#this month on patreon I took suggestions on the theme of First Times | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

btsandvmin · 3 years

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BTSandVMIN update: On “Spring Day analysis”, making videos and creating a Patreon

There are a few things I would like to talk to you all about, and things I have been thinking about for a while. I thought it was time to give you all a bit of an update on the things I am doing, want to do and how I might have to do them.

Ok, so first of all, as you know I have been working on the Spring Day analysis for quite some time now. In fact I have been working on it for so long it has long since stopped being just about Spring Day. Rather than being about Spring Day and Vmin it has become a collection post where I go through many similarities in Vmin’s (in particular Taehyung’s) songs and discuss themes and topics with Spring Day simply as the main foundation of inspiration.

The text kept getting longer and currently it is around 24 000 words long + images (130+ pages in google docs). I honestly don’t think Tumblr will be able to handle it. I have been thinking about what to do with longer posts for a while, especially after the Vmin analysis - 4 o’clock which didn’t show up in the tag, loaded very slowly, took a long time to re-make in tumblr format and also didn’t get that many notes. You all know I have struggled and complained about longer posts here on tumblr many times. Thus I have wondered what to do if I want to keep making them in a way that works. In particular even longer pieces like this “Spring Day analysis” or my even longer “Big Vmin analysis”, which might be very difficult to make here on tumblr in a way that you can all read properly. (Several of you have even told me about your app crashing when trying to read some of my posts and honestly Tumblr just isn’t made for very longs posts with many images.)

After looking into it a bit I decided to make a Patreon just to try, and I could literally copypaste the whole post with images and all in just a few seconds. (WHY IS IT SO HARD TUMBLR?)

Another reason I finally decided to make a Patreon is so that I could create a small community space for me and you; a discord. Through Patreon you get access and I can talk to you guys more freely, and you can also simply use the discord as your own place to enjoy and discuss BTS and Vmin with other Vminies that join my Patreon. I thought this seemed like a fun idea since I can’t properly talk to you all in more conversational ways here (even less so since this is a side-blog), and by having it through Patreon it also limits the discussions from possible toxic outsiders. Basically a safe space away from the haters and antis.

There were also the reactions I got after making my first Vmin video. I talked about that a lot, in many posts:

A personal dilemma What kind of power to influence shippers into becoming delusional do I really have? I don’t know what to do… Making videos…

The concerns I got about me making Vmin videos made me question what to do, and if I should stop making analysis all together if people really worried about what it might lead to. I want to do more good than bad, for the community and for BTS. I am hoping having this space and the discord might make it feel easier for me to keep doing this more comfortably.

I also got some really really sweet messages from so many of you that honestly warmed my heart so much. I mean, there is little I can say to truly let you know what those messages mean to me. Just as one example:

Thank you, to every single one of you for not only sending me love but also understanding and respecting my worries. It means more to me than you will ever know. 💜

The thing is that I don’t want to stop. I still very much enjoy writing and gushing about Vmin, and I also really kind of want to try making videos. So back when this all happened a few of you suggested Patreon, as a way to limit who sees my videos. And after thinking about it I decided to make one, for several reasons.

It might help me to have longer analysis. It keeps away unwanted attention and hate. I can moderate more and have better control. We can talk with each other more freely. I can post things I feel a bit unsure about sharing to the general audience. I could do videos without worrying too much. (And it might also help me with an extra income?)

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t stop posting things here for free, but I think I will post longer posts and perhaps more “analysing” types of videos if I ever get to that point on Patreon. Likely I will post shorter versions that Tumblr can handle, or divide posts into parts here, but keep longer versions intact on Patreon. So the idea is not to stop doing things here but rather to add some other things and extra stuff on Patreon (basically some bonus material, maybe some behind the scenes, sneak peaks and polls).

Right now my Patreon only has one tier “I purple you”, but if things go well the plan is to create a second tier if I ever decide to make videos more frequently and perhaps add some bonus material like Q&A videos where you can ask questions and I talk about them. (I am not sure yet, I don’t even know if videos is something that people will like.)

I’ve set the price at 15 SEK, which is a bit less than 2 US dollars/month. I don’t know what I might do further ahead, but for now basically it will mostly be some bonus stuff, a way to read longer texts in full (because I will have to divide it into parts here on Tumblr) and a community platform (and of course also a way to support me).

I hope you will check it out and join me! I am especially excited about the discord and getting to talk to you all in a new more casual way!

https://www.patreon.com/btsandvmin

Right now I have the Spring Day analysis posted (I will post it here too, but I need to figure out how to divide it in parts in a good way.) and I also have 2 chapters of my Vmin fanfiction “The last color is our spring”. (Seriously, I suck at naming fics, it’s honestly one of the hardest parts.) Again, I do plan to post some updates, and basically “first edits” of posts or things I feel a bit unsure about talking about here (like more analytical videos), but for now mostly it’s a way to support me and join the discord so we can share our love for Vmin together. 💜

Also, even if you don’t join I will still appriciate you all and the love you give me here. Seriously, this is mostly meant for you, and only if you want it and like it will there be any point to have it. I feel it is worth giving it a try.

Become a Patron!

#btsandvmin #btsandvmin update #vmin analysis #this blog #my post

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winchest09 · 4 years

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The Bunker Party - Sept Debrief

Hey my darlings!

We promised you a bunker edition of our Bunker Party and man...we were not lying. We have SO much stuff to share with you, my little excited fingers cannot type fast enough.

September’s Bunker Party was just amazing. It was so lovely to see so many new faces! My cheeks still ache from the laughs and it was so lovely to see so many of you sharing your love for all things Supernatural. Seriously, SPN does have THEE best fandom and I’m so glad to be a part of it.

6 and a half hours we were hanging out for…SIX AND A HALF! To see so many beautiful faces, hear so many lovely voices and to spend time with new people was just a dream! The support from you guys for each other, the love in this fandom; I can’t express how much I adore it.

Me and @katehuntington love holding these events and we are already planning the next live stream (date to be announced) but it will be in October and my even hold a spooky theme...

So…to the debrief!

Below you will find:

Everyone who joined - their tags, what’s coming up fic wise and their masterlist.

Announcements, News and links to Patreons!

Challenges to join - we have five!

Blogs who want to help with your writing

Graphics and Icons

Fic & blog recs

So without further ado… *cracks fingers*

You are the guys that make it the live stream what it is, and we can never thank you enough. So below is a list of everyone who was on the chat yesterday accompanied by their masterlist and a little blurb of what they have coming up soon! For your reading pleasure and in no particular order…

@katehuntington: The new chapter of Ride with Me is out NOW and she is currently working on the next instalment. The Sullivan Series is now scheduled to be posted every FRIDAY and if she can, she’s posting twice a week! So keep your eyes peeled for that and she is going to be finishing All I Want soon too!

She is also hosting a challenge that you can find out about below!

Her masterlist can be found HERE

@talesmaniac89: This beaut has been working a lot on editing images lately, making aesthetics and dividers for everyone to use! More on that further down. Besides that, she has a new chapter of The Man in Apartment 43 coming out. The next chapter of Missing in Action as well as the next one of Lost.

She also is working on another two AU series that are top secret at the moment...watch this space ;)

Check her out guys, her masterlist is HERE

@waywardbeanie: Shelli has come so far in the matter of a few months. From being a reader to now a series writer! This absolute gem of a woman is working on her very first fanfiction called “A Man Of Letters” and it’s an absolute DIAMOND. Dean. Letters. Fluff. Smut. It’s gonna tick all them boxes and it’s a must read!

She is now ALSO working on her second series, Life on Tour, an RPF Jensen x reader going live on October 1st! Find the announcement and her AMAZING tour video...HERE

Call my a fangirl, cause I am THERE.

You can find her masterlist HERE

@smol-and-grumpy: Nat has such a juicy masterlist. She is a few chapters away from finishing Euphoria and has already announced her next series Golden Cage!

She is also hosting a challenge at the moment that you can find out about below.

You can find her masterlist HERE

@atc74: We were thrilled to see Ang on our livestream. She has just celebrated four years on tumblr and she has such an extensive masterlist of goodies!

As you may have seen, she’s currently rewriting Souls to Souls as well as a new idea that she’s cooking up. Watch this space!

She is also hosting a challenge at the moment that you can find out about below.

Her masterlist can be found HERE

@whatareyousearchingfordean: Alex is nailing it at the moment with her fictions. She’s currently posting Happiness Continued (the sequel to Happiness Begins) and she’s posted some delicious new oneshots since we last saw her. She also has other idea’s that she is working on so keep your eye on her blog if you’re not already ;)

Her masterlist can be found HERE

@flamencodiva: Vanessa is currently reposting her works back onto a new blog that she has created. She is posting Getting Back to You at the moment, as well as some of her old oneshots. I also know, thanks to some little birds, that she has some AMAZING new series just waiting to see the light of tumblr...you’re not gonna be disappointed.

Check out her masterlist HERE

@superfanficnatural: Mert has took some time away from the writing world but nothing could keep him from showing his fantastic self on our livestream. He’s slowly getting back into his writing thanks to much encouragement ;) and is chipping away at the next add for his series The Choice.

He has some other series in the works, a couple of collaborations that he’s got under his belt too...

We’re living for it!

Go and give him some love, his masterlist can be found HERE

@deanwanddamons: Sian is an absolute sweetheart and is working on a few things at the moment. She recently completed her reblog challenge for August where you can find a DELIGHTFUL masterlist HERE.

Aside from that, she’s got three WIPS and I know of some oneshots AND a new series she’s cooking up. OH, I am excited!

Her masterlist can be found HERE

@jensengirl83: Brandy is an absolute doll and we adore her. She is still relatively new to SPN fanfic but that doesn’t stop her from dominating it! She has over twenty oneshots under her belt already!

Not ONLY that, she is now over twenty chapters deep into her FIRST SPN Dean fanfiction, Regret and Redemption. Although, only seven chapters have graced your dashboard ;)

She has more up her southern sleeve though so watch this space!

You can find her masterlist HERE

@malfoysqueen14: Angel is still new to the supernatural fandom but that doesn’t stop her putting her hand to fanfic and being the sweetheart that she is!

Her first fic, White Flag, is being reworked into a reader insert and she is also working on another Dean x reader series. Beginning of the End!

She also writes for other fandoms.

You can find her masterlist HERE

@soaringeag1e: We adore Meg and her extensive list of spn fanfiction! There is so much for you to feast your eyeballs on.

She is currently working on her series Escape and we have been treated to hearing about her new series, Behind Closed Doors.

It’ll be an AU. There will be crossed universes and it has a twist that’s super juicy. Get yourself signed up if you’re not already!

