#I love buying art dolls but they’re so expensive but I love them

[thebookofcircus]

Me: I should stop buying things/retail therapy in response to stressful situations

Me: am stressed

Me: …

Them: hey, why do you have so many stuffed animals, art dolls, prints, and other stuff?

Me, a ball of inadequately handled stress: no reason

[lov3-from-loserlane]

My Trinkets ^_^

It’s not really trinkets, it’s CDs and Manga. But I do collect stuff. I also collect Bratz dolls, but those are all at home. But anyway, I just thought I’d make a post about my stuff <3

These are all the CDs I have here with me, I have a ton more at home (mostly gifts from my mom’s friend!) But these ones are the most special 🤭 minus the Titanic soundtrack, my sister got that for me as a joke.

I get the vast majority of my CDs from second hand book stores or record stores, so for the most part they’re relatively inexpensive. I mean even back in the day you’d have to drop around 13 bucks for a single album, and the only time I’ve ever spent that price is if it was an album I really really wanted at Barnes and Nobles. But usually I’ve been able to find them around 3-6 dollars second hand. So, if you want to collect some of your favorite albums on CD, it’s pretty manageable if you know where to look.

Oh, and if your music taste skews older lol. Newer stuff is probably always gonna be standard price.

My manga collection is much smaller because I started it a lot more recently and it is more expensive. I also buy them all from second hand book stores so you just kinda gotta keep going and see if they ever happen to stock what you’re looking for. But I was really happy to find Neighborhood Story, Nana, and Death Note! Those are my favorite mangas and Ai Yazawa and Tsugumi Ohba are legit some of my favorite artists in the vast and wide world. I’ve had a lot of the special artworks that come in the death note and neighborhood story editions I own saved to my Pinterest for a while but it feels so much nicer to have it physically. Like, I’ll take out the book to reference the art while I’m drawing sometimes. It’s fun.

I also love the Pokemon X and Y manga and was happy to of found vol 3, but I haven’t been able to find 1 and 2 🥲 or any of the others for that matter, I think there are like 12 in the series?

It should also be said that I own the entire Scott Pilgrim black and white paperback set, but I lent it to my sister’s now ex boyfriend soooo I don’t know when I’m getting that back :P

[energon-with-a-curly-straw]

Just spent the day going through our old toys for organizing the basement. I feel like I deserve extra credit for the gender chapter of my sociology course 😭

[its-deputy-caleb]

Uhm its my first time asking for the type of suggestions? 😂 Sorry for my English 🎉

If the four lords are died in the game and they will be reincarnated.. what are their professions or what life they get in their 2nd life?

Thank you 😊😊❤️❤️

hey so i kinda went a little off track so this is sorta like a modern au type of thing but i hope it’s okay

Alcina Dimitrescu

The Lady Dimitrescu is nothing short of CEO of her own company.

She’s the owner of a large winery where she produces her own wines and even some spirits but her company is especially known for the “maidens blood”.

Alcina is all class and style with tailor made suits and dresses that she wears to the office.

Her favourite outfits are the expensive gowns she gets to wear at fun raisers and wine tastings that potential business partners host.

Her daughters are all on the board of directors and mange the wineries while she works at the corporate office.

Alcina owns a large house in the valley where they grow the grapes used for the wine. It’s a large house big enough for her and her daughters to stay when they’re not working.

Having lots of wealth means she’s got an acquired taste for art and she loves to collect old renaissance paintings. She even had a family portrait done with her daughters.

Even though she’s a bit of a workaholic and very passionate about her job (especially with her daughters due to inherit the company one day) she’s still in love with having some down time for herself.

A weekend away at her holiday house is spent curled up on the couch in her nightgown, a glass of wine in hand and the fire place going while she reads her gothic novels.

Donna Beneveinto

Donna lives peacefully in a quiet town where works at a tailor shop. It’s one of those old fashioned ones with a bell on the wooden door that rings each time someone steps in and the floorboards creek under her shoes.

She was taken under the wing but the old lady that owned the store and she considers her as something of a mother figure to her. She was sweet and let Donna bring Angie to work with her.

The two spend their days making small talk and sewing on the garments the locals bring in.

They often have tea together, either on their break or in the afternoon where the sweet old lady brings in little cakes while Donna brings her homemade herbal tea.

As apart of the tailoring store, customers can also buy fabrics and other handmade pieces like towels, clothes, curtains and blankets as a way to make money and the old lady is adored by the locals. Donna was instantly included into the local community, getting to go to markets and gatherings.

The old lady even let Donna sell her dolls along with everything else in the store and it was very popular amongst the children.

Donna is very happy in her local community and they make her feel like she belongs and is loved, what more could she ask for?

Salvatore Moreau

Sal is a physician in a hospital in the big city. He’s always had a passion to help people and became determined at a young age that he wanted to enter medicine.

He came from a small town and worked as the local doctor, making house trips and assisting people that he grew up with. It always made him smile knowing that he made an impact and was able to care for people he loved.

Eventually he moved to the city where he could get a higher education and stayed there to work afterwards where he’s found his passion to help others.

He works in the children’s ward and always does his best to make them smile when they come in with broken arms from skateboarding or falling off the trampoline.

When he was a child he had an accident which left him with some deformities on his face and neck. It was one of the reasons why he fell in love with medicine when he was treated with love and care in the hospital himself.

Sal never let’s his appearance get to him and uses it for his advantage when he sees a child crying from their injuries or illness. He always reassures them with a soft smile as he lets them know it’ll be okay, he’s experienced it too and they’re not alone.

On his days off he curls up under a blanket with a block of cheese and a hot chocolate (a weird combination but he loves it) while he watches those cheesy medical shows and the occasional romcom.

He’s got a pet axolotl that he loves and spoils. In some ways it reminds him of himself by his appearance and its like his comfort creature and best friend.

Karl Heisenberg

Growing up was difficult since Karl was a bit of a troublemaker but he was extremely smart and gifted.

He didn’t get along with teachers at school so he ended up dropping out and getting a job at the local mechanic.

Karl immediately had a gift for working with metal, understanding blueprints and instruction manuals with minimal assistance or training.

One day he was working on a fancy car that belonged to a tech giant that owned a company in the big city. When he offered Karl a job working as an engineer he never looked back.

He’s incredibly happy with his job since it gave him the opportunity to get away from his old life that was full of deviancy and troublemaking. For Karl, it’s never been about making money or being successful, all he wants is a peaceful life where he can be happy.

Work lets Karl be flexible where some days him and his small team of co-workers are designing new blueprints while others are spent testing them out in their studio.

Karl owns a grungy apartment in the city, there’s always bottles of beer, takeout left on the countertops and the ashtray is always overflowing but it’s home and he loves it nonetheless.

He owns a cat that he found as a kitten in the alleyway one day. The poor thing was cold and hungry so he brought it inside and dished out the questionable can of tuna in the cabinet.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I don’t really like the term “pro-artist” you can be anti recasts all you want but most people who call themselves “pro artist” aren’t really pro artists. Most people don’t know the name of the artist who sculpts the dolls they like unless they’re a small artist only and not a company, and I’m not saying you need to know that to be a doll collector, I’m just saying you probably don’t know who they are or what they were paid. You just like the company. Also a lot of pro artists complain about what people want to price their art at, high or low it doesn’t matter.

My biggest issue with the term pro artist though is the second hand market. As an artist who has a business (specifically one geared towards lesser advantaged people who can’t pay “luxury” prices) I don’t sell art with the idea in mind that you will sell it on to someone else for a large profit, in fact, I discourage it. You, having not made the art in anyway, making more profit on my art than I made when I sold it to you is such a massive fuck you. I sell a whole host of things, all handmade by me (including dolls), and I sell them at a discounted price because I want people who are like me (disabled, queer, not born into wealth, and mentally ill in whatever combination) to be able to have quality art or home goods, accessories or children’s toys, at a price that still ensures you can pay your rent or eat that month. I don’t want you buying something from me at $50 and selling it secondhand for $150 or more. If I wanted it sold for $150 I would’ve sold it for that.

A guy approached me recently and offered to buy a bunch of my stock so that he could resell it on his site. I could really use that money, but I didn’t take the offer because I know he planned to turn my products around for like a few hundred dollar in markup. The most expensive thing I sell is $200. He was looking to sell something like that for $600, but I made it and I won’t ever see that money.

Buying from artists and liking them on social media is great, but that doesn’t make you pro artist. It just makes you a consumer of artist’s work. I don’t have issues with people selling an item for what they paid for it or even selling it at a slight markup to cover fees or inflation/conversion, but if you’re buying an item for $400 and you’re selling it for $800-1000 because you can that’s just fucked up. You probably wouldn’t have bought it for that price from the artist or if they changed their price to that after they noticed the popularity then you probably would’ve complained, but it’s not about appreciating the art or the artist, it’s about making a profit. That artist didn’t even make the $400 from the original sale, but you’ll make that or more secondhand. I hate that so much that it almost makes me not want to sell my art.

I don’t buy secondhand unless it’s being sold for less than new because I don’t see the point in paying new price for a used item, but I’d also rather give my money to the artist than to someone who didn’t make the item. Also if you really love an artists work, especially if they spent their free time helping you with an order, send them a tip and leave a review. Leaving an honest review is the least you can do. If you don’t review, you’re not pro artist, you’re pro “ I already paid you and I got what I wanted so not my problem” Also a review is not “5 stars” or “I love it so much”, a review is where you actually explain what you bought and how exactly you feel about it and any effort that the artist put in for you that wasn’t necessary. Nothing I hate more than people who leave a review that is just basically “yay thanks” because that tells me that 1) you don’t care , and 2) you don’t understand the purpose of reviews

~Anonymous

[afictionalwhore]

SDV Bachelorettes’ Love Languages (hc)

This post is brought to you by my dear friend bribing me.

