#( honestly these are only vaguely based on what i remember about the movies )

[poohsources]

🐝  *  ―  𝑷𝑳𝑶𝑻𝑺 𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑷𝑰𝑹𝑬𝑫 𝑩𝒀 𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑵𝑬𝒀 𝑴𝑶𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑺 𝑷𝑻 𝑰.  (  these are made to work in either a platonic or romantic context, whatever works best for you. feel free to expand on them.  )

THE LION KING ― [ muse a ] and [ muse b ] are childhood best friends. they used to spend almost every day together until [ muse a ] had to leave town and has never come back since. one day, [ muse b ] comes looking for [ muse a ] because of some trouble at home. although it took some time, [ muse b ] finally finds [ muse a ], but [ muse a ] doesn't want to come back. [ muse a ] explains to [ muse b ] what happened all those years ago that made them leave their home; and that this is the reason why they can never come back. [ muse b ] is surprised by that, but still determined to get [ muse a ] to come with them because now that they finally have them back in their life, they don't want them to be gone again.

THE LITTLE MERMAID ― [ muse a ] and [ muse b ] metaphorically are from different worlds. [ muse a ] has been fascinated by [ muse b ]'s world and their differences for a long time, while [ muse b ] has no idea [ muse a ] even exists. this changes when [ muse b ] gets into a life-threatening situation and [ muse a ] who happens to be there at the time saves them. however, [ muse a ] leaves before [ muse b ] can see them, and although [ muse b ] has no recollection of that moment, they wish to find who has saved their life. meanwhile, [ muse a ] is unable to forget about [ muse b ] which leads to them going back to [ muse b ]'s world, hoping to overcome their many differences and get [ muse b ] to like them in the short amount of time [ muse a ] has before they have to go back to their world.

ALADDIN ― [ muse a ] is a rich person from a wealthy and influential family, while [ muse b ] is a poor person who has had to take care of themself since they were a child. randomly, [ muse a ] and [ muse b ] paths cross and they find an immediate connection between them. but since they are from such different backgrounds, they can't be together. this results in [ muse b ] pretending to be somebody else, someone worthy of being around [ muse a ]. surprisingly, they are able to fool everyone with this scheme ... everyone except [ muse a ].

CINDERELLA ― [ muse a ] hasn't always had it easy living with their last remaining relatives who treated them like dirt. but everything changes one evening when they sneak out to a masquerade party hosted by [ muse b ]. they start talking and have a generally good time, but when [ muse a ] notices their time is over, they have to leave [ muse b ] without another word, and without ever telling them who they are. in their haste, [ muse a ] leaves behind one item that will eventually help [ muse b ] to find them. so [ muse b ], determined to figure out who [ muse a ] is, goes off in search of them until finally the item [ muse a ] has lost brings the two of them back together.

[quarterlifekitty]

first, im a bit new to cod but idk…

thinking about ghost’s spouse visiting him on base or some shit, and everyone else wondering how tf he was emotionally flexible enough to bag a bad bitch 🫶

note: this is just my personal little fantasy world headcanon lol so take it with a grain of salt!

Simon maintains a vaguely human lifestyle by adhering to one very strict rule: rigid compartmentalization. You don’t come up at work, and work doesn’t come up around you. Never the twain shall meet, he thinks. And he’s not exactly a watershed of information when he’s with his mates. And it’s not like anyone is asking “When was the last time you got fucked, Ghost?” and seriously expecting a response.

He tells you about the crew, but not about what he does with them. Killing, espionage, torture– that kind of thing stays off the dinner table.

Let it be known that you do not surprise him at work. You respect his boundaries too much, which is why he’s so fucking serious about you, honestly. He calls, asking if you can run something to him. This is maybe the greatest symbol of trust he can bestow, as a man who has only a fraction of an existence in the eyes of the government: he asks you to bring a document of his. He gives you the instructions on how to find it, and trusts that you won’t look at anything you don’t have to.

You know Johnny lets out a low whistle when he sees you coming up with a manilla folder in your hands.

“Who’s that bloody bombshell, then?”

You spy Simon and jog up to him with a smile. He’s the one who embraces you, short but strong. Cue the nigh audible gasping.

“LT, you absolute dog.”

Simon rolls his eyes as the two of you are crowded in short order. You make polite introductions, but have a previous engagement– you really did only have time to stop by.

Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave.

Everyone is wondering how this could’ve happened. For the record– I think in this scenario, Johnny and Gaz go through a constant string of heartbreaks, and John is kinda married to his job. So in a cruel twist of fate, Simon is actually the only one currently with a partner, much less a spouse.

“How’d you manage to bag a right beauty like that, LT? C’mon, spill it–”

Simon doesn’t mean to diminish your value or anything, but his answer is not going to be satisfying, because he doesn’t find it that difficult to get women. And also, you’re his true love, so you’re perfect for each other and growing close to you was as easy as breathing. But he doesn’t say that.

“S’not that hard. Remember the stuff she says, don’t keep no secrets… dick ‘er down the way she likes.” He doesn’t mean to be crude about it, but from his perspective, is one of the main reasons why you tolerate him. Soap howls at the response.

He’s telling the truth, though! He has a scarily good memory. Remembers every friend you’ve ever told him about, every movie you’ve ever mentioned, every meal he’s cooked for you and how you liked it. He remembers dates, times, and lists with no issue whatsoever.

And he’s never kept anything from you. He tells you how the fuck he’s feeling, and you return the favor, even if it isn’t pleasant. The only thing he doesn’t mention to you are the gorey details of his work.

And you have never had more of a communicative partner, ironically. There were times in the beginning when he didn’t know all of the ins and outs of coaxing pleasure from your body, so he asked you to show him how you like it. And that scary memory is at work yet again– every sensitive spot, every offhand mention of a kink you’ve not yet explored together, every arch of your spine and clench of your cunt. He’s got it down to a science. Could write novels about making love to you specifically.

What I’m trying to say, at the end of the day, is that Ghost bagged a bad bitch by being autistic.

[anythingforstories]

Currently reading Lord of the Rings for the first time. Never seen the movies (I want to read the book first) and the majority of my LOTR knowledge comes through memes and spoilers on Tumblr analysis posts. I've made it through Fellowship of the Ring and am now in The Two Towers, specifically the chapter where Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard.

Thoughts and predictions at this point (contains spoilers, but it's been out since 1954, so deal with it):

-So I guess "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard" was Merry and Pippin? In which case, they did not end up taking the hobbits to Isengard. Pity.

-(No but really, I had thought that referred to Frodo and Sam because I think they're slaves at some point? IDK. Maybe they're slaves in Mordor. I shall have to wait and see.)

-I am happy that Merry and Pippin have had more page time and got to have a clever escape. I was beginning to wonder why they were there in the story. I do like them, though.

-I wonder if Treebeard is important?

-During the entire second half of Fellowship of the Ring, I was thinking, "Surely Legolas has a bigger role, based upon the number of fangirls?" I now see that he does have more page time, though still at this point, I feel his fangirls may have overinflated his role within the story. Perhaps he shall do more later, though. Still a cool dude, in any case, sleeping while walking and all that.

-Gandalf's defeat was less dramatic than I'd always imagined. Pretty sure he's not gone forever, based mostly upon memes and fanart. And also the fact that he seems to be rather too important to be gone this soon.

-I'd honestly anticipated a long redemption arc for Boromir. Based upon all the analysis I've seen about him, I had vaguely known he sacrificed himself for the hobbits, but didn't expect it to be this soon. Not sure how I feel about this. (I did cry, and then I cried again when Aragorn didn't reveal what he'd been up to to Legolas and Gimli. I didn't actually expect to cry while reading LOTR. But the tragedy hit hard.)