You can find her masterlist HERE

@alleiradayne: Jeanna is such a sweetheart and we absolutely adored having her on our livestream! As we mentioned last time, she had been commissioned to write a SPN fanfic piece for a charity auction (details below) and she told us all about it on the stream!

If you like destiel, she is writing a Destiel fanfiction called Long Jacket which has a take that we’ve not heard of before.

She is also writing a new series which is going to be quote long apparently! Like 60 chapters! But we are SO there for it.

You can find her masterlist HERE:

@emoryhemsworth: This beaut has broken her lil hiatus and posted the sequel to Because of You. Piece by Piece is amazing and if you haven’t read it yet, i suggest you check it out. She’s also writing her first chapter of her series called “Losing Sleep” as well as a TWD crossover fic!

She also has got ideas for a sequel to her fic Wonder Woman and a oneshot based on “Raining on Sunday” by Keith Urban.

Check our her masterlist HERE:

@manawhaat: This babe joined us once again and we loved having her, even if it wasn’t for long. Below you can find her humongous masterlist of goodies for your reading pleasure.

You can find her masterlist HERE

@anathewierdo: Ana is such a darling and we always love having her on the streams. She’s currently reposting her fic Call of the Ocean which is a collaboration with Flamencodiva. Not only that, she’s also working on a Princess Diaries AU, a Serial Killer AU and many more!

You can find her masterlist HERE

@deanmonandnegansbitch: Yas was new to our stream this time around and we ADORED having her. She has quite a bit on her masterlist already and she is currently working on her current series, Tuyo!

Check it out and give her some love.

You can find her masterlist HERE

@impala-1979: Lauren was another newbie for our stream this time and again, we loved having her on here! At the moment, she has a Sam series in the works which is an Insane Asylum!AU as well as an RPF called Nymphomania.

She is also in the middle of a pornstar A/B/O AU with JDM!

She also has many, many more goodies on offer!

You can find her masterlist HERE

@defenderrosetyler: Ali was new to our stream and we were so glad she chose to spend some time with us. She currently has a couple of oneshots available on her masterlist for both Sam and Dean!

Judging from some of our topics of conversation last night, she also has some amazing idea’s coming your way soon. Definitely one to keep an eye out for! She’s a total sweetheart too!

You can find her masterlist HERE

@thinkinghardhardlythinking: Saira was also new this time to our stream and we were so excited to meet her. She’s a new writer and is new to tumblr but she’s already written a couple of pieces to share with everyone!

She’s such a sweetheart. She’s wrote two oneshots to cheer up the fans who are struggling with the show ending...you can find the Dean one HERE and the Sam oneshot HERE.

Also, upon hearing that a fellow member of the SPN fandom was in hospital, she wrote this piece HERE.

Please show her some love and support <3

@that-one-gay-girl: This was the first time we met Sydney and she’s such a lovely person. We’re so grateful she joined us and talked to us about all things Supernatural. She’s a fairly new writer and has yet to create a masterlist but that hasn’t stopped her from writing her series “Gone”

It’s dean x reader and definitely one to keep your eye on!

You can find Chapter One HERE

Me: The latest chapter of Life for Rent is out NOW and I’m currently working on the next one, which i’m half way through. Only four more before that series is completed. I’m also working on Man’s Best Friend as well as a brand NEW series which will be posted once one series is finished. I also have a couple of Dean oneshots I’m working on right now.

My masterlist can be found HERE:

To the upcoming writers & readers…

@leissa1287, @winchesterxfamilybusiness, @dawnie1988, @jules-1999, @adoptdontshoppets, @gothicwombat42 & the few nonnies we had!

We were treated to hear about some of your upcoming plans for fictions.

Dawnie: Signing up for Sabrina’s challenge and taking that leap to write. If you need us, you know where we are for idea bouncing and everything else.

Sabrina: Again, we’re here for you hun. Your series idea sounds wonderful and if you need help, you know where we are.

Jules: Same goes for you hun, your series idea is one we’ve not heard of before and we were all hooked once you explained it. Reach out if you need us, we’ll do whatever we can to help.

Also, to upcoming writers and readers, we want to thank you for your constant support, your feedback, your words, your reactions to what we write. Your likes, your reblogs, your asks. We appreciate every single thing you do. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We love you.

Also, remember guys - we’re all here to love and support you! My inbox is always open if you want to talk about anything and everything. Even if you wish to start writing…give any of us a shout. We’re here to help!

Thank you for joining the chat and we hope you had an amazing time <3

Please spread the love and show your support to all of these amazing people, go follow and give them some love!

We’ve got quite a few goodies this time!

We want to bring to everyone’s attention once again, the wonderful organisation that is Ficfasers, an international fundraising group of authors and artists who love Supernatural. They offer thank yous to people who agree to donate to Random Acts by creating stories/art, crafts, and more for winning bidders and ticket buyers!

Again, this is amazing and it’s something that so many of us can get involved in. We’ve been told an event is coming up around the holiday period so watch this space!

Want to write for Charity?

Check out their tumblr HERE

and their website HERE

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Follower achievements!

Join me in congratulating these amazing blogs as they have surpassed or are close to a follower milestone!

First of all, we have two Blogiversary’s!

@smol-and-grumpy has just celebrated an anniversary on tumblr, you may have entered her challenge, check her out if you haven’t already!

@atc74 is celebrating FOUR years on tumblr! How amazing is that?! If you’re not following, check her out!

Next up...

@atc74 has hit 4500 followers! @waywardbeanie has just passed 250 followers!

@whatareyousearchingfordean has hit 1300!

@superfanficnatural has passed 600 followers!

@malfoysqueen14 has passed 200!

@janicho88 has passed her first 100!

@soaringeag1e has passed 6000 followers!

@jensengirl83 has hit 550 and is now on her way to 600!

Congratulations guys!

If you’re not following them already, head on over and show them your support!

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Want to be the first to read new chapters of your favourite fics?

Some of our fabulous livestream participants have Patreon!

For a small fee a month, you get personalised drabbles, oneshots and MORE as well as first dibs on new chapters before ANYONE else! Please consider giving them your support.

The links for each authors Patreon is below:

@smol-and-grumpy - Find hers HERE

@flamencodiva - Find hers HERE

@soaringeag1e - Find hers HERE

@impala-1979 - Find hers HERE

Oh, IT’S CHALLENGE TIME. This month, we have FIVE challenges for you to get involved in!

First of all, we have our FIRST Christmas themed challenge! Yes, the holiday season is fast approaching so to celebrate 100 followers @janicho88 is hosting a Christmas Song challenge!

Check it out, HERE

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Secondly, we have @smol-and-grumpy‘s SUPERFRIENDS Title Challenge! She loves Friends, she loves Supernatural so why not combine both? Nat has given you fic titles inspired by both SPN and Friends - you just write the one shot that goes with it!

The One Where You Enter The Challenge...HERE

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Thirdly, we have @katehuntington‘s Going Dutch challenge. Aside from horses and writing, her other passion is music! So she’s gathered Dutch Artists and all you need to do is write a fic/request a fic tied with a song! This is open till February so you have plenty of time.

Check it out, HERE

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Fourthly, we have @atc74‘s blog celebratory challenge which is so unique and wonderful for you guys!

You can win a chance to collab with seasoned writers, included Ang herself and all you have to do, is to enter and write your fic! There are 30 prompts available, write your oneshot to a prompt which will then be judged by impartial judges.

3 - 5 readers will win a chapter in the collaboration series!

Runners up will win a beta to a oneshot.

Take a look and enter the challenge, HERE

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Last, but certainly not least, we have @winchesterxfamilybusiness‘s Make Me Swoon Challenge!

It’s exactly what it says on the tin, make Sabrina swoon! She has listed what she likes paired with a long list of prompts for you to choose from. There is still spots open.

Check it out, HERE

We’ve got you covered for numerous things if you need help with your fictions!

Need a graphic? Header, banner, divider?

Our gorgeous @talesmaniac89 is available to create whatever you would like! She’s the creator behind our banners for this post and numerous other masterlist across the board. Give her a message!

WWII and horse Knowledge?

@katehuntington is your girl! She’s a little history buff and as you will know, thanks to Ride with Me, she ADORES her horses. Give her a message, she’ll be happy to help!

Struggling with some smut?

@superfanficnatural has offered his services to be the person you can go to if you need to hash out certain words, feelings and perspective. He is the perfect person to give you an insight to the male POV when it comes to sex so if you’re writing Destiel or a chapter from the guys POV, Mert is there to help!

Need help finding that one gif?

@emoryhemsworth is your go to girl! Seriously, you tell her you want a gif of Dean in a specific place, wearing a certain outfit, she will find it for you in no time at all. She’s a diamond as she’ll also credit the creators!

Struggling to find that one word? Or even a title?

@atc74 is your guru! She is perfect for getting you unstuck and if you’re struggling with a title, she can also help on this front! I always struggle with a title, and a summary so I know i’ll definitely be hitting Ang up if i get stuck!

Theme? Plotting? Symbolism? Dialogue?

@alleiradayne is your babe! She has a passion for writing, for plot and for making fictions be like no other. She loves dialogue, and from what i’ve heard, she loves a good twist too! I know she’ll be there to support you so send her a message if you need help!

Lost a fic? Need help to find it again?

@spnfic-search-blog is the blog to go too! Send an ask and they will dedicate their time to try and find it for you!

Need a new aesthetic? Line divider? We got you! Our fabulously talented @talesmaniac89 has drawn up so MANY supernatural themed line breakers, headers and more for your free usage!

Just look at some of these!

She has a few posts full already!

We’re talking dividers, headers, banners, gifs and icons!

Check them out HERE!

Give them a like, a reblog and please THANK HER if you use her work. She’s the most kind hearted, loving soul and a few words go a long way <3

Blog Recs!

@just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms: Ana is an amazingly talented writer and has always been willing to listen when others need an ear. She’s extremely supportive, has an extensive masterlist and is a mental health warrior! Since she hasn't been around for a couple years, she will have "fresh content" for new readers looking for good fics.

@spnfic-search-blog: As mentioned before, this is the blog to follow and go to if you’re in need of a certain fic. It’s also a good place to find new ones and share the love!

@heloisedaphnebrightmore: She doesn’t fear stepping out of spn tropes and it is something that she does so well. There isn’t much on her masterlist but we love every piece of it.

@fictionalabyss: This blog was mentioned on our livestream yesterday as they have an array of Supernatural fanfiction! Take a look at her masterlist and see for yourself! Be warned, you’ll be there for ages as she has that much stuff!

Fic Recs!