No kinks this time because I just struggled on that one.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Emily — Gift Giving and Quality Time

When it comes to giving and receiving gifts, Emily is not at all materialistic. She always has gems and crystals ready anytime she feels you need one.

Don’t bother trying to give it back. She’ll say you need them more than her.

Though she’s a giver, receiving gifts puts Emily over the moon. It’s the thought that counts for her. The fact that you were deep in the mines thinking of giving that amethyst to her rather than selling it speaks volumes to her.

Emily loves spending time with you, even if she can’t commit as much time as she’d like to with work.

You visit Emily at the saloon at least every Friday, as you know it’s the busiest, most stressful day and seeing you will help put her at ease.

Visiting Emily and spending time with her, be it meditating together or trying on clothes she’s trying to make, mean the world to her.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Haley — Gift Giving and Physical Touch

Haley, like her sister, is not materialistic when it comes to gift giving. She appreciates the thought the most, especially as you have to travel for some of her most loved gifts.

Haley is the only person who does not like the most valuable item, prismatic shard. That being said, too many expensive gifts will make her feel like you’re trying to buy her love.

Haley is not touchy until she gets to know you better, but once she’s comfortable with you, she can’t keep her hands off you. She wants to hold your hand around town, watch the sun set on the beach with her head on your shoulder.

If you fall asleep while cuddling her, she’ll lazily play with your hair or trace patterns on your skin.

Haley is absolutely showing you off through PDA. You work hard and she can’t believe someone like you would be interested in her, especially since she was so mean to you in the beginning.

She will steal your clothes and wear them, even if they aren’t fashionable. Additionally, she will try to dress you. It’s a very hands on activity where she essentially turns you into a doll.

Haley used to call you a dirty farmer. She feels bad about it every time she sees you’ve cleaned up for her when you go to hold her.

You used to think that she was trying to make Alex jealous, always hanging onto you and kissing you, but you learned that’s just how she's affectionate.

Gift her a teddy bear with your cologne/perfume, something that she can hold and think of you. She will try to act tough, but on the inside, she’s crying with how sweet the gift is.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Leah — Acts of Service and Quality Time

Leah is like any artist. She often forgets to take breaks when she’s working on a piece. She’ll forget to eat, to drink, you name it. You’ve made a habit of bringing her lunch that you made or bought from Gus.

You learn ways to help Leah, such as cleaning her brushes and tools. You organize her sketchbooks for her. She may think you think she can’t handle herself, but once she realizes it because you care about her and want her to be able to better focus on her art without stressing about cleaning, she’s incredibly touched.

Leah likes to spend time together, but she doesn’t always want to be doing something with you. She’s perfectly happy just being in the same space as you and doing your individual things.

Walks in nature!!! Leah adores dates with you that are just taking a stroll through the woods or on the beach.

Leah wants to consider you a muse, like Elliot. She is more focused on nature however, trying to avoid love due to her ex. Things just happen naturally for her, and she finds a lot of inspiration in you.

She’ll ask you to model for her. Maybe there’s a certain hand pose that she can’t quite get down. She’ll maneuver your hands for her to get just the right reference.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Penny — Quality Time and Acts of Service

With her mom, I can’t imagine Penny being very touchy-feely. However, I do see her being really appreciative of quality time with her s/o.

As the relationship progresses, Penny will melt into hugs and cuddles with you.

Penny likes planned out dates, things that she knows you put a lot of thought into. It’s a combination of her two love languages. One of her favorite dates is when you plan a picnic for her under the tree with artisanal goods from your farm. Goat cheese, jams, bread from wheat you grew. The effort put into this date blew her away.

Penny also enjoys spontaneity on occasion. Knock on her window in the middle of the night and tell her you missed her. She’s a romantic that loves the cliches she reads in the library while the kids study.

Speaking of the kids, help lighten Penny’s workload with them by taking them on a field trip to the farm. Tell them how crops work. Let them help with the animals. They’re learning hands on and having fun. The kids will love it, and Penny’s opinion of you will skyrocket.

Penny sees how hard you work on the farm and will often ask if there’s any way that she can help. She doesn’t want to be a burden, so she won’t take the initiative. Bonus points if it’s a job you can work at together. She’ll act exasperated if you tell her that her company is help enough, but she thinks that it’s really sweet.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Abigail— Quality Time and Words of Affirmation

Abigail is very vocal, so words of affirmation as a love language comes naturally to her.

Abigail likes to hear how you feel. She grew up knowing she was loved, but she never heard it. Sometimes hearing you say “I love you” takes her aback, but she soon grows accustomed to it and finds that she actually loves how open you are about your feelings with her.

Because of her dad pushing traditionally femenine roles and interests on her, Abigail needs a lot of reminding that her feelings and interests are valid.

Abigail loves spending time just chilling with you. Even though it happened early on, she considers your first date when the two of you played video games together in her room.

She loves going into the mines and exploring the woods with you. It’s a win-win situation. You get help with your work while getting to spend time with her, and she gets to spend time with you while doing something that she loves.

───────･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─────────

Maru —

I honestly see Maru having a mix of all of the love languages. Maru is also very logical versus emotional.

Maru will hold your hand in public, but she tends to keep physical affection limited to private spaces.

She’s a very dominant person who often initiates things. She also likes to be the big spoon when you cuddle.

When it comes to gifts, anything that could be used towards a project, Maru loves it. She will even consider soil samples from your farm or rocks you dig out from the mines a suitable gift. Bonus points if it’s something she’s mentioned recently.

Because these gifts are used for her work, she also sees this as an act of service, especially if it’s something that you had to go out of your way to get for her.

You also will stick around and help her with her projects or bring her lunch or something to drink while she’s working.

Maru doesn’t necessarily need to hear how much you love her. Instead, she wants vocal affirmation about her work. To her, your support is enough to show you love her. If you didn’t love her, you wouldn’t care about her work.

Come to visit Maru at the clinic and she’s over the moon. Her job can get boring, and she’s likely to talk your ear off. Your visits will have to decrease as Harvey may get upset if she’s constantly talking with you and not doing her job.

Maru likes to spend time with you while working on projects, but she feels like it’s not exactly quality time. That being said, she likes to sit by the lake with you or on the bench near the Saloon. While Maru is talkative, silence doesn’t bother her when she’s with you like this.

[princesscallyie]

Out of all the doll brands you've been collecting from so far (Rainbow High, Bratz, etc.), how would you rank them from Most to Least favorite?

1. LOL OMG (including the Tweens)

It seems like RH and LOL OMG are fighting for the top spot in my mind all the time but im finally admitting that I do really like them more. I have drawn more art for it, I like the songs more. I’m always drawn to them first when I look at my collection. So yeah…

2. RH

They started my collection and I have almost all of them but LOL OMG has the better concepts and they have different hair styles and textures. This is what RH is missing. It took ppl calling them out to finally add a dark skin character in series 2. I like them them a lot though.

3. Bratzillaz

I only have six but I just love their inset eyes and their aesthetic of being witches. If they had better hair quality and bodies. They would have been legends.

4. Fail Fix

They have pretty faces and cool inset eyes. And they have different body types. I’m drawn them as well when I look at my “alternative doll” shelf

5. Bratz

I like the Bratz I have but haven’t been super into trying to collect anymore old ones. Mostly because the prices are insane for in box and I would rather have my dolls being complete. I am buying these reproductions though.

6. Glo Up Girls

I only have one, Rose, but she’s my favorite non-MGA girl now. I also want to get Tiffany. They don’t have articulation in the knees but I’m kinda used to that with OMGs. If they had, they would be more popular I think.

7. Nanana Suprise

I they have some cute ones ngl. But they so expensive at their retail price. I have three and I only buy when they’re 50% off.

8. Disney Store

I have the Megara and Jasmine classic dolls. They are pretty alright. They look accurate to the character design. We are waiting for an Encanto Dolores doll Disney, step on it!!!

7. Mermaid High

I’m still kinda salty that I paid full price for the one I have. She’s okay, but not super pleased with her. Mermaze Mermaids is what I prefer 100%. I don’t even care that they don’t have a removable tail. They have the better quality and fashion sense imo.

And there’s like three more but I don’t have much to say about them since I just randomly bought the dolls to test out.

[x0401x]

Violet Evergarden Movie Summary

The initial plan was to make this a short bullet-point thing, but I felt like there was too much to clarify and I had no choice but use novel references to explain certain parts, so I decided to just write a normal summary. Many thanks before-hand to my friend Yuuki, who gave me all this info.

Apologies for taking relatively long with this thing. Not even I expected that I would end up writing this much. Buckle up for the ride, ‘cause it won’t be fun.

Nope, not kidding. It really won’t.

First thing I need to make clear is: this movie is one and a half hour long and divided into three parts and two different timelines: the times when Violet existed and the times after she dies. Already in the beginning of the movie, Violet is dead.

Yes, you read this right. She’s dead.

Now, I don’t mean that she’s dead in the literal sense. This is 60 years in the future. She might be alive or not, but it’s never said. However, the timeline of 60 years later is considered an era without Violet, apparently because she has retired and her “legend” is over, so to say. It’s also a time where Auto-Memories Dolls don’t exist. That’s one good punch in the face. Let’s keep counting.

The movie is sort of like a tale being read by someone else, which at some point goes into Violet’s first-person POV. The whole thing is kind of a look back on Violet’s life tragectory and how it took a new turn when she decided to continue looking for Gil despite all the mess of the TV series.

The era where Violet exists is an era where telephones are being introduced to the people, so Auto-Memories Dolls are starting to become unnecessary. I would argue that the creation of the telephone isn’t enough for an entire occupation to start disappearing so quickly, since new inventions are normally extremely expensive and not everyone has access to them (or even knows about their existence) so immediately after their conception. Realistically speaking, ghostwriters would still be important as long as there were still so many people unable to buy phones. Not to mention that this is a steampunk world where compulsory education doesn’t seem to be a thing yet, so even in the off chance that everybody can buy a phone, there would still be a lot of people who can’t read or write on their own. But all of this clearly went over the animators’ heads, so not only ghostwriters but also the mail business in general are nearing their doom in the movie.

