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unproduciblesmackdown · 3 years ago

Note

returning the favor: do you have any hcs re: winston, past or present, that you haven't expounded upon before or at length or just feel like talking about again. whatever you like

Thank You.......yeah idk really what hc's i've like "officially" described here that often lol, but then also there's that whole complication where i don't really ever come up with ideas & when asked anything i'm probably going [???] like, classics like "what do you like out of [broad parameter]" & it's like damn....i dunno. what ideas do i have about winsotn who i've thought about every day for > 2 yrs??? that's tough.....& Then the further chaos of like, when i do have hc's or w/e it's less discrete, concrete invented ideas & more towards the end of the spectrum that's like "well i kinda interpret this part of canon vaguely this way" &/or "i have This vague notion that i haven't solidified into a pretend fact or that i'm not at all committed to or take that seriously" where it's like, not only is this not really nailed down but it's basically free floating / i might have other ideas that would contradict each other lol. seems like a more concise list of Stats that are fully/exclusively my ideas is more exciting, but instead i can offer vague "i dunno / what ifs" based on vibes that i verbosely describe lmao, plus i'll forget a bunch of ideas i may have had i'm sure but you know. what else have i ever offered; never really trying to sell this material to otherwise uninterested parties or only make posts that guaranteed more than one person might enjoy, why would i be starting now; and ig if i write a bunch of stuff here & go "oh & i forgot like a half dozen obvious things" i can add on to it if it's a big deal.....plus it's always tricky with billions in particular being vague abt its own characters lmao, we only see [outside of work] personal stuff if it's going to become directly tied to [definitely at work] professional plotlines, or Maybe glimpse some character contextualizing things for the more central characters....side characters have more blanks to fill but also that means. just more that's blank lol & kinda a mystery of Up To Interpretation.....i figured one way to have any structure for this at all is to have a part looking at each winston involving episode's info. well anyways, after this meandering intro that kind of illustrates how i'm sure the rest of things will go here lol, i'm just gonna throw a bunch of stuff down in general. thanks again for the prompt to do so, b/c why not

really the one concrete discrete idea i have which isn't in the canon text is, of course: he is autistic

does he Know? idk. either way, think he's pretty aware of how he operates (& how he Can't operate), but if he doesn't know that's probably more for the "also: he's self loathing, which was basically textually implied" stuff lol. just mentioned it but i do always enjoy the tayston idea that taylor's talking abt in the past having it floated by a therapist/s or whomever that they could be autistic, them considering it but it not applying; winston going "hmm" & doing his own considering & researching & then maybe exclusively sharing the news w/taylor....but of course, maybe he's figured it out himself at some point before. i do think he'd figure it out himself though rather than anyone else directly suggesting it (maybe out here being diagnosed with "just the guy who sucks who we don't like / won't act right or normal" sort of usual experience) & i think, if he knows, he's not about to want ppl at work to know, b/c not as though anyone (but taylor & other quants) particularly seems to be impressed by his quanting proficiency, but he sure gets some validation/affirmation through that route (more re: that of course) and knows that ppl going "oh he's autistic so of course he's better at Doing Math / computer stuff as a like, mechanical efficiency sort of thing" or whatever. and the fact that taylor can interact with him / gives him some leeway to generally do his thing means he's kind of already got space to operate how he operates, see the start of this section....and idk. transitioning into the next section ig

just an Interpretation Of Canon thing here but, re: how these characters generally operate & what their reason is for being around doing stuff in the first place, i guess it's that winston does genuinely like to do & is interested in the math/coding stuff involved here, was also genuinely interested in working for taylor specifically (whatever The Hype specifically was), then you have taylor having the "despite your demeanor, your skills are superior" stance & appreciating what he can do & letting him do it by hiring him for real & all, & here we are, Q is for Quantitative, baby......he must find it rewarding enough to be getting to do this quanting stuff and also, the potential for validation when anyone recognizes he's good at it & by extension finds something about him good & wants him around to any degree

okay just that Episode By Episode stuff for a section here

3x03:

kinda extra room for interpretation b/c this was written as a one off character and reintroducing him in 3x09, written to be recurring, feels like it kinda offers a Soft Reboot for what we got here, where i guess how i take things is that we can suppose in both 3x03 & 3x09 winston's putting on a deliberate Performance to some degree based on what he thinks the potential employer wants to see, but it's also not completely fake / inaccurate either time, & like, maybe the 3x03 vibe wasn't a type of performance he'd only just ever put on for this axe cap interview, & even if it was deliberately bold maybe he was sort of thinking he Could bank on his value as a quant meaning he holds most of the cards (or can get away with acting like it)

building on that & as a More General point of interpretation again: think it's easy to suppose winston could've had an existence w/many elements of frustrations & disappointments & Rejection, but where like, he did figure out these areas of interest & proficiency that seemed to be a more positive force in his life, & leaned into them / focused on them further for it, & i could see him focusing on milestones / graduating from one thing to the next & conceptualizing like, well, if i just get to This point by working on This thing then i'll have it together & be able to move through existence more successfully, like, there's winston going into undergrad & kind of disappointed he's not having that good a time socially / feels like he's missing out / being left out still, but he can be like, well that's fine (: i'm totally fine abt it b/c i'm focusing on the Education & Experience here & when i'm entering the job market as an amazing quant anyone would want to hire then ppl will be seeing me in a positive light & things will fall into place / go great for me / i'll feel like i fit in & am doing things right within some structure. & i think maybe he Did have all those other job offers / opportunities & he was at least partly feeling a bit "objectively" confident, & also maybe just hoping he Could be that confident & that, you know, if he goes ahead & acts like that's the case, it could be confirmed / become true....anyways then obviously disillusionment time

since his outfits are introduced here: more "just how i'm interpreting canon" stuff in that i do just suppose he is mostly focusing on comfort & it'd kinda get in the way of things if he couldn't. flipflops might've been a statement piece but also i figure at least in part about the comfort / lack of much opportunity for restriction or ill fit or chafing texture or anything, same goes re: pants & shirts. interesting he likes to wear the patterned layers but doesn't really wear like, stripes or plaid ever. plus it could well be that Just A Tee is too informal unless you're the formalest of all by virtue of position, i.e. the ceo, but also we sure often enough see him wearing hoodies &/or multiple layers, like, maybe that's just for warmth or weight or what have you, always considering "what if it's about being self conchy as well (different way of saying self conscious)"

3x09:

so yeah with winston not having taken another job (at least maybe only like, temporary ones as these self contained gigs / just something to pay the bills) figure it's been a Depressive Period for him here lol & deliberately going on a journey of like self reflection / examination & going "haha yeah hated what i saw" is like, i don't think the self loathing is anything new, the confidence in 3x03 kind of an optimistic bandaid lol like well here's the new me as i understand / hypothesize / hope he could be, totally confident in being backed up by how valuable he is as a quant, then taylor kind of ripped that off and wound's open again but that wound was also not brand new or something he was unaware of / that didn't affect him before now

re: math meetup, i can see that being him presenting more evidence of his talent as a quant but also specifically going "see, i do this collaborative thing" to present this more conciliatory and cooperative approach to taylor, & am also taking it as evidence that he really does Enjoy math / coding stuff beyond it simply being a means to a professional end. i also like to think he has been / continues going to math meetup regularly, at least once a month, maybe every other week, and that it's this semi social event, like the relevant irl group you found back in the day that like, meets up for pizza before and drinks afterwards. i also like to think that, like, while he might come off as A Bit Much during said math meetup / just speak up frequently enough and often enough with some insistence lol, people Are there to meet up about the math and his contributions Are valued despite if his delivery/approach isn't always endearing or whatever. and even if he's not really popular / warmly embraced in the more [socializing event] bookends of the meetup, he's perfectly tolerated, and there's even a person or two or three (also regular attendees) who do vibe with him enough to like, invite / even want him to sit with them / talk with them outside that Math Setting. math meetup pals, maybe he doesn't meet up with these people outside these events but maybe they have each other's contacts and sometimes text. not these intimate personal relationships, but still something real and positive and refreshing. it'd be nice if math meetup could kinda be like what he hoped for from quanting, this way his math lets him "qualify" to access this group / activity, his aptitude "making up for" perceived lack of interpersonal / social charm & charisma & what have you, & having some reliably friendly people around even if of course that's not on its own going to mean he's totally socially fulfilled / not often lonely or anything. hc: he's often lonely & not totally socially fulfilled

he does, of course, want to work for taylor specifically, as long as they want him to, and this is sort of his second chance to find validation through working as a quant lol. think that yeah sure winston likes validation in general, who doesn't but also of course he's maybe a bit Above Average sensitive to / keen on it, but he'll also care about Affirmation if it's coming from people whose opinion he particularly values. think that it's easy to suppose he's also especially sensitive to taylor's assessments here thanks to the fact they really hit a (raw) nerve with him like, sure is the potential to get caught up in feedback loop city & say, have a few months mired in self loathing & an especial lack of certainty & confidence, if someone's kinda gone "i hate your self hatred" lol, but he also Did have this especial interest in / high opinion of taylor before that 3x03 interview, & so that's what continues to be part of it here

but then also interpreting that second 3x09 scene as like, he Does independently Know His Value as a quant and yknow not only has his pride but also can't and isn't going to first and foremost focus on trying to socially perform being peak Accommodating and Appealing here lol. but he still cares about what taylor thinks, wants to work for/with them, and i think it was Mutually Appreciated in the last scene that there was Mutual Effort to cooperate w/the other, giving him a Cue instead of just being mad & obfuscating it unless & until giving up on him completely or w/e is Constructive. interpreting winston as someone who sure can be a bit petty on purpose, especially in the face of some wounded pride (where he seems to take pride in his quant abilities & maybe not much of anything else: see the self loathing otherwise), but isn't really one to be deliberately antagonistic, especially not towards, yknow, the person he specifically wants to appeal to, but he also knows he can come off as grating whether inadvertently or not, so he might be testing the waters a little as well

3x11

he's using headphones even though no one else is in the room, that's a preference / he may also just like to block out other sound in general, as there's no audio of [winston's music faintly playing as / before he takes off his headphones] or indication he paused anything. does he like metal, what with the yngwie malmsteen reference? maybe, but that might just be a Billions Reference thing that isn't meant to indicate much / anything abt the specific character. i don't have any hcs about it anyways besides "okay" if so

first time we see his watch, it's not the calculator watch until s5 but i am a fan of said calc watch....gotta suppose it could represent him being here for the math of it all, what with how fancy/expensive watches are kinda the whole like status / power play thing, and a calculator watch is, afaik, not expensive, these casio calculator watch listings i'm seeing are all priced like, $15 to $25 range. so.

2nd scene is the first time we see sleeves pushed up, a frequent choice, maybe if he's focusing sleeves against forearms / Wrists & Hands can be bothersome. also not the first time he puts his hands in his pockets but i think that's a deliberate choice for winston's sort of Default Pose, equate it to the choice to have jared hang / hold on to his backpack straps.

guess he can also be a bit petty / rude / grating on purpose if ppl are getting in the way of his mathing / coding or otherwise thwarting it, at least probably taylor can relate / sympathize what with them wanting to Get It Right / being bothered if people get it wrong but could've avoided this

noticing all the caffeine and the fact he maybe didn't leave the basement / was powering through that project All At Once....just noting that down as a potential Approach, wanting to not interrupt focus &/or bear down & keep a fairly intense pace until it's finished / stay in the zone or what have you

definitely doing some deliberately cocky Testing / pushing back / amicable power struggle with taylor there, confirming he does have leverage due to that quanting ability after all, Despite His Demeanor / not being "sweet"

by this point definitely consciously kinda wants taylor to rail him.

4x03

i have no concrete hc's of instances inspiring winston to think he's "always seeing the future" but god i wish he did. he's right a lot though, maybe he just notices as much lol

talking mostly to taylor here, then concluding with "i only thought it but didn't say it; doesn't count....damnit." like he wants Their validation thanks, even if recognizing his Win here still wouldn't help them either way....also first time we see him w/coworkers for real, he's really freely Interacting.....time to go ahead and say he'd like to be work friends / at least have friendly interactions at work, might be a bit desperate for such positive social interactions, especially in this environment where he thinks the "objectively" good thing about him is most relevant, but it's cringe & fail (&/or vulnerable to Attack) to outright Want something, like validation / affirmation / a positive response or a simple "yeah you're right" "positive" response

first Space Shirt, followed by ones that are like, also &/Or Sci Fi Shirts. does he like space? i guess so

he's autistic

4x08

here & in 4x11, we don't know how he's gotten this info about taylor re: the arc w/their dad or with axe cap, but he's apparently mused on it on his own like this & isn't just quoting what someone else told him about how taylor must feel about xyz & how that might apply to the situations at hand, even though (unless he cassandra'd it) he wouldn't've had that much cause to suppose it'd definitely be relevant to have ideas about how taylor feels / is navigating a situation & why, maybe he just likes to be prepared like that / stay in the loop but yknow, maybe he's just also interested in them as a person beyond what's most immediately relevant to him doing quant stuff for them

he's already done the sort of kicking himself / wincing / apologizing or agreeing he fucked up an exchange thing before but, the genuine disappointment / momentary discouragement in it always lol....self loathing guy

love how he has these little like, clarifying explanations of things. "total control of the instrument," "always seeing the future," "because i win".....he's out here wanting to communicate to connect & to be understood, not so much as a potential for a power play / status climb and thus a conflict.....can see ppl who are used to / Do see interactions in that light to interpret winston yelling about having won as a like, rubbing it in people's faces show of superiority thing, but pretty sure he's just excited and wants a high five

4x11

having talked about the fact none of the desks in the tmc hq main floor seem to be winston's (& knowing that Could just be wroland not being reliably available to be in the bg of shots lol, analyzing s4 shots for some Consistently Empty desk) but it is fun to also consider that maybe tmc Could've had a secret extension in that that quant haunt in the basement was kept. a little more furnishing and it could be pretty chill, even though the lack of windows might not always be ideal. where's he sit!

also the whole "guy who'd be the first one smothered" moment like, guess i could've mentioned it in 3x03 more but yeah my Headcanon here is that winston maybe has a master's degree, not a phd though (him saying "50 phds" in 3x11 i think was meant to differentiate from him on both points, aka he's 1 guy, without a phd) & this is his first "real" job in any field. b/c i'm guessing like, people are here to get Paid, but as mentioned w/the watch (& just how winston acts in general, he doesn't really seem like he's raring to show off / really take advantage of having money or anything) it doesn't seem like he's, like, the "exceptionally focusing on personally making as much as possible" guy, and lauren's remark seems to emphasize / place the context on winston just not having like, savings from prior salaried years at a job or anything, more of a practical matter, maybe he's out here hoping for some more financial security, also they are all living in nyc, so. on that note, maybe he has an okay apartment but like, not without problems / not absolutely ideal, but it's okay. this would just be Convenient as an hc also lol

don't think the monologue was completely memorized, but it wasn't completely off the cuff either, he'd maybe been brainstorming scripts in his head / had some particular parts solidified word for word, but also hardly think he was guaranteed planning to deliver an admonishlogue at all, seems like it was some important factors that he was just kind of already irritated, nobody was listening / people Were social pressuring him to drop it or not interested in entertaining like "yeah i think you should talk to taylor about it" at all, think it was clear that talking to others was only going to lead to them telling him to drop it / trying to not have anyone say anything to taylor, and then that taylor just jumped in, which i hardly think he was hoping for

always Something that we can expressly see winston moving to sit down in that soon to be empty meeting room as everyone else is clearly filing out lol, like, can see how he might not be able to go "well, back to work" immediately and need some irritation / feeling like shit / guess who just got yeeellllllllllled aaaaaat to burn off, might need some time to absorb "well i guess i just deferred so no bonus as was probably expected," but can also suppose that maybe when winston gets majorly Shut Down he has shutdowns. saying all of four words in the wake of things, otherwise the fact he has this approach of tensing up, not talking at all, kind of just holding onto eye contact as his last way of "properly" participating in the exchange w/o bailing entirely, while also outwardly withering, like clearly these kinds of moments are pretty significantly affecting....feels like he could find it difficult to talk much, or at all, in the wake of some / need some time to recuperate a bit & have some distance & quiet & not just jump back into work like he's having a fine and normal time. sometimes pondering like, not only those notions like taylor insisting winston not be Interrupted when he hasn't technically started talking yet (giving him the buffering / latency time) but also like, fun kinda imagining them sitting across from each other having a texting conversation....or times winston would rather have an exchange via email......or make use of the sticky notes......or just have taylor talking to him and picking up on his nonverbal responses

winston's very Not present in tmc meetups / get togethers this season & again we know that this could be because his actor wasn't very available but it's still the case In Canon that there's only so many tmcers and they're all seeing each other outside work / market hours for varyingly formal or informal purposes & he's never included. & simultaneously hold the hc's that he could be choosing not to go or he could just never be invited in the first place l o l.....in either of these situations the reason for declining to go or being excluded could be up to "b/c other ppl don't like having him around" and idk, best case scenario is he doesn't want to go for some other reason, but he acts pretty okay with the All Hands meetups we do see / when in meetings with the other named employees he's pretty raring to interact with them, so :/

4x12

i do like to think it's fun to imagine What If Taylor Had A Phonecall With Winston Before This Monologue; someone once told me that explaining is an admission of failure, i'm sure you remember, i was on the phone with you, sweetheart.....just them both having a more sympathetic approach with each other and a sort of dialed back reconciliation, tbt 3x09, without an audience / roomful of other people

do think that his wearing a tmc logo tee into axe cap hq was a deliberate Statement Piece, like wearing flipflops into axe cap in his true first time being there lol

first time we see the backpack, & the headphones (in this season), like the point you (nothingunrealistic) made about the backpack possibly kind of exerting pressure / compression in a Sensory Way. let's see it again

as good a time as any to bring up how it's such a consistent pattern that it Must be a choice that winston smiles in this direction :/ and grimaces / winces / frowns this way :\ but a choice of the actor of course, was it ever a conscious thing on winston's end, would not put it beyond the realm of possibility he's ever consciously thought of stuff like "even if words fail me(tm) i Gotta hang on to eye contact".....i'm thinking of times he is smiling hard enough that you just gotta do it more symmetrically, like here in 4x12

5x01

he likes bagels

think that this could've been another case of "people who are used to interactions used for conflict / power plays / stepping on other people to status climb (axe cappers in general, maybe team ben having to be extra prone to be on the lookout for these strategies when they're more often on the receiving end of them) misinterpreting winston socializing as means of connection (wanting to talk about the common work thread / interest with coworkers)"

even if for some reason quants were cold shouldering axe cappers like, a sound strategy even if team ben are worthy exceptions. Winston Can Get Petty When People Blame Quants Talking About Being Quants For Axe Cappers Harassing Tmc & also when in the process of doing so everyone's like "also you're smarter than us but no you're not, any math quants could do fundamental analysts could do better" like, winston getting more deliberately antagonistic when ppl are going after his Math Aptitude / value as a quant when that's his "objective" point of pride & confidence & possibly like haha self loathing can't get me here

5x02

winston's decimal points being more precise here i think indicates that the show is not taking the stance of "yeah the quants are just any old analysts with an attitude of superiority" lol

do think he selected that particular seating placement b/c it's like, hey furthest away from axe cap, most aligned with taylor's desk & angled towards it, perfect.....what a letdown

guess this episode suggests he and mafee have chats sometimes, and winston maybe confides At All Sensitive Info w/the guy? bold

always just smh like well thank god we were given this subplot where winston was a plot device really for dollar bill's arc or whatever............what a gift

