#2011 was the last year of the rabbit

[detectivenyx]

POG SECOND LUNAR CYCLE BAYBEEEEEEEEEE

[licorishh]

Replayed Modern Warfare 3 2011 on Veteran tonight and goooooooood night. Blood Brothers never gets any easier to watch no matter how many times you've done it and the ending really never misses huh

I apologize for the amount of yapping in the tags I reread it all on mobile and started giggling because it went on for so long but eh. Blessed are those who won't shut the freak up and all that

[brooklynisher]

Hey all, you ever hear of Jaunty?

[x]

Do you WANT to learn more about Jaunty?

Well I dug deep, and found some things I never thought I could find. I'm really excited to share what I've found with y'all. This post is sort of a little journey of how I found Jaunty.

There's a few sections to this.

Skip to But where does Jaunty come from? If you just want answers

Is Jaunty even a real character?

Jaunty, from what I originally found, is SUPPOSEDLY a Steam Powered Giraffe character. But where have we seen this character before? Was it the comic? Was it the timeline? Maybe in a song cover? Does the band ever talk about Jaunty?

And to answer all of your questions, no! At least not that I knew of. The only source of Jaunty’s existence is here.

The Steam Powered Giraffe Wiki

So that makes this whole thing pretty complicated right? The wiki has info, and it’s not too inaccurate most of the time, but some of the lesser known/more nuanced information tends to get scuffed.

It really doesn’t help knowing that David has mentioned before that the information on the wiki wasn't that accurate.

What I’m saying is, the only proof we have for the existence of this character is on what might be one of the more unreliable sources of SPG information.

But despite that, this page is special in the fact that SUPPOSEDLY it was uploaded by Steam Powered Giraffe themselves!

[x]

However, there isn’t really much of any information on this user at all. All we know is that they founded this wiki, added a few characters and a bit of information, and then became inactive. Really our biggest reasoning for believing that this was an actual SPG member is the fact that they are the founder and have been around for a very long time.

Okay, suspicions aside, let’s see what I found about this thing.

What the wiki tells us

One, this image was touched by the founder of this wiki twice, it was uploaded in 2011, and in 2014 they protected the page, which means only the administrators can edit the page.

[x]

Both are pretty major years for SPG being the year Upgrade left the band and the year Rabbit transitioned, but there’s not many connections you can make with that.

This user was first active in 2010 and last seen in 2015 [x]

Cool dates to have, but not a lot to work with. It mainly gives us a clear vision of what SPG was looking like at the time of the creation of this page. I can see this thing being used for a special, slightly themed show.

Of course, the information the wiki alone offers is very limited, but we know two things for sure. One, this character is a robot being under the category of robots, and two, these photos were taken by Cineria.

[x]

So, here's the problem, you'd think that by having the name of the photographer, we could get far with that, but unfortunately, it is such a vague name, that there is just no way we could figure out who Cineria actually is. It really doesn't help that they don't seem to be a professional photographer. The only page I could find that connects both the name Cineria and Steam Powered Giraffe is this one.

Useless information

I started searching for stuff by reverse searching it. It wasn't really successful, as I was expecting, but I did find one thing.

A different source.

This source doesn't go anywhere must you know. The ORIGINAL site, florist.buketbunga.com is still up an active serving as an Indonesian site for selling flowers, but this very specific link is broken, and the Wayback Machine doesn't know a thing about it.

The good news is, the link title alone gives us a ton of stuff to work with! Appropriately, the last part of this link translates to "Flower Bouquet Florist Shop Address Nearest 24 Hours Online", which makes sense.

What DOESN'T make sense is everything else coming before it. Specifically the Team Fortress 2 Wiki. This made me believe that someone used these sites to create a scam link, but it's weird because somehow, it's relevant?

Yandex was able to match these images of Jaunty to this site, and what's crazier, Jaunty is in the title of the link! But it's not just Jaunty, it's the Jaunty Explorer.

I did some searching, and discovered that the Jaunty Explorer originates from a TF2 livestream charity event called Tip of the Hats! Donations can earn you medals known as the Jaunty Explorer ($10 Donations), the Jaunty Ranger ($30 Donations), and the Jaunty Mountaineer ($100 Donations). They can come in many different color variations, but here are the main ones.

[x] [x] [x]

There are TWO connections between this and SPG. One, the shared name of Jaunty, and two, hats. Steam Powered Giraffe is pretty big on hats. But, bad news, these are completely unrelated. Main reasoning? The image of Jaunty was posted to the wiki back in 2011, while Tip of the Hats as an event started back in 2013. Can't even take the "SPG was inspired by TF2" route with that.

Okay, but what even IS it?

Now we get into the visual aspect of this!

I tried to see if there was at least any way to identify what this is, but that solely relies on observational skills. There are two images of this thing, but the image with the blue background is much easier to make out.

[x]

There's a lot that's going on with the design of Jaunty. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to identify what half of the doodads are. This machine, whether it's an actual machine or just a prop, is definitely a one of a kind as I couldn't find anything like this.

I talked with @boneinator about this, and he was able to read the text: "STAND CLEAR!" on the top of the doors of this machine which lead him to believe that it might be a time machine of sorts.

What we both managed to agree on when it came to the design of this thing however, was that it looks like a cabinet.

Now, like I said, this thing has a one of a kind design, so it's not going to look exactly like one thing or another, but it has similar features to other things such as to this cabinet

[x]

Two longer doors on the upper half, and two smaller doors/drawers on the bottom. Is that actually what it is? I didn't know, but there is a resemblance.

One thing that's REALLY interesting about this machine is the intense amount of steam it lets out.

[x]

So it's definitely a very active machine.

But where does Jaunty come from?

Something I've been wondering is how much of this is actually connected to SPG.

Is it theirs? Is this a part of a bigger thing? Is it just associated with them?

A bigger thing. There is one example of a big SPG show that comes to mind, and it was not just them.

During their 15 Year Anniversary Livestream, the band was asked about their favorite memories. Bunny mentions that one of her favorite memories was at a show called Clockwork Vaudeville. This was one of the band's first time having a massive audience. According to her, this was a time traveling show, and they performed alongside others.

I looked into it and found that the full name of this performance is called Clockwork Vaudeville Circus Cabaret. And there, I found a little advertisement for it as well!

The Kickstarter for this show started in late 2010

I did some more searching and realized there is a bunch of video from this show out there though all these clips are recorded at random intervals. Assuming that the uploader posted these clips close to the date of the actual show, we can see that this show took place in February of 2011!

About one month after this show, this page was added to the wiki.

I checked the clips, and guess what.

[x]

Right there in the corner, there was Jaunty.

