse. The man. The myth. The legend himself was standing at your doorstep, probably ready to slay you if you say even the wrong thing.

And so, accepting your fate, you decided death via beautiful man wouldn't be so bad.

Stupid craving for beautiful men and fried chicken. Haaaaaaa....

.

.

Annnnd that's it! Witch!Reader and some very innaccurate witch craft finding her connection to her past lover via enchanted fried chicken! I hope you like it! ❤

OH MY GOD🥺🥺🥺

THIS IS SO CUTE ??? THANK YOU SO MUCH YOURE AMAZING AT THIS!!!

i was having pretty tiring day lately and this definitely lifted my mood🥺💗

also,

🥺🥺 you're making me wanna write thisISJSBWK i could write a witch!reader x cale but it probabily would end up making no sense since the only kinda witchy thing i do is tarot and im not even good at it😭😵‍💫

#totcf #trash of the counts family #lout of count's family #trash of the count's family #cale henituse #tcf cale #cale henituse x reader #x reader #answered ask #ask me stuff

[sakebytheriver]

I want to punt that stupid little Asian man who let himself be used as a mouthpiece and a useful idiot by a bunch of old white men to strike down Affirmative Action into the fucking sun. And this motherfucker is fucking CANADIAN, which just adds insult to injury, like you come into our country and immediately allow yourself to be used by our worst to dismantle the hard fought for corrections to our broken system people of color and immigrants like yourself have been fighting for years to get? Gtfo

When poc get rich enough they consider themselves honorary white and forget that the second they lose that money the white men who used them as puppets will send them up the river with the rest

If you really wanted to do something to help Asian students being rejected from colleges then you would have gone after legacy admissions instead of Affirmative Action, you just allowed yourself to be the real life embodiment of the model minority myth and enacted the same racist systemic policy ramifications that stereotype does to pur country, congratulations, I hope the money was worth those old guys' hands up your ass

#ignore me

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Week: Jack of All Trades Floundering Father and Shark Bait Reviews: Bizzaro Blackbeard (Comissoned by Weirdkev27)

Ahoy me hearties and welcome back to Pirate.. two consecutive days. Today we look at one of the most infamous scourges to ever sail the seven seas, Blackbeard!

No not that one.

Sadly not him either. I gotta get back to that series sometime. Maybe next month. No instead of talking about the good blackbeards we're talking about the version from Jack of All Trades.

Before we can get into this disapointment, let's talk about the show itself.

Jack of All Trades was syndicated show in 2000, lasting for two seasons (one 16 episodes the other 8) and part of the back2back action hour with Cleopatra 2525, about an exotic dancer who gets put in cryo sleep and winds up leading a revolution against robots.

Like Cleopatra 2525, Jack of All Trades likely would've been lost ot the sands of time were it not for one man, it's star, your surrogate uncle and mine, the man the myth the chin BRUCE MOTHERFUCKING CAMPBELL. Kev seems determined to one day have me review everything bruce has been in.. which will probably include mchale's navy by the end

For now though this is the good stuff, as jack was also executive produced by Bruce's ride or die best buddies Robert Tapert and Sam Rami.

Jack follows Jack Styles, america revolutionary war hero and either ash williams great great great great great grandpa.. or possibly a time lost Ash Williams who became his own grandpa Phillip J Fry style. The world will never know.. until Dynamite FINALLY does a crossover for it. Come on guys. It's fish in a barrel. Kev even pitched the crossover to me: Ash goes back in time and has to team up with Jack to stop Napoleon from getting his hands on the necronomicon.

Anyways back to the premise: Jack is tapped by president jefferson to go to the french ruled island of Pualu-Pualu in the east indies and stop the various plots of the french. His contact, partner and object of romantic tension is british scientest Emilia Rothschild, played by Angela Dotchin. Jack masquerades as Emilia's houseboy, then goes into actoin as the Darring Dragoon. Yes folks this is also basically a superhero show. The two frequently foil the local Govenor Croque, ocasionally napoleon himself.. and hilariously enough often also scheme to keep Croque in power as his incompetence makes their jobs easier than if Napoleon sent people with actual talent. It's both a great setup and a purposfully thin one: within this the duo can do just about any nonsense the writers want. This includes, just from wikipedia episode blurbs: Jack having to beat Napoleon in poker to keep the louisana purchase, help croque fuck his wife better, get cathrine the great her horse back so she dosen't blow up the island, and get amnesia via a pig. The show is really just an excuse for slapstick nonsense, wordplay, our two leads to banter, and for every man on the island to hit on amelia to remind you this show was made in 2000 and everybody was super extra triple horned up those days. So how did my first round of getting to know jack pan out? Why does this blackbeard suck so much? How does leonardo divinci factor into all of this? Join me under the cut to find out.

The Floundering Father: This episode SHOULD have been an easy slam dunk. I mean look at the image I chose. Really look at it. It has Bruce Campbell in an old timey sleeping outfit. Bruce Campbell, already in his pajamas. That visual gag alone should've won this 29 emmys.

But.. the rest of the episode simply dosen't live up to that glorious image you see. It's main problem is it's running gag for the episode: Jack and Emilia bicker about which is better, America or England. Which is laughable today as while I love my country, we've got a dumptruck load of problems.. and so does the uk. It dosen't work character wise because while I get this show is over the top and what not, I do... it dosen't paint the best picture of emilia that she's overdefnding a country that till very recently opressed Jack's country. I get it's her homeland and the man later says he wishes he could put her boobs on a teddy bear

But it's still pretty tone deaf to tell your partner "Golly the people who opressed yours you had to fight to get away from sure are great". I'd be able to overlook it.. if it was funny. Instead it's just every two minutes or so "AMERICA GREAT" "NO BRITAN" "AMERICA" "BRITANNNN" "AMERICAAAAAAA FUCK YEAH " "BRITAN FUCK YEAH " "mericamericaMERICACAAAAA" "BRITANBRITANJOLLYGOODPIPIPBRITAN"

It drags down the episode every. fucking time. And this being the first jack of all trades I saw had me worried their like this EVERY TIME. Thankfully the next ep, which we'll get to shortly, settled more into the two just bantering and nicely complimenting each other as a team: emilia is the brains and creates vehicles and inventions and such to help them, while jack is the more wordly brawn, able to use his fists and spycraft while loudly complaning and making puns and what not. They have way more chemistry there then here where it just gives me a migraine.