5x03

just noticing as always how winston is the one person saying they should go for it vs the other two's skepticism / trepidation, and taylor decides to go for it.....they do value his input / trust his judgment

i am also noticing how often winston, as the math guy who doesn't really fit in w/ the whole axe / caply approach & style, has this role in giving taylor these crucial opportunities to pursue their own direction rather than be mired down in the misery of axe cap determining everything....3x11 & his algorithm letting them break completely away from axe cap, 4x11 & his admonishlogue making some Points & then next episode taylor does decide to abandon the revenge jag & says they were wrong & they're sorry....5x03 & this nlp strategy plotline being the first thing taylor could actively pursue for tmc after 2 eps of being dragged painfully through axe cap nonsense, & the fact this, in the next episode, leads to the Impact Fund idea / mase carb

5x04

see that last point

5x05

guess that until confirmed, The Glances being significant is a Headcanon Interpretation lol. anyways i do like taylor giving him these discreet, nonverbal cues as a very deliberate method of communication titrated betwixt them

oh right and an Age Cue here, before that was nailed down i think i already hc'd winston as either the same age as, or a year older than taylor, and that's still true lol, think that's how it goes with the timelines (taylor's being kinda uncertain, and winston's as well, having prior just kinda gone "well if taylor's 22 when they show up as the typical post undergrad age, and each season spans approx a year, and maybe winston spent just a year or two post undergrad getting a master's b/c nothing nails down how long it would take & he could've kinda been ahead of the curve as it were, he could be, say, 23 thru 25 in s3 when he shows up, to taylor's Maybe 23" as the Idea)

just wants to work for taylor as long as they'll have him, but would also like to be openly valued / affirmed on a pretty basic level lol...

one of those matters that's like, i do think that this is what the material is Trying to convey but it's not concrete / explicit, in that i think winston somewhat Likes rian right off lol like. i mean he's also still annoyed on principle, this is maybe his replacement & that stings that it's even a possibility & of course he has reason to want to feel like "oh well this person Clearly sucks" lol, but then there he is trying to scope out the situation & get immediate intel & it's like, here's this fellow 20something you immediately think is pretty (the mental comparison to an A lister as a dunk, lmao) & you see her being perfectly friendly with your nice coworker you're also friendly enough with, that's one degree of separation, now here he comes talking about how cool & epic & smart & capable she is, again makes sense he's still first & foremost bothered by the situation & has cause to just be more jealous about how well everyone immediately thinks of her (see: winston making bad first impressions that may never be undone, the fact other coworkers were probably never going around openly impressed with / praising him after meeting him for 5 sec, or like, ever) but i suppose this immediate underlying sense of attraction / affinity hits in that First Sighting as well

love that we see the feet up on the desk show of confidence again, very funny & glad it's back.....a tool in his arsenal for when he's Very Bothered But (unsuccessfully) Acting Very Unbothered / when he's trying to pitch for his employment lol

when did he have a first gf? perfect time for an hc.....feels like it'd have been like, idk, older high schoolers at the youngest, that kind of emotional commentary....or in college. sometimes pondering the idea like, what if he had a bf first actually.....or not, & Feeling A Way around other guys sometimes like, hmm guess i think this guy is pretty cool &/or i'm kinda like "god i wish that were me" about, then some more noticeable Tension as he's older even if he can't really discern the reason b/c this person's pretty nice & cool actually, hmm. then one day you're doing hw together with a while for code to compile & Oh Hey Lol

meanwhile think clearly rian defuses the Reason For Rivalry (and also clearly immediately likes him / interacting with him & you know, outright sticks up for him & in this significant way) & then when they connect over Math it's all coming together very outright like Oh Hey Lol 😳

also he Gets Right Back To Work easily enough, & like, i think already there's a deliberate performance of "i'm now totally unbothered," but he's just pretty good at shaking things off apparently. & he kind of has to be, to not bail completely or else tamp down his own personality / avoid interactions, but you know. plus that like, he may get irritated when his pride's wounded but around here people can have a whole crisis & arc about it if their egos are bruised in the slightest, so like. pretty blasé

5x06

this isn't really any hc or Interpretation by any stretch but this is the first time we've seen winston pull that particular attitude in that second scene with rian and it's beautiful.....if something's bothering him he's so often like outright indignant but this is like, i'm Bothered but i'm being so dignant about it, for like 4 sec

also the bright green hoodie / bright, high contrast, geometric blockbuster tee is so Vivid but like, always noting how he wears relatively colorful outfits. fun to go "maybe this one's deliberately extra eye catching b/c of this new crush" lol

5x07

the difficulty in reading that much into things when the lack of sobriety could be making any & everything an outlier, & can't even really read into "apparently down to take stimulants (beyond caffeine) on a dime" b/c well, so is everyone else, so that this situation can unfold, we knew he had a crush on rian (or i guess we didn't, but this is pretty direct about it), we knew he likes validation, taylor Knows him well enough that it's not just like "oh he's acting weird? well that's winston for you" to them, which we also knew but it's fun to confirm further lol

and now for some more free floating / general concepts

family? i have no idea. feel like he either has no siblings or several but yknow, anything's possible. we know what he's like Now, don't think he got that solid self esteem / self confidence as an emergent quality from [everything that happened to him before 3x03] & don't suppose he has this like, rock solid close warm familial relationship of understanding & unconditional love & support w/whoever he grew up with, parents or siblings or whoever he lived with....like, the relationship/s could be Fine but you know, still not all that close

i don't think he was every completely friendless (or if he was, it didn't last Too long) in terms of like, throughout school maybe he had some pals, no amazing close [fingers crossed Like That] ones where someone had like, grown up as his next door bestie and they did everything together & knew everything about each other, nothing all that close, but he had people to sit with at lunch or what have you, even if at times like, the table nobody else really sits at but the people who don't have anywhere else to sit lmao. maybe some slightly closer friendships here & there, but people often kind of got subsumed into other friend groups that he wasn't otherwise a part of / otherwise just kind of gradually distanced again...but also possible he had perfectly amicable occasions of like, maybe only having a class or two with certain people, not striking up intimate friendships but hitting it off well enough.........like, winston's out here Not having been stomped down into suppressing his personality all the time, he's still fairly earnest & forthcoming & eager to connect, just sort of vaguely going for "he maybe have always had this element of discouragement & disappointment re: socializing / connecting / forming relationships / sometimes just being accepted on a basic level, but he also didn't have his spirit totally extinguished either" although there's also the room for stuff like, yknow, him Holding Out Hope like "well nobody likes me now / i'm unhappy but maybe once i'm in college [gets to college & still isn't having a great time] okay well once i Enter The Workforce" lol. you know

but it's also like, hardly think he's Only Just Now experiencing the [winston: ___ everyone: get his ass] type stuff & pushback & punishment & disdain over not really doing anything but people hate his style & vibe, & feel like there's also still room for like, yep wow got burned sometimes / having had some pretty negative experiences......we do have to end up in this place where, you know, 3x03 happens and he doesn't just go "guess finance isn't for me!" & dust himself off & go get some Guarantees from some tech firms, & instead he's Really Glad [Taylor] Called & hasn't taken some other more desired job between 3x03 & that call & is immediately like "good news: i do hate myself" so like, can't see him having just thrived his way to this point....evidently not all dating relationships have been just epic highs & victories, maybe he has those math meetup pals now & maybe idk there's other people he's in sort of in contact with, maybe people from college / grad school or the like, still not that close, figure he's generally been lonely like, overall, despite regularly enough seeking out / striving for connections

oh yeah speaking of, the idea that he has a cat maybe lol, in part simply for company, a little guy that lives in your house / apartment....but also maybe he doesn't

always just some general notions like, also idk maybe he engages in hobbies, talks to people through that just like with math meetup....talked about the Embroidery idea, got that computers/programming connection, was thinking like, idk fuck it amateur photography, develop your own film, maybe he took a class in college or high school or something, same with like, maybe he plays a musical instrument, said "the cello, why not" about that as an early [shrug] idea lol. he does like space, maybe he does Anything with that....rip to any astronomy clubs In Nyc like, guess you're not seeing shit, but. 4x11 au, after deferring his bonus he goes to some cool cinematographic celestial occasion like taylor & the sea glass fish carousel lmao. taylor catches up & they have their [i'm sure you remember, i was on the phone with you, sweetheart] exchange lol.....except also not, b/c you wouldn't really want to have Parallels with m/any moments ft. wendy & taylor :/

recalled like a particularly casual / throwaway idea about like "lol what if he was somewhat thalassophobic" in part b/c once actor william dropped that lore abt himself in an interview, but. could have somewhat some other phobia/s. or not really any! what a world

maybe sometimes he's out here like, single & ready to Fuck like, focusing on just hooking up w/people sometimes rather than really looking to date at the juncture, although it could both be true like, he'd Like to be dating but also doesn't really currently want to do all the Putting Himself Out There & such of seeking it out / trying to consciously navigate it, but sometimes it's more manageable like, just wanting to have sex. looking out for himself when he can & how he can lol

speaking of, some vague sexy hcs

gets pegged

especial fan of Tongue Against Tongue texture, enjoys some Grounding elements to avoid being overwhelmed / narrow things to the more relevant sensory input at hand, like the weight/pressure of a partner leaning / lying against him / holding him tightly, if he's overwhelmed in a good way / kinda got some sensory overflow in a good way he might cry during sex In A Good Way lol, took some time maybe in his Personal Sexual Experience to figure out some general differences in "what he doesn't like at all" or "what's off the table / too unpleasant for him at some times but Not necessarily at all times & might be completely enjoyable sometimes," like, am i willing to perform oral sex, am i willing & Enthusiastically so, is that way too much actually, it can be all of them at varying times....maybe in more everyday general situations he refrains from stims in front of others unless stressed enough, but while having sex with someone especially if at all nervous it's like, there can be this transition between repressing stims & being more unfiltered / uninhibited where they kind of build up & then come through in kicks only to be reined back in, either like, he simply does go for a more reined in approach the whole time or anyone else is willing to ride this out with him / he kind of has the time & space to figure out more of a flow, in which case he might still stim but you know, not as though people aren't used to stims in this situation, i.e. reacting to stimulation with movement & vocalization is at least expected & it could once again be like "well he's a bit weird with it but hey" lol or you know, not that some partners can't be understanding or have had experience w/similar partners. hardly make or break but this can be a vulnerable interaction here / hard to shake the self consciousness & sense of "i Do have to filter myself and act The Right Way" all at once just b/c you'd want to

hey and let him sing karaoke or something lmao, winston is as Dramatic as he is, he would give a performance. work in a way to let everyone who sings sing around lol, could throw in some Affectations so that it's like yeah winston can sing without having to be like "wow winston, when'd you become a trained broadway performer" lmao. imagine. which reminds me of the time will joked about like, oh yeah winston Gets That A Lot re: people recognizing he looks like the guy in deh, aka will roland....the limitations of "this is set in real nyc" including occasional references to recent / popular shows, fuck it maybe will roland does also exist in the billions universe. well anyways it would be fun. the karaoke anyways, and that he'd give a top tier Performance whether or not people are first and foremost enjoying his technical / artistic skill at the art of singing, it'd at least be personality infused and engaging

taking it way back to the ideas about winston's social misadventures in general, i'm sometimes considering for fics i never end up writing if he might have some like, misgivings / anxieties about like, is this person i Like acting like they maybe Like me back as some kind of elaborate joke, & maybe the caution comes from experience like you know, classic over the line "pranks" like asked out As A Joke, kissed As A Dare that he wasn't aware of, think there could be like, would be Friendship / friendly acquaintanceship experiences in there where such "pranks" / "jokes" / "messing with him" (and not in a good way) could happen, or even just you know, more Spontaneously, don't even know this person & he's treated as a joke for other ppl's entertainment, realizing at the time or retrospectively like oh maybe i was more being bullied then having any positive social interaction / getting to feel at least "included" or what have you, like, the idea of getting to hang out with a group as The Funny Guy, but he's had these experiences getting to hang out with a group & realize it's b/c they thought he was funny / Amusing in a laughing At him, not with him way, which is easy also b/c winston isn't really out here trying to be funny that we've seen lol. only realizing he was still being excluded after some time / distance from the situation, or escalating open hostility / just more blatant meanness / over the line shit from some people, maybe some stuff that just immediately feels shitty but he figured was just like, well idk, maybe that's normal & still friendly, maybe it also felt more outright embarrassing / demeaning at the time but it's like haha yeah you got me :'] at the time just to save any face lol.....possible unexpected / spontaneous amicability in his socializing history, but also shittiness, whether it's coming at him all at once or he's kind of holding out hope like, well, i just keep at it / have a Friendly attitude here and surely i'll make friends b/c if people didn't like me At All why are they talking to me / letting me be here at all.....

always kind of pondering Fashion Variation, we haven't seen it but it could be possible, musing on "what would he think Looks Good On Him / how does he feel capable of like, dressing for romantic success or what have you lol" like, was the vivid 5x06 outfit anything, cue the drawing like, a bralette & short shorts is shaking it up and could be a Felt Cute outfit and could also be comfortable enough....not always That much room in men's(tm) fashion before you start having to be aware of [Gender] and dunno that winston out here has had the inspiration / motivation / opportunity to consider / try out / explore but hey. what are we here for

just remembered that post like "uhh i just saw a guy crying in the library & then his phone alarm went off & he stopped crying, opened his laptop & started typing / it's called time management" lmao like winston's not out here having the Most amazing time, he could have such Time Management experiences of like, letting it out some on purpose but then reining it right back in, and/or just like some spontaneous paroxysms of crying for a minute or two more unexpectedly in a "do you ever [experience a tiny inconvenience] & realize the thread by which you're hanging on is quite thin" way or otherwise, you know, oops experienced this frustration & now i'm crying over it, or idk, just feeling a bit more vulnerable for whatever reason & something has unexpectedly plucked some emotional string attached to another string attached to another & the resonance = i'm crying now ig. he can't be Thriving out here & i don't think he's all about having such a stranglehold on emotions that he's like oh tf i Never cry (aside from having sex, in a good way)

although speaking of like, emotional repression, maybe he's out here just "good at" compartmentalizing some experiences lol in that "well anyways, back to work" way & stuff like, sure he knew he was risking it in 4x11 but it also did not seem to affect his dynamic with mafee at all lmao like wow.....

think that him not really having anything on his work desk is a choice / preference but also am not sure that that really applies to anything else lmao. what if he had a little plant. that'd be funny

oh yeah and the idea that winston might literally have like prophetic dreams & they're just kind of a nuisance to him but sometimes they can be plot devices in fics (that don't exist) about him kissing people

well i'm just calling it a night there lol but like, it always feels Lacking writing out hc's like, plenty of ideas but also hardly any, and yet the fact that other individual ideas are so Vague / casual that it wouldn't be like "oh i gotta share this via post or manifesting it some other way" so then it feels like, oh no, if i don't list absolutely Everything on something that's specifically a list of hc's, i can never talk about whatever gets left out......and just that like, i ought to have a bunch of really specific, concrete, unique Factoids about winston here to be of any interest but hey lmao. that hypothetical set of concepts is never gonna happen, & the Ultimate Comprehensive List Of Everything I've Ever Pondered Re: Winston is also going to be difficult lmfao (not as though that's what you've asked in the first place) but you know, we took a swing at things here & covered some ground & the thinking about & talking about winston never ends, & this isn't really a post meant to have broad appeal / if you're not already having fun reading vague musings about the quant then i'm sorry you're reading this after having read all that and gone "wow, i'm disappointed" lmao but hey, weird choices made to bring you to this point......also god knows plenty of hcs are more filed away under specific like [Tayston], [Benston], [Riawin] sort of things (lol, [Mafon]) b/c on the one hand, i find it easier to kind of think in Scenarios and the details particular to the "scenes" therein, but i am also not good at thinking of those scenarios! out here operating on vibes, he's autistic and wants to kiss taylor (also now rian but that's kinda right in canon, not just my head) and that's really the crucial info here

#winston billions #nothingunrealistic #posting these things at 7am lol just had to give this a shot all at once really #there was never going to be a concise & comprehensive post here so just gotta go for it #certainly vs trying to think up that beautiful engaging collection of concrete hc's & thus never writing Anything lol #and anyways it's also like; this is a niche post for an even nicher audience so #quantnoisseur is about having fun and being yourself. for me #thanks again for returning the favor!! do love the opportunity here #again hope i don't like recall three dozen obvious things i should've included once i post this but

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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The Loud House: No Bus, No Fuss and Resident Upheaveal Reviews

Welcome back Loudites! And i’ts time for a round of Lincoln focused episodes.. because apparently they couldn’t just.. you know, swap one of next weeks with one of this weeks so we got a sister episode with it like last time.. seriously now I know one of next week’s episodes involves Leni running for mayor I question why that’s not an episode every week.. or it’s own spinoff. And I know I have a mounting pile of those, Stella getting one, the diffrent world one with lori and bobby, The Snakebird Variety hour.. I know.. but tell me you wouldn’t watch that. Go on tell me.. i’ll know your lying. But it was an alright week and i’ll tell you all about it with spoilers after the cut.

No Bus, No Fuss: We open with LIncoln arriving late for the bus, and Lynn not riding it because tracks starting and she has to get her workout in.. and because the writers need her not to be on the bus for this plot to work at all. It’s not a terrible way to write her out, she does do all the sports.. beacause apparently like Captain America she can do all the sports without having to train her body for each specific one because she’s in peak condition. Though I do dock a few points from the episode for not having her run past it while saying on your left.

But yeah as for why it couldn’t Lincoln takes a seat in the back not realizing it’s bat country.. and also home to a gang of 8th grade bullies. Which.. yeah assholes do tend to flock to where there’s the most plausable deniablity top notch show. Though I tended to pick the back in high school more just because it was freaking comfy but hey, who says goons can’t enjoy comfort. They can’t however let this slide, not helped by Lincoln accidently spilling soda on him or his friends trying to help. Look Clyde you mean well but they just want a reason to beat him into a coma, and you basically just offered to join him. So unupsirisngly when the Lincrew exit the bus their all in pretty bad shape. Including stella....

Though in the bullies defense at least their equal opportunity jagoofs. One of them is a girl and they bullied stella just as mucha s the males. Dosen’t make them any less of a jungle gym full of tools but I can give them credit for not being sexist asshats just regular asshats. At their age that’s a hard bar to clear. Though LIncoln, Clyde and Stella all got off better than LIam, who got his undies pulled over his head, a bullying standard and rusty and Zach who. .had their underwear tied together in a not.

Oh.. oh it gets worse. When we cut to them after school.. Rusty says the fire department had to cut them loose and Zach and I quote says “I saw too much of rusty.. and his birth mark”

I.. I do not want to think about what that entails.. both because Rusty’s 12 and i’m not a pedophile and because he’s rusty. I just.. why show.. why would you try and make me THINK about that. How is Zach being scarred for life funny?

All valid questions. But moving right along past that waking nightmare, LIncoln assures them they had to have cooled off... spoilers they have not and our heroes all exit the bus at lincolns because they tied their underwear together. Yes all of them and yes including stella.

They naturally don’t want to go back and Lincoln has the idea of just having the parents drive them, one a day. Stella has to take hers off the table since her parents leave early in the morning: Her mom goes into work early and her dad has hot yoga. Which is a disapointment as I genuinely want to know about Stella’s parents and hope we actually get to see them at some point and finding out one of them works really early and the other does yoga every day, and hot yoga at that which if your wondering what that is, and when I first heard the term I was, it’s doing yoga but in an extremley humid and exhausting environment. It is sadly not learning to do this, as i’d hoped

Someday.. someday. But that still leaves a parent a piece so as you probably expect the bulk of the episode is “Parent drives them but is terrible about it” And honestly.. it’s not the series best stuff with most of these not being very funny. Most of them. Zach’s Parents: Zach’s parents go by mighty morphin power rangers logic.. i.e. the parents look and act pretty much exactly like their kids. So the Gurdles are also discount dale gribbles who stalk a man in their van while the kids wait for death but death won’t come.. and as seen up top all are as fed up with Zach as I am. Again Rusty is growing on me, I still make fun of him because why wouldn’t I, but he at least serves a function in the group. As i’ve mentioned before: Lincoln’s the leader and one of the main characters, Clyde is also a main charater and has been fairly fleshed out at this point, Stella is awesome and provides the brains and some pep, LIam is also optimsitic but provides farm jokes and muscle, and Rusty is the group asshole every gorup needs. Zach.. is the more sarcastic and cynical one but with Lynn now going to the same schoool.. why isn’t she in that roll? Have her date LIam, since I love that pairing since last week, and have her take Zach’s place since she plays the lancer role to lincoln better anyway. Zach just dosen’t do it well and comes off like a whiny baby and when he’s not in sarcasm mode he’s going off abotu aliens again, like a discount dale gribble. And look most viewers probably haven’t seen the genuine article which.. first off allow me

And second off dosen’t mean you can slack off as i’ve seen better paranoid nutjobs with that gimmick, like Stan Pines or Andromeda. You, can, do, better. So either do it or get rid of Zach already.