The one looking back on Violet’s life was Ann, who was telling it all to her granddaughter, Daisy (who, by the way, is voiced by Morohoshi Sumire, the same girl who voiced the seven-year-old Ann). Ann had kept all the letters that Violet ghostwrote for her mother, as well as the newspapers about the CH Postal Company. Looks like the article was printed after Violet left CH, since she isn’t in the picture with everyone else.

In this era, CH’s main office has been turned into a museum. Nerine is shown working in it. Of course, she’s a grandma by then. Speaking of the CH personnel, Erica also quit being an Auto-Memories Doll and became a playwright like Oscar. She appears in the newspaper, though, so she probably a while left after Violet did. Taylor also appears there.

Back to Daisy, she was writing a letter to her parents, in order to learn how to properly convey feelings with written word. The message of this scene seems to be that, no matter the tools, what’s important is that we convey our feelings to the people we love.

As we see in the trailer, Gil’s mom has passed and Violet runs into Dietfried when visiting her grave on the anniversary of her death. To anyone who is wondering: yeah, Gil never went to see his mother and she died thinking that he was dead.

Nobody knew that Gil was alive. Not his mother, not Dietfried, not the Evergardens and not even Hodgins. No one.

Here’s what happened to Gil in the anime: he survived the incident at Intense, of course, but got separated from Violet in that explosion. His tag miraculously stayed on the same spot, though, as we saw in the TV series. Now, since this isn’t explained in the anime at all, I have to make it clear: the tag is that necklace the soldiers wear. It contains their names and ranks, so that their bodies can be identified even when they’re irrecognizable. Without the tag, the people who rescued Gil had no idea who he was, so he was sent to a different place to get treated. He ended up at a monastery hospital instead of the one in Enchaîné. I would debate that his uniform alone is enough to identify him as someone from the Leidenschaftlich Army, or maybe they could’ve just asked him which troop he belonged to after he woke up and relocated him to where his fellow men were, but who even cares about all these plot holes anymore? Definitely not me.

Anyway. After Gil was discharged, he ran the fuck away. Like, literally.

If anyone out there was hoping that Gil would finally have his moment to shine as the self-sacrificing, thoughtful and ridiculously kindhearted character that he is in the novel, I have bad news for you. What we had here was even worse than it being Gil’s excuse movie. It’s like the whole thing was made to drag his character so deep through the mud that he’ll never be able to get up again. There’s pretty much nothing in this one and a half hour that actually justifies what he did to Violet. I’ll elaborate on this as we go on.

Anime!Gil became a nomad and went traveling. He offed his ass to the island where that lighthouse displayed in the most recent official art is located (that’s why Gil and Violet were at the beach on the movie poster). He doesn’t have a prosthetic in the anime because, apparently, he was more worried about disappearing as fast as possible to somewhere he would never be found, and never attempted to contact anybody. So nobody knew that he was alive, hence the grave, which, as we feared, was not a fake one. His family really did think he had died.

This is a point that I have already addressed before, but that also means Gil really did abandon Violet to luck. If anything dangerous ever happened to her (as it did, and it was always very obviously likely to happen, since she was the southern army’s most outstanding soldier and quite literally fled from the military), he wouldn’t even know. If word ever got to him, it would probably be too late. And even if it weren’t, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help her. More than allowing her to live freely, it felt like he was running away from his responsibilities regarding Violet.

Punch on the face count is currently at six.

By sheer coincidence, Violet learns that Gil is living in that island. She goes to see him and Hodgins goes with her after trying to stop her at first. When Gil finds out that they came to see him, he outright refuses to meet them. It pretty much takes the near entirety of the goddamn movie for them to see each other face-to-face. I say face-to-face because all of the following shit happens:

Hodgins goes to talk to Gil. It lasts about 20 minutes.

Gil talks to Violet from behind a door. This one is about 10 minutes.

Dietfried also comes to the island to talk to him. Also about 10 minutes.

At long fucking last, Gil goes to see Violet. But that, too, is only for about 10 minutes.

Hodgins gives him a speech very similar to what happens in chapter 8. Now get ready to fall back from your seats: Dietfried basically goes there to tell Gil that he won’t run away from taking over the family anymore, so Gil can live freely. Yes, Dietfried is officially a better Gilbert than Gilbert himself. I crave death.

So, after much ado, they come to a conclusion: Gil will stay in the island. In order to completely free himself of the shackles of his bloodline, he stays behind, living the way he wants to. ‘Cause all anime!Gil wants is to rot away alone by the sea, apparently. Now prepare yourselves, for it gets worse. Ready?

Violet stays with him in the motherfucking island.

That’s right, ladies and gents. Another fear became true. She quits her job at the CH Postal Company and goes to live with him. Well, at least, not as a housewife. She starts working with mail services in the island, and Gil helps her with it. Her life goes on like this and she dies in the island as well.

This is where the timeline after Violet passes away comes into light, parallel to the era when Violet was alive. Daisy talks about what happened after Violet left CH, as if it were a tale from the distant past.

That’s it.

The movie paints this as a happy ending. I can hardly see it as one. I know it almost looks like everything was solved, but it just got swept under the rug.

The main point that makes me sad in this ending is that Violet’s character development did a 360 degree flip. In the end, she threw everything to the air and went to live in someone who she always put before everyone else, even herself, but who didn’t do the same for her (in the anime). She’s gone to a crammed little island, where she led an uneventful life away from everyone and everything that’s ever had a positive impact on her. All she has is Gil.

Of course, he’s all she needs, but he isn’t all she should have, and that was the entire point of pushing her to go live on her own. Which is exactly what she earns in the novel: two loving parents, a father figure, a brother figure, a best friend and several other friends and acquaintances whom she formed a bond with. She has all she needs, so she doesn’t have to cling to Gil for any reason. There’s no emotional dependance on him anymore. She doesn’t need him to be whole. She just wants him because he happens to be the best person she’s ever met.

Anime!Violet is most definitely not whole. She almost got there, but then she backtracked completely. And anime!Gil... in my friend’s words, is a weakling. There’s nothing in him actually worth all this undying blind love. Sure, he’s full of regret and shit, but it’s too easy to only act upon it now, by vanishing into thin air like a coward.

The deal with novel!Gil is that he looks around at everything he has, everything that had been burdening him and killing him on the inside all his life, and decides to make use of it for Violet’s sake. He continues being family head and working in the army, amassing money and connections in order to have every means possible to protect Violet should anything happen to her. And as it turns out, he does end up having to use those means, more than once, but he will keep this up for as long as he needs to, because he lives for her now. That’s what makes him worth all the blood, sweat, tears, mental sanity and even body parts that she gave away for his sake: he pays it back. Every cent.

Punch in the face count ends at twelve. Thirteen if I include the fact that the movie ends with a last shot of Violet after she and Gilbert do a pinky swear. Looks like they were really trying to buy everyone with tears.

Oh, well.

I hope this has been a good enough summary. Sorry if I rained on anyone’s parade. I’m pretty sure we won’t get a remake ever, so I really wish we all can get over this soon.

[natromanxoff]

An Exclusive Interview With Queen!

Music Life September 1975 issue

By Kaoruko Togo and Keiko Miyasaka

[Original text in Japanese, translation by deathtoming]

Around noon on July 14th, we left the hotel by car, and around two hours later we arrived at the beautiful Ridge Farm, surrounded by trees. We were blessed with clear skies on this day, and the blue sky and the greenery of the farm were almost blindingly beautiful. It was a bit past 2 o’clock. When we arrived in the main building, we were first greeted by a large dog, followed by a familiar voice from a room in the back. It was a large food hall, with Freddie, Brian, Roger, and John present.

When they see us, the four of them say, “Hello! You’re from Music Life, right? Welcome!” and greet us with handshakes. The four of them rented this Ridge Farm to focus solely on rehearsing for their next album. “We’re about to have lunch. Want to join us?” We knew we couldn’t work while hungry, so we accepted their offer with thanks. When the meal finished, we could begin our interview at last….

Music Life (ML): Are you in the middle of recording now?

Roger: No, we’re not recording yet. We’re all practising our new songs together. Once we practise them, we get an idea of how we should record them, I think.

ML: When do you think you’ll start recording?

Roger Maybe in about 3 weeks…

John: We might use Rockfield Studios in Wales.

ML: Do you always record there?

Roger: No, not really, although we did a bit of recording there for our third album, Sheer Heart Attack.

Freddie. We used around five studios to record that one. We’ll probably use several studios this time around, too.

ML: You’ll do a bit of recording in London, too, right?

Roger: Probably a little bit, yeah. We usually do our mixing in London.

Brian: But when we first record the backing track, it’s better to do it somewhere where we’re nice and settled, so it’s good to do it while we’re holed out in the studio. By doing that, we’re able to relax and do the recording.

ML: Can you tell us something about your upcoming album?

Freddie: Yeah, well we only have the rough framework at this point, but I think it will be our best work so far. We’re in the middle of creating the songs now.

Roger: Nothing has really come together yet, so it’s difficult to explain.

John: When we first came here we presented what songs we had written so far to each other, and we had about two albums’ worth, haha.

ML: I hear you’re heading to the US on tour soon.

John: Probably. Our manager is in the US now, and he’s apparently in talks with a bunch of people.

Freddie: We have to decide whether to record the album or go on tour in the US like we had decided during our previous tour.

ML: How long have you been working with your producer?

Freddie: His name is Roy Thomas Baker, and he’s been with us since our debut album.

Roger: We’re co-producing the album with him. Our next album will be with him, too.

ML: This Ridge Farm is such a beautiful place. How did you find it?

Roger: Our mixer, John Harris, found it. The owner often rents out this place to rock groups, apparently.

<At this point, an airplane flies overhead, making an extremely loud noise! Everyone shouts “Quiet!”>

ML: When you write your songs, do you do it individually?