That said it's not ALL their fault the episodes a bit of a slog. Mostly but still Blackbeard dosen't help. Blackbeard is played by Hori Aphene here and credit to the show for casting a POC actor. I didn't even know historical blackbeard wasn't white till our flag means death. The character himself is just .. mostly shouting and being gross.

God bless HOri he's trying really hard, it's the writing that lets him down. I will give this version points for breathing fire

but all the shouting in the world can't make this character funny, threatning or remotely intresting and it only gets worse next episode.

The combo of the lackluster guest star and bickering just makes this one a chore to get through but there are SOME bright spots of light. Croque and his minon, Brogard, pull a clever plan, having Brogard take Benjamin's franklin's place as hostage.

The main saving grace of this episode though is Benjy himself: for starters he's kindapped for the most gloriously stupid reason imaginable: Napoleon wants to force him to build a super weapon to destroy the white house. That itself would be good.. but what takes it over the top and really told me what this show true form is.... the weapon is a GIANT KITE. Yes they took the one thing any person knows about ben franklin and made it into a doomsday device. I fucking love everything about this. This alone got my interest back.

Ben Himself is just a lot of fun. While some of the jokes are just him eating a lot aka

Outside of that he's great, and his little mentorship with elizabeth, both being in awe of her designs and helping her figure out why her sub's engine's not working is genius. Elizabeth's submarine itself looks great. The climax.. is also a lot of fun. The Dragoon battles blackbeard while as Jack he eventually has to hold two wires together and gets after effects lightninged all over. It's wonderfully dumb.

All in all this episode is just..

Has some highlights towards the end but most of the first two acts are a slog. Thankfully the next one's MOSTLY better.

Shark Bait

This one is better... though just to get it out of the way blackbeard is far worse. While he wasn't great in the first, the pirate ship was at least fun for a climax and he had the delightfully insane quirk of breathing fire. Here it just takes all his traits that made him hard to watch the constant shouting, the poor hygine jokes him creeping on elizabeth.. and..

I have to adress this in a bit more detail. The show is REALLY creepy with elizabeth at times, both with the fanservicy outfits (which are less to show off her sexuality and indepnednce and more LOOK EVERYONE BOOBS), the whole teddy bear joke but especially blackbeard who JUST WON'T STOP hitting on her and the show treats it like a wacky joke. I get this is the 2000s, it's why it dosen't destroy the episode for me but it's still just gross and I suspect something i'll have to deal with all series long. We even get a morning wood joke with jack which comes off as HAHA GET IT HE ASSAULTED HER. Her sexual indginities are treated as one big joke and it's VERY hard to stomach. Thankfully the show has a rapid fire pace to iron it out but I just.. woudln't feel right never adressing this.

But combinging with that with just "ISN'T THIS GUY GROSS JOKES" makes blackbeard fucking intolerable. Someone having pooor hygine.. just isn't funny. It wasn't funny when I was 10 and it's not funny now. Now you can MAKE someone's horrible hygine funny. Observe

Here the jokes are.. jokes. He's dirty, but they find ways to play with the joke. Someone being gross isn't funny unless you find a way to give it character. Blackbeard just shouts and smells bad. That's it. That's what they did with the character.

While BLackbeard dosen't help the episode the episode itself.. is a LOT of fun thankfully. Jack and elizabeth's banter is thankfully way more varied here, with jack being annoyed at her modes of transportation. A standout is jack preparing to fist fight the crew of the sub they've ended up on.. before Amelia points their outnumbered and they both hide. This seems more like what the series is actually like: two very diffrent people bickering and bantering and complementing each other. Jack even points out the obvious issue of using blackbeard to help them get around the ship: that he could recognize them from last time and it adds some nice tension. And ironically , if naturally it's jack who accidently blows it by mentoining her sub.

The plot itself is delightfully nuts: it starts out simple enougH: a mysterious sea monster is sinking ships going into palu-palu, and Elizzabeth ropes jack into helping it. We also get some classic bruce campbell wordplay as jack isn't pro pro bono. I swear no one else could pull that line off.

So our heroes use the sub, a nice call back, and it ends up swallowed by the monster.. which turns out to be a giant hammerhead shark shaped sub itself. That would be bonkers enough... but then we get to whose behind it: Nardo DaVinci, descendant of Leonardo Divinci. Nardo is a hell of a lot of fun, mostly berating his minons for being absolute morons, assuming a ping on the radar is just a fish, not bothering to search the sub for people and in my faviorite moment of the episode when the heroes later baricade themselves, trying to break down the door WITH A TORPEDO.

Said torpedo is the crux of Nardo's naturally over the top and hilariously stupid plan: he's invented the first, a nice little use of real world stuff before it's time. That'd be neat and all but the bonkers spice is his target: the annual founding father's father son boat cruise, where the founding families all take a trip out to sea. Just the.. concept alone is funny. Nardo helps his case by also being compitent: he repeadtely plans to have his men just shoot our heroes and ONLY gets sidetracked when Jack baits his ego.. and even then he plans to have them all shot to death right after and only looses them because Blackbeard can breathe fire. And let's face it "this pirate we're facing can breathe fire" isn't exactly something you can plan for. If your curious Nardo's crew shanghied blackbeard (and the previous ships) for his loot and have been making him swab the deck. It's also why the heroes use him at all as he ALLGEDLY knows his way around.