Liam’s Parents: His meemaw takes them riding in her tractor, leanall in her bladder, cheated on her baby you can go and ask her. A pig vomits on Clyde because GET IT LIAM’S A HICK GET IT GET IT.

Now THAT my friends is a hick.

Rusty’s Dad: So yeah I was not looking forward to meeting the stygian void Rusty popped out of but turns out his dad is apparently single. Which dosen’t suprise me, he’s rusty’s dad and both looks and is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, which will never not be awesome and is not only perfect casting, as he plays dorks well, but also wonderful to see him in a modern production. I mean granted the zim movie was a modern production, but that was reviving a character he played a few decades ago.

And while Rusty’s dad apparently showed up before, in an episode I SAW no less “Back Out There” so unlike some lapses in my Loud House Knowledge I have no excuse here, it was still intresting to get an explination for why Rusty’s like this. His dad is a salesman, who practically bathes in colonge, tells the same story and stops on the street to shill to people while driving his son to school, something his son helps with. And probably Rocky just rolls his eyes at. I miss rocky. And suprisingly given I hated his son pretty quickly.. I love this guy. He’s pretty endearing: Sure he’s a schmooze factory.. but he kept the kids in the divorce meaning his wife either abndoned him, or he fought hard for htem and does seem to genuinely love his kid and have a great rapport with him. I mean it helps I have a soft spot for Schyster characters, especially Stan PInes, but I just like the guy. The fact he has a vetran voice actor whose great at this sorta roll probably helps but still, he’s just wonderful and actually makes me like Rusty better, and I was already warming up to the kid, phrasing, as it explains why he’s such a douche: his dad pumps him full of self esteem, probably well meaningly and is a grown up rusty.. which is a better application of power rangers logic as instead of groaning at Zach’s angtics, this gives an explnation for why Rusty’s like this. So yeah only one of the segments I really laughed at.

Clyde’s Dads: Since we’ve met the boys before, it’s just a saftey based gag as they wrap the car in bubblerwap.

Rita: Finally we get to Rita, who simply is a bit agressive getting parking.. btu she’s a mother of 11 and has had to deal with school parking for years and doing so for several children. So fair enough. She does cut off Lincoln’s asshole of a teacher who cuts him off in line in retrubution and then tells him “Tell your mom I said high”.. in a tone that implies he’s going to be hanging outside their house at 3 in the morning with a bat starring menacingly. Yeah not a big fan of Mr. Bohlmer anymore as he’s just your basic mean teacher sterotype. So Lincoln cooks up another way, taking a plane. So we get flip back!

What can I say he’s grown on me. And he’s hilarious here, taking the kids in a rusty plane that’s “No longer under federal investigation”, which is a SELLING POINT, has no refunds nd naturally the seatbelts are shoddy and he ejects them via trap door. I loved it.

But our heros dont and now trapped in the trees Rusty and Zach bicker with one another which.. fellas I know a way to settle this. KAL-IF-FEE!

No matter who looses thier friends win. But they instead accept they have to ride the bus and face the bullies. But they also find when getting ready OHTER kids were bullied and the three cablebastards just take turns. But Lincoln has a plan to fix that and just.. outright stands up to them.. with the entire bus backing them. And honestly.. it’s not a bad message about bullying. Generally bullies won’t backed down when confronted all the time.. but when outmatched they will.. still not the best message but still far better than season 1′s “If a girl bullies you she secrety has a crush on you”. I.. will have to deal with those episodes someday but today is not that day. So our heroes celebrate and rusty does grow an inch, proving him right. Phrasing! Final Thoughts on NBNF: This one was decent... it had a few dead spots, Zach’s parents are about as intresting as he is and given all the batshit and legitly dangerous conspiracy theories and theorists that came out of of the woodwork and were backed by the trump presdency, that bit plays even worse than it would normally and the stuff with Clyde’s dad’s has been done before.. and honestly is something they need to retire. The husbands have a better dynamic than this, let them use it. It was also a disapointment we dind’t get to see Stella’s family, especially since again the mcbride’s schitck is REALLY overplayed and it would’ve been nice ot get some fresh blood in there and we really didn’t need to see Zachs. All those problems aside though this is a pretty standard plot with an okay ending, but some good gags along the way. Not Loud HOuse’s best and especially in a bad spot considering the last episode before this “Saved by the SPell” was not only way funnier but also used the lincrew better. Still can’t say i’ts bad just.. okay. Also I apparently like rusty as a character now....

Resident Upheaval: This one was also just...okay. Not terrible, and it has an actually intresting premise, but it doesn’t do much with it.

Our setup simple: Pop Pop’s girlfriend Myrtle wants to move into the same retirement home as his, explaining away her apparently living there by her just visting a lot. Sure why not. So Lincoln assures him he’s going to get her in, he’s the man with the plan.

Before we get to what the problem with that is.. gotta talk about the elephant in the room since Pop Pop is pretty absent for the rest of the episode.. and that’s that .. their STILL using him. As some of you probably know, and if you don’t your about to, Pop Pop’s voice actor Fred Willard, comedy legend and really sweet guy, passed away. So you can imagine how WRONG it feels to have not only another voice coming out of one of his characters but one that just dosen’t match. And I don’t blame Chris Swindle here, he was given a pretty unfair task of pinch hitting for someone who just fucking died, and likely because the episode was too far into production to scrap. I’m certainly hoping so because honestly.. I genuinely DON’T see why Pop Pop can’t just die with Fred. And look i’m not against replacing an actor when the worst happens: Russi Taylor’s roles all had to be replaced after her unfortunate passing, it’s not something i’m against normally... but the combination of pop pop being an older character they can write out and the fact they HAD AN ENITRE EPISODE ABOUT ACCEPTING HE WOULDNT’ LAST FOREVER, means that one comes off a bit hollow if you keep dragging him around. You’d get a good episode out of it, and this episode sets it up so that Myrtle has plenty of potetiail to stick around.

Anyway Lincoln’s problem is the OTHER applicant is Clyde’s Nana Gayle.. whose actually come up a few times before, some i’ve seen some I haven’t, a continuity nod i’m happy their following up on. They even explain why sh’es just appearing in person now as Clyde, when later snapping at lincoln, exclaims “You knew my dad’s have been trying to get her to move closer for a while now!” She’s Harold’s mom and a sweetheart. So our heroes procede to try and bribe the board, both working at it but both end up finding each other at the opera. And this.. COULD have been intresting, putting the two best friends against each other for one thing neither can both have, and both have stake in it: Myrtle is as good as grandma to Lincoln by this point and Nana Gayle is VERY close to clyde, so this isn’t great. But since the guys they’ve been bribing arne’t the end authority, they have to go to who is: SCOOTS!

As you can tell I love this old hellraiser.. and the fact she’s STILL seeing her younger boyfriend from “The Boss Maybe”. YOu get it scoots you get it. Naturally Scoots wants to see some blood, so she’s pitting both women against each other. Though neither grandma wants to do this so LIncoln and Clyde do the logical thing.. and dress up like each othe’rs grandmas, do the competition and get found out. Scoots disqulaifies both, the boys realize they were stupid and they go to apologize.

They instead find an easy solution to their problem!: Turns out Scoots as head had been hiding a double room behind a fake wall, to store both her scooters and her boyfriends motorcycle, so naturally now both grannies can move in as roomies while Scoot will just have to back her boyfriends hog into the single.. and I guess his motorbike too. The two grandmothers are instant friends, remdinng the boys fo each other and it’s.. really precious. Looks like I have yet another spinoff for the pile.

Final Thoughts: As I said this one was fine.. the Pop Pop subtistion was probably a grim neciesity, though swindle reallyd idn’t do a good job mimicking willar’ds voice and they REALLY just need to either find someone better to do the job, sound alike or no or retire the character. That tiny issue aside i’ts not bad.. it’s just not GREAT, and since we rarely see Clyde and Lincoln and GENUINE cross purposes, and last week just lying to him made clyde ill, this REALLY could’ve been intresting seeing the two go against each other and see what resutled from that. But that angle’s basically ignored and they make up pretty easily. IT’s just a wasted potetial of an episode. All in all this was an allright week. Nothing outstanding episode wise but a few good bits here and there. wehnever I get back to the loud house, Lisa becomes a teacher and Leni runs for mayor. Until then, it’s been a pleasure.

#the loud house #lincoln loud #clyde mcbryde #howard mcbryde #harold mcbryde #gayle mcbryde #liam hunnicutt #stella zhau #rusty spokes #zach gurdle #lynn loud #pop pop #albert loud

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calleo-bricriu · 5 years ago

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Gotta be honest: I dislike that "OC Struggles in the RPC" post that occasionally hits my dash.

This one, right here.

In short, because it comes off very, "If you won't RP with my OC you're an elitist dick" even though I'm certain that wasn't the OP's intent.

But, as someone who has been writing the same Harry Potter OC (this one, right here) since 2001 and has played dozens of OCs in MMO settings, D&D, etc...starting from about 1988 on through now, let me just address the post point by point.

1. "That soul crushing feeling when you see 'no OCs' in someone's rules."

That's a you problem.

Nobody is obliged to write with you.

Perhaps that person has had numerous poor experiences with OC players in the past and just wants to avoid it happening entirely.

Perhaps they find it difficult to find ways to interact with OCs.

Perhaps they simply don't care for OCs when there are dozens of canon characters, including characters that are so minor that they might as well be a skeleton outline of a character.

None of those are invalid reasons and none of those are personal insults toward your OC or your writing; grow up and move on.

2. "Constantly having to dumb down your canon"

Look, if you're finding multiple people over multiple fandoms are telling you that your OC is too overpowered--just to cram it all into one word--you do need to stop and consider if they may be right and, if they are, if you care enough to change it.

There have been times I've looked at criticism I've had on Calleo and decided, "Yeah, they're right, that is a bit much" and other times when I've decided that yes, they are correct, but I don't care because I'm having fun as are the people I write with, and times where I've just plain disagreed.

It's also possible that your OC just isn't a good fit for whatever person is telling you that, and that's nobody's fault; not everybody likes the same things.

3. "Adjusting to adapted canons"

Literally nobody is forcing you to do this.

Everyone makes concessions now and again so things mesh with the group, that's part of what roleplaying is: A group activity.

If you feel as though you shouldn't have to adjust to someone else's adapted canon the problem is on your end and you're clearly not a good fit for the other player so maybe look elsewhere.

4. "The amount of your own canon and lore you have to sacrifice to do that."

Again, nobody is forcing you to do so.

This comes up a lot with people whose OCs are related to major canon characters and some of it is a big reason why it's generally recommended to not try and write those outside of established games.

In established games, the other players know this aspect of your character and, since you're part of the game, have implicitly agreed to go along with it.

For independent blogs, it does take longer to find regular RP partners because by having a backstory like that, it can feel like you're trying to force your, let's call it, adapted canon, onto canon and not everyone is going be on board with that idea or, at the very least, are implying that anyone who writes with you has to go along with it.

Again, that is not their fault and it doesn't mean you can't write an OC like that but you do need to be aware that if you choose to have something like that in your character's background, it's going to make it more difficult to find regular canon RP partners and that fact is entirely your fault, not the people who RP canon characters.

Same applies for those times when your OC has multiple rare abilities; the abilities might be canon but, sticking with Harry Potter as it's the main fandom I play in, if your character is a genius at everything, has the Standard Abusive Upbringing, is a metamorphamagus, is an animagus (usually unregistered and mastered by age 12 or so), is part-something-not-human, is a "transfer student to Hogwarts", is a major canon character's until now unknown sibling/cousin/best childhood friend, can cast all sorts of difficult magic before they even hit school because they're just that smart, is an orphan, and can sass Voldemort to his face without consequences--people aren't really going to want to write with you for several reasons.

- It looks like you haven't fleshed the character out well and are just throwing a pot of tropes at the wall to see what sticks.

- Writing with characters like that always feels like a dick measuring contest and if you dare try to hint that the OC might not be better at or just as good at something as a canon character, the most typical response is for the OC's player to get mad and tell you you're being elitist or bullying them.

5. "When you mention wanting to write a canon, people that have never shown any real interest in your OC jump out of the woodwork to encourage you to do it."

Yeah, there's no polite way to say this: If this is what happens to you, it generally means your OC is poorly thought out and can only hit one note (i.e. YOU only show interest in writing certain things; angst, shippy threads, etc...but never want to branch out to anything else) in your writing. That gets boring after awhile.

In short, your OC is probably a little boring and a little two dimensional and the reason your friends are encouraging you to write a canon is because they don't want to tell you that and know that a canon will be more interesting on virtue of you not having to make up all the source material the way you have to do with an OC.

6. "When you do it, that canon gets more attention than your OC ever did."

See #5. Your OC was probably a kinda dull one trick pony and your friends were trying to be nice about it.

7. "The alternative of that: When your first character was canon and you transition to writing an OC, people suddenly disappear."

See #5. Your OC was probably a kinda dull one trick pony in comparison to the canon character you were writing, and your friends were trying to be nice about it.

8. "Fandom OCs that outgrow their fandoms and muns tha tfeel they have nowhere to put them."

That's lack of creativity on your part, not an "OC struggle".

This character of mine has had fragments of his personalty spawn off into roughly thirty or so different characters across multiple fandoms. On occasion, I've directly ported him into another fandom, just changing the Harry Potter specific things into things that fit the new fandom.

9. "Endlessly worrying if your character is too sue-ish, even after x-amount of years."

Stop caring.

Seriously, stop caring.

Caring about that usually ends up making you kind of less than fun to write with on an OOC level and on an IC level most people take it too far in the other extreme and end up with a character that's about as engaging as wet cardboard.

Not to mention, no matter what you do, there are always going to be people who will think your OC is "too sue-ish" no matter what, simply because they're an OC.

Focus more on people who are interested in your OC and not on the people who don't like your OC (and block them if you have to). You'll have a lot less stress and a lot more fun that way.

If you can't stop caring due to anxiety, get to a therapist and get on meds or--stop roleplaying until you get your house in order. If you get that stressed over roleplaying, it's not worth your mental health to continue; just go write fanfic.

10-13. All the stuff about female OCs being held to higher standards than male OCs.

This, unfortunately, is true. It's extra true if you're a female OC that gets into any sort of relationship, platonic or otherwise, with a canon character.

It's a pretty across all fandoms thing too, and it's definitely unfair.

I know 100% that if Calleo were a female OC, he would not have even a fraction of the interactions and threads that I have with him; people would think he's bitchy, stuck up, and annoying as all hell--and he is, but he's a guy, so it somehow funny and endearing I guess.

I think he’s often bitchy, stuck up, and annoying as all hell and I’ve been writing him for close to 20 years now.

He'd also probably be written off as some kind of slut because I've always written him as being in open relationships and often having multiple open relationships going at one time.

14. "People assuming simple, stupid things"

Yeah, that's not OC specific. Not even close. It's good form to always read someone's about and rules page, even if it's a canon character, because nobody plays even canon characters exactly the same.

15. "Feeling like you have to jump through hoops to keep up with everyone else and keep your character fresh and interesting so people don't lose interest."

Again, this is not an OC specific thing. Canon, unless a series is ongoing, is pretty finite, and anyone writing any character has to keep their character fresh and interesting and not just write variants of the same thing over and over or people will get bored of them as well.

A pretty good litmus test here is to look at it and see if it's just one or two people who lost interest or if it was a whole lot of them.

If it was just one or two people, that sucks, but it happens. We've all been dropped at some point.

If it's a LOT of people, it's time to take a close look at your OC and what you're writing to make sure you haven't just turned into--well, the literary equivalent of wet cardboard.

16. "Canon blogs that shit on OCs--you realize you were OCs too right? What would the original writer of your canon think?"

Well, if it's Anne Rice, she'll probably think to send a cease & desist.

That joke aside, be glad they do; it's a big red flag to avoid them as they're likely overall unpleasant people even if their writing is good. It also saves you from wasting your time trying to interact/write with them.

Remember that part about not focusing on the people who aren't interested in writing with you? Go read it again.

17. "No seriously, it can be so discouraging writing an OC. How many ideas are you killing by snubbing OCs? The future of creative media is in our hands."

Miss me with this emotionally manipulative bullshit.

Nobody is obliged to write with you and nobody is obliged to like your OC.

If a canon blog rejecting your OC is enough to kill your ideas, that's your problem, not the canon blog writer's problem.

If you can't find someone to RP your ideas with you and you really like those ideas, I'd suggest writing fanfic.

If you really want to RP those ideas, you'll either have to keep looking until you find someone who also wants to RP those ideas, or you'll have to be willing to do some compromising to make those ideas work in a way that other players will find interesting.

If your OC always has to be center stage and the best at everything, or you only want to write ship threads, or you only want to do angst, or your OC is always being injured, nearly killed, in emotional distress, etc...all the damn time, that gets boring for everyone else really quickly.

That's a you problem, not an other writers problem.

18. "Has someone stolen my canon?"

Look, if the stuff further up on this list is an issue for you, I guarantee you nobody has stolen your canon.

In general, nobody will steal your canon; there are not infinite numbers of ideas and tropes are very common both in canon canon and for OCs.

Unless someone straight up lifted everything about your character and just changed the name and whatever face claim you're using, there's about a 0 % chance they stole your ideas.

19. "Is my canon too similar to someone else's?"

See the bit in #18 about common tropes; given that, probably.

The bigger question is does it bother you enough to rework your OC? If it doesn't, stop caring.

If it does, get to work reworking your OC.

20. "Do they think I stole their canon?"

Have they said something? Do you have overlapping RP circles? No? Then they probably don't know you exist, let alone think you've stolen from them.

21. "And what do you do when somebody does steal your canon? It can be so hard to prove and it's so easy for it to be dismissed."

If it's hard to prove, it's too generic to have been stolen unless they just did a direct copy paste.

22. "Having your OC written off because of the face claim choice - that face is constantly typecast, nobody takes it seriously, they've been overplayed and ruined."

The only people I've had, 7 years of Tumblr RP, give two fucks about face claims are:

- Control freak admins of organized games that usually fall apart within 6 months due to drama typically caused by the control freak admins. I actually had one game have the admins get angry at me because I wouldn't stop doing cosplay for Calleo's pictures and just pick a celebrity.

Bullet dodged there.

- People who are also just generally unpleasant OOC; if a face claim alone is enough to make someone not want to RP with you (and it's not a case where the person whose face it actually is has been clear about them being uncomfortable with people using their pictures in that manner), that's a red flag that that person, if you somehow still want to write with them after seeing that, will likely be incredibly, bizarrely dramatic in all the wrong ways.

Sure, some of them are fine and they just have a hard time picturing an OC who also looks uncannily like Taylor Swift, but people who have things in their rules about refusing to write with people who use certain icons should be taken as either a red flag or a, "Well, I dodged a bullet here."

Also, in case nobody has told you this: Icons are not necessary for RP. They often add absolutely nothing to the post or thread that isn’t just as easily accomplished by using words. There’s nothing wrong with using icons but, you know, run far, far away from people who require that you use them.

