#*me looking up from my screen and having no idea is it 10am or 10pm*

[stardustvx]

infinity nikki has completely taken over my life. i either sit in front of my laptop playing it or if i am not doing that, i am talking about infinity nikki or thinking about it – last night i even dreamed about infinity nikki

[lonelyorbit134340]

Untitled (01)

Index: (01) (02) (03) (04)

It’s 9:15am on Monday morning and you scan the office floor. There is a general hum as people type away at their workstations but you noticed one empty chair. Min Yoongi is late again.

As if on cue, you hear a loud thud and see Min crash onto an office plant. He stands up, dusts himself off, looks up and meets your eyes. If he is embarrassed it is well hidden. The look on his face is all defiance.

You think about calling him into your room for a reprimand but you know it’s of no use. In the 3 months since he joined the company you know he doesn’t listen to anything unless he wants to. If he’s not so damn good at his job you would have fired him by the end of the first week. But he gets it. Nothing fazes him and he delivers when it counts. He’s actually performing at a higher level than people that are 2 to 3 years his senior.

So you are not going to get rid of him. But you want him to know who’s boss. A sudden spark cross your mind. “Yes, this will teach him a valuable lesson.” You’re going to put him on Project Flash.

Project Flash refers to a series of purchases by one of your company’s biggest clients, Gordon Wines. The project is not called “flash” because Wines is fast (although he is when he identifies his “prey”), but because if you make a mistake he’ll fire you in a flash. The deals he makes are complex and he wants it done yesterday. Some staff sees working in the project as a death sentence as your life will be consumed by work. Late nights, weekends, you lose track of time as the deadlines pile up one after the other.

 “It’s time for him to learn the value of hard work and discipline,” you think to yourself.

After you gather the relevant paperwork, you send Min a Skype message and ask him to come into your office. He slowly gets up from his chair and heads towards your office.

 *Knock knock*

 “Come in.”

 He sits down and looks straight at you, his eyes giving nothing away.

 “Min, finish up all your existing work today. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be working on a new project.”

 “And what will that be?” he asks.

 “I want you to start working on the Wines account. He has identified a new company for acquisition.”

You can see his mind turns for about a second. “You want me on Project Flash?”

“Yes, the team is busy working on the current deals and I need someone new to start working on this one.

“As you know, Wines is a demanding client and he does not tolerate fools. So I want to you double, no, triple-check your work before you hand it in. Also, his deals are time-critical so expect some overtime.”

“OK.” he says nonchalantly.

“I’ll send you a meeting invite for 10am tomorrow morning to go through the basics of the deal.”

The room is silent for a few seconds. Min realises that’s the end of the meeting and gets up. Just before he turns around, he murmurs “Thank you for the opportunity”.

You’re taken aback by the small hint of humility.

As he walks out of the room, you’re also taken aback by his perfectly shaped ass.

You catch yourself, shake your head, and return your eyes to the computer screen.

——-

It’s 10pm and the office is eerily quiet. The air conditioning unit is switched off, and all you can hear is the sound of paper flicking as Min reviews the mountain of documents on his workstation.

The latest Wines acquisition is at its peak and both you and Min are working insane hours. This is the fourth consecutive night of overtime. You take off your reading glasses and stare out of the office in Min’s direction.

To your mild surprise, Min is fully dedicated to the job at hand. He may still be coming in after the standard start time but with the late finishes you’re not holding it against him. He is quickly grasping the complex details of the deal. He asks the right question in meetings and the quality of his work is impeccable. Even though you know he’s good before the project, you are impressed. 

You walk out of your office and say to Min, “Are you up to Article 50 of the offer document yet?”

“I am reading it now, and I’m a bit stuck on subsection 3.”, he says.

“Bring it in and let me have a look.” you replied.

He strolled into the office with the offer document. Instead of sitting across the table and handing the document to you, he comes around to your side of the table and kneels right next to you. You can smell his musky cologne. Without realising, you take in a deep breath.

“The information in subsection 3 appears to contradict Article 27,” he says as he flicks through the document. You can’t help but notice his long, elegant fingers as he points at the different paragraphs.

You quickly gather your focus and explain to Min the asset cross-collateralisation which is a unique feature of the deal.

“Ahhh, OK I get it.” Min says, and you know that he has memorised everything you said.

“Alright, I think that’s enough for today, let’s call it a day and start again tomorrow”, you say.

Out of nowhere, Min asks, “Would you like to grab a bite to eat? I know you haven’t had dinner yet. There’s a ramen joint 2 blocks away that opens till midnight.”

You pause for just a moment when you hear your stomach grumble. You answer “sure”, grab your bag and head out with Min.

——-

The ramen restaurant is buzzing when you walk in. The owner eyes the two of you and smiles as he recognises Min. “The best table for my loyal customer!” he says and ushers you to the last two available seats at the corner of the joint.

After he sits down, he loosens his tie and moves his shoulders around, like is his trying to shake the stress of the work day off. 

“Two chicken ramyun and two soju please”, Min says to the owner before you have the chance to read the menu. “It’s their signature ramen.” he says as he takes the menu off you.

“I guess I’ll find out how good it is in a few minutes,” you reply.

“You won’t be disappointed.” he says confidently.

——

The ramen is delicious and the soju flows freely. To your mild surprise, you are having an enjoyable conversation with Min about this and that, from reality tv to the latest political news. 

The discussion turns to some of the more colourful characters in the office. “And Jin roasts the other junior staff relentlessly. Some of them are positively scared of running into him in the lunchroom,” he says, slapping his thigh. His eyes light up and his laughter is infectious.

“Two more bottles of soju, please.” Min orders. It may not be the best idea to have another drink, but work has been intense and you’re enjoying this opportunity to unwind. 

After you finish the last sip of the soju, he becomes quiet, looking down at the empty bowl. He’s probably tired after the long day, you think to yourself. You’re just about to offer to split the check when he looks up.

“So, what’s your secret?” he asks. 

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the youngest VP in the company. You handle the most complex clients when many in the company are your seniors. How do you do it?

You don’t know how to respond to this sudden change of conversation. You stammer for a bit. “Errrr, I do my best. And I guess a bit of luck fell my way.”