But that's not all

Not only have a found a video that contained Jaunty, I found a video that contained Jaunty in action!

[x]

Unbelievably enough, it was a video of the band performing Honeybee alongside a pole dancer. And thanks to the title, we now know that this show took place February 19, 2011

Which all this confirms 100% that Jaunty IS a time machine.

Now with all things considered, Jaunty is not necessarily an "SPG character" as in they didn't create it. It's hard to say if Jaunty is even a character at all at this point! But it does exist in their world and they actively interact with it!

Who cheered? I cracked the code!

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

a list of some spring movies/series 🌷

spring is here!! and so is your friendly neighbourhood little organisation freak of a goblin to give you a list of some spring movies and series. as always, just close your eyes and point somewhere on this little list, or even put the numbers in a generator and go with whatever the result is ♡

summer | autumn | winter

🐝 ‧₊˚ ⋅ movies ⋅˚₊‧

mary poppins (1964)

the sound of music (1965)

aristocats (1970)

alla vi barn i bullerbyn (1986)

my neighbour totoro (1988)

kiki's delivery service (1989)

a league of their own (1992)

the secret garden (1993)

pride and prejudice (1995/2005)

whisper of the heart (1995)

clueless (1995)

my best friend’s wedding (1997)

parent trap (1998)

10 things i hate about you (1999)

notting hill (1999)

she's all that (1999)

but i’m a cheerleader (1999)

bring it on (2000)

miss congeniality (2000)

spiritied away (2001)

the wedding planner (2001)

legally blonde (2001)

princess diaries (2001 + 2004)

spy kids (2001-2003)

maid in manhatten (2002)

bend it like beckham (2002)

tuck everlasting (2002)

school of rock (2003)

how to lose a guy in 10 days (2003)

something’s gotta give (2003)

13 going on 30 (2004)

finding neverland (2004)

howl’s moving castle (2004)

saving face (2004)

the notebook (2004)

imagine me and you (2005)

nanny mcphee (2005)

penelope (2006)

miss potter (2006)

step up (2006)

she’s the man (2006)

bridge to terabithia (2007)

enchanted (2007)

atonement (2007)

stardust (2007)

ps i love you (2007)

wild child (2008)

made of honour (2008)

ondine (2009)

bride wars (2009)

valentine’s day (2010)

tangled (2010)

leap year (2010)

easy a (2010)

from up on poppy hill (2011)

jane eyre (2011)

crazy, stupid, love (2011)

what to expect when you’re expecting (2012)

remember sunday (2013)

saving mr banks (2013)

about time (2013)

now you see me (2013 + 2016)

love, rosie (2014)

testament of youth (2014)

kingsman (2014-)

paddington (2014 + 2017)

far from the madding crowd (2015)

burnt (2015)

brooklyn (2015)

cinderella (2015)

the man from u.n.c.l.e. (2015)

lady chatterley's lover (2015/2022)

creed franchise (2015-2023)

me before you (2016)

mother’s day (2016)

this beautiful fantastic (2016)

the light between oceans (2016)

paterson (2016)

how to be single (2016)

hidden figures (2016)

gifted (2017)

dunkirk (2017)

ocean’s eight (2018)

life itself (2018)

peter rabbit (2018)

christopher robin (2018)

tomb raider (2018)

set it up (2018)

crazy rich asians (2018)

spider-verse movies (2018-)

1917 (2019)

the art of racing in the rain (2019)

can you keep a secret? (2019)

booksmart (2019)

someone great (2019)

endings, beginnings (2019)

emma (2020)

enola holms (2020-)

the last letter from your lover (2021)

the world to come (2021)

🌼 ‧₊˚ ⋅ series ⋅˚₊‧

little house on the prairie (1974-1983)

moomin valley (1990-1992)

greys anatomy (2005-)

gossip girl (2007-2012)

skins (2007-2013)

the great british bake off (2010-)

new girl (2011-2018)

brooklyn nine-nine (2013-2021)

the fosters (2013-2018)

the 100 (2014-2020)

jane the virgin (2014-2019)

outlander (2014-)

grace and frankie (2015-2022)

poldark (2015-2019)

critical role (2015-)

howards end (2017)

girlboss (2017)

she's gotta have it (2017-2019)

the bold type (2017-2021)

mr. sunshine (2018)

queer eye (2018-)

crash landing into you (2019)

the witcher (2019-)

dickinson (2019-2021)

sex education (2019-2023)

bridgerton (2020-)

ted lasso (2020-2023)

nevertheless (2021)

abbott elementary (2021-)

flatshare (2022)

[wishingicouldfly]

Why I Believe Larry Is Real

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of my opinion essays. This week I was asked to justify my belief that Larry is real, and that Harry and Louis are together. It feels like it’s time. 

::cracks knuckles::

I’ve thought about how to reply to the demand, which came from someone on X (formerly Twitter). I cannot compel someone who isn’t inclined to believe in Larry to suddenly change their mind. If someone doesn’t want to interpret the signs the same way I do, that’s their prerogative. But that said, I decided to give some thought about how to answer the question. 

I’ve been inspired by IndiaAlphaWhiskey and her recent reply to a similar question. I loved the way she answered by talking about long term love and how it’s steady and doesn't need to have a lot of fireworks visible from the outside. It’s hard to put that into words that make sense to someone who hasn’t witnessed it. Here’s her original reply:

The reality is we do not have solid proof that they were or - as I believe - still are in a relationship. Nor should we. H&L are closeted celebrities who keep their private life private. They are closeted, so you won’t see them admitting to being in a relationship in interviews; that would defeat the point of being closeted. In fact, you may think you’ve heard them outright deny being together. Again, if you’re not looking at the clues, and you only want to take this at face value, you’re not going to see any other possible narrative. Full stop. If that’s the case, you’re not going to agree with me, and that’s fine.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, my friend @bkatie617 keeps a running spreadsheet on perceived coincidences in the current era. 

https://x.com/BKatie617/status/1739715223244742755?s=20

I can list out a hundred things that, to me, are coded messages H&L have signaled to either us or to each other. You can debunk/deny/laugh-out-loud at all of them, if you want. You might call something coincidence or debunk one or more of these pieces. And yes, there are things out there that aren’t true, that are completely coincidence or debatable – or wildly unbelievable.

I get that. In fact, I have a whole thread of debunks on my Twitter bio. My debunk thread focuses on factual, hard-proof debunks to help veterans and newcomers keep the story straight.

https://x.com/Rosann_1986/status/1670101749267406848?s=20

But there are a hundred more things that are real. Or at least open to interpretation. At some point, it becomes really, really unlikely that everything is a coincidence over the last decade, and you have to admit that H&L are in collaboration with their messaging. For me, once you admit they are in collaboration in their messaging, it doesn’t take a huge leap to believe they are together romantically. Why else would their teams coordinate messaging to the media and the masses?