Our heroes escape is even more bonkers: our heroes have to SHOOT THEMSELVES OUT OF A TORPEDO TUBE. And jack has to make the lever swing since no one can pull it for him. And all of this is complete with hilariously cheap greenscreen.

Our finale is a fuckton of fun. Our heroes can't persue them in the sub since, unlike last time, it gives them no element of suprise and a boat is worse than useless. So how do they stop this dastardly da vinci?

So eliza has a hot air balloon they plan to use to huck stuff at the sub. They do end up dislodging the torpedo but have to hang loose from blackbeards farts. I.. I wish that wasn't a plot point. He figures out who they are.. but in TRYING TO MANUALLY PICK UP A TORPEDO HE FALLS DOWN AND APPARENTLY DIES DESTROYING THE SUB.. which somehow survivies fine as blackbeard is back aboard. Either way it's an awesome climax.

Overall Shark Bait is a solid episode with a fun guest star. It's brougth down because their version of blackbeard just plain sucks, but since future episodes i'll be covering don't have him, i'm happy to cover the series again. It's got a lot of fun qualiteis and let's face it i'll watch anything with bruce campbell in it, paid or not. Thanks for reading

#bruce campbell #jack of all trades #blackbeard #benjamin franklin #pirate month #pirates #sam rami #robert tapert

[i-prefer-base-twelve]

Ford Swearing Headcanons

Nobody asked for this but I feel like typing, so

Pre-portal Ford did not swear. He bought the myth that swearing is something people for people with small minds and limited vocabularies*, and "held himself to a higher standard."

Post portal Ford... is an entirely different man. He's spent 30 years wandering the planes as a vengeance paladin, of COURSE he swears. In the show, we hear him he call people "idiot" and "knucklehead," which I firmly believe is kids-show encoding for things like "asshole" and "motherfucker."

But the way he swears sounds really strange, even after he's been home for awhile. He learned words and constructions that don't exist in this dimension (in my fic, for example, in fraught moments, he uses "corpsefucker" and "fuck me to Neptune"); what's more, he DIDN'T learn any of usages that arose in THIS dimension in the past 30 years. (I imagine he would be so very perplexed the first time he heard the -ass suffix).

I have no evidence to support this, but I like to believe that as he acclimates to being home, he swears exclusively in Portal languages, for the kids' sake. ...and then it backfires horribly when the kids start repeating him, and he's forced to translate.

* He did not know any linguists. If you would like to hear more about the linguistics of swearing, my DMs are open.

#headcanon #ford pines #hell is other people's headcanons #that last tag is just a gnomic truth and not directed at anyone in particular I promise

[plenilune]

tagged by @endquestionmark an age and a half ago but I lost it in a tab. however I love to do a little Survey like it's 2004 on Xanga.

relationship status: ecstatically partnered, but non-monogamous

favorite color: the specific pale green smoothing to black of oxidised copper, and the dark dark pine green that is its companion.

favorite food: god I love food. favourite categories include: inventive sandwiches with many layers, very simple and perfect sandwiches (peanut butter, nice salami, ham on brioche with kewpie mayo, tamago sando, the old American man version of tamago sando which is very mustardy egg salad on toasted pumpernickel), tomato soup, buttered toast, ramens and stir fries, anything of the put an egg on it variety, Corey's chicken cooked in herbs and butter and white wine, Corey's strip steak, hot dogs from the roller grill at Speedway, anything you can order at a diner at 3am, Fancy Pizza, anything that goes in a fry-up, quiche, marble rye, beer bread, fresh baguette with cheddar, rosemary bread, focaccia, savoury scones, sourdough, bread, also bread, other bread, more bread,

song stuck in my head: perpetually the main riff from Charles Mingus' "Moanin'" (specifically this version), a tune which Corey and I have decided is just the soundtrack to an easily imagined animated piece about small terriers getting into Trouble. thus it has become the melody to at least a third of the little songs we sing to and about our small terrier when he is, getting himself into Trouble.

last thing i googled: kdjsshjkghs. well. it was "bicycle in tenebrae" because I watched the opening to Argento's Tenebrae last night and discovered the protagonist spends the first scene riding a MOTHERFUCKING CELESTE BIANCHI to the JFK airport and I needed to know if any other bicycle enthusiasts were talking about this. (a Bianchi is a very iconic Italian racing bicycle, often painted a highly recognisable shade of oxidised-copper blue-green called Celeste. anyway I happen to have one from the mid-80s because Corey, who works as a bike mechanic and salesperson at a terrible little bike shop that is absolutely exploiting them, scored a frame in perfect condition in my exact size and has been refurbishing her since like, August, and she is my pride and joy and the fastest and most beautiful bicycle in the WORLD.) the most ABSURD special-interest collision I've had in months. anyway Corey was able to identify the bike in the film down to the model and the approximate model year, which I thought was very sexy of them.

local time: 5:19 pm

dream trip: I want to show Corey (and everyone else I love) New York, the city I fell in love with, and Corey wants to show me London, which they fell in love with as a teenager, and we both want terribly to spend a month in Scotland, walking Edinburgh for hours and bicycling through the otherworldly green hills. I want to go back to Boston. I want to go back to West Virginia. I want to go back to Nova Scotia, and explore the plains of Canada as well, and I want to drive up the entire west coast and get my head lost on those long strange highways. I want to see Prague, and Tokyo, and Berlin, and Vienna, and Mumbai, and Sao Paolo, and Paris, and Beijing, and, everywhere that's a city that has become a myth of a city. I want to see places I'd never considered and fall in love with the unexpectedness of them. I want to take every single subway in the world. I want to go on a food tour of Italy, and Vietnam, and Turkey, and Morocco. I want to see forests that are older than any building I've ever touched. I want to see Australia, and Galapagos, and I want to get stoned as fuck with Rebecca and Britt in Atlanta and then go hiking, and for Corey and Rowan and Dylan and I to all cook a big meal together and then scream about tv, and go thrifting with JD in Texas, and have Kater show me her best weird secondhand shops in upstate New York, and Avery I want to lie on the floor with you and the record player and get so fucking lost, and I want all the people I love best to show me the places they love best, and tell me why it matters to them and try to see the ways in which they love that place and if I can get it inside of me, too. I want to see so much. I want to see everything.