Freddie: Yes, that’s right. Everyone writes their own songs in their own homes, and then brings it to places like this and we all work on it.

ML: How many songs will be on this album?

Freddie: I don’t know yet. Maybe around 12.

ML: When will it be released?

Freddie: That depends on a lot of things. But I want it out some time this year. It will probably be by the end of this year.

ML: What have you been up to since you came back from Japan?

Freddie: For several weeks, we kept on talking about our time in Japan, haha. We’d unwrap the presents we got from Japan. Please pass along our thanks to our fans in Japan, because we were really treated so kindly.

<An airplane makes another appearance. The four look up and protest again.>

ML: Is there anything that stands out in particular from your time in Japan?

Roger: Aside from the people we met, probably our final show in Tokyo. Something felt special. It was also our final show in Japan. The atmosphere was wonderful.

John: I also remember appearing in a kimono on stage for the first time in that concert.

ML: What about Japanese food?

Freddie: Like, tempura, haha. We went to a Japanese restaurant with our bodyguards in Japan. Oh that’s right, please send our regards to those bodyguards; we owe them a lot.

ML: What do you want to do the most the next time you’re in Japan?

Roger: I’m going to go shopping for sure, haha! Things like tape recorders and other things. Last time, Freddie bought lots of ceramics, and Brian and John bought cameras.

ML: Brian, you like cameras, don’t you?

Brian: Yeah, I do photography sometimes, and I have lots of other hobbies. Right now I’m really into audio.

ML: Since when have you been taking pictures?

Brian: Since quite a long time ago. But I only recently got a good camera. In England, cameras are so expensive.

ML: This is especially the case in Japan, but you have a lot of young girls for fans. What do you think about that?

Roger: It’s outstanding, haha! Japanese fans in particular give us lots of presents. We don’t get too many gifts from other countries, but it seems to be a part of the Japanese tradition.

ML: Among your young, female Japanese fans, there are some who say that Queen is their first encounter with rock music.

Roger: Great!

Freddie: That’s a good thing. It was really exciting when we were in Japan, and I think it was probably the same kind of atmosphere as it was for the Beatles in the ‘60s.

<The others chime in with comments like, “That’s really good!”>

ML: Were there any interesting gifts from Japan?

Brian: I received a lot of birthday gifts, so thank you very much to all of you for those presents. I received many works of art, and also things like dolls and traditional balls wrapped with beautiful string. We got lots of toys, too.

Roger: That ball with the string was hand-made, right? I got one, too.

<The plane flies by again, distressing the band.>

ML: In your free time, what kind of music do you listen to?

Roger: I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin's first album.

Freddie: Lately, classical. Like, Chopin. Also things like Led Zeppelin and John Lennon.

ML: Freddie, you have a broad range of interests.

Freddie: Of course. I’ll listen to anything that I like. That said, there’s no artist whose album I’d buy as soon as it was released.

ML: Brian, what about you?

Brian: Pretty much the same as everyone else. I often listen to Led Zeppelin.

ML: There’s a place called “Rhye” in the lyrics for Lily of the Valley, but is that a real place in England?

Freddie: No, it’s a land from my imagination. It’s also mentioned in Seven Seas of Rhye, and I guess it’s like a fairy tale.

Roger: There is a place called “Rye” in England, although the spelling is different.

ML: Your songs’ lyrics seem to be influenced by classical poets.

Freddie: You’re referring to lyric poetry. I don’t think we’re influenced by that too much. Truthfully, I don’t have time to read. I just like expressing myself in that way. Those kinds of expressions are easier.

ML: Do the really passionate lyrics for love songs come from your personal experiences?

Roger: Ahhhh--!! Haha, yeah right! But I guess there’s, uh, a little bit of something in there.<Grinning> But Brian sometimes writes really passionate ones.

ML: She Makes Me is quite the song, isn’t it?

Brian: No, it’s not like that at all. <Acting quite bashfully> Although there are times when my personal experiences are expressed in song lyrics.

<The rest of the band hoot and holler at this!>

ML: The band does a good job recreating the sound from your records live on stage, don’t you?

Roger: We’re not trying to reproduce what you hear on the record exactly, though. Of course we want to produce a good sound, but on stage we also need to add an exciting mood to the quality of the sound. So that’s why it needs to be a little different from the album.

ML: Which do you like better, recording or performing live?

Freddie: I like both. They’re both interesting in their own ways.

ML: Do you use any special equipment on stage?

Roger: No, although Brian uses echo machines and such.

ML: Do you have a lighting technician?

Freddie: We do have one, but the band comes up with the idea, and our lighting guy -- his name is James Dann -- takes care of the rest. We’ve already come up with our next stage design and it’s going to be interesting.

<The plane flies by again. Everyone looks defeated.>

ML: Killer Queen was a big hit single; are hit singles important to you?

Roger: It’s not absolutely necessary. But we’ll keep on releasing singles. Of course we’ll only release ones we like, though.

ML: Which do you like better, singles or albums?

Freddie: Definitely albums! I think our music is geared more towards albums rather than singles.

Roger: Rather than releasing single after single, it’s better if there happens to be a song in the album that works well as a single, and we release it if the timing is right. It’s not good if we start thinking we need to release a single every 3 months.

John: On this upcoming album as well, we will record everything first, and then release something if it works well as a single. But we don’t particularly record only songs that would work as singles.

ML: Does it seem like you’ll have another song like Killer Queen?

Freddie: No, when Seven Seas of Rhye became a hit in England, the people at the record company wanted our next song to be like that, but we couldn’t do it. We go in the studio and record what we’re feeling at that time, and only after everything is finished do we decide as a group what to release as a single.

ML: So, you’re always looking for a new sound?

Freddie: It’s more interesting that way.

Roger: That’s why we come to places like this, and while we’re rehearsing we make a bunch of noise and form songs from that.

ML: Did someone serve as an inspiration for Killer Queen?

Roger: Freddie’s mom.

<Everyone bursts out laughing>

ML: Do you have plans for a British tour?

Roger: Yeah. Probably by the end of this year.

John: But first we need to record our album, and we don’t know what will come after.

ML: Which country’s fans do you like?

John: Japan’s, of course, haha!

Brian: <Speaking seriously> We were really surprised by the reaction of our Japanese fans. Honestly speaking, we didn’t realize it was at that level.

Roger: We thought there would be difficulties because of the language difference, but rock fans are the same around the world, in the end.

ML: Did you have a break after you came back from Japan?

John: Just a little. But we had lots of preparation to do, so it’s like we didn’t have a break.

ML: And uhh… now I’d like to ask about things outside of the music. It’s something Japanese fans want to know: when did you fall in love for the first time? What kind of person were they?

<Everyone reacts in horror, and they point at each other, with no one answering the question. Finally, Freddie speaks for the group.>

Freddie: Err… our first love is, of course, music, haha.

ML: Do you have any memories from when you were going to school?

Roger: I haaaaated school!

ML: What about you, Brian?

Brian: I went to an all boys school. I had no idea what girls were like, right up to when I graduated when I was 18. It was really a shock when I first got to know girls. But that’s the British school system for you. I was raised away from girls for so long that I was afraid to meet them.

Freddie: You’re still afraid of them, aren’t you? Haha. <This was a tough joke>

ML: Freddie, what subjects did you like in school?

Roger Oh, I know! ”Needlework”! <Everyone bursts out laughing>

Freddie: Art. I studied graphics and illustration at an art school for 3 years.

ML: What about sports?

Freddie: I did everything. Cricket, tennis…

ML: Do you still meet up with your friends from school?

Freddie: I often meet with around two of them.

ML: And, finally, are you married?

Roger: Japanese fans often want to know things like that, but I won’t say. <Roger winks mischievously.>

Freddie: We’re all single! But the Japanese girls have to find that out for themselves.

ML: Let’s get a message from each one of you to our readers…

And with that, the friendly interview came to an end. We were fortunate that the band talked to us in a relaxed mood while bathing in the bright sun.

[dancedance-resolution]

here's my design for goty 2022 (in an au where copyright isn't an issue)

FACTS

name: nia mahdi

age: 11

ethnicity: persian

religion: muslim

family: nia is an only child. she was born in charlottesville, va, after parents immigrated there from iran.

notes: nia is autistic and trans <3

DOLL

face mold: nia would get a new face mold that is designed based on ethnically persian features

skin tone: 25 ("tan skin with warm neutral undertones")

eye color: dark brown

freckles: yes

hair cut: wavy, very long (kanani length)

hair color: dark brown

meet outfit: a trans pride flag colored scrunchy for her hair, a light blue zip-up sweatshirt that says "i am proud to be autistic" on the back, this t-shirt (a light blue t-shirt with fan art of dreamer with a trans pride flag cape) beneath that sweatshirt, these shorts (pastel plaid knee-length shorts), lindsey's striped leggings beneath those shorts, and sperry shoes

meet accessories: bright purple ear defenders, an AAC tablet, a doll-sized version of the 2021 dc pride comic book, this pink kryptonite chewelry

BOOK 1

(these books would have three authors - me, an author who is muslim and a second generation immigrant, and an author who is a trans woman of color. the reason for three authors is so that we can tell nia's story authentically - i'm autistic and have autism gender like nia, the second author is muslim and an immigrant like nia, and the third author is specifically a trans woman of color like nia.)

in chapter 1 we'll briefly go over this background information:

nia came out to her parents as trans on the car ride home from the last day of first grade. she chose the name "nia" because she wanted to name herself after nia nal, a character on her favorite show (supergirl) because nia nal is trans like she is, nia nal is an alien (and nia mahdi oftentimes feels like an alien around other humans), and nia nal is a really cool superhero! (unspoken: nia nal is nia mahdi's special interest.)

it took nia mahdi's parents a little bit of time to wrap their heads around her truth, but soon, they fully accepted nia for who she is.

that summer, her parents informed nia's school of her correct name, pronouns, and gender. and nia started growing out her hair, and she's never cut it since! nia loves her long hair.