Harry even said, in 2022, “There’s not many [clues and tidbits] that get left behind. Most of the time, they usually pick up on pretty much everything, along with a couple of hilarious coincidences that were never meant to be, never meant to be kind of clues in the first place that happen… end up being clues.”

Source: Harry Styles talks to the Morning Mash Up about his new single, 'As It Was', Coachella, and more (siriusxm.ca)

You don’t have to believe any of it. I’m fine with that. But because you don’t believe it, doesn’t mean I’m not completely, unwavering, solidly adamant in my own belief that it’s real. Especially if you’re not providing any evidence to sway my beliefs.

Here’s what I think: I think Harry and Louis met and fell in love during X-Factor in 2010, began dating, and continued to fall while on the X-Factor tour and the recording of the first single and album. I believe they made it official in 2011. Over the years, they went through hard times through career changes, loss of family members, solo career ups and downs, differences in career trajectory, doubts and fears, and then the pandemic. I believe they weathered all that and are together and committed to this day. 

I think they live a private life and have no intention of coming out or going public any time soon. Harry said to Rolling Stone last year that he hasn’t publicly “been with anyone.” I also think, even though they are determined to stay private, they like the idea of some fans knowing and supporting them. Seeing their true, authentic selves. So, they’ve gotten good at messaging their truth to fans who want to see it and support it. 

Due to industry pressure and 'image' clauses in their contract, I think they were encouraged by record execs and management to keep their relationship quiet, but rebelled (as teenagers, young adults, and fools in love will do) by insinuating double meanings in interviews and signaling to those in the know ever since. 

I think the signaling started in One Direction days when fans began to pick up on the signs they gave each other - the secret looks, the thumbs up, their complementary tattoos. 

When they saw fans remaining loyal, despite the idea they might be gay/queer and together, the signals turned more outward and louder, with Harry’s blue bandana, lyrics, the rainbow bears, and more. I think it continues today with graphic t-shirts, even more lyrics, matching merch, intentional mirroring in stage lighting and costumes, and more. 

Evidence Larry are together Now

Understand that there’s no solid “proof” that H&L are together now. So, if that’s what you’re here looking for, you won’t find it. They are closeted still, both portraying a heterosexual narrative in the media.

My lens (admittedly biased) is that they are together and hint to us, but that most of what they do these days is for each other. Little inside jokes from across the world or across the room to show they are together. Despite them being separated for work a lot, I believe these little nods to each other helps keep their connection healthy and strong across the time apart.

What follows is a small sampling of what I think is intentional messaging from H&L, meant to suggest to those following that they are still together. Nothing is a proof. Nothing by itself is anything more than coincidence. But taken together, these along with other examples, show two men who are speaking through their actions, in my humble opinion.

They have strikingly similar patterns in their merch for FITF and HSLOT. 

Harry’s merch looks like it would be comfortable at Louis’ show.

Harry drew H and L on his trainers on May 10, 2022 on a pap walk in Italy. 

Both Harry and Louis used some of the same songs for their pre- and post-show playlists. https://www.tumblr.com/bluewinnerangel/702446259292831744/do-you-see-any-commonalities-between-harry-and

They both had really intentional blue/green stage lights at their shows. For anyone who doesn’t know, blue and green were their respective assigned colors when they were in One Direction. Certainly not a proof on its own but coupled with other things adds to the intentionality.

Complementary stage outfits. See this whole thread by @grete418 on X. It’s tongue in cheek, but it demonstrates what I mean about outfits matching/complementing each other. https://twitter.com/Grete418/status/1536453046611369989

Harry dressed as Danny Zuko at Harryween 2022 (coincidentally, Louis’ one and only lead role in a high school musical). https://twitter.com/UpdateHLD/status/1587297649572585473

Louis namechecked his unreleased song “All Along” in September 2022 (here at about 5:20), which strongly references Harry and a concert they attended together.. https://youtu.be/D9NjoMuz5-s?si=eRB-FwLI9JveMK3N

Louis wearing his 'dancing man' top when the 'dancing Harry' figure is so well known.

Similar visual themes like this. Same assignment, different execution. (Harry’s House/Silver Tongues):

Louis’ new tattoos (2023) appear to be images already seen on Harry’s journal cover and eye motif from HSLOT, plus they add to the existing traditional nautical motif they share. 

T-shirt in Music Video for Music for a Sushi Restaurant reading LT Seniors. 

Louis used fan images of Harry’s tattoos as Spotify cover art in February 2021.

Lyrics that seem to respond to each other, and/or have similar themes

Louis wears a rose (like Harry’s tattoo) on his shirt on 6/26/23…next night Harry wears a very phallic shaped rocket ship that looks a lot like Louis’ dagger tattoo. Seems like a call and response.

Louis singing 7 by Catfish and the Bottlemen, on both his tours. The song begins, “Larry call a load of smoke in…”

Added: (5/29/24). Louis announces his "For Every Question Why" Live Stream event via Veeps on 5/27/24. Two days later (5/29/29), Harry turns up in Florence, Italy, wearing an Elmo shirt with the word Why? via Twitter: (1) Ali ~So Be It! on X: "Just leaving this here. https://t.co/Mdty8DRLDE" / X

So there you have it. I could obviously go on for quite a bit, with many more examples, but I think this is a pretty good sampling. If you’d like to know more, or talk about it, feel free to DM me here or on X (@Rosann_1986). I don’t do this to try to change anyone’s mind. If you don’t believe they are doing these things intentionally, and aren’t curious or approaching this with an open mind, nothing I say will change that for you. 

If you’re new here and you’d like to learn more, there are a lot of places to find master posts. Understand that you have to take everything with a grain of salt and come to your own conclusions. Here are a few places to start:

(2) Be a lover. Give love. Choose love. on Tumblr

It’s a beautiful war 🌈 (tumblr.com)

Great lyric analysis here: it's subjective - My song analyses Last edited December 22nd 2022,... (tumblr.com)

[punster-2319]

On October 12th, 1994, DreamWorks Pictures was founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and former Disney chairman Jeffery Katzenberg. They have produced many films in the past 30 years, but most notably their animated films which led to the company being one of Disney’s biggest rivals in the coming decades. In honor of DreamsWorks’s 30th anniversary, here’s my Top 10 favorite animated DreamWorks movies:

1. The Prince of Egypt (1998)

2. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

3. The Road to El Dorado (2000)

4. Shrek 2 (2004)

5. Kung Fu Panda (2008)

6. Shrek (2001)

7. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

8. The Wild Robot (2024)

9. Captain Underpants (2017)

10. How to Train Your Dragon 3 (2019)

Honorable mentions: Chicken Run (2000), Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and Flushed Away (2006)

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE DREAMWORKS FILMS?