Maybe instead of getting into the mindset that nobody wants to write with your OC because they’re an OC, take a look at your OC, ask people to give you honest and constructive feedback about the character (even if they tell you things you might not want to hear), consider working on your OOC personality as the victim mentality or using emotional manipulation about ~*~*how hard~*~* it is to write an OC to try and guilt people into writing with you is incredibly off putting on every level.

The more someone whines and complains about how nobody wants to write with them, honestly, the less interested I become in writing with them.

You also have to put some effort in, and that includes answering submitted memes or people who write you starters (or like an open starter call from you); if you fail to do that more often than not (and no, ‘low/no muse’ is not an excuse when you use it all the time, especially when you clearly have muse and are responding to whatever Themed Thing--usually angst or shipping--you get but ignore anything else or take ages to reply to anything else), the people sending those things in will assume you’re just not interested in writing with them and will stop trying.

And, bottom line?

If even you can’t sell your OC as being interesting and write off lack of interest from others as Unfairness Toward OCs, why should anyone else be interested?

If you have an OC that’s legitimately interesting, engaging, and not based around generally disliked tropes (across fandoms those are usually related to a canon character, multiple rare abilities, the OC being able to somehow always ignore or overtly go against social norms and suffer exactly zero consequences--or worse--be adored and admired for it by everyone, and Not From Around Here, in that order), and aren’t unpleasant OOC, people will want to write with you.

If you don’t, well, that’s your problem, and no amount of posting about how hard OCs have it will make people interested.

#ooc #ocs #roleplaying #roleplaying advice #original characters

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theliberaltony · 5 years ago

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): This is the first debate of 2020 and the last debate before the voting starts in Iowa in less than three weeks. There are six candidates (the smallest debate stage yet), and we’ve finally published our primary forecast (!!!), which shows the field (especially in Iowa) is pretty wide open.

So how are you thinking about tonight’s debate? Do you think it has the potential to really shake things up?

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): I think the big story on Monday — and potentially the big story of the debate — is what’s going on with the rivalry between Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. First, there is the Sanders campaign’s talking points that reportedly had volunteers paint Warren as “the candidate of the elite.” And then a story leaked on Monday that’s pretty damn unflattering to Sanders, claiming he told Warren he didn’t think a woman could win the presidency. So … I would say there’s some jostling on the progressive end of the spectrum that could play out tonight!

ameliatd (Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, senior writer): Definitely. One thing I’ll be watching for is whether some of the tacit alliances we’ve seen between the candidates start to break down. That story really did not reflect well on Sanders. On the other hand, it’s generally risky for women to go on the offensive in debates like these, so it might be a little tricky for Warren to turn that to her advantage.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): Yeah, it seems like the theme of this debate is somewhat inevitably going to be SANDERS-WARREN BATTLE. Unless they really do decide to turn the other cheek.

clare.malone: I mean, I do think the Warren people have been savvier about dropping opposition research like this.

natesilver: That’s a pretty serious oppo drop.

clare.malone: Sanders’s defense is generally “the mainstream media is stirring up conflict.”

Which is true, partially, in the sense that the media is the one publishing this stuff, but there are, indeed, real tensions between those two campaigns!

natesilver: Like, 95 percent of these oppo drops are dumb as fuck, concerning things that ordinarily voters couldn’t possibly care about. But this would be a big deal if it’s somehow confirmed or if Warren repeats the accusation herself.

sarahf: Yeah, it’s amazing how fast the news cycle moves, I had thought the situation with Iran would be the dominant thread of conversation tonight, but agree that between the Selzer & Co. Iowa poll that put Sanders in first in Iowa, and now the breakdown of Warren and Sanders’s truce to not attack each other, that will be a big part of tonight’s debate. And going in, it doesn’t seem great for Sanders …

ameliatd: Warren could really benefit from getting some more support from lefty Democrats who might be undecided or mostly seem to be sticking with Sanders. But if this accusation comes off as a cheap shot from Warren, I think that could hurt her. Or at least, not endear her further to those on the left.

clare.malone: Sanders’s support is pretty sticky, though, so it’s hard for me to see her winning over any of his supporters. Honestly, at this point, I think she has to worry about losing her supporters to Sanders or Pete Buttigieg — or even Joe Biden.

natesilver: Part of the dynamic is that Sanders hasn’t really been considered a front-runner. But now the media is covering him like one, even though it’s not really clear how much has actually changed in his candidacy. (If you look at the odds in our primary model — where we ran older forecasts retroactively before we launched — Sanders’s chances of winning the majority of pledged delegates have been pretty steady since November.)

sarahf: So let’s say tonight is the Sanders “wine cave” edition, where he’s at the center of attacks like Buttigieg was in the December debate. That debate seemed to have actually dampened some enthusiasm for Buttigieg — for instance, he fell pretty substantially in that Selzer poll from where he was in November. Do we see Sanders as the candidate tonight who has the most at stake? What about Biden? He is after all, the front-runner in our model even if he’s not the clear favorite to win; i.e., he’s still an underdog relative to the rest of the field.

natesilver: So on the one hand, I agree that Sanders’s support is likely to be pretty sticky, as Clare puts it. There’s evidence from polls that his supporters are the most firmly committed to any one candidate. But on the other hand, he hasn’t really gotten the same front-runner-type scrutiny that Warren DID get at some points this fall. So whether he holds up, once that level of scrutiny is applied, is very much up in the air.

ameliatd: And it’s not a low-stakes debate for Warren either, because she’s been actively trying to revitalize her campaign. When I was in Iowa on a reporting trip a few weeks ago, she was kind of trying to hit the “reset” button by hammering her core message on corruption and the economy. And of course, she’s now campaigning with Julián Castro.

clare.malone: I mean, we’ll just have to wait and see what the attacks are. I’m not entirely sure Warren, for instance, would go for “Bernie is sexist” on stage. That just doesn’t seem like her temperament. I would expect more of an attack on Sanders from Warren to be like, “his plans are implausible and therefore, bad for the general election.” But then again, he could also push back (as he’s been doing on the campaign trail), saying that HE is actually the most electable in a general. And there’s some truth to it, especially in comparison to Warren. Our polling with Ipsos shows the same thing — voters generally rate Sanders next after Biden in terms of his ability to defeat Trump.

Also, Sanders benefits from everyone kinda knowing what his thing is — socialism, baby! — which takes some of the sting out of “he’s too far out there!!” attacks. The brand is strong, as the kids say.

sarahf: Right, but to Amelia’s point, tonight could be a big night for Warren. She was only 3 points behind Sanders in that Selzer poll, which is a good sign for her considering her national numbers had dipped in late November and through December. And you can already see the slightest of upticks already in our national polling average:

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): Yeah, that Selzer poll had Sanders in the lead in Iowa as we’ve discussed, but then that Monmouth poll out on Monday showed Biden in the lead with 24 percent in Iowa and Sanders in second at 18 percent, suggesting that Iowa is very wide open and very difficult to predict.

clare.malone: Like the state itself!

sarahf: Right, Biden is either in first or fourth, depending on which poll you look at.

geoffrey.skelley: So far, the debates haven’t seemed to have affected the polls all that much, at least not since Sen. Kamala Harris’s surge after the June debate.

The first Democratic debate shifted polls the most

Average change* in national polls and the candidates who moved the most after the first four Democratic primary debates

Debate Avg. Change Biggest gainer Biggest loser June 26-27 +/- 2.4 Harris +8.3 Biden -6.5 July 30-31 0.9 Warren +3.0 Harris -3.0 Sept. 12 1.1 Warren +4.4 Sanders -2.0 Oct. 15 1.0 Buttigieg +1.6 Warren -3.5

*Average change in national polls evaluates the average absolute change in polling averages before and after each debate across the 10 candidates with the highest post-debate polling average. Polling averages were calculated using national polls conducted during the two weeks before and two weeks after each debate.

Source: Polls

Although I haven’t run the numbers the same way for the November and December debates, one look at the polls suggests there wasn’t a dramatic shakeup after those events, either. Now, tonight’s debate could be different since there are fewer candidates and voting is right around the corner. But then again, maybe not.

clare.malone: My spidey sense is that this debate will matter, especially to Iowans. These people are tuned in to a deranged degree!

natesilver: And polls also find that a high proportion of Iowans haven’t yet made their final decision.

clare.malone: Right.

sarahf: So if many Iowans haven’t made their final decision … how many do you think are actively considering Amy Klobuchar or Tom Steyer?

Klobuchar didn’t do as well in that Selzer poll as I thought she might, given how respondents in our poll with Ipsos rated her December debate performance. Granted, a lot of time has passed since Dec. 19, but there also haven’t been that many polls.

And then Steyer had a kind of weird surge in South Carolina and Nevada? It’s too soon to really make sense of what’s happening there (although he has spent a ton of money on TV ads).

natesilver: Klobuchar is actually in a pretty weird place. She’s at 6.6 percent in our Iowa polling average, but usually candidates either rise up to at least ~15 percent in Iowa — which matters, given how the caucus process itself works — or fall back into the low single digits.

clare.malone: The Steyer stuff is interesting in the sense that yes, he’s doing well in polls, probably because of advertising in those two states that have fewer ads in general than, say, Iowa or New Hampshire. But other candidates are going to start to get into that media-market scrum. Let’s see how much those numbers stick for him.

What I will say, though, is that the ads themselves cannily talk about the economy, not impeachment or climate change, subjects with which Steyer is more closely associated.

ameliatd: Steyer has been kind of defensive, too, about the fact that he made the debate at all — the implication being that he’s only there because he spent a ton of money on ads. That makes him a potential target, particularly for someone like Sanders or Warren. But attacking him also runs the risk of making him look like a more serious threat, so it’s somewhat complicated.

clare.malone: I think he won’t really be a big factor, tbh.

natesilver: I just don’t think Steyer is very interesting.

ameliatd: Right, maybe the other candidates won’t think it’s worth their time to question why he’s even there.

natesilver: So long as he’s at 3 percent in Iowa and New Hampshire, I don’t really care where he is in Nevada and South Carolina.

clare.malone: I mean, I don’t think he’s half bad in debates! I just think the scrum will go a little more the Sanders/Warren and the Buttigieg/Klobuchar.

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): We touched on this a bit earlier, but Biden is currently winning the race for the nomination. And I think, as a result, you are seeing blunter criticism of him. Buttigieg and Sanders have both taken Biden to task for his vote for the Iraq War, and Sanders has also criticized Biden’s record on issues of racial justice.

I’m not sure his rivals will attack Biden on Tuesday, but that’s the thing I’m watching most closely: Does anyone decide this is the last real chance to take on the person mostly likely to win? I have been confused by how much Warren’s allies are attacking Buttigieg, and now it seems like Warren is attacking Sanders — but Biden is winning!

It feels like 2016 a bit — Christie attacking Rubio instead of Trump — what is the point?

natesilver: If somehow Biden gets through the debate, and all the focus is on Sanders vs. Warren, Buttigieg, etc. — that seems like a very fortunate outcome for the former vice president.

ameliatd: Yes, Biden clearly benefited from being able to float above the fray in the December debate. And the other candidates mostly let him do that, which was a little weird.

natesilver: Biden does have a tendency to cause trouble for himself, of course.

It’s also probably worth noting that his relatively smooth debate in December has been followed up by quite a few endorsements, etc. Party elites seem to have fewer concerns than they once did about his steadiness as a candidate.

perry: Harris was kind of limited in taking on Biden, in my view, since she will be high on the VP list. But I don’t think Biden is going to pick Buttigieg, Warren or Sanders for VP, so they have very little incentive to hold back. Buttigieg, in particular, has been very good at attacking people — it would be interesting to see if one was the one to push the Iraq issue, because Biden seems, at times, unwilling to concede he voted for the war.

clare.malone: Yeah, I gotta say, that whole thing is really weird.

John Kerry, a Biden surrogate, was trying to say that other candidates were misrepresenting his record, but it’s clear as day that Biden voted for the Iraq War. If you want to complicate the narrative and say it was a mistake, and you were misled — fine. But that whole talking point is weak sauce, in my opinion.

sarahf: OK, this is our last debate before the voting starts in Iowa, and as I said at the outset of the chat — it’s pretty much a four-way race with Biden, Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg all projected to get some delegates. Biden is in the lead in our forecast, but as we’ve said in our chat, a lot of Iowans are still on the fence. What will you be keeping a close eye on tonight to see if it moves the needle at all?

perry: Biden seems poised to win the nomination — perhaps even Iowa. I’ll be watching to see whether any of the other top three really take him on — and if they do, on what issues?

ameliatd: I will be interested to see, as Perry mentioned, if Biden’s Iraq war vote — and his strange unwillingness to admit to it — gets turned against him, or if he can turn the general foreign policy conversation/discussion of what’s happening with Iran in his favor. Because in general, that’s an issue where he has a clear advantage over the other candidates.

clare.malone: I mean, it’s trite, but I’ll be curious to see what Warren and Sanders do on stage, given the conflict they’ve had. And I’ll be curious to see if Sanders, in particular, challenges Biden on a general-election electability front.

natesilver: Repeating myself a bit, but it feels to me like Sanders is liable to play a central role in this debate with perceptions that he’s now a front-runner, and those sorts of debates tend to be pretty high stakes.

ameliatd: Basically, tonight comes down to who’s taking the gloves off, and who are they going after?

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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riviae · 6 years ago

Note

Regis and/or Dettlaff for the character headcanon meme (ya know, if a hundred others haven't already asked lol)

character meme (accepting!): under a read more due to length

Regis:

favorite thing about them:

besides his obvious kind heart & unflinching loyalty, i love how passionate he is about things!! dude’s been alive for 400+ yrs & he still wants to travel, to make friends, to learn, to teach, to heal, to share his interests & knowledge. he loves life–loves humanity (cdpr can miss me w/ his referencing humans as mosquitoes metaphor nonsense)–& is my favorite example of a good redemption story/character.

least favorite thing about them:

he can be… rather pretentious at times. but to his credit, he never really belittles or alienates anyone in the hansa–it’s more like he has a lot of ‘high-brow’ interests for the time/setting (not counting distilling, of course) & in sharing/explaining them, he goes a bit over the top. i don’t think it’s on purpose, but case in point… not everything has to be a lecture, ya know?

favorite line:

kinda cheating on this, but my favorite scene of anything ever is this one from lady of the lake:

“Well,” sighed Regis. “Have it your way. I’ll have to avoid mirrors and dogs, and will have to beware of sorcerers and telepaths… And if I’m still exposed, I’m counting on you.”“You can count on me,” Geralt said seriously. “I’m not in the habit of leaving a friend in need.”The vampire smiled and because they were alone, he did not hide his fangs. “Friend?”

now specifically from b&w, i like this line from Regis’ journal: People justify bad deeds by good intentions. I’m not sure if there is greater idiocy

brOTP:

geralt/regis (which you’ll also see in the otp section), regis/yen (goth-nerd solidarity & also they both love geralt so jot that down), & regis/angouleme (he’s a wonderful uncle figure to angouleme)

also if regis ever got to meet vesemir i’m 100% sure they’d have gotten along swimminglg

OTP:

geralt/regis–it’s my lifeblood babey

nOTP:

romance-wise, any regis/hansa member that isn’t geralt is just not my cup of tea as well as regis/dett****

random headcanon

after his second regeneration, he became wearier around unknown sorcerers/sorceresses/magic users (w/ the exception of yen). at one point, geralt had decided to light a candle near regis using igni w/o really thinking abt it & noticed that regis had visibly flinched. geralt apologized immediately & now lets regis know when he’s abt to light something using magic (’normal’ fires, those not started by magic, don’t bother him. so it’s less of an aversion to fire & more of an aversion to fire made thru magic).

unpopular opinion:

i don’t really like his sideburns or hairline–not bc i think the design is bad per se (i think it solidified his intro in b&w as a more scholarly character), but bc i think it ages him much more than necessary. when the other 2 higher vampires (dettlaff, orianna, hell–even the unseen elder), look much younger, then it just seems unusual imo. a middle-aged tax collector w/ a crooked nose is how sapkowski describes him & idk, i think cdpr just wanted to give regis a more stereotypical scholarly look instead of using descriptions from the books.

song i associate with them:

when i’m in an angst™ mood, this song is what makes me think of regis (& higher vampires in the witcher series in general). it’s called far from home (the raven) by sam tinnesz

favorite picture of them (i’m too lazy to do this but assume every picture of regis is my fave)

Dettlaff:

favorite thing about them

his hobbies! woodworking & building toys for kids is nice™; cdpr should’ve at least given us a tiny scene of him tinkering on stuff. presumably he has a caring nature given that he nursed regis back to health but once again, cdpr couldn’t be bothered to flesh out the interesting aspects of his character & instead gave us an albeit cool but ultimately unnecessary boss battle :/

least favorite thing about them

oof, his lack of patience & propensity towards violence. well, perhaps propensity is the wrong word; i mean that in a character who is powerful/deadly (in which even a brief lapse in judgement could mean death for another), a hair trigger temper is... not going to endear me to them. for instance, i don’t think that dettlaff went to tesham mutna with the intent of killing syanna--i don’t think he knew himself what he would do upon seeing her. BUT, he still did it--& i’m sorry but killing an unarmed/defenseless (presumably unarmed, but even if she were armed it wouldn’t change the fact that she was defenseless against him & dettlaff knew that) woman in a fit of rage (who yes, wronged dettlaff greatly) speaks of a deeper problem relating to his inability to process his emotions.

i originally thought that cdpr was going to do some cool parallels between dettlaff and geralt bc both have issues w/ emotion but in different ways (i.e., dettlaff has difficulty controlling his while geralt has trouble expressing them), but they shared maybe a handful of sentences w/ each other before the conclusion of the dlc so yeah D:

favorite line:

“If you acknowledge any gods... start praying, now.”

brOTP:

regis/dettlaff is pretty much it/the only relationship i find interesting in b&w for dett anyway

OTP:

dettlaff/character development

nOTP:

mentioned in regis’ list above, but i also am not a fan of geralt/dett

random headcanon:

his “pack” up until syanna consisted almost entirely of orphaned lower vampires. whether due to their family dying or abandoning them, dett’s reserved & calming demeanor makes it easier for LVs to trust him. he’s nursed plenty of injured LVs back to health & when he passed thru the remnants of stygga castle, he did so bc he originally thought that he was following the trail of an injured LV (having caught regis’ scent). it was only when he got closer that he recognized the ‘shapeless smear’ was regis--someone he hadn’t seen in centuries--& chose to help him heal despite how taxing it would be.

unpopular opinion

i don’t understand his popularity as a character or how his actions can be defended. his character design is great (i still wanna to buy his moth brooch tbh), he was voice acted very well, & there are hints of an interesting backstory esp in relation to why he chose to help regis regenerate, but that’s not the focus of the dlc.

if i have to rely on regis to explain why dettlaff is a good person/deserves redemption/etc., then that’s lazy writing. i love regis to death, but he, like anna henrietta, was blind to/didn’t want to see his loved one’s faults/misdeeds. u can’t make an unbiased character judgement on someone you’re close to and indebted to imo.

granted, regis himself is an example of dett’s charity since he is alive & well (& also is stressed af bc of dettlaff), but does one good deed wash away all the death he later commits in the attack on beauclair? motivation or not, murder is murder, plain & simple. i can forgive but not condone regis’ actions in his youth bc, arguably, regis was already punished severely for it & chose to change/become a better person. cdpr didn’t give us an option to allow dett to be punished for his crimes (in something other than death--which i don’t think he nor syanna deserve) or let us know if he eventually grows to be a better person w/ the help of regis & so i can only care for him in the respect that i mourn the character he (& syanna) could’ve been.

in summary: everything i dislike abt dettlaff is entirely due to a lack of care when it came to fleshing out his character. we only see him committing acts of violence/murder, never healing or helping. we see the fallout of his anger, see that he feels grief & even remorse (like in de la croix’s death), but it doesn’t excuse the act itself. ppl are more than welcome to like or love morally dark/dubious characters, but i have an issue when a morally dubious character is painted as good or good but misunderstood.

song i associate with them

the song inferno by sir sly gives me real dettlaff vibes: I think you clipped my wings to save me from the sunForgot my hands and knees, I had to learn a lessonOh fearless teacher how'd I ever lose my sightWhy'd I ever try to fight against your path?Somewhere at half my life, I wandered in the woodsCan't find a single right, I swear nothing is goodI'm blinded now and darkness shrouds my every sightWhy'd I ever try to fight for my own path?

favorite picture of them:

once again, too lazy to find one, but his final form in the boss battle was cool even if it kinda went against sapkowski’s lore.