-I know there's gonna be a romance between an elf-lady and a man, but I'm not sure who with whom. I don't think there's been a single hint of that yet. Maybe I'm wrong.

-Pretty sure they're going to see the ocean?

-"I am no man!" (Or something along those lines. I hope that wasn't movie-original; I think I've seen pictures of that text in the books? But it sounds very epic.)

-Gollum is a persistent chap. I rather like him. I do, unfortunately, know his fate. My sisters watched the movies when they were little and that's one of the only things they can remember.

-It's definitely picked up compared to the first book! Unlike many people, though, I did read through all those pages of pure worldbuilding lore at the beginning. It was boring and yet delightful.

-I need a map. I'm borrowing a friend's version where there's all the books in one cover with lots of illustrations and such. There was a map of the Shire but not of everything. I could easily look it up online, but I'm stubborn and want to see if the book will have one at some point.

-Can't wait for Aragorn to come back as king. I assume this shall happen in Return of the King. It would make sense. He seems a good fit for the job.

-I would DEVOUR an anime of this series. Specifically, a book-accurate one.

-Sam is excellent.

-Lots of fantasy seems so much less original after reading LOTR :P

[batboyblog]

2016 is often considered the point when leftism managed to get itself into the mainstream and became more popular, but I honestly can't help but wonder, given the sheer descent into conspiracy theory and selfish cruelty of the current state, whether in hindsight it was actually leftism's step into decline.

I've been thinking about this a lot, sadly I'm getting the start of a Migraine, so the edges of my thoughts are all fuzzy so idk if I'll be able to do what I think justice, but lets try.

The human mind doesn't really like complexity, it'd a pattern recognition machine built to find food and stuff that thinks you're food in the African brush. So we like to find patterns and lump stuff together, its hardwired in.

so "Leftism" I do understand what you mean, but I think it covers a really wide area.

and I think in politics we like to assign ideological and policy logic to things to political movements, it has to be about a coherent and rational ideology and world view we think. But... I think, often times it's emotional as much as anything. Did people vote for JFK or Reagan so much for policy as they, personally in their person, seemed to be the antidote to what was wrong in the moment? JFK seemed young and energetic when compared to an elderly and ill President Eisenhower, Reagan had the claiming aging leading man energy to make everyone feel like it'd be okay, a movie cowboy to lead us against bad guys we didn't understand while nice guy Jimmy Carter seemed stuck.

So back to 2016, I think there was so real ideology to start. The Left of the Democratic Party felt empowered after 2006, the left of the party had been against the Iraq War from the jump and that turned into the organizing issue that pushed Republicans out of power in 2006. A San Fran liberal, founding member of the House Progressive Cause was the first woman Speaker (and in favor of gay marriage too). In 2008 the Left of the party for largely emotional reasons sided with Obama over Clinton, even though they largely overlapped on policy and where there were (minor) differences she was to his left.

so riding high from two back to back wins, having gotten a lot of progressives elected to the House and Senate (like Bernie Sanders) progressive Dems were pretty let down by the real results, the ACA got bogged down and their dearest wish list item, the public option, which Pelosi fought for so hard, failed to make it into the final bill, and then 2010, a blood bath. And understandably there's been some frustration with Obama for not living up to the hype and also failing to really focus on state level races, Democrats got tarred hard

BUT! there's also an emotional side, Occupy Wall Street. I remember at the time being interested in it, I was young and more radical, but soon I got really frustrated because they had no demands, I watched every night MSNBC which was very sympathetic, but no one could articulate what it is they wanted, past a vague idea of "punish" the guilty.

I think there's a lot of restless frustration, some of it grounded and based in reality some of it not, in this country and its only grown over time as well as a contempt for and a break down of any kind of respect for experts and norms any anything established.

SO! I think that emotion latched onto Bernie and the left of the Democratic Party. As someone who worked that election I can tell you, at first knocking doors in New Hampshire, I got the taste of the very start of the campaign. And people would say "oh I'm voting for Bernie now, but I'll vote for Hillary in the general" but soon it went from friendly, from "we're pushing her to the left" to something bitter and angry. I had Bernie supporters tell me 1990s Fox News conspiracy theories around the Clintons, I had a Bernie supporter (in the general election) follow two college girl volunteers for blocks back to our office to SCREAM at us all.

Bernie won the New Hampshire Primary pretty commandingly that year, and partly because he had a strong volunteer network. But in the general despite many efforts we could barely get any of his regular volunteers to come work with us against Trump. I remember one lady who showed up just once and looked RIP SHIT! to be there, I think she said that all the positive stuff we said about Clinton, at a canvass launch for Clinton, made her "sick" and "don't expect me to say anything nice about her!" and she was one of only a tiny number of Bernie people who showed up in the general so she was better than some.

I remember the only Bernie Volunteer we got to become a regular. He'd knocked doors for months in New Hampshire for Bernie, organized his own phone bank into Nevada for their primary, drove down to South Carolina and spent the week before their primary knocking. Clearly a true believer, and when he decided to volunteer with us they kicked him out of the Facebook group he started and stopped speaking to him. I'll always remember what he said, that around the Bernie office they used to say that "a Trump voter was just a Bernie voter who hasn't been educated yet"

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, there were real motivations of the progressives and the left of the party, real policy based frustrations, particularly around how health care worked out, and I think Bernie Sanders himself was running because of that and to express that. But it tapped into something else, something not really political and much more emotional, rage and bitterness and a need to punish, the same energizes Trump taps into. It made a permission to be nasty to people you don't like, particularly women, I won't repeat the things people said on the phones, horrible.

now in 2024, almost 10 years later, there's a lot more depression mixed in, Trump talks about America as a 3rd world country all the time, there's just a vibe of having given up, hopelessness. There's a genocide and everything is horrible and hopeless and give up and die.

I don't believe in giving up, I don't believe in bitterness, I'm not a sunny person in real life, but I believe the point of politics, the politics I'm a part of, is lifting people up. It might be corny and uncool, but I believe in America, not that we're prefect, no, we're not, but together we've done great things, we fought a world war and went to the moon, and we can do great things together still always if we believe in each other, build each other up, stop being so afraid and weak and sad. I want to be beat fascism again, I want to go to the moon again, I want to beat climate change, and finally finally make the promise that all men are created equal REAL, and I don't believe in hiding behind walls, and crying that we can't do it any more, fuck that shit.

[generouskittentidalwave]

Tobio talk

I honestly have come to the realization that as well known as Tobio is because of Astro, while Astro stays the same in his iterations, Tobio is so obscure that while he has a few constants (shy/introverted/polite/struggles with his messy room, cares about his parents, etc..) most about him changes in different forms of media, and is also kept unknown for plot reasons, even his name itself changed as it wasn't Tobio originally. Usually because he is hit with a truck, or killed some other way, in the begining before we get to know much about him.

I think the most character he has ever been given is in Atom the Beginning, and the 2003 anime via flashbacks and a visit from his ghost (ouch as that scene hurt me🖐️😭)

The 2009 movie gave him a bit more screentime but there his character was different as in they kept most of the constants but made his personality more mischievous, confident, and sometimes hilariously cocky as he tries to live up to Tenma's ridiculous expectations

I think the other one would be Pluto which we don't even see Tobio in at all, but we get a lot of insight on who he was via Tenma having his usual existential breakdown about his death at the dinner table, very much confusing Astro (at the time who grew up thinking he was Tobio), leaving him very confused on why his father is talking about him in third person right to him.

As for the rest he is only brought up via flashbacks, people talking about him, and his unfortunately short screentime in the beginning of almost every iteration.