“Now you’re not being honest,” he says, turning to face you. There is something different in that way he looks at you, but you can’t quite place it. 

“You are exceptional. Smartest person I’ve ever met.” he says. You can feel warmth rising to your cheeks. 

“.... and so beautiful. Irresistible really.“

You look down, absorbing the meaning of his words, when you feel his hand caressing your cheek.

“Min …” you whisper. 

“Call me Yoongi”.

——

When you finally look up, you’re met by his dark, almond shaped eyes. Gone is the aloofness that he displays in this office, replaced by a tenderness that you’ve never seen before. You look at the mild hint of blush on his porcelain skin, his slightly parted lips, tousled honey blonde hair, and your heart is beating faster and faster. It feels like the world is standing still and all you can feel is his gentle touch on your face.

“Come with me,” Yoongi says softly. You don’t know what’s happening next but you want to find out. You give him a slight nod.

With quick movement, he grabs a note from his wallet, drops it on the counter, then takes your hand and the two of you walk out of the restaurant. 

Yoongi leads you to a small alleyway a block away, standing between you and a wall. In the dim streetlight you see him shifting his gaze from your eyes to your lips. The next thing you know his hand cups your face and he leans in. The kiss is tentative, but you can feel the warmth of his lips transferring to yours and there are butterflies in your stomach. 

He pulls away slightly and looks at you, waiting for your reaction. You lick your lips and that’s all the encouragement he needs. His hands move from your face to the back of your head, pulling your closer. No hesitation in the second kiss.

The kisses deepen and soon your tongues are intertwined. You taste the soju in his breath and you’re drinking it all in. He glides his hands down to caress your breasts and you shiver. Your body is craving for his touch.

Then you hear the crack of thunder. 

As the raindrops land on your face you stopped, as if waking from a dream. “What am I doing?” you ask yourself. 

You release your hands from Yoongi’s waist and step backwards. “I’m so sorry,” you murmur, and without looking at him, you start running away.

Yoongi is left standing in the alleyway, getting completely drenched.

[schizophelia]

September 17th, 2018: Psychiatrist and Therapist Appointments

As you can probably tell from the title of this post that I saw both a psychiatrist and therapist today.

Psychiatrist: So I saw the psychiatrist at 9am this morning. When I got to student health services, the secretary gave me two sheets of paper to fill out. One was a GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) screening and the other was a depression screening. Those are both pointless because I don’t have GAD and I haven’t been depressed in months. But that was fine, I did them anyway. After those were filled out, I gave the pen and clipboard back to the secretary and sat back down. Not long after a woman came out and introduced herself to me as Dr. K (not going to specifically use her name). 

She took me to one of the meeting rooms in the back. She asked me basic questions about me (eg. name, age, where I came from, etc). Then she asked me what my reason for seeing her was. I was kind of taken aback. Mostly because I thought she would have known why I was seeing her. She said that Dr. N (the doctor I saw one day at the walk-in clinic), Karen (therapist), and my SAS advisor had made my case a top priority. Dr. K said that I was triaged into seeing a psychiatrist. Triage is basically just a fancy word for sorting patients based on immediate needs and the severity of illness/issues/etc. So yeah, because of the high concern of my case, I was seen quicker than everyone else. We talked about my history starting from the age of 15 (when I was first admitted to a psychiatric unit) beginning at my eating disorder. So we talked about that and the diagnoses and such at that age. 

Then we talked about the bullying and the depression and my history of self-harm and suicide attempts. The topic of self-harm came up because she noticed the scars on my arms. She asked if I was currently self-harming and I said no, Then we started talking about the voices and other stuff. There was a point when I didn’t want to tell her something (it had nothing to do with my safety) and she said something along the lines of, “it’s my job to know so I can help lessen things for you...” something like that. I eventually told her despite not wanting to. She said that my old psychiatrist sent a referral with an overview of what has been happening but she said she wanted all my out-patient and inpatient records. I was thinking “ugh. Fuck.” I don’t want her to have those records. My old psychiatrist was a fucking idiot, I want to leave him behind. She wants me to sign the consent forms so she can get them from the hospital. She said something like, “it doesn’t matter what he wrote because I will form my own opinion.” You know what’s stupid? They all say that, but they really don’t know how to form any independent thought. I guess I have no fucking choice whether to let her see those records or not (fuck the whole idea of consent in this context). 

She asked me how often I heard the voices (almost always), what they say, if they do a running commentary (they do), their nature (temperament), etc. Dr. K asked me if I had any problems doing school work. I said yes; that I couldn’t focus or concentrate or remember things. She asked me if I was using or have used drugs or alcohol. I said I smoked weed a couple times a couple years ago, and the same thing for alcohol. I think she said it was good that I’m no longer using (I don’t remember). One of the questions she asked was whether I had ECT. I said no. And I honestly fucking hope she doesn’t suggest I do it once she gets to know me more. She asked me so many questions that it would be impossible for me to remember them all.  The thing I don’t like about Dr. K is that she’s coming across as a bitch. She asked me questions that I didn’t understand or know the answer to and she would sound irritated when I said “I don’t know,” “I don’t remember,” or “I don’t understand.” Like, be patient for fuck sake’s. I get confused, have trouble remembering, or genuinely don’t know.

Dr. K did not increase my medication today. She said she would like to see me regularly... how often, I don’t know. But she wants to meet with me next Thursday at 3:30pm because she said she still had more questions to ask me. So I have to go back next week. We actually went over our 1 hour appointment today. It was after 10am when I left SHS.

Therapy: Today I met with Karen, my psychotherapist. We talked about my appointment with Dr. K prior. Karen asked me how I was doing in comparison to last week, I don’t remember what I said. But told her I just met with Dr. K. She asked me if Dr. K had increased my medication.I said no, but that she wanted to meet with me next week. Karen said she still thinks I need more medication. She pointed out that I don’t look at her and that my attention is directed around the room whenever I meet with her. She said that was okay, but that she noticed. She brought up the movie “A Beautiful Mind” and said something about that but I don’t exactly remember what she said. I don’t know how this came up, but somehow I started talking about my friend that died by suicide a few months ago. She said it can be hard to lose someone you cared about a lot. We talked about my functioning and such. I admitted, that it took me almost a week to shower and that I wasn’t eating “properly” (which wasn’t due to my eating disorder) because I haven’t been able to manage time and find the motivation or energy to do those things. So my homework for this week is to attempt to shower every other night. I think I can do that. I just hope that the next time I do shower, I don’t throw up (I showered last night and felt dizzy and actually got sick). 

