#I DON'T USUALLY SHOW MY WRITING.

[hyacinth-venom]

Whoops! I did a thing.

... I wrote a short fic based off this ask on @themostwantedphighter's blog

It's not great shhjkfdg but I did try my best :'D

Brushing Hands with the Other Side (Just Barely)

Canon-typical violence, non-graphic depictions of death, and a tiny bit of alcohol, but it's all pretty light :]

[Ao3 Link for your convenience], or you can keep reading it right here on Tumblr. :]

The sun sinking beneath the mountains brought a chill over the cold-blooded demon camped against the rocks catching the last of the daylight, who had been sunning herself up until a few minutes ago. The boulders and sand were still satisfyingly warm against her skin, and her tail subconsciously buried itself under the sand as she piled dry brush together, setting up a fire before the true cold set in.

The soft clinking of iron against flint filled air, and a pale orange flare soon started up, almost smoking itself out only a moment into life.

“Aw, c’mon, yah silly thing.” She muttered softly before she gently blew on it, fostering a small flame. 

A few moments passed before it slowly grew, and a few minutes more before it was a strong enough flame to put lumber on, creating a dry heat that seeped warmth back into the air around her. It took a shuddery sigh to relieve the tension that had slowly been building in her muscles, brought on by the growing chill that made everything feel stiff.

While the outdoors was beautiful, and every day she was outside seeing stars meant another day she had succeeded, she didn’t always enjoy the night sky when it meant she would be sleeping outside once again, especially with how cold the desert tended to be at night.

Cold air now warded off, she sat back against the warm rocks. Scythe could check out after the long day she’d spent backtracking across the desert, throwing the ever-pursuing Banhammer off her tail. She hated retreating, but this was a necessary action for the time being.

More times than she would admit to, fate bested her skillful management of her gear, and her defenses, and even her escapes in bitter desperation. There were a handful of times that she’d died- only once to Banhammer’s reckless handling of his hammer, a clumsy weapon that only a brute like him could manage so effectively.

Never did she stay down for long, however, since her loyal medic- as begrudging as he was about it- was at her side in those moments, there to sweep her away from death.

As Scythe settled in for the night, she let these thoughts that she usually repressed have free reign, pulling her flask of whiskey out and taking a swig to take the edge off. 

It was a vivid feeling, one that faded little with time. And although she’d died on more than one occasion, it was always the first time that came to the forefront of her mind, the jarringly prideful grin Banhammer wore that day as he finally won was an image engraved firmly in her mind that drove her forward through rough times- it was a jagged reminder that fate wasn’t unlike a rattlesnake and it’s tail- it would inevitably snap back at you, if you ignored the warnings of consequences enough. 

 —-

Well that’s no good.

Scythe reflected as she felt the absence of the familiar weight of her scythe in her hand, recognizing the painful clatter of metal as the motion of air just in front of her swept her back, dodging the follow-up swing Banhammer directed at her head with the thin space between her and the easily deadly weapon.

A quick glance to the side confirmed her situation, settling adrenaline in her veins as she saw the electric blade of her scythe buried in the trunk of a tree just nearby. 

 There wasn’t time for her to think about recovering it as she had to dive to the side, narrowly avoiding the hammer once again as she was forced to face her opponent on an uneven playing field- one where there wasn’t a whole ocean of opportunity for her to gain any ground like there once was. Banhammer was driven forward in a frenzy, erratically pressing her backwards up a hill with practiced steps meant to handle his momentum. 

All it took was a moment of hesitation, and he’d taken the upper hand.

“I’ve got you now, snake!” Came Banhammer’s triumphant cry as he grabbed her by the throat while she was unguarded, throwing her roughly into the grass with a hissed protest. She attempted to sink her fangs into his hand with little success, the metal skin of his armor there to protect him from such a fickle attack.

“Yer’ a damned clutz, Banny! Ya know that?” She hissed through her teeth, digging the spurs of her heels into the softened terrain as she fought to remain upright despite the advantage he had leering over her. She grabbed at the handle of his hammer, though it was ripped away before she could get a firm grip on it, being slammed against her chest and knocking the wind out of her.