#the diary #memery #about me

[plantdad-dante]

Book #109 - Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

(JAIL. Jail for Lucas.)

Ohhhhh I hate this. I hate this so much. I don't even know where to start. I'm so mad at this, from so many angles, it's like a kaleidoscope of misery. A panopticon of hatred. Consider this your warning.

How can a book based on the most accessible and most widely historically preserved mythology contain this amount of bullshit. I don't get it. And what makes it worse it that sometimes it gets things right?? Even things that I hadn't known before and had to google?? (I may not like the "Myrmidons are insect people" angle, but it at least makes somewhat sense, in a God Of War, "we twist everything morally ambiguous about what you love into fucked up, gory, evil monstrosities" kinda way.) I think it's the weird disconnect for me, of seeing one thing that is actually based in myth, that like, has an actual foundation somewhere and makes sense - and then two pages later encountering something either flat out wrong (like Chiron, the Ferryboatman on the Styx), or completely barmy ("River of Joy", shove it up your bum).

By the way, it takes a lot to actually make me want to punch a fictional character, but oh boy. Oh boy, I want to kill Lucas. I want to fucking disintegrate that motherfucker. An invisible man stalking a woman he is obsessed with is literally the plot of a horror movie!! Literally. Also, there is one passage where he a) admits to watching her sleep, and b) says that someday he won't be able to stop himself from climbing into the bed with her (!!!) and honestly, it's so ambigously worded, for a second I forgot how clueless this book is about sex and was legitamtely convinced he intended to SA her. So, yeah, jail for Lucas.

For some other greatest hits of this book:

- The "All Tell No Show" writing continues, making, for example, Zach's character and arc completely incomprehensible to me. - The women hate continues, this time expressed in the form of at least one incel we are meant to sympathize with, the majority of the male cast being possessive and volatile fuckheads and it being portrayed as romantic and good, and none, literally not a single one, of the female characters being concerned about Lucas' stalking habits. Additionally: thank fuck for exposition talk or I doubt this book would pass the Bechdel test. - Ares, God of War - not the clean, strategic roundtable stuff that Athena concerns herself with, this is the gory, blood-soaked carnage aspect of war we're talking about - is a coward. Yeah. Sure, I mean... what else would he be. Right? - While the reader knows that Lucas and Helen aren't actually related, they and the majority of the other characters have yet to learn this little factoid. Weird, then, that the book just kind of... forgets about it. About two thirds in, this book flat out forgets that they are supposed to be cousins, and drops it in favour of love triangle angst. I wish I was making this up.

I'm still confused about this book's portrail of Hades and Persephone. From the moment they brought her up I was waiting to learn her feelings on the whole kidnapping matter, but all we get is a confusing talk with Hades, where he justifies his actions with his feelings. Persephone gets to be nothing more than a plot device. Another strike for women hate.

I am worried about what Antman's death means for this series' portrail of Achilles. For a story that wants to base its lore and characters on the Iliad, the first two books have very curiously avoided bringing up the Greek side of the Trojan War, and specifically Achilles. And I can't help it, I'm a Greek Mythology gay, of course I'm worried what these books will do to our boy.

All in all, this feels like that Simpson's meme.... "This is the worst book I have ever read" - "The worst book you have ever read - so far". Get it? Because this is a trilogy, because there is still one left to go.

#dreamless #josephine angelini #starcrossed trilogy #dante's discard pile #no this doesn't feel strong enough #dante's tenth circle of book hell? #ever read a book so horrid that you feel like you need to invent a new tag?

[deathandsaints]

The man, The Myth, The Legend himself Johnny Gat

1: sexuality headcanon: That man is a raging bisexual 2: otp: Gat x Boss. They're soulmates, but also as I get older I appreciate Gat x Aisha 3: brotp: During SR1, Gat and Dex, after, Gat and Boss 4: notp: Gat x Asha. Hear me out though. It's not because I don't want to see interacial couples where no one is white like someone here said years ago. It's that Asha is a whole arse lesbian. 5: first headcanon that pops into my head: Gat is the first person Boss ever told their real name to. For Alex, he was there when she learned what her name is. 6: favorite line from this character: "You know, there's a sayin' about dogs and blowin' shit up" 7: one way in which I relate to this character: I don't. I love him but dude's a mass murderer. 8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: The Fandom 9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?: Problematic Fave. He literally kills motherfuckers and is happy about it.

[battleangel]

Trumpian Individualism & The Myth of Capitalism

Reject the lie of the axiomatic individual that our capitalist society constantly endlessly pushes.

That youre only worth something if you can support yourself.

Collectivism is for pussies.

Get yours.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Its every man for himself.

Survival of the fittest.

Dog eat dog.

Baptism by fire.

Stand on your head.

Put the fire hose in their mouth and turn it on all the way.

All the other cliched, heartless tripe fucked down our throats our entire lives endlessly reinforced by K-12 school system, the feeder system for corporate that is college, the hallowed halls of the corporate America 9 to 5 machine, the coveted Fortune 500, the prestigious Fortune 100, the elite Fortune 25, the "you've made it" immediate clout of big tech, the "dream job" at Disney, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, PwC, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merril Lynch. Wall Street, investment banking, financial services, big tech, big banks. Silicon Valley, Paypal, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon.