I Hurt Too by @jawritter

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: (Request) I have seen loads of fics and one shots where Dean is sleeping around/having a one night stand and the reader gets jealous and upset, but I was wondering if I could request one with the other way around? or maybe one where they sleep around equally? as smutty, fluffy, or angst as you want!!

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Missing Pieces by @supernatural-fangirl1967

Pairing: Nurse!Deanx Reader

Summary: (Request) Could you maybe do some nurse Dean with some angsty hurt/comfort with a fluffy ending?

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Upon a hill by @roonyxx

Pairing: Teen!Dean x Plus!sized Reader

Summary: What happens when the new hot guy, Dean Winchester, show interest in you?

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Twenty Minutes by @chocolateheart

Pairing: Professor!Dean x Reader

Summary: Online school sucks but your professor is worth the torture.

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Stranger by @msmarvelouswinchester

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Not all decisions a person takes proves to be alright. Some have grave consequences. Dean had taken a decision at the heat of the moment which he thought would prove to be alright, but what happens when he has to bear the brunt of his stupid decision?

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Love in Sin by @msmarvelouswinchester

Pairing: AU Detective!Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Special Agent Winchester is forced to go undercover with his frenemy Special Agent L/N when they try to track down a notorious drug dealer. How will Y/N and Dean complete their task? Will their relationship worsen or will new feelings emerge between them?

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When the lights go out by @jawritter

Pairing: Mobster!Dean Winchester x Virgin! Reader

Summary: Life hasn’t been your best friend lately, you lost your job, and are on the verge of losing your apartment. Who knew when you decided to join a Sugar Daddy app that your best friend suggested in a last-ditch effort to save your apartment, and not end up on the street, your first and only client would turn your whole world upside down.

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Tic Tac Toe by @percywinchester27

Pairing: Sam X Reader

Summary: The reader shifts into a new city after being offered a dream job by a big firm. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect after an ugly break-up with a douche-bag Ex. But things turn out not as dreamy as she’d want them to be and the only thing that keeps her smiling is a totally coincidental game of Tic Tac Toe.

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The Queens Court by @waywardnerd67

Pairing: Dean x Reader / Sam x Reader / Castiel x Reader

Summary: She met them under unusual circumstances and offered them the only thing she could. Building relationships with three men was nothing new but then again they were no ordinary men. (Y/N) finds herself at a crossroads between the safety of her business and her heart. Will she be able to keep the life she has built for herself or leap into the unknown following her heart’s true desire.

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Stroke of luck by @percywinchester27

Pairing: Dean X Reader

Summary: Dark highway, middle of the night, a bad boy driving an Impala, and a Damsel in distress. Too cliche? Think again.

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A lot like us by @percywinchester27

Pairing: Lawyer!Professor!Sam X Reader AU

Summary: Y/N Y/L/N is eager and honestly, still in awe that she managed to get herself an acceptance from Stanford Law School. On the face of it, her life seems as put together, mysterious and independent as one might hope for. On the insides, she carries the burden of past that haunts her till date. Seemingly, she’d left it all behind; that is until she sets foot in the class of the Law School’s youngest, most promising professor.

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About a boy by @percywinchester27

Pairing: N/A

Summary: Dean Winchester has a secret. A secret that could really land him in trouble. He never expected to connect with anyone when he walked into the ‘Blue Stone Orphanage for Boys,’ but even then, the walls he had put up are slowly coming down. Now, a series of strange events are threatening to expose him. When everything starts falling apart around him, will he still be able to save the one person that matters the most?

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Erós by @our-jensen-ackles-love

Pairing: Professor!Dean x Reader

Summary: An accidental text to your Professor got you into this mess. Now you just had to decide if you wanted to stick along for the ride or go on pretending like it never happened. But why does he have to look at you like that?

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Diamonds & Shutters by @jayankles

Pairing: Jensen x reader

Summary: College!AU. Jensen is a baseball player and (Y/N) is a photographer, they are best friends and roommates until someone in Jensen’s life leaves him disconsolate and anguished but (Y/N)’s secret stops her from immediately mending Jensen’s broken heart.

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Out of the park by @iwantthedean

Pairing: Jensen x reader

Summary: Can you take a chance and make a lifetime dream come true? Can Jensen stop fighting against the path his life is taking? Will leaning on each other lead to relationship neither of you wanted or planned on?

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Bad Days by @peridottea91

Pairing: DeanxUnnamed!female, Sam mentioned

Summary: Sam and Dean return from a hunt gone wrong. Sometimes it’s okay to let someone see you hurt.

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Coming Home by @soaringeag1e

Pairing: Jensen x Reader

Summary: (Request) Hiya, I’m in love with your blog, and if you are taking requests I was wondering if you could do a Jensen X reader where reader is Jareds big sister but also in the military and surprises the boys at a con

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If it was to work by @deangirl93

Pairing: Dean X Reader

Summary: Dean gave Sam some great advice. Sam just wishes he’d take his own advice sometimes.They had a lot on their plate with their Chuck situation, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take on an old-fashion, black and white case. That also doesn’t mean they can’t go out and celebrate a job well done afterwards.Walking into that bar and seeing you was the last thing Dean thought was going to happen.Maybe Sam’s right. Maybe he should listen to his own advice.

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Cabin Fever by @slytherkins

Pairing: Dean x OFC

Summary: After a hunting accident takes Dean out of the hunting game for good, he retires to a cottage in the woods with his one true love, but it’s not exactly a fairy tale ending. Pain and disability chip away at his Happily Ever After–and his sanity. After he fails to protect Chloe from a monster out of the woods, Dean falls prey to the monsters in his own head, and she and Sam must come to his rescue.

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Coming of Age by @poisongirl18

Pairing: Dean X Stripper!Reader

Summary: You, Bobby Singer’s daughter, met the Winchester boys at age 8. They always adored you and treated you like the baby sister they always wanted, but you always wanted more from the oldest Winchester brother. Now that you were of age, you thought now was the time to take what you wanted.

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Let Me Go To The Show by @poisongirl18

Pairing: Step-Dad!Dean X Reader

Summary: The reader wants nothing more than to see her favorite band, but her mother won’t let her go. What happens when Dean steps in and persuades the reader’s mother into letting you go. What do you have to give in return?

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Trust you with my heart by @deanwinchesterswitch

Pairing: Dean x Fem!Reader insert

Summary: Can Y/N finally let go of the past and entrust her heart to Dean?

Other fandom Recs!

Red Queen Chronicles by @crashdevlin

Pairing: Phil Coulson x OFC (Past), Loki x OFC (Non-con), Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC

Summary: Cassie Campbell is Red Skull’s daughter, created in a lab. She’s also a Stark Tech lab assistance, a college student, a superhuman, an Avenger and a devout Christian. That’s enough to juggle, even without the ever-looming influence of Loki’s dark interest in her.

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I think that’s it!

Thank you so much once again to everyone who joined the chat, we had 6 and a half hours of laughs and i cannot wait to do it again. I’d appreciate it if you could share this to spread the love of the fics and authors on here!

Keep an eye out for the next date for our next livestream! It will be in October. If you guys have any idea’s or want something included, let us know. If you want to be tagged when we announce, let us know!

See you next time!

xox

#thebunkerparty #spnfamily #dean winchester fanfic #sam winchester fanfic #dean winchester x reader #sam winchester x reader #rec post #share the love #share the creators #spn love

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yszarin · 3 years

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seen people on twitter talking about what got them through 2020, but twitter scary so I’m just gonna ramble about podcasts here. I’ve loved audio fiction since I was little, when my brother used to bring me big finish doctor who to listen to when I was sick, and they’ve really been great for me this year in terms of... want story but too tired to keep eyes open? podcast. need to do a mundane task but can’t stay on it? podcast. need something on before you sleep because if you leave your brain to its own devices it’ll eat itself? podcast. looking for queer rep? podcast. below the cut I’ve stuck 10 of my favourites of the shows I started listening to this year, and I promise they’re not all from Definitely Human.

Down - fiction, horror - a state of the art submarine with a less than state of the art crew descends into a newly-discovered Antarctic trench, “The Bottomless Pit” for the purposes of exploration and science! This goes about as well as you would expect. Episodes are super short and it’s entirely possible to listen to the whole thing in less than a day, although unfortunately it’s currently unfinished due to covid, so I guess it’s more that in less than a day you, too, could join me in unintentional hiatus hell. It is worth it.

Enthusigasm - nonfiction, talk - Rusty Quill patreon exclusive show in which Helen Gould talks to people about things they enjoy. It just has the loveliest energy, and is exactly what I’ve needed this year. They’ve done episodes on subjects including baking, the horror genre and trash tv, and every one of them has been a joy, even when it’s about stuff I’m not into personally. How RQ manages to consistently produce The Best Content I don’t know, but by god do they do it.

Everything is Alive - interview - Gemma Amor recommended this and she’s usually right about such things. It’s a series of interviews with inanimate objects, all of which are animate now and have things to say. I’m particularly fond of the gay subway seats and was emotionally distraught by the cuddly toy. Very good to listen to to fall asleep.

Marscorp - fiction, sci-fi comedy - Station Supervisor E. L. Hob is awoken from suspended animation on Mars and must do her best to restore the colony’s original purpose of terraforming the planet. If you teased Jonny Sims for naming his main character after himself and also playing him please get ready to forgive him for everything, as you meet Tom Dalling, David Knight, and Dave Price, played by Tom Dalling, David Knight, and David Price, and written by Tom Dalling, David Knight, and David Price. I’m furious.

Pax Fortuna! - actual play, adventure - a rotating group of characters leaves a horrified and occasionally maimed trail of NPCs behind them as they adventure in and around the prosperous island city of Fortuna. The shifting cast works really well, allowing for some PCs who are just objectively terribly people, while keeping the whole thing feeling really fun. Particular favourite PCs are Selwyn Bloodstorm, half-orc in search of gold accidentally ending up with friends, Alfonso Boyo, a necromancer but only in the most bureaucratic and horrifying way possible, and Almira Q Appleby, gnome inventor presenting such items as The Potato Peeler (may contain combat setting) to an unsuspecting public. The series comprises six interconnected smaller stories, each with multiple episodes, all of which are around 25-30 minutes long, which has been a particular joy for me, as someone who has difficulty with episode lengths of over an hour and is so often “I love AP podcasts. love to actually listen to one someday”. Pax Fortuna! is the caramelised nut bowl of actual plays, in that I found it very difficult to stop consuming it, now it’s all gone, and I’m sad. There are only two fics on AO3. Please listen to Pax Fortuna!.