After my appointment with Dr. K, I had to cancel my appointment with Gillian because I had to get my prescription refilled because I was an idiot that waited until the last minute to get it filled (I needed the medication for tonight). The reason why I had to cancel was because after my appointment with Dr. K, I had time before therapy so I went to the UC pharmacy and asked them if they had Seroquel XR. They said they only had the regular release of Seroquel and not the extended release (XR). They said they could order it in, but it wouldn’t be in until tomorrow after 1pm. I said I needed it for tonight and needed the extended release formulation. So, I walked to therapy and after therapy was done, I walked to Walmart because they had a pharmacy there and that was the closest pharmacy to my residence building (besides UC) and I knew where the Walmart building was. I took the prescription there and spoke to one of the pharmacy people. The guy said that they had the generic form of Seroquel XR (that’s what I was on before) so I said that was perfect. I gave him my script and mentioned that it was my first time using this specific Walmart pharmacy. I had to fill out some forms and they took my information. He gave me a beeper thing that indicated when my prescription was ready. I wandered around the store while on the phone with my friend, Jennifer. It took them about 40 minutes or so. I think maybe they had a lot of prescriptions to fill. Anyway, I got my prescription and left the store (most people would have to pay, but because I’m under 25, all my medications are free). 

So I got home from Walmart, and made food. Then I relaxed until class.Went to my Contemporary English class and didn’t learn anything. I also learned that I am so far behind in the book. I didn’t know the pace I was supposed to read so I have to read a lot to catch up. I need structure for reading a book for a classes. Like, what chapters I have to read and by when. But there isn’t a reading schedule online on our online classroom. So yeah. Behind in that. After English I had Foundational Skills in Psychology. We talked about mental health and mental illness. She had us break into groups. We we supposed to come up with the early signs of mental illness. My group was practically useless, I came up with many ideas and one of the guys in my group looks at me and said, “you sure know a lot of examples.” I explained that I’m part of the system. After this class, I had Sociology. Sociology was a lot of information. It was really heavy. And it sounded like there was a whale in the room. I kept hearing whale sounds and it was really annoying. I don’t remember what class this was in, but I saw a government agent in one class, and I saw a seagull flying around in one of my classes too. My Sociology class ended at 9:10pm and I called my friend Jennifer again because I don’t want to walk to my residence late at night without talking to someone. In case something were to go wrong. I saw a bunny but when I got close, it disappeared. So I was confused. But whatever. I made it home and cooked pasta and used some of the alfredo sauce I have. I ate that, and washed my dishes and put them in the dishtray to dry overnight. Then I started writing this post.

I meet with my SAS advisor this Wednesday.

Upcoming Appointments/Meetings:

SAS Advisor Meeting Wednesday, September 19th, 2018 at 10am

Therapy Appointment on Monday, September 24, 2018 at 9:00 am

Gillian on Thursday, September 27th, 2018 at 12pm

Psychiatrist Appointment on Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 3:30pm

Meds:

Fetzima 120mg

Seroquel XR 200mg

[neth-dugan]

Nine Worlds - Friday

Thursday found [here]

After having had only a couple hours sleep, we got up and got ready for the day. Some of us took longer than others, and no that wasn’t me. @laalratty @knittedace and I went to get breakfast outside of costume and then went back to our rooms to get properly dressed. I also had a nap on the bed as the first session doesn’t start until 10am, which helped I think. But I did spend the rest of the day very tired.

EDUCATION AT HOGWARTS

The first panel I went to at the convention proper, and @unwoundbobbin was on it which was a bonus. 

It was a fun talk in which everyone agreed that education at Hogwarts is severely lacking, completely skips some very important subjects and really needs to look at quality of teaching.

As much as we are meant to root for Hogwarts and its independence, it’s an industry checking itself and what happens when people we don’t like are in charge? Someone said that it’s a great thing to show teachers who are fed up with having a curriculum and ofsted inspections. I agree. There was also a lot of talk that as much as muggle studies needs to be better and mandatory, there needs to be an introductory course for muggle raised students so they know what they’re getting into, the world they’re dumped in and so on. And, as a panelist pointed out, to better know all the shibboleths. She also mused that this may be exactly the reason they don’t do that and honestly, probably true.

ACE REPRESENTATION

So, I did a panel on a similar theme several years back and I was curious how this one would go. It took a different tone but times have moved. A lot of the panelists are relatively new to the community but then there was Nat Titman who is one of the founding persons of the asexual community. 

I didn’t learn a lot, but it was nice to be in a room with a ton of aces talking about ace things. Aros talking about aro things. People still hating on Moffat for the crap he has spewed. Being inclusive aof aros and demis. Which I know for a fact meant a lot to some, as I was talking to a demi person at that meeting later that day who brought it up. I got to espouse my theory on how Yuuri Katsuki is so so very demi even if language, culture and censorship means it’ll never be explicitly canon. 

BSL FOR GEEKS

This was amazing! I know how to say thank you and ‘g’ and that is it. So this was pretty great. Aside from being able to tell you my name at the end, I was delighted to learn the sign for Star Trek is literally the Vulcan salute. I also learnt how to say ‘Space, the final frontier’ though I probably do it with a massive accent. I learnt that this is the new sign coming up for trans:

...and tumblr provides a demonstration of this. Not video from the con.

Which is related to the sign for soul.  Also I learned the sign that’s becoming popular for queer which is a ‘q’ in the motion of a rainbow and it’s awesome.

There were lots of character names and phrases and there’s no way I’m going to remain most of it. And I had a weird hand thing going on that this made worse. So by the end of it, my hand hurt a fair bit. But it was fantastic. It was presented by a a group of interpreters and deaf people who bounced off of each other really well. One person even forgot how to spell their own name. But given a person who shall remain nameless forgot what their name even was at a different session? This isn’t the worst I heard of. 