All bullshit, all toxic, all untrue, all empire building, all to prop up capitalist America, all Trumpian, all Michael Douglas in Wall Street, all Jordan Belfort, all Wolf of Wall Street, all Art of the Deal, all my way or the highway, all I got mine, all double or nothing, all lets make a deal, all get a job, all shes nothing but a welfare queen, all they dont want to work, all you are the weakest link goodbye, all you're fired!, all soy boy pajama boy, all thats your ass, all quit your whining and quit your complaining, all be all that you can be, all Dow Jones Index, all we're number 1, all profit, all revenue, all derivatives, all gains, all investments, all stocks, all portfolios, all property flipping, all Robert Kiyosaki, all Rich Dad Poor Dad.

All the drizzling absolute motherfucking shits.

Reject the societal conditioning, endless brainwashing, non stop reinforcing and grooming.

Reject individualism and embrace collectivisim:

🤲🏽Consider living in a co-op (cooperative housing) instead of an apartment, condominium or house. In a housing co-op, the residents collectively own the building or land in which they live, not the independent units. Instead of paying rent to a middleman, or having individual mortgages and condo fees, co-op monthly payments contribute to the collective property expenses. Co-ops operate on an at-cost basis, often making them more affordable and typically more financially stable.

🤲🏽Consider coliving. Coliving is a modern form of shared housing. Essentially, residents live in a communal space that’s often pre-furnished and shared with a number of other individuals. Coliving communities can accommodate anywhere from 15-100 individuals at a time.

🤲🏽Start your own mini-socialism experimental group where all participants (friends, relatives, significant others, co-workers, neighbors, classmates) pool their money together into a combined account to be used for unexpected layoffs, firings, medical emergencies, unexpected financial burdens, loss of income, disability, severe health issues, etc. within the group.

🤲🏽Reject the endlessly pushed notion of one salaried or hourly job providing all of your income.

🤲🏽Look to diversify your income through multiple income streams:

🤑W-2/1040 (traditional 9 to 5 - consider working part-time)

🤑1099 (freelance/entrepreneur/consulting)

🤑W-9 (business owner paid by client as a vendor vs an individual employee), etc.

🤲🏽Consider decoupling health insurance from what you do to generate income aka "your job".

🤲🏽Consider catastrophic coverage (not for individuals with pre-existing conditions, on maintenance medication or those who are parents) like CYA.com (coveryourass.com). Its about $25 a month for catastrophic coverage that will pay out up to $100k for a catastrophic illness, accident or hospitalization.

🤲🏽This could possibly free you up to pursue non-traditional employment options while not bankrupting yourself if you are freelancing or own your own business and are uninsured if you get into a serious accident, have a heart attack, etc.

🤲🏽Limit purchases. Use a want vs need decision matrix. Pause all wants and wait either for a holiday or special occasion or dont buy and have a cash limit ($50 to $100 per item). For wants, come up with alternatives to spending cash (borrow, rent, make it yourself, challenge consumerist mindset of mindless overconsumption). Write down needs and budget accordingly.

🤲🏽Dont go on annual vacations. It makes no sense to spend thousands on a week or two. Instead of "annual summer vacations for one or two weeks", consider staycations, local amusement parks, laser tag, arcades, state parks, hiking, nature trails, day camping, local road trips, state fairs, museums, carnivals, rollerskating rinks, farms, sip n paint, pottery class, candle making, salsa classes, hula hooping, etc.

🤲🏽Never buy a new car as they depreciate 28% in value the moment you purchase it and drive it off the lot. Buy used cars only if you absolutely need a car. Alternatives to owning a used car are riding the bus and/or train, ridesharing (Uber & Lyft), carpooling with a licensed driver with a car, owning or renting a bike or scooter, rollerblading, walking.

🤲🏽Attempt to live as frugally, ecoconsciously and minimalistically as feasibly possible. Do not own a credit card or take out loans. Dont buy a house and avoid personal debt as much as possible. Dont buy a car if you can avoid it, if you cant, buy a used car 10 to 15 years old for $3k or less. Live in a cheap 1 bedroom apartment (~$1k or less) if at all possible.

🤲🏽Avoid paying in installments for online purchases (Klarna, AfterPay, etc.) as it breaks purchases into smaller payments which encourages mindless spending and pushes you to spend more since its spread out over time.

🤲🏽Do not order delivery or takeout (doordash, grubhub, ubereats) more than a few times a year. Avoid eating at sit-down restaurants. Eating out, delivery and takeout, especially adding delivery fees and taxes, literally wastes thousands of dollars a year. Buy a slowcooker and/or airfryer and make simple meals yourself.

🤲🏽Eat vegetarian 80% of the time (5 days a week). Make homemade salads and salad dressing and homemade fruit & vegetable smoothies. Make cooked quinoa with hot sauce and you can also add avocado and/or veggies. Eliminate all processed and prepackaged snacks (Oreos, Lays, Pringles, Pop Tarts, Chips Ahoy, Doritos, Cheetos, Ritz, etc.) and replace with nuts, yogurt, fruits and veggies. Eliminate boxed cereals and replace with oatmeal with flaxseeds. Reduce or eliminate alcohol, juice, soda & coffee and replace with water and herbal tea. Take a break on the weekend and eat and drink whatever. This way you are eating healthy in a way that nourishes your body the majority of the team. This will eliminate bloating, reduce your weight, leave you slimmer and toned as you are removing most processed foods, caffeine, sugar, additives, chemicals, toxins, preservatives, fat, sodium, gluten and artificial flavors from the majority of your diet. Your digestion and health will improve and you will feel lighter, less sluggish, less heavy, have more energy and avoid sugar highs and rushes as well as caffeine jitters and crashes. Fresh vegetables & fruit are also much cheaper than meat so you will alsp save money eating vegetarian 80% of the time.

🤲🏽Avoid buying new clothes.

🤲🏽Repurpose outfits (mix & match, layering, accessorize).

🤲🏽Buy clothes from online thrift shops (depop, Poshmark, etc.), in-person thrift shops, consignment stores & individual Etsy shops.