[arminreindl]

"Paleontology can be really petty and stupid"

In 1898 Santiago Roth discovered the armored tail of a large turtle in Patagonia, which he showed to British paleontologist A.S. Woodward. Recognizing it as the remains of a meiolaniid, Roth was told to go on an expedition to find more material, which he did. This material, which included an almost fully preserved skull, was initially published on in a brief communication in 1899.

Strangely, also in 1899, Florentino Ameghino published his own communication claiming that his brother Carlos had found the almost fully preserved skull of that same kind of turtle, a meiolaniid he dubbed Niolamia argentina.

It is curious how both Ameghino and Roth seem to have found the exact same material of a meiolaniid in different localities at the same time, but weirder things have happened. Tho it is further pretty weird how Ameghino rushed to get a name out, but didn't bother describing what defined the animal nor designated a holotype. Hell he didn't even illustrate his skull. But lets give him some time.

Two years pass, its 1901 now. Woodward publishes a proper description of Roth's skull, illustrating the animal in detail. Having heard that Ameghino found a remarkably similar fossil, Woodward assigns the Roth skull to the same species as the Ameghino skull. Although he doesn't carry over the genus Niolamia, instead placing the fossils in Miolania (a misspelling of Meiolania, described a few years prior from Australia). Ameghino didn't seem to mind or disagree, tho he still hadn't properly described nor figured his skull.

1938: Ameghino is dead at this point and weirdly, his Niolamia skull is still nowhere to be found. Since his initial description was wholy insufficient, George Gaylord Simpson (yes thats his actual name) decides to declare the Roth skull the type specimen for Niolamia (the neoptype). Meaning that the genus is now defined on this skull rather than the one Ameghino had when coining the name.

Fast forward to 2011. It is now generally accepted that Roth's skull is the fossil that defines what Niolamia is. Of course Ameghino still gets credit, after all he described the first remains, even tho nobody has ever seen those...ever really. Over a 100 years passed and far as anyone could tell, the last person to have seen those bones were Ameghino and his brother, after which they just disappeared. But we still got the Roth skull, and Juliana Sterli and Marcelo de la Fuente could readily redescribe Niolamia based on that.

But Sterli seems to suspect that something very fishy is going on. Remember, Ameghino just happened to find a perfectly preserved skull at the same time as Roth did. Ameghino made sure to get a name out before Woodward got around to fully describe it. Ameghino only vaguely compared the skull to Meiolania, but didn't specify its unique features nor did he actually illustrate his material. So Sterli said out loud what I'm sure many people must have been thinking. "Did Ameghino just make it all up?"

In 2015 Sterli comments on the matter by noting how awfully convenient the whole situation was. Although no concrete evidence exists, Sterli suggests that Ameghino may have found out about Roth's skull, lied about having found a similar one, and named Niolamia not on a fossil he actually had but based on what little he knew about Roth's discovery.

This is just a basic summary of a rabbit hole I recently went into and my god its so frustrating on so many levels. Again we don't have concrete evidence that Ameghino's skull didn't actually exist, but the way the timing lined up and the fact that he was in a feude with Francisco Moreno, which has been likened to an Argentinian Bone War, means that this suggestion isn't that out there. It really doesn't help that his supposed skull was only ever mentioned by him in 1899 and never again. Ameghino never claimed it was destroyed or stolen, hell, far as I could find he even agreed with Woodwards research.

What's also fascinating is that seemingly, for over a hundred years, nothing was written in scientific literature casting doubt over his claim. I'm sure some people must have called bullshit on him in private, but the only resource I could find that actually goes as far as to say "Hey isn't his weird that the Ameghino skull is basically a phantom" came out in 2015. Everything in-between seemed content with just assuming that Ameghino and Roth both had skulls and just never followed up on whatever happened to the former. Then again I could just as much understand if people just didn't want to deal with this nightmare of a backstory.

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 1C

Kerry O'Malley (1969) starred as The Baker's Wife in the 2002 revival of Into the Woods, which, y'know, tough act to follow. One of our few LA-based actresses, she's starred in just about every early-2000s touring production of White Christmas you can think of. Other credits include Annie Get Your Gun, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (2011), and Showstoppers in Vegas where I first saw and fell in love with her. Her big thing is dying on stage and screen because I think I must've watched this woman kick the bucket at least eight times. She does it really well.

THE Baker's Wife, Joanna Gleason (1950) is a Tony-winning legend who set a standard that has yet to even be approached. Her Baker's Wife in the original Into the Woods beat out Patti's Reno Sweeney, and Patti is still a little pissed off about it. She was also in infamous flop Nick & Nora (1991), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), and I Love My WIfe (1977). Nowadays, she devotes her focus to directing and screenwriting and her film The Grotto won Best Narrative Premiere at the Heartland Film Festival.

PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

"Okay, so the only reason Kerry's on this tournament is because I saw her in a Vegas show when I was a teenager and fell in love from the first note she sang. I am fully expecting her to get brutally murdered by Joanna Gleason, but she's finally getting her dues in film these days. Her ten minutes in The Killer were the only ten minutes worth watching. I was riveted. I also got to see her perform "Moments in the Woods" live at 54 Below a few years ago and she's just as pretty and sweet as I remembered. Her friend was sitting at my table, so I was able to introduce myself. I, uh, did not mention how I'd been distantly in love with her for the last decade or so..."

"Joanna Gleason, my beloved. Look, I've loved her for a while, but a few years ago I went down a deep rabbit hole watching her play Password Plus with Betty White, and I have not been the same since. I am deeply affected by smart, sardonic, eloquent women, and Joanna is on another level of brilliant. She broke a record on that show. You need to watch and marvel. Furthermore, full offense to everyone else, but Joanna is the only one who doesn't opt up at the end of "Moments in the Woods," and that is the correct way to sing it. I hate the opt up. Fuck your opt up. Joanna plays the Baker's Wife with a razor-sharp wit none of the others can match. Their Baker's Wife's are smart, and determined, but they don't have her droll swagger. Her line readings? Unmatched."

[urbnite]

Time Takes A Cigarette

What started as a look back in my photographic memory for a long forgotten hoodie, became a revisionist review of the early styles and inspirations from starting this project over 12 years ago.

Pre-Pinterest it was my way of collecting my stream of conscious visual inspiration for work, where I was constantly creating mood boards for this thing or another. One day I realized that I had 100 followers and outside of the designers and friends who worked with me or knew me I thought, who the hell were these people? Soon it was in the thousands and I was still shocked people cared enough to follow along.