With the world spinning, dizzyingly quick and sickening, the only pressure she felt was the weight against her stomach- that of Banhammer’s boot- and the grassy green hill that she’d found herself pinned to. This seemed an unfittingly sunny scene for such an experience.

As a serial killer, she knew she’d be damned to an awful fate for her actions if she got caught by the wrong hands- She’d killed remorselessly, and would do so again time and time again to serve her family’s purposes.

However, knowing the bitter consequences of her actions beforehand didn’t take the edge off the scathing frustration that rattled in her chest as she stared up at Banhammer, prosthetic arm instinctively extended to shield herself from the coming pain.

She’d never imagined what it’d be like to die, but in their frenzy, both Banhammer and Scythe knew they both slip up at times. It was at this moment she was grateful that Banhammer was getting ahead of himself, since if he’d had the thought to use his Phinisher, her death would have been far more excruciating.

Instead, she took reprieve in a nearly painless blow to the head, sentencing her to death as quickly as falling through thin ice into a deep, dark lake.

—

…

“Let’s not do that again.” 

The voice of her savior was tired, pulling her out of the dark just as quickly as it fell over her. Green lights flashing around her brought a certain lightness to her body, rejuvenated though still pained.

Inpherno, her head hurt.

Dizziness followed as she sat up too quickly, still laying on the hill that they had both been fighting on. Medkit’s hooved hand gently pushed her back down, which she met with a rough groan. 

“Don’t sit up so quickly, you’ve been revived, but I haven’t finished healing you yet.” He instructed firmly. 

“Yah don’t have ta’ tell me twice, doc.” She chuckled humorlessly, eliciting a deepened scowl from Medkit as he turned away, loading the healing bullets into his gun with a practiced ease before cocking it, bringing it to be aimed directly at her sternum before firing it off. She felt the impact of the bullet, but the properties it was charged with brought a relieving sense of warmth to her limbs rather than further ache. 

“Don’t call me that. I’m not a doctor.” He told her flatly, tucking his gun away into his medkit and rising to his feet. “Take it easy, I’m not catching you if you fall over.”

Scythe nodded, only acknowledging the latter statement, and sat up again, this time her head didn’t cry out in protest, so she took the risk of standing, brushing dirt and grass off the sleek white fabric of her suit, correcting her visor to sit comfortably over her eye, and fixing her hat so that it sat against her horns the way it was supposed to. 

“Did yah see where Banny went off ta’, Medkit?” Scythe inquired, already set on leveling the scores. He killed her once, now it was her turn to return the favor- though he wouldn’t have the convenience of a healer on his side to raise him from the dead when he finally got his turn.

“You’re off to fight him again? Already?” He asked in an exasperated tone. “No, I didn’t see where he went, but give it a rest. He’s probably back at Banland by now, and he doesn’t know that you’re alive yet, so maybe stay off his radar for the time being?” He implored, giving her a precursory glance as she stalked down the hill, grabbing the handle of her scythe firmly and ripping it out of the tree with a rain of splintering bark.

“No can do, Medkit. I’ve got ta’ make sure he don’t let that little victory get ta’ his head, last thing he needs is more ego ta’ trip over.” She responded smoothly, tossing the weapon between her hands, acclimating to the reassuring weight as she settled it back into her prosthetic hand, the grip with which she’d grasped it tighter than usual.

She just needed to make sure she didn’t lose it again.

—

From that day forward, Scythe was a little more mindful, and with her sureness in her ability to handle both her scythe and rifle easily, changing from one to another with little effort in battle, her losses had been few.

The following times she died had been caused by interferences from the SFOTH, discrepancies among her family- a right traitor who soon after found his horns hung up on her wall back home- a lovely little scrap he was, shame he had to go and blow it for himself, she was willing to stretch her patience thin for her family, but poisoning was pushing it too far.  

Dying was no fun, but having a way to cheat out death sure was comforting when she was up to risky business so often, all for the sake of the church.

