#I’m talking any medium any era - it’s gotta have happened

[itscalledalifejames]

James Bond where everything is the same but bond introduces himself as bond. Jim bond.

[theteasetwrites]

Pretty... Cool

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader ❧ Era: Prison (Season 4) ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: mild swearing, violence ❧ Word Count: 2.9k

❧ Requested by @lacilulu77 (sorry this took a little longer to get out! Took me a while to think of something but I hope you like it!)

❧ Summary: An incident during a run leads to Daryl being a little protective of you, and jealous of the guy who's trying to woo you.

❧ A/N: Jealous/nervous Daryl??? We love to see it.

Your group stopped to go over the plan once more in the middle of the abandoned shopping center.

“All right,” Daryl said, in his usual southern drawl that never ceased to fascinate you, “Glenn and Tyrese, sportin’ goods store. Sasha and Kyle hit the pharmacy. Hardware store’s goin’ to (Y/N) and Willow. Everyone got yours lists, and we meet back ‘ere in thirty. I’ll be seein’ what’s up with that auto shop. Remember—no gunshots ‘less absolutely necessary.”

In all your inexperience going on runs, you were a little terrified to split into small groups, but you’d worked with Willow before, and you liked her, so you figured you’d have each other’s backs.

Still, the pressure was intense. The prison was running low on supplies, what with all the people it was sustaining now, and lots of families were counting on you.

You couldn’t tell, but Daryl was nervous too. It was his first time leading a run with so many people, and he was terrified of losing any of you, though he was less partial to Kyle, who he’d caught flirting with you on more than one occasion.

The guy was a typical womanizer, interested in sleeping with as many women in the prison as possible until he felt he had achieved some kind of “record.” Daryl knew this not only because he saw the man talking up every woman in the prison, but because he’d heard him bragging to some other men about his sexual escapades.

You, however, were his latest target, and that infuriated Daryl.

At first he didn’t quite know why, but soon he realized it was because he had his own feelings for you, and that he didn’t want you getting hurt. Luckily, you seemed completely oblivious to Kyle’s advances, but that also worried Daryl, since maybe you’d think he was just being friendly and let him get so close that he’d pull a very sudden move on you. He knew how guys like that operated, especially since his brother happened to be one of those guys.

So when Kyle came up to Daryl a few moments after his announcement to the group, asking if he could partner up with you instead of Sasha, Daryl was visibly irritated.

“Nah,” he said to the man. “Teams are final.”

He turned back to preparing his crossbow, and Kyle let out a disgruntled huff. “Come on, man,” he said. “Don’t be a cockblock. I know you don’t do the whole sex thing, but I’m so close to nailing this girl. You gotta understand.”

He glowered at Kyle, nearly ready to knock his teeth out. He hated the way he had heard him talking about you, like a perverted sex addict. He’d listened to him speculate about what you looked like under your clothes, or whether or not you liked it “rough.” Sure, perhaps Daryl had wondered about those things too, when he was alone with his thoughts and particularly enchanted by you, but he never dreamed of talking about you like that to other people. It seemed wrong, like the words themselves were violating you.

He was about to say something, to tell Kyle off once and for all, but your voice cut through the thick air between them.

“Hey, Daryl,” you said, causing his eyes to flash up to your warm face. “I’m just wondering about this item you listed here.” You leaned closer to Daryl, and he flinched a little when he felt your shoulder against his, with your finger pointing to the scrawled out word. “What does MDF stand for?”

He cleared his throat before speaking shakily. He was always so damn nervous around you. “Medium-density fiberboard. It’s a kind of wood. Should be in with the lumber.”

You nodded as you looked at the paper. “Okay, got it.”

Just then, Kyle inserted himself into the conversation. “Hey, (Y/N),” he said. “There’s been a change of plans. Daryl said you and me are splitting up, and Willow and Sasha are hitting the pharmacy.”

Daryl gave him a death glare, but Kyle didn’t seem bothered. The guy was insufferable, but he’d just put Daryl in a strange situation—let him go with you, or make a big scene about it. Both choices hurt him in some way.

“Okay,” you said with a shrug. “I’ll go tell them.”

You went off to catch up with Willow and Sasha, who were both chatting as they waited for you and Kyle.

In a fury, Daryl turned towards Kyle and backed him a few feet away. “Listen to me, douchebag,” he said sternly, gritting his teeth. “If anythin’ happens to (Y/N), you’ll be dead before you hit the ground. You understand me?”

He scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”

You split off with Kyle a few moments later, and made your way to the hardware store, where a handful of walkers seemed to be stuck inside.

“All right,” you sighed. “Let’s figure out how we’re gonna do this. I was thinking I could break that chain and let them out one at a time, and you stand next to me and get rid of each one as they come. I’ll control the door while you do it. Sound good?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

You took out your bolt cutters and split the chain, then pushed your body against the door before letting loose just enough to let out one walker.

It came stumbling out, and soon Kyle had bludgeoned it with his bat. The process repeated smoothly until the coat was clear.

Inside the shop, you made your way to the lumber aisle, trying to find that MDF on top of the list.

Kyle followed behind you, and the fact that he wasn’t trying to look for anything was getting on your nerves. Instead, he just kept talking to you, annoying you.

“So you got any plans after the run? When we get back to the prison?”

You huffed as you focused on reading the labels for the different types of wood. “Um, I don’t know.”

“Well, I was thinking maybe we could do something. Ya know, hang out.”

You swallowed hard. You were actually hoping to help Daryl work on the plumbing system in the bathroom. That was also why you had some plumbing parts and tools on your list. The two of you had been working on it for a while now, and, although you didn’t like spending so much time in a bathroom, you enjoyed it. Daryl was fun to talk to, when he felt talkative.

“Actually, I just remembered that I’m going to be working on that drainage problem in the bathroom with Daryl later.”

He scoffed. “Oh, come on, that isn’t done yet? It’s been weeks and you’re always doing that. Don’t you wanna have a little fun?”

You rolled your eyes as you grabbed the MDF and laid it down in your cart. “I promised Daryl I’d help him until it was finished. He does too much work on his own.”

You were about to continue pushing the cart when Kyle stepped in front of it. “What, are you screwing him or something?”

You were taken aback by the personal question. “What?”

He shook his head, grabbing onto the other end of the cart as he did so. “I’ve been trying to butter you up for months and all it takes is a dumb hillbilly with a toilet plunger to sweep you off your feet?”

He must’ve misunderstood. There was nothing going on between you and Daryl, and you had never even thought about it like that. Now, though, you supposed you did spend a lot of time with him, more than anyone else. He was the person you trusted most in the prison, since he’d saved your life so many times, and had always been nice to you without expecting anything.

“There’s nothing going on between us,” you said. “Even if there were, it wouldn’t be any of your business. Now get out of my way and make yourself useful.”

“Won’t you at least give me a chance?” he asked, almost in a begging tone. “Promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Kyle,” you breathed, “this is making me uncomfortable. Let’s just get the stuff and meet back with the others.”

He narrowed his eyes at you, clearly frustrated that he wasn’t getting anywhere with you. “Do it yourself.”

With a forceful push of the cart, he sent you backwards with a loud thud, and your arm had knocked over a piece of wood as you fell. The large piece of lumber fell, too, landing on your forehead and causing a throbbing pain to flow through you.

“Ow!” you cried angrily.

Not only was the front of your head aching, but your back had taken the brunt of the trauma from such a forceful push.

Kyle stood dumbfounded, not expecting that he would have actually pushed you to the ground.

“Oh, shit, (Y/N),” he panicked. “Are you all right?”

He walked over to you as you began propping yourself back up, with no help from him. “Fine,” you said, pawing at the place where you were sure a bruise would soon form. “Let’s get out of here.”

The run wasn’t great, but at least it was over. Now, you were resting in your cell, with an ice pack on your head and a headache that wouldn’t seem to go away. Hershel said the injury was superficial and that you’d be fine in a day or so, but that you’d probably have a headache the rest of the day. So, you sent Carol, who gave you the ice pack, to inform Daryl that you wouldn’t be able to help him today. Well, that’s what you asked her to tell him, but she ended up telling him that and more.

“Hey,” Daryl’s voice called out to you from outside of your cell. “Can I come in?”

You opened your eyes and gave him a small smile. You weren’t expecting him to come and see you, but you were glad to see him regardless. “Sure.”

He stood in the middle of your cell, then came forward tentatively to lift up your ice pack and look at the large purple bruise on your forehead.

“Kyle did this?”

You shook your head. “No. Well, yes and no. He pushed me, and I happened to fall. He said he didn’t mean to do it.”

Still, you didn’t forgive him. He let his emotions get the better of him, and regardless of whether or not he meant to hurt you, he was being irresponsible.

Daryl growled under his breath as he replaced the ice pack. He couldn’t stand to look at the minor injury anymore. Sure, you were going to be totally fine, but it pissed him off to no end that he hurt you. “That asshole’s never goin’ on a run again, ‘less it’s as a sacrifice.”

You snorted. “Stop. It’s no big deal. He was just being a jerk, lost his cool. He’s an idiot, but he’s not worth getting worked up about.”

He shook his head, both in admiration and frustration at how nice you were. You were the one at the prison who hated conflict the most, and you desperately wanted to see the good in everyone, even when they tried to take advantage of you. Daryl wasn’t like that. He pretty much assumed everyone was bad until he got to know them. That was just his defense mechanism, how he tried not to let anyone bad in.

“What’d he say to you?”

You sighed. “Well, he said something about wanting to hang out after the run, and I told him I was going to be working on the plumbing with you. I guess that pissed him off, because he… I don’t know, likes me I guess. I didn’t really think he thought of me that way, but maybe I’m just dumb.”

“Nah,” he said quickly. “You ain’t dumb, just… Well, I dunno what you are.”

You shook your head and laughed. “I’m too nice, I know. You’ve told me fifty times now.”

He lowered his head and smiled shyly at you, wondering if you had any idea of his feelings for you.

“Daryl,” you began to say. “Can I ask you something?”

He swallowed hard. Of course you could ask him anything, he thought, but the unknowing of what you would ask him made him nervous. “‘Course.”

Just then, the door to your cell burst open in a long, ear-piercing squeak.

“Hey,” Kyle said, looking directly at you and practically ignoring Daryl. “I need to talk to you.”

Daryl stood up, his fists clenched and his eyebrows furrowed in rage. “Go talk to someone else.”