Most people base his personality on Astro but even then that's very incredibly vague as in every iteration Astro is displayed to, not just have traits only Tobio would have and replicate things Tobio would do, but also have a personality pretty different to Tobio. Tobio is shy and reserved (usually), Astro is polite like Tobio was displayed as but is more open and extroverted, in the 2009 movie Astro and Tobio have similar traits that make them alike but their personalities are mostly different, same for Pluto, and many others.

The only thing that stays the same between Tobio and Astro no matter the iteration is their looks and most importantly their moral compass. No matter what Astro and Tobio have the same moral compass on things

Now this brings us into aus which do exist in the small yet vastly powerful and growing Astro Boy fandom

I don't count Aus in this as they aren't anything canon or official, but nonetheless it is the one instance where their moral compasses change. In this instance you have what I call the "what if?" phenomenon, that happens in every fandom where they take the wholesome lil guy and change their moral compass around, usually making them into a bad guy/antagonist for their own interesting plot and story explorations which can lead to pretty interesting au reads. And as a side note yes, I am aware some people may find it upsetting as it's always out of character and some people don't like seeing their favorite good guy made out as a terrible person or doing something terrible which is understandable, it's not my cup of tea either, but at the same time you shouldn't worry about it affecting your love for the character because you have to remember that it's not their actual character nor is it affecting their actual character/reputation as a character. As long as it isn't made into anything immoral then just let people have fun and don't bug them. It's not hurting you or anyone else, or taking away the reputation of the character. Just vibe and let vibe.

Now what does this have to do with any of this? Well two things actually. One not only is the "what if?" extremely rare here, but it's also the only instances of their moral compusses getting turned around. The fact it never happens in the official media, and rarely ever happens in the fandom itself, is something I find to be a pretty cool constant for their characters that is agreed upon 100% in canon and a lot of the times in the fandom as well.

And I believe it is because it helps link the two together as their moral compusses, or better yet, their hearts, being of the same tune, helps them react to important situations the same way as eachother. They reflect eachother. Despite their differences, Tezuka shows that they are still always connected by heart and always will be in their official works.

So anyway, Tobio deserves more attention as there is both so much yet so little known about him at the same time, and with his ties to Astro's past it makes him such a cool character that deserves much more recognition! ^^

[paradoxcase]

So over Thanksgiving, my aunt wanted to watch a movie that she was supposed to watch for her film group, and invited me to watch it with her. This was Conclave, the apparently new movie about cardinals electing a new Pope. When we started in on it, I fully expected to have only a vague idea of what was going on, because I figured it was probably going to be one of those movies where every character is a clean-shaven white dude wearing the exact same uniform which means that due to face-blindness I will not be able to actually tell them apart. But that actually was not the case, and I was able to keep all of the characters straight throughout the movie. To be fair to the movie, part of this was because two of the major characters were not white, another one was a woman, and one of the old white dudes had incredibly distinctive body language throughout the movie and also was constantly code-switching between I think Italian and English, but there were still solidly three old white dudes who almost exclusively spoke English and I think had the most overall screentime, and yeah, I could not tell their faces apart. But I did actually keep track of which was which, and I think it was because my aunt watches literally everything with subtitles on because she is hard of hearing, so I was seeing the characters' names actually on the screen in addition to hearing them, and I think actually being able to read them names helped me keep track of what role they were playing in the plot, and I could use that information to figure out who was speaking. Like, I remember watching a scene between two old white dudes who might as well be the same old white dude except one is a bit taller, but based on what I knew of the plot and what they were saying to each other, I could tell which characters they were supposed to be. I think this was a subtitle-heavy movie even if you weren't Deaf/hard of hearing, because there was a lot of dialog in Italian and Latin and Spanish that was translated in the subtitles, but honestly, I might just start watching every movie or show with subtitles from now on if that really does help with the face blindness issue. I already watch YouTube with subtitles/captions anyway, because sometimes there are translations of Eurovision songs there, and I think it's also given me an improved experience even watching non-Eurovision videos that are 100% in English.

(Apparently Catholics hate this movie for some reason, and seem to think that it is anti-Catholic in some way. I don't really understand this, because the main character that the movie took a strong stance against was a raging right-wing lunatic spewing a whole bunch of Nazi-adjacent Great Replacement conspiracy theory shit and calling for a religious war against Muslims, which I don't think most Catholics would want to claim as an official position of the Catholic church. I don't think. There was a socially conservative character who was portrayed at least somewhat sympathetically, and a socially progressive character who was at times portrayed a bit unsympathetically, I don't think it was at all a movie about how the Catholic church should reverse its position on literally everything or anything like that.)

[ticktockmyclockworkhart]

Wuh oh!! I've been based and trollpilled

I was one of the people who scoffed at trolls and thought it was dumb. I take the L. I admit I was wrong... at least about the other movies lol, I still think the first movie was kinda weak but damn did they go from kinda weak to kinda peak. They're nothing groundbreaking but they are fun and a lot less annoying than I anticipated them being.

SO bc I love redesigning things I redesigned some characters and will be redesigning more. Below the cut is my thoughts on the designs~

So for the pop trolls as a whole I think their aesthetic is cute, but kinda conflicts with the worldbuilding in the later movies because all the troll tribes EXCEPT for pop have a very cohesive aesthetic related to their music. I like the smurf-y, crafted aesthetic but it doesn't really scream "pop" yknow? But pop is a kinda unique genre in that it can literally be anything as long as it's very popular and mainstream and any genre can become pop so I decided to theme the pop trolls around different kinds of pop.

Also!! Literally so many people give the trolls tails. And I AGREE. Honestly, I'll take as many degrees of seperation from the good luck trolls as possible bc they're scary as hell. No amount of nostalgia is going to change the fact that good luck trolls unsettled me as a kid and unsettle me now. I'm all for embracing more critter-type looks to them since trolls are in a way like fae so let's get quirky w it!!

For Poppy I wanted to commit and go full ham, bubblegum jojo siwa girlypop girly. It fits her existing aesthetic but also generally when we think pop music that kinda upbeat, colorful "girly" music tends to come to mind. She's got full-time legwarmers because YES I agree with her wearing those in the third movie she should wear them literally always. I initially wanted to give her plaid stuff, that sort of 2000s black and pink plaid that was huge but decided against it because black doesn't really fit her vibe. Rock zombie Poppy however...

She's also got a sparkly vest and SO. MANY. BOWS. Her bowtie is actually more of a smaller choker than a tie but I realize I didn't convey that lol. Her crown is also a pearly kind of clear plastic, like the old Disney princess shoes, remember those?

(I love how the third movie really leaned into the toy inspiration aspect of it so fuck yeah I'll lean even harder!!)

And this time she's the one with frosted tips because as Branch said, IT WAS AN ERA!! And I really wanted to stick to the vaguely Y2K theme with her.

For Branch, he doesn't have as much of a committed aesthetic reflecting his complicated relationship with music, but I pushed him into a soft pop-punk aesthetic with what he does have, and maybe a tiny sprinkling, just a hint of grunge... which he kind of did on his own in the og design. And again, I'm all for leaping into as far of a departure from good luck trolls as possible so I ditched his troll hair and gave him long, droopy, probably greasy emo boy hair. Has the added benefit of any time he uses his hair as a tool or weapon it becomes the sickest headbang hair flip. I buy into the theory that due to his trauma and probably depression, Branch only shows his "true colors" when excessively happy and his normal state is kind of permanently muted, but I gave him a streak of the blue as well. Whether it's dyed or not is up to yall lol.