I ebbed and flowed from personal reflective thoughts, to offering guidance on where this thing or that could be found, to even early influencer era linking and editorial content. Lately it has been just more about what images I love, and not just because they are wonderful images, but also a way of fueling the vision board that inside my own mind, the one that helps me shape my own home, life and the reality I live in.

Those who know me know that I have a rich visual memory, I can remember where we were standing and what you were wearing when a certain thing happened, all tied to visuals. This week the weather shifted and I realized I had almost no good warm hoodies any more, but I did remember one I saw in 2012. I went searching. This search combined with a binge watching of the 2011 era show Suits, had me thinking a lot about what has changed in the last 12 years, technology and media, the pandemic, shifts in culture from work and office culture, to travel and style. So much of the world has changed, but also we, and I definitely include myself, have all changed.

The result of this thought rabbit hole is a collection of editorial commentary of old posts, what is still relevant, many "what every happened to that" epiphanies and a long shopping list of bygone items that I may never find.

The Editorial

The Shopping List

[dovebuffy92]

Scoring Florence + The Machine’s Albums Out of 100

Florence Welch’s discography is a wild journey of emotion, grandeur, and vulnerability. Here’s how I would score each album out of 100:

Lungs (2009) – 95/100 Florence + The Machine's debut album that started it all. Lungs is a raw and powerful album that shows the versatility of Florence Welch's voice and songwriting talents. The music has a chaotic energy because Florence was still discovering her voice. She technically wrote the album over five years. Plus, she was working with multiple songwriting partners and producers. The mystical undertones, gothic lyrics, and big drums make this album a storm. Some of my favorite songs were co-written and produced with Florence + The Machine co-founder Isabella Summers, including "Dog Days Are Over" and "Cosmic Love." Standouts: "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)," "Cosmic Love", and "Between Two Lungs"

Ceremonials (2011) – 97/100 This album is a true masterpiece because it's "a wall of sound," to quote Florence Welch. Florence leaned fully into the baroque. She and her collaborators (Paul Epworth, Isabella Summers, Francis White, James Ford, etc) created an otherworldly atmosphere with drums & percussion, harps, pianos, guitars, bells, bass, synth, and layers of Florence singing backup vocals. Ceremonials explores themes of water, death, and rebirth. Every elegant song feels like a grand cathedral of sound. Standouts: "Shake It Out," "Breaking Down," and "Only If For a Night"

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015) – 92/100 Florence reined in some of the grandiosity for a more rock-influenced sound. It's still lush, but the instrumentation focuses on guitars and horns. Florence faces her demons in this album and comes out better on the other side. I love the emotional complexity of this album, but a couple of tracks feel slightly more subdued than expected. This was the last album where Isabella Summers co-wrote or produced any Florence + The Machine songs. She and Florence co-wrote three songs, including one of my favorites, "Delilah." Standouts: "What Kind of Man," "Ship to Wreck," and "Delilah"

High as Hope (2018) – 93/100 This album is more stripped-back and personal than her previous ones. Florence Welch co-produced and wrote the whole album by herself. The vulnerability of High as Hope is palpable throughout the songs. While some might miss the massive production of earlier albums, the intimacy of High as Hope is its strength. All the songs feel delicate and confessional. Standouts: "Hunger," "Sky Full of Song," and "Big God"

Dance Fever (2022) – 99/100 This is my favorite Florence + The Machine album. Dance Fever blends the theatricality of Ceremonials with the emotional introspection of High as Hope. I love how Florence wrote an album that combines the confessional aspects of High as Hope and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful with the horror movies she watched during the pandemic to produce some genuinely epic lyrics. The instrumentals of every song make you want to dance, even if the lyrics make you want to cry. Florence's vocals are at the next level, showing how much she has grown since Lungs. Standouts: "King," "Free," and "Dream Girl Evil"

[sloshed-cinema]

Rango (2011)

Las Vegas was a mistake. Where films like Chinatown or Who Framed Roger Rabbit tackle the dark side of the development of Los Angeles in some form or other, Rango is in a way a similar approach to the monument of hubris and human folly in the desert that is Sin City. When would-be thespian and all-around chameleon out of his habitat Rango stumbles into a frontier town called Dirt, he quickly learns they’ve got a water crisis. And as is tradition with this sort of matter, of course the politicians are never the true controlling or corrupting hand in the mix. Never! There are plenty of colorful characters and Wild West archetypes to explore, from the feisty gunslinging love interest holding out on selling one final land deed to the mayor to the gaggle of saloon ne’er-do-wells to the old dude with the bristly mustache who sounds like a rusty door hinge. As a chameleon, if you will, Rango slips effortfully between various Wild West caricatures himself as the need fits him, easily digging his own grave deeper and deeper only to escape at the last second. Similarly, a heavy leaning on the visual stylings of John Ford Westerns makes for fun action set pieces where the filmmakers combine gambits we’re familiar with and this specific world. An endless pursuit of stolen water is replete with low-horizon images of our heroes on roadrunner-back as they traverse Monument Valley. Bats with Gatling guns and musical accompaniment dive-bomb our fleeing caravan after a bottle of water has been retrieved, and make airplane noises when they crash and explode. This race to and from becomes, if you will, Mad Max: Furry Road.

The approach to character design in this is equal parts clever and gleefully horrifying. The bristle-mustached feller is an owl, so his pointed nose is his upper beak, but his lower beak? What happened to it? Where did it go? Why does that bar wench frog lady have giant frog tits? Why does the mayor’s turtle face remind me so much of the bad guy from A Bug’s Life? There’s also a very perplexing Goofy and Pluto situation. Most bird characters in the film are sapient, and yet they ride roadrunners because it’s a fun gag. Our villain predators—Rattlesnake Jake and the hawk—are both more animalistic in form, but only one of the two speaks. Interestingly, both have fun metal mods: the hawk has a metallic beak tip, and Rattlesnake Jake’s tail is a Gatling gun. Why are some insects actual insects, and others part of this town? The answer is “because a character designer thought of a sick-ass way to make a snaggle-toothed scorpion dude for one scene so it made the cut” and fuck it, that’s FINE.

In a year when meta is so exhaustingly oversaturated (oh boy, I can't wait for more Deadpool killmenow), it’s wild to see something so self-aware in an earlier form. Opening with commentary from our adorable narrator mariachi burrowing owls who ferry us through the film, the story wastes no time in letting us know it knows what it is. Rango literally breathes condensation on the fourth wall to draw a rectangle and put himself in a frame, which is both the screen and the glass of his habitat from which he is about to escape. He will break the fourth wall, if you will. Along the way he encounters briefly “himself” in a nod to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the Spirit of the West is a gruff Clint Eastwood type who also draws that same rectangle. I mean, it’s no Ryan Reynolds making asinine pop culture references which will be irrelevant 15 seconds after release, but it’s something.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'quest' or 'water'.