Kyle huffed, and looked at Daryl for a moment before looking over his shoulder at you. “Listen, (Y/N). I’m sorry about earlier. That was a total accident.”

Daryl scoffed. “Why don’t ya just leave ‘er alone?”

Kyle looked quite annoyed now. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Anythin’ you say to (Y/N),” Daryl replied, “you’re sayin’ to me, too.”

Kyle exchanged a look with you, and you simply crossed your arms. “I think you should leave, Kyle. Thanks for apologizing but I’m not interested in whatever else you have to say.”

He left with a stomp to his step, and you almost started to laugh at how petty he was. He just couldn’t seem to accept the fact that you didn’t like him as much as he’d hoped, and that you’d rather spend your time with Daryl.

“Thanks, Daryl,” you said, then sat up a bit to pat your hand at the foot of your bed, inviting him to sit. “He’s been annoying me a lot lately. Maybe he’ll leave me alone now. I just didn’t know that was what he wanted.”

He sat himself down at the edge of the bed, careful not to sit on your feet. “Yeah, well, guys like that want every woman they think they can get.” His eyes widened when he realized he might’ve offended you. “I mean, not that you ain’t… special.” He could feel himself getting buried deeper and deeper. “Jus’... he doesn’t want ya for the right reasons.”

“How do you know?”

He shrugged. “Heard him talkin’, always braggin’ about the girls he slept with. He ain’t shit. I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you. I mean, if you want.”

You smiled and rested your icepack on your bedside table. “Does that mean you’ll be spending more time with me? Like a bodyguard situation?”

He looked away from you as he twiddled his thumbs. “Uh, I mean, if you want me to, I will. Just don’t like seein’ ya get hurt. In any way.”

You tilted your head in flattery. “Well, I appreciate it.” You sat up again and grabbed his hand with yours. “I’d like to hang out with you more.”

He nodded. “I’d, uh… I’d like that too.”

Just then, he remembered that you were about to ask him something when Kyle barged in. “Hey,” he said. “What were you sayin’ before?”

You thought back in your head, and smiled when you remembered. “Well, I was going to ask you if you… um, if you like me?”

He looked down at his feet again, and stiffened a bit when he processed what you’d asked. Of course he liked you. He liked you more than he’d liked anyone in a long time. He felt comfortable around you, safe. That was more than he could say for most people.

Not only that, but he had intimate feelings towards you, that he was sure you didn’t share. Still, it came out, little by little.

“Sure I like you. What’s not to like? You’re nice, smart, pretty.” He quickly rubbed his face in frustration when he said that. “Shit. I mean, pretty… cool. Yeah, pretty cool.”

You looked at him seriously for a minute, before letting out a burst of laughter. “Oh, Daryl. I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but did you say I’m pretty?”

He cleared his throat. “Uh, well, if I did, would that bother you?”

You shook your head with a smile. “Nope. I think I’d like it a lot.”

Just then, as you thought of Daryl thinking that you were pretty, it occurred to you that Daryl was pretty, too. Those crystal clear blue-grey eyes, and those lovely cheekbones that made him look so noble, and yet so sweet. The button nose was your favorite, though.

“You know,” you continued after a few moments, “if a guy as cute as you says I’m pretty, then I suppose I’ve got no right to question it.”

His eyes widened at you as you sat up further and shifted yourself closer to him until you both had your legs dangling on the edge of the bed. He couldn’t believe what you’d just said to him. Throughout his whole life, Daryl had been called a lot of things, but he’d never been called cute. At least, not to his face.

“Did… did you just call me cute?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know, did I? I mean, would that bother you if I did?”

He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “Think it’d be pretty cool.”

Somehow, the day had gone from terrible to a whole lot better. Maybe you had a big bruise on your forehead, but at least Daryl Dixon thought you were pretty... cool.

~

Thanks for reading! Likes, comments, and reblogs of any kind are always appreciated!

[writingwithadinosaur]

“Under the Knife” - Part 3

“Under the Knife” - Part 3

My Masterlist - Here

Story Masterlist - Here

My Tag List - Here

Hannibal Lecter x Reader, Will Graham x Sister!Reader

Word Count: 1,700-ish

Key: Chunks of text in italics are (Y/N)’s thoughts. Y/N = Your Name, H/C = Your Hair Color, E/C = Your Eye Color

Warnings: Talk of Murder, Talk of Crime Scenes, Talk of Murder Victims, Cursing

Summary: You are Will Graham’s sister who works with him at the FBI. When you get offered a job promotion, life starts to change. Some changes for the better; Some for the worst.

Tag List: @fruitloopzzz @theeactress @melconnor2007 @ashenfallsof @geeksareunique @all-by-myself98 @sj-thefan​ @fuck-your-bad-vibes-dude​ @ntlmundy

Author’s Note: This is my first Hannibal piece and I am proud of it. There aren’t too many stories for Hannibal, so I figured I would add to the collection. This does take place in some happy medium where they are all alive and work together. Sort of a happier season 1 era.

This is beta-read by @theeactress​, but please let me know if there is something that we missed or that we should look at again! 

If you would like to be tagged in any of my future pieces, check out my tag list above and let me know! And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

<3

- DreaSaurusREX

----------------

“As most of you know, this is (Y/N) Graham, she will be our profiler for this case.”

“Oh good. Another Graham.” Beverly commented over her clipboard, writing down something involving the case probably. Jack gave her a chastising glance and she held her hands up in defense.

“(Y/N) this is Beverly Katz, Brian Zeller, and Jimmy Price.” Jack introduced you very quickly to the science-ier part of the team very quickly before jumping right into work. “So, tell us what you got so far, (Y/N).”

You opened your small notebook and began summarizing your notes from last night’s reading.

“Alright. So far I’ve been able to see three patterns: the ways they were killed, the time frame, and the fact that all of the victims that were dismembered were doctors. The strongest thing I can think of is that this killer was wronged by doctors in some way. I’m not sure if it's a doctor in the general term or if there is some specific way that ties these three doctors, and our killer, together. That was something I was going to work on today. 

The way that the bodies are taken apart is very particular. From what I could tell from the photos in the files, all of the cuts seemed to be straight lines all the way through. Which means that this guy’s gotta have access not only to the tools that can do this sort of stuff, but also whatever drug he got in their system to make them lay still while he... worked. So I’m assuming the murder weapon is nothing with a jagged blade or saw-like teeth until we get to the bone. Do we have any reports on striation patterns or anything that could help us with what was used?”

“It’s like you said, the cuts were almost completely straight lines, even through to the bone. The only things we could think of were surgical tools.” Zeller spoke up. “The skin and muscles were cut similarly to how a surgeon would with a scalpel. But the bone is where it gets tricky. You can’t cut like this through bone with just a scalpel.”

“Unless you have plenty of time and you're very persistent.” Beverly joked; you were the only one that slightly exhaled a laugh through your nose at her quip.

“Alright, so the killer has a medical background.” Jack tossed into the air. You nodded.

“Possibly. But why would a doctor be going after other doctors?”

“Maybe they’re taking all his patients?” Beverly shot out. You just nodded and looked back at your notes to see where you left off.

“The uh.. The most concerning thing is the time frame. They were all killed two weeks part from each other. Dr. Everet was almost 6 weeks ago, Dr. Chaseten almost 4, and Dr. Loriet about 2.” 

“Which means we could have another dead doctor within the week.” Jack solemnly spoke as he realized the gravity of the situation. “Alright, you three keep looking over everything to see if we missed something. (Y/N), start working on possible correlations between the victims and the killer. Let’s get this son of a bitch.”

And that’s how the next two days went. Researching, thinking, and trying to get into a mindset that you weren’t totally sure of yet. 

You had checked in with Will like you promised and said that you were fine but you were going to be very busy for at least the next few days. Hannibal had called you after your first day and could hear the slight exhaustion in your voice. He asked you to have lunch with him tomorrow and you very quickly agreed.

But the next day, you spent more time than you thought flipping through the databases to try to find any correlation between Everet, Chasten, and Loriet. The three of them never worked in the same hospital, clinic, or even the same city. Their wives didn’t know each other. Their neighbors didn’t know each other. They didn’t have any sort of communication with each other. They were all different types of doctors. Everet and Loriet went to the same med school, but they graduated 3 years apart.

So what the fuck am I missing?

You kept looking back over the crime scene photos. You couldn’t understand why the doctors were mutilated and positioned so intricately, but the others were cast aside. The focus has to be on the doctors. They must have done something to ‘wrong’ the killer. So what the hell did all three of you do to make someone want to murder? 

Your train of thought was interrupted by a knock at your office door. You let out a slightly aggravated sigh.

“Jack, I told you I will let you know when I-- Oh! Hannibal! Hi!” You looked up from your computer screen to find Hannibal standing in the doorway with a bag in his hand. 

“Should I come back later?” 

“No! No. Come on in. I probably should take a break. I feel like I’m going in circles anyways.” You looked at your watch and saw it was almost 3:30 PM. The last time you looked at the clock, it was 10:30 AM. “And I missed our lunch meeting.” You put your head in your hands and groaned in annoyance with yourself. “I am so sorry, Hannibal. I--”

“No need for apologies, my dear. I figured Jack had put a lot on your plate, so I thought I would bring lunch to you.” Hannibal made his way into your office and shut the door behind him. 

“You really didn’t have to.”

“When was the last time you ate, (Y/N)?” Hannibal questioned you, looking you dead in the eye after he sat down in one of your office chairs. 

You weren’t entirely sure. You started to speak but then stopped yourself, really trying to remember when you ate last. I know I had ½ of my breakfast at 7:30 this morning. Did I have my granola bar? Does coffee count as a meal?

“The fact that you have to think about when your last meal was, is a bit concerning. But nonetheless, I am more than happy to remedy that. ” He smiled one of his rare but small smiles and began unpacking whatever culinary art he brought. You tried to condense some of your piles of papers and folders so you had enough room to put food down. 

Hannibal had brought a home-cooked meal for the two of you to enjoy. A ginger salad with fresh pan-seared scallops and even some infused water that he had marinating in his fridge overnight. This was so much better than the PB&J you had packed. 

As you began to dig in, Hannibal couldn’t help but look at some of the crime scene photos and your notes. 

“So what are we calling this killer?” 

“‘The Virginia Scalpel.’” You said with slight annoyance. “He has a medical background and is within a reasonable distance from all of the vics. Yet, we have no idea who he is.”

“Does the killer have to be a medical professional? Maybe they just have very steady hands.” 