#Anonymous #hannah rambles into the void #warning: if u like dett maybe don't read this as i might've been a tad harsh on his character & i know how it feels when someone criticizes #a fave character #& that's also why i won't be tagging either of them as i don't wanna put these sorts of things into their tag #but yes!! thank u for asking anon ;v; i appreciate it! rambling about the witcher is fun!!

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not-poignant · 7 years ago

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hiya!! apologies if you've been asked this before but do you think you'd be Seelie or Unseelie? I was also wondering how you make each of the characters (I'm thinking particularly Ash, Augus, gulvi and the Nain Rouge) speech patterns so wonderfully distinct? like do you make notes of common words? I always struggle with this in my stories. also, after I've been reading TCOFT or GT I find myself thinking "La!" and "darling!" like Gulvi lol. anyway thanks, all the love :)))

I’m gonna respond to this publically because of the dialogue thing! :D

I think I’d be...oh god, I don’t know. Maybe Seelie? Maybe Unseelie? That’s not very helpful is it. Can I just be a trow?

I was also wondering how you make each of the characters (I'm thinking particularly Ash, Augus, gulvi and the Nain Rouge) speech patterns so wonderfully distinct? like do you make notes of common words?

Okay, so I thought I’d written about this in the past, but I’ve only written about dialogue distinction in terms of fanfiction.

Here is my theory on dialogue and my technique of using cheat sheets.

And here is what my cheat sheets look like.

Now obviously with original fiction, you don’t have the benefit of watching a whole bunch of stuff and writing down observations and dialogue quirks, you have to come up with them.

So, constructing dialogue. There are some key things when constructing characters from scratch - or I guess questions you can ask yourself - to help begin to narrow things down:

- Where are they from? Do they have an accent? - Have they travelled? - Are they an X-ophile? Gulvi is a Francophile, her affectations aren’t because she’s French, but because she stayed with a French family and picked up some things that other French people might be like ‘really??? e.e’ Japanophiles and Anglophiles etc. can be the same.- Are they a formal or informal character? (other questions lead into this: what is their class? Do they like to give certain first impressions? Do they not give a shit what other people think of them? What is their age? What is their environment?) - Try and think of how they might sound in a doctor’s appointment when they’re worried, vs. how they sound with friends, vs. how they sound in a job interview. Is it the same? Would it change?

Okay so from there you get general ballparks:

Gwyn: Formal education, high Court family, Welsh background. Lost his accent due to it falling out of favour. Formal speaking, but time in the military has made him less formal than someone like Augus. Can be unexpectedly coarse (see: time in the military).

Augus: Welsh background leads to a more musical and soft-spoken, lilting accent. Late formal education, and a Courtier’s education in the Raven Prince’s Court. He is used to using sarcasm and wit, and false politeness, along with things like ‘darling.’

Gulvi: Latvian, a punk, sitting in a sort of very informal ‘formal’ accent where she can get along with Courtiers (hence also the ‘darling’) but where she will also swear a lot. Can and does speak in multiple languages. Will swear to make an impact.

Ash: Spends time in human world. Informal. Blasphemer (areligious) and swears a great deal, due to mostly hanging out with the lowest classes around the world. Loves Australia and the US, therefore has a US-Australian accent, has lost all Welsh.

Okay, but that still doesn’t really give you specific quirks? That’s when you get to narrow down. Some of that you’ll learn as you go. There have always been small but consistent habits across the characters.

Gwyn says ‘okay’ but Augus says ‘all right.’ Augus says ‘careful’ and ‘easy’ and uses endearments, but Gwyn is more likely to say ‘it’s okay’ or borrow endearments from others if he uses them at all. Gwyn is more likely to speak in short sentences, and doesn’t care for fancy language unless it’s in very specific circumstances. He is a ‘straight’ talker, he likes to get to the point. Augus can be more circuitous.

Augus also does this a lot: ‘Look at you’ ‘look at that’ ‘oh that’s very nice’ etc. He observes. That’s most noticeable during a scene, but he does it a lot.

Gulvi has her obvious quirks, but there are less obvious ones too. She generally doesn’t like to let conversations go by without insulting someone at least once, lol.

OKAY SO what to do with that? Get your character file open (do you have a character file? It might help!) and put in a section that says:

Dialogue: (or in my case, it says Speech Patterns:)

And start compiling your notes. First the general answers to the above questions, and then you can narrow things down a bit more. Gulvi’s looks like this:

Gulvi Speech Patterns

Gulvi has speech affectations that turn her formalCourt-speak (which she learned during the Raven Prince’s Court) into somethingdecorated with the occasional French exclamation. She picked this up out ofhero-worship / respect for the matriarch / lady of the house that she wasprotecting. She is actually an accomplished multi-linguist.

Her voice is rich and fulsome. She will sometimes ‘purr’ herspeech in the back of her throat, usually while smiling or smirking. Her speechpatterns can be quite ‘Crielle’ like.

(Here is where I put specific things when I just need to make the characters sound more themselves at a glance - you will not know all of these before you start writing, some of them you will learn as you go).

DarlingsNo?Yes?Dear meOui!Quoi!La!LovelyWell!Ah, no!You mustIt is so

Fenwrel’s notes on the other hand are short, but distinct:

“Her voice is well-modulated, though she can haveconfrontational manners of speaking quite quickly. She has a tendency to repeat questions. I.e. ‘Why?’ ‘Why?Because I said so.’ Or, ‘How?’ ‘How? We’re going to do it this way.’”

The Raven Prince’s are a lot more specific, because he is his voice, in a lot of ways:

The Raven Prince’s voice – despite possessing fantasticdiction – betrays his raven form. He can laugh softly or harshly. He can shoutloudly and raucously, or be very well-spoken. He modulates his voice accordingto circumstance. He has a bold laugh when amused.

Due to having a constantly busy mind, the Raven Prince –amongst comfortable company – will sometimes appear to be in the middle of aconversation that no one else is a part of. He will often start conversationswithout context, moving on tangents that seem unrelated. However, he reins thishabit in within the Court, knowing that people prefer more logically flowingsituation.

He has been trained to speak as a Courtier, and follows manyof their patterns of speaking:

‘By what name…’‘Did he not?’‘Perhaps’ (instead of ‘Maybe’)‘Yes’ (instead of ‘Okay’ or ‘All right’)‘You are dismissed.’‘Stop.’ ‘Cease.’‘I was given to understand...’

Asks a great deal of questions, and is not particularlytalkative (which is in sharp contrast to how he was in his early years). Isdeeply manipulative in conversation. He is capable of very brutal, cruelinsult. He is not likely to use a great deal of contractions, and oftendescribes how he feels about something using terms relating to nature, or hisraven form (i.e. ‘it feels like the sun warming my feathers.’)

Obviously you don’t need much. The speech patterns section is great for editing. If your characters aren’t feeling distinctive, that’s when you go back and take a quick look and notice if you’re actually adhering to your own notes.

It’s really easy for most authors to eventually just have characters speak in their own voice, or a samey voice. I used to do it with Augus a lot and would go back every time and edit his dialogue to fit Augus better as my final edit. And I’ve actually gone back into GT and COFT since and altered things that I felt weren’t quite in dialogue character.

So first of all, don’t worry if dialogue is challenging right now, it is for a lot of people. Some of the best writers I know still have issues distinguishing their characters in dialogue.

Read the cheat sheet posts above, and one thing you can do is start watching your favourite movies and pretend to write cheat sheets for the characters. What are their dialogue quirks? If the show/movie is well-written, they should have a bunch. Most characters in TV shows have a whole dialogue section in the TV Bible for each character, so new screenwriters can see how to make that character feel like the character.

But if you don’t have time for that, you can start a cheat sheet for yourself, for your OCs. The actual individual bits and pieces, like the ‘okay’ vs. ‘all right’ and stuff you may not plan for. That came as I went, as I wrote. And then I realised it was distinct, and coded it into the bible of Gwyn and Augus in the FT universe.

I actually have no ‘speech patterns’ written out for Eran and Mosk, because I didn’t know the exact nature of their voices until I started writing them. And now it would look something like this:

Mosk:

Relatively informal despite his formal upbringing, due to living in forest with a lot of siblings. Generally reluctant to speak, and prefers to only respond when spoken to, if at all. Voice can be easily mocking and cruel, or numb and dead. When relaxed and healthy, his voice is quiet and reserved, with moments of being earnest. Will use liberal swearing and insult, and often talks in flat statements ‘your parents are dead’ or open ended questions. Very rarely takes charge of a conversation, and very rarely says any version of yes or yeah. Frequently says ‘I don’t know’ even when he does know something. A lot of ‘I don’t’ statements: I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t like, I don’t want. ‘Maybe’ instead of ‘perhaps.’

Avoids expressions of gratitude, apology and more. Therefore does not seem polite.

Eran:

Formal way of speaking, determined and active speaker. Will start dialogue, and knows formal rules of interacting with fae strangers, but will lose temper quickly and then begin to yell or escalate. Often says ‘right’ as confirmation. Is very assertive. Will be bold in saying ‘I liked that’ or ‘I didn’t like that.’ Tries to be a clear communicator.

If asked something that he can help with, is enthusiastic in response: ‘Yes! Of course!’ A strong voice with good projection, but also very good at expressing empathy.

***

So how would all this look in action? Let’s say you have a piece of generic dialogue that Eran and Mosk are saying, and it goes like this:

Eran: I want to go over there Mosk: Okay Eran: Are you all right? Mosk: I guess...can I have some sap? Eran: Okay.

That’s communicating something, but it’s not very distinctive at all. If I were to go through my notes, I’d end up with something more like this:

Eran: We’re going over here. (assertive / determined statement)Mosk: I don’t care (consistent with Mosk’s general reservation / aloofness)Eran: Are you feeling okay? (empathy, changing to ‘okay’ because it’s consistent for Eran in general)Mosk: I don’t know. (consistent with his ‘I don’t’ statements)Eran: ...Mosk: Do you have any sap? Eran: Yes! Of course! (consistent with his being able to answer a question positively) I’ll get some for you right now, do you want cherry? Or something else? I got a selection. Mosk: I don’t care (still aloof)Eran: I’ll pick something for you. Tell me if you don’t like it. (Clear communicator, giving opportunities for Mosk to also be clearer).

Mosk is a tough character in dialogue because he often shuts things down, which is why Eran opens things up. But anyway, that’s a story for another day.

Both sections of dialogue communicate clearly what is going on. They’re going somewhere. Mosk is hungry, and Eran has the food. But in one, it doesn’t matter who is saying what, the words could be said by anyone at all. In the second, you get a clearer sense of their characters. Better yet, you actually get more from the conversation. Them being in character with their dialogue creates more conflict, more chemistry, and expands the time they can connect meaningfully.

As the story continues, I will have more specific notes. Mosk’s and Eran’s voices are actually less developed than Gwyn’s and Augus’ because they are young, and their voices are still developing. Watch this space for Eran and Mosk to potentially pick up some communication quirks from Gwyn and Augus, since I was prepared for that.

tl;dr - Yes, I do notes of specific words and also one or two paragraphs of general tone. I go back and edit character voices if I feel they’re not quite on point. Some character voices will be a lot easier than others, depending on how close they are to your way of speaking.

#asks and answers #pia on writing #dodgy advice #pia on dialogue #fae tales verse #characterisation #building OCs #dialogue is one of those things i think i'm actually okay at #but there's lots of advice out there #this is a long post but truthfully #dialogue cheat sheets only need to be short lol #something you can scan over quickly #and go 'right okay i know how to change this bit of dialogue'#i'm sorry this post is so long #administrator Gwyn wants this in the queue #sauvage-loup

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thevampirediariesdiary · 7 years ago

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1.16 There Goes the Neighborhood

I’ve been going off on my own pet tangents for plenty of episodes in a row now, so how ‘bout we return to what is ostensibly the focus of the season? Let’s spend an episode talking about Stefan and Elena.

Turns out, that’s even difficult for them to do. “Damon hasn’t said a word to me,” Stefan tells Elena, “every time I try to talk to him, he shuts me down.” “Do you think he’s still trying to find Katherine?” she asks. “I don’t know,” he says, sounding reluctantly impressed by the drama of it all. “He waited 145 years only to find out that Katherine could not care less. I mean, that’s gotta hurt, right?” “And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!” Elena says flatly. Stefan smiles at her, endeared by the rage coming from her tiny, loving person. “You have every reason to be upset with him,” he tells her. “Mhmm,” Elena agrees. “Have you thought any more? about what you’re going to do?” Stefan asks. “About what? Isobel, my vampire birth mother, who’s related to my vampire ancestor Katherine, who screwed over your vampire brother? Nah, I haven’t thought about it at all.” “Sorry I brought it up,” Stefan says. “It would just be nice if we could get through one day without having to deal with any of it,” Elena complains, “no vampire mother, no brother…” Stefan raises his eyebrows. “No vampires at all?” She softens, gives him the cutest smile in the world.

“No vampires but you!” He gazes back at her, completely smitten.

She goes on, “I just wanna get us back to normal stuff, like, school, and homework, and here’s a thought: fun.” Stefan faux gasps. “Oh, that sounds good to me, when do we start?” Elena giggles, and they walk off down the hall together.

Caroline and Matt are in the same hallway, trying to figure out what they’re going to do that night, which is complicated by 1) the fact that Matt’s mother has decided she wants to live in her house again, and Caroline doesn’t want to be nice to her, because “I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to show kindness to people who hate me. I’m not that evolved.” And 2) the fact that Matt gets distracted by Elena and Stefan kissing goodbye in the hallway. Caroline’s solution is to pitch a double date to them: “The couple dynamics have changed, and there’s been a little awkwardness…and I think it’s important for us to get over it.” Elena is extremely reluctant, but Stefan pipes up that it sounds like a good idea, it sounds like…fun. Elena agrees. Stefan truly is the most likable when he’s encouraging people to live life well, to be unafraid and joyful in all their everyday moments. Since that’s the theme of this episode, I unequivocally enjoy him.

I won’t be paying much attention to the tomb vampires’ unrest subplot, because I generally found the tomb vampires very blah as a big-bad. But I will say that Harper scares himself by accidentally opening a voicemail on Anna’s phone, and then cheerfully asks if it was her boyfriend, as if he genuinely couldn’t be happier for her. i.e., Harper continues to be too good, too pure.

Pearl and Anna pay Damon a visit, and remind us that they have no living person residing in the house and that therefore anyone can get in. Pearl is very happy to know that Damon has infiltrated the council, and wants to know everything he knows, and to stop the circulation of vervaine amongst townspeople. “What exactly are you trying to achieve?” Damon asks, finally. “Mystic falls is our home, Damon,” Pearl tells him. “They took that from us, our land, our home…it’s time we rebuild.” “What, are you crazy?” Damon says. “That was 1864, wake up woman, the world has moved on!” Pearl continues calmly, “As a reward for your help I’m willing to give you what you want most.” “I want nothing,” Damon shoots back. “Katherine,” Pearl says. He’s taken aback

But of course, recovers quickly.

He points out that Pearl has been in the tomb, and can have no way of knowing where Katherine is. Pearl insists they were friends long enough that she knows how to find her. Damon isn’t swayed: “I no longer have any desire to see Katherine ever again, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to play the role of your little minion.” But, as it turns out, Pearl wasn’t looking for a negotiation. She’s 400 years older than Damon, and he will do what she tells him, or she’ll rip him limb from limb. To prove the point, she sticks her thumbs in his eyeballs. It’s gross.

Stefan picks up Elena at her house for their date, and brings flowers, by which she is delighted. “I figured it’s a date, why not do it right,” he says.

She tells him it’s not too late to cancel, that maybe they were never meant to get to the normal part of dating after all, but Stefan says that worry is exactly why they ought to go. “We’re gonna go out, have some fun, try to remember that we don’t have to be so serious.” For Elena “I carry everyone else’s hurt in my heart” Gilbert and Stefan “Brooding is my cardio” Salvatore, this is great advice.

Damon turns back up at the bar, orders his usual. Kelley Donavan ogles him. “You’re new around here.” “On the contrary,” he answers, “I am very old.” As much as Kelley, to use Caroline’s phrase, “oogs me out”, what becomes very obvious in this scene is that she and Damon are alike in certain ways. When Damon asks where she’s been, she answers “Around, about”, and he echoes “Been there.” She says she thinks the manager blew off her interview, because last time she was in town she slept with her boyfriend, and when Damon says that’s not very nice, she simply says “It happens”. “Yes, it does,” he agrees. Damon and Alaric have in common that they’re both spurned and abandoned – but Damon and Kelley have in common their coping mechanisms. And what appears slightly comical and even a little sexy on Damon, reveals itself as selfish and hurtful, and a bit pathetic on Kelley. And he’s had a century and a half longer than her to learn that lesson, and still hasn’t.

Damon and his new friend are joined by Jenna, who begs off a drink, claiming that she’s “all responsible now”. “Take a night off,” Kelley tells her, “it’s good for the soul!” “It’s great for the soul,” Damon puts in. Jenna sits down, accepts a shot; “This is not gonna end well.” “Can’t wait,” Damon says. The kids’ double date is at a booth just across the way, and they rapidly notice that three out of four of their legal guardians (spurious, in the case of Damon) are getting trashed at the bar. Damon salutes them with his empty glass. But actually, it’s not quite as unwholesome as it first appears – Jenna, at least, is trying to get through to Damon: “Don’t be grumpy, it can’t be that bad.” “You’d be surprised,” he says, depressively. “The primary reason for my existence has abandoned me, and after today’s events, the remains of the shaky ground I walk on are about to go kaboom.” He bobs his eyebrows at Kelley, and suggests, “Let’s get hammered.” “Let’s,” she agrees.

“At least they’re having fun,” Caroline says, a bit bitterly since she’s being subjected to her current boyfriend talking about his ex-girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend blatantly flirting with her boyfriend’s mom. “They’re drunk,” Elena corrects.

It can be both... More reminiscing takes place, which Caroline initially participates in and then which becomes another Matt-and-Elena story. Caroline excuses herself, asks Elena to come with. This is when the legal guardians finally realize their charges are under the same roof as they are. “Quick, hide, we’re not here,” Jenna tells Kelley. “Why, where did we go?” “Children, under our care, five o’clock. This is not role modelish.”

Meanwhile, Jeremy has been all over the vampire chatrooms, asking for details about killing and turning, and asking people “are you a believer”. It’s painful. Anna turns up looking to hang out; he recovers from his shock and sets up a videogame. He tells her he’s working on another vampire paper – and despite initially encouraging him to take his ancestor’s journal seriously, she now claims she made it all up. Jeremy doesn’t buy it.

Stefan and Matt have been left alone to play pool together. “Is there anything you’re not good at?” Matt asks wryly. “Double dating?” Stefan answers. “This is all kinda new to me. I usually…keep to myself, I don’t always fit in.” “That’s because you’re that guy,” Matt tells him, probably taking this out of the same cryptic phrasebook from which Tyler got ‘we people’. “What guy?” Stefan asks. “The guy who seems like he has everything, so the people that don’t kinda run the other way,” Matt says. Stefan seems honestly taken aback. “Is that what I seem like?” “Pretty much,” Matt answers. “Huh,” says Stefan, “what a dick!” “Yeah,” says Matt, laughing.