I originally was going to change his clothes, but because the third movie establishes his vest was a gift from Floyd I decided against it. He does wear suspenders under it though, but they can't be seen. Probably has a chain wallet too, the hot topic goblin he is... I did change the color of his pants to black though, and to show how much of a bedraggled recluse he is, I made sure the patches matched colors with his vest to show he's been slowly taking the least visible parts of the vest apart to patch his pants. Poppy, get your man some skinny jeans.

Let me know what yall think!! This is such an EMBARRASSING interest to have lol I'm really putting myself out here with this one... not as bad as my danganronpa days though

[lover-of-skellies]

Jack Skellington Smoochability???

This makes me want to lose my mind, in the best way possible. For some unholy reason, that I can’t even begin to explain

Gonna tag all of you, because you brought this on yourselves >:| (/j, obviously)

@a-kiwi-fruit-that-makes-ocs @horsegirl469 @dragon-phoenix-along @lunarreaper12 @scienceisfood @nugget--daddy @madness-of-void @galaxytalesans20982

Jack Skellington gets a smooch-ability rating of 6 out of 12. He’s a decent enough choice, but there are some potential hazards/risks (mostly his hygiene) that you should take into consideration before leaning in for a smooch

1) Is his mouth dangerous? His teeth are not flat or super jagged, but they are somewhat sharp. Not nearly sharp enough to slice open your lip, of course, but enough so that they could still cause some discomfort. He’s only getting 1 point here, due to that

(Added a picture for reference, just because I can)

2) Would Jack bite? Is he aggressive? Admittedly, I haven’t seen Nightmare Before Christmas in so, SO long, so I remember very little of the movie. From what I vaguely remember, Jack strikes me as someone who does whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. Biting would probably be included in that. Though… in his defense, he seemed pretty laidback, and while he can be “scary”, I don’t think he’s truly aggressive. Not in a way that’d result in people being genuinely hurt by him, at least. I’ll give 2 points, since even though I’m not sure how much I’d trust him not to bite, at the very least he wouldn’t be actively trying to take a chunk out of anyone’s face

3) Are there any health hazards to the smoocher? He doesn’t carry weapons or anything that the smoocher could accidentally get hurt by, he might be somewhat of a biohazard. Because even though he’s not a walking corpse like Springtrap or eternally bleeding from the mouth like Geno, he still comes from a place where cobwebs, bugs and spiders crawling around, and sleeping in coffins is normal. We don’t know what his personal hygiene is like or how often he brushes his teeth. That being said… I’d say he gets 0 points for his questionable hygiene and potential yuckiness

4) Does he have a sympathetic backstory? Honestly, we don’t know anything about his backstory. I googled it, and all I found was that he used to be human. I’m not sure about his cause of death or what he was like as a human, but in the movie, he wants a change of pace. Despite his fame and success, he wants something more than that, so he can feel complete, in a sense. Which then leads to him kidnapping Santa Claus, creating destructive weapons (according to one of the websites I checked), and upsetting the entire town. He doesn’t mean to, of course, but his actions still did. Even though I kinda feel for him a little in regards to him wanting to find “something more”, all in all, the lack of information about him makes it hard for me to say his backstory is sympathetic. 0 points here

5) Does he deserve smooches? If you take everything he does that I listed in the point above and then also take into consideration what he was like as a friend to Sally (being a terrible listener, ignoring her objections to things, and talking over her), then…. No, I don’t think he’s too deserving. Maybe, maybe 1 point here if you squint because he had to eventually right his wrongs, but that still kind of feels like a stretch to me

6) Is he cute or cool? I wouldn’t say he’s cute, no. Definitely not based on the choices he made in the movie, at least. I could see him being cool though, both design-wise and in terms of his supernatural abilities. I’ll give him 2 points for coolness

In total, (no one come for me over this), Jack Skellington gets a smooch-ability rating of 6. While I personally wouldn’t smooch him, you’re free to, if you really wanted. He’s not the best possible smooching partner, but you could trust him to not maim you for it, at the very least. Feel free to take my rating with a grain of salt, because again, I haven’t watched the movie in such a long time, and I’m going solely off of what I found online in a few different websites and articles

[arudoe]

talk about bruise anything you want, i wanna hear

YAAAY MORE BRUISE

i alr talked about some hcs so ill chat a bit about some aus i have heehee!

- idol jay au !

i feel like this one is prolly the most well known (only because its the only one ive ever drawn for….) but basically jay is an idol/musician and cole is his nr1 fan! it was very inspired by prime empire and also those like harry styles x reader wattpad fics from back in the day… yeah…

all ive got for the story so far is that cole went to a fansign event and while getting his magazine signed jay also sneaks his personal phone number on one of the pages (something along tbe lines of xxx-xxx-xxx text me o_<) and… yeah things move on from there 🙏🙏

- mad scientist jay and his creature cole

OKAYY this might be one of my weirder ones but i think about it a lot 😭😭

anyways jay is a disabled basement dweller college dropout scientist guy and one day he kind of feels some paranormal presence in his lab and conducts a bunch of tests and comes to tbe conclusion there is a ghost floating around in his lab. so like the normal person he is he tries to communicate with it but only gets a bunch of weird cryptid messages that dont make sense… so he comes to bright idea of “hey! i should make this ghost a vessel they can possess!” so he makes a body frankenstein style and low and behold his plan worked!

cole, a ghost from the 80s who possessed the body is now chilling in jays lab with him, but like most people who have been dead for over 40 years he is very curious about the outside world and what has changed.

but jay for some reason is very adamant about him not going outside at all, which causes some tension between the two..

(the reason is jay has abandoned issues) (also cole is kind of a freak of nature) (affectionately)

I LIKE THIS AU A LOT cus its so stupid honestly and i love me some ghost cole also like im still mad about how ninjago decided to completely discard jays love for inventing… let the man make his little trinkets…

- wizard school au

basically what it sounds like… they are wizards.. at a wizard school… and do magic…

yes this was partly inspired by h*rry p*tter BUT ONLY THE VIBES (i barely remember the movies)

BUT UM this is like a whole universe thing and theres so so much lore and world building so… if u want a separate post about it… lmk

- roommates au!

this is my most recent one (and the one i think about the most) but um yeah pretty self explanatory it was based off this jdrama/manga called good morning call so uhhh ya!

basically cole and jay were enemies throughout highschool and basically spend all their energy hating each other but they to their separate ways during college but reunite (unwillingly) as roommates!

they navigate living with each other and learn to let go of their hate (which stemmed from a mixture of misunderstandings and insecurities) and then eventually fall in love!!

i think this is the au i have the most work done on (i have a draft for every major scene that happens in the story heehee) and perhaps! one day i will actually make it a real thing !

so um yeah! i have a bunch more but most of them are very unfinished or just… vague ideas or vibes i go by… i also have some aus that arent bruise so um if anyone wants to hear about those… smiles

BUTTT TYSM FOR UR QUESTION i dont rly say this a lot but any interaction i get with my content means the world to me and i always giggle and kick my feet when reading reblog comments bc everyone is so nice 🥹🥹

[gunsli-01]

Thanks @good-beans for tagging me in this. These are always really fun and I hope it tells people a bit more about me.

I was reading your answers after answering again myself and I forgot about The Clue Movie while answering but Star and I just re-watched it recently and it was still as good as ever. It's also interesting you liked dance as well. My mom says she put my sister and I into ballet when we were younger but like most places had a tendency to close down back then which it did. Still really love ballet and dance in general.

I answered these before because @ludwigoat909 tagged me in it as well and the answers here are probably different but similar. Because when they tagged me I was a bit overwhelmed with life stuff and just answered pretty quickly. Don't even really remember answering more than vaguely to be honest sorry bout that.

Do you make your bed?