“True. But there is almost no way that a regular guy could cut through muscle and bone that cleanly without surgical tools or the knowledge of how to use them. Not to mention the fact that he would have some serious explaining to do on how he got the succinylcholine or whatever paralyzer he plans to use next.” You rub your eyes gently, feeling the strain from the computer screen hitting you. Hannibal could feel the stress radiating off of you. 

“Do you want to talk about this case?”

“Not really. But I’m not sure what else to talk about. This has been my life for the last 3 days, the killer could strike again any day now, and I still don’t know why these three doctors were targeted or who will be next!” 

You started to fidget with your ring unconsciously and a bit aggressively, a sign to Hannibal that your anxiety was starting to catch up. Despite the physical signs that you needed a break, you continued to glance over an open file near you while you took another bite of food. He leaned forward in his seat a bit as he closed the file that you had been rereading for what he assumed to be at least the tenth time.  

“(Y/N), you need to breathe.” You just nodded and closed your eyes to try to help your deep breaths relax you faster. “How about we go for a walk? Get the blood flowing.”

“I would love to. But I feel like I can’t afford that break right now.” You shook your head slightly as you reached down for a stack of papers you had bundled and put on the floor earlier. You didn’t see him get up, but Hannibal was standing, adjusting his jacket before holding a hand out to you.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” You looked from his hand to his face before standing up, shrugging. A small walk around the building wouldn’t hurt, right?

Before your hand could land in his, your phone rang and you felt your heart sink, dreading what could be waiting for you on the other end of the line. Both you and Hannibal looked down at your phone and saw the caller ID: “Jack Crawford.” You took a deep inhale and hit the answer button.

“I really hope you’re calling just to bug me to work faster, Jack…” You tried your best to control your voice. You looked up and Hannibal was watching, trying to listen in and gauge how you were going to react.

“Afraid not. There’s another Scalpel vic. I’m texting you the address. Drop whatever you're doing and get down here.” Jack hung up before you could say anything, leaving you in a bit of shock. 

Dammit! What the hell am I missing?! Someone else is dead--Another doctor is dead because I don’t have any answers yet. How can--

“(Y/N)?” Hannibal’s hand on your arm broke your stream of internal chastising before it could get too bad, but you did unintentionally jump at the contact. He instantly raised his hands up and let you process for a moment. “There’s another one, isn’t there?”

You just nod. A second later, your phone flashed a message from Jack with an address. 

“Guess my ‘walk’ is going to be to a crime scene.” You try to joke despite feeling a tinge of guilt spreading through you. Hannibal tried to walk you to your car but you kindly denied him. You wanted to be alone as you prepared yourself for your first real crime scene. 

[thesunnyshow]

Name: Juliet

Writing Blog URL(s): @wonderlustlucas

Nationality: American

Languages: English, beginner level French, teeny tiny bit of Korean

Star Sign: Virgo

MBTI: ISFJ-T

Favorite color: Pastel yellow

Favorite food: My mom’s Sunday gravy

Favorite movie: Howl’s Moving Castle (The Lion King is a close second though)

Favorite ice cream flavor: Specifically Turkey Hill’s Double Dunker (get it— it’s so good)

Favorite animal: Humpback whale

Go-to karaoke song: She’s Kinda Hot by 5 Seconds of Summer

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Neurosurgeon! Or a Twitch streamer HAHA

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?  Ahhh probably coffee, I love tea but I need my coffee </3

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? Shapeshifting! Clearly the superior superpower I don’t take constructive criticism.

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose? This is weirdly specific, but I would love to be in Scotland during the 1700’s. Alternatively, the 1980’s.

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you? 100%. I know everything happens for a reason but getting a redo and being able to fix all the big mistakes I made would be pretty nice.

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken? One horse-sized chicken! 100 tiny horses would be crazy tiring.

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been? I would probably be the gay side character that gives good emotional advice but is hella lonely LMAO

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures? Yes, both!

What are some small things that make your day better? Driving with the windows down and music blasting, picking up coffee, playing video games, & talking to my internet friends on Discord.

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know? I discovered my love for writing through Warrior Cats roleplay😭

What fandom(s) do you write for? Right now, only Kpop, but I wouldn’t mind writing for 5SOS or some of my other fandoms!

When did you post your first piece? On WattPad, December 2015. On Tumblr, April 2018 :)

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why? I write everything! Fluff/smut/crack is my favorite and slight angst (usually just slow burn though cus I’m soft).

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc? Again, I write anything and everything! Currently, second or third person reader inserts are my main style, but I also do ships and would love to write more OCs.

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr? Before Tumblr, I was on WattPad for different fandoms but eventually fell off. Then, when I got into Kpop in 2017, I found that urge to write again and decided to move to Tumblr since WattPad was becoming… weird. Plus Tumblr was a better fit for me!

What inspires you to write? To be completely honest, it’s the little things throughout the day that inspire me. For example, “Honey” was inspired by me not being able to open my locker in high school. “I Hemoglobin You” was based off my friend giving me a head rub while I was donating blood. Kpop idols just so happen to be my muses that I like to put into random moments of inspiration!

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most? High school or college AUs are my favorite, along with some good ol’ friends to lovers slow burn. Angst isn’t my forte so I usually just stick to fluff, smut, and some crack. I haven’t written any but fantasy AUs are some of my favorites too! (RIP to my League of Legends AU that I started and haven’t touched in months.)

What do you hope your readers take away from your work? Just like other fanfiction authors inspire me, I hope some of my work inspires others. Considering fanfiction is free, there is so much out there to read and when I find a good story that inspires ME to write better, I’d love for my writing to do the same.

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively? 3 options: 1) Skip that scene and jump ahead to one I’m excited to write; 2) Erase what part I’m on and completely redo it; or 3) Drop it. The majority of my works usually take a few months to write as I will completely stop working on it until I find the right inspiration again. 

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful? “Four” is definitely my favorite work. It’s one of my longer pieces and there was a lot of raw emotion in there on my end. I love the relationship between Hyunjin and the reader and especially love the ending. “Greatest Gift” for Chanyeol is my most successful, and one of my other favorites!

Who is your favorite person to write about? Easily Hwang Hyunjin. It’s so easy to place him in any of my works, and sometimes it’s a struggle to NOT write him. It sounds stupid but sometimes I really feel like I “know” him so being able to describe him physically and mentally is easy for me.

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose? Yes and no. Yes, because most of the time, fanfiction is totally original as well and requires just as much thought as a 400,000 word novel. No, because fanfiction uses a specific person as a muse.

What do you think makes a good story? Detail and realistic dialogue! Of course, everyone has their own style of writing, but detail is especially important to me. Sure, you can have a great plot, but having concise, detailed writing to get immersed into makes a story so much better. I also find realistic dialogue to be a big deal— I hate when teenage characters are speaking in deep analogies because, if we’re being honest, my daily language is 95% just “Bruh.” If you’re like me, I’d actually prefer realistic dialogue over anything else.

What is your writing process like? Process… yikes. Sometimes… I have a random thought and then I’m like… hell yeah let’s write that. I actually have no process. I don’t outline, I just start writing and keep writing until I’m finished. Then I’ll read it all over to make edits, then I’ll use the Read Aloud feature to catch any mistakes I missed, then I’ll run it through Grammarly before posting!

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story? Hm, maybe? In the future, possibly, but as of right now I wouldn’t use any of my fics to do so.

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand? Oh, gosh, tropes. Gotta love them. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, stuck together (AKA forced to share a bed), and fake relationships are my favorites. They may be corny, but I also love truth or dare or 7 minutes in heaven games in fics cus… they’re just classics. Also love fics with a popular x shy pairing. I can’t say I dislike many tropes, but I definitely have a love/hate relationship with vampire and werewolf tropes because of how romanticized they are.

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you? Hm, to be completely honest, only a little bit? I mainly write for myself, it’s like a guilty pleasure to just get all my thoughts and desires out, and then I just so happen to make it public on Tumblr. Nevertheless, receiving comments and asks actually make my day, and sometimes I still struggle to wrap my mind around people enjoying my writing! So, thank you to everyone who has ever left me a kind message, I truly appreciate it ♥

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)? Getting involved! I think one of the best ways to grow is to join networks, which not only gives you the opportunity to share your work on a greater scale, but also allows you to make connections. Like real life, making connections and making friendships with other writers can play a huge role in growing as a writer and growing your account.

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged? Yes :( As someone who’s involved with other fandoms, I’ve heard the way some people think of fanfiction and it’s really sad. People do not know how much goes into writing and just see it as cringey and disgusting when it’s just… not.

Do you think art can be a medium for change? Yes! In all its forms, art is something a creator can use to influence their audience (in a good way, hopefully).

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself? Like I said in #40, I mainly write for myself. Even when I’m writing a request, chances are if I like the request enough I’m going to create a story out of it that fits my personal desires the most.

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?  No! However, I’d still consider myself a small account and do not have TOO many works posted. But so far, I don’t think I’ve faced this problem :)

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr? Only a few! My best friend Maggie is on Tumblr with me and only 2 of my other pals know I write fanfiction.

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers? How much I love each and every one of them for supporting me and sticking around even when I won’t post for months🥺❤️

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there? Don’t psych yourself out! In the time I’ve spent on Tumblr, I’ve never received any substantial hate. My main advice is don’t write fanfiction to get popular on the app, write fanfiction because you love to write and love your muses!

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr? No, as much as Tumblr can be annoying at times, I love the people I’ve met and the content I’ve found and wouldn’t have wanted to use any other platform.

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey? @pinktea99 — Mo, you’ve been around since the beginning honestly, and without you I wouldn’t have been able to come out of my shell! Thank you for all your love & support & for being my SF9 buddy❤️

Pick a quote to end your interview with: 

“Like mate, stop procrastinating.” — 3RACHA

BONUS ROUND: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL 

[popculturebuffet]

Jake Reviews Stuff: Amphibia: Marcy at the Gates

Marcy arrives! The Plantars make it to Newtopia but first have to deal with a slight ant problem and a new addition to the family, as we finally meet the adorkable Marcy. Legs in two months under the cut. 