Stefan has made a friend, and I am honestly so, so proud of him. I just wish Lexi was still alive so they could all be friends together.

The girls, on the other hand, are struggling. “The point of this was to show him how much you liked Stefan, not hopscotch down memory lane,” Caroline tells Elena accusingly. And when Elena comes out of the bathroom, she runs into a tomb vamp. But Elena’s picking up on how things work in this world of vamp hearing and sneaking around oblivious humans – she pretends to be texting, and lets Stefan read it over her shoulder: That man over there just called me Katherine. They consider cancelling the rest of the date, but Elena insists she’s going to get her whole day of normal: “If there’s another vampire in town, he’s still gonna be here tomorrow.” (Funny, that sentiment sounds a little familiar, I wonder where it came from?) They all go to the Salvatore house to avoid the dubious grown-ups, where Matt sticks his foot in his mouth about dating Elena again, and Caroline stalks off. Matt apologizes to…Stefan, which is an odd choice, but Stefan is incredibly sensible and mature about it: “You guys have a history, ignoring it doesn’t do anybody any good.” Nothing gets in the way of bromance. Elena tries to reassure Caroline, but doesn’t have much luck. “I’m Matt’s Elena backup, I’m your Bonnie backup,” Caroline tells her. “You don’t get it. Why would you? You’re everyone’s first choice.” The boys drive up in Stefan’s sports car that Matt fixed in less than five minutes, Stefan tells Caroline and Matt to take it for a spin. Stefan asks Elena if she’s alright, they hug.

Jenna ditches Kelley and Damon at the bar when things progress to cherry-stem shenanigans, and runs into the aforementioned tomb vampire. “Hot guy plus drunk me equals very bad things,” she tells him. He tried to compel her, and she just snorts and giggles. Thank goodness for vervaine.

Jeremy, as usual, is making terrible life decisions, like deliberately cutting his palm while making sandwiches in an attempt to out Anna as a vampire. Because nobody on this show has any self-control, it works. She slams him into the fridge and, at his invitation, feeds on him. It’s weird and uncomfortable, and I’m glad Jenna interrupts. “Jenna, hey, what’s up?” says Jeremy. “Regret,” says Jenna. Jenna, you have made so many fewer mistakes than almost everyone you interacted with this episode. Give yourself a teensy break.

Matt finally gets to make a speech! “Did I pass? The whole double date thing was obviously a test to see how I’d do around Elena…Look, it’s my fault, I made it pretty clear early on that Elena still means something to me. But, all that talk, that was just two old friends and some memories. Tonight wasn’t about me and Elena, I was there because I wanted to be with you. And I don’t know what this means or what we are, but I do know you are the only person I wanna be in this car with right now, and I don’t even know if that makes sense, because I’m not really that good at expressing myself –” “No, no,” Caroline interrupts, “I think you’re doing just fine.”

But what was finally shaping up to be a nice evening ends uncomfortably, when Damon brings Kelley home to a houseful of high-schoolers, one of whom is her son. Kelley makes a hasty exit, Matt follows her, Elena volunteers to drive Caroline home. “Normal people don’t have chaperones or bodyguards or babysitters,” she tells Stefan. And when he says he worries about her, she says, “Stefan I can’t live every minute afraid that someone’s going to come after me. I won’t. That’s not living.” Stefan goes back in; Damon reopens the lines of communication to say, “Don’t look at me like that.” “Are you crazy?” Stefan asks him. “Save the lecture,” Damon starts, but we don’t get to hear what I’m sure would have been a deeply awkward conversation, because two of the tomb vamps jump through the window and attack them. Stefan kills one, the other flees. “I remember them from 1864, they were in the tomb!” Stefan exclaims. “Yeah…about that,” says Damon.

I know Stefan has a chest wound, but he really looks like he’s pearl-clutching here, and I love it.

Elena calls Stefan to let him know she got home safe, and tells him, “I had a really nice time on our date tonight.” “Such a liar,” Stefan retorts. “No, in a way, it was exactly what it was supposed to be.” He smiles. “I had a really nice time too.”

Anna pops into the Gilbert house to scold Jeremy for being reckless. He says he took the risk because if it’s true that vampires are real, maybe it’s true that there is an explanation for what happened to Vicki – oh, and also, he wants Anna to turn him.

Music Moments: Erin McCarley’s “Lovesick Mistake” plays when Caroline is confessing that she feels like a backup: “I've gotta find someway/To fumble right through this new heartache, it's torn me apart/Oh lovesick mistake, turn me away”. And Parachute’s “The Mess I Made” plays during Matt and Caroline’s kiss in the car. “Should've held my ground/I could've been redeemed/For every second chance/That changed its mind on me.”

Eyebrow Watch:

previous episode // next episode

#rewatch #1.16 #there goes the neighborhood

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ninnieartsies · 5 years ago

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hello, it's the fic anon again! do you have any hard limits on the ship in terms of kinks? i wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable when i write the fics in case it gets ns//fw... i certainly would also like a background on raimundo too please (as a whole character) cause i'd be ashamed if i write him too ooc! ♥️ thank you sm for giving me permission to write about your wonderful oc too! 😭💖

sdsfllkds I’m!! 💞 💞

Hard limits would be mainly piss/scat/vomit based stuff. Other than those, I’m pretty aight! So if you wanna go wild and explore some, feel free to! òvób Rai is good for that stuff!

Okay, so I’m putting the stuff about Raimundo under a read more since it gonna be long-ish. TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR CANNIBALISM, SADOMASOCHISM, MEDICAL/INJURY DESCRIPTIONS, bad renders of SCAR PLACEMENT ART, and other stuff!!

This bastard of a man is 190,5cm (6'3’’), and he weighs 74kg (163.14 lbs). His eyes are red, and his hair is black.

He has a habit of using endearments/petnames on everyone but especially his s/o. These typically are babe, sweetcheeks, darling, my love, love, snookums, snugglebutt, and so on.

SOMEWHAT OF A TL;DR: Think the trope Grumpy/dangerous one being soft for only One Person -ship trope.

Raimundo is a cannibal vampire, which means that he eats other vampires, but will also eat humans. Human blood is like a snack for him, so it doesn’t sustain him, while vampire blood will satisfy him for three days. If he eats human flesh, he’s alright for three days, while if he ate vampire flesh he’d be good for a week.

Rai’s blood is black and tarlike, and it stinks absolutely horrible. It is especially revolting to those with a sensitive nose.

Werewolf blood will make him high (think weed usage).

He’s a sadomasochist, who has a hard time creating emotional bonds with people. But with mutual trust and enough time, anything is possible. His sadomasochism makes it that he can’t get off unless pain and/or humiliation is involved; either him receiving or giving.

He likes cats and strawberries.

Strawberries are pretty much the only thing he can eat that’s not raw (human/vampire/other) flesh, without getting sick. Anything else will get him ill.

He can eat meat that is sort of similar to that of a human, be it raw or cooked.

He can’t read or write due to his brain damage.

Enjoys being read stories to.

Rai’s kinks are basically: anything goes.

Can both top or bottom, both are fine. Though I usually have him top or Katsuk be a power bottom. But you do you!

Rai likes to sit or lay on the floor. For some reason, he finds it comfortable.

He doesn’t understand technology at all. TV and phones are filled with demons. Automatic doors are hell, and escalators are the stairs of satan.

When he’s after affection, he may squish Bakug. Think big dog thinking its a lapdog.

Bakugou is someone Rai trusts and respects immensely, and the only one he can fully relax around. This is why he may nap laying on top of him.

When Katsuki’s busy, Rai may just lay close by to him, or curled around him, as long as he can have a little bit of physical contact, then he’s happy.

Since Rai can turn into a bat, he may also hide himself under the collar of Baku’s shirt and join him on little outings. (Katsuk’s emotional support bat, lmao).

The bat size is basically big ears and a body that’s the size of your hand/palm + wing span. Black bat.

Rai’s and Bakug’s relationship is first and foremost built on mutual respect: Both are aware that they can injure each other badly or even kill each other, if something goes wrong.

He’s got a bunch of scars littering his body, most noticeable being those on his throat and over his nose.

and a burn scar in the form of a cross on his back.

Now then his personality:

Raimundo’s sense of fear has dwindled to almost nonexistent since his brain damage got severe enough. He’s very street smart, and one for close combat, and will keep going, despite getting injured in the process… Now, despite him being what you’d call an apex predator, Raimundo is clumsy when he’s somewhere comfortable. He has a tendency to trip over carpets, and fall down stairs (be it him going up or down them). But once he is outside again, and this clumsy streak is nowhere to be seen. This is because he unconsciously switches on/off his survival instinct. Out in the wild/in the cities, he has to keep an eye on the surroundings and not get caught.

Raimundo is pretty violent by nature, in addition to being reckless. He has issues in showing his feelings in other ways than being a complete asshole, or through bursts of aggression. Raimundo is not someone who’d cry, he hasn’t cried since he was a kid. When he’s sad or upset, he tends to get violent. He also has a hard time trusting anyone enough to form a relationship with them. If anyone would be interested in him enough to suggest dating, they’d need to be patient. Very patient.

He CAN love if the stars align right, and everything clicks. Once he finds his ideal mate, Raimundo is surprisingly cuddly, and he quite enjoys close contact with his SO. He is also POSSESSIVE, and will mark his chosen one often with bites. These bites will be deep and may require stitches if he is not careful enough. Rai is also not shy to show affection through kisses, and/or other means. He may also get easily jealous and act out on it. In bed, he, by default, will be rough. There will be blood involved; it’s either he or his partner that is bleeding. His partners do not have to worry, though. He does not EAT them he views as his. But he may bite too hard since he can’t control himself always due to the brain damage.

Raimundo’s possessiveness can become an issue. He does not like others touching what is his, and even less if they upset his s/o even a little.

When you reach a friend status, or a trustworthy status in general, Raimundo will be sort of pleasant to be around. He will crack jokes and he’ll even be ready to help you with stuff, if he deems you worthy of his time, more or less. Rai can and will use bad pickup lines for the heck of it if it means he can make Katsuki laugh. For example: sit next to him on the couch, and put an arm around him and say “So. Ya c’mere of’en?”

Then for the fun part! Raimundo’s medical issues.

He has BRAIN DAMAGE called CHRONIC TRAUMATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY, that has altered his personality; affects his learning, memories, fine motor skills, and causes seizures.

These seizures can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. In his case, they are unpredictable and episodic. Having lived alone for so long, he doesn’t recognize symptoms, nor does he even understand that he has a brain injury, to begin with.

(Usually, he gets a seizure when he gets overwhelmed, when it’s TOO loud, or he’s idle for too long. Having all his senses stimulated heavily at the same time, may also result in a seizure. Hitting his head or getting a hard enough blow to his head can also cause seizures.)

He thinks it’s normal to black out, be disorientated, and to have gaps in his memory. Now, encephalopathy was also triggered by Rai’s habbit to CANNIBALISM, which he picked up from his step brother. Even Raimundo’s AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR is linked to CTE. As his aggressiveness took a more active part, it in turn dwindled his self-preservation to a bare minimum. Raimundo does understand danger, but MIGHT NOT ACT like someone would expect one to.

Other symptoms in addition to the seizures are his MEMORY LOSS and TROUBLE CONCENTRATING FOR LONG PERIODS of time. He needs to take breaks or he gets frustrated, which in turn can lead to an aggressive outburst. His ABILITY TO LEARN is also affected, it being much slower than that of an average human. He, however, is stubborn so he does not easily give up, but he gets very frustrated when something doesn’t go as he hoped.

Raimundo also has some trouble with his dexterity or fine motor skills. Grasping a pencil is very hard, for example. He can’t always control the strength of his grip either, it being too loose or too strong at times. His hands also shake.

Raimundo’s use of endearments/petnames really comes down to him not bothering to remember names, since he’d probably just forget them after a bad seizure episode.

Katsuki, however, has made a lasting impression, so his name is pretty much etched into Rai’s brain and the few brain cells he got working. Rai also calls Bakugou by his given name, Katsuki.

AFTER THE SEIZURES

he is disorientated, often scared, and confused. Then he becomes lethargic and very SLEEPY. He might think he’s moving, i.e. lifting a hand, but instead, he’s just laying still. Usually, something familiar will help him to GROUND himself. A FAMILIAR VOICE or SCENT calms him down and keeps him from spiraling down into, worst-case scenario, another seizure.

If he is with someone he trusts, he will be more than happy to cuddle/hold hands/anything that offers him some sort of comfort & allows him to calm down.

Rest is important. So don’t be too surprised if he spends hours sleeping after a seizure. Depending on how bad it was it can be a short-ish nap, or he sleeps practically the whole day away.

His speech will slur, he won’t make as much sense, and his reaction time is drastically reduced. He is at his most vulnerable after a seizure.

After a seizure he may also lose memories. Sometimes he can get a fuzzy version of a memory back, but mostly they’re gone forever.

HIS VOICE

Since an incident where he was attacked by a beast (chimera), that left the scars on his throat a century ago, Raimundo’s voice has been altered. IT’S HOARSE, a little bit strained as the vocal-cords in his throat are PERMANENTLY DAMAGED despite his healing and regenerating abilities.

(The incident almost killed him, so the healing process took more priority in keeping him alive than to worry about his vocal cords.)

In order to not irritate his throat, HE DOESN’T SPEAK THAT MUCH. If he does, he has to take breaks in order to let his voice and throat rest. It is inconvenient, but he’s learned to live with it.

Some days he may opt not to speak if his throat/voice is acting up.

Raimundo also purrs when he’s content or happy. He may also hiss, growl, snarl, shriek… All of the sounds he makes will still keep the same strain. Since Raimundo originally was a human, his growls/snarls will never sound as natural as they would if they came from a wolf, for example.

SKILLS

HE CAN TURN INTO A BAT; he might “hibernate” during the coldest months

EXTRAORDINARY CLIMBING SKILLS: Climbs vertical walls like it’s nothing, and might also crawl along the ceiling. That means, he has some killer gripping force. He can also climb walls while carrying someone.

REGENERATION/FAST HEALING: depending on wounds 2 days to 4 weeks+++

“MOVING” THROUGH SHADOWS; practically just got A game in hiding in shadows, in disappears into them. As long as light doesn’t touch him, he’s practically invisible.

HAS THE STRENGTH TO BREAK BONES, with his bare hands.

EXTRAORDINARY HEARING: can in a sense see even as blind, thanks to his hearing alone (think bats and echolocation, tho not as sharp). To navigate blind, he will need a noise source.

A GOOD SENSE OF SMELL.

SPEAKS ENGLISH, AND DEMONIC/BEASTIAL LANGUAGE (albeit broken, as he can’t reach the ranges a demon/beast could).

And broken heavily accented Japanese when with Bakug. Will also mess up meanings of words, or come up with new words.

ex. fries = elongated potatoes

WEAKNESSES

HOLY WATER: burns like acid. Digested he’d cough up blood and probably his intestines, and thus die.

HOLY ARTIFACTS; can kill him if used correctly (i.e. the artifacts are made into weapons). Mostly they just give him a migraine.

SUNLIGHT: The exposed skin starts to bubble and eventually bursts open. Depending on the severity and exposure, the spot can burst into flames. Throw him into a sun-exposed area and you will practically witness him be burned alive. A very painful death.

TRAUMA TO THE HEAD: can cause him to have a seizure at worst, but at the least it makes him disorientated.

WEREWOLF BLOOD will get him high as a kite.

If one was TO KILL RAIMUNDO, you just need to pierce his heart with a weapon of your choice, or alternatively, destroy his brain. He can also bleed to death if he is not careful. But for a quick death, the two other ways are more effective.

#raimundo #bakurai fic anon #ninnieatalk #i think that pretty much covers everything regarding my rairai #if there's something else you need to know just hmu for more rai facts lmao #anon

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johnnymundano · 6 years ago

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The Theatre Bizarre (2011)

Directed by Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Jeremy Kasten, Tom Savini and Richard Stanley

Written by Scarlett Amaris, Douglas Buck, John Esposito, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Emiliano Ranzani and Richard Stanley

Music by Simon Boswell, Susan DiBona and Marquis Howell of Hobo Jazz

Country: United States

Language: English

Running Time: 114 minutes

CAST

Udo Kier as Peg Poett

Virginia Newcomb as Enola Penny

Kaniehtiio Horn as The Writer (segment 'Vision Stains')

Victoria Maurette as Karina (segment 'The Mother Of Toads')

Shane Woodward as Martin (segment 'The Mother Of Toads')

André Hennicke as Axel (segment 'I Love You')

Suzan Anbeh as Mo (segment 'I Love You')

James Gill as Donnie (segment 'Wet Dreams')

Tom Savini as Dr. Maurey (segment 'Wet Dreams')

Debbie Rochon as Carla (segment 'Wet Dreams')

Lena Kleine as The Mother (segment 'The Accident')

Mélodie Simard as The Daughter (segment 'The Accident')

Lindsay Goranson as Estelle (segment 'Sweets')

Guilford Adams as Greg (segment 'Sweets')

Framing Segments

Directed by Jeremy Kasten

Written by Zach Chassler

Cast:

Udo Kier as Peg Poett

Virginia Newcomb as Enola Penny

The Theatre Bizarre is a series of six shorts largely in hock to the grand-guignol tradition of naturalistic horror (i.e. proper ketchup, matey). I know this not because of any keen interest in French theatre but because the framing sequence is called ‘Theatre Guignol’, and it is into this terribly mysterious theatre that Enola Penny (Virginia Newcomb) dreamily wanders one decisive night. Each of the following sections is introduced by the indefatigable Udo Kier playing a big puppet (literally “grand guignol”) who becomes less puppet-like as the movie wears on and (cue wobbly theremin) Enola become less human. Which might be an artistic statement about desensitisation, but is definitely an excuse to watch Udo Kier popping robot-moves, which I think we can all agree is a good thing.

The Mother of Toads

Directed by Richard Stanley

Written by Richard Stanley, Scarlett Amaris and Emiliano Ranzani

Cast:

Catriona MacColl as Mere Antoinette

Shane Woodward as Martin

Victoria Maurette as Karina

Lisa Belle as The Naked Witch (as Lisa Crawford)

Amelie Salomon as The Monster

The Mother of Toads is apparently based on a Clark Ashton Smith story of the same name which I haven’t read, with a bit of HP Lovecraft chucked in. It features a pair of unpleasant young Americans holidaying in France, and I’m not dissing Americans there, this pair really are unlikable; Karina moans that everything is in French in France (quelle surprise!), while Martin is so anaesthetised by his own acumen he can barely push his smug words past the thicket of his trendy beard. They come unstuck when bargain hunting in a French market where a handsome older lady with a mesmerising accent saucily offers Martin a peek at her Necronomicon. Bundling Karina off to a spa Martin spends the day with the accommodating and increasingly ardent crone, drinking suspicious brews and fingering her dusty leaves. Things end badly. This was an agreeably silly creature feature with plenty of the old ugh! quotient, an endearing lack of logic and a pervading sense of encroaching doom. The humour leavening proceedings is clearly no accident; there’s an excellent joke when Martin attempts to extricate himself from a post-coital bed without waking his sleeping and somewhat slimy partner. Probably rings a few bells in the audience that bit. It’s just enjoyably daft, tongue-in-cheek stuff and a welcome reminder that Richard (Hardware (1990), Dust Devil (1992)) Stanley is still rocking his smart-trash groove.