🤲🏽Avoid buying clothes from fast fashion apps (SHEIN, Fashion Nova, etc.), malls (Forever 21, H&M, Macys, etc.) and big box retail (Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kohls, etc.).

🤲🏽Most of my daily outfits are from my high school years (25 years ago) -- check my TikTok (@y2kbadbhabie), they still look brand new. Say no to constant clothes consumption. Stop filling landfills with your clothing deals.

🤲🏽Avoid four year colleges and universities as they are a debt trap.

🤲🏽Consider alternatives to traditional college:

🤲🏽Online coding academies

🤲🏽Rwo year community colleges

🤲🏽Trade and vocational schools

🤲🏽Paid apprenticeships

🤲🏽Online content creation

🤲🏽Starting a business

🤲🏽Coaching

🤲🏽Consulting

🤲🏽Sales

🤲🏽Consider creative careers:

🤲🏽Singing

🤲🏽Dancing

🤲🏽Acting

🤲🏽Writing

🤲🏽Playing instruments

🤲🏽Modelling

🤲🏽Painting

🤲🏽Drawing

🤲🏽Directing

🤲🏽Producing

🤲🏽Visual effects

🤲🏽Game design

🤲🏽Videogame coding

🤲🏽Theater

🤲🏽Comic book artists & writers

🤲🏽Cartoon artists & writers

🤲🏽Screenplay & scriptwriters

🤲🏽Tattoo artists

🤲🏽Body piercers

🤲🏽Aerialists

🤲🏽Pole dancing

🤲🏽Magicians

🤲🏽Burlesque dancing

🤲🏽Trapeze artists

🤲🏽Firebreathing

🤲🏽Makeup artistry

🤲🏽Hair stylist

🤲🏽Masseuse

🤲🏽Aesthetician

🤲🏽Nail technician

🤲🏽Vlogger

🤲🏽Streamer

🤲🏽Influencer

🤲🏽ASMRtist

🤲🏽Mukbang creator

🤲🏽Stand up comedian

🤲🏽Online comedian

🤲🏽Consider freelancing online:

🤲🏽Data entry

🤲🏽Virtual assistant

🤲🏽Online business manager

🤲🏽Transcriptionist

🤲🏽Content writer

🤲🏽Technical writer

🤲🏽Copywriter

🤲🏽Ghostwriter

🤲🏽Appointment setter

🤲🏽Cold calling

🤲🏽Lead generation

🤲🏽Technical support

🤲🏽Online researcher

🤲🏽Graphic design

🤲🏽Web design

🤲🏽Creative writing

🤲🏽Editing

🤲🏽Community management

🤲🏽Social media marketing

🤲🏽Social media management

🤲🏽Online tutoring

🤲🏽Translation

🤲🏽Best online freelance websites are Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, Freelancer.com.

🤲🏽Consider in-person freelancing:

🤲🏽TaskRabbit.com (dry cleaning, moving, etc.)

🤲🏽Gigworker.com (rideshares, deliveries, caretaking, etc.)

🤲🏽Ridesharing (Uber & Lyft)

🤲🏽Delivery driving (Doordash, Grubhub, Ubereats, Postmates & Instacart)

🤲🏽Consider entrepreneurial businesses:

🤲🏽Wigs

🤲🏽Faux eyelashes

🤲🏽Acrylic nail designs

🤲🏽Makeup

🤲🏽Baked goods

🤲🏽Catering

🤲🏽Clothes designer

🤲🏽Tshirt printing

🤲🏽Drinks

🤲🏽Herbalist

🤲🏽Cannabis

🤲🏽CBD

🤲🏽Shoes

🤲🏽Bathing suits

🤲🏽Lingerie

🤲🏽Sex toys

🤲🏽Candles

🤲🏽Coffee

🤲🏽Tea

🤲🏽Hot chocolate

🤲🏽Beer

🤲🏽Candy

🤲🏽Jewelry

🤲🏽Cosplay & costumes

🤲🏽Decorating

🤲🏽Party planning

🤲🏽Nightclub owner

🤲🏽Party business

🤲🏽Photography

🤲🏽Trip planning

🤲🏽Real estate agent

🤲🏽Real estate investments

🤲🏽Resume writing

🤲🏽Virtual assistant

🤲🏽Recruiting

🤲🏽Consider coaching:

🤲🏽Twerking

🤲🏽Sensuality

🤲🏽Intimacy

🤲🏽Sex

🤲🏽Life

🤲🏽Dating

🤲🏽Relationship

🤲🏽Confidence

🤲🏽Public speaking

🤲🏽Image & style

🤲🏽Fitness

🤲🏽Nutrition

🤲🏽Spirituality

🤲🏽Wellness

🤲🏽Finance

🤲🏽Budgeting

🤲🏽Careers

🤲🏽Writing & publishing

🤲🏽Cooking

🤲🏽Business (entrepreneurs)

🤲🏽Social media & content creation

🤲🏽Parenting

🤲🏽Music

🤲🏽Singing

🤲🏽Vocal

🤲🏽Dancing

🤲🏽Cheerleading

🤲🏽Wrestling

🤲🏽Beauty pageants

🤲🏽Modelling

🤲🏽Acting

🤲🏽Stripping

🤲🏽Pole dancing

🤲🏽Aerialism

🤲🏽Hula hooping

🤲🏽Belly dancing

🤲🏽Yoga

🤲🏽Pilates

🤲🏽Tarot cards

🤲🏽Astrology

🤲🏽Reiki

🤲🏽Shadow work

🤲🏽Somatic work

🤲🏽Solo travel

🤲🏽Sabbaticals

🤲🏽Divination

🤲🏽Palmistry

🤲🏽Psychic readings

🤲🏽Consider side hustles:

🤲🏽Carvertise or Wrapify (use your car as a billboard by wrapping ad around it

🤲🏽Create a video course & sell it on Udemy, Coursera, Teachable)

🤲🏽Create an e-book & sell it on Gumroad & Kindle

🤲🏽Self-publish a book & sell it on Amazon 🤲🏽Become a paid public speaker on Badassery

🤲🏽Sell handmade items & sell online on Etsy

🤲🏽Design & sell t-shirts on Redbubble rent your car out to people on Getaround.