So as you could probably tell by the tone the last few weeks, doing this has weighed on me a bit. While I do love talking about this show week after week, as well as having a recurring series here to bring in readers, the split quality of the Season thus far has been a challenge. Now when I say split I don’t mean like star vs season 3 where it was either really damn good and some of the show’s best writing or “oh god what have they done to marco’s character this time”, it’s more either really good standout episodes ore more forgetable average ones. See a good episode I can gush about, dive into big charcter stuff, motviations, that sort of thing. I defintley will with owl house at some point and have with other shows. A bad episode can be taken apart and taken to the cleaners, which I haven’t done much of but probably should and if you want any taken to task yourself, I do comissions. But self promotion aside, the point is a meh episode just dosen’t leave me with a lot tot alk about and hte recaps became really dry as a result as I just couldn’t find a lot of jokes, and having a busy few weeks on top of that didn’t really help, nor did the antipciation for this week and the intersting setting of newtopia. 

Thankfully a combination of a really good few days, a better sleep schedule, and a really good episode this week, and a pile of scary go round collections for a dollar have reinvgorated me, so hopefully I can get back to doing what I love: Overanalizing children’s cartoons. So with that we can dive right into the episode. The keithdavidpocalypse is upon us! Pitter Patter! We open with Spring and Anne in the cart. Their close to newtopia, but Anne is worried they never found Marcy, while Sprig isn’t because her last friend turned out to be “Evil”... which Anne harshly rebuffs. And both sides are understandable: To Anne, Sasha was her friend.. a manipualtive and bossy friend sure but one who genuinely cared for her, she just may not know how to deal with people. To Sprig, Sasha is some asshole who abused his friend, tried to murder his Pop Pop, and works for a guy who tried to murder his whole town. It’s really understandable he woudln’t have the same warm fuzzy feelings Anne has.. insert your own Sashanne joke here.  We also get our first actual look at Marcy who to my suprise, rather than be another form of manipulative.. is simply an awkward nerd, constnatly playing video games, reading books , cataloging shit, and trying to get her friends to play d and d. So me if I knew what d and d was in high school. 

Anyways, the family finally DOES make it to Newtopia, impressive as you’d expect when the guard won’t let them see the wizard no way no how. Antique references aside, the guard at the gate actually has good reason for not letting them in as they have a tiny barbari-ant problem. A species Hop Pop is, in a nice touch, unfamiliar with due to the Valley not having them. We quickly see them in action as one approaches the plantars, basically a giant ant with ant-lers. Yes I used a pun there sue me. Anyway, our heroes ward off the ant they do find with some really cool team manuvering, and Polly showing she has spiked teeth. It’s a cool sequence. However they quickly find themselves outgunned, outplanned, outnumbered and outmanned. They gotta make an all out stand. Their gonna need a right hand man. Also I finally saw the film version of hamilton, as you can tell. Utterly magic. 

Said Right Hand Man, er woman, er tween comes in the nick of time as a cloaked Marcy sprays some black goo and sets it ablaze, scaring the ants off, snatching a stalemate from the jaws of defeat,  then rappeling down on a rope shot from a crossbow, also making polly want one because of course. She then.. Faceplants. Still a solid 8/10 entrance Marcy.  Marcy is played by Haley Tju who you may remember from such shows as The Loud House. And that’s all I know her from but given Stella’s one of my faviorites and Haley’s performance is part of that, so it’s unsuprising she’s great here. Also fun fact I learned by looking at her trope page: She actually played a younger version of London, brenda song’s character, on the Suite Life I Pray for Death but Death Won’t Come.. or On Deck for those who’ve never watched it. But I like the fact two londons are now on the same show together.. and an actually good noe at that! Horay. But yeah Haley is a great VA and what little i’ve seen her in and a welcome addition.  Marcy and Anne happily reunite once htey both realize who the other is, and hug and etc, before Marcy decends on the plantars, talking on and on and on about geeky stuff and how she likes the found family trope. ... I may really relate to this  mediums sized child, as I too am a huge nerd with no filter and was probably a lot like her at that age. It’s also clear she very transparently sees this as a combinaton of a video game and a d and d session, but said skills have actually benifited her as rping a rogue allowed her to easily bluff her way into the kingdom’s good graces and now she’s a sworn agent of the king as we’ll find out.  She quickly wins over the Plantars, measuring hop pop’s head, gushing over him being a farmer (which he almost instantly adopts her over and asks to point blank later), and then noticing Polly’s legs are about to come in and giving her the note seen in the review image, my faviorite gag. Sprig however is more out and out hostile and has his reasons we’ll get to in a second.  Marcy escorts her new family and sorta girlfriend to the makeshift war room set up by three scholoary newts who quickly resolve their planning disagreements by beating the piss out of each other. Just like real politics.. and that’s not a cheeky jab between the actual caning in the sentate that happened once and the various duels in the revolutionary and early america eras.. yeah the only reason the preisdent hasn’t been shot for challening one of hte many people he hates for a duel without realizing he really can’t see through that squint too good is that it’s now illegal and not the kind of illegal he can hide like usual.  Anyways after the Newts scoff at our heroes, but Marcy vouches for them and reveals that the ants are getting closer because i’ts gotten warmer....

Marcy has a plan though: Spread scentshrroms around that will release a pheremone which will drive them off, having throughly studied Amphibia’s various flora and fauna and thus knowing how to deal with them. I’ts something I like about the character and how she adds to the other huamns group dynamics. Alll three deal with issues diffrent ways; Anne has plans, but rarely thinks them through, Sasha does think hers through and is a master manipulator while Marcy is a ballance between the two: She does throughly think things out and have well thought out clever plans.. she just also tens to rush into things or go forward with a nose in a book or without a thought to how dangerous soemthing is. She’s prepared, she’s just not very aware of her surrondings, which is amood. 

But Anne is nervous about her coming along as is sprig which sets up both’s conflicts with her for the episode: Anne wants to protect Marcy, since she just got her back and her only other remaning friend now clearly wants to stab her and she has a better option now love interest wise. However Marcy convinces Anne, 2nd capefire this episode nonwithstanding, she can handle herself. She also calsl her annabannna which is fucking adorable.  The other conflict is that Sprig dosen’t trust her.. he has no rational reason not to give she’s a sweetie, but is a bit gunshy about another human girl working for a dictator popping up in their life. And while he’s probably wrong, while I think Marcy isn’t working for the best people probably she’s likely too oblivious to genuinely relaize she’s doing crimes if they have her doing them or was given a fake justification. I could be wrong, and will gladly eat crow. Metphorically i’m not going to bake a real crow. I don’t have the right seasoning. And i’d also be cursed but eh I doubt I can get poorer. But it’s understandable he has reservations, especially since while he dosen’t say it he’s likely worried Anne will get hurt again. He’s a good boy, he’s just being paranoid over probably nothing.  Anyways onoto the plan: The plantars and new girl marcy are gonna:

Okay phermone them whatever, the point is they head into the Ant Hole, witht he conflicts continuing as the plantars progress; Sprig is naturally suspcious and Anne is worried about her precious gurl. The group fight some more ants, and Marcy seemingly wonders off.. only to instead BLOW THEM A FUCKING TUNNEL with some chemicals from some flowers she found, then instant sprout a plant cage.. and accidently trap polly. NOOOOO.> Thankfully she frees her and tosses some plants on the ants, which is fun to say.  We then get to our climax. OUr group find the queen who ihs horrifying.. a good mom as sprig points out but horrfing. Nice design though i’m just.. not an insect guy and sometimes this show leaves me in abject terror. this is one of those times. Our heroes plant the mushrooms, phrasing I know but this review is late as is and i’ve already used up my archer refrence for the day.  Anne dives to Save a seemingly oblovious Marcy.. whose mad at Anne over it.. while Anne is udnerstandable Marcy wants her , NEEDS her to understand...

No not that erik. That, much like Anne herself, Marcy’s grown and changed over these past three months. She can handle herself now and she needs her ot see that. Also sprig gets attacked by an ant baby, which not only wakes up the queen, who can hear but can’t see but now knows something’s arry, but causes said queen to unleash a hoarde of ants.  Marcy however naturally has a plan: She’ll dive into the queen’s belly and get sprig, the plantars will hold them off and Anne finally trusts her lady enough to fiht off. I don’t have a lot to say I just really like this character arc and Marcy’s character: She’s a bit oblivious, ab it obessed with nerdy things which again relate.. but when push comes to shove she’s also clever, a master planner and has clearly studied her ass off about this world and knows it well. She’s throughly likeable.  And that likeablity finally gets through to sprig when she gets him out and swings him. Trust earned, anne’s faith in her gained and the mushrooms go off and send the ants running. Misson Complete.  With the mission complete our heroes finally enter Newtopia and meet the mysterious Lady Olivia, whose been sending Marcy on her missions, and is likely her spymaster. Not that i think Marcy realizes that but Marcy’s love of midevil fantasy means she blends in well with thier courty apperance and introduces anne and co to her.. Olvia isn’t impressed but is cordial about it at least.. even with Sprig breaking shit. And yeah , Amphibia has a king over all of it, as Hop Pop puts it “We aren’t savages”. It does make sense it woudln’t come up every day though, it’s not as if the king really cares about the valley... but more on speculation about him in a minute. Hop Pop wisely gives the two “Friends’ some alone time, and the two talk things over: Anne explains how she found sasha.. and it didn’t go great, and Marcy vows that the two of them can go their own way now. Maybe iwth tounge. we dunno. The two then look over anne’s phone while anne recounts her anne-tics.. and we get to the king. And it’s KEITH DAVID BITCHES AS WAS PROHPISED A FEW WEEKS AGO. And he has myserious plans and wood carven figures of both our heroines and possible gaybies. “The game can finally begin. “

Final Thoughts: This was a really damn good episode. Whiel I summarized more than usual , both conflicts were great, all the plantars got to shine, there were gags a plenty, an intriguing new member of the main cast and a mysterious new antagonist. I mean given it was revealed the Newts were behind Toad tower a few episodes back, I figured Andidas wouldn’t be a good guy, even if he’s played by upstanding gentleman and god among men keith david, , but it’s a question of what his end goal is, how the girls got here, and what his plan ofr them is that i’m curious to see play out as the season goes on, as well as see if Marcy is a pawn or not. Newtopia also looks intresting and i’ts nice to have a new solid setting to build on now we’re here, as well as new mysteries to unlock> Ther’es also the honest possibliity marcy, who claims to have found bubkuss, might simply want to stay in a world where she gets to live out her dreams and isn’t picked on or bullied. Again we’ll see all speculation but this episode was damn good. For now this is the clear highlight of the season and i’tll be intresting to see where it goes from here. Until next time courage. 