Yes. I try to make it every day even when my mood is bad (depressed). The only time I don't make it is when my mood is super bad (distraught). I have ocd so I'm not comfortable with spaces being out of order.

Favorite Number?

Thirteen, two, and three.

What's your job?

Though I'm not paid I work as my father's caretaker. I've worked in loans, and at a college library before. My father can get incredibly stressed/distraught each time I'm out for long periods of time. To the point of having medical issues. So, he's not interested in me getting a job outside the home in contrast he has immense anxiety about it. Though I'm going through the process of applying for disability and have been for several years now. This is what happens when the psychiatrist that diagnosed you retroactively changes your records a year after cutting ties with her. Well the diagnosis was still nice to have because it explained the social issues at my first several jobs.

If you could go back to school, would you?

If I could I would. It would definitely be fun since I do like to learn. Yet my attention is bad when it comes to online classes and I can't go in person at the moment due to a lack of transportation.

Can you Parallel Park?

I don't drive!

Do you think Aliens are real?

Yes.

Can you drive a manual car?

No. I don't drive.

Guilty Pleasure?

Hm, like a show or something I just enjoy doing. Right now I've been really enjoying writing. I guess a guilty pleassure currently like something that makes me go hm I wouldn't want to share this with anyone is like I found out about this game called Class of '09 and it is very American and soo well... Honestly pretty amazing and while I didn't go to a high school like that one it certainly does remind me of how high school could be.

Favorite Type of Music?

I tend to like all music. In the oc milgram I'm writing music taste is really important because a lot of people in the states at (at least while I was in school) tended to make broad assumptions about others based on their music tastes/define themselves through the music they like. I try to listen to a little bit of everything but I swing more alternative. Right now I'm really into The Wrecks and I Don't Know How But They Found Me. I guess the way I listen to anything and everything was a byproduct of not wanting to pigeonholed into liking only one genre to fit into a certain scene. I always found that sort of thing pretty stifling.

Do you like puzzles?

I like mysteries and putting together puzzles can be fun. Yet it can take me awhile to grasp things like riddles and spatial reasoning puzzles. So it's a mix.

Favorite Childhood Sport?

I was really into Detective Conan as a kid still am. As a result for a point I got really obsessed with the idea of playing soccer and also tennis. Due to prince of tennis. Though if I had to pick a favorite that I legitimately wanted to practice I'd say ballet. Though I tend to really enjoy dance in general.

Do you talk to yourself?

Yeah, but I know I shouldn't do that aloud or anything. Sometimes I do anyway but I'm working on not letting that slip out as much. Plus it tends to stop naturally when I'm not super stressed.

Tea or Coffee?

Tea.

First thing you wanted to be when you grew up?

Oh well I think it was a musician like I wanted to write music. Ultimately I ended up enjoying writing thought if I was good enough at it I could combine all my interests together. Writing, animation, and music. Though since I always had an interest in writing and settled on writer at like ten I tend to just say writer.

What Movies do you Adore?

The Empire of Corpses along with Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart. I really like both of those movies.

[theboardwalkbody]

Tentatively Titled: Bear With Me Fandom: The Bear Authors Notes: Below the cut is the first half of a chapter for a The Bear fic I had started. I planned on finishing this chapter but I am feeling sick so I can't concentrate but I wanted to have this out there before s2 blows it all out of the water. It is inspired by a tiktok clip of another restaurant-based movie I can't remember the name of at the moment.

Right now it is written as 'You' and not OC but I was considering changing that to flesh them out more instead of needing to keep things vague (I dont feel it sits right to give You-characters any details if they're supposed to be for any and all readers). So yeah - this 'You' has background info and details so thinking about naming them later.

Its also general/no-pairing in this part (again, its only half a chapter) but it is intended to become a fic with a main pairing with Carmy. (Honestly it was supposed to start in the second half of this chapter but I really dont feel good and the screen hurts to look at).

So anyway, enjoy this little snippet - if anyone wants more I'll see what I can do - but s2 may make me abandon idk lol

The Original Beef underwent renovations and re-opened as The Bear. Among the changes instituted by Carmen Berzatto was the addition of a larger dining room which opened up a couple positions for servers. Having decided to go back to college you needed a part-time job in order to be able to keep up with your car payments, online streaming subscriptions, and other pesky things like groceries and rent after having to leave your full-time position due to lack of flexibility. After a month of being denied from over a dozen places you put your application in to this recently renovated restaurant across town expecting to be denied like the others, but to your surprise, you were called back within the day. So you began making the thirty-five minute commute from your place to work four times a week. The work was as expected: wait tables, clean up, help answer phones, take payments; five star customer service. What wasn't expected was the atmosphere.

You've worked customer service and retail for a decade. You thought you had beaten your social anxiety, at least enough to function at work, but it was proving difficult to manage lately. You tried lying to yourself; its just new job jitters, made worse by having been out of the customer service (at least in public) game for a couple years and instead sitting in a small cubicle reading over insurance claims. At least that's what you told them. In reality you were a vocational nurse for the last three years but you felt that if you put that on your resume you would be overlooked and you were too desperate to be without pay until someone would hire you. You knew the truth, however, behind the anxiety. It was the constant exposure to one of your worst triggers: Yelling. Specifically, men yelling. You were on edge constantly. Always wondering when the yelling would start - the kitchen staff often yelled to each other - and dreading the days when you worked the same shift as Richie. The manager was the worst offender, it was as if he only had one volume setting. Even when the yelling wasn't hostile it was still stressful. You would remain hypervigilant and tune in to hear every word from anywhere in the restaurant so you would be prepared if the yelling ever took on a aggressive tone, to be prepared if things ever became violent.

You stayed quiet for the most part. The rest of the staff started calling you "our very own kitchen mouse". That you didn't mind, you honestly thought it was pretty cute. The thing that did bother you, nearly constantly, was your damn stomach. The anxiety causing you to feel nauseous nearly every day. Add in to that feeling tired nearly all the time between classes, having work, and the fact that the anxiety on work nights would not let you sleep at all.

A month of this was taking its toll on you. You weren't sure how much longer you would be able to stay here.

It was a Friday night. It was busier than normal and there seemed to be a constant stream of incidents. A jammed receipt printer causing a customer to become short with you, a customer trying to call in to place a to-go order but the call being dropped multiple times until they eventually gave up but not before calling back one more time to blame the inconvenience on you, a customer knocking their glass off the table and you needing to clean it while not falling behind on your tables. You blamed it on the full moon.

"Order in for Table 4, Chefs," you announced, placing the order ticket in the line of others, and walking back out to check in on your other tables.

Walking back out to the dining room you were suddenly met with calls of 'hey waitress!' and snapping.

You rolled your eyes and groaned internally before turning towards the sound and plastering a smile on your face. Walking over to the table you asked, "Yes, sir, how can I help you?" "This is cold, I need you to take it off my bill," the man said.

You looked down at the plate - a pasta and meat dish that was very obviously nearly finished - and then back at the customer.

"I am sorry to hear that, sir. I can offer you a new plate, but I can not comp the meal. If it was unsatisfactory when you received it you should have let someone know, I can not take the meal off with it having been more than halfway eaten. I apologize," you explained. "What if I didn't eat it?" the man snapped. "I'm sorry, sir?" you weren't following. "I said - What if I didn't eat it? What if I am telling you that I threw the rest of it out and that is just what is left stuck to the plate." he countered. "Again, sir, I apologize but at this point I can not --"

The man began arguing. Obviously unhappy with you not giving in to his demands he started shouting and insulting you. You felt your face get hot with anxiety and your stomach was bad enough you felt like you were about to vomit. You started chewing on the inside of your cheek and your eyes stung as he called you names and belittled you. You were glued to the spot unable to muster up the courage to turn and walk away, worried it would make matters worse. The last straw was the man reaching across the table, grabbing your hand, and placing it in his dish of partially eaten food.