Maybe she’d give Medkit a raise, just to make sure he’d stay loyal, though she doubted that he’d have a reason to be leaving her, seeing as there wasn’t much of a better place to be than on her side.

Scythe tipped her head back as she emptied the remains of her whiskey flask down her throat, letting the invigorating sting in her chest and the warmth settling in her stomach remind her of just how grateful she was to still be here, even if it was camped under the stars, where the cold could bite her skin.

[necrotic-nephilim]

i personally have very complicated feelings on the Gotham Knights video game and the routes it takes with characterization. i think it has a charm to it and it goes in an interesting direction with everyone (especially within the confides of the plot of the game) but it does have certain moments that veer painfully fanon for me. (such as: the dialogue where Tim drinks too much coffee) it's an interesting story for what it is but i don't view it comics-based for characterization and therefore don't care to interact with it much for like. fanfic purposes.

that *said* though. i do have to give the game some kind of credit for giving one of the top five JayTim moments that lives rent free in my mind. every since i played the game, the cutscene lives in my mind daily. it's the specific cutscene where Jason and Tim are arguing about whether or not Jason's non-lethal bullets are too dangerous for the field, and the argument leads to TIm *standing in front of the target* Jason is shooting and telling Jason to shoot him. it lives rent free for me. i never stop thinking about this.

the absolute certainty Tim has that he is in no danger standing in front of Jason, who has a loaded gun pointed at his face. the way Jason *hesitates* for just a moment before lowering the gun. he thinks about it for just a second. Gotham Knights JayTim seem to get along very well and can rely on each other, but Jason still clearly holds a bitterness about his death and Tim that flickers through in some lines of dialogue under the guise of jokes. especially since this game deals *heavily* with concepts of Pit Madness causing an altered state of consciousness, i think it's believable that occasionally, Jason fights the urge to fight and hurt Tim for the feeling of being replaced.

i like their tension so much in this canon. they get along but you can *tell* Tim is afraid of addressing Jason's trauma or even addressing Jason head-on, and Jason leans into spooking Tim about it. which isn't very comics feeling in their dynamic, but it is an interesting way to place their dynamic if you're playing with a more timid Tim who's newer to the role of Robin. (which he seems to be in-game) he really doesn't want to offend Jason, or worse, piss him off. but he'll still face Jason head on for things like this, while completely aware of what Jason could be capable of.

and Jason seems very protective of Tim and respecting Tim as a Robin in typical Jason fashion. if Tim pushes, Jason *will* relent. he knows this is a kid who's proved himself and should be treated with equal respect, sometimes even more than Dick and Babs do in-game.

so for all that to culminate in Tim stepping in front of Jason's loaded gun that he *knows* is on the edge of being too dangerous, just to force Jason to listen? it's the most unhinged way Tim could've gotten his point across in this scene. he was literally daring Jason to hurt him and playing with a very dangerous fire. but he did it anyway bc he believed he could make Jason heel just at the thought of hurting Tim. and he was *right*. they're gay and i'm feral ty.

[brynn-lear]

"Hmm? Oh, I'm just the milkman. Nothin' more. Won't you let me in, my doorman?"

[uniiiquehecrt]

Voice actors are NOT the same as actors.

It takes a specific kind of skill-set and training to be able to warp and meld the voice. It takes a certain kind of talent and dedication to hone that talent into the ability to meld the voice and invoke emotion with one's voice alone. Actors are used to using their voice secondarily to their body language and their facial expressions. It's all mirrored back on camera. They do have nuance. But it's a different kind of nuance and a different kind of training to produce that nuance.

Voice actors might get their likeness transposed on their character's design, and maybe their mannerisms might seep into the character's animation. But when it's all said and done: their presence is in their voice. They are bringing a character to life, showing that emotion in their voice, trying to keep a specific accent, drawl, pitch, tone in that voice and keep it consistent for their recording sessions.

The voice actor is like a classically trained musician who can play first chair in a competitive, world-renown orchestra. The actor (who fills the voice actor's role) is like a moot who played violin in beginner and intermediate high school orchestra and thinks they can get into Juilliard with that 2-4 years of experience.