I Love You

Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo

Written by Buddy Giovinazzo

Cast:

André Hennicke as Axel

Suzan Anbeh as Mo

I Love You is a pretty tough watch and unusually it’s not because of the climactic gore. Axel wakes up in his bathroom disorientated and bloody; turns out he’s an insecure, self-destructive mess who has driven his lady Mo away. Mo returns to sever all ties and leave for good. What follows is an emotionally harrowing battle between two damaged people where words are weapons and the hurt is internal. As blood spattered as the despairing denouement may be the real horror is the extended verbal flensing Mo delivers to Martin, in which she destroys not only his present but also his past. And is she telling the truth? Or is it a desperate attempt to extricate herself from his unquenchable neediness? Like a fox gnawing its paw off to escape the trap? Sometimes uncertainty can be another level of horror. Buddy Giovinazzo delivers a classily acted, tautly suspenseful two-hander which leaves an emotional stain which persists for days.

Wet Dreams

Directed by Tom Savini

Written by John Esposito

Cast:

Debbie Rochon as Carla

Tom Savini as Dr. Maurey

James Gill as Donnie

Jodii Christianson as Maxine

Wet Dreams is directed by Tom Savini, who is legendary in horror for his SFX work and slightly less legendary for his acting, so there’s no excuse for doing an Elvis double take at the fact he’s given himself a role and that his segment is luridly gory. He’s no slouch at directing either, which is nice. The esteemed Mr. Savini plays a psychiatrist, the kind who drinks on the job and talks about raping his mum (i.e. a movie psychiatrist), treating Donnie, a preening jackass who likes smacking his wife, Carla, about and cheating on her. See, Donnie’s having recurring nightmares wherein his sexy dream fun times climax with him being tortured and castrated by his long-suffering wife, in a series of gruesomely humorous and visually explicit ways. Gentlemen viewers may never again think of a fry-up without skittishly crossing their legs. Serves Donnie right you might think, but by the end of the dream-within-a-dream misdirection and its gruesomely pre-code EC Comics twist finale you might think again. Ugh. I mean….ugh. I...Jesus. What could have just been a gratuitous mess of general dismemberment is deftly directed by the savant Savini, resulting in an amoral immorality tale. And need it be said that his skills in the SFX dept remain second to none? No, it need not. So pretend I didn’t say it.

The Accident

Directed by Douglas Buck

Written by Douglas Buck

Cast:

Lena Kleine as Mother

Mélodie Simard as Daughter

Jean-Paul Rivière as Old Biker

Bruno Décary as Young Biker

The Accident provides a brief respite from the onslaught of sensationalistic gore, a pit stop if you will. Even if you won’t, it definitely centres around a cute child asking her blasé mother questions about mortality, said questions raised in the tiny, inquiring mind after the witnessing of an accident earlier in the day involving a deer and a cocky motorcyclist. It’s a very restrained piece, very accomplished, and softer in tone than anything before or after it. There’s a touch of grue when the deer is finished off, but mostly the horror here is the complete horseshit parents come out with to calm their offspring with regards to the ultimately absurd nature of life and death, a subject which everyone spends a lot of time avoiding thinking about on a day to day basis and about which they would rather not be cross-examined about by a child at bedtime. As upsetting as the sight of the deer’s tongue lolling out of its bug eyed head was (very), it wasn’t as upsetting as realising all the lies you have to fill your kid with just so they can function in what we’ve all decided to call reality. Compared to all that, lying about Santa Claus is a minor misdemeanour.

Vision Stains

Directed by Karim Hussain

Written by Karim Hussain

Cast:

Kaniehtiio Horn as The Writer

Cynthia Wu-Maheux as Junkie Girl

Imogen Haworth as Pregnant Woman

Rachelle Glait as Older Homeless Woman

Alex Ivanovici as Junkie Man

I have a thing about eye trauma. Not a sexual thing, a “flinch and wave your hands about like you’re warding off invisible birds” thing. It’s a running joke in the Mundano family unit; if there’s some serious eye trauma afoot in the viewing choice, all eyes fall on the father figure as he tenses for impact. Those similarly (dis)inclined should be warned that there is a seriously impressive amount of eye trauma in Vision Stains. It’s built in as the whole episode rests on the Horror Movie Science concept of people’s past lives flashing before their eyes at the point of death. So if you extract their eye juice as they die and inject it into your own eye you will get to live the edited highlights of another life. Obviously. That sounds about as appealing as it sounds scientifically feasible, but our serial killer heroine is well into it. She basically harvests the lives of the homeless to make up for her personal shortfall in dreams. Judging by the massive pile of notebooks in which she has written the details of all the lives she has nicked, its worked out quite well for her. But people, even dreamless serial killers who prey on the homeless, are never satisfied, so she decides to take the next step and find out what happens before people have a life to flash in front of their eyes. The results are mixed. Ultimately you can’t help thinking it would have been a lot quicker and far easier on the homeless population if she’d just read Tbomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human race. It’s all very silly but the po-faced approach suggests it is straining for some grandiose meaning; it fails. But it does feature a fantastic amount of eye trauma. Each to their own.

Sweets

Directed by David Gregory

Written by David Gregory

Cast:

Lindsay Goranson as Estelle

Guilford Adams as Greg

Lynn Lowry as Mikela Da Vinci

Jessica Remmers as Antonia

With Sweets, things close on a hilariously disgusting note. A deadpan Estelle and a semi-hysterical Greg talk about their dying relationship in the most banal clichés imaginable as they sit in what was once an apartment, but is now a kind of edible sty plastered with smushed up confectionery. As trite nonsense falls from her lips Estelle slowly sucks a melting ice cream into her deadpan face. Greg flailing to rescue the dead relationship counters with the expected whiny responses, while spasmodically picking filthy sweets off the floor and ingesting them with all the automotive panache of the true addict. Their stale interactions are punctuated by a series of flashbacks which parody cinema’s rote scenes of romance, with the pair swilling sweet shit like swilling sweet shit is going out of fashion. Luckily for Greg, Estelle hasn’t quite finished with him, unluckily for Greg he’s about to find out what that means. Sweets is pretty funny in its lip-smacking attack on love and addiction (and love as addiction), and is delightfully cartoonish in style; Estelle is often colour coordinated from hair to shoes with whatever sickly delicacy she is proffering. Of course all the comedy and caricature serve only to distract you while Sweets prepares a delightful gut punch of horror, before the management politely ask you to leave.

TL;DR: The Theatre Bizarre: it’s worth a watch, but not if you’re squeamish.

#The Theatre Bizarre #Movies #Horror #Anthology #2011 #The 2010s #Douglas Buck #Buddy Giovinazzo #David Gregory #Karim Hussain #Jeremy Kasten #Tom Savini #Richard Stanley #Udo Kier #Catriona Maccol #United States

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deltaengineering · 8 years ago

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summer anime 2017 part 3: welcome to die

Well guess what, I ended up putting posts off for a week.

Again.

So don’t expect a lot of detail here, but do expect a lot of shows.

See also:

• part 1: we can rebuild it

• part 2: bunch of fools

18if

18if is a really weird show about a guy who hangs around people’s dreams and fixes their personal problems - sort of like Persona 4 meets Madoka’s witch mazes. This might have some visual potential if nothing else, and it tries, but what mostly sticks in the mind is that it’s very cheap and also extremely clunkily directed, with a lot of spinning camera tricks that end up looking more desperate than cool. While that does lend it a certain nightmarish weirdness, I doubt it’s entirely intentional and more importantly it makes the show not very entertaining.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits

So someone made a Love Live clone only with solo tokusatsu performance (?) instead of idols and saving the town instead of saving the school. And the main character is Kotori. Well, silly things happen all the time, but what I didn’t expect is that an anime called Action Heroine Cheer Fruits is actually pretty damn good. Shows of this type aren’t very complicated, but Cheer Fruits nails it where it counts: The characters are likeable, their misadventures are amusing, and the writing is good enough to make me care more about what happens to this town than Sakura Quest managed in half its two-season run. It’s a bit on the cheaper side, but I don’t mind if the fundamentals are this convincing. It also helps that this is written by Naruhisa Arakawa, who previously failed to convince me with active raid but definitely knows a thing or two about tokusatu. Charming and with an appropriately light touch on its silly conceit, this is the surprise of the season.

Ballroom e Youkoso

It’s a sports shounen! About ballroom dancing...? Well, the manga is fairly well known so the shock factor wasn’t that high here, but I have to say that Ballroom e Youkoso nails the formula, the unusual sport in question makes it less boring than said formula would normally end up being, and it looks pretty amazing. I’m willing to take that chance, if everything goes right this might end up delivering on what Yuri on Ice promised for its first three episodes. Minus the gay of course, but I’m willing to give that up for a show that’s actually consistently entertaining instead. Fingers crossed.

Centaur no Nayami

Yay, it’s another monstergirl manga. This particular one ends up splitting the difference between Monster Musume and Demi-chan, meaning that it only has weird fetish undertones some of the time. Apart from that it ends up mostly boring, because the monster stuff doesn’t really matter, yet the show spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the specific evolutionary circumstances that made this universe possible. Uh, at this point I think I can just accept monstergirls at face value, thanks. The most interesting parts are some hints of this society being not as innocent as it seems, but the other 99% of time it doesn’t seem overly concerned with that: The actual content is just rather boring slice-of-life scenarios of the kind you can get elsewhere easily. I do have to say that opening with girls actually kissing for real is a new one, even if that doesn’t really go anywhere. And that’s really the long and short of it: This seems like a show that doesn’t even really aim to go anywhere, and just isn’t good or interesting enough to make the here and now worthwhile.

Clione no Akari

This is a 1/3 length short that mostly seems like an anti-bullying PSA. The most tragic girl in the world (sick, orphan, shy, prone to tripping over obvious buckets in the middle of hallways, etc.) gets bullied on top of everything and some other guys feel bad about not helping her. The opening makes it look like everyone will learn a lesson about tomodachiship eventually. I will be nice and say that its heart is in the right place and it’s not actually bad (only extremely hamfisted), but it’s just neither well made nor unusual enough to earn back the time spent watching it; Koe no Katachi has me covered for life on anything this could possibly do.

Dive!!

Do you like ripped dudes glistening in the sun? Sure you do, that’s why you all watched Free! and that’s why we now get another show about pool sports with too many exclamation marks in the name. High diving seems to be a pretty poor choice though, because a single dive takes seconds and this show doesn’t pretend otherwise. The filler around it isn’t very promising either; main dude mostly memorable for being a dick to his girlfriend and admiring his cool senpai instead, no homo. Oh yeah, Yuri on Ice is a thing too, you know. Otherwise you learn more than you’d care to know about the spectacularly uninteresting financial structure of the high diving club, and get to watch the water surface reflecting the sun on to toned abs. Too bad that this particular effect just ends up looking like an unfortunate skin condition. All in all Dive!! is just a poor man’s version of other homoerotic sports anime for fujoshi, and I wasn’t too fond of those to begin with.

Hitorijime My Hero

Speaking of manlove, this one starts out as a fairly engaging character study of a highschooler who hangs out with street thugs because his mother is a prostitute, until the brother of his BFF beats them all up. But then the OP happens and after that it’s pretty much just straight up yaoi tropes because now the dude’s in high school and the cool guy is a teacher, I wonder where this is going. There’s a lot of unfunny komedy and so on. Yeah nah, even a toned down Super Lovers is not what I’m looking for, and laudable opening aside this brings nothing new to the table.

Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

I’ve been very mad at smugly ironic genre shows that wallow in the cheapest clichees while “deconstructing” them (i.e., just pointing them out as if that’s an excuse). But the alternative is, of course, just not doing that and playing it all straight without a hint of irony, and it turns out that that is significantly worse. So here’s your 24 minutes of isekai light novel: dude dies, goes to JRPG world and gets to keep his smartphone in complete working condition. Ha ha, I too wish my completely ordinary household item would make me the coolest dude in the universe. But this show goes the extra mile, because while a smartphone might get you some chicks in fantasy land, to get all the chicks you also have to have:

• literal god mode stat boosts

• ability to use all magical elements, an exceedingly rare feat

• access to an even rarer additional magic element on top of that

• the ability to create the irresistible potion “ice cream”

So yeah, this is the isekai power fantasy at its most naked, and apart from making our shitter in chief the most hax guy ever and dropping a huge instaharem on him, he goes beat up trash mobs because that’s what you do. Again, all of this without the slightest hint of self-awareness. Absolute garbage for garbage people from top to bottom, and completely fails to make said garbage fun.

Jikan no Shihaisha

This one at least has the looks down: When it’s an action show, the visuals are really, really cool. Honestly. However, upon further inspection it becomes apparent that this “Chronos Ruler” here is so poorly written that it cannot be ignored. You guessed it, a lot of exposition and poorly conceived comedy ruin the eyecandy pretty quickly, and it’s all so dumb and dull that I barely remember anything but a vague stink of disappointment. It’s two guys that fight monsters, only not very well? Something about trying to turn back time but that turning out to be a bad idea? It’s all just slush. There's a twist in here that's kind of funny (probably unintentionally) so I won’t spoil it, but it’s by no means worth it.

Konbini Kareshi

Konbini Kareshi is an anime about some highschoolers that have relationship problems and hang out in a konbini, and that’s pretty much it. It’s extraordinarily slow, but somehow I did not end up finding it completely dull - possibly because “nothing happens” also means that nobody talks in this case. A lot of the episode is just awkward, silent situations, with information imparted visually (body language, expressions, etc) instead. Imagine that. Now I don’t want to praise it too much because nothing pays off and, well, nothing happens - but it is actually something markedly different from what you usually see in anime and that’s got to be worth something. I am not sure if I want to give this more chances, but that’s better than being quite sure I never want to see it again, right?

Made in Abyss

If you want to have a master class in how to start a fantasy adventure anime, check out Made in Abyss 01. It just drops you into an utterly beautiful world, sets up a couple of endearing characters and their general situation without boring you with the details, and the explains just enough about the world to answer a few pressing questions that can’t be ignored at the end. It’s beautiful too, great design, great animation, lush backgrounds, the whole shebang. Now it’s essentially a story about a bunch of very young orphans that go spelunking, and the character designs remind me of Ichigo Mashimaro of all things, but I detect no sketchiness here. Obviously it now has a tough act to follow over a whole season, but for the type of show it is you couldn’t ask for a better layup.

Nana Maru San Batsu

Also known as “Fastest Finger First”, this show asks the question: How do you make watching a trivia quiz interesting? Well, the answer is that you don’t. It seems to be a very basic school club show and the topic of the school club is buzzer quizzes. And somehow this fictional story manages to be less engaging than your average actual TV quiz show. Buzzer quizzes don’t have a lot of strategy involved (the show tries to pretend otherwise, but mostly fails), just watching people in quiz-o-vision trying to answer fairly mundane questions is hardly riveting, and besides that it’s just a decidedly subpar comedy. This could have worked if it went full ham like Kakegurui, but it neither has the means nor even much of an inclination to try that.

Netsuzou TRap - NTR

So here’s the long-dreaded adaptation of the yuri manga that’s so full of bullshit drama that even actual fans of bullshit yuri drama hate it to the point where it became a running joke. And yeah, this sure is bullshit yuri drama about two girls who casually make out while boyfriends aren’t looking too closely. One feels bad about it, the other is a troll. All in all it’s reminiscent of Kuzu no Honkai, except that KnH at least was fully aware that its entire cast was awful people; I can’t even make out what I’m supposed to think about these shenanigans. Now I could say that episode 1 shows potential if it develops properly, but the manga is such a known quantity of bad writing that that’s not a smart idea. It will probably just be Girl A feeling conflicted and Girl B trolling her forever.

Princess Principal

Steampunk is pretty much a laughingstock these days, but I will say that Princess Principal nails the aesthetic if nothing else. It is made of steam and punk; you get your top hats, you get your gears, you get your airships. It’s all pretty cool looking and it also has some nice action. What it’s actually about is some sort of Cold War in divided London, and our protagonists are a crew of schoolgirls that talk about being spies a lot. This is where it becomes apparent that the writer of this was previously convicted of having committed Code Geass (yeah, that guy again), so a certain degree of schlock is to be expected. And really, who else could come up with Steampunk Cold War Berlondon featuring murderous gothlolis? So overall, it’s quite a bit more trashy than I would like but it could be able to pull it off reasonably well on production value alone, and hopefully the writing won’t shit the bed too hard.

Saiyuki Reload Blast

Saiyuki is an old shounen property that adapts Journey to the West. Not to be confused with Dragonball, because this is spaghetti western instead of wuxia. Or so it seems, I’ve never watched one of the anime adaptations that keep getting made every decade or so before. But hey, Reload Blast being a sequel to an anime last made when the ostensible target audience wasn’t even born yet at least has the benefit of not having to deal with tiresome origin stories, we just get to watch the characters do their thing and it’s reasonably easy to figure out anyway. It’s just that it’s not actually all that good; fans of a time when shounen heroes generated a lot of blood spray may get something out of it since it’s pretty violent, but otherwise this iteration of the JttW party are just a bunch of dicks that are trying hard to be cool but aren’t. It’s probably alright for fans of the source material and people hankering for throwback anime, but I don’t think it’s for me.

Shoukoku no Altair

As far as fantasy settings go, a Ottoman-themed one isn’t the most common. So the hero of Shoukoku no Altair hails from fantasy Turkey, which is embroiled in some sort of diplomatic brouhaha with fantasy Germafrance. And that’s really where I start tuning out because this is one of these fantasy epics that start by introducing a million characters that surely will become important eventually, but give me little reason to care about anything otherwise. Exotic locales aside, Altair seems to be mostly setup and the rest of it, the characters, the intrigue, the politics, everything, just don’t motivate me to find out more. It’s possibly not a bad show, but it’s a barely memorable show in a genre I am not particularly fond of.

Tenshi no 3P!

Sometimes it really helps going into random new anime without any previous knowledge. Like here: Tenshi no 3P starts out with a moderately well thought out character sketch of a hikkikomori that spends his day making music and uploading it to the internet. More than a bit tired, but not bad. He then gets a message by “a guy” that wants to work with him. Well, surely nothing bad can come of this. The “guy” turns out to be a primary schooler (girl) from an orphan primary schooler (girl) band that is actually super good but nevertheless needs the services of a music otaku schlub for vague reasons. And then in the end the primary schoolers offer sexual favors in exchange, possibly as a joke but I wouldn't count on that. See, I had been making Ro-Kyu-Bu (i.e., ”Rock-Yu-Bu”) jokes way before that, but as it turns out 3P is by the same author and oh boy can you tell. So it’s this season’s Eromanga-sensei, only somehow worse. I have to admit that I am not even above watching something like this if it’s legitimately great, but thankfully Tenshi no 3P is not even close to being legitimately great. Dodged a bullet there, for sure.

But hey, maybe we will at least get another very embarrassing T-shirt out of it.

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

And finally, we have a show about some priests from the Vatican that travel the world to examine miracles. Well, one miracle at least, in Guatemala. The concept is somewhat intriguing and could make for a nice horror/detective hybrid with a twist, but I wouldn’t trust anime to pull this off properly, and so it’s no surprise that it doesn’t. For starters we get a pair of very pretty leads that seem primarily intended to bait yaoi doujins, and while it admirably tries for an off-kilter (literally, hope you like dutch angles) horror atmosphere, it is more concerned with out main character’s angst. Yeah I don’t know, the intrigue doesn’t seem particularly intriguing either and the horror just doesn’t quite click - it’s trying for gothick ostentatiousness, but doesn’t quite pull that off. I’d be willing to give this a chance if it was a miracle-of-the-week kind of thing, but considering the amount of characters they introduced for this first case that doesn’t seem to be how this show operates. Or at least I’ll wait until more information becomes available.

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urtheatre · 8 years ago

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TLDR: meditations on how to be with other people and deal with obstacles and grow yourself “like humans do” in theatre-life and whatever the other “real”-life thing is. (THAT POOR GIRL - week 2.)

It’s hard to believe only two weeks of rehearsal have gone by.

I feel like I’ve known these people forever.

And that’s the first thing that occurs to me.