"Doesn't that feel cold to you? You incompetent bitch?" he yelled at you.

Trembling you pulled your hand out of the food and grabbed the dish. You picked it up and with a cracked voice replied, "sorry, sir, I'll take care of it," before turning and walking the dish back to the kitchen.

The tears stung your eyes and you tried not to blink, knowing if you did they would fall. You tried to remain professional. You were so lost in your own anxious thoughts that it was almost as if you could hear nothing as you walked to the kitchen.

'Your fault, your fault, your fault,' circled around in your head drowning out everything else.

You pushed the doors open and placed the dish down near the sink. You couldn't comp the meal, despite anything you said to the man to placate him. You figured you would pay for it yourself that way he would stop yelling and you wouldn't have to involve Carmen, who was currently acting as head chef and manager since Richie was running late. Something you had been grateful for up until now.

You were about to make your way to the restroom to wash the pasta sauce off your hands and wipe your eyes, thinking no one even noticed you come in to the kitchen at all, when you heard Carmen's voice call out,

"Why is she crying?"

You were pretty sure you were going to pass out. All eyes turned towards you now.

Manny was closest to you and now that he was paying attention he noticed how red and watery your eyes were and asked, "you okay, Mouse?" He caught a glimpse of the red sauce on your hand and mistook it for blood as he suddenly called out, "She's bleeding! Grab the first aid kit its bad!"

'Fuck,' you cursed in your head. The tears started flowing now. Being asked if you were okay was the surefire way to get the dam to burst no matter how hard you tried to keep it up.

"No! Not! I'm fine," you said, but your voice sounded anything but fine. "It's not blood!"

"What happened, mama?" Tina asked leaving her station to approach you. Her voice was sweet and caring, she gingerly took your red soaked hand in hers.

You stepped back and insisted, "It's just sauce. It's nothing, really, everything's OK, I just need a second." With that you turned to leave and pretend you were going to use the restroom but instead you wiped your hand on your dark jeans and snuck out of the restaurant and around the back to sneak back into the far end of the kitchen and sit in the freezer. The cold would help take away the burning feeling you felt and calm you down - something you learned during your several month position at a grocery store deli.

You ducked into the freezer and sat on a crate in the corner full of yet-to-be-unpacked food. You just needed a minute, you told yourself, then you would be back up and get back out there. You focused on taking deep breaths and wiped your eyes.

The freezer door opened after a few moments and you cursed yourself for hiding in here. You had no excuse for why you would need to be in here and evidently you took too long, you should have left already. You looked up and saw Carmen walk in and look around until he found what he was looking for - you. He walked up to you and crouched down across from you.

"What happened?" he asked, you could see his breath as he spoke. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to keep off some of the cold. "I'm sorry, I just needed a second to cool down," you answered, your own breath dancing in the cold air. "That's fine, you can take as long as you need, just please tell me what's wrong," he assured. "It's so stupid," you admitted, but it made you start crying harder.

Carmen stayed quiet a moment, letting you catch your breath, but his silence allowed you to open up and explain what had happened. When you finished your retelling of the situation he stood, extended his hand which you accepted, and slowly guided you out of the freezer. Without a word he began to lead you out to the dining room as you wiped your face to dry it of the tears.

Crossing back through the kitchen you and him caught the attention of the rest of the crew. As you passed the front door Richie happened to walk in, finally making his appearance.

"Yo, Cuz, what's happening?" he asked, his voice already above casual speaking volume. Carmen ignored him and kept leading you.

Stopping at the edge of the dining room he dropped your hand. "Who?" he asked. "Please, forget it, Chef, I took care of it." you insisted. "Who?" he repeated. You could tell by the tone of his voice he wasn't in the mood to ask again so you pointed to the customer in question.

You watched as Carmen approached the customer who berated you. He pulled a chair over from the next table over and sat at the table where the aggressive customer was sitting with a group of other men, and began talking to him. You couldn't hear their conversation over the noise of a full dining room but you could tell that neither of the men were enjoying their conversation. Noticing the scene unfolding many other customers stopped in their conversations and turned their attention towards Carmen and the other man. The volume in the room dying down enough that you could now make out what was being said by Carmen. He stood now, and his voice raised to assert himself.

"Apologize to her." he said. The man at the table laughed heartily. "No, I have nothing to apologize for."

Carmen, unsatisfied with the man's response, gathered up the tablecloth until all the dishes and drinks were bundled up in a pile of cloth in the center of the table. "You can see yourself out." "Who do you think you are?" the man shouted, "go get me your manager." "I'm the fucking owner. Get out." Carmen asserted.

The man huffed but at the encouragement of his bewildered companions he rose, grabbed his suit jacket, and left. The dining room erupted in applause. Carmen turned back to look at you, and you, embarrassed but also very impressed by his actions, turned away from him. You saw Richie behind you, having watched the scene play out, and you could see the crew peaking their heads out from the kitchen as well. Carmen came up to you and said, "can you meet me in the office?"

Doing as he asked you walked away. You just barely caught him barking orders at the others, Richie to cover your tables, Sydney to take charge for a bit, and the others to get back to their stations.

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

hii ! for the fic ask game 8, 7, and 11 <3

Ooooooo thank you for the ask, I’m very happy to answer these!!!

8. Which three fics were the easiest to write? Why?

• It Had To Be You: this was the first real fic I ever wrote and I honestly don’t know what possessed me to write it as quickly as I did. I was deep in my haikyuu phase and didn’t have a job at the time so I started and finished it within 5-6 days (which is CRAZY to me as it’s like +40k). I also had the movie When Harry Met Sally to base it off so that gave me a good outline to work with without needing to change much.

• the only hoax i believe in: had a sudden craving for stsg angst and I cracked it out an a day. It’s one of my shortest fics so it didn’t take an especially long time to write, but I remember being super in the zone for this one

• you’ll always know me: this one had more of my usual update schedule of once/twice a month but it’s still one of my faster fics. I think I was able to finish it so quickly because the story was so important to me and it’s extremely easy writing from Oikawa’s perspective, especially as a closeted bisexual when it comes to family. I just needed to get this story out so chapters took about a week to finish.

7. Pick three fics that were a struggle to finish. Why was it so difficult to write?

• and i’ve been tryin’ not to feel it: honestly i think it’s because this is the first long form fic I’ve written that doesn’t have an exhaustively detailed outline. My outline for this is more of a basic plot point structure, but I’ve had to go back and rearrange a lot of the ideas I had for specific chapters which means writing those chapters takes longer. I also get distracted fairly easily from this fic (ie: vamp au and post canon fics) which is such a bummer because it’s easily my most popular fic. I’ve also really been feeling the burnout when I finish and post a chapter, so I’d rather give myself time away from this fic and enjoy it later instead of forcing myself and hating it.

• i guess this is the end: this was a part 2 to my stsg angst oneshot but gd did I drag my feet writing it. I thought I was gonna pop this sucker out like three days after the original fic but instead it took me at least a month to actually sit down and write it. The vibe just wasn’t right whenever I tried to take a go at it and I’d write a sentence before moving onto something else. I did finally finish it though lol.

• things i would miss from the other side: this fic isn’t even technically done yet but MAN have i struggled at times. I was really good about writing it for the first week but now it’s really slowed down to where I’m writing like a quarter to a half a scene each night where I used to be able to finish the entire scene. This is another fic where I didn’t write detailed outline but I didn’t even USE an outline for it, just a vague bullet point list of things I wanted to put into it.

11. Which three fics of yours are under-appreciated (whatever that means to you)? Write something lovely about each of them!