I really loved it, and this was one of my favourite sessions at the entire convention. I wanted to go to the after dark one for adults only, in which there’d be swearing, but alas I had to take care of my hand and so decided it was a no go.

EVERYBODY HATES MORAL PHILOSOPHERS: THE ETHICS OF THE GOOD PLACE

I’m a big fan of this show. I came across it on Netflix and then got my Mom into it and it is brilliant. It’s smart and funny and thinky all at once. This session was more of a lecture than a panel or workshop which fit, because the person giving it is a philosophy professor. Not a moral philosopher, but a philosopher.

It turns out that it isn’t so much that everyone hates moral philosophers, it’s just really hard to be one. But whilst we were waiting for the session to start I spotted a person in front of me dressed up as Janet. I asked to confirm and was told, perfectly in character that interesting fact, they were Janet. And proceeded to give me a cactus sticky note with a Janet phrase on it. I sent a photo and a test to my Mom who loved it.

 ...I do have a picture, but didn’t ask permission to post on the internet so here is a close approximation minus cactus. 

The lecture itself was pretty interesting. Turns out the writers are using real philosophy and real books and theories and the like when making the show. I can see how Chidi would get so anxious if he follows Kant. Even the text books given to Eleanor are ones the speaker has themselves and sees as foundational texts. So yay! She went through a few schools of philosophy that pop up in the show and it was fun.

Someone pointed out that it seemed that each of the human four seemed to be missing one of the classical virtues. The speaker agreed. There was lots of debate about fair or just the system in this show is, and also how much about it we can objectively know given Michael’s aim in the first season. I pointed out that the entire thing seemed to be unfair to those with disadvantages or some mental health conditions. The last episode of the latest season, without getting into spoilers too much, entirely takes advantage of things about two characters that they’ve no way of doing away with and/or find near impossible to control. It sucks. There seemed to be agreement on this. Privilege, it seems, exists in the systems of The Good Place as we currently know them.

ASSIMILATION AND IDENTITY IN STAR TREK

This was a session hosted by Jaime who some may know and is pretty awesome. I don’t always agree with them on everything but I do appreciate them. And I didn’t agree with a good amount of what was said here. Not that I think it’s wrong, just that some of it is a matter of perspective and assigning aims and motivations to characters that aren’t, to me, clear in canon. I tend to think Worf handed his son off to his parents because he never asked for a kid, didn’t know he had one, works a dangerous job, has no experience parenting and lives on a ship that goes through a major crisis on a fairly regular basis. But people can disagree.

There are some things about Trek that.... aren’t the best. The whole area around the Ferengi is a tricky area and a bit of a mess. I love them, I love the actors, I love some of their episodes, but there are anti-semitic tropes in there made all the more there by the fact that most of the Ferengi actors are of Jewish decent. It’s problematic. It’s meant to be a critic of capitalism and modern culture. Of US. I’ve heard various Trek folk basically state that of all the species in Star Trek, the Ferengi represent modern day humans. But. They fell back on some problematic crap and there’s no way of escaping that.

There was one point when I was a bit worried it was going to get a bit anti-atheist but it didn’t thank goodness. And that’s a whole other thing.

There’s a clip that’s pretty famous amongst DS9 fans, that you fan find here, that exemplifies some of what this panel was about. Not all of it, but some. It was running through my head for sure. After the session ended a group of us had a chat after. It brought up a lot of things to talk about, new ways of looking at things and agree or not that’s usually a good thing.

...Moogie!

‘OH, BRILLIANT.’ ANTICIPATING THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR

This one had @knittedace on the panel! She’d been talking about doing it last year and here we were . She in her hand knitted Dalek dress, me in the audience feeling a bit woozy and tired. 

Mostly, it did exactly what the tin said. People being excited for Thirteen, recalling days when they’d written fic on the idea but never thought it possible, what people wanted to see or not see and the like. Mostly, it was a feel good panel with happy people glad for a new start that would bring in new and old fans alike.

Someone on the panel pointed out that for some kids, they’ll have never known a time when The Doctor couldn’t be a woman. For whom their Doctor is a woman. And that is amazing. And she gets to keep her accent too, and there is hope we will see some of the North this season. Not just more London, or Cardiff as London.

For myself, I’ve always figured some Time Lords could change genders and sexes. Some couldn’t. And doing so was some kind of Time Lord intersex thing. But I was never really rooting for a woman Doctor.... yet when they announced it was going to happen? I was excited and relieved in a way I hadn’t imagined I would be.

Bring it on.

INTERVAL

At this point I found myself in the bar with some ginger ale talking to some people I’ve never med before. One was a demi person who had been at the Ace Rep talk and was very relieved to see demis included. I explained about the history of the flag and how they’re explicitly on it. Outside of some gatekeepers, the ace community I know has always embraced those other identities under the ace umbrella. 

Me, them and a friend of theirs made our way downstairs after a good chin wag to get good seats for the next panel. We figured we’d probably need them and coincidentally we were all going to the same one. 

FROM A/B/O TO DUBIOUS CONSENTACLES

I’m still not sure what dubious consentacles are to be honest. My mind goes to dubcon hentai but I’m probably wrong. This panel was after 10pm, the last of the day and very much adult only. I was in my TNG uniform and there was a Trek fan vid screening in the room across the hall so a volunteer checked I was where I wanted to be whilst we were waiting for it to start. Which was sweet, people do get lost down there.  Also, @unwoundbobbin was there which was a hoot.

The entire thing was a hoot to be honest. Not that formal, and mostly people sharing things they’d seen online, talk about the value of tagging, and wonder at the way fandom just comes together and decides on what dubious biology looks like. I shared the story of the early early days of Star Trek fandom how writers would come up with new weird and wonderful ways of depicting Spock’s genitals. I just think it’s something everyone should know. Fandom has been like this for a long time. 

I wont go into detail of the things discussed. But it’s amazing how trends change over time, how even over multiple fandoms some of these tropes become so accepted nobody has to explain anything. We just know how it works and dive right into a kind of shared ‘verse thing.