The mariachi owls show up in a scene.

Direct camera address.

Isla Fisher's "Western" accent gets very dicey.

BIG DRINK

Humans appear in a scene.

Someone gets pricked by cactus thorns.

The hawk shows up.

[tittylover26]

Tag Game

Tagged by @starryalpacasstuff . Thx for tagging me! ;)

Favorite color: blue (I'm also a big fan of purple and black).

Last song: You Are My Literature by Park So Eun (this has been one of my favorite songs for like 3 years already).

If you wanna listen to it, here it is:

Last book: Right now I'm reading "Can a darwinian be a christian?" by Michael Ruse and so far I love it. I like quite the controversial books lol.

Last movie: The Help (2011). Man, I can't even begin to explain how good that movie is. I started watching Hidden Figures and went down the rabbit hole of Octavia Spencer's movies, and well, what can I way? I fucking love that woman.

Last TV show: Honestly, I don't even watch tv but I do watch a lot of series and the last series I watched was Bloodhounds (2023) (it was actually a rewatch, so fucking good).

Relationship status: I'm as single as the valence electron of potassium can be without any chemical bond with another element.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Well, I'm not a big fan of sweet things, and I don't eat things with refined sugar in it unless I'm craving something specifically sweet; I also can't handle spicy things like, at all. So, in conclusion, I would say I enjoy savory things more than any other kind of food.

Last thing I googled: A manhwa called Killer Peter.

Looking forward to: Hopefully, I'll be graduating from vet school this december so, please cheer for me! I'll try to do my best.

Tagging: @lost-in-chaos

[ladyjaneasherr]

May 11 1968. Stunning Jane Asher as a braids maid for the wedding of Joan and Stuart. Joan was Jane’s friend and an actress as well. From Daily Mail.

📸: Philip Ide

Daily Mail article posted of October 1st, 2011.

I don’t feel guilty - I like to think that I carried her to the other side: Yorkie Bar actor says he was saved by Jane Asher over wife's 'mercy killing'

Stuart Mungall sat in the almost empty auditorium of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and waited for the play to begin. It was late 1967, he had just joined a small theatre company in Scotland and had been asked if he’d like to watch rehearsals for A Christmas Carol.

‘A young woman came on stage,’ he recalls. ‘From the first second, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She had such a magic quality and aura.

I was totally hooked. It was love at first sight.’

The young woman was Joan Morrow, then 27. And to 28-year-old Stuart’s delight, she was cast alongside him in the company’s next production, Toad Of Toad Hall. ‘I was Weasel and she played Lucy Rabbit,’ he recalls with a laugh.

After a whirlwind courtship, the couple were married on May 11, 1968, with Joan’s close friend and successful young actress Jane Asher, then also famous as Paul McCartney’s girlfriend, as bridesmaid.

Last week – 42 years later – a letter pleading for clemency from Asher to an Old Bailey judge was instrumental in preventing Stuart, now 72, spending the rest of his life in prison after he admitted the manslaughter of his wife.

The court heard that Stuart, who starred in a series of cult adverts for Yorkie chocolate bars, smothered his beloved, terminally ill wife with a pillow after watching her deteriorate both mentally and physically for six years.

The recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, recognised his devotion after reading Asher’s letter, and handed down a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.

When we meet at the one-bedroom rented flat in Tooting, South London, that was their marital home, Stuart has just returned from what will be a weekly trip to his probation officer as part of his bail conditions. He also has to see a psychiatrist regularly.

‘The psychiatrist is a good chap,’ he says, lighting the first of several cigarettes. ‘But at the moment we are still tiptoeing round that fateful day.’ His weathered face crumples, his eyes fill with tears and for a while he is unable to speak.

Stuart is reluctant to be seen as a champion of euthanasia, assisted suicide or, indeed, anything else. But it is clear that his case and the suspended sentence passed down at the Old Bailey are a significant development in one of the major ethical controversies of our time.

‘People have asked me if I thought about the consequences of my actions,’ he says when he recovers his composure. ‘Of course I didn’t. I don’t have a philosophy based on what happened. I don’t belong to any pro-euthanasia groups. Nor would I presume to say what I did is a good thing. What I do know is that I didn’t want her to have an undignified death.’

Joan, who was 69 when she died, had Pick’s disease – a rare form of dementia similar to Alzheimer’s – and polymyalgia rheumatica, a debilitating condition that causes pain, stiffness and tenderness in the muscles supporting the neck, shoulders, hips and thighs.

‘She was confused, in terrible pain and could hardly move and was asking me to kill her almost every day.

‘Not in those exact words, but she’d shout, “Shoot me. Get me out of this.” My response, especially when her mind got bad, was to divert her attention. I’d say, “There is a great programme I want to watch on the television today. Let’s do it tomorrow.” But in a couple as close as we were, you don’t have to ask for what you want. Joan and I knew instinctively what the other was thinking.

‘And that morning I could tell by the way she looked at me that she had absolutely had enough.

‘When it happened, she didn’t struggle and the autopsy report, to my great relief, stated there was no sign of trauma in her body.’

He pauses. ‘It is a consolation. We had agreed when we were young that we wanted to go together and I certainly felt there was no point ¬living without her.

‘So after she had died, I went into the kitchen and took handfuls of her very strong painkillers which I swallowed with a bottle of brandy.

‘After a few minutes I suddenly remembered our cat and knew Joan wouldn’t have wanted it to be abandoned, so I rang a neighbour, a psychiatrist, and explained what I had done. He came round and called an ambulance and the police.

‘I was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where my stomach was pumped, and then transferred to a mental hospital in Sutton and then to Belmarsh high-security prison where I stayed for four months.’

Stuart and I are talking in the kitchen of his flat. Over one door is a wooden block with painted words that read: ‘I love you.’ Along one wall is a Welsh dresser with several sunshine-yellow goblets – their wedding present from Asher.

He is obviously very vulnerable, one minute talking with dramatic gestures and an impeccable accent as if on stage, the next doubling over with grief and unable to speak as tears course down his face.

On the face of it, Stuart and Joan should have had little in common. The son of a garage owner, he was born into a happy and comfortable home in 1939 in north-east Scotland and was inspired to become an actor in 1955. ‘James Dean had just died in a car crash and I thought I could take over,’ he laughs. ‘So did about 700,000 other young men. I was so naive.

‘Joan was a brilliant actress. Much better than me. She just lacked the killer instinct to go far.’