when nia started second grade, nia's classmates sometimes accidentally called her by the wrong name and pronouns, but they always apologized and corrected themselves when nia pointed out their mistake. a few kids were confused, but once nia explained that she knows she's a girl just as well as you know you're a boy/girl, they all understood and accepted her :)

now onto the real content of the first book, which takes place from september to december:

nia's just started sixth grade at a new middle school. it's really loud, big, and hard. but she has a friend, ender. ender doesn't speak english well (he moved to america from turkey just last year), but that's okay because nia has trouble speaking sometimes too.

one day, nia's parents take her to a doctor, and she has to answer a lot of questions and take a lot of tests.

a few weeks later, nia's parents sit her down and tell her that she has been diagnosed with autism.

nia researches autism and feels very relieved and validated. (unspoken: autism becomes one of nia's special interests.)

at school, nia gets some cool accomodations: she's allowed to wear ear defenders at lunch and in the hallways, she can keep a tablet in her backpack to use for AAC when necessary, and she can use the school's sensory break room when necessary.

one time, nia gets very upset after receiving a "bad grade" on a reading test. a few of the questions asked her to identify characters' emotions, motivations, etc., and nia wants to explain to her teacher that her autism makes "emotional reading between the lines" hard for her. but she's so upset that her mouth isn't working properly, so she uses her AAC to talk to the teacher.

after that, one of nia's classmates makes a rude comment about her AAC. speaking through her AAC, nia explains to him why she uses her AAC. she stands up for herself.

in her free time, nia keeps researching autism and disability justice advocacy. she begins to think that her friend ender might be autistic too - he has a lot of autistic traits, and she's never felt alien around him in the way she does around most people.

she tells ender about her theory. ender says he's not sure whether or not he thinks he's autistic. but he does know that the hallways are far too loud, and he would like to be able to wear ear defenders like nia. so nia lends ender her spare pair of ear defenders.

the next day at lunch, ender gives nia back her ear defenders and reveals that he got in trouble for wearing in the hallway. the teacher thought he was wearing headphones and listening to music (which isn't allowed), and ender couldn't remember the english words to explain to her that they were just to shield him from the noise.

nia wants to help ender be able to wear defenders. she schedules a meeting with the guidance counselor. together, she and ender explain to the guidance counselor that ender just wants to wear ear defenders in the loud hallways. the counselor says that ender can't do that since he doesn't have an official accommodations letter.

nia leaves the office very upset. she knows from her research that autism diagnoses are very expensive and hard to get. she wants to find a way to get ender this accommodation without an official letter.

so nia makes a plan: she and ender write a long essay explaining why ender should be allowed to wear ear defenders.

they present the essay to the counselor, and she's convinced by their arguement. ender is now allowed to wear ear defenders in the hallway :)

to celebrate their victory, nia buys ender bright purple ear defenders (the same type she has) so that they can match :)

and that's the end of book 1

BOOK 2

book 2 takes place from january to march

nia goes on puberty blockers. nia's glad that she won't have to go through male puberty, but she also feels weird about it. nia is very excited to start wearing a hijab, and her mom says that she can start wearing a hijab when she goes through puberty and transitions from being a girl to being a woman. so, if nia isn't going through puberty now, when will she get to start wearing a hijab?

nia talks to ender about her problem. ender suggests that she should talk to her mom about it.

nia talks to her mom about her concerns. nia's mom explains that the shift from girl to woman involves more than just her body changing: it involves growth, strength of spirit, and learning about oneself. nia's mom will be able to tell when she's ready to start wearing the hijab, even if nia isn't going through puberty. nia feels a lot better now.

the next day at lunch, nia tells ender the good news. he is very happy for her. he then tells nia that he's scared of puberty too. he asks nia how she knew she was a girl, and nia explains how it was this strong internal feeling. ender reveals that he feels like he's not a boy or a girl. he's afraid that that means he's weird or broken. nia explains that he's not weird or broken - some people are non-binary, which means that they're not fully a boy or fully a girl. ender really likes that word. nia also tells ender that some non-binary like to use the gender-neutral pronouns "they/them" and asks ender if he would like her to start using those pronouns for him. ender says that he's not sure. he likes he/him pronouns, he thinks, at least for now. nia smiles and tells him that she's proud of him.

the spring dance is in march. nia and her mom go shopping for an oufit. at first, nia drifts towards the pretty dresses. she loves how they look and feels great in them, but she wants to try on suits too. she feels a little bit insecure when she realizes that she loves how she looks in the suit too. (plus, this navy suit will go better with her purple ear defenders than the colorful dresses will.) she's scared that her classmates will think she's not a "real girl" if she comes to the dance in a suit, but then she remembers her conversation with ender - when ender asked her how she knew she's a girl, her answer was that it was just something she knew. her gender isn't defined by her clothing preferences - she's just as much of a real girl in this suit as in those dresses. so nia buys the suit, and she feels very happy and confident.

at the dance, she finds that ender is wearing a skirt (and a tuxedo shirt and blazer). she runs up to him, and they both happy stim. they have a lot of fun dancing and snacking on cheez its together.

BOOK 3

book 3 takes place from april to june

the main plot of book 3 is going to be nia's grandmother visiting from iran for three months. nia learns a lot of new information about her family culture.

in june, to celebrate the end of the school year, nia's school has a multi-cultural night.

ender signs up to bring in some traditional turkish food and share some of the poetry his dad has written in turkish. he encourages nia to sign up for multi-cultural night too!

so nia signs up.

together, nia and her grandmother cook a ton of traditional iranian food to share at the celebration. she and her grandmother also work together to sew a special kaftan for nia.

the night of the celebration, nia dresses up in her kaftan and grabs the containers of food. as she's getting ready to leave, her father asks her to stop so he can take a picture of her. her mother says, "wait! i have one other thing for the picture!" (but spoken in faarsi). she emerges with a hijab for nia. she helps nia put on the hijab and tells nia that she's seen how nia's grown into a woman this past school year (aka, over the course of these 3 books). nia is so happy that she cries.

at the multi-cultural night, everyone loves the food and nia's kaftan and hijab. when ender sees nia's hijab, he starts happy stimming, and nia starts happy stimming too.

that's all my plans for goty 2022!

[silvermoon424]

what are your favorite sailor moon items you have?

Alright, this took a lot of thought but I managed to narrow down my favorites to 12 items. I’ll try to give some backstory and include links if they can still be bought anywhere.

Proplica Spiral Heart Moon Rod

This gorgeous replica of the Spiral Heart Moon Rod is the first Proplica I ever got! I bought it when it first came out and I’m so glad I did, because they’re impossible to find at a decent price nowadays (they’re not on Amazon and when I looked on eBay I could only find them for $300+, so yikes). Anyway, the Spiral Heart Moon Rod is my favorite wand of Sailor Moon’s so I’m so happy I have this gorgeous copy of it!

Proplica Pink Moon Stick

I got this Proplica of Chibi Moon’s Pink Moon Stick as a birthday present in 2018 and it’s lovely! I have always loved the design of the Pink Moon Stick (totally something I would use as a magical girl) and own several other fanmade replicas of it. I’m glad I got the official Proplica! They can still be bought on Amazon.

Proplica Lip Rod (Neptune)

I bought the Proplica of Neptune’s Lip Rod in 2018 and I love it so much! Neptune’s Lip Rod is one of my favorite transformation items and the Proplica definitely did it justice! You can still buy these for relatively cheap (for a Proplica) on Amazon.

Holy Grail room fragrance dispenser

This is a replica of the Holy Grail that can also be used to diffuse fragrance that I bought a few years ago. I personally just keep it as a prop and haven’t used the scent it comes with, though it smells nice. You can find a couple of these on eBay, but it looks like there’s a Chinese bootleg available now. I own the official version so I can’t speak for the quality of the bootleg.

Transformation/Disguise Pen set

This is a set of the Inner Senshi’s season 1 Transformation Pens as well as Usagi’s Disguise Pen. They are all functional pens that can be written with. I got this as a Christmas gift to myself a few years ago. I also own the set with the Star Power Pens, but I think this set is cuter! You can still find these on eBay, but the cheapest they go is $110+.  

Eternal Tiare 

A lovely follower of mine gifted this toy of the Eternal Tiare to me a few years ago, along with some other amazing Sailor Moon merch. It’s really hard to find nowadays so I’m very grateful for this gift!

Cosmic Heart Compact mirror (fanmade)

This is a gorgeous replica of the Cosmic Heart Compact made by an art studio called Starlight Studio. It’s only $25, which is a steal! The inside is a mirror.

Crisis Moon Compact mirror (fanmade)

This Cosmic Heart Compact replica is also made by Starlight Studios and is very cheap (only $25). The color and details are so beautiful! Like the one above, it’s a mirror compact.

Neo-Queen Serenity doll

This is a very rare doll of Neo-Queen Serenity that was produced in Japan when the R anime was airing. It’s insanely hard to find and very expensive, but I managed to buy this one for like $40 in 2015 or so. I’m convinced whoever sold her had no idea of her value, lmao (I think the listing was even just under the title “Sailor Moon doll” or something). I’m so glad I own this gorgeous and rare doll! 

Italian mini dolls of the Inner Senshi

These adorable and detailed mini-dolls of the Inner Senshi are about 5-6 inches tall and were made in Italy around 2010-2012 (during that time period Italy was going through a revitalized Sailor Moon phase and created a lot of merchandise; this was before Japanese and American companies began making Sailor Moon merch again). Anyway, I think I bought these dolls individually in 2012 or 2013 and I’m so glad I did! You can’t find them anywhere anymore. 

Sailor Cosmos plush (fanmade)

I bought this fanmade plush of Sailor Cosmos in 2013. Apparently she had been commissioned by someone but it fell through and so the artist sold her for a reduced price on Etsy. I think I bought her for around $60? Anyway, she’s stunning and definitely my favorite Sailor Moon plush! 

Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon plush

This adorable plush of Chibi Chibi only came out recently and is still in stock! It’s made by Great Eastern Animation, who have made a variety of Sailor Moon plushies. 

[pocketsizeddemon]

Partners in Crime

I was listening to Set It Off's Partners In Crime and this happened. Enjoy~ 

1.5k words, AO3 

           “Did you see the bullshit on this morning’s newspapers?” you said as you passed the aforementioned newspaper to Jaehyun. It read:

            The real-life Joker and Harley Queen have struck again. The famous criminal couple, that remains unidentified, have succeeded in yet another bank robbery. The police are baffled as there seem to be no clues so far to help with the investigations. Expert criminologists call their robberies proper “works of art” as they seem to be perfectly executed.

            Jaehyun sighed. Of all the things that those idiots could nickname you, why did it have to be that? “Bonnie and Clyde are right there! Whatever the hell makes them think that I’m a deranged lunatic that abuses his wife? …At least they got you right. You definitely are a hot genius.” He commented with a crooked smile that made his dimples show.

            “Must be because you’re calling me baby doll all the time” you replied, sticking your tongue out to him. “Works of art though.” you bit your lip as you quoted the article. “Now that’s a compliment. I wonder if they’re saying the same when they’re writing their reports.”

            “Well we’ll never have to worry about that now, don’t we baby doll?” he answered sweetly. Mock him all you may but he knew how much this little nickname made your heart flutter. He stood up to hug you and rest his forehead on yours. “They don’t know who we are my beloved, we’re ghost walking among the streets, we leave no traces, and even if they do find us, they’ll never take us alive.”

            Truth be told, you’ve been carrying the oath you gave on your wedding day long before you actually married. Until death do us part was always part of your relationship since the beginning. Jaehyun was a bank employee and you were the secretary of the bank’s manager in the same bank when you first met. The beginning of your romance was sweet, like all other love stories. There weren’t exactly any money problems you faced and there weren’t any rumors about you two being a thing but you both hated the situation for various reasons. Jaehyun’s patience broke the day you came home furious because the greasy old manager had touched you inappropriately.

            It was a few days later that Jaehyun ‘died in a car accident’ and a few more days until a ‘fire of unknown origin’ broke down in your apartment, strangely both leaving your ‘bodies’ conveniently unrecognizable. It was a genius beginning to your plan. No one could arrest a dead man after all. A week later, your legacy as lovers and partners in crime began with a perfectly executed murder and the heist of the bank that you two used to work at. The murder of the manager was a little unnecessary but Jaehyun wouldn’t let the asshole that groped you walk around unpunished. Plus the element of fear was a good way to shut everyone up and made sure they’d behave.

            You’d never forget that day. As you felt Jaehyun’s arms around you and his lips on your forehead, you could still hear bits and pieces from that fateful evening.

Everybody freeze!

Nobody move, or we will shoot.

Empty out the vault and please, put the money in the bag so my doll and I can be on our way.

            And so your lives like spoiled royalties began. You had forged fake identities, it being insanely easy with all your new-found wealth. From there the sky was the limit. Expensive hotel suites, art heists, pricey jewelry and clothes, more bank robberies and of course, your wedding with the love of your life.

            “Jae?” you sweetly blinked up to him, “I love you.”

            “I love you too baby doll.” He answered as he leaned down for a kiss. You took a look at his curved lips, dimples showing just for you. Standing up on the tips of your toes as you reached for the back of his neck to pull his face down to yours. He kissed you softly, yet passionately, still knocking the breath out of your chest in the most comfortable. He slowly pushed you towards the bed, his hand falling to either side of the pillow to keep himself from crushing you.

            “Does my beloved queen want her well-earned jewels?” Jaehyun had developed an interesting kink since the beginning of your controversial career. Said kink was buying you expensive jewelry and having you wear them in bed. You rolled your eyes at his suggestion and slanted your lips over his before wriggling under him to go pick something out. His favourite piece was an extravagant body chain adorned with Swarovski crystals and you decided to wear that, picking a not so little extra piece.

            You’d be lying if you said that you didn’t get off to this new kink of his, the thrill kicking in, and through it, you also realized that you loved it when Jaehyun wore rings in bed. There was just something sexy about feeling the cold metal on your skin contrasting his warm touch. Now wearing only the body chain and holding a marvelous gold ring for Jae, you seductively walked towards the bed.

            His reaction was instant, something carnal and dangerous glowing in his eyes, a dark and lust-ridden low grunt rumbling from his chest. He made a move to get up, as he was resting on the headboard in just his boxers, but before he could make a move, you straddled his lap. You offered him the ring and he caressed the chain that adorned your body.

            “No matter what you wear, you’re always a goddess to me. But damn is it wonderful to see you like this.” His hands went to your hips, roaming the soft skin and making you shudder. He pulled you in for a kiss, your hips moving involuntarily against his growing erection. His kisses traveled lower to your jaw, neck, and chest and as your noises grew needier, so did he grow hungrier for you.

            “Jae” you moaned out his name. “I want to ride you tonight.” You said pushing his hair back as he was focused on sucking one of your nipples. His dick twitching was enough of an answer for you and soon he was fully naked, the tip grazing your wet folds. You slowly took him in, breathless moans dropping from your lips as he stretched you out.

            The delicate chain moved with every small grind and breath you took, making Jaehyun feel mesmerized. He was trying really hard to keep his composure but your body drove him crazy. He started meeting your pace, his hands trailing the small of your back.

            “Fuck!” you moaned as he met your hips with a, particularly hard thrust. Your hands wrapped around his neck as you tried to ride him at a steady pace, but with every grind, he met you halfway and hit places that were making you lose your mind. He loved letting you call the shots, but it seemed like he was coming unhinged. 

            He didn’t give you any warning as he grabbed your hips and lifted you up. His fingers squeezed the sensitive skin as he thrust up relentlessly, making you leave out a cry that was full of pain and pleasure. That familiar knot began to tighten in your stomach as you felt every inch of him, getting you closer to your peak and sure to leave you sore the next morning.

            Your nails left scratches on his shoulders, as your hands moved to grab the headboard behind his head for support. You could only relent as he fucked you hard and fast, the sound of the bed creaking combined with his deep growls and your wanton moans as lust overtook both of you.

            His teeth latched onto your breast, biting down on the sensitive spot as he continued to ravage you. Every nerve in your body was screaming for release and one particularly hard thrust had you coming undone on his cock. You screamed as your orgasm hit you, tightening around him, your legs wrapping like a vice around his waist. He gripped your hips harder and thrust faster as he chased his own high and sent you into delicious oversensitivity. You couldn’t do anything but whimper as he spilled his seed inside you, a low growl leaving his lips.

             The comedown was sweet, it always was. Jaehyun muttering sweet nothings in your ear as he left soft fluttery kisses all over neck and face making you feeling fuzzy. He helped you remove the now insanely uncomfortable chain and cleaned you up before lying down next to you. As he wrapped his arms around you and nuzzled into your neck, you let out a soft chuckle.

            “Hey baby?” you said with a sleepy yet sinister smile. “Can I bring out the cuffs next time?” He pulled back just a little bit with a worried expression that soon turned into a smirk.

            “I’ll let you do your worst, baby doll,” he stated before kissing you goodnight.

[adultswim2021]

Welcome to Eltingville: “Bring Me the Head of Boba Fett” | February 26, 2002 - 4:00 AM | Special

Lots of personal baggage to unpack on this one, so please forgive what will surely read as a personal blog post:

Welcome to Eltingville was the first of Adult Swim’s “failed pilots” which aired as a special. It’s failed in the sense that it didn’t get picked up, presumably for being too expensive. It originally aired as a stealth premiere at 4:00AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’m assuming to fulfill a contractual agreement. It had a “for real” advertised premiere on March 3rd, which is what you’ll find cited on various web sources.

It’s time I confess something here: I didn’t like this show the first time around. The early 2000s was a time when “nerd” culture was being clumsily embraced as a novelty. People suddenly started gravitating towards movies and shows about nerds, all usually portrayed in a cutesy and toothless way. Yes, I was too blinded by my own shunning of this trend to realize that this show was the antithesis of that. And yes, I was unfamiliar with the original comics that these were based on, which probably would have blown my mind if I was aware of them in the 90s. Hell, I would have shunned a Dan Pussey cartoon if I weren’t already in love with Dan Clowes comics.

Was it all overblown in my own head? Well, I can only come up with two examples to illustrate my distaste for “nerds stuff”, so yes, it probably was. First, Super Nerds, which was a 2000 pilot staring Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn as two nerds who worked at a comic book store. I was sold on it by a friend as being the best sitcom he’d ever seen in his life. I also loved Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. But good lord, did I hate that show, a lot. The more mainstream example is the Comedy Central show Beat the Geeks, a trivia game show where normal people compete against experts (or geeks) in certain fields (usually popular culture related). The promos showed the geeks in question strutting around and ironically looking cool and triumphant. These promos were so profoundly unfunny to me that I found it insane and offensive when the whole “geek” angle seemed to hook other members of my family. “there’s this game show where guys have to compete... against GEEKS! haw haw!” I can still hear my dad’s voice echo in my head. I still hate it!

I also didn’t relate to traditionally geeky things, like superhero comics, science fiction/fantasy, etc. I hated all of that stuff, and I still mostly do (did I go through a multiple year phase in my early 30s where I tried to force myself to like super hero comics? Yes! I did! It didn’t particularly take). I am absolutely a comedy nerd, though, which is a much MUCH lonelier pursuit.

Hell, the comedy nerd isn’t even an archetype on TV shows; Freaks and Geeks came fairly close, but those guys also liked sci-fi and role-playing games and stuff. Square Pegs also had a comedy nerd character. There was that episode of Undeclared where Martin Starr is boring the rest of the cast by trying to explain that Freddy Got Fingered was an intelligent anti-comedy (the closest I’ve ever seen myself be portrayed on screen). All of these shows lasted one season, making the comedy nerd character the most potent poison since (NOTE TO SELF: google FAMOUS FICTIONAL POISONS, please pick a cool non-nerdy one [leave note-to-self in write-up if coming up with one is impossible {will come off as intentional meta-humor (everyone will love this)}]).