[timeagainreviews]

Doctor Who and Video Games

We live in the era of the franchise. Everything it seems is getting the franchise treatment. After the success of the MCU, everyone wants that sweet sweet money. We’ve got the failed Universal Monsters reboot, the Harry Potter extended universe, and endless Star Wars movies. However, some franchises, it would seem, struggle to grow further than their core narrative. Star Wars never strays very far from the battle with the Empire. Which is one thing you can’t really say about Doctor Who. Doctor Who has done fantasy, sci-fi, period drama, schlocky horror, whimsy, and utter rubbish. I’ve always admired Doctor Who’s flexibility as a property. It lends itself beautifully to a wide range of mediums, such as audios and comic books. But what about video games? Are there any good Doctor Who video games? Could there be?

Over the past week, in preparation for this article, I've completely immersed myself in the world of Doctor Who video games. I feel uniquely qualified to have an opinion on the subject. But before we continue, I give a word of caution. I'm talking directly to you, now. Never in your life, should you ever play "Doctor Who: Return to Earth," for the Nintendo Wii. It's not worth the £1.80 that I spent on eBay. You don't ever deserve to do that to yourself. I don't care what you've done, nobody deserves that. If like myself, you have played this game, you have my deepest sympathies, especially if you paid for it new.

It doesn't interest me to make a list of the worst Doctor Who video games, as many people have done this already. It's nothing new to say that Doctor Who has a video game problem. When I wrote that Doctor Who should be run by Disney, I don't actually mean it should happen. I was merely illustrating that Disney knows how to take care of its properties. I would venture that Doctor Who has always had a bit of a management problem. Merchandise from Doctor Who has always reminded me of Krusty the Clown merchandise. So much of it is some bullshit they slapped a Dalek on said: "10 quid please!" Barring the occasional home run or third-party licensing, a lot of the merchandise is pretty uninspired. Which is bananas, because the world of Doctor Who has so much colour and potential.

Video games based off of movies and television are almost always as bad as movies and television based off of video games. They're rarely breaking the mould in their new medium. Most of the time, tie-ins such as these are quick soulless cash grabs. You can see this a lot in the Matt Smith era. There are at least seven games featuring his Doctor, and then a sudden decline. Matt Smith was the Doctor during one of the show's biggest points in popularity. Never before had the show been embraced on such an international level. Of course, the Beeb wanted to push as many video games out as possible.

The problem is, they didn't throw a lot of money at it, and not one project seemed to get the focus it deserved. I won't pretend to know the motivation behind the BBC's forays into video games, but it seems to be a trend with them to overdo something, and then be scared of it in the future. They changed the 5.5" figurine set to a 3.75" scale and nobody wanted them. Because of this, we haven't seen nearly as many 5.5" figures since. They once put out a figure of Lady Casandra's frame after she exploded into gore. We used to get figures like Pig Lazlo and the Gran from "The Idiot's Lantern." Now we'll be lucky if we get everyone's favourite- Graham O'Brien. They also did it with the Doctor Who Experience. They make this brilliant Doctor Who museum with the OK'est walkthrough story, and then put it right in the middle of Cardiff. They wondered why it never made any money. I've been twice, and I gotta say- they should have put it in London. It would still be open.

This isn't to say all of Matt Smith's video games are bad. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor adventure games referred to simply as "The Doctor Who Adventure Games," are some of my favourite in the entire lot. And as much as I would like to blame the BBC for their lack of caring, the fact is Doctor Who is not easy to translate into video games. Even if they do care, they still need the right team on the job. Oddly, it's one of the Doctor's greatest charms that makes Doctor Who hard to translate into a video game, and that's the Doctor's stance on violence. If the Doctor could pick up a laser pistol and just frag some Daleks, we'd probably have an entire series on our hands. Unfortunately, most developers go one of two ways. They either ignore the pacifism or we get countless mind-numbing puzzles.

Puzzles are by far the worst element of any Doctor Who game. In the browser-based "Worlds in Time," there were a plethora of Bejewelled type mini-games and pipe matching puzzles. The puzzles got increasingly harder even if the player wasn't also getting increasingly better. Even the platformer "The Eternity Clock," was mired in constantly stopping to do puzzles. They pop up in the Adventure Games, but other than the infuriating "don't touch the sides," puzzles, they don't detract much from the gameplay. There were moments where I felt a bit like a companion because I was decoding a Dalek computer for the Doctor, which is really the money spot for a Doctor Who video game. Any time a Doctor Who game can make you feel like you're in Doctor Who is time well spent.

When asking my friends what kind of Doctor Who video game they would like to see, many of them mentioned they would like a survival horror type game. We sort of get this in many of the Smith era games. In "Return to Earth," the mechanic is sloppy and infuriating at best. In "The Eternity Clock," and the Adventure Games, it's a little more manageable. It's a nice way to add a challenge to a non-violent gameplay style. It would be interesting to see what a game team from something like "Thief," or "Resident Evil," might do with the sneaking aspect.

Another way the games have completely side-stepped the non-violence and puzzles is by having the Doctor act as a secondary character. The player is put in the position of the companion or perhaps a UNIT soldier as in the case of "Destiny of the Doctors." If you've not played DotD, I wouldn't blame you. I was hitting my head against the wall just trying to figure out what to do. The only real reason to play that game is for one last chance to see the fabulous Anthony Ainley reprise the role of the Master. He's in totally smarmy ham mode, even if it's a bunch of gibberish they shot in a day. You can find the entirety of the footage on YouTube and it's surreal.

The problem with having the Doctor be violent is that it doesn't feel true to the character. Sure, Three did some Venusian aikido, Four broke that dude's neck in "Seeds of Doom," and even Twelve socked a racist in the face, but these are isolated incidents. The spirit of the Doctor is lost in 1992's "Dalek Attack," when the Doctor is forced to go full on bullet hell on a Dalek hover cart. It's funny then that one of my favourite Doctor Who games incorporates a violent Doctor. In the Doctor Who level of "Lego Dimensions," the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make villains fall apart in a very safe Lego style violence. I can excuse this mostly because the game is not primarily a Doctor Who game at heart.

Funnily enough, the Lego game does something I've always wanted in a Doctor Who video game. I've always wanted to have a Doctor Who game where you could regenerate into different Doctors, and also go into their respective TARDISes. Sure, some of the games on the Commodore 64 allowed you to regenerate, but it was pretty naff in its execution. I tell no lies when I say I spent a lot of time regenerating and reentering the TARDIS to explore the Lego versions of their respective console rooms. Really, the biggest problem with the Lego Doctor Who game is that it wasn't it's own game. Lego Dimensions was its own failure. If TT Games would come out with an entire Doctor Who game, I would buy it yesterday.

The overarching problem with every Doctor Who game is the same problem Torchwood had- if it wasn't attached to Doctor Who, we wouldn't be interested. While I did have a lot of fun with the Adventure Games and Lego Dimensions, not one Doctor Who game has every element right. One has a good story, but poor mechanics, another has great mechanics but doesn't feel right. It's a bit of a tight rope to find the perfect balance, but I don't feel it's impossible

One of the reasons I would love to see a proper Lego Doctor Who game is that they have a history of good adaptations. They're not exactly beloved games, but I myself play a lot of them. One of the most impressive things I've seen them do was in Lego Batman 3, where they made each of the planets in the Green Lantern mythos a visitable world. Could you imagine the same treatment for Doctor Who? Visiting Telos and Skaro, and then popping off to medieval earth or Gallifrey? You could get different missions depending on which Doctor you were, or what time you arrive in. And the collectable characters! So many companions, and Doctors, and baddies, and costume variations to unlock! Doesn't that sound nice? You can buddy Jamie and Amy with Seven and Twelve and have an all Scottish TARDIS! A Zygon could ride K9!

The fact is, we probably won't see a very expansive Doctor Who game. I would be very enthusiastic for an open world Doctor Who game, but even as I type it, it sounds difficult to pull off. I may be able to say what doesn't work about the games, but saying what would work is admittedly, not as simple, but this doesn't mean I can't think of at least one good game. Piecing together some of the things I mentioned earlier, I think the best genre for Doctor Who is point-and-click adventures. I know I keep singing the praises of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, but it's because I think they were actually onto something. It's sad then that they scrapped any further developments to work on the inferior "Eternity Clock."

Could you imagine a point and click Doctor Who in the same vein as "Day of the Tentacle," or "Thimbleweed Park"? You walk around as the Doctor, pick up bits, talk to funny characters and solve complex problems. If you throw in a bit of horror survival, you've basically got the Adventure Games, which is my point- Do more with what they've already done. Grow the concepts. Improve the mechanics. A Doctor Who game should be jammed packed with Easter eggs, unlockables, and mystery. The point is, do more. Even their phone apps are abysmal. You know how much I would play a “Pokémon Go,” style Doctor Who game? You go around trapping baddies in cages you set off with your sonic screwdriver or something. I. Would. Catch. Them. All.

We still have “The Edge of Time,” coming to PC and consoles in October, and I'm pensively excited. While the graphics seem really top notch, in no way does it feel like anything more than a fun little VR experience. The game is going to remain exclusive to that small subsection of gamers that own a VR headset. Before it has even been released, it's closed itself off to yet another section of its very wide audience. Let's just hope that it doesn't scare the BBC away from making a proper Doctor Who game in the near future. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to borrow my friends' VR set, because of course, I'm going to play it. It's Doctor Who.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun “researching,” this article. Playing Doctor Who games all week? Oh no, twist my arm! Sadly, a lot of these games are no longer available from their original sources. I was able to find a lot of them on the Internet Archive. If you want to give them a go, I would definitely suggest it. A couple of them are even capable of being emulated on your browser from the Internet Archive. The game I had the hardest time locating was “The Gunpowder Plot,” but I was eventually able to find it after some digging. I didn’t play any of the text-based games because I’m not very good with spatial awareness, and so text-based games are usually a nightmare for me. Sadly, Worlds in Time is lost forever, but I remember my character fondly. I also discovered I’m pretty good at Top Trumps: Doctor Who. Go figure.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Dragon Ball Super: Future Trunks Arc REVIEW:

(Warning: This review contains spoilers.)

Far from now, in a distant time.** I, Zamasu, immortal lord of the Kai’s, UNLEASHED AN UNSPEAKABLE EVIL! But a foolish Saiyan warrior, wielding a giant sword, step forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck he tore open a portal in time,  and ran away from the future, where my evil was LAW! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Zamasu!