Shadows at the Door - anthology, horror - A collection of quiet horror stories, mixing older tales, both classic and less well-known, and modern ones. The soundtrack is by Nico, one of the editors on TMA and Good Egg, and it turns out, also Skilled Egg at soundtracks. Each story is followed-up by a discussion of its themes, and some tangents. Also very nice to fall asleep to, lots of suggestions of new things to look for, and the stories themselves are well-dramatised.

The Monster Hunters - fiction, comedy - It took me a bit of time to settle into this - I have a tendency to bounce off comedy, apparently - but once I had I was very settled. Roy Steel and Lorrimer Chesterfield are there with fists and brains respectively to hunt monsters and be anything from vaguely to pointedly sexist because it’s the 60s/70s (it is intentional and ludicrous). If you’re familiar with John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme, you can listen out for Simon Kane as Sir Maxwell House. Some nice spooks, especially in the Christmas specials.

The Amelia Project - fiction, comedy - Need to disappear? The Amelia Project will help you fake your death and reappear in a new life. Each episode takes the form of an interview with a new client, in which they tell their story, and the circumstances of their death and next life will be decided. The creators had a stall at PodUK and gave me some Malteasers which it took me approximately 10 months to eat because I didn’t feel like I’d listened to enough of their show to deserve them. Fun fact! There are plenty of chocolate foodstuffs that will take this length of time in their stride and still be as new when you eat them, but Malteasers are not one of them. Luckily finishing off S2 of The Amelia Project has been its own reward, and I still have plenty to go!

The Infinite Bad - actual play, horror - a slowly-forming found family leaves a traumatised and usually dead trail of NPCs behind them despite their best efforts, as they are embroiled in a globe-spanning investigation of horror and mystery. Uses a modified version of the d20 modern system, set in the inter-war period, and, it should be noted, contains depictions of period-typical racism. Other CWs (this list is not exhaustive) include child death, pet death, gore, disease, misc death (so much misc death), so please be careful if you choose to listen. Also contains stairs, the inherent malevolence of citrus products, and things which are viscous.

These Flimsy Rituals - actual play, fantasy - I’m not very far into this one, due to episode lengths, but when I have the spell slots to do so I always enjoy listening to it. I’m in the first bit, which follows a group of people fleeing a living storm. They have some really lovely lyrical bits at the starts of the episodes that I could listen to for hours, I’ve found those of the characters that I’ve met very engaging, and I’m interested to see how it unfolds.

#duck listens to podcasts #I'm sure all of these are already on reclists #from people who are far cooler than I am #and are far better at telling you things are good #but #ALL OF THESE ARE GOOD #also pls rec me things #no thoughts only podcasts

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elliemehl · 4 years

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ellie vs September events 2.0

So first of all I’m sorry ok it took me so long to write this post, you all watched me procrastinate but also respectfully stared at said procrastination fruits in the past few days, but now it’s time to let you know how and when my askbox will reopen for requests!

Yes, you’ve read it right: there will be two openings for different events!

There will be a Vampire AU themed opening, and the surprise event is... Flufftember!

ASKBOX IS NOT OPEN NOW

Flufftember pairs doodles

Send me a ship, or a character to selfship/pair with an OC*.

Choose a pose from one of the reference sheets** available here (example: Fluff 3 sheet, top right pose)

The One Piece characters available to request are listed here, please do not request characters that are not on that list.

10 spots are available for this one, BUT! 3 Spots are reserved for the summer event peeps on hold, so 7 spots are left!

Askbox opens on Thursday 27 at 8PM CET for this event.

One Piece Vampire AU

I’m gonna be taking suggestions for turning One Piece characters into... vampires!

The characters available to request are listed here, this is NOT the same list as the Flufftember event, so for this event only request characters from the list I just linked.

Pick 3 characters from the list and write them in order of preference ❤️

If you want the character to have a Modern or a Classic vampire look, specify it or I’ll choose myself 🤭

10 spots for suggestions are available!

Askbox opens on Friday 28 at 7pm CET for this event.

I know the rules are a bit strict this time, but as usual if you have any question, drop me an ask/pm/comment!

~ Shawk anon and @quirkyseastone both have a spot reservation and they can choose to claim or not their spot and for which event, starting from now!

*for easy requesting, just specify if it’s a selfship or an OC and you can send me the details at a second time.

**Reference sheets are not mine but made by the amazing artist Kibbitzer who creates exclusive reference sheets on their Patreon, these are all samples they made available to preview the reference packs each month, I will also leave the links to their Store in which they also sell reference books, and Deviantart gallery!

#the second time is the good one #post is up again!

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steve-rogers-new-york · 4 years

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August

Warmest greeting my sweet, soft snickerdoodles <3

Last Month — July

What a shock! Last month I got up-to-date on all my physical perks, posted all my scheduled posts, and made great headway on one of my long-term, major-massive-huge projects for the blog. So progress. So success. So respectable adult! It was so cool to post two posts I had been looking forward to: The US flag one and the Dip Pen’s post :D I hope you guys enjoyed them! I also revived our old love: Recipe Wednesday! I’ll try my best to keep them up.

The aforementioned mega-huge-totally-all-the-work project is an extensive list of period accurate slang terms. If you’ve been with me a while you may know I have a gorgeous 720-page dictionary of slang (”The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English”) that is a beloved fixture of my small SRNY-related bookshelf. I have been, for a while, going through and compiling a list of terms that are historically-accurate language that would relate to both our boys, as well as Steve’s mother, Peggy, and the other Commandos. It really is a long-term project, and I am only just finishing up the C’s, but when I’m done, I’ll have the full list available to everyone for fic (and other) reference, as well as a series of themed posts!

Aside from posts, I have been trying to be more sociable. I’ve been semi-active on the Put on the Suit Stony Discord server, so if you see me (Owlish Fun) over there say hi <3 I’ve really enjoyed chatting with peeps over there about fic and cannon, and you know, whatever. And obv, I’m still loving the SRNY Discord, we’ve getting some new members recently and we’ve been having some great research-related chats!

Upcoming Posts — August+

August is a little behind on the post due to some health issues I’ve been having the last couple of week (see later in this post), so I might not get as much up this month as I would like :( I alway have a number of projects on the go, so below are some you can expect to see in the next month or so:

Asthma Cigarettes — Part of Patreon Ephemera Club Perk

Art Deco (art, furniture, architecture etc — on special request)

More Recipe Wednesday!

Coney Island’s Thunderbolt — Part of Patreon Ephemera Club Perk (late)

More 1920s-1940s slang

August Ephemera Club Perks (Patreon)

This month’s perk theme is medications, and will include...

ONE box for "Dr. Guild's Green Mountain Asthmatic Cigarettes" and TWO matchbooks featuring advertisements for medicines available during this time period! I was so excited when I found these boxes, and I’m really excited to share them with your guys! They have all the directions and commentary for the products, as well as price. I still have two more sets of these items for new subscribers in August, so if you would like to receive your own and support the blog, you can join the Ephemera Club tier over on the Patreon!

What’s Up with Me

So, as you may already know from my earlier post, I’ve been dealing with a rather persistent ear infection this past couple of weeks. Not only is it really painful and annoying, it also makes is nearly impossible to focus properly. As such, I’ve pretty much been unable to work on the blog for more than short bursts, and I’ve not written anything new in a while. I’m trying to be productive despite this, doing some clean-up of existing research notes and minor additions. Mostly, I’ve been working on the aforementioned vocab list of slang-terms from my dictionary. It’s just absent minded enough I can do it without too much trouble. I’ve actually made great progress actually, finishing the B’s and soon the C’s! I’m new about 1/4 the way through the dictionary! Very excite.

So yeah, I’m still under the weather. Most of the stronger pain is going thanks to a course of antibiotics, bit I’ve still only got about 20% hearing in that ear, near-constant ringing, regular discomfort and with occasional stabbing pain, and just generally feeling off thanks to having a problem ear. I guess the good news is that two doctors have said their pretty confident I don’t have COVID, so joy? It’s not fun guys — 0/10, would not recommend.

Beyond all that, I also moved at the beginning of this month, and how is that not the biggest news I have?? Dang health. I actually just moved (quite literally) around the corner from my other place, so with the help of my old housemate the move was quick and easy. The house is lovely, my new human housemate is great, and my new feline housemates are good company, if crafty and mischievous. Only downside is that I am allergic to cats xD Not extremely, but i get all-day sniffles if I don’t take antihistamine daily. Totally worth it.

August is a bit of hurry-up-and-wait. I start my Masters programme next months, and nearly everything is sorted by this point. I was lucky enough to be in a small programme so I got into all my first choice courses (enrolment was at 6am on the the day I moved, such fun!). This week I’ve been giving my credit card a work-out getting supplies so I’m ready for courses, including notebooks and other stationery products. I’m pretty picky about notebooks, so it took a month to finally settle on which ones I wanted to get. I might be mad.

I guess the last life note to make is the fun mid-point I’m occupying between intentional deluded calm and constant panic over my finances. I’ve been luck enough to live in a country that is providing financial support for those effected by COVID, so I have been receiving financial aid from the Canadian government since March. However, it’s going to be coming to an end soon, and with me starting a Masters degree in Sept, and my job still not really existing because of the pandemic (I work in tourism), it’s unclear what I’m doing for money come October. I have a line-of-credit set up to cover rent/food should it come down to it, if I cannot get any government assistance and my job continues to be unable to get my work. But that will just add to future Me’s debt coming out of my Masters, and a course I’m trying to avoid. I wasn’t able to get any scholarships this year, which was a huge let-down, as I had the academic clout that should have made me a shoe-in. While it is weighing on me, there is only so much I can do about it, so I’m keeping positive and know I have the worst-case safety-net of credit if it comes to it. In the meantime, I’m working on framing some vintage prints and comic book covers to offer on Etsy — something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but kept putting off. They’ll be items at a higher sell price and hopefully will bring in a little more income from the store. I’m also looking for suggestions on what other things people would like to get out of the Patreon, things that might make it more appealing for new and existing Patrons. I have recently added a Patrons-Only perk of a Masterlist of and access to my full research notes for existing and un-finished blog topics.

Ugh, this personal section won’t be this long in future, It’s just been a very eventful month so far. Love you guys, D.

[ Support SRNY through Patreon and Ko-Fi ] And join us on Discord for fun conversation! I also have an Etsy with upcycled nerdy crafts

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monstersandmaw · 4 years

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Hello folks! Welcome to June! And on the very first day of the month, I bring you this offering. You said in a poll that you were interested in the vampire WIP, so here it is. Although it says WIP, each part has been extensively edited. The story as a whole is a work in progress though, and some elements may change as it develops, although it's all mapped out and I know where it's going. It's written up to Chapter Six, and is sitting at a total of 23,000 words, so it's not going to be a small project! You said you wanted more multi-chapters, so here it is! (I won't neglect the other ones though, I promise! Winter Solstice's next chapter is also ready to go, and is in the posting queue too!)