Joan was born in Australia in 1941. Her mother died when she was four and her father married again, but she didn’t get on with her difficult stepmother. She was 23 when she came to England to seek a better life. She passed an audition for the Bristol Old Vic theatre company and met another jobbing actress taken on at £7 a week – Jane Asher.

The two women became inseparable when the company went on a six-month world tour that included performing on Broadway in New York.

‘They really clicked as friends,’ ¬Stuart recalls. ‘At the time, Jane was the long-time girlfriend of Paul McCartney. But when they met, Joan was newly arrived from Australia and had never heard of The Beatles.’

After leaving the Bristol Old Vic in the Sixties, Joan moved to Scotland and the small theatre company that rehearsed that day in Edinburgh – and later fell in love with Stuart.

Just before their marriage, Stuart told her his secret.

‘Before I met her I had had a relationship with another actress who had become pregnant. Our relationship didn’t work out and the baby girl had been adopted. Joan took it very well.’

After their quiet marriage at a ¬register office, they lived for a year in Asher’s family home in Central London. ‘We paid only ten shillings a week rent,’ Stuart says. ‘We then rented a one-bedroom flat in Tooting where we stayed throughout our married life. It never became too small as we didn’t have children. They just didn’t happen.

‘We never had much money, but after my fee for being in the Yorkie Bar advert, we managed to buy a tiny stone cottage in the Midi district of France and went there whenever we could. We weren’t bothered about the precariousness of the acting world. If we needed money, we’d get a different type of job. At one time, Joan sold cigarettes in Woolworths and I was a lorry driver.

‘We used to work all round the country. We performed together in Lock Up Your Daughters in Newcastle, for example, and I directed a play in Cheltenham and later did some TV including The Bill and Dr Finlay’s Casebook.’

Then, 25 years ago and completely out of the blue, Stuart was contacted by the mother of his child to say his daughter had traced her and wanted to meet her father. ‘We met for a drink. She was 19. We got on really well and over time got to really love each other. She is now married with two children. Luckily Joan and my daughter clicked too.’

Joan had by then decided she was fed up with acting and wanted to do something with plants and gardens, so they sold their house in France and used the money to buy a garden centre in South London. ‘She loved it but it was very hard work so I joined her as a partner and we worked together. We called it The Independent Republic of Patio. ¬People used to come in and sit and feel at peace. It was heaven for us.’

Stuart sold it a month before Joan died.

The first sign that Joan was not well came six years ago when she kept losing her balance. Stuart says: ‘A few months later she suddenly screamed for me. I rushed into the hall and found her about to keel over. Luckily I caught her. ’

She was taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting and was originally diagnosed with a heart attack, then a stroke. ‘Eventually a French doctor said she thought it was corticobasal degeneration – a degeneration of the middle part of the brain. Joan was also displaying some symptoms of Parkinson’s.

‘Her old friend Jane, who is president of Parkinson’s UK, recommended a professor at The National Hospital for Neurology in London. Joan went in a week at a time for tests and was eventually diagnosed with Pick’s disease, which, as the French doctor predicted, would only be confirmed after she died.

‘I then became her full-time carer. I did all the cooking, washed her and did her hair and all the intimate things, which was OK for me but undignified for her. Social services used to come round but we both hated it, especially when some of them patronisingly called her ‘‘sweet pea’’. We were a very independent couple.’

Stuart rarely left her side. ‘I only went out to rush to Waitrose, or occasionally for an hour or so to do some watercolour painting in my shed in the garden. I rigged up a bell so she could ring if she needed me.

‘Physically she was so stiff and in such pain in the end that she could move only one hand slightly. Even holding a fork became impossible and she often couldn’t get to the commode in time. She deteriorated mentally too.

‘Then, last autumn, the doctor told me she had three months at best to live. Part of me knew she would eventually have to go into a hospice and be fed by tube, but neither of us wanted that. I knew they would look after her but they wouldn’t love her like I did and I didn’t want anyone else to care for her. ’

He remembers little about the days after Joan’s death. ‘The first thing I remember is being charged with murder in Sutton police station. At the time I didn’t know what they were talking about.’

He was kept in a police cell for two nights and then remanded to Belmarsh Prison where, at first, he was terrified.

‘There were three of us in a two-man cell. They were probably murderers but then that is what they called me.’

He organised Joan’s humanist funeral on February 18 this year from prison but was refused permission to go. Jane Asher spoke at the funeral. She said: ‘I have never seen two ¬people more entirely and devotedly in love . . . anyone could see they were a couple who would be together as long as fate would allow. ’

Joan’s ashes are now in a terracotta urn in Stuart’s living room.

He says: ‘I don’t regret what I did to Joan but I am sorry I didn’t succeed in killing myself, because it was our deal to go together.

‘She wasn’t like anyone else. I adored her but I don’t feel guilty. We both loved a Celtic ballad that had the lines “Oh that I could find me a handsome boatman to carry me over to my love and die.” ’

And he adds: ‘I like to think that I carried her to the other side.’

[meddling-in-horror]

31 movies 31 days (kind of)

It's that time of year again folks, where I go insane and try to watch a movie a day for the entirety of October. You may see the addendum of 'kind of' attached to this years, and that's because I've decided to be rather ambitious: I'm watching 36 movies this year. This is in part due to a Halloween party hosted by a dear friend of mine, but whatever. You're here for the list, which is as follows:

X (2022, dir. Ti West) Pearl (2022, dir. Ti West) Maxxxine (2024, dir. Ti West) Satanic Hispanics (2022, anthology/multiple) Carrie (1976, dir. Brian De Palma) Blood Relatives (2022, dir. Noah Segan) Suitable Flesh (2023, dir. Joe Lynch) It's a Wonderful Knife (2023, dir. Tyler Macintyre) One Cut of the Dead (2017, dir. Shinichirou Ueda) Audition (1999, dir. Takashi Miike) A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014, Ana Lily Amirpour) Possession (1981, dir. Andrzej Żuławski) Jennifer's Body (2009, dir. Karyn Kusama) The Lure (2015, dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska) The Craft (1996, dir. Andrew Fleming) Stopmotion (2023, dir. Robert Morgan) Werewolves Within (2021, dir. John Ruben) The People Under the Stairs (1991, dir. Wes Craven) Def By Temptation (1990, dir. James Bond III) Day Shift (2022, dir. J. J. Perry) Candyman (1992, dir. Bernard Rose) Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022, dir. Halina Reijin) The Pope's Exorcist (2023, dir. Julius Avery) The Deliverance (2024, dir. Lee Daniels) It Follows (2014, dir. David Robert Mitchell) Run Rabbit Run (2023, dir. Daina Reid) Child's Play (1988, dir. Tom Holland) Child's Play 2 (1990, dir. John Lafia) Bride of Chucky (1998, dir. Ronny Yu) Seed of Chucky (2004, dir. Don Mancini) Trick r' Treat (2007, Michael Dougherty) You're Next (2011, dir. Adam Wingard) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, dir. Scott Glosserman) Tucker & Dale v.s Evil (2010, dir. Eli Craig) Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008, dir. Darren Lynn Bousman) Terrifier (2016, dir. Damien Leone) Most of these are relatively new, and I haven't seen 32 of the 36 of them, but I think it's a promising lineup. Plus, I can go in and elaborate on Obvious White Director Syndrome.