Gotta get back. Back to the past, stop Goku Black. Wa-Watch Out!~

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt, and it’s been…a while since I talked about Dragon Ball Super. Long enough that my plan to review the arcs as the English dub comes out are pretty much dead. But I’m here now, and ready to review the next chapter in the Dragon Ball saga, the “Future Trunks” arc. Which honestly, is a stupid name cause we already had a “Future Trunks” arc. It was called the Android and Cell saga. Why didn’t they just call it the “Goku Black” arc? But whatever. With each arc in Super surpassing that previous one up to this point, will this arc be able to continue the trend? That’s what I’m here find out. Also, given that this arc is a bit longer than the previous ones, I’m going to skim over or abbrev certain things for the sake of time. (Trust me, when we get to the Universe Survival Arc you’ll be glad I’m doing this.) But with all that said, let’s dive in.

The arc begins in Future Trunk’s timeline years after he defeated the androids. And…things are somehow even worse. That’s right, there world has had TWO apocalypses in the span of about thirty years or so. The few remnants of humanity have been forced into hiding as a small resistant stands to fight against this new threat. This resistance, consisting of Future Trunks, Future Bulma, and a future version of Mai of all characters, has one mission in mind. Rebuild the time machine and travel back in time to get help from the past, to help them stop this new enemy. And who is this new enemy? It’s none other than Goku. Or at least, an evil villain impersonating Goku, known as Goku Black. A name that probably sounds a lot better in Japan than it does in a country that has with a sizable black minority, like America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDYJO-1IhN8

…Big oof.

But let’s talk about Goku Black for a minute. Now, the idea of making a character that’s designed to be an evil Goku isn’t really anything new. (I mean look at Turles.) However what makes Goku Black, and this whole arc in general, really stand out is the mystery aspect. The whole first half of this arc is all about figuring out who, or what, Goku Black really is and where he came from? And they’re are clues hidden thought that hint towards a larger picture. While Goku Black sounds like Goku, even being played by Sean Schemmel, his cadence is nothing like Goku. His speech is more polite and flowery. Also he refers to Trunks as “mortal” and even “Saiyan” at several points, implying that he is none of those things. It opens questions and allows the audience to speculate. And speaking of voice, Sean Schemmel does an amazing job voicing Black in the dub. Managing to make it sound like Goku while also making it feel distinctly it’s own thing. It’s a really great performance.

Just as Trunks, Mai, and Bulma are about to finish the time machine, Black shows up and attacks. He kills Bulma and injures Mai, but Trunks is just barley able to escape. And while all of this is going on we keep cutting back to wacky hijinks in the present timeline. Things like the Pilaf Gang in school and Goku and Piccolo harvesting lettuces…which really clashes with the incredibly dower tone of what’s going on in Trunk’s timeline. Regardless, Trunk’s time machine arrives in Bulma’s yard. However, they’re not in the clear yet as Goku Black was able to follow them back, briefly, using a magical object known as a time ring.

Goku goes and battles Black. The fight is pretty one sided with Goku holding back, not going beyond Super Saiyan so he can gauge Black’s power and have a good fight. I want you all to remember this, as everything bad that happens in the rest of this arc wouldn’t have happened if Goku had just gone all out on Black from the beginning. After a bit of a brawl Black’s time ring flings him back to the future. But not before he’s able to damage the time machine. Whis notes that the time ring gives the wearers ability to travel between timelines, and are only meant to be worn by Supreme Kais. Not only that but Black’s energy feels remarkably similar to a Supreme Kai in training that exist in universe ten. So with this lead Goku, Whis, and Beerus head off to universe ten, leaving Trunks to explore the present.

When this arc was first announced, I have to admit I wasn’t really looking forward to it. It felt like it was just going to be a rehash of the Android and Cell arcs, with Trunks going back in time to stop another apocalypse. personally, I was fine with the idea of never seeing Future Trunks again, as it felt like his story was over. However, what kinda turned me around on this is all of these neat little interactions that we get to see, which we could only get by having Trunks travel to the “Super” era of the Dragon Ball timeline.

One of these great interactions is between Trunks and Kid Trunks. Kid Trunks forms this almost sibling-esq rivalry with his future self, which is honestly pretty fun to see. And we get the most elaborate two person love triangle ever devised. You see Kid Trunks has a crush on Mai, who’s actually a forty year old woman trapped in a child’s body. (But Kid Trunks doesn’t know this.) Mai, being an adult mentally, has a crush on Future Trunks. Meanwhile, Future Trunks has a thing for Future Mai, who’s is actually a middle aged woman trapped in a young adult body. So…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SC-KleaUBc

We also get to see interactions like Trunks learning that Krillin married Android 18. As well as Trunks getting to meet adult Gohan. Now keep in mind, the last time Trunks saw Gohan he just unlocked Super Saiyan Two and had just completely decimated Cell. And this is what he sees when he meets him here.

Let me explain why this image is the best scene ever. We got Trunks on the left, representing all the Gohan fans out there. We got Videl being all like _“MAI BAE!” _And then we have Mr. Satan who just looks like he’s completely high on Quaaludes and is just here for the ride.

Meanwhile, Goku arrives in universe ten they meet the universes Supreme Kai, Gowasu, along with his apprentice Zamasu. Zamasu was the former North Kai of universe ten, and is now being trained to take up the role of Supreme Kai when Gowasu eventually dies. Whis senses that Zamasu’s energy feels very similar to Black’s, but they don’t wanna tip there hand just yet. So Goku challenges Zamasu to a friendly fight to see if they’re fighting styles are similar, without telling him about Black. Zamasu is hesitant to battle a mere mortal, but he complies.

Now let’s talk about Zamasu. I’ll be honest, one of the main reasons for me doing these Dragon Ball Super retrospects in the first place was just so I could have an excuse to talk about/make fun of Zamasu. Zamasu is great, and let me tell you why. Zamasu is very different from other Kai’s in a multitude of ways. Unlike the generally peaceful Kais, Zamasu has a massive disdain for mortals. He believing that they are sinful by nature, and only cause destruction. As such. he also believes that the Kai’s should take on a more hands on approach to running the universe. When you really look at it, He’s not wrong in his assumptions. The Kai’s are pretty useless in general, and it seems like SOMETHING’S always putting the universe in danger every other week or so. So his way of thinking comes from a fairly rational place.

That being said though, it’s pretty clear from the beginning that something isn’t right with Zamasu. While he doesn’t seem outright evil, he definitely doesn’t seem nice either. And given the fact that he is the only suspect in the Goku Black mystery (and the fact that he is featured so prominently in the arcs theme song.) It’s pretty clear that he is involved in one way or whatever. Usually something like this would ruin the mystery, but it actually works here. We know Zamasu is somehow tied in with Goku Black and is probably up to no good, but we don’t know exactly how. The mystery is less about finding out WHO the culprit is is as it is figuring out HOW the culprit is committing the crime, and finding proof. It’s also a refreshing change of paste to have a villain with somewhat noble intentions, at least at the start. Most antagonist in this franchise are just evil from the start for no real reason, but it’s nice seeing a characters decent into darkness. But it’s not the motivation or the mystery that makes me love Zamasu as a character. _I LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE’S SUCH A FRICKIN�� EDGE LORD! AND THE SHOW ACKNOWLEDGES IT! _Zamasu is that emo kid who thinks he knows everything about the world and believes that he is above it all. “Cause he isn’t blinded like the other idiotic mass! He’s deep man!” And it’s just to great!

Zamasu is voiced by James Marster. At first I didn’t really like the voice, as it sounded a lot older than what I was expecting. But it really grew on me as time went on. James Marster has been a massive Dragon Ball fan for much of his life. Even agreeing to play Piccolo in the Dragon Ball Evolution movie. So to see him get a chance to finally be in a piece of Dragon Ball medium that’s actually…good. He does a really stellar job, capturing the pompousness and the insanity of the character really well. His performance is one of the arcs highlights.

Zamasu fights Goku and Goku is able to beat him in his Super Saiyan 2 form. Zamasu is disgusted that he was beaten by a mortal, and silently swears revenge on Goku for besting him. However, Goku isn’t able to make any firm connections between him and Goku Black. So he, Beerus and Whis head back to Earth.

With Trunk’s time machine was destroyed Bulma and the Pilaf gang began working on repairing Cell’s old time machine from all the way back in the Cell saga, which Bulma had kept in capsule form for all these years. As they wait for the time machine to be prepared it allows Trunks and Vegeta to do some good old father-son bonding.

_See everybody, Vegeta’s great at helping people as long as he can do it by punching and threatening them!

_ While all that’s going on Beerus and Whis get a message from none other than the Omni-King himself. And for some reason, he wants to see Goku. The two are obviously worried as Zeno is capable of whipping out entire universe in an instant and Goku…is Goku. But with no real option Goku, Whis, and the Supreme Kai head off to Zeno’s palace to see what he wants. They are greeted by Zeno’s Grand Priest, who Whis confirms is one of the five strongest people in the multiverse. He leads them down to Zeno’s throne room where Zeno tells Goku what he wants. He wants a friend.

The gods are shocked, but really it makes sense. Zeno is just a little kid, and it must get lonely at the top. All the other deities fear the Omni-King due to the sheer amount of destructive power that he possesses. But Goku is the only one who’s ever treated Zeno like an actual person, due to just how kind and thick headed he is. This lack of hesitation has earned him the Omni-Kings respect. Goku tells Zeno that he can’t play with him right now, since he’s a bit preoccupied at the moment. But he says that when he’s done, he’ll find Zeno a friend that’s even better than he is. Zeno agrees and gives Goku a button that can summon him directly once Goku finds this friend. Goku puts this very obvious Checkov’s gun in his pocket for latter and arrives on Earth just as Bulma is finishing the time machine.

Now that it is fixed, Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks hop in the machine to face Black head on. They arrive and find they’re way to the resistance HQ, where Trunks is reunited with the Future Mai. But it doesn’t take long for them to encounter Goku Black, who through a combination of zenkai boost, and getting a better handle on Goku’s body, is much stronger than he was during his first encounter with Goku. He’s even able to transform into his own twisted version of Super Saiyan Blue known as Super Saiyan Rose.