Now, this one is set in Skyrim - but wait! Don't stop reading now if you're not a Skyrim person!!! It's not following the events of the game, and only features a few characters from the vampire-themed DLC, Dawnguard. You don't need to know about Skyrim to enjoy it, I hope.

It centres on Kjartan, a pureblood vampire (rare) who has lived a cloistered life at the dour Castle Volkihar, located on a remote island in the northern sea of Skryim. His father, Lord Harkon, is a sadistic and obsessive vampire lord, who until just before the start of this story, had been hell-bent on bringing an ancient prophecy to pass that would darken the sun, and therefore increase his vampiric powers. In the game, I think he wants to wipe out the sun entirely, which is stupid because the humans couldn't grow crops, and the vampires would also starve without humans. I removed that element from this story becaues it's dumb af. Without spoiling what's to come, Kjartan was not treated well at the castle, and after his much older sister, Serana, returned to stop Lord Harkon's dumb plan (accompanied by the dragonborn and the anti-vampire faction, the Dawnguard), he left with her to travel Skyrim and learn how to stand on his own two feet a bit better.

Serana took him to various locations in the north of Skyrim, and discovered that he has some magical talents other than his innate vampire abilities, though he's not particularly strong. She suggested he go to the College of Winterhold, an ancient bastion of learning and scholarship, as much to socialise him as to teach him to use his magic, while she continued south to keep working with the Dawnguard.

It is at this point that we pick up Kjartan's story. I am aware that not everyone will be familiar with the lore of Skyrim, so I have tried to weave it into the worldbuilding side of the story without infodumping on you, or making you have to look stuff up.

I really hope you enjoy it - this one has come to be a real favourite of mine, with socially awkward, emotionally repressed Kjartan, and outgoing and outspoken Nora, his first friend at the college...

Any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments or on Tumblr or Discord. Otherwise, here's 3140 words of Kjartan's POV for Chapter One. It will be alternating every chapter between Kjartan and Nora. (Kjartan is pronounced with the 'j' soft, like 'kyar-tan').

Kjartan

“Your talents are… ‘adequate’ enough to gain entry to the college, but you’re hardly the strongest mage we’ve ever considered,” Faralda said condescendingly as his conjured light faded and the residual magicka in the air sputtered out. The high elven gate keeper of the college still looked like she’d swallowed something bitter though, and she continued to stare at him.

“Thank you,” he said, still standing in ankle-deep snow outside the small barbican gate of the College of Winterhold. Beyond, the leaping expanse of the ancient, crumbling stone bridge stretched away into the blizzard, partly masking the millennia-old college building behind, perched on its promontory like the lone survivor of a shipwreck. With half the town of Winterhold now sitting in the sea below the cliffs, it felt somehow apt to think of the venerable old complex of buildings that way. Of course, most of the inhabitants of the town wished the college had gone down to lie with the rest of the rubble, but that wasn’t his concern. He was here for the college, not the town.

“Ordinarily, that rather underwhelming display would have been just about enough to get you admitted to the college,” the mage went on, “But there’s very obviously something else about you which will need discussing with the Master Wizard before I can even let you set foot on the bridge, let alone into the college.”

Meekly, he bowed his head, his long black hair sliding forward to hide a handsome, if extremely pale and drawn face. He’d been waiting for that. “I understand.”

With a soft huff, Faralda nodded and ushered him into a tiny stone chamber in the gatehouse that had room for no more than a fireplace, a battered old table, two chairs, and a round window the size of a porthole. There she left him sitting with his hands in his lap, and his dark gold eyes burning. As she left and slammed the door behind her, he caught her muttering and he held his breath.

The wait for someone to appear was not as long as he’d thought it might be. Apparently it wouldn’t take hours of arguing amongst themselves. The woman who strode into the squat, stone chamber forty minutes later was short but still very much imposing, power washing off her like a font of pure magicka. She wore traditional belted mage robes that crackled with all sorts of enchantments, and her stern expression fixed itself instantly on him the moment she entered the room.

“Kjartan Volkihar, is it?” she said in a gravelly alto voice as she stood in the open doorway, letting all the snow flurry in from outside. The single candle on the table guttered instantly and left nothing but the soft glow of his eyes and the weak light from the window to his left. It was clear that she was not impressed or even intimidated - if her steady heartbeat was anything to go by - and that she knew of his family’s reputation. “A vampire. And a pureblood, nonetheless.”

There was little point denying it. He couldn’t hide with illusion magic from someone as powerful as Mirabelle Ervine, or change his unnatural eyes with their entirely black sclera and red-gold irises, glowing even in strong sunlight. Illusion spells might work on the everyday peasant, but to those two mages here in the dimly lit room, his eyes must have shone like the recently extinguished candle flame.

“Well, it’s not entirely without precedent, you’ll be pleased to hear, but I need to know you can control yourself,” she said, and before either Kjartan or Faralda could have prepared for or prevented it, she had drawn a little belt knife from its sheath at her waist and nicked her inner wrist. Blood welled up, bright and hot and ferrous, and his eyes went immediately to it. Thirst clamped at his tongue and throat and his canines throbbed in his gums, but he never moved so much as a muscle in his body.

The slow drip - loud as hammer blows to the vampire - of falling drops onto the stone was the only sound in the room for almost a minute, time stretching. He wrenched his eyes from the crimson liquid after only a few heartbeats, and fixed her with his careful gaze instead, and all the while she glowered at him, wrist bleeding, daring him to react. Finally with a flick of her other hand, warm, golden light sparkled at the cut, the skin stitching itself back together, and in an instant the damage was healed.

“Apologies for such theatrics,” she said, voice clipped and professional as she entered the room and closed the door. While she spoke, she began to pace. “I had to make sure of your reactions and control, and warning you would have spoiled the test.”

Read the whole thing right now, as well as all the Mermay 2020 posts (five in total, including extra artwork) and a surprise, nsfw ‘ghost lover’ story, plus everything that’s been posted already on Patreon!

#vampire #vampire story #male vampire #vampire x human #male vampire x female character #3rd person narrative #it is set in skyrim #skyrim vampire #volkihar vampire #volkihar

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jennydreadfulofficial · 4 years

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Time for a Reboot?

SOOOOO.... first, thank you to everybody who responded to my last post! I'm still sorting through things at the moment, on that front, but your input has definitely been helpful!

As for the photo with this post, this is just me out walking the dog last night... no particular reason for the selfie... just was thinking about making this post and figured I should have some kind of recent picture for it. :-p

Anyway, I’m posting today because, I have an idea that's been brewing for a while now, which has kinda come together for me since my last post, that I'd like to share. And yes, this is related to my last post... just kind of expanding on the idea.

First, a little history: After "jen-dave," It took me awhile to really organize the direction I wanted to go. However, I finally settled on splitting myself in two... not unlike when I got pregnant with the twins. :-p

On one side, we have Jen PM, which is just me... unashamedly-all-of-me. It's where I can kind of strip-bare... metaphorically speaking, at least. :-p

Whether it's sharing things from my childhood, my jen-dave career, my children... things I think are funny, things I think are important (I try to keep the politics to a minimum but things slip out here and there :-p)... this is just my plain old personal corner of the web.

On the other side, though, is Jenny Dreadful. This is my fantasy self. I like horror movies, haunted houses... all manner of spooky, dark things. I've never identified as a "goth" per se; I just like what I like. :)

Even with the photo shoots I did back in the day, my favorites tended to be those that had a “dark” theme.

So, that's what Jenny Dreadful is all about... just having fun in the dark. ;-) I've always intended it to be more than me just dressing up (or down), but I'd be lying if I didn't say that was a big part of it. :-p And, if I’m going to do anything of that nature again, that’s the direction/theme I’d like to go with.

So, on that note, I'd like to talk about Patreon! :) The very first time I ever charged for anything was back in 1996, and the only thing available back then was a company called "First Virtual." (So very futuristic-techno-cool. :-p) Now, there are so many more choices, when it comes to funding projects like mine.

I've chosen Patreon this time around because they do seem to have a really good system that has worked out well for me the last couple years... even with not really having my act together. :-p

Now, Patreon doesn't stop you from having more than one account, but they do tend to suggest you just make one for all your work. However, I’ve just finally decided that it would be best if I had two.

It’s not unlike when we first started charging for the jen-dave site. We actually had two options back then: $5 for 6-months worth of access to our weekly updates and $10 for 3-months worth of access to our archive, for those that needed to catch up.

My plan now is for Jen PM’s Patreon to be dedicated mostly to the past. I plan to start telling stories from my past, with of course photo accompaniment.... the uncensored of which I'll keep for Patreon subscribers. No particular theme... just all of me and my past.

Jenny Dreadful’s Patreon on the other hand, will be a bit different. I may start off with a few things I've done in the past that fit the theme, but I really would like to get back into doing some pictures, at least here in there. It's something I just enjoy, and I might as well do it while I can still pull it off. ;-p Again, I plan to share a lot of this just for free on my blog and social media accounts and all that but, I'll be keeping the uncensored stuff for Patreon subscribers. I’m not planning to go quite as far as I did way back when but, I’m still OK with the occasional nudity... when the mood strikes, anyway. ;-p

So, please feel free to subscribe to one or both! I’m still making the minimum donations pretty low ($1/month for JenPM and $5/month for Jenny Dreadful), but I appreciate anything you’re willing to donate! The fact is, ventures like this do take a least a little funding, so the better I can do on the financial side, the more I’ll be able to do on the fun side. :-D

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through my ups and downs. I’m hoping things will continue looking up for awhile, now. :) Jen PM’s Patreon: http://patreon.com/jenpm Jenny Dreadful’s Patreon: http://patreon.com/jennydreadful

P.S. If everything is not quite together at the moment when you click on things, just know that I’m working on it. This post was just my first step to getting all this going. :)

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sketchesofsam · 6 years

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The Illustration Master Class - A First Timer's Journal

This is a long blog post. It's mostly for my own purposes, but also for those who want an in-depth look at what being at the IMC is like. I have some pointers for first timers, things you might not think of and things to consider in advance. They'll be at the end of the article. I want to thank Dave Palumbo for allowing me to use a couple of his amazing photos too, he's a talented SOB.

probably won't forget the moment my Facebook messages suddenly started pinging off. 'Congrats Sam!' 'Hey Sam, you won!' I distinctly remember thinking, hmm, what did I win? Did I enter another twitter giveaway or something? Then someone followed up with 'you won the scholarship!' It took me a moment. Then the chat I was in the middle of with my other half suddenly filled with lots of expletives and capitals on my end. Holy shit. I'd won the Muddy Colors scholarship to the IMC, something that had been a long-term wish of mine since I'd found out about it 5 or 6 years prior but hadn't ever had the funds to attend. So to find out that my entry to their scholarship program - through the generous donations of the Muddy Colors Patreon - submitted on a 'what have I got to lose' mentality that was still shadowed by the fuzzy sting of not getting into Spectrum, had scored me the full cost of the course. I'd honestly forgotten I'd applied. Let that be a lesson to those of you who hold back on submitting to things, especially the things that are free. It's always worth a punt.