There were some things mentioned that I hadn’t heard of and are very much not talking about on this post. But interesting.

Honestly, this was another of my favourite panels this convention. It was so much fun. So much. Some people were a bit tipsy I think.

I did warn the two mods that I was pretty tired so if my eyes looked funny or closed, I wasn’t asleep, I was just squinting. I got so enthused by the cracky fun of it all though that I needn't have worried. I also found it amusing just how many ace spectrum folk there were there. 

After this I went back to my room. I got changed, went to bed hoping for a better night sleep than the one before. So very very tired. I’d had a great day but I was tired and I needed sleep urgently. Especially as the tired thing was not helping the dizzy thing. Thankfully I did get some sleep, not as good as home but I god some. 

[SATURDAY IS HERE]

[ladystylestores]

TV writers, like all of us, are developing a love-hate relationship with Zoom

Enlarge / ATX TV’s panel on writers’ room Zooms: From L to R, top row: IndieWire’s Ben Travers (moderator), Sera Gamble (Netflix’s You), Dan Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Bottom row: Melinda Hsu Taylor (Nancy Drew) and Beth Schwartz (Sweettooth) 

Every week now seems to bring news of another Hollywood project being delayed. Sometimes this is because you can’t make money in an empty theater, but it’s just as often due to production halts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of that industry hits pause for now, one crucial segment has not—the writers. Like many of us, they’ve instead become intimately familiar with the inner workings of on-the-job Zoom calls.

“I kind of feel for every aspiring TV writer at home right now due to the pandemic,” said Sera Gamble, showrunner of Netflix’s You (formerly of Supernatural and The Magicians), during this year’s online-only edition of the ATX TV Festival. “They’re trying to write while doing a bunch of other stuff; well, congrats, you’re now in showrunner training. I’ve frequently had to sit down in the past and rewrite a script in a moment that felt like a severe crisis, and sometimes it was a severe crisis. But it feels like that times 10. I have to reset expectations every morning: I wake up, wait a minute before checking my phone, check in with loved ones, and then take the problems of the day as they come… [I tell my writers] ‘You can’t solve what you can’t solve, so what can we get done in the next hour?'”

For this late-addition panel to this year’s ATX TV Festival, Gamble (virtually) joined Dan Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Rec), Melinda Hsu Taylor (Nancy Drew, Lost), and Beth Schwartz (Sweet Tooth, Arrow) to take streamers “Inside the Writers (Zoom) Room.” For some, the change came abruptly. Hsu Taylor and her staff had nearly completed both writing and production on the latest season of Nancy Drew when suddenly they had to convert everything to be remote-friendly (she credits doing a Zoom birthday for her son around that time for helping her grasp the basic logistics and experience). Other writers started wholesale in a digital world, like the staff of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They were five weeks into story-breaking at the time of this panel and hadn’t been together in-person at all while working on the upcoming season eight.

No one had a choice, of course. As COVID-19 continues to surge in the United States—the country passed the 2-million-case mark within the last two weeks—all walks of life must adjust. And when any in-person interactions come with potentially life-threatening risk for the foreseeable future, suddenly Zoom calls sound downright preferable.

“Right when we went home, there was a little bit of a relief,” Gamble said. “We were social distancing in two separate rooms for weeks before we went home just so people could have six to 10 feet between them. At one point, I asked a writer’s assistant to track how often ‘coronavirus’ was said—it was every two minutes. So at least if we went home, we’d be able to work.”

The work

Logistically, certain things have been trickier for TV writers in this shared Zoom existence. Larger writers’ rooms pushing 10 people or more may have difficulty translating into a single Zoom chat, where not talking over each other and reading the room become harder. So, You and Brooklyn Nine-Nine now opt to have multiple, smaller Zoom calls focused on more narrowly defined tasks, and only the showrunner will hop between conversations. That magic writers often like to refer to—the creative spark, the inner-staff interactions where a lunch convo might solve a plot problem later that afternoon—has also proven harder to recreate in these digital work spaces.

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“It’s more efficient, but it is weird and less fun,” Goor said. “There’s less joking around. We did every possible Zoom joke we could do that first week—changed all the backgrounds, mine was my mom’s water colors. We did background videos of each other… so I guess we found new ways to waste time, now that I think about… But it’s nice to feel a reaction to a pitch, and it’s much harder to do that over Zoom. I find myself talking myself out of story ideas.”

Early on at least, Zoom has also surprised writers with a few positive benefits. In writers’ rooms where some staffers have been with a show much longer than others, Zoom may take away some unspoken hierarchical barriers and put everyone on equal footing. “There’s something democratizing about these squares that are always present and equally sized,” Goor said. “For new people, it might be easier to speak up now. ‘Oh, and April, what do you have to say about this?'” Zoom also inherently leads to less workday interruption: fewer bathroom breaks, less losing the room to endless joke-offs, and skipping longer lunch routines like the Brooklyn Nine-Nine staff’s elaborate Wheel of Fortune-style approach to selecting takeout.

But perhaps the biggest change? The pandemic has given everyone in the writers’ room a more holistic perspective on life—episode four of season whatever no longer gets to be anyone’s most important thing. Add it all up, and many writers now have a much more traditional work day.

“Comedy hours are usually bad, and they’ve become so much better,” Goor said, noting how he now typically works 10am to 12:30pm, takes lunch, and resumes from 1:30p to 5:30p. “Routinely for the first few seasons, we’d eat dinner [in the writers’ room] and be there till 8pm or 10pm or 11pm for a table read. We’ve adjusted. It’s partly because it’s impossible to look at Zoom for that long, but it’s partly so people can be with their families, be healthy, and experience life.”

Focusing at home versus when you’re physically in a space for a specific task can be a new challenge, but these TV writers continue to find approaches that work for individual groups. Hsu Taylor and the Nancy Drew staff start each session with a three-minute meditation to intentionally tell their minds that work time has begun. “I know some people are checking their email because I hear clicking,” she said. “But I think most like this. ‘OK, I’m doing this now.’ I’m telling my mind and body to be here for the next few hours.” And some former tasks that would force writers to split their attention now don’t exist, like having to be on set for script tweaks during an episode you may have written.