Welcome to Eltingville is about four friends who have created The Eltingville Comc Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club. They’ve presumably been together for a long time when this episode starts, and we see the dynamics of the club right away, the main thing being the constant petty bickering that quickly becomes violent and destructive. They’re all gigantic jerks who presumably only hang with each other because nobody else will. The main conflict of this show has to do with Bill, the Stan of the group, and Josh, the Cartman, who eventually come to blows over a rare Boba Fett doll-- I mean, figure. The first half of the show is a pretty good introduction to the would-be-series, with the guys playing a D&D style role-playing game and then getting into a full-fledged fist-fight over a VHS compilation of nude scenes that turns out to be a recording of the Hair Bear Bunch. The second half is an adaptation of the comic story “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”. Had I thought of it I might have read the entire run of Eltingville Club comics before reviewing this. Unfortunately it was a bit of an afterthought so I just read the first two stories, including the Boba Fett one. For the record, I own the Eltingville book, and definitely read and loved the two-issue series that serves as the ending of the Eltingville comics. It’s all those comics in the middle I still need to get to.

The show is very funny and it looks beautiful. According to the few interviews that I’ve found regarding the show (including a page of text found in the Eltingville book, which precedes a section showing off some of the character design sheets), there really wasn’t much reason given for the show not getting picked up. The show definitely looked better than anything else on Adult Swim, so the whole “too expensive” thing seems like as good an assumption as any. Apparently Dorkin spread himself too thin working on this, attempting to design/draw every little thing seen on screen. I actually wondered that while watching the show, because his art style is faithfully preserved here, which is great! The episode ends the same way the comic story does, with Bill & Josh in a trivia-off, competing over the buying rights for a 12 inch Boba Fett action figure at their local comic shop. With every rewatch of this show I confront one basic thing about myself, and it’s how much of the trivia I’ve picked up since the last rewatch. Bill & Josh’s trivia-off is a flurry of questions regarding all kinds of geek garbage, and the few years between viewings of this results in me knowing a few more answers. But, I have the internet, and can usually get hold of a movie or TV show or comic book almost instantly. It’s important to not lose sight that these kids (especially in the comics) are either high-school or college-aged and they learned all of this shit in an era when the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The original comic is set firmly in 1994, and when there’s a dispute over a question Josh runs home to get a large Godzilla reference book to prove that he’s correct. This changed in the pilot to Josh losing on a technicality with a slip-of-the-tongue; attributing a famous catchphrase to a fellow club-member who had adopted it for himself (the comic actually SEEMS to set this up, but doesn’t go in that direction at all, which is weird when you read it AFTER watching this special. I think that means the cartoon improved on that idea).

Wikipedia makes no mention of this stealth broadcast. It would SEEM to make more sense that it aired Monday morning following late night Sunday, but Adult Swim ended at 1AM back in these days, making early Monday morning still technically “out of bounds”. In fact, I very nearly “corrected” the air date to reflect this, but a quick google search for “Welcome to Eltingville” + “4AM” yielded this message board thread where we can see in real time that early Tuesday morning is indeed correct. So, if you’re ever arguing over a 12 inch Boba Fett feel free to uses this trivia in your trivia off.

[purplesurveys]

1269

Last thing you bought online? Did you like it? OMG OMG so I got Angela an Army Bomb!!!!!! for her birthday!!!! It was HELLLL looking for sealed ones that were already onhand, but fortunately I was able to find one from this really nice seller a few days ago and the shipping was quick as well. I’m just a little worried because the outbox has a little dent on it :( but it was the best onhand offer I could find so I got it before anybody could call dibs. I still hope she likes it! I got her batteries too so that she can try lighting it up as soon as she has it. :D

Could you date someone who didn’t drive (and didn’t show an interest in ever getting their license, either)?  I feel like this is such a petty thing to make a big deal about...if they knew how to commute or any other way to get to their destination, I don’t think this should be a problem. It would only be an issue to me if they refused to get a license in a very I-generally-lack-ambition kind of way.

How would you react if your artwork became famous?  I don’t have any to show off to begin with. I love appreciating art, but creating it was never a forte of mine.

Would you get your nipples pierced?  No, I don’t plan on getting any piercings. How many people know your birthday?  Outside of my family, my best friends. I think everyone else relies on Facebook to be reminded, which is fine with me.

Has anyone ever tried to ruin a relationship you were in?  No. Quite the contrary, really...I was sometimes informed about red flags taking place, which of course my stubborn ass ignored.

Have you ever watched a whole hour long infomercial?  Probably, as a kid. The channel from which I used to watch WWE aired these really long infomercials so I would watch those while waiting for like Raw or whatever show was going on after.

What is your current MySpace song?  I never hung out on Myspace. I had an account, but I was too young for it so it wasn’t long before I got bored.

What is your favorite kind of meat to put on your sandwich?  Pulled pork or fried chicken.

Which one of your exes do you feel like you have the most chemistry with?  I only have one ex.

How do you feel about people who make Facebook profiles for their pets? I find it really cute. But I personally wouldn’t put in as much effort lol.

Have you ever personally known a pair of conjoined twins?  Hmmmmmmmm I don’t think so.

What was the most disturbing thing you have ever heard your mother say? She threatened suicide in front of me and my dad in a very calm way when I was around 11, I think? Maybe 12, idk. I haven’t actually thought about that moment in an extremely long time until this question. I’ll move on now and shove the memory at the very very back of my head before I get sad.

Is there something in particular you like to look at photos of? What is it?  Aside from members of BTS (lol), interior design inspirations.

Chewy chocolate-chip cookies: like or dislike?  Ooh, love. When I bite into a cookie it hassssss to ooze chocolate, otherwise I would be underwhelmed.

If your boyfriend/girlfriend wanted to dress only in the opposite sex’s clothing, would you support that? If not, would you leave them?  Support.

Do you think your grandmother is/was beautiful?  They both are.

Which of your fields of interest are you a total expert on?  Anything that has to do with writing (except poems), I guess? I like being able to give people advice and tips when it comes to that.

When was the last time you got all dolled up?  Last July when we had a big PR media launch thingy and I couldn’t afford to look like shit on Zoom.

Do you ever name objects? (i.e. mp3 players, guitars, cars, etc.)  Never.

Do you have a criminal record?  Not criminal but it’s possibleeeee that I have some kind of record on my license from the time I got stopped by an officer in Alabang, lmao. It was a minor offense from a tiny part of the town so I don’t actually know if they filed it, but it’s possible.

Last person you took a nap with?  I don’t really nap with other people. I hate falling asleep in front of others to begin with.

Does seeing your mother cry automatically make you feel sad as well?  No.

Do you think someone likes the same person you like?  I don’t like anybody.

Do you want your life to stay the way it is right now forever?  No, I do not want to stay in a pandemic and not get to maximize my life the way it’s supposed to be enjoyed forever.

Have you ever been to craigslist.com?  I’ve never checked it out; idk if we have that here?

What about eBay?  I also dunno if they operate here so no, I’ve never bothered.

Have you ever used Nair?  Not Nair, but I’ve used Veet before.

Are you medicated?  Nope.

Do you shape/fill in your eyebrows?  I never do stuff to my eyebrows except shave them.

Have you ever stolen/borrowed clothes from an ex?  Several articles of clothing were left behind here, yeah. I never had the chance to give them back because I stupidly thought we were going to get back together eventually. By the time I moved on the timing was already off, so the clothes stayed with me untillll...just a few days ago, actually – when I finally cleaned up my room and got rid of a bunch of knickknacks that accumulated here over the years, including all her shirts and sweaters and stuff.

Could you make a statement about anything political?  The 2022 presidential election landscape looks like complete shit and I’m nearly at that point where I want to stop giving a fuck about this country’s future.

Do you think you’ve already met your soulmate?  No.

Do you get the feeling something good will happen in your life soon?  I think I’m already living in it, haha.

Do you enjoy romantic movies, even when they’re cliche?  Sure, but cliché is also hit and miss for me. I love Titanic and Love Actually, but I cannot stand movies like Me Before You and The Notebook. I guess it depends on certain executions, like the acting, screenplay, casting, etc.

Have you been to McDonald’s in the past month?  No, not inside. We did drive-thru within the last month, though.

Have you ever slept over at your best friend’s house?  Not at Andi’s, but I have at Angela’s.

How often do you go bowling?  Extremely rarely. I can’t tell you the last time I went bowling.

Last time you were in an apartment?  Like 2007 when I visited my aunt back when she still lived in one. None of my friends have their own apartments.

Have you ever seen a live seahorse?  I don’t think so.

Would you like to have your own yacht? I mean I wouldn't say no if you offered it to me for free, but I'm not exactly interested in one. < Same.

Winnie the Pooh or Tigger?  Tigger always made me laugh as a kid.

What’s the unhealthiest thing you’ve eaten today?  Luncheon meat, I think? I didn’t go overboard with the junk food today.

Has a stranger ever offered to buy you a drink?  Hm, not that I can recall.

What is something you’d be happy to receive as a gift, that doesn’t cost a lot?  A bag of the salted egg chips that I really like costs like 30 bucks, or roughly 60 US cents.

What kind of music does your significant other/crush like to listen to?  I don’t have any irl crushes, can I use a celebrity crush instead? HAHA he’s heavily into jazz and whenever he gets asked for music recos he always gives jazz artists from like the 50s and 60s.

Who did you have your first kiss with? Do you remember what colour his/her eyes were?  Gab. Dark brown.

Are there any themes from TV shows that you like to sing along to? The Big Bang Theory and Friends; and then I also liked humming to the themes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and BoJack Horseman. The Phineas & Ferb theme was also a lot of fun to sing along to.