This doesn't mean that the HS orchestra moot can't play. They can even be really good at it. Maybe they won competitions and sat first chair. But they are not in the same league as the person who's been training their whole lives and lives and breathes to hone their craft using the instrument and all of the training they've ever acquired to perfect it. They are not meant for the same roles. They are not in the same caliber. You do not hire the HS equivalent when you want to play complex music in a competitive orchestra.

Actors are not the same as voice actors.

And furthermore, actors - especially big name actors - taking the roles of animated characters for big budget films or TV pilots makes no sense anyways when - at least in the case of TV pilots - there's not a point to hiring a big budget actors anyways. That money could be used elsewhere (like paying your animators), and the talent that is brought onto the screen for X character could then be hired on to voice said character no recasting required.

I wouldn't say voice acting as a profession is in danger exactly, but it's certainly being disrespected and overlooked for celebrity clout, and this has ALWAYS been an issue. Shoot, even Robin Williams knew that much - which is why he tried so hard not to be used as a marketing chess piece for Aladdin and got royally pissed off when it happened anyways. People shouldn't go to any movie (but especially not animated films) because "oh famous actor is in it". People should go because it's a good movie and the voice acting is good.

People who honest to god think that voice actors are replaceable because "oh well anyone can voice act" or "I like xyz celebrity so naturally it'll be good" ... Honestly I just wish you'd reassess your priorities because you're missing the point and are part of the problem.

Voice Actors ≠ Actors.

[theoldkyokodied]

I'm posting this here too, just in case anyone who doesn't follow me on insta is interested in getting one of these! You can find the shirt here or dm me to do it over paypal invoice, if you want to save 2€ from etsys greedy little hands.

the shirts will be ready for shipping in roughly 3 - 5 weeks from now! and sorry to everyone outside the EU, shipping from Germany is really expensive :(

[msue0027]

I sometimes hate that i prefer to write by hand. Because then i have something like this and no power nor will to type it out again.

It's not checked, i haven't even read that over after writing. Maybe i'll rewrite it later (unlikely, unfortunately. i must've been bored enough and remember bout it).

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

Hello would you like some silly ghost lore?

[pa-pa-plasma]

you just made the scientific discovery of the century & you want to tell everyone & your kids are first on that list but you can't find them. you manage to get a hold of your daughter & she says everything is fine but her voice gets tight when you try to mention your work & she sucks in a breath & says she won't keep you from it any longer than she already has & doesn't say bye as she hangs up the phone. you have a sinking feeling in your gut & you really want to get back to what you were doing but. something's wrong. where are your kids. why was your daughter not surprised when you told her. why was she so quick to hang up on you. your husband has the same type of mind & that's probably why neither of you can ignore this odd turn of events & so you decide to track them down. the research can wait. after all, the spook got away somehow afterwards. it's not like you have anything to go through but data & recordings.

[magnusbae]

Never in my life did I watch something quite as ridiculous, pointless, without any coherent sense of direction or self as The Acolyte. Start to finish it created its own 'threats' and 'issues' to artificially stimulate a plot that never had a single point to be made. What on earth were they thinking? Nothing in this series follows its own internal logic. The character motivations are all over the place and often simply contradict themselves within the same episode. The intrigue and the foreshadowing all come to a null when the reveals literally are not in par with what was implied and just generally--- what on earth? You cannot say I did not come open minded. Watched all the episodes, given it grace and opportunity time and time again to prove itself but--- no, no it's actually just the worst tv show I've ever seen, and that's a serious claim as I watched quite a few bad ones I enjoyed more than I did this one. Don't even get me started on how fundamentally lacking they are in understanding what the Jedi are and who they are as an entity, there was no idea of the self or the values or even codes of the Jedi in this show. Something that could have been such a wonderful and intriguing show, with visuals we all were craving (Jedi Temple) it ended up being below mid-show, shot almost in its whole entirety on a planet that looks 100% like earth with zero intriguing visuals or anything to justify the monstrous budget they had to burn through. Wow, kudos on creating something so empty of meaning I am not even angry after watching it, only baffled that someone actually wrote it and someone actually thought it was good enough to film. Damn.