I actually don’t know much factually about most of them. What do I know? I know that I find them highly endearing; that I think of them in fondness. And I know something more intuitive (more intuitive than fondness? or, the thing that allows for that), something about the way each of their presences feels in the room. I wonder if they feel this, or what they feel. (It’s a distinctive sort of process in that there are usually only two actors onstage or in the rehearsal space at a time.)

I had forgotten that this was a thing. Not really forgotten – not like a big ol’ eraser ran over my memory – but had lost the sensation of it, in all its significant immediacy. The last time I was part of a cast was over two years ago. And now, well, I’m still not part of the cast (I’m this strange, strange bystander), but I find my body seated many hours per week in one place, amongst one group of people. Almost as though I belonged to something. Or that I didn’t belong, but it still had made itself my home, not much choice on either of our ends. We grew around each other. Or the rock settled into the soil. (That would make me: the rock. The soil this fertile thing happening to be around me.)

You spend approximately 42 hours per week with a group of fellow students in a classroom over the course of a semester (3 hours per week in each other’s presence x 14 weeks). In a matter of 2 weeks, I’ve spent approximately 52 hours amidst a group of the same people in various combinations in two spaces (rehearsal studio and stage/theatre space).

It’s highly condensed, but an inevitable degree of bonding. A natural phenomenon.

Even as I simply sit there and silently watch.

(n.b. though this is, you see, why I do not and cannot know how the actors feel, as their level and mode of engagement with the process and with each other is considerably different. Or the [beloved] [crazy committed] crew folks, for that matter, as they would seem likewise more intricately engaged. …But, you see, this distanced perspective of observation is actually not dissimilar at all from my own usual idiosyncratic mode of participating in [social] life…)

Okie dokie.

Maybe I’ll get back to this interpersonal mushy gushy intense stuff.

But I wanted to tell you about something else intense.

And that is the rake.

(In case you have not been checking out my awed posts on the one and only Instagram.)

One thing I wanted to tell you about the rake is that it is steep.

Yeah. That’s the main thing, actually. Yup.

Like…you look at it…and you’re like, “Um. Hi, there. Steep architectural entity. Hill? Oh, sorry, nope, mountain. Uh…wow. So…Like…that’s…a stage? DOPE. I’m still bewildered, I think? But – that’s lit!”

It’s got immediate visual impact, is what I’m getting at.

And the other thing I wanted to tell you, which is, in fact, not unrelated to the former statement, is that I realized recently the extent of my fear of steep things. It’s not exactly a fear of heights, but it’s something like that. For those who do not experience this fear [read: COMPLETE TERROR], I tried to go skiing with my family this winter, and (having managed it without too much difficulty throughout my childhood, i.e. having learned to ski, only in the past few years beginning to struggle with it) I could barely make it down the mountain. The anxiety was entire; all I could think about was how much I wanted to cry; stress fills the body, fills crevices you might not have known existed and wish you didn’t come to know the existence of.

The feeling is one of being stuck somewhere from which you cannot escape. The fear of heights may be more like a fear of falling. The fear of steep places is like claustrophobia exacerbated by a simultaneous perception of in fact a tremendous depth of space around you (like a camera zooming in and out, repeatedly?).

And the only way out is down the mountain.

You see the problem.

The only way out is down – or rather, intensely through the dimensions of the space – of this thing which is triggering in you an at least metaphorically existential style of terror.

Your objective is clear. Your obstacle: no less so.

I tell you all this in order to more fully communicate the appreciation I gained for the actors over the past week. You would think it’d be all fine and dandy to have a playground like this. It genuinely looks like fun. It is the play of shapes. (Hence, a thing of beauty, at least to me.)

But I ran up the first couple yards of the set,

then got to the midway point and

froze.

(I almost wonder now how I got down.)

Sure, sure, I sound melodramatic, and I get it. I’m totally an overemotional person, except for when I’m trying to channel my inner zen, and then I’m emotional about how invested I am in my zen. So.

But we’re at that stage in the rehearsal process when the characters and their words and their actions threaten to become too comfortable. When all the scenes are blocked, and the actors are mostly off-book, and the profound thing about which to wonder is how to be new and real people to each other and to oneself again, and now, and then again.

What occurred to me within a short span after transitioning to the stage space is that the rake provides a natural obstacle for the actor in pursuit of his/her objective. So I admire the actors for the flexibility suddenly required of them, to physically adjust, to occupy space in a new way. And I admire the design for the instant magic it cannot help but generate. With the floor coming at you at a 30-degree angle, or going away from you by the same measure, however it unleashes itself upon you, you have no choice but to become real again. Your character, in a very material way, is forced to encounter the activity of living, in all its tangible experiential terrain, and the spontaneity of one’s responsivity to that terrain.

In other words:

I dig the rake.

Even if I might have cried for a hot minute if I was the one acting on it.

Also – it just creates (again, magically, instantly) this unceasing sense of movement. It allows for stillness, but it’s a tenuous stillness, so that not just the actors but the audience (I think, it seems) must be aware, newly aware, of the space they are in, and the way particles vibrate between one corner or plane and another. It’s pretty. And it’s aesthetically appealing in an intense way. It’s modern for even the space we think we rest on to be on the go.

As I watch Knud continue to direct the actors, I think of clay. His work is to be attuned to those very vibrations, and to shift them as subtly as possible to yield the greatest resonances possible. You work with the material, you knead and knead what is in front of you, what is present, until it somehow becomes somehow more present.

He urges the actors to be “nimble” (ever more relevant on the rake). He’s been reminding them of clarity, specificity, energy, given circumstances, the real-clean-no-in-between of decision making, the “carving out history with sharpness,” the “delicious” quality of knowledge and of obtaining and sharing that knowledge. Now that there is a “shape” to the piece, he challenges them to “fill” it “organically.” How can you use the precision of choreographed blocking to help you? With clear intentions – moment by moment – how much can you earn? How can you relax into your, and the character’s, body? How “easy” and “capable” can you be?

I’m thinking about all this, hearing it, as I (frequently) chew gum. Theme and variations: tension. Particularly: constructive tension. I like chewing gum because it can relocate tension from, say, my neck to this resonance in the material between my teeth. I like texture. (In general, I’m just, I don’t know, into texture, hyped up about it, it sets my aesthetic and taste into full gear.) A minty flavor is also of course good for de-stressing. And that flavor, re-centering me, combined with the continuity of the motion of chewing, restores a naturalness to breathing. The energy of the tension is guided towards the creative.

It’s a leap, I know, and it’s an eye-gouging mixture of metaphors;

but this gum-chewing is not so far from

the directing-actors-like-they-are-clay-to-be-molded

is not so far from

how to exist on a steep floor

and further

to move on it.

If there’s been a tagline for rehearsals this past week, it’s been to act “like humans do.” It makes me laugh every time. And I adore it. Because it’s hard to act. It’s hard to remember. It’s hard to recall then embody and express what it is to be a human in this reconstructed environment. And it’s also hard to be a human. In general. In daily life.

The questions a director asks of actors are (embarrassingly? frighteningly? Poignantly) close to those I ask myself on a regular basis. How does one talk with and/or for another? What do we let others see? How do we “hang out” (what does that even mean?)? How do we be there for each other? How can I listen? Respond? I think often of Stanislavski’s exploration of “public solitude”… An eternally private person, how do we [manage to] live or come to life on the various stages we land upon or within?

Knud has recently been probing the actors to “lean into the flaws of the characters” rather than “boxing with pillows on their hands.” It’s a great image.

It probably says a lot about some cross between the zen and the overly emotional.

It definitely says something like what my mother has often said to me about not trying to ski against the mountain.

Beautifully, it evokes the potential for empathy for even those with whom our own integrity insists we disagree.

This is what it means to discover tenderness.

This is what it means for me to sit in the rehearsal room and seem to do nothing.

I only see pieces of people, but there are so many pieces, and there is, in the end, only fondness for what is seen. Glimpses. It’s so hard to be with other people, to know the moves to make, to know their effects, to learn about another person and to learn about oneself in the same breath. As far as I’m concerned (in all my admitted idiosyncrasy), it’s acting on a raked stage. But you chew, chew, chew…you let the people around you be real…you make a mask only to drop it, to let yourself find the real both in and under it… Constant motion. Kneading. And the strange stillness, eventual, of that.

This is: two weeks.

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” (James Baldwin)

#theatre #theater #universityofrochester #uofr #uritp #jensilverman #knudadams #thatpoorgirl #tpgahhkh #jen silverman #knud adams #that poor girl and how he killed her

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fictionerd · 8 years ago

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Let’s Talk Fiction: Trickster Season 1 Impressions/Review

So after I decided that I'd start doing my episode overviews for one series each day of the week I ran into a bit of a problem. There weren't any shows that caught my interest on Tuesdays that started their run this season. So instead I discovered Trickster. I wanted add this series to my tally but it was a twenty-four episode series that had already run for twelve episodes before the start of the Winter Season. My solution? Binge all of season one in order to get up-to-date on the series, post a review for it, and then start the overviews with an Episode one through three Overview. I had intended to do both of them ... Well yesterday now, but things didn't exactly go as planned. So instead I'll be posting this review as soon as its finished and then do Season Two's episode one through three tomorrow (I.E. later today).

I must admit after the first episode of the series I was worried it might get a little edgelordy what with Kobayashi's constant talk of wanting to die and his general attitudes towards normal human life and problems. In the end though I think what I got was an Alright series about a kid who wants desperately to die but can't walking around in a world where everyone else just wants to live. The overarching plot surrounding Twenty-Faces' schemes was enjoyable enough and the relationship between Hanasaki and Kobayashi was at least endearing to a certain degree until the latter half of the season. The final two episodes made for a great finale and really tied up this chapter of the story while leaving us with hints to chew on about information coming in the future. I get the feeling that the next twelve episodes will be where we get a lot of the answers to the questions about the "gift" Kobayashi possesses.

So let's do a rundown of our two primary protagonists, Kensuke Hanasaki and Yoshio Kobayashi. Starting with Hanasaki who honestly struck me as a great guy before he tripped and fell down a slippery slope character-wise. He was just the sort of fellow I'd put on the job of babysitting a suicidal immortal. Brimming with cheer and a desire to just get out there and DO STUFF. He takes his failurers pretty hard, but just keeps on trucking. I'm disappointed that, as of yet, we haven't seen any payoff on his pronouncement to Akechi that he was going to race against himself to see whether he'd find a way to kill Kobayashi or make Kobayashi say he wanted to live first. Maybe we'll see it in the second season.

If I had to critique anything it'd be the slip and fall he goes through. I get that losing some one close to you is a traumatic experience, but the shift in Hanasaki's character was so dramatic that it threw me for a loop. The way he lashed out at everyone and let himself get ensnared so easily by Twenty-Faces' lies didn't seem to fit with the cheerful jokester who wanted to convince Kobayashi to live. I'll admit that it added up to an excellent role reversal between the two by the end of the run, but I feel like maybe he could have done with a little more fury and a little less whine. The arch wasn't done badly exactly, it just felt off for him to get that hysterical.

As for Kobayashi, he wants so very badly to die. He wants it so bad and the fact that everyone around him could do it so easily makes him a jealous little son of a bitch. He never really stops to think that the only thing those people around him want to do is live and it's so easy for him. There are so many answers I want about this guy and his abilities. What makes his character for me are those little moments where you can tell that a lot of his aloof nature is either habit or an act by the time the end of the show rolls around. I wonder how far the role-reversal between him and Hanasaki will persist. If they could manage to turn the series on its head in the second season and have him use Hanasaki's promise to get the kid back on his feet I think that'd be a great watch.

All in all I'd give Trickster an "Alright" rating. I feel like it could jump up to "Good" if it got the ball rolling on its plot a little more, but outside of that it's worth a watch certainly. I look forward to continuing the series in my season overviews and hope that rises to my expectations.

If you want to know exactly what my rating system entails you can follow this [Link].

#Trickster #Anime #Fictionerd #trickster: edogawa ranpo #Review #Talk Fiction

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transformingyourlives · 8 years ago

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Another Year Older, Wiser, and Happier

Last Thursday was my 61st birthday. And because I’m “so old” now, I wanted to take an opportunity to make some observations about the practice of aging and some of the differences between being in your 30s and 60.

You 30-ish folk sometimes think that “you are all that” because for the first time in your life, you actually experience what most people would call aging. I was there too, your 20's is about is growth. Then as you approach 30, you “mature,” you “find yourself,” you “figure things out,” but you’re still young and you’re not yet feeling any effects of aging. Physically, the human body peaks around the mid-20s, but it isn’t until later that the sense of physical deterioration kicks in. I also think it’s around then that one has gained enough grown up experiences to be able to look back at oneself with some valuable perspectives.

I really don’t know much about all of this, and that’s why the subject fascinates me at this moment in my life. It’s a new experience for me. This feeling of “getting old.” So, in honor of my birthday, I just want to take a page or two to think out loud about it. Oh, and by the way…if it bores you, then just quit reading. Hey, I said on the website that some of these articles are me figuring stuff out...

Time Seems to Speed Up

I know you’ve heard this before, but just to be clear, I know that time doesn’t really speed up; it is one’s own perception of time that changes. You can have weeks or even parts of months go by and you hardly notice it and it seems that the older you get, the more often this happens. It’s really about proportion. As you grow older, each day, week, month, and year account for a smaller and smaller part of your lifetime. When you were two, a year was half of your total life time… when you are 60, it is 160th of your life today. See how time seems to move more quickly? That is where the time slipping away comes from; the older you get, the more you feel that peculiar feeling. It can cause stress at the very least.

It hits your relationships, too. When I was 20, having a friend who had been around for a YEAR was a big deal. Heck, a year is still a sizeable percentage of your life at that time. But at 60? Not so much. Bonds that at one time formed quickly, now take longer to have the same effect. For someone to be your friend for half your life at 20, you must have known them for 10 years. The same feelings now take 30 years and when you are 60, you are acutely aware that you just might not have 30 years to grow together. It really can mess with your head. But aging clutters friendships in other ways, too. So much so, it probably deserves its own bullet point.

Friendships Become Less Complicated, and More.

One thing I’m realizing in my 60s is that friendships are something that a lot of people begin to struggle with for a second time in their lives. I think there are a few reasons for this and they are different than when you were 35. The biggest one is likely family and kids. Your kids are probably gone. Once you got married, you generally sought out only couples to hang out with. Those single folk you used to know now live foreign lifestyles. This complicates meeting people when you were younger. Think about it; your wife might like somebody, but her new friend’s husband is a fuming jerk-off, or vice-versa. Have children and things get even more byzantine, because now you’re quite naturally focused on meeting other young parents, hopefully with kids around your kids’ age. And if their kid is a jerk to your prince, well, there goes your fun beach weekend.

Once you got married, you

generally sought out only

couples to hang out with.

Those single folk you

used to know now live foreign lifestyles.

When you are 60, that complication is removed. You can like people for who they are and not how they fit into your family lifestyle. You don’t have to participate in that event if Janet’s husband is a prick. Don’t like Mendelssohn? You can skip the symphony even if friends go. You can just say NO. (Thank you, Nancy Regan.) There is some peculiar psychological part of all of this as well. When you were younger, you lived and died by your friends, right? Most of what you did was based on what your friends were doing on any given day, and that continued as a learned behavior up into your 30s.

Now that you’re 60, at times you find that what everyone is doing just doesn’t add up to a hill of beans. Those relationships don’t any longer serve the same emotional function as they used to. At one time, meeting new people from around the world and in all walks of life was thrilling. It was all new. Excitement was the watchword of the day. It was a time of firsts in your life; first New Year’s party in Times Square, first time in love, first date with a girl from Canada, first time at Key West, first time to Europe, etc. You want to do it all, meet everyone, and see the sunrise again and again just because each time is a first!

At one time, meeting new people

from around the world

and in all walks of life was thrilling.

By now, if you don’t know who you are, you might need a coach or a therapist. In most cases, you likely know what you want and who you need or want to spend your time with, and what you want to do with the time. You just don’t depend on people around you as much as you did even in your 30s. You recognize that it is YOUR life and it is up to you to find or create meaning. So you end up with this complicated problem in your life. You no longer feel the burning need to recruit and go out with just anyone, and when you do find them, they become way more important to you than they used to. So it can look to outsiders, i.e., younger people, that you have this slowly atrophying social life but in reality, you are developing interests and bonds that will carry you to the end of your days.

Gone are the days of spontaneous friendships. Friendships with no purpose…well, they just have no purpose. You become more strategic about who you spend your time with, as time begins to feel limited, you find that you don’t really want to share it with assholes. At one time you invested your efforts into friends, family, and career; it was what you needed to get along and ahead. Now you have other choices—you can invest in yourself.

Less and Less Tolerance or Time for Bullshit

We have all heard the phrase, “fuck-you-50s” referring to a time in your life when you have pretty much earned your stripes and don’t have to indulge in the silliness of other people. When you reach 60, it really only grows deeper and richer. When you felt at 50, i.e., that you just didn’t want to waste the time with crap, at 60 you know you don’t have time to fool around. The guilt is gone. You focus better on what you think is important and you go with it. You listen to the issues of people half your age and smile; it is both endearing and pitiful at the same time. You have to learn to say 'no.' Once you have learned to say 'no', the world changes for you. Most younger people haven’t yet learned that axiomatic fact; “no” frees you.

The real problem being a person who can’t say “no” is that when you hear it, it makes you crazy. At this age you have learned that work isn’t worth dying over and not everything is there to be taken personally, Living it, all starts with a simple “no.” At 60, you find yourself saying that more and more. No, it isn’t a superpower and it still isn’t easy. But it is something that you have learned and aren’t embarrassed to admit. It is just maturity and like most things, it is difficult to avoid. By the way, it feels great to have the awareness that you don’t have to say “yes” to everything and everyone; it is a hidden blessing of getting older. So don’t let anyone tell you that getting older only sucks. Yes, there are some things that I wish I could trade in, sore back and all, but they are balanced out by the gains in confidence and calm that only experience brings.

Relaxation Over Exhilaration

Last weekend my son came home to visit and decided to go out to dinner with some friends he has met since moving to the South. They asked me to join them to try out a new restaurant, but I decided to stay home and watch a movie that I have been eager to see. About 30 minutes into the movie, I was sound asleep with the dog snoring beside me. When he got back, he woke me and said he was going to bed and wondered how the movie was. I told him I feel asleep and only saw part and I would finish it tomorrow. And so goes a wild night here at Frank’s house on Friday night. But here is the nice thing. I was just fine with it. I had been to dinner with friends earlier in the week and been to the symphony the night before and if you had asked me which I would prefer, going to a dinner with a bunch of wild 20-year-olds, or stay home, I would have picked my new couch. Go figure.

Look when you are young, you liken fun to excitement. Fun is all about finding, seeing, experiencing new things, and that’s good. It’s a good way to burn off energy too! As you get a bit older fun gets to be much more about relaxation. Let’s face it; the older you get, the less time for that thing called leisure. Depending on where you are in your life sets the tone for what you find fun. When you are young, just about everything you see is new… it is all exciting… it is all about growth. Because you are all just starting to live, it all feels new. New car… better school, missing a class; life is pretty simple, and while yes, there is stress, it is not a particularly deep kind of stress. Let’s face it; you aren’t dealing with a mortgage or a new business start-up.

Depending on where you are in

your life sets the tone for what you find fun.

By the time you are 60 though, things have turned around and some of them have just simply reversed. Your kids are likely grown, you have experienced a great deal, some fabulous things and some that just make you shake your head. Excitement for its own sake probably isn’t as big a turn on as it once was. You have commitments—some of them very deep—that have made your life what it is and you honor it with your choices.

So what happens? Your leisure time, your relaxation becomes a lot more valuable than just simple excitement. Time where you can get away, unwind with friends or family, and think… or maybe just not thinking for a while becomes priceless!

Speaking of which… considering that it’s my birthday weekend and it is raining outside…and by the way, did you ever notice that the sound of rain is just PERFECT for a good long book and a nap?

I think I will indulge!

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