So what's it like to go to the IMC? I can tell you that winning the scholarship made the pre-IMC thumbnail assignment a lot more stressful than if I'd paid for it. The weight of imagining disappointing the people who had seen my work and voted for it - artistic heroes of mine - was pretty heavy. It made me feel like I couldn't just go and do the same thing I'd always done, even if it had won me the scholarship. Before I started drawing, I reconsidered my influences. I'd started a secret pinterest board a few months back simply called 'Ho Fuck That's Good.' Stuff that gave me a gut punch when I looked at it. I spent a lot of time looking at those images and a lot of the others I had pinned. I stopped paying attention to work that I simply found technically impressive, that had awesome composition or great values. I looked for what moved me. Why it moved me. I started making notes about themes I found compelling or that cropped up a lot in my own work. I decided I wasn't going to do just a straight up realistic narrative Whaler Girl piece, I was going to try and make my own work be more like that which moved me. A risky, and perhaps somewhat dumb move, given those same realistic, narrative images had won me the scholarship.

We were asked to provide 4 or 5 thumbnails, either of our own choosing, or from an assignment provided, such as an illustration to accompany a short story, the likes of which are often published on Tor.com. With themes like duality, death, grief and love in relationships crowding my brain, I created a lot of thumbnails. I wasn't going to take the first 3 or 4 that came out. I did about 20 in total and narrowed it down to the 6 I felt most attached to. Some of them even had hints back to The Whaler Girl in a very asbtract way. They'd come out better than I'd hoped for and I could see a tiny glimpse of the sort of painting I might get out of it. It made me excited to put them in front of my chosen faculty member.

We were asked to pick a top 5 from the vertiable smorgasbord of faculty. That was hard. It turned out that most people got grouped with their top pick and that dictated who the other faculty were that would give you feedback. I suspect my pick would have surprised a few people. Kent Williams was actually the instructor I was least familiar with, but researching his work, especially his most recent work, it hit the same kind of buttons that my inspiration board had. His work felt emotionally personal and while I knew I didn't want to necessarily paint like he did, I felt he might be able to give good feedback on how to tap into that sense of the personal. Perhaps someone who could help keep me on track with the first wibbly steps I was taking with my own work. I count myself lucky to have landed in the group with Rebecca, Kent and Tara (McPherson).

I wanted to make a good first impression, but there were so many approaches to the dreaded 'crit day'. Some folks brought only one or two finished colour thumbs, some folks just had small, traditionally drawn thumbnails, occasionally done on arrival the night before. Some brought photo mockups of the exact piece they wanted to work on. All approaches got good feedback. I'd been forewarned that crit day could be rough, but I think the Studio 201 guys were pretty chill. I did peek my head in on the other two rooms briefly. Donato, Greg Ruth and Scott Fischer were all highly animated and I've been told often argued with each other's feedback. Dan Dos Santos, Irene Gallo and Greg Manchess were part of the group that, from chatting to folks, seemed to get the most direct feedback.

I was a little surprised when there was no tracing paper used during my crit. All three faculty members responded favourably to what had been my favourite thumbnail, despite its weirdness. No direct suggestions other than resolving the shapes in my minimal, non-figurative space (that minor bit of feedback would come to haunt me by The Thursday of DOOM, but I'll get to that later). Inspirations like Inka Essenhigh, Hope Gangloff and Dorothea Tanning were thrown my way, I loved all three for very different reasons. It was safe to say inspiration was running high and I had a tonne of positive energy to run with.

I felt like I was well prepped going into the IMC, but I wasn't. Choosing to go full traditional when having to fly internationally was a pain. I didn't have a lot of the stuff I needed and had to rely on the infinite kindness of my fellow students and faculty to see me through. Stephen, Annie, Chris, Julia, you were all lovely, I can't thank you enough.

My Tuesday started with James Gurney sat at my breakfast table. That was surreal but awesome. He and his wife Jeanette are as lovely two people as you could hope to meet, full of insight and always taking notes. The previous day's lecture on photo reference was flowing through my mind and I dreaded having to ask fellow students. My figures were both nudes and that wasn't something I was comfortable with, though I thought perhaps I could take individual legs and arms and use a little online ref to fill in the rest. I wish I'd drummed up the courage to ask my fellow students, but that particular social step eluded me the whole week. I spent the day instead with many sheets of tracing paper, figuring out What marks were what. I had discussions with Greg Ruth and Donato Giancola about how to find those shapes and make them fit in my piece. You have to figure out who to listen to, and whose advice to stash for a later date. You get bombarded with advice if you go in as open-minded as I did. I'd thrown myself into a pool I should have been paddling in first, pretty much at the very public deep end. I'll admit I found ways to put off getting to painting, as it was only the 2nd oil painting I'd done in the last 20 years and the company I had in the room was stellar and a little overwhelming. Eventually, I chose to redraw via a grid so I could edit as I went along and I used some reference I shot of my own limbs to help flesh the drawing out. I left Tuesday feeling reasonably positive about the work.

Wednesday was a full day with faculty feedback, up to the first 5 pm lecture. Dan Dos Santos, who is perfectly lovely, but also very honest with feedback, stopped by my easel. Overall, very complimentary, he pulled me on a bit of weird anatomy, that after using a lot more photo ref with the rest of the piece, had begun to stand out. He suggested I grab Rebecca after our discussion. I'd responded best to her feedback, as she seemed to understand what I was trying to do, so I grabbed her after lunch. She immediately told me the leg and anatomy I'd had in the thumbnail had been working, and that if I liked the weirdness (which I did) to go weird with the rest of the piece to make the leg fit. Literally the opposite of Dan's feedback. Feedback is such a personal thing, every instructor has their own view of art and own journey. I'd probably tried to take a little bit of everyone who'd stopped by and given feedback and every little bit had nudged me slightly off the course I'd intended to take. Dan's feedback was spot on, if I'd been after something with a solid grounding in realism, but I wasn't. I was after an emotional feeling rather than muscles that looked like they fit where they were supposed to go. Rebecca suggested I just print the thumbnail out, mount it to masonite and paint on that. But resolve my shapes first.

That led me to ask Tara for advice and after some back and forth, I thought I knew where I was going, and decided rather than be tied to the values I'd got in the thumbnail to start with, I'd trace down the printed thumbnail and resolve my shapes. All went well, I got the drawing on the board, and aware of the ever-ticking clock and my ability to get feedback on my painting process, I was keen to get started the following day.

I nick-named Thursday 'Thursday of DOOOOOOOM' in my sketchbook notes. With that many 'O's'. It started well, with my sketch on my illustration board, I figured I'd use acrylic underpainting to speed up the process, then seal with matte medium and start on top in oils. I'd brought a lovely lime green and violet with me, my underpainting was done in warm purple-reds as a counterpoint, and I was winging it. It felt good. I stepped away for a bit before lunch and came back after to the horror of a C-shaped warped board. A brand I'd not used before, I hadn't been heavy with it at all. I threw some matte medium on the back in the hopes it would pull itself out of the curve, but it only stiffened. I think panic set in at this point, I knew there was no point in doing more on the board, but I'd been stubborn over mounting the printouts I'd done. Old dog, new tricks and all that.

Distraught, I knew I had no choice. I slunk off to the back of the studio and tried not to blub my eyes out as I tried a totally new method of mounting with less than perfect tools. Flustered, my hair constantly got stuck in the medium, making me even more panicked that the whole thing would be a disaster and that I'd missed the last supply run and would have to face the very public shame of asking someone for actual help. If there's one thing I hate, it's not being self-sufficient. My fellow students would have happily helped out, but shame is a pretty powerful emotion, it tends to rule what you do. I prayed the mounted paper wouldn't need a 2nd sheet mounting on the back to counter the drawing mounted on the front. At best, in the blazing sun, this stuff would take a couple of hours to dry to the point I could paint on it. The wind did its best to prevent me from stacking the board outside and in my hours of deepest bleakness, I figured that maybe if it blew over into the dirt and insects, I'd say fuck it and make them part of the fucking thing too. It was also at this point I realised the printouts had cropped the two thumbnails I'd chosen to work with, altering their composition drastically. My own dumb fault for not setting the page size up properly in the printer. One more shame I'd suck up and live with. I wish I'd asked for help. I think knowing the pieces weren't what I'd initially intended broke my ability to give them my full attention and killed my mojo for the next couple of days. My anxiety rats, as Rebecca delightfully referred to them, were in full swing.

While I waited for it to dry, I headed back into the studio and mentioned to Rebecca I'd given in with the curved board and mounted the thumbnail and would she have a look over what I'd chosen to do with the background. Rebecca is gracious and lovely and patiently listens to me explain what I've done. Then she points to some of the graphic elements I'd put in and gently says that they still feel too literal and forced, that the motifs I choose should be something I relate to closely and that it doesn't quite live up to the right hand, figurative side of the painting. I suggest a couple of other ideas, feeling a scrabbling panic bulding in me, only to hear her tell me everything still feels too literal. My logic brain knows she's right, but after a distraught morning, I'm clasping at any straw I have to salvage the situation. I don't know if it showed, and she saw that I was struggling with it or if it was just honest feedback for the moment, but at that point, she looked at me and said 'maybe this piece is a step too far for you right now, maybe you should do the other piece, if that's something that's more comfortable for you.' I think I agreed with her, nodded and extolled the virtues of taking a step back into my comfort zone, getting a painting I knew how to do done was a good thing, yes? But damn if that wasn't a kick to the gut at that very moment.

She was absolutely right, though. I'd throw myself into a deep pool, with people who were olympic athletes at diving its depths, and in the course of a week expected to be able to at least dive a good distance with them. I'd been able to get my head underwater with my well-planned thumbnails, but in this overwhelming, information packed, inspiring, public test of artistic mettle, I'd punched above my depth, so to speak. Trying to shift gears artistically when you have your own space and the time to find your journey is one thing, I don't know if it can be done in a week, no matter how much amazing input you get from your artistic heroes. Chris, Erin, Annie, I'm sorry if my energy those next 48 hours was a bummer, it wasn't a place I was familiar with being.