Do you eat dessert after dinner? No, I never do that. I’m usually already full after dinner, and we don’t always have sweets at home anyway.

Have you ever had too much to drink and felt embarrassed about your behavior the next day?  Sure.

When you go out drinking, what do you prefer to drink?  Cocktails. I very rarely go for hard drinks/shots, especially if I brought my own car.

What was the last animal that you saw?  Dog.

What was the last thing that you said to one of your siblings?  I just told my sister I was done using her laptop so she can have it back. My Memories of 2020 DVD turned out to be region-locked so I have to use her laptop every time I want to watch it :(

What is the most expensive thing that you’ve purchased that you paid for:  My Map of the Soul photobook cost me around 5k in total.

What is your favorite messaging program?  Messenger.

Do you eat fast food more than 5 times a week?  Wow no. Aside from being extremely unhealthy, that’s also a LOT of spending??

Have you ever almost drowned?  Yes.

Have you ever learned something shocking about someone through Facebook?  I mean I’ve had to learn about more than one family death through my Facebook feed, which sucks but is nothing I have control over. Otherwise the most shocking thing I’ve seen is probably classmates from high school having their own kids, but at this point I’m used to it already.

What’s the scariest living animal that you’ve petted?  I’m not really afraid of carrying/petting animals especially if there’s a guide or expert nearby, but the most daring one was probably the crocodile I volunteered to hold in Palawan.

Do you remember the first conversation you ever had with the person you currently have feelings for?  Not at all.

Do you dread certain days of the week? If yes, what day/s and why?  I hate Mondays for obvious reasons lol. I don’t know anyone who is actively cheery about reporting back to work.

If you eat oatmeal, do you have it plain or do you have certain toppings that you like to add to it?  I never eat oatmeal. I had that every single day for breakfast from like kindergarten to 4th grade and I vowed never to take a spoonful of it again.

What is the funniest or strangest thing you’ve ever heard somebody say in their sleep?  I dunno. I used to keep a log of the things my ex used to say in her sleep and a great deal of them were hilarious, but obviously I deleted that note a long time ago.

Choose one - Butterfinger, Milky Way, Snickers:  Butterfinger.

Do you use Mozilla Firefox? Nopes.

Who is your favorite person to hug? Angela and Laurice.

Have you ever had to have a mug shot?  Nope.

What was the last thing you carried to your room?  Kimi.

When was the last time you had a late night phone call?  WELL over a year ago.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

They're Just Dolls            

I’m rankled by that confession about how BJDs are overpriced because Mattel can put out a similarly functional doll for a fraction of the cost, so clearly the cost of BJDs is pure exploitation of the buyer. Like you have entirely missed the point, thank you so much!

BJDs are expensive because they are pieces of art. You might not agree with that, but at heart, it’s true – even the ones you don’t personally like are still art at the end of the day – and the people who buy them are purchasing that art for the purpose of supporting artists and their creative endeavors. If you don’t care about the artists behind the piece, then why even bother collecting BJDs in the first place? Sure, they’re pretty, or cool, or cute, or you just think they’re neat, but if you feel that way, then don’t you then appreciate that a pair of human hands created that cool, cute, or pretty thing? Unlike with mass-produced goods (and there is nothing wrong with them, for the record, I collect them both!) you have a direct connection to the creator of a piece, and in purchasing it, you are saying to them “I like this. I want to support you to make more things.” Even if that isn’t your intent- even if you never thought about it before, it’s the nature of the relationship between you and the creator of the thing you have purchased. “I love what you do and I want you to be able to continue doing it.” Mattel wouldn’t notice if someone didn’t buy a Barbie because they make more than the GDP of some small countries. But a small creator, even the bigger studios with several employees, they feel every single solitary sale.

It’s why recasts are such a particularly emotional issue compared to the rampant bootlegging of other goods. Because it says to a creator “I like what you do, but I don’t think it has value.” It’s a slap in the face on top of being a financial loss. This is an industry of all sorts of creators coming together to create- sculptors, seamstresses, photographers, all sorts of different art forms converging on a single point. At its heart the BJD hobby is a celebration of art as something worthwhile, something of value beyond simple monetary cost. To cheapen it by saying there is no inherent value in these creations because they’re ‘just dolls’ and 'you can buy the same thing at walmart for less’ does a disservice to the entire spectrum of artists who have come together to create dolls and products for them. It serves no one and hurts everyone. You might say 'it’s not that deep OP, they’re just dolls.’ But if you really take the time to think it through, it’s so much more than that. It’s so much more than just dolls because it’s about the people behind them.

~Anonymous

[vangoghcean]

Hey! Are you currently in uni/ college? I’m just looking for any kind of motivation during all of this happening 😅🥺

hello! yes !! i am currently in my last year of college (though the school system works a bit differently than most where i live)! i TOTALLY feel u! this year was ‘supposed to be’ THE GRIND for me! i was gonna study super hard, work crazy hours and apply for a visa to go move out to live in NYC next year! now, without knowing if any of that is possible (and honestly: not knowing if that’s even what i want anymore??) i’m lacking such motivation. on top of that, i 100% recognize that i’m in such a fortunate and comfortable position at this time and that people are struggling much much worse! this should motivate me but somehow makes going to school online feel even stupider!! it’s honestly making me question the trajectory i want my life to take because why am i here if not to help people??? but many of the seemingly practical ways to help people are through corrupt systems in which i want no part?? CONFUSING. for now i’m dedicated to putting what i can in mutual aid funds & highlyyy recommend that if you even have $5 to pop in every now and then that you do. this feels like the future. IN ANY CASE. motivation for studying online (i’m assuming this is the sitch). it can be tricky. my tips are probably the most basic ones you’ve seen over and over but here goes:

MAKE YOURSELF A REGULAR SCHEDULE. set a wake-up alarm for the same time every day. if you find it hard to not just hit snooze, get ur early bird friend to call u up in the morning and chat to u as they get ready until u can secure the caffeine. 😂 but fr, alarms are ur best friend. u can use them to schedule in break time, work periods... and u can use your agenda to mark down days off, due dates, etc. try to estimate how long each project/reading will take you and allot specific times of the day for it. really try to hold yourself accountable! or find a friend to check in on your progress!

GET READY EVERY MORNING. you probably don’t feel as motivated to work in your pyjamas. put on clothes you’d go to a job interview in. doll yourself up if you need to! you’ll feel so much more prepared to work!! (+ if you wear slightly uncomfortable things like jeans, if you’re like me, you’re much less likely to laze around)!

WORK ANYWHERE BUT YOUR BED. set up your station at a desk, your kitchen table, your kitchen counter or in even in a bathtub!! literally ANYWHERE but your bed or a couch. separate your work space and rest space as much as you can. i know this is not always easy (personally, my desk is not even a meter away from my bed and they’re against opposing walls... but do your best!)

MAKE TIME TO BE SOCIAL. you don’t have to go out to a pandemic party in your spare time, but taking a minute to facetime your friend or go chat to your sister or literally have a conversation with the person at the post office (u.s. pals pls support the USPS if u can) will help your mood and motivation immensely. study in silence over facetime with friends. take 3 seconds to scroll through the meme group chat that you’re part of. it’s about the little things 💗

BE ACTIVE. you don’t have to run a marathon, or even follow a chloe ting ab workout (although 10/10 would recommend i actually love that workout!). if you just take 40 seconds to do some jumping jacks in between classes or while the teacher is lecturing and you cannoootttttt sit still anymore, this can boost your mood! it can help you be able to concentrate better and also helps your blood circulation (every 20 mins you should get up and walk around for a bit ideally)!

KEEP YOUR STATION TIDY. don’t clutter your space with things if you can avoid it. computer, headphones, notepad, literary texts/textbook, paper, pencil, eraser, sharpener, pen, whiteout. BOOM. done. that’s it. (well, maybe except for coffee/water/tea, which, btw, i’d recommend keeping in a bottle or thermos that you can lock so that u can avoid frying your technology!!) everything else can be stowed away somewhere and pulled out when needed. if you’re in art school or some other program where things can get messy, create a system that makes all your materials accessible but not immediately in the way. (also, as someone with a very tiny space, i’m here to tell u there is ALWAYS a way to do this!!! & it’s ok to ask for help!!! if your space is not conducive for work? borrow a few screws and a screwdriver or a nail and hammer from ur neighbor! get a lil plank of wood from the store or the side of the road or someone you know and bang a shelf into your wall! or grab moving boxes from a buddy and stack em in your corner to make a storage space! there’s always a way.)

USE. AN. AGENDA. i think i already touched on this one but HONEY if u don’t have an agenda or a calendar WHAT ArE You DoInG???? once, i didn’t have enough money to buy one, so i literally paid 2$ for colourful construction paper at the dollar store, drew the dates in and stapled one together. there is not really any excuse to not have one! you can use the back pages of your unfinished third grade math notebook! it doesn’t matter! you just need a space to write things down because this is probably one of THE most essential tools for staying motivated (writing down ur goals) and staying on track (writing in due dates, etc.)!! u can watch cute bullet journal videos and fill it with stickers if that motivates u! or do what i did this year and buy one that’s way expensive so that u feel bad about how much money u spent and therefore HAVE to use it 😂 whatever works for u!

JOURNAL. this may sound kind of irrelevant, but i found that i was SO much more motivated to go to online school when i had a space to just let out all my negative emotions towards it. in my journal, i would dump out all my feelings of disdain towards doing theatre school online and missing my friends...so then when it actually came to school, i was pretty much over it and was just excited to see them and my teachers (even tho it was just virtually!)

maybe u weren’t asking for advice lol but i felt like going OFF!! 😂 if anyone has tips for motivation/success at online school in this wild global pandemic era we’re living in reblog and add em! we can make this a cute little chain!! hope you’re all taking care! i believe in u and u r going to do AMAZING this school year i feel it ✨💞