[puppetmaster13u]

Oh boi even more of One au in like 3 hours lol

I like to think that like how in @phoenixcatch7's Doll au there's gas versions of like cures and such in the batfam's gas masks since they don't need to breath when possessing the puppets right? I like to think there's an organic version of that with the meat puppet bodies, at least with Bruce, where the plates on his neck opens up into vents of sorts, pictured here with a few spikes removed for visibility reasons.

This gas could be some cures for like Joker venom & Fear gas and such, or it could also be sedatives, paralytics, could even vary between each member. (For example in the Cryptidverse Steph has Anesthetics on her claws, Jason has reflective powder that mimics embers/sparks, Cass has paralytics, etc). Honestly I am just brainstorming so this could definitely change lmao

I do like to think they start developing their own venom though, gotta' have those fangs & tusks for some reason lol

[rapha-reads]

IWTV rewatch

(book to show, show to book, the meta continues)

Season 1 episode 3 [Is My Very Nature That Of The Devil]

- Louis: *tries to read*

Lestat: *bla bla bla*

Louis: "if you don't shut up and leave me with my books I'm going to start a social commentary and ethics conversation"

Lestat: "... Never mind. Let's go hunt."

Louis in that white suit is daaamn fine.

Oooh, so the conversation about only eating the "evil" ones starts there. Louis munching on that cat kills me every time.

- Oh, hello Antoinette. Love that we go from 19th century violinist Antoine to 20th century music hall singer Antoinette. Very nice change.

[Louis] "'This ain't your kind of music.'

[Lestat] 'You can pretend you're a vegetarian. I can pretend the fool.'" - part of me thinks that Louis meant by that "this is Black music, a Black folk band, and you're still a white boy, even vampire that you are".

Lestat schooling everyone about music, sassing everyone and playing the piano divinily, absolutely delicious. And then Louis' absolutely fond little smile, even when he's arguing with Lestat, he just loves him so.

- Ah! [Daniel] "Yeah, you know, I gotta say, it's not so much the minute details, Louis, rather the total rewrite that's giving me pause here." - that's the part. That's the crux of it. That's the character development of Louis who's done rejecting the depth of his feelings for Lestat and the role he's played in his own tragedy, regardless of Lestat's abuse, and ready to accept it and talk about it.

Love Louis' face relistening to his 1973's words versus 2022. The face of a man going "ah shit, I really was messed up back then".

- [Daniel] "'Fuck the 'Wolverine Blues'. Ken Burns can choke on the footnotes. It's the abused-abuser psychological relationship I'm talking about.'

[Louis] 'I do not consider myself abused.'

[Daniel] 'I mean, usually when you're a little too close to it, the abused still loves the abuser, but you flipped it completely on its head.'

[Louis] 'I'm not a victim.'

[Daniel] '50 years later, you talk like he was your soulmate, like you were locked in some fucked up gothic romance. Why?'"

First: Daniel's a petty bitch and he's getting to the bottom of this business whether Louis works with him or not. And Louis is equally petty and bitchy, answering Daniel by reading part of his own memoir and mocking him.

Secondly: well, yeah, it is a gothic romance, that's the genre. But it is a Contemporary Gothic romance. Contemporary Gothic expands on Classic Gothic. I wrote an essay about Contemporary Gothic using the movie Only Lovers Left Alive last year, I need to translate it from Spanish to English so I can share it. But I feel like I could reuse part of this essay to talk about IWTV book (inscribed in Classic Gothic) versus IWTV show (tending towards Contemporary Gothic). One more essay idea to develop later. Let's table this.

Thirdly: my little Loustat shipper heart is very happy.

And fourth: hey, Danny boy. Remember that conversation in a dozen of sessions because that will come in handy to explain a looooooot of things... Devil's Minion fans gleefully cackling in the background. And Armand isn't even in this scene. Talk about irony. And foreshadowing.