#freelance #social justice #communalism #communal living #individualism #socialism #anti capitalist #trump is a threat to democracy #collectivism #anti capitalism #quit your job #9 to 5 job #layoffs #unemployment #universal health coverage #universal basic income #consumerism #ecoconscious #frugal #vegetarian #repurposed #used clothes #thrifting #coaching #consulting #entreprenuership #gig work #ride share #delivery drivers #side hustle

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 64

Vinland Saga S2 - So when I left off mentioning Thorfinn "falling into Hell"? It turns out to have been literal, as after a dream where he's been living a normal life with a father who never died, he awakens to find himself in what all the myths would call "Valhallah", land of dead warriors...except it's not what the myths say. It's a purgatorial space between life and the afterlife that physically embodies the Hell that all soliders and killers live in, where all a man can do is fight and kill to his heart's content, over and over. And who should just be chilling there but Askeladd? Yes, MOTHERFUCKING ASKELADD got a guest starring spot and he milks the glory of it for all it's worth. I was so freaking happy to see him and hear Naoya Uchida in the role once again, even if the context for why he's there and what he tells Thorfinn about all these crazed zombie vikings less than pleasant.

This episode is also crucial for starting Thorfinn's redemption, which defines the remainder of the series. Yes, this is where it starts, and I have to commend this series for executing this character growth in a way that's sadly very rarely done. In most redemption arcs, the first step to be taken, the "repentance" step, tends to come in suddenly, like the character is just hit with it and we're hit with their response. Getting to Step 2 (straightening out life course and the ceasing of wrongdoing) tends to be more gradually reached in comparison. But with Thorfinn, the time gap between the end of his life as a sinful villain (End of Prologue) and him taking Step 1 towards redemption (this episode) was of a considerable length, and even lengthier in-universe. This near death experience coming after a whole period of time having been broken, enslaved, humbled, befriending Einar, rediscovering himself and beginning to look at the world through new eyes is what makes it effect Thorfinn so deeply. He can now recognize the world of bloodshed and hatred he used to inhabit for what it is and always was, he can apologize and shed tears for all the other human beings whose lives he took in combat, and he vows to not only never kill but never resort first to violence ever again. He finally understands what his father did about what makes a "true warrior" and at Askeladd's urging, he returns to his life to actually live it long enough to become such a warrior. Powerfully moving stuff!

Hunter x Hunter - Oh yeah, this arc is BACK ON. Gon and Killua lost their last round against Knuckle and Shoot and don't accompany them to go rescue Kite, which goes to show how ultimately needless that whole section was, but things immediately pick back up with the premature birth of King Meruem. Compared to the Queen, the servants or any of the Chimera Ant soldiers we've met so far, Meruem is notably different. He leaves his mother for dead, coldly and swiftly murders at least two servants and even eats the remains of one, and leaves the nest with his Royal Guard to go terrorize humans in search of a pure source of nourishment, at one point even nearly killing Neferpitou when they make a proposal he doesn't agree with. As Colt is horrified to realize, the Chimera Ant King is evil. So Colt finds Netero's party and offers to aid them in exchange for help to save the Queen's life. But despite all efforts, the Queen succumbs to her mortal wound and passes away. What followed, with one tiny living offspring recovered from her body and a tearful Colt vowing to raise and protect this child, and Morel offering to place them under his protection on the condition Colt never eats humans again... dammit, it got me misty-eyed. I <3 Colt; he and his new baby larva person are so precious and must be protected at all costs.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Illya And Berserker's fight against Gilgamesh paved way for some backstory on Illya and all she'd gone through following the end of Fate Zero, including how she was able to become Berserker's master, and how Berserker showed her that the heart of a hero still beats deep down inside him. Given what I remembered from the Unlimited Blade Works movie when this fight occured, I figured Illya and Berserker weren't much longer for this series, and sure enough I had to watch them die. Which was thankfully handled so much better than it was in the movie and that gave me comfort but...goddamn, I hate having to watch Illya die! I really liked the route taken in the first anime where she gets to stay at Shirou's as his sister and befriend Rin and Saber too, and it sucks so much that this series doesn't go with that route.

Re:ZERO - Subaru's second trial was horrific, with him being forced to not just relive all of his previous deaths but to watch how those worlds would've continued immediately afterwards, with others reacting to the deaths in heartbreaking ways. When Rem inexplicably appeared to make his hurt go away, I immediately knew something was up and when she told Subaru he could pretty much give up now, it confirmed for me and him that this was not Rem, and she turns out to be the Witch of Lust. Subaru suddenly gets pulled into the most mad Witch's Tea Party yet, with all the other witches appearing and taking sides between if they want Subaru to agree to a deal with Echidna or not, and Echidna showing just what a sociopath she truly is. By the time Satella herself arrives at the party, Subaru completely breaks down and relapses back into self loathing and suicidal urges. Astonishingly, it's the Witches who talk him down from this dark spot, with Satella even telling him that what she wants from him most of all is for him to love himself more and find a good future of living a good life. Subaru recovers, thanks the Witches, takes an alternative deal from Echidna, and promises to destroy Satella when the time comes for it, as she (who really does look and sound exactly like Emilia) wishes for that. But once back at the Sanctuary, he goes to confront Roswaal, who admonishes him for not taking the fullest advantage of his looping ability, and it takes a super dark turn when Roswaal reveals that it was he who hired Elsa and Meili to go attack the manor, with the end goal of molding Subaru into becoming more like him. Subaru can save the manor or the Sanctuary, but not both. What Roswaal's endgame is remains in question, but it's clear now to Subaru and us that he is an evil madman who needs to be taken out!