Vegeta, ready to beat up anyone who looks like Goku, attacks Black. And as we know, every time Vegeta fights the arc’s main antagonist, it-it usually goes really well for him, so we shouldn’t have anything to worry about-

_VEGETA! You’re suppose to learn from your past mistakes! _

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, a time portal opens up in the sky revealing Zamasu. Or at least, a future version of Zamasu with potara and a time ring. That’s right, Zamasu isn’t Black, he’s working with Black. (Or so it seems at least.) The three try to battle the duo in a really well done fight scene, but they notice something about this version of Zamasu. No matter how much damage they inflict on him, he just heals from it seconds after. He’s somehow invincible. This, coupled with Goku Black’s new power, is simply to much for our heroes to handle. Luckily, they’re able to just barley about the escape in the time machine in the nick of time due to Mai distracting Zamasu and Black.

Meanwhile, the present version of Zamasu is becoming more and more fascinated with Goku. Gowasu is as well, and even does some research on him on Godtube. The actual thing that actually exist in this universe and is an important plot point. That’s right, apparently the entire Universe Six tournament was actually live streamed this entire time!. Though I can’t speak to the validity of Godtube as a platform. Heard they’re copyright system is pretty bad.

Dang it, Toei!

Zamasu see’s Super Saiyan Blue Goku’s fight with Hit and is furious that a mortal like Goku is able to achieve such Godly powers. And it’s at this point that you realize that Zamasu is really just the Frank Grimes of the Dragon Ball franchise. And Goku is _Homer. And I’m okay with that…

_But this is where Zamasu learns about the Super Dragon Balls. He goes to Zuno (The all knowing alien from the last arc.) and demands information from him. And this is where Zamasu comes up with his plan. He’ll use the Super Dragon Balls to swap bodies with Goku, than use the time rings to travel to a different timeline, and team up with a parallel version of himself. Then THAT Zamasu will use the Super Dragon Balls in order to wish for immortality. Than they will begin they’re plan to whip out all mortal life from the multiverse. Convoluted enough? But hey, at least unlike other villains he plans on wishing for immortality BEFORE engaging our heroes.

But before he can do this, he needs to kill Gowasu first. As only a Supreme Kai can use the time rings. Goku, Whis, and Beerus begin to figure out this plan. (They figure parts of it out later, but I’m abbreviating this for the sake on length.) They travel to the tenth universe and catch Zamasu in the act of murdering Gowasu, but Whis uses his time rewind powers to save him. It’s honestly a clever and unexpected twist. Seeing the ability again here makes it feel less like it was something only invented to get our heroes out of a jam in the Resurrection ‘F’ arc. Even if it still most likely was.

Beerus, being sick of having nothing to do this arc, destroys Zamasu. They return to Earth to tell Trunks about the good news. Trunks tries to explain that time travel doesn’t work that way in this universe, but Beerus just wants this arc to be over with and buggers off. Trunks, Goku, Vegeta, and even Bulma decide to go to the future and see if everything’s all right. Now, I know what your probably thinking. Shouldn’t they have some kinda plan to fight Zamasu and Black just in case they are still in the future? Or at the very least, do some training first? But, y'know, they’ll probably just cross that bridge when they get to it.

_GOKU! You’re suppose to learn from your past mistakes!

_ Things come to a head when Black and Zamasu point out that all of this has been a self fulfilling paradox. If Trunks never went back in time in the first place, Goku would of never met Zamasu, Zamasu wouldn’t have become Black, and the future wouldn’t of been destroyed. And since I didn’t know where else to point this out, I just wanna praise that that fact that everything that has happened in this art does follow the rules of time traveling that the story established. Given how losey goosey Dragon Ball can be with it’s own lore and consistency, I was sure there would be some kind of plot hole regarding something as elaborate as time travel. But, surprisingly, they went through the effort to keep everything consistent. They forgot what color hair Trunks was suppose to have, but they got this right. So kudos.

Trunks is furious when Zamasu and Black point out that, in a way, this is all his doing. He has a breaking point as the two mock him. And in his anger, he develops a new transformation. Super Saiyan…they never name it in the series proper. I know that it’s called Super Saiyan Anger or Rage or whatever the translation is, but they never name it in the series or explain what exactly it is beyond a form that is formed via anger. _AKA: ALL THE NON GODLY SAIYAN FORMS, CAUSE THEY’RE ALL FUELED BY ANGER! _

That being said though, despite the lack of real explanation on how it works and the fact that it doesn’t really add much to the plot, I have to say it’s one of the coolest looking forms in the series. Like Super Saiyan Blue Kai-o-Ken it has two aura’s, as well as incorporating elements from Buff Super Saiyan form used in the Cell saga. I wish they elaborated on it more, cause this design feel way too cool to be this quote unquote generic.

Trunks holds Black and Zamasu off while the rest of the group travel back in time on more time in order to find a way to actually STOP Zamasu and Black for good. Goku goes to Roshi in order to learn how to do the Evil Containment Wave, in hopes of being about to seal away Zamasu rather than kill him. Meanwhile Vegeta goes to train for twelve hours in the hyperbolic time chamber. They return to the future to have they’re final rematch with Black and Zamasu.

While this is going on Beerus realizes that he’s failed to kill Zamasu and actually feels bad. Not bad enough to go and help, but bad enough to send Gowasu and Shin to help in his place.

They arrive in the time machine, which Black immediately destroys, also damaging the jar they were planning on sealing Zamasu in. See, unlike other villains, Zamasu and Black are actually proactive. I like that. It’s up to Trunks, Mai, and Bulma to fix both the time machine and the jar. Fighting ensues as Vegeta just wails on Black. Black realizes that anger can result in him getting more strength, so he channels that anger into…a scythe…that he uses to open a portal in space time, that creates clones of himself….being angry did this. Ah, whatever, the arc’s almost over. Who cares?

_So, could Vegeta and Goku do this too? I can’t think of any logical reason why they shouldn’t be able to.

_ While Goku and Vegeta are busy with the clones of Black, Zamasu heads for Trunks. The only hope is for Trunks to preform the Evil Containment Wave. Luckily Bulma has a video of it on her phone for Trunks to use as a reference. Bulma goes out to buy him some time by trying to seduce Zamasu in one of the greatest scenes ever put to television, and Trunks is able to successfully preform the move, trapping Zamasu in the jar forever…

Or at least he would of if Goku hadn’t forgot the seal! _TWICE! TWICE GOKU FU*K UP IN STOPPING THE VILLAINS! _Since Zamasu’s free, he realizes that it’s time to take these mortals seriously. So using the potara earrings he fuses with Black, becoming FUSED ZAMASU! Who manages to somehow be even more of an edgelord than he was before!

_AND THIS…IS TO GO…EVEN FURTHER…BEYOND! IT’S SUPER SAIYAN EDGE!

_The three of them simply aren’t strong enough to stop Zamasu in this state. They’re only hope is to use the potara themselves and fuse into Vegeto! Which is retconned into only being permanent with Kais. Cause fusions are popular and they’re going to milk it for all it’s worth. Even though they could of had them return to normal without the need for a retcon cause it’s been established that the dragon balls can undo a fusion…but who cares? Now they only stay fused for an hour, but the more energy they use, the shorter amount of time they can be fused. They fuse and go Super Saiyan Blue and we get one of the best fights we’ve had in the series thus far, despite it only being about two minutes. The fluidity of the animation is done in a way that Dragon Ball has never really done up until this point, and resembles a fight from _One Punch Man _more than Dragon Ball.

It’s during this fight that they discover how to beat Zamasu. While Zamasu was immortal Goku Black wasn’t. When Zamasu took Goku’s body he also inherited many of his Saiyan traits, including lust for battle and his desire to have a proper challenge. As such he never wanted immortality and now that he and Zamasu are fused together, he isn’t wholly immortal anymore, and his body begins going into flux. Unfortunately they burn up they’re energy to quickly and defuse before they’re able to kill Zamasu. Unable to even transform anymore due to how depleted they are, it’s up to Trunks to stop him. All the resistance members cheer Trunks on, and they’re hope and belief in him forms into a mini spirit bomb that he channels through his sword. He uses this energy to defeat Zamasu by slicing him in half. Dick first no less.

This ending seemed to be a bit divisive when it first came out, with many people saying it was a Deus ex Machina. And I have to say that I kinda agreed with a lot of the criticism when I first saw it. Trunks learning the Evil Containment Wave so fast via just one video he saw was one thing, but the spirit bomb is literally a move that he never learned. Nor even really had an opportunity to learn. However, while it doesn’t make sense logically, this ending does work really well in a thematic sense. It ties in to the arcs, and even all of Super in general, theme of mortals rising up to reach a power beyond the Gods. It shows that, when all of humanity works together for a common ideal, they is no limit to there power. Cause in the end, humans where able to do what the Gods couldn’t. Beerus’s plan to kill Zamasu failed. Shin and Gowasu’s plan with the potara’s failed. Even Goku and Vegeta’s plan of using God Ki failed. In the end it was all of humanity, giving they’re power to Trunks, they’re one hope, that was able to defeat Zamasu once and for all. And it shows that Trunks was able to save his own future, without needing to rely on Goku and Vegeta or Gohan or anyone else. Zamasu and Black where his problem, and he had to be the one to stop them.

So that was my review of Dragon Ball Super: Future Trunks arc. So what are my final thought…and wait. What do you mean they’re one more episode left?…

…Oh no…

So Zamasu, being truly immortal, isn’t killed by his body being destroyed. He simply transforms into an ethereal state, in honestly one of the most horrifying things Dragon Ball has ever done. He turns into Gygas from Earthbound and in one attack levels the Earth and whips out all of humanity minus our heroes. Without a body there’s nothing for our heroes to fight, and all hope seems loss. Until Goku remembers Zeno’s button and calls him for help. This summons the Future Zeno, which is weird cause you’d think God would be like beyond the confines of space and time, but apparently he isn’t. Zeno see’s all the damage Zamasu has done and decides to deal with this by destroying the timeline completely. The gang escape in they’re time machine before being erased too. You know, I was joking around with the Samurai Jack comparisons at the beginning, but that’s basically what ends up happening. Goku returns to the void that was once Trunks timeline and grabs the Future Zeno and brings him to the present. He goes to present Zeno and tells him that he’s found his new friend. We also learn that the Grand Priest is Whis’s dad.

After returning to Earth, our heroes discuss what to do now. Whis mentions that when Beerus killed the present Zamaus it created a new time ring, and that Trunks and Mai could use that to travel to a new future. One that never had Zamasu in it. That’s right, they’re taking the Rick and Morty approach. “Close enough, right?” They fly off in the time machine together and then the arc ends.