• washing what you know out to sea: I always talk about this fic when I mention underrated fics of mine, but it’s true!!! I think my prose in this fic was some of my best and it leaves the relationship between the main pairing in such an undefinable state that I love. I’m hoping it gets more traction once the chainsaw man movie and season 2 come out.

• kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again: honestly this fic has gotten a surprising amount of love. It’s one that will randomly get a bunch of kudos and bookmarks even though it’s a Christmas fic, but I did really like how I wrote bokuaka’s relationship. It’s definitely a pure fluff fic and honestly it’s one of my fics that I reread pretty often!

• the only hoax i believe in: I think my use of prose and angst really popped off with this one. I felt very emotional writing it and I think I thought it would get more love than it did, but I’m still very pleased with it! I think I wrote Gojo with some good complexity.

[peridhot]

Cursed Princess Club by Lambcat

Meet Gwendolyn – living proof that princesses don’t always have it all. See, although she lives in a castle and her father is the King, Gwendolyn isn’t like a movie princess, or even a fairly-tale princess. She’s got a big heart, but isn’t particularly attractive and doesn’t have a Disney-quality singing voice. But one night, she accidentally stumbles upon the twisted world of the Cursed Princess Club, and her life will never be the same. Hexed and cast out, the ladies of the club are just the people Gwendolyn needs to show her that just because she doesn’t “fit the mold” does not mean she’s any less of a princess.

Read to completion.

Wow.... Okay, first thing's first: it was a really good story. I love drama, and this series certainly had it. The Plaid Queen especially kept me on my toes frequently. Everything about her story... it was like she drove the drama lol. I love her. Anyway, the story itself was very charming, though it did feel as though it dawdled at some points (and to be fair, it's very possible that they only felt that way because reading on a weekly basis is far different from binge reading). Now, that said, let me admit something: I... honestly don't remember a lot of it. Not that it's forgettable by any means!! I just... have a bad memory. Reading for multiple years, with breaks included, just means that I'm bound to forget some things. So, sadly, unless I do a full reread, I won't be able to give a full and proper summary of my feelings on the story. Based on what I do recall, though, the story is very good!! Some of the jokes and humor is somewhat dated, but not horrifically so. I thought Gwen's journey to self acceptance and appreciation was beautifully done. I will say (unrelated to Gwen's journey), it felt like the small picture was occasionally lost to the big picture. Case in point being that the cast of the cursed princesses was thinned out significantly as time went on, and less time was spent in the club as well, to the point that we could almost forget about them all, which is sad. Not that I hate Gwen's journey, but I was genuinely very excited to see a story about cursed princesses, emphasis on the plural, and to see more of their daily lives with their curses. I was saddened that we didn't do that. Well, we did it for a short while, but I mean that I wanted to do it for longer, you know? Some of my favorite princesses were left at the wayside for pursuit of the bigger picture, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was kind of disappointing. Other than that, I've never been one who greatly enjoyed open ended endings, so the vague ending we got, while not bad, wasn't my favorite. It was a very well written ending, but I did want to know more, you know, wanted to see further in the future. What is Blaine's path like? Frederick's rule? Will Gwen move to the Plaid Kingdom to be his Queen one day? What of Maria's future? What about Lorena? Do any of the cursed club members ever break their curses? Did Jamie and Leopold have something? What about the ex-Plaid King, will he ever get to make amends? I don't know... the ending was good, but I wish it had more concrete future stuff. That's just a small opinion, though, and really just a nitpick. Anyway, as for things I enjoyed... I enjoyed the drama (as I said), the cast was strong and interesting, the various curses on the princesses were all pretty interesting and unique, Gwen's journey was well written, as was the start of the journey for Blaine, and Frederick's journey... there was a lot that was really well done! Overall, it was a very enjoyable webtoon, and it's sad it's ending. Thank you, Lambcat, for giving us this wonderful story. I would read it again.

[denimbex1986]

'Ever find you just can’t remember the name of a film? I really enjoyed The End We Start From but whenever I wanted to tell someone about it, I couldn’t remember what it was called. Begin at the End? Starting at the End? Ending the Story? Finishing the Starting? So it was with Strange People, I mean All Strange Together, I mean The Strangers We Are, oh look, you know what I mean.

I have to confess that the prospect of watching this one struck me as the cinematic equivalent of eating my greens – Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal being gloomy for two hours, yay – but I was completely unprepared for how weird, off-kilter, lyrical and moving this ended up being. To examine it fully means spoilers, so I’ll dance around a few things in this brief review, but honestly – do yourself a favour and just go and see it.

Scott’s Adam is an isolated writer living in a terrifyingly uninhabited huge tower block, who reluctantly hooks up with Mescal’s Harry before a personal crisis takes him back to his home town, where he seemingly interacts with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) who haven’t seen him since he was twelve years old, for the very good reason that that was how old he was when they both died in a car crash.

Mescal and Scott are seemingly an odd pairing. Scott’s a very “busy” actor, and it’s greatly to his credit that I’ve never seen a performance of his collapse under the weight of tics and mannerisms. But cut Paul Mescal and he bleeds pure naturalism. Although also Irish, he sounds Manchester here, and it’s never distracting, and despite their differing approaches, this also never feels like a clash of acting styles. Foy and Bell are superb too, and the only other credited actors are Adam’s 12-year-old self and a waitress.

But don’t let that fool you into thinking that this feels like a play. Although it is mainly people talking in rooms, writer-director Andrew Haigh makes it all feel effortlessly cinematic. And given the premise, you’ll rapidly grasp that few if any of the conversations are in any way possible, and yet all of them feel completely convincing, detailed and relatable.

Things get further fractured, dreamlike and bizarre from there, but Haigh wants us to feel, and not to question. The final twist never feels like a Twilight Zone ending – further cementing a kinship between this and Mescal’s triumph in Aftersun. To me there seemed to be clues throughout that Adam had died in a fire basically as soon as the movie started, but there’s no Jacob’s Ladder-style pull-back-and-reveal and so I wasn’t left feeling unfulfilled because I wasn’t being offered a nice neat ending, rather I felt vaguely ashamed that I’d been thinking along such ploddingly prosaic lines.

I gather this was based on Japanese book by one Taichi Yamada whose oeuvre I am not familiar with. But if the very cursory synopsis on Wikipedia is any guide at all, it seems as if the novel would be the shit version of this idea, whereas the movie version is quite transcendent.'

[amewinterswriting]

Happy STS!

Looking back, what's your writing-related highlight of this year?

So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've been in the middle of a writing/redrafting dry spell while real life has tried to pummel me into submission. (Not to make excuses but just for my own reference: in the last three months there's been my mother's wedding, my aunt has had a serious illness diagnosed, we're currently under a lot of stress over my wife's visa renewal and just the general stress of working in a toy shop at Christmas.) So my initial thoughts were a bit pessimistic, and I don't really want to bring that kind of energy to my writing blog. So I thought about it a bit harder.

I (overly optimistically) wanted to finish the rewrite of Magic's Servant this year; I obviously haven't managed that. But I have achieved about 40% of the rewrite this year alone, and that's honestly good going considering that the 'original' draft is a mess (half script, half prose, some of the prose was in first person, some in third, there's some weird tense shenanigans in places, half of my core characters didn't really have a personality, there are at least three different drafts of some scenes that each convey completely contrasting information...). This has been a top to bottom, utter overhaul of everything, from the very name of the project to the shape of the plot and how everything becomes resolved. It's also likely to be the only project I work on that will need these kinds of big overhauls - my first drafts are now much more consistent and only need minor tweaks due to the years of writing practice I've had since. (The very first draft of anything to do with Magic's Servant was written in 2010 if I remember correctly. At the time, I was pantsing a whole movie script based on vibes and very little else. This story has been written and rewritten piecemeal since then and it's only recently that I feel like my writing skills and life experience are ready to actually tell the whole story in a way that does it any kind of justice. Unfortunately, when your co-writer is yourself from 13 years ago, you have to do a lot of work to get it up to your current writing standards!)