“With production being down,” Schwartz said, “you can really focus on the scripts instead of being all over the place.”

Welcome to the nerdiest, most-inside-baseball TV event this side of network upfronts. (Held in downtown Austin most years, like in 2017 when FX’s Fargo headlined)

Nathan Mattise

Years later, this ATX TV installation still represents the best use case we’ve seen for those ol’ B&W and tiny TVs.

Nathan Mattise

The end product

Whether good or bad, our new reality has absolutely already impacted what we’ll eventually see on screen. You, for instance, centers on a bookstore manager creepily obsessed with an aspiring young writer. To put it succinctly, the show frequently has characters at least kissing. But for the upcoming season three, that may be one aspect needing to change, no questions asked.

“We can’t put people in danger—TV shows aren’t worth that,” said Gamble. “So we’ll change what we can and keep an eye on the lines we don’t want to cross. We won’t do the show and have it be shitty because there was a pandemic. We’ll be measured and try to maintain the spirits of the show. But it’s a conversation, scene by scene by scene.”

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates shifts in logistics, too. Where you can film and who can you film obviously feeds into what scenes a writing staff can write. The writers noted productions in Canada and New Zealand, like Nancy Drew and Sweet Tooth, will happen first since those countries have navigated COVID-19 better than the US. And with mandated quarantine for travelers to those places, local actors could have a leg up for roles, too.

For Goor and the Brooklyn Nine-Nine team, new logistical concerns start with babies. No explicit spoilers, but two characters had one last season, and the team suddenly has to look at animatronics and maybe less overall on-screen infant time (“There’s going to be a run on those bespoke fake babies,” Gamble joked).

“It’s hard, because we’re doing stories on the work-life balance for these people. This goes in so many different directions and we still don’t know where [the pandemic] is going, so it’s hard to write for it,” Goor said. “Is it safe to shoot outside? Originally, we wanted everything to be a bottle episode, so we can shoot on the stages, [and] it’ll be controlled. But now, is it better to do all exteriors? Because it seems like it’s healthier and safer for people. How many extras can you have? Can you use kids? And since there will be waves of productions, with movies and pilots starting, too, availability for guest cast will be a lot harder. Five-episode guest-star arcs are now harder.”

All these decisions ultimately bleed into the business of TV, too. For writers, maybe the option of participating in a writer’s room remotely suddenly becomes more commonplace, democratizing the career for people outside of NYC and LA (and those cities’ sky-high rents). And not having to commute regularly or be in one physical space would mean writers’ rooms could welcome writers with physical disabilities more easily, thus bringing wider perspectives to a host of shows.

“I think there’s a reason we do [in-person writers’ rooms], and it’s not just to spend studio money on all that rent—it’s good for creativity and production,” says Gamble. “But it will be easier to say, ‘We should just meet on Zoom on some days.’ And for the disabled community, if an agent were to call and pitch me somebody and explain why someone could rarely or never be on set, well, I know that works now. If this all leads to a crop of great writers breaking into the business, that excites me.”

ATX TV Festival 2020 continues to post its panels on YouTube throughout June (including a panel with the staff of The Mandalorian available this weekend). The entire discussion “Inside the Writers (Zoom) Room” is available below.

You can watch all of ATX TV’s “Inside the Writers (Zoom) Room” panel on-demand now.

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[recentanimenews]

Your Virtual Tour of Pokemon Center London

Being a Pokémon fan in the United Kingdom hasn’t always been easy. I’ve spent years watching with envy and emptying my wallet with shipping and customs fees to import the wonders that grace the U.S. and Japan while putting our slim pickings to shame. As someone whose life revolves this monster collecting franchise, it’s always been my ultimate dream to visit a Pokémon Center store—but one out of my reach, due to the sheer cost of flying to Asia. With Pokémon Sword and Shield putting my country on the series’ world map with the Galar region however, a part of my dream was delivered to my doorstep, so while it still feels surreal to write this, here’s my guide to Pokémon Center London!

  Open from October 18 until the new games’ worldwide launch on November 15 2019, this unbelievable treasure can be found tightly tucked into the first floor of London’s intimidatingly huge Westfield shopping mall (about a 25 minute tube trip from King’s Cross). After navigating the maze of designer brands, the Pokémon Center is unmissable, because of the cheery, suit-wearing Pikachu waving you in!

  I was giddy with excitement before going on, but honestly didn’t know what to expect when I first walked into the store. The first thing I saw was an open space flanked on the right by an ominous warning to my bank balance: the checkouts! To the left, however, was the more pacifying sight of plushies—lots of plushies! The Kanto starters, the vast Eevee family tree, and other popular Pokémon like Gengar were primed for being stuffed into shopping baskets, as were large and incredibly cuddly-looking plushies of Mimikyu, Ditto, and an absolute unit of a Wailord, which I regret not buying despite its near £50 ($65 approx) price tag!

    With Sword and Shield being the reason for the store in the first place, I wasn’t surprised to see some Nintendo Switch love, but did items widely available elsewhere really need almost an entire section? Advance stock of the Zacian and Zamazenta Lite would’ve gone down a treat, but alas, that releases only a month before the store closes. I was really tempted by the new purple and orange Joy-Con though, but decided to save my money for the real pièce de résistance: exclusive merch!

  Just look at all the dapperly dressed Pikachu! The electric Londoner’s pinchable face also adorned quintessentially British items like mugs (perfect for a cuppa) and umbrellas (honestly the best bit of the range—we “love” the weather!) filled the rest of the section, alongside other bits like badges, tote bags, and even a snuggly fleece throw. As a competitive Trading Card Game player, I need to give a shout-out to that gorgeous playmat that I’ll no doubt rocking at tournaments to come. All items in this range are strictly one per person though, so you won’t be able to pick up duplicates for a friend (or online auction sites… yeah).

  After journeying to Galar, you’ll no doubt want to see its native Pokémon! Lurking on the other side of the store’s short dividing tunnel and a small selection of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu goodies, including a beautifully creepy Ludicolo plush (that I regret not picking up) and Psyduck with oddly reflective beaks, you’ll find our soon-to-be partner Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble!