[Louis] "'This is the odyssey of recollection.' The tapes are an admitted performance. This is the premise of our interview. Half a century later, allow me my odyssey. [Daniel throws the tapes in the trash] Now who's performing?"

Louis being heartfelt but still hiding beneath his veneer - you know when he starts to be honest, or as genuine as he can at this point, when he starts to drop the accent. I swear I'm going to stop raving about Jacob's voice work at some point, but it's such an important part of the character, of who Louis is and how the audience can understand Louis, that it deserves an entire essay of its own.

And then Louis sasses Daniel and sets the tapes on fire, because that's not a performance at all, that. Pot meet kettle.

- [Louis] "Rigged to burn, Daniel" - foreshadowing...

- [Louis] "I barely had the energy to hold a book. My libido was not what it'd been. I understood the indulgence. I let it happen." - why are you such a liar, Louis. Stop fucking lying, Louis.

On a serious note, Louis' eating disorder emerging from his identity crisis, the clash of his religious upbringing with his new reality colliding with his lifelong depression... Who made that guy so relatable. But notice how there's a slight part of Louis' new diet here that's in direct reaction to Lestat's refusal to hear him and talk to him. They each punish each other for their perceived failings by acting in the way that'll hurt the other the most, even if that way hurts them too. Louis by letting himself starve and losing his energy when that's all Lestat wants him to do, Lestat by having several affairs and flaunting them, even when he explicitly says "I do everything for Louis". By the way, that little throwaway line? Lestat being genuine and fully honest about his feelings and motivations but playing it as a joke. If Louis had been hearing he'd have caught it and maaaybe we could have avoided some of the drama. Maybe.

- Oh, the whole Antoinette seduction scene is fascinating. Notice how Lestat barely looks at her? He only has eyes for Louis. And Louis cannot stand his gaze, he has to retreat. Says he understands, but then leaves in a huff. Disasters.

[Louis] "'So you didn't kill her.'

[Lestat] 'No. She has talents.'

[Louis] 'Aren't I enough?'" - excuse me while I go scream.

[Lestat] "We're communicating so much better now." - baby, no. That ain't communication. You two are still talking two different languages.

[Lestat] "Of course. Of course. Of course. As long as you come home to me." - that's way too many "of course", 'Stat. Maybe add a couple dozen more to reeeeally make your point that you're not bothered AT ALL by the idea of Louis seeing other people. Hypocrite...

- Welcome to WW1. Business, racism, capitalism, and the fantastic Miss Bricks. Can't wait for Tom Anderson to get eaten, that guy rubs me off the wrong way. Gotta love that Louis' standing up for himself. Aaaaand hello Jonah. Oop, Lestat's already staring and going insane with jealousy. Meanwhile Louis doesn't even remember he's got nieces. Looots of little crucial hits in this scene, between the poker game, WW1 come a-knocking, Loustat's fuckery and Louis' getting further and further away from his human family.

- [Jonah] "'Ain't aged a day since I seen you last.'

[Louis] 'That's the moonlight lyin' is all.'" - hi, Nicholas Sparks called, he says that line belongs in The Notebook and he's claiming copyright for it.

[Jonah] "'And most of why I signed up is I kept hearing something about something they call 'European sensibilities'. They care less what you look like or who you're lookin' at.'

[Louis] 'Yeah, I got someone.'

[Jonah] 'I figured as much. No ring on your finger?'

[Louis] 'Not a woman.'

[Jonah] 'Well, what's he like?'

[Louis] 'He's... a lot. It's not perfect. But we kind of have this agreement.'"

Yeah, believe me, racism and homophobia are very alive in Europe too. Though... The roaring twenties are right around the corner and that's a decade I would have loved to experience in Paris.