Symphogear AXZ - The midpoint episode was an improvement over what came before, but I'm still not that enthralled with this season. I don't quite follow what the Illuminati alchemists are trying to achieve or why they're trying to, and the Symphogear crew are making some errors that they should know to avoid by now. Elfnein does manage to come up with a good counterplan against the enemy after analysis of, of all things, a clump of waste matter transmuted by Hibiki, which is dubbed material to make the "Fool's Stone" that might be able to cancel out the effects of the Philosopher's Stone the Illuminati seeks to forge. When the girls go looking for that matter, Cagliostro and Prelati ambushed Chris, Kirika, and Shirabe, which gives the three of them an opportunity to be awesome again and I am just running out of ways to describe how much I love them. Prelati seems to have been slain, while Adam demands Saint-Germain make a sacrifice.

Eureka Seven - Fairly standard episode. Gekkostake wants to get this particular fruit from a farm and it lands them in trouble with the local farmer, who turns out to be Renton's uncle. Renton lies to him about being in the military, so the uncle takes him, Eureka, and Matthieu to hang with him and his pals at the farmhouse, and things quickly spin out of control, leading to it ending on a bit of a downer.

AND

Fruits Basket: Prelude - Since it's October, I had to watch a real horror story at some point. And make no mistake, that is what the midsection of this movie is for the most part - a horror story. This man, Dr. Katsuya Honda, is a masterfully manipulative and charming predator who waits for his favorite female student, Kyoko, to become fully isolated from her gang and her family, at a point in her life where she'll have to face the world and grow up, and before she's even of legal age of consent, he makes it known that he lusts after her and intends to make her his bride, kissing her and speaking lines like "It's your fault for not being born a few years earlier." If you took out any visual and musical framing of this as some profoundly romantic, wholesome, beautiful, life-saving love story, you'd be left with what's actually being depicted: a sociopathic ehebophile grooming one of his students so that he can one day be wed to her and have sex with her, to the point where a child is concieved (and thank God for that, at the very least! Tohru deserves the world!). Watching it just made me feel all the more let down by how the character and subject of Katsuya had been handled in the series, and how there was never any paralleling between him and Shigure even when the similarities are so obvious, and the Freudian implications of Tohru staying at his house as a big part of her retreat from moving on from her mother's tragic passing. Really lean into showing Katsuya for the nuanced, well-mannered creeper with a filthy, damaged soul that he truly was and this might've been an easier pill to swallow. But alas, it wasn't.

#Anime Update V2 #Anime Update

[doomanddead]

Mantras: Become One with Drone Doom

One of the great things about being a small reviewer is that it’s actually possible for me to check out all the bands that follow me on Instagram. Every month I pay back the love by reviewing one. This month’s pick is Mantras. 

Mantras is a one-man drone doom outfit from Lower Saxony, Germany. The band’s debut album, Pillars of Creation, is a meditative odyssey. Every track feels like a deep dive into a single thought. The only vocals on the entire album are snippets of Alan Watts lectures. 

Watts considered himself a “philosophical entertainer”, interpreting Buddhist and Taoist ideas for a western audience. He worked at a radio station in Berkley, where his ideas gained a foothold in hippy counterculture. Watts lectured extensively in the 1960’s and 70’s, exploring ideas around meditation, the meaning of life, and the use of psychedelics to explore the metaphysical world. He felt that life was about enjoying a journey, not about rushing to a destination. This message still resonates with audiences today, particularly among workers who are sick of trading their prime years for a future that can only be enjoyed once their physical usefulness has been fully exhausted. 

Brahman begins as a moody instrumental. A haunting melody is plucked out over an expanding wall of fuzz. Layers of sound rise up and fall away. The intensity builds as the journey progresses. Greg Nowosad (the man behind the band) demonstrates masterful control of atmosphere and intensity. You’ll have goosebumps by the end of the track. Fans of NIN’s “Ghosts” series will enjoy this fragile beauty. 

Atman has a psychedelic echo, like listening to raindrops on acid. This experimental piece is alive and breathing— a living thing halfway between myth and reality. The sound evolves and builds to an intense drone, only to slide away with the ringing of a gong.

Pillars of Creation floats through a galaxy of fuzz. Instruments expand and undulate in space. A million tiny sounds vibrate together, forming the static of the universe. Guitars slide frictionlessly, like they’re coasting on starlight. A wave of noise envelops you, like a doom metal sound bath. 

Silent Pt. 1 opens with a clip of Alan Watts talking about meditation and the importance of shutting up. A drone forms under his voice, one note reverberating in the vast stillness. The instrumental becomes ominous, like standing in an open wasteland watching a distant storm roll in. The chaos builds steadily, as strata of sound are piled up. As we let go of our thoughts, the composition quiets down and spaces out. We rise above the desert into the night sky, drifting on fuzz through the starry abyss. Bass notes rumble out, and the sound of a gong threatens to shake apart the cosmos. A melody forms, drawn forth by ancient and infinite forces. This song is an epic journey of enlightenment— headphones recommended. 

Silent Pt. 2 solidifies from the lingering drone of its predecessor. A slow, rhythmic drumbeat spawns from a Paleozoic ocean of fuzz. Doubled notes form a melody in the mire. Another quote from Alan Watts is woven in here. He muses on the human tendency to confuse symbols with reality. A plodding doom rhythm trudges on in the background. By the time the quote has ended, the background sounds have swollen to the fore, and are now blaring like an alarm. It’s a poignant reminder to live in the moment, packaged as a doom metal meditation. 

Om shanti, motherfuckers. 🤘

Pillars Of Creation by Mantras

#atmospheric #atmospheric metal #drone doom #drone #doom metal #drone metal #experimental metal #meditation #mantras #pillars of creation #greg nowosad #germany