    If you haven’t decided on your Sword and Shield starter yet, forget waiting for evolutions—here’s where you decide. I’ve been Team Grookey since Day 1, so snapped up a comfy varsity jacket, a mug, and a plush. Now that I’ll be showing off the funky monkey whenever I leave the house, I can’t wait for it to disappoint me in the same way Primarina did (it’s not bad, but compared to Decidueye or Incineroar?). They were unfortunately the only Galarian Pokémon on show though, with no big fluffy Wooloo to be seen.

    I’d say my only real disappointment with Pokémon Center London, is its throwaway treatment of my favorite merch line: “Sitting Cuties”. With every Generation 1 and 2 Pokémon receiving a plush, I was overjoyed that my underappreciated faves like Primeape and Donphan were finally getting some love. After seeing photos of them all lined up in Japanese Pokémon Centers, I was expecting something similar here. But we didn’t get that.

  The only Sitting Cuties to be found were in small baskets in a far back corner, with the 12 Pokémon available (not pictured: Wartortle and Gloom) being so random that I wonder if they’re simply what the warehouses had left over (should Kantonian Ponyta be considered a rare import though?). My adoration of Johto’s forgotten darling Janine meant I couldn’t resist the bug-eyed Venomoth though, and at £11 ($14.28 approx), they’re the cheapest plushies in the store.

  Trading Card Game players may want to focus their attention further down the wall though, with a large collection of boosters, decks, accessories and more. Eagled-eyed collectors may even notice that the Pikachu-GX and Eevee-GX Special Collectionhas two boosters of the Cosmic Eclipse set ahead of its 1st November release! After one last push for London themed apparel though, that’s it for the shopping part of Pokémon Center London!

    Once your wallet is done crying at the checkout though, you may remember a flight of stairs near the entrance. The second floor of Pokémon Center London is packed with demos of Sword and Shield both docked on televisions, and on bolted down Switch Lites.

  The same experience seen at E3 earlier this year, I had three attempts at clearing Nessa’s water-type gym… but timed out each time. You basically need to memorise the puzzle to have any chance at making the ten minute timer, and one playthrough even saw me deliver the finishing blow, before being robbed of the victory! So clearly, I have unfinished business to take care of on November 15. I’m also fully expecting Impidimp to want revenge on me, after repeatedly throwing Corviknight Steel Wings in their faces!

    After finally going hands on with my most anticipated game of the year, I have to say it looks gorgeous on the compact handheld’s screen. The 3D models looked crisp and the colors vibrant, but this sadly didn’t translate to my experience on the docked demo stations, which exposed the models’ jagged edges. It is worth noting that this is an older build though, and I can’t deny that I loved the novelty of seeing a giant Dynamax Grookey blow up on the bigger screen! I also really appreciated the little details that really helped the game feel alive, like the crowd cheering whenever a Pokémon was knocked out.

  With me having exhausted attempts at finishing the demo though, my time at Pokémon Center London came to a close, and it was time for me to hoist my two bags of shopping home. Overall, I had a great time and it still feels unreal that I had an opportunity to visit a Pokémon Center, on my doorstep no less! This definitely did feel like a more limited, temporary experience though, and it has made me even more motivated to one day visit one of the Japanese stores!

  While I wasn’t able to note down the prices for every product, for an idea of how much to budget, the exclusive London Pikachu plush is £20 ($25.97), Galar starter plushies are £18 ($23.37), and the umbrellas are £29 ($37.39) each. If you’re not careful, you could be like me and end up with a £300 ($389.55) bill at the checkout!

    Pokémon Center London is open from October 18 to November 15 between 10am and 10pm (12pm - 6pm on Sundays). I’d advise getting there as early as possible and expect lengthy queues, as demand has been unprecedented. On its first two days, the store had to close the lines as early as 11:45am, so keep an eye on Westfield London's Twitter for updates! More information can be found at Pokémon.com.

    Have you ever been to a Pokémon Center? And what’s the favorite piece of Pokémon merchandise you own? Let us know in the comments!

  Josh A. Stevens is a freelance PR with UK anime industry experience, and a writer at Anime UK News. You can follow him @Joshawott.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[joronomo]

The Daily Show Hosts Pop Up Art Exhibit to Honor the Commander in Tweet – Viacom Corporate

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The Daily Show Hosts Pop Up Art Exhibit to Honor the Commander in Tweet – Viacom Corporate

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June 22, 2017 @ 3:30 PM

Lines stretched for blocks in Midtown Manhattan near Trump Tower last weekend, but not for a protest. Instead, tourists and locals converged just down the road to see The Daily Show’s homage to the self-proclaimed “Ernest Hemingway of a hundred and forty characters,” the man known as @RealDonaldTrump.

.@realDonaldTrump we’re neighbors! Come visit! It’s free! #DailyShowLibrary pic.twitter.com/BIrcvplnYX

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 16, 2017

The Daily Show Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library was a pop-up showcase with free admission.

“Say what you want about Donald Trump,” Noah told reporters as the exhibit opened. “He may not be good at presidenting, or leading, or geo-politics. But he is a damn fine tweet-er.”

The Daily Show wanted to pay credence to Trump’s prolific tweets, showcasing them the way they deserve to be seen—not briefly, but canonized in a regal museum. The show alluded to this plan in March, after airing Third Month Mania—a special episode where The Daily Show correspondents  mined through thousands of user-submitted Trump tweets to find the greatest of them all.

Noah somberly explained the show’s objective in setting up such a comprehensive tour of internet mayhem.

“It’s about giving context to the tweets,” said Noah, “Not absorbing them one byte at a time but rather looking at them as a body of work, some of the greatest ideas, some of the greatest words that have ever been shared in 140 characters or less.”

Visitors entered the museum and were promptly greeted by a model pair of tiny, orange hands clutching a smartphone.

Welcome to Trump’s magnum opus. (Photo courtesy of Comedy Central)

Visitors could receive a nickname courtesy of the Trump nickname generator (I’m known as Dweebo Lisa) and were free to explore the many facets of this interactive museum. A #MAGAnetic wall contained a handful of Trump’s most frequently used words, where visitors could create their own caustic tweets.