Hey, look! Louis has come around about his sexuality, is that the first time he comes out willingly and peacefully? Yey, progress. Also I love that he has explicit permission from Lestat to have his own affairs, but he feels uncomfortable about at it at first. But still goes for it 'cause you know. Gotta show Lestat he ain't bothered. Should have fed first tho, stupid. Also, Lestat overhearing Louis calling him "a lot" and "not perfect" > direct parallel to Claudia hearing Louis calling her a "burden" to Armand in s2. Louis is so good at being casually cruel to and about those he loves.

[Louis] "'Good fit, this uniform.'

[Jonah] 'Well, it's the moonlight.'" - sorry, Nicholas Sparks on line 3 again, he said that moonlight line is actually too sappy for even The Notebook. Said we can keep it, he doesn't want to pay our dentist note.

- Daniel Hart's music is fantastic.

- Ah, Lestat's jealousy crisis. Aw, the domesticity. Ooh, wait, love how the memory changes. You can see Louis struggling to remember which memory is accurate.

- Arf, Louis being rejected from his own family house and then breaking down the door. Mamaw du Lac, Mother of the Decade, everyone. Poor baby. The curse of the vampire. Downward spiral getting worse. And then coming home and seeing Lestat entertain the regiment? And then the news about the Azalea. Nervous breakdown about to happen. Oh, Lestat flexing his powers. Love that. Notice the blood trail coming from his ear? It appears again when he saves Louis during the trial. He's not without his limits. Regarding his powers or his feelings.

[Lestat] "I heard your hearts dancing" - so first of all, awards for Sam, when? Secondly, brb, need to sob a little. And third, Nicholas Sparks on the line again, wants to know if the writer of these lines is available to come work with him.

[Lestat] "'This is not a life!'

[Louis] 'That's' cause you took my life! I got nothing! I lost everything! I lost my brother. I lost my family. 'Bout to lose the last fucking thing I care about.'" - where are the awards for Jacob and Sam for heaven's saaaaaaaake. Also, love how the music briefly stops between 'everything' and 'brother'.

- [Louis] "When your mother sees the Devil in your eyes, it's a hard assessment to abandon. Am I from the Devil? Is my very nature that of the Devil? I had hedged against the question, but now it completely overwhelmed me." - Lestat and Armand had that conversation a century earlier...

[Daniel] "Take a Black man in America, make him a vampire, fuck with that vampire, and see what comes of it." - thanks for the social commentary, Danny, don't even need to do it myself. Now eat those assholes, Lou.

- [Louis] "You said I'm arrogant? Maybe I am arrogant! [...] I'm a vampire." - okay, can I soliloque about Louis please? Have I said he's my favourite of the entire books lately? As someone who has been called pretentious more than once just because I know my own value and refuse to play stupid, that part, yeah, that part gets to me. Louis finally knows who he is and refuses to pretend he's less just to please others. And as a lesson that I've finally embraced this year especially too, I like that. I like that a lot.

Oops. Louis just started a civil war in New Orleans. Fun. Like Lestat says, it's not on Louis tho. He merely "provided them the excuse".

[Louis] "And that's why you and me ain't never gon' work. That's why you're always gonna be alone." - oooh man, that was harsh. And only half deserved. And cruel in that typical Louis way. Also, wrong. But you're gonna have to wait another century for that. Oof, Lestat's face as Louis leaves, the crumbling, the desperation oozing out of his entire soul, heart and mind...

- "I ran from the Quarter that night, ran to where the violence spread most wild. I stumbled through the streets like an irrational child who had tested his strength on the small bird and now asked 'can I make it whole again?' - Can I help you? Please let me help you. - Their faces ran past me like snow in a terrible wind, unaware that it was I who had brought this retribution. It was I who should pay for this sin. And then... [Help me!] one of those inconceivable moments where who you were before and who you would be forever after is marked in time. [Help!] A rooming house, now a fire trap. I could not save the Azalea. I could not save Storyville. I could not save the aunt on the wrong side of the wall, but I could save her. My light. My Claudia. My redemption."