I'll also be posting some con round up things from the year in the beginning of November as well, since my last con of the year is coming up mid-October. This was a really good year for horror, and I was able to have some great conversations with some really fucking cool people (my favorites being Bonnie Aarons, Felicia Rose, Rachel True, and Terrance Zdunich).

That's all for now, but I'm going to be a mite more active than normal, as I'm working on scripting for the podcast and a few fun video essays.

[mantelirouhe]

First post!

Hello, hi, greetings! I'm Manteli, and I'm fairly new to tumblr and very new to bjd tumblr! ( ´ ω ` )ノﾞ

I've been in the bjd hobby since 2011-ish, but I did take a break around 2017 until late last year. I sold my first resin crew a long time ago, because I thought I'd grown out of the bjd ''phase''. In 2019 I got my current oldest doll in a trade, and she sat in the closet until something compelled me to pick her up last autumn. Something clicked, and here I am again, very, very deep in the bjd rabbit hole. Since then my bjd group has grown from 1 to 4 at home and 2 more on the way... (´ ∀ ` ;) I'm a big diy and crafts fan, and I make pretty much everything for my dolls. Clothes, wigs, eyes, faceups and lately I've been practising shoemaking! I also plan on making some room boxes for my bjds, but currently I don't have the space for that (T^T)

I hope the bjd community here is still alive and well, and that I'll meet some friends～

(I'll try to post some pictures/info on my current bjd family next week :3)

[mwebber]

Ooh now Im having thoughts: Imagine birthday sex with girl!Seb (post-2013)

like, imagine ME having birthday sex with girl!seb? i'd rock her world... i'd treat her so well she forgets she ever knew a webber. move aside, mark.

i kid, i kid. i wrote a passing mention of birthday sex in the universe, if you want to know what they were doing in/before 2011..

and things have changed quite a bit! mark's 47 now and thinking, for how much he's done in his life, he's not even 50 yet. girlseb is still seb--36, happily retired, and spending her days caring for the martian kids i've treated like a hypothetical plot point until now and don't care much to linger on.

anyway. birthdays get less spectacular as the years go by. this one is relatively quiet: cards and calls and texts from extended family and friends, and homemade cake from seb and the twins. there's a little too much frosting, but it reads "HAPY BIRTHDAY DADdY" so. the only way out is through.

that night, after the rest of the house is asleep and they're both settling under the covers to pass out after a long day, seb teasingly rubs mark's tummy and presses a kiss to his shoulder. neither of them are as trim as they were in their 20s, but they both like the way age shows on their bodies; the laugh lines on seb's face, the crow's feet by mark's eyes, the familiar and comforting feeling of solidness that comes when they cuddle no matter how they change. eighteen years is a long time to love somebody.

gone are the days where they'd fuck like rabbits any chance they had, so sex has become a much slower (and lovelier!), if less frequent, affair, at least in the last five to ten years. mark is almost surprised when he shifts in place and finds himself stirring. seb is--well, she's seb. less surprised, and more calculating when she slings a thigh over his stiffening cock.

"do you wanna," mark still mumbles, even as seb closes the small gap between them to cup his jaw in a gentle hand and kiss him properly. he tastes like mint toothpaste and home.

the story usually goes like this: mark rolls them over and fits himself between seb's thighs, and they rock against each other as quietly as possible so as to not wake the kids, and it's all very romantic.

the way seb pushes mark onto his back and climbs onto his lap now, it's like 2014 all over again.

she makes quick work of their underwear, tossing the articles carelessly to the side. it's just the two of them in their sleep shirts, then mark rucks seb's up to hold her by the waist and tug her over his hips. call him a freak, but he loves her tummy: the stretch marks, the looser skin, the physical evidence that they made a life together. he'd kiss her all over if he could.

as it is, seb has a plan. she reaches into the bedside drawer to grab the lube, and mark rubs his hands over her thighs, giving her room to work. handjobs used to seem uninspiring when he was younger--he's since learned to appreciate every little thrill seb gives him. she works him with practiced hands, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration like she's turning in a difficult chicane.

but then she smirks at him, and turns her attention away, and her eyelashes flutter minutely with the relief of finally touching her cunt. slowly, she eases herself to sit over the length of his cock, and spreads the lips of her pussy so he's nestled comfortably between them, sandwiched along her folds. seb keeps herself spread and bucks her hips experimentally. like this, the head of his cock pokes out tantalizingly every time she draws back, and rubs deliciously at her clit when she fucks forward.

it should probably seem like she's using him to chase her own pleasure, but mark can't feel anything except bone-deep contentment while watching her work. besides, she feels incredible. lazily, he worms his fingers between them to stroke around her clit, just the way she likes it.

of the two of them, seb's the one who's still got the stamina of a world-class athlete, and she knows it. she slows the pace, lets mark play with her pussy until he's so hard he's aching, before finally lifting her hips and guiding him inside.

even after all this time, the first stretch is mindblowingly good. she doesn't wait for him to bottom out before lifting herself and fucking down again--just rolls her hips on his cock the way he likes it, allowing her vision to blur as she operates on feeling and experience. her thighs burn, but miraculously hold.

mark doesn't much mind being a passive receiver when they make love; seb is sexiest when she rides his cock with abandon, lost in everything but the pursuit of her orgasm. but he knows that this is a gift, and that the best gifts are shared.

so he pulls her down to lie on top of him and flips their positions. he messily pushes seb's shirt up to her armpits so he can lick and suck at her tits while he hunches over and fucks her. her hands twine in his hair and pull him up--and then they're locked at the lips, superimposed on one another like they'll crumble if they let go.

seb squeezes around him perfectly when she comes. it's not long at all before mark follows, burying himself to the hilt and hiding his face in the crook of seb's neck to stifle his groans. when the white heat of his high fades away, he burrows closer against her, and simply enjoys the feeling of her fingers against his scalp.

"happy birthday," she punctuates the sentiment with a quick peck to his cheek.

"you too," mark says, and he's out before he can process why seb is laughing.