The “MAGAnetic” wall at The Daily Show’s Trump Presidential Twitter Library. (Photo courtesy of Comedy Central)

Then there was the presidential throne—a  golden toilet in a section decorated as the Oval Office, where visitors could tweet out into the world.

(Photo courtesy of Drew Angerer for Getty Images)

And every few minutes, an alarm would sound—“Bing, bing…bing bing,” announcing Trump’s latest digital missive (His real-time tweets were displayed via live feed on one of the museum’s screens.)

.@realDonaldTrump please keep tweeting today. #DailyShowLibrary visitors will hear this every time you do. pic.twitter.com/XNTpXwzicF

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 16, 2017

On the walls, tweets were cataloged and arranged by category, including  “Deleted but not Forgotten”  and “Verified Survivors,” which honored the brave victims of Trump’s most vicious tweet-storms.

Kevin Hagan, a 29-year-old man from Amityville, New York said he decided to check out the exhibit after reading about it (fittingly) on Twitter. He brought his 15-year-old brother along, and while they found the pop-up’s interactive aspects amusing—both took turns tweeting from the golden toilet—Hagan thought the most cogent part was a slideshow called “Trump v Trump,” which showcased the president’s most discordant target—himself.

“The electoral college is a disaster for democracy,” Trump tweeted on November 6, 2012. Almost four years later, after winning the election, he had a different opinion: “The electoral college is actually genius in that it brings all states, including smaller ones, into play.”

Take a 3D virtual tour of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library: t.co/36RjBevFwk #DailyShowLibrary pic.twitter.com/S8pfTPOCJg

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 20, 2017

“It’s hard to look back that far in time and remember what people say [on social media],” said Hagan. “Trump says things now that completely contradict what he said before he ran for office. We wouldn’t really know this if it wasn’t in front of us. I’ve seen these quotes side by side in memes, but this display is more powerful, because it physically exists.”

And some of Trump’s greatest quips were lionized and analyzed as “Master Works of the Collection” with a wall of their own (and even fancier gold frames) to allow the public to fully absorb the Trump’s mastery of the 140-character post.

Let’s examine his infamous Cinco de Mayo taco bowl tweet.

Trump’s taco tweet is here to stay. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

The analysis of this “mixed media” work of art, provided by The Daily Show writers, is as follows:

“A decidedly American Artist, Trump rarely draws from other creative traditions. Yet here we see him showcasing pride in a Mesoamerican heritage that, for the artist’s instant and effortless mastery of the form, may as well be his own. At the same time, the taco bowl’s oblique symbolism embodies Trump’s trademark patriotism: His is a crisp, crunchy nation, deep-friend and welcoming to all fixin’s that yearn to dwell therein, providing they rise to his own Towering standards. Guac is extra.”

As The Daily Show correspondents Hasan Minhaj and Jordan Klepper assessed in an appearance at the library, Trump certainly sweated over both the tweet and the taco.

Watch the video:

Breaking down the #DailyShowLibrary‘s Taco Bowl exhibit with our tour guides @jordanklepper and @hasanminhaj pic.twitter.com/jl7IYJXbYx

— Maeve McDermott (@maeve_mcdermott) June 15, 2017

Nicholas Lord, a 23-year-old from Perth, Australia, agreed with The Daily Show’s decision to accentuate this tweet out of 35,000 (and counting). “Moving to the States during the Obama administration, I believed in everything this country stood for,” said Lord (who is a friend and attended the exhibit with me). “At the time, people I met here would ask me why I left Australia,’” said Lord. “As if it was a terrible decision.

“Now, in 2017, as a gay man and foreign citizen living here with that man in office, I sometimes question my decision to move here, as well. But seeing political art like this reaffirms what I love about this country. The U.S. is open-minded and doesn’t accept bigotry. Knowing such a massive corporation is behind this [instillation] makes me feel safe. The media isn’t going to let Trump get away with his hateful rhetoric, and this exhibition is actual proof of that.”

Sunday, June 19 was the last day of the exhibit—as well as Father’s Day. The museum took note, making a special plaque for this tweet:

From The Holiday Cheer Collection. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library. #DailyShowLibrary pic.twitter.com/6YQoA6NEHx

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 18, 2017

And while Trump disparages the “fake news media,” journalists from Time, Rolling Stone, Forbes, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and more lauded The Daily Show’s enormous effort.

“The end result is a fascinating trip through the annals of his convoluted conscience,” wrote Jake Nevins for The Guardian, “A satire that’s equal parts jarring and funny, absurd and ‘Sad!’”

Due to an unexpectedly high turnout, the instillation extended hours on Saturday, June 17 and opened early on June 18. It was a valiant effort on The Daily Show’s part to give everyone the opportunity to witness the spectacle—no sore losers. Even if you couldn’t attend in person, the classiest pop-up in history is immortalized online with a virtual tour. You don’t even have to leave your home…amazing.

Due to popular demand, the #DailyShowLibrary will remain open tonight until 10pm. Sunday hours: 10am-7pm. pic.twitter.com/vBmTEDVWTu

— Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) June 17, 2017

Comedy Central’s late-night, political satire set is also here to stay, riding a wave of terrific reviews, great content, and the best ratings.

Jordan Klepper is slated for a new late-night talk show this fall, which will air after The Daily Show at 11:30 p.m. Details of the show (including its name) are yet to be released, but it’s likely Klepper will explore topics such as gun control, which he has honed in on in past Daily Show segments and his recent Jordan Klepper Solves Guns special.

Australian comic Jim Jeffries hosts The Jim Jeffries Show, which premiered earlier this month. So far, critics have responded well to Jeffries’ international take on U.S. politics and trademark candor.

And for those of us who can’t pull ourselves away from gawking at all that is amazing about Trump’s presidency, there’s The President Show—Comedy Central’s critically-acclaimed late-night show starring Trump impersonator Anthony Atamanuik.

Fake news has never been more real.

Watch The Daily Show on Comedy Central, weeknights at 11 p.m., and take the virtual Trump Presidential Twitter Library Tour.

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