Kent Williams came to the rescue of my very bruised ego that evening with a talk about his personal journey through art. Indirectly, seeing the bredth and depth of his work over such a long time span, I confess to feeling a little idiotic that I'd expected to be able to make that leap in a week. Every faculty member who gave a talk like that had shown me that their journeys were long, and often fraught with failed ventures or periods of doing artistic things they didn't want to. I left the lecture with my tail between my legs, but a renewed sense that I would do my best with the hand I'd given myself. I did a couple of colour studies that evening, traditionally, inspired by seeing James Gurney's master studies in his lecture. I loved doing them, and wish I'd had more time to do more. But I found a piece online that had a palette I liked and did a couple of explorations of a similar theme. I finally, finally, 4 days into the escapade, managed to put down some oil paint.

Friday and Saturday I painted as much as I could, but tentatively, I was making marks I'd never made before. I listened to the feedback being given around me and let anyone who wanted to stop and give me feedback, do so. I'm not sure I actively asked for it. I struggled as the ladies around me with their amazinly characterful pieces drew the attention of everyone who went past. I wondered if I was so far off the mark and weird that no one knew what to say about my piece. Maybe it was so bland that they couldn't praise or crit it. In retrospect, I recognise that my mood and lack of decent sleep was tinting my mood heavily, and I suspect I was giving off the same vibe, which is enough to make folks give you a bit of a wide berth.

The theme of finding your niche and doing what you love came up in more than one lecture over those days. I went to bed at 2 am both nights, in an attempt to get as much done as I could. I socialised a little more, realising that was as much a part of the experience as the painting. If not more. I'm hugely thankful for the bonds I forged during that week, something I couldn't have done at home, no matter how much I painted. Those bonds were worth much more to me than the painting I half finished. I think I came to accept that what I wanted to do was going to be a journey that needed a little longer than a week to take. I wish there had been more 'round table' lectures with all the faculty, seeing them interact together on the business lecture was amazing.

Sunday was chill. I'd had the intention of painting more, but clearing up took a while, and I felt good being relaxed. So I socialised more instead. Our final lecture with Donato was the perfect note to end the experience on and the open house was a chance to take in everyone's work, the standard of which was amazing. After a super tasty mexican dinner and strawberry margherita, the bar beckoned. After drawing I don't know how much hentai in people's sketchbooks and getting a badass Bill Nighy sketch from the awesome Bud Cook in my own sketchbook, alongside the weirdest pseudonyms and animal drawings ever, I crashed and burned as being under the influence after a week of mental stress and lack of sleep took its toll on me. Conan, thank you for making sure I got back safely that night, I really appreciate it, I suspect I'd have passed out in a dark corner of the bar otherwise. Sad I missed out on the late night partying that ensued, but damn, did I need that night's sleep.

So there's one woman's view of what it's like to go to the IMC, to throw yourself at the mercy of the faculty and your own desires. To fail and not deal with it well, to realise that the painting was never the important thing. IMC was amazing. I can only hope this gives those of you who haven't been a teensy insight. I'm not going to cover what the lectures were or what faculty shared with us, that's a very specific IMC experience, that you really have to go to appreciate. I will say I am hugely thankful to Dan, Rebecca and all of those on Muddy Colors who made that experience real for me. It has enriched me in ways I suspect I'll only realise as my journey continues. Thank you to everyone who gave me kind words and praise and to those who tried to guide me on my way. If ever the opportunity arises for you to attend, I would say grab it with both hands and run with it. Even if your experience doesn't run as profound as mine, and it simply lets you have some time to paint whatever the hell you want, being in a huge room full of people going through the same thing is well worth the price, not to mention watching faculty paint in real time is invaluable.

So, what if you've taken that leap, some months from now and you're going to the IMC? Here's a few pointers from someone who thought they were prepared and was woefully not.

1 - THE DORMS Are basic AF. I was somewhat prepared, but when the FAQ says the beds are firm, they mean it. Think springs wrapped in a bit of plastic tarp. The sheets are functional, but the blanket looked like someone had put used dog bedding through a shredder and mushed it out into a rectangle. I bought a spare blanket at the CVS store, cause no way was that thing touching my skin. I may be a little sensitive though. I affectionately referred to the whole set up as my prison bed, cause honestly, that's all I could think of. If you can bring your own bedding, I'd recommend it.

The dorm bathrooms are gender neutral, which means anyone can use them. I was fine with it, but it's odd the first time you wander into the bathroom and find the opposite sex brushing their teeth. I never had any problems taking a shower, though, they were pretty quiet.

Morris Pratt Dorm was definitely the more social, I was very thankful to be on the 3rd floor, as a light sleeper, the partying into the wee hours would have kept me awake had I been on the lower floors. The box fans helped with white noise, but the doors are all pretty heavy, so unless folks are very delicate with how they close them, expect some noise. I found the box fan enough without the AC, even when it got pretty warm on the last couple of days.

2 - FOOD. Having never been to a large educational establishment in the US, I wasn't sure what to expect with the food. Would I have to venture into Amherst to find healthy stuff, would there be much choice? The food was surprisingly decent. It's still a large facility, so it's never going to be amazing restaurant quality, but there were a few choices every day and a well-stocked salad bar. They even had a soft serve ice cream machine, that I managed to avoid until Sunday. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I had it on good authority that the coffee in the dining hall wasn't great. It might be an idea to bring a drinks container with you, as mealtimes are the only time you can get drinks on campus, outside of water fountains. Amherst is only a 10-minute walk down the road, though.

3 - ART SUPPLIES AND STUDIO SAFETY. I brought paints, brushes and surfaces with me, with the knowledge I'd ordered a couple extra things for while I was there and that there was a supply run. If you work on specific surfaces, it's best to bring those with, Michael's wasn't super well stocked, and more speciality things like large clayboard weren't available. A lot of people bring extras and are happy to share, thankfully. I would have brought more old rags or kitchen towels and some tape. People often used walls to tape up thumbnails or other pieces of art.

The university runs a very strict number of safety policies surrounding paints, water and mediums. Bring some lidded jars with you for mediums and water. Everything has to be labelled clearly and remained closed when not in use. Even water used for rinsing acrylic and watercolours. All have to be disposed of carefully too. Same with anything you wipe paint or mediums on, so using something a bit more disposable like kitchen towel might do you better. They ask you to cover your oil paints when not in use, though that can be with a simple piece of palette paper.

If you choose an easel, if you have space for a little extra table, you'll likely make good use of it. The chairs they supply are also very basic and not comfortable for long periods, so bringing a cushion is definitely a good idea. Oh, and they say the studio opens at 8 am on Monday but I got there at 8 am and a lot of the spaces had already been taken, so if you want prime real estate, get there early!

4 - SELF PROMOTION This sounds like a no-brainer. I brought business cards for the faculty and my portfolio review with Irene Gallo. I thought I'd sorted my work out reasonably well, but actually, my website would have been a better place to show off my work. I also wish I'd brought a physical portfolio to leave out for students and faculty to flick through, perhaps an example of finished work that was either nicely printed if I was doing digital, or one of my traditional pieces. The latter is tricky when flying. My business cards were on the pricey side so I wish I'd had some decent postcards or stickers, printed for the open studio, where folks were picking stuff up. You never know who's going to pick one up! The internet can be spotty in the building, so unless you have some 4G going on, it can be tricky to show off folios digitally.

You might also be lucky enough to score a second portfolio review if the guests have enough time, I am so glad I could put my work in front of WotC's Jeremy Jarvis. It cheered my Saturday up no end! Make sure you check the lists when they go up and bag your second spot early. And don't puss out.

5 - DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP I'm stubborn and British, so asking for help is the worst, but everyone there will gladly help you out if they can. Especially the assistant team, Daneen, Julia and Stephen and the 'honored easels' who've been in your situation. Take advantage of them, they are all lovely people.

And that sums it up! An amazing, tiring, exhausting, mentally demanding, inspiring, overwhelming experience that I wouldn't change for the world. I hope to repeat it in the next year or two. I count myself lucky to be part of the alumni and perhaps if you're reading this, I might see you there too.

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Battle of the Episodes: Celebrity Deathmatch: Rockstarmageddon Vs When Animals Attack

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a minty fresh new segment on the blog cooked up by longtime fan and friend of the blog weirdkev27, named by me: BATTLE OF THE EPISODES! In this new segment I take two similar episodes from a show or franchise and put them up against one another and see which ones better. He pitched the idea to me for something he could do, he had two patreon reviews free so I suggested why not do it in April and here we are!

Before I begin I will admit I’d forgotten PieGuyRulez had done a similar idea with his podcast ReCast, which I’d never seen and only vaugely heard of. However I feel what i’m doing here is still diffrent enough to keep doing, I have nothing but respect for the guy, and I promise to not do any topics he’s done. If you have any suggestions for this new segment, i’d love to hear them. I already have another one in mind for when I have a free moment on the schedule that I simply didn’t get around to next month.

But for our innugural contest, Kev being the one who pitched it picked the show and it’s a show i’m only passingly familiar with as I did see bits of it growing up: Celebrity Deathmatch. Celebrity Death Match was a late 90′s and early 2000′s tv show on MTV with a revivial on MTV2. It was born both out of a short done for MTV’s Cartoon Sushi, their equilvent of Oh Yeah Cartoons! and What a Cartoon, pitting Charles Manson against Marilon Manson, and that short was popular enough to lead to a special after the superbowl. Said special ended up being the highest rated progam MTV had broadcast at the time, so naturally it got a four season series.

The premise is exactly what it says: two celebrties battle it to the death in goofy claymation fights, one shall stand, one shall fall. Meanwhile our hosts Johnny and Nick banter and set up the fights, talk to interviewers etc. It’s essentially a combination of wrestling and celebrity mockery, and unsuprisingly given MTV’s teen audience who loved pop culture and a bit of the ultra violence it was a massive hit.

The show later got a revivial a few years after it ended on MTV2, which fans often derided and which I saw more of as I was watching MTV2 at the time... look i’m not proud of the fact i watched “Where My Dogs at?” and i’m even less proud I watched “The Adventures of Chico and Guapo”. But with shows like that you can imagine how high quality the reboot was and how much fans flocked to it. Me I never took to either incarnation. I don’t HATE the show and do appricate it’s gorgeous claymation and copious use of Stone Cold Steve Austin. I love that beer drinking, hell raising, boss humliationg hellion, it’s just the combination of modern celebrity mockery, something that rarely ages well unless the joke is just funny on it’s own, and ultra violence never appealed to me as I was a pretty squeamish kid and teen.. i’ve grown out of that, but I just had no real desire to go back. It’s not a bad show but it’s not really one for me, but I get why i’ts well loved and popular.