I've also written a lot more non-fiction this year - blog posts, writing advice, Ko-fi updates and a few essays, some of which I haven't shared anywhere yet.

In fandom, I have just finished posting a long-form fanfic (which, admittedly, I've been sitting on for a couple of years in the hopes that I would finish the whole series before posting. Then I realised I keep adding more WIPs to the series and it might never actually be 'done') - it's not fresh writing but it is a great way for me to practice my editing skills and also weed out my worst habits ("really" for emphasis outside of dialogue is now in my sin bin...and now I realise I've used it in this very post already. I am nothing if not consistent!)

And of course, I've managed to keep this blog active and managed to stay at least vaguely connected to this little corner of the Writblr community. Seeing everyone's WIPs develop over time and getting involved in tag and ask games has definitely been a writing highlight of my year, and so very helpful in keeping me motivated.

So while the year might not have been ideal in terms of getting everything I wanted to achieve entirely done, I feel like I've done what I can with the tools and time I've had, and it's a very solid foundation to launch myself into 2024 with.

[bellmo15-blog]

The Awkward Disney Based Plays I Saw As A Child

You know what? I feel like telling you all a story. A story from my childhood. One that has stayed with me for almost two decades now… And NOT for the right reasons either!

When I was a child and still in Primary School for a couple of years towards the end of the 2000’s there was this theatre group that would always come to a neighbouring town near our school. They didn’t come to the town where my school was because well, it was a really, REALLY small town that only had a school, a pub, general store, a couple of houses, a silo and a football field. And every time they did come our school would always go there to see them preform. Specifically, the three times we did go and see them they did re-enactments a few Disney movies and every year was a new movie.

Or at least, I assumed it was Disney movies they were re-creating because yes, I was one of THOSE kids growing up who wasn’t aware that pretty much every animated film by Disney (excluding those made by Pixar) were adaptations of already existing stories. Adaptations which at times would play pretty lossy goosy with how closely they followed the source material. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was an adaptation of an old Grimmdark fairy tale from Germany in 1812 just simply called Snow White. Yeah, it’s JUST called Snow White. I honestly didn’t know the Seven Dwarfs were not even referenced in the original stories title until I looked it up. Hercules was an adaptation of the story of the 12 Labors of Heracles from Greek Mythology. Yes people, it’s actually meant to be said as Heracles! NOT Hercules! Heracles is the original Greek name while Hercules is the name the Romans gave the character back when they were all “Hippity Hoppity, your country, people and culture are now our property!” And Aladdin is an adaptation of the folktale of the same name from the Book of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. The fact I didn’t pick up on that as a child is even more egregious considering the title and choice lyrics of the very first song you hear in Disney’s Aladdin.

I bring these three stories up in particular not because there are some people who STILL don’t realize most Disney movies are just lifted from other sources (although that is part of the reason I guess) but also because these three plays we saw were retellings of these stories. I always thought that these plays were based of the Disney retellings though since aside from the Hercules one using the Roman name of the character it also depicted Hades as the villain despite the fact that not only was he NOT a villain in the story of Heracles but he was actually a pretty neutral God. That being said, instead of the climax being how it is in Disney’s version where Hercules is willing to sacrifice himself to save Meg only to be ascended to Godhood as he does, this play it just ends with a generic sword fight of Zeus vs Hades with Zeus being beaten and Hercules coming in last second to save his daddy. His daddy who will likely go on to breed with many, many, many, many, MANY more women around Greece. And I hope you aren’t expecting me to go over everything in these plays because I don’t remember a lot about them. I mean I did see these was I was between 10-13 so not everything from these performances is well remembered. However, stuff like how the Hercules play ended is one of the reasons why I’ve only just been recently thinking it might have been the groups own take on these classic stories instead of being recreations of the Disney versions.

No, the reason I personally remember these plays is because of how pandering they were! How do I mean? Well, a couple of main reasons. First one being, the pop culture references! Now again, I was only a child when I originally saw these, so I don’t remember everything from them but the way they tried to pander to us I do. One of these plays, I don’t remember if it was the Hercules or Aladdin one specifically though I vaguely remember it being the Hercules one, but… Hades was a gamer! No really, there was actually a point in this play where Megura talks about how Hades has regularly gotten a six star wanted level on Grand Theft Auto followed by Zeus walking in and Meg going “BUSTED” as an obvious reference  to getting busted in GTA. Putting aside the fact that out of all the games they could have referenced they picked the one that most of the kids in my class were not allowed to play remember that generic sword fight ending I mentioned earlier? Yeah, you want to know what they had blasting in the background of that fight? Duel of the Fates from the Star Wars prequels. Was I super into both of those things growing up? Yes! Yes I was! Did that make the attempts to pander to us any less painful to put up with? No. No it did not!

Now some may be thinking of stopping and telling me “But wait, isn’t one of the most popular characters in any Disney movie, the Genie from Aladdin, also a pop culture referencing machine?” Yes but Genie is usually let off the hook by most people, myself included, for several reasons. Like with some early Simpsons episodes most of the references are pretty obscure and reference stuff that’s pretty old or that older audiences would get and even if you do get them the film isn’t shoving those references down your throat anyway. Plus, Robin William’s performance as the Genie is so entertaining to watch just on it’s own anyway and is regarded as one of the best performances in the film! There’s a good reason some people were hesitant to Will Smith playing the character in the live action remake.

But the pop culture references were not as bad as the OTHER reason I remember from these plays for the wrong reason. Because these plays also had music numbers. And instead of doing covers of classic Disney songs they instead did parody versions of random popular songs from around when we saw these plays. You know where I’m going with these, they were just as painful as the pop culture references. You could argue that they couldn’t do covers of the Disney songs but I mean, have you seen the amount of covers of those songs are up on Youtube? The one I remember the most was during the Aladdin play where Jafar suddenly started singing a parody of Kanye Wests Stronger only he was singing about his plan to over throw Sultan Vinegar and how “I need the lamp now!” Oh yeah, I forgot to mention but what I just called the Sultan just now wasn’t a joke I just made up on the spot either, THAT WAS ACTUALLY WHAT HE WAS CALLED IN THE PLAY! SULTAN VINIGER! EVEN THOUGH THE SUTAN IN BOTH THE ORIGINAL AND DISNEY VERSION OF ALADDIN (at least according to the Disney Wiki) HAS A NAME AND IT’S SULTAN HAMED BOBBOLONIS II OF AGRABAH! And that’s not even counting how these plays end either because after the final scene all the actors decide to get out onto the stage and sing a cover of Reach of the Stars by S Club 7 which, okay yeah that’s a good song but did every one of these need to end on that song? You know how some people give modern animated films crap for ending on a dance party ending? Yeah, this was that but in real life!

The worst part about these plays however is only a day or two after we saw these plays our teacher would actually play for us the Disney versions of these movies and I seriously can not tell you how much better these were to watch compared to those plays! They were actually fun and didn’t make me want to do something very illegal just from watching it! Many people often give Disney shit for the live action remakes they do of there classic films which feel like they are solely being made just to cater to people who hate animation as a medium. And while I am by no means defending them especially as someone who loves animation himself, these plays were no better than what Disney has been trying the past decade.

So yeah, that’s just a little story from my past I’ve had on my mind a lot lately and thought I’d share.