... Brb, need to scream in a pillow. Oooof. What a tirade. Louis, Saint Louis, Saint Louis, bearing the weight of the cross on his shoulders... Selflessness being selfishness, trying to help to try to alleviate his own pain and guilt. Doing good things out of a need to feel useful or at peace with your own conscience is not a bad thing, you're still helping whatever your motives, but when it starts making you unable to see the people you're trying to help as people, and starts making you see them as tools to relieve your tortured soul and conscience, are your good actions still good? Or the pavement on the road to a very dark place? Guess we'll let Claudia tell us her opinion.

episode 1 | episode 2 | episode 3 | episode 4 | episode 5 | episode 6 | episode 7

[gt-daboss]

GT Writing/Reading Question

Ive been writing GT stories for some time now, and reading them for much much longer, so I'm curious what the consensus of this topic is (my opinion and reasons in the tags if you're curious)

[northstarscowboyhat]

"The Sole Survivor Kanako was a one off art thing," I say, writing a tiny experimental oneshot for it.

[mishalikessoundsandcolours]

I wrote a song about a lawnmower :D

(but the rough piano arrangement I made up has too many weird chord changes so I can't play it properly yet lol but it's still kinda funky)

Anyways would y'all like to hear a demo?

[melancholic-pigeon]

Okay this is the *actual* last comment, for real, but I just found out Spider is now smearing me as a convert and accusing me of being involved with drama I was not involved with because he mistakenly attributed my apologies for his public temper tantrum as being about something unrelated.

THIS IS A FALSE ACCUSATION and I do not appreciate having yet another bit of fake malicious intent falsely ascribed to my actions and* attributing a completely unrelated attack to me.

Also, it's very sad and disappointing whenever a Jew gets mad at a convert because something else is going on in the Jew's life and the convert happens to be in the splash zone and the Jew falls over backwards to smear the convert and invalidate her faith.

Just....the childish aggression is making me so, so sad and disappointed, from someone I used to think very highly of, who is now lying about me and publicly smearing me with false accusations based on a conflict he started because he misinterpreted something I said and I went out of my way to give him the benefit of the doubt when trying to clear up the mistake HE MADE that led him to decide bullying and attacking me for three fucking days was appropriate and okay and that I'm the bad guy for saying it's wildly unprofessional to behave like this in public to a former customer face.

Sorry, but facts, reality, linear time and the truth of what I actually said and did are on my side here, and I will not stand for being smeared and attacked and shat all over because I had the gall to try to kindly resolve his uncalled for, unjustified temper tantrum.

I am also not sorry that I left a side note in the tags that it was also unacceptable for HIM to drag his daughter into a stupid internet slapfight based on his own reading comprehension failure. Because it was and is unacceptable, and she needs to hear that message from someone.

End of story. Keep digging that hole as long as you like, Spider. It's not helping your case and is continuing to make you look progressively worse and more unreasonable, and the only person you have to blame is yourself.

*revised for clarity

[mcalhenwrites]

Still alive, writing and editing a lot and even drawing (mostly dragon sketches at work). Seasons has some new chapters now... I saw something earlier about writing being something you can hone by doing lots of reading and writing. I wonder when that will apply to me. I've read a lot of books this year. I have almost hit my goal of 90 books, and while a couple are nonfiction and half are comics, the rest are novels. I expect that to increase again, now that I'm going back to the library. (I stopped with the bed bug scare.) Then I'm setting aside time each week to write. I work on stories at work, even if it's mostly just planning. (My laptop is falling apart so I just gave up taking it to work.) Yet here I am, still the same idiot who doesn't have anything appealing enough for most people to read. I can't get 99% of my followers interested. Sales of Geckos have dropped to next-to-nothing. Nothing else I put out there matters either. The fault lies with me. I'm not good enough. After having this stupid blog for 12 years, I want to delete it. I want to delete my twitter account. I want to delete every single account and shut up for good. There is nothing I can offer. My writing is a good hobby for me. I can get pats on the head for doing a little thing for myself. Aww, look at the cute little dumbass adult doing wittle storwies!!! Isn't that silly!!! They're not good, but he's having fun during the process. Too bad he hasn't figured out that not even 39 more years of practice can save what he's handing out.