But being a death match fan, and given the similar premisses, Kev picked this to be our inagural contest. Pitting the original against the reivvial. For this he went with two death match time machine episodes: the original’s finale rockstarmageddon and the revivial’s when animals attack. Each episode has it’s own unique theme within the general theme of a dead person versus their successor... and a very much alive person one or both of the hosts thought was dead versus their succesor as a joke: the first is about rockstars and their supposed imitators, the second is about putting two animal themed people against one another.

Each Battle of the Episodes will have diffrent comparisons as every show or franchise is different, comics are also open for this by the by. So for this one i’ll be comparing time machine use, the person explaning the machine, individual episode theme, the joke about one of the “dead” combatants turning out ot be alive, and each of the three matches. How many will also very, either 5 or 7 depending on how many talking points i have. So with that in mind LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE under the cut and see which episode walks away a champion and which episode walks away a bloody pile of clay on the floor.

Doing the matches first as a lot of this stuff overlaps with the later bits.

Round 1: Lenny Kravitz Vs Jimmy Hendrix VS Horatio Sanz Vs Chris Farley Whelp this was a bad start to BOTH episodes as these matches are the worst of each episode and all 6 matches period. So it’s less which is better as both are a black hole of comedy.. and more which one sucks slightly less.

The Jimmy Hendrix vs Lenny Kravitz bout is just.. a black hole of comedy, It’s VERY clear the writers hated Kravitz but to me in 2020.. it just hasn’t aged well. I just don’t CARE about Lenny Kravitz. He had maybe one good song, are you gonna go my way, and that’s it. He was not good.. but he was an easy target for the time and an easily forgotten one now. It’s not smart, clever or even cathartic to watch him die. He’s also nowhere similar enough to Hendrix for the comparison to work: for one he had a vastly diffrent look most of the times and for another at most both played guitars and were not white. That’s it. It just dosen’t work.

The finisher here is just also... one of the objectively worst grossout bits i’ve seen in animation and i’m almost 30. That’s a LOTTTT of stupid gross gags that aren’t funny. The two vomit into each others mouths. Yes really. Not only is this really disprectful to hendrix death, as ODing on drugs is not something I really find funny nor the show makes funny, but it’s just.. horrifying to think about and gross and makes me want to , ironically enough, vomit thinking about. it’s just deeply unpleasant easily the worst thing i’ve encountered in my time reviewing so far, and it’s going to be a hard bar to clear. This match sucked and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Now as for the Horatio Sanz vs Chris Farley Match...

I honestly have never seen Horatio Sanz that i’m aware of and unlike Kravitz who at least is mildly memorable if not a very good musician, Sanz has just been.. forgotten. I don’t know anything about him and once again it feels like the show punching down, picking an easy target versus a legend.

And speaking of easy targets the entire segment is just fat jokes. Just a ton of fat jokes. No really, it’s a battle of “Hog vs hog”, chris eats a lot and hte main joke is Chris Farley can’t stay alive long enough to fight. That being said while I find the joke in VERY poor taste, as Farley died of a heart attack and was a really good person and having his death be a punch line just bothers me.... I’ll admit it’s at least clever to have one of the death match time machine contestants come back again, and again, and again. It’s not Funny, it’s horrific.. but I can at least say they put in some effort ofr that one gag and given the horrifying lack of effort for the other match this one BARELY gets the W Winner: When Animals Attack:

Round 2: Shaggy vs Bob Marley VS Christan Bale vs Adam West

This one’s a no contest... seriously the gulf between jokes is wide and deep.

The Shaggy Vs Marley bout is the best of Rockstarmageddon. It’s funny, the target actually deserves being made fun of as Shaggy was a talent vacum and is memorably bad in comparison to Kravitz, so I still like seeing him get roasted, and they find a lot of funny jokes to do with Bob Marley. I only have a passing familiarity with the guy and while they do the obvious weed joke, they also have him ask for a tiny hammer or a small axe, beat shaggy with his dreads and after using a ring post to kill him, MAKING HIS REMAINS INTO A BONG (hilariously called a “legal novelty smoking device by the commentators). This match shows me why the show was popular: not every match was GOOD.. but the ones that were were creative and a joy to watch. While I sitll feel it’s mildly punching down, it’s funny enough I don’t care.

Bale Vs West just sucks both by comparison and just in general; The IDEA of having the current Batman at the time and the 60′s one duke it out is great.. but it’s very clear they didn’t like Batman begins nor have any actual christian bale jokes. While this was pre terminator rant and the much more iconic dark knight, if they didn’t have any good jokes , why do this. They just have nothing and are insulting a legitimately good movie instead of making anything funny and making cracks about everyone thinking Adam West is dead. More on that in a bit, but it’s just really not funny and really wasted my time... though West turning him into a batsignal of the cross was clever i’ll admit.

Winner: Rockstarmageddon

Round 3: Dave Matthews vs Keith Richards VS Jamie Fox vs Ray Charles

Another mistmatch.. but this time in the opposite direction.

Dave Matthews Vs Keith Richards sucks. While there are some good gags up top, we’ll get to that in it’s own section, the match itself just isn’t funny and I really don’t get comparing the stones to dave matthews band. the two bands aren’t remotely similar. The most clever it gets is Dave injecting Richards with his blood, which mellows him out but also revitalizes Richards. There’s a few good jabs at richards but otherwise just nothing of susbtance and like Kravitz Dave Matthews Band has been largely forgotten and unlike Kravitz or Shaggy, just doesn’t seem like as valid a target.

Fox vs Charles on the other hand was a great misdirect, changing his opponent and “punking” fox, forcing him to go from someone he was ready to throw down with to someone he rejects. There are way too many mr mcgoo style I’M BLINDDDDD gags, but Fox is a much more deserving target, and they had far more clever gags, with charles pulling out a cat o n grammys, and using a piano to finish Jamie. It’s nothing GREAT... but at least it’s actually funny and actually picked a good target for the time, if not one that has aged well.

Winner: When Animals Attack. 1 to 2

Round 4: Who Used the Time Machine Better?

Narrowly .. rockstarmageddon. While it had the same justification for it, the original taking on an upstart attempted replacement, the keith richards gag we’ll get to in a second is better than the farley gag for not being grossly insensitive and unfunny. But neither really use it well; Rockstarmageddon just uses it to mock artists they like and Animals uses it because the first one did. Neither really had a clever idea for it other than “get it this person sucks compared to that one.

Winner: Rockstarmageddon. 2 to 2

Episode Theme:

Similar to the time machine, this one comes down to which one had the better indvidual theme... and i’d have to say it’s Rockstarmageddon. It used the theme POORLY, but at least it both had an interesting idea, dead rock stars vs their successors in modern day, versus an easy one (animal matchups) it abandoned for the final match and used REALLY fucking insultingly in the first match. Seriously I don’t mind a WELL done fat joke, as an overweight guy myself, but this was just...

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In it’s purest form.

Winner: Rockstarmageddon 3 to 2

Special Guest:

Each episode had a guest for the time machine... and this one is again no real contest, Rockstarmageddon wins.

For Rockstarmageddon the show brought back frequent guest star , wrestling legend Stone Cold Steve Austin, who I enjoy and was indeed part of my childhood and star of many video games and one of my brother’s all time favorite wrasslers. The show contrasts his blue collar hellion image with him having made the machine, getting quantum mechanics and unlike nick getting that Keith Richards is dead. Austin clearly gets the show, is fully on board playing along and has fun escorting Hendrix back to the machine and getting his revenge on Nick for doubting him that Keith Richards was alive. He just fits perfectly into the show.

The revival.. could not get him, likely because he didn’t want to or saw the script and rightfully stone cold stunnered them, i.e. what he shoudl’ve done when Adam Sandler offered him Grown Ups 2. Seriously Adam why bring him in if he’s not going to do something wrestling related to you? This is why people don’t like your films. That and you keep giving your old buddy rob increasingly racist work. And david spade work. And nick swarsdon work. Please do keep giving Shaq work though he’s actually not half bad.

So instead they bring in Einstein and the joke.. is that he swears a lot and drinks a lot and pulls his pants down at the end.> That.. that’s it. I mean the original , at least the episode given to me, didn’t make a GREAT impression, but at least it was creative. The Reboot came off as shockingly lazy and half assed, with lesser voice actors for our hosts and far less effort put in and this is the biggest emblem of that. Soooo

Winner; Rockstarmageddon 4 to 2

Final Round: Their Not Dead

The final round is a short one and while the winner is already decided, might as well. Both episodes do a joke about one of the guests NOT being dead.. but once again Rockstar is more clever about it. Nick is CERTAIN Keith Richards is dead, and forces Stone Cold to bring him to the present... only for Keith to show up, and there be two keiths. One fades away due to time travel stuffs, a REALLy damn good gag, and Nick’s dogged instance he’s not dead despite everyone knowing he isn’t is just damn funny.

IN contrast all they have for the late great Adam West.. is insisting he’s dead. That’s it. that’s all they got. It’s not funny, it’s disprectful to Adam who while not an a list actor did a ton of stuff after batman. I mean the simpsons alone should shut them the fuck up...

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This one short gag is a MUCH better one than that entire 7 minutes. It was also DEEPLY uncomfortable now Adam’s passed. So naturally

The Winner of this Segment and Overall; Rockstarmageddon.

I wouldn’t say I LIKED either episode this go round, both had some pretty bad spots..but it’s very clear that while the original had it’s flaws, it was creative, had tons of energy, and a great voice cast. The revivial... has a good chris farley impersonator and that’s it. It’s very clear the people behind the reboot just don’t get the show and are doing the lazy bare minimum. While I didn’t LIKE most of the matches in Rockstarmageddon, I can at least respect the craftmanship: the animation, host jokes and energy is just BETTER. There’s a care and craft the revivial dosen’t have and the drop in quality is noticeable.

So yeah overall the original wins.. but the episode chosen clearly wasn’t it’s best. That being said both had some good moments, and I would be open to watching more if any one wants to comission it. This experiment has been intresting so let me know in the comments if you want to see more of these and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. And please join my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet.

#celebrity deathmatch #lenny kravitz #jimmy hendrix #keith richards #dave matthews #shaggy #bob marley #adam west #christian bale #horatio sanz #chris farley #jamie fox #ray charles

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