Now, I will say this. Having the guts to have an arc like this end on such a bittersweet note is definitely a ballsy move. In a world where so many problems can be solved by just collecting the Dragon Balls, I like the idea of their actually being serious consequences that can’t be fixed. But because this all happens in the last episode of the arc, there’s no time to let this sink in. And the ending is just to depressing. The arc basically ends on-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufmrn7BCuA

Everyone in Trunks timeline is dead. Not just dead but erased from existence completely. Trunks failed to save his future, making not just this whole arc pointless, but the Android and Cell saga pointless too! Why even go to a new timeline at all? Why not stay in the present timeline? At least you know these people! Everything Trunks said about the power of humanity working together was wrong. Humans couldn’t stop Zamasu. They needed the power of a God to save them. And the entire DESTRUCTION of an entire timeline could of been avoided if Goku hadn’t summoned Zeno. Or if he had just brought the dang seal. Or, you know, if he defeated Black in their first fight!

So yeah, in conclusion, I feel very mixed on this arc. There are a lot of pros. Zamasu and Black are both fantastic villains who in my opinion deserve more recognition. Also it’s refreshing just to have a new Dragon Ball villain, as appose to all the other arc antagonist who are rivals or…Frieza again. I appreciate the darker tone and the feeling of actual stakes, which is something the last two arcs felt particularly lacking in. And I also enjoy all the fun moments we get seeing Trunks interact with the older Z fighters. But man, does the ending kill a lot of what the arc had going for it. Also the arc drags a bit in parts, as personally I feel you could cut out at least one of the trips to the future. Overall, I think I’d say the arc is still the best arc the series has had so far, but it’s defiantly a case of higher highs and lower lows. But at least we don’t have any evil Goku’s to worry about.

Cause the one we have is enough trouble as it is.

So that was my review of the “Future Trunks” arc of Dragon Ball Super. What did you think? Feel free to leave any thoughts you have in the comments down bellow. I’d love to hear them. Fav, follow, and like the review if you’d enjoy and have a great day.

(I do not own any of the images or videos in this review. All credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Dragon-Ball-Super-Future-Trunks-Arc-REVIEW-793870861 DA Link

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Creepy Kids from my Career as a Case Manager Part 1 DuShaun by creepykids

DuShaun J (Shaun for short) was a 15 y.o. black kid with an IQ in the Superior/Very Superior range. He lived in a trailer park outside a small town about 70 miles south of Chicago with his mother and her shitbag boyfriend. His file noted that the boyfriend was a felon and was certainly abusive to both DuShaun and his mother. The file painted his mother in more sympathetic colors but I was pretty skeptical. Shaun had fewer disciplinary issues at school than I would have expected. His only run-in with the cops seemed to have been a time he was caught spray painting the side of an abandoned, burned-out Dairy Queen on the edge of town and the cop had let him off with a warning (and made an astonishingly positive assessment of the quality of Shaun's work as an aside in the report). For one of the few black kids (demographics on the town list it as 91% white) in a broke-ass small town going to a shitty public high school to be that smart and stay under the radar somehow was pretty impressive.

He would have gone completely under our radar too, except teachers had begun to notice that he was coming to school sporting visible injuries (black eyes, lacerations, what looked like cigarette burns on his right arm) and had sometimes seemed to be in a daze. Statements noted that he had always been thin to the point of looking emaciated.

When I arrived, the trailer was a shit show (did I even need to say that?)--the only thing in the living room that didn't look scavenged from a dump in a post-apocalyptic wasteland was a brand television (with a ps4 attached) that was planted right in front of the beat-to-shit dark brown recliner where Shaun's mom's boyfriend (Dave) clearly spent most of his waking hours. The trailer smelled like old meat and cigarette smoke. The millipede that scurried across the wall as I was talking to the mom (Wanda) looked happy and fat--it's nice when families take good care of their pets, I think.

I knew Wanda was 32, although her face was so haggard and pitted she looked much older. She had probably been stunning, once, and I think she was probably highly intelligent although the intelligence was buried under years of trauma and mountains of heroin. Dave (41, white, never handsome, now flabby and dead-eyed) made faces while Wanda expressed saccharine, maudlin sentiments about Shaun. Dave used several racial epithets in a short conversation and also repeatedly speculated that Shaun was "probably a faggot." I didn't bait him, since he'd have taken it out on Shaun later, but I took some pleasure in the fact that it clearly made him uncomfortable when I gave him absolutely no reassurance or approval. (I'm a big, medium handsome white dude, not at all flabby.)

Shaun's bedroom was tiny, and the only furniture in it was a twin sized bed. It was impeccably neat, and the hideous green and brown carpet was clean. It's unprofessional of me, but I could barely pay attention to Shaun for a few minutes because I was mesmerized by the drawings he had done on his wall.

His walls were covered in urgent, explosive drawings of fantastic figures--mostly anthropomorphic, though many had wings and tails and animal heads--in different poses. Some were clearly dancing, some were holding spears or swords, some were flying or kneeling in prayer. They reminded me of cave drawings, or perhaps like if some savages had somehow traveled forward in time and been exposed to Klee and Basquiat and then gone back to their own era to have a second go at the walls in Lascaux. First taking in those walls was like jerking off during a fever dream. We are always told to look for something--anything at all--that a kid is halfway good at so we can use it to open a dialogue but this was more than that; looking at Shaun's work I was fairly certain I was looking at a work of genius.

Shaun was staring at me with big, brilliant eyes. Perfectly poised. Amiable enough but clearly diamond sharp. I was absolutely certain that he'd see me leading with something like "Boy howdy them's some nice drawings you got here!" as artless and hamfisted. He'd be polite but it would destroy any chance at trust. So instead I shook his hand, asked if I could sit on his bed, and explained a few of the concerns his teachers had expressed to lay out the reasons for my visit. Shaun sat on the floor and took it all in.

I assumed Dave was listening in (I could hear labored breathing outside the thin bedroom door, for one thing) and I really didn't need any info from Shaun about his relationship with his parents anyway. Living conditions would go in my report. I could see some of his injuries (healing black eye, a definite burn on his left arm) and they'd go in the report. No need to ask Shaun to piss in a cup--I was sure the kid was clean as a whistle. As soon as we had any reason we could piss test the mom and Dave and they'd be just as dirty any day of the week as they were now. The main thing was building a rapport with Shaun so we talked about sports and school. I asked him about the skateboard I saw in the corner (he was an avid skater) and we talked about music. He was surprised and dubious when I told him I liked Tyler the Creator too, and was clearly astonished when I said one of the reasons I liked him was that he had grown up from a smart, funny, glib kid who didn't give a fuck into an intelligent man with real shit to say.

"Yeah," Shaun said, "and now a lot of folk who used to fuck with him don't like him any more. He doesn't give a fuck about THAT either, though."

"Yeah, what did he say once, 'Anybody who's mad at me I don't make jokes about hurting women anymore and don't still squat in my dead grandmother's house can fuck off,' or something."

"Yeah," Shaun said and smiled, "petty little dick-riders hate transcendence."

We talked a little about his artwork, then. He asked me if I'd ever heard of the Dictionnaire Infernal, and I said that I had. It was kind of a catalog of demons--a hierarchy of hell. He nodded, and said he had seen a "fucking trippy" edition online illustrated by a French guy named Breton ("But not the famous surrealist guy, like I thought at first, just some boring dude who only did that one good thing") and that he'd had dreams about it. In the dreams he saw demons of his own. Demons and devils and spirits that his grandfather had told him about that were apparently mongelized constructs pulled from voodoo and African folktales and old Southern ghost stories. He had always been a good artist, but he said when he painted these dreams he felt he was on some next level shit.

He asked me which my favorite was, and I pointed to a leaping figure, bouncing high with his arms raised over his head in exultation. It looked like he was wearing a big amulet and he had a stag's head with huge, intricate antlers.

"Yeah. He's Joy. I like him too. That one down here, though..." he pointed a long, elegant finger at a horrible thing with big feathery wings and the face of a bird who appeared, somehow, to be shrieking, "that one's Vengeance. You don't wanna see that bitch--lady, excuse me--you don't wanna see that lady."

"She's like a banshee?"

"Yeah, kinda. But I think banshees s'posed to show up when you're already doomed? She fuckin' brings doom with her."

"Do you have titles for them?"

"Not gonna get titles. These are too personal. These motherfuckers gonna get names. Haven't named them yet either. Naming a thing is serious business--once you name something, you gotta be ready to own it."

I really wanted the conversation to keep going, but I had other appointments and had more than enough information.

Shaun clearly had a little more to say, though, so I stood up slowly but did not move toward or even look at the door.

"When me and mom were still in Chicago, before we moved down to this pit, I used to run with this kid Tariq whose family was Muslim. Real Muslim, not hood Muslim. And his pops told me once, when he found out I was an artist, 'There is an old story that on Judgment Day Allah will call the artists before his throne and place one of their artworks in front of them and he will tell them to bring it to life. If they cannot bring it to life--and who, but Allah, can?--they will be condemned.' I think about that a lot, every time I make something."

I wasn't sure what to say. "That's really beautiful," I said, and then added, honestly, "I don't know what else to say about that."

"Yeah...I guess not," he answered evenly, although I got the sense he somehow felt sorry for me.

A couple of months later, I had a dream (I guess it was a dream) that brought Shaun back into my thoughts in a big way. It was one of those dreams where I dreamed that I had just woken up in bed. My apartment was shaking and rumbling, at first like a train was going past outside but then instead of subsiding the shaking got harder and harder and I realized something huge was crashing around in my front room. I was too terrified to go investigate so I just sat up in bed as the crashing and rumbling grew closer. My door swung open and a huge, black skinned man jumped into the middle of the room. I tried to scream but couldn't and I tried to move but I couldn't. I realized the man had the head of a stag with enormous, gorgeously intricately curved antlers. He calmly turned on my light and stood in front of me: massive slabs of muscle; dazzling, ivory white horns with mesmerizing curves and curlicues; thick, sinewy legs terminating in cloven hooves, and the head of a stag with glistening fur and chaotic but infinitely kind eyes. He didn't smile at me--I'm not sure how a stag would smile at you--but those eyes were full of such kindness and such joy there was no need. He danced in the middle of the room and despite the crashes and the shaking the dance was hypnotic, soothing, and I felt myself drifting back to sleep as the Great God Beast leaped and spun.

As it happened, I had taken some time off starting the next day, but when I was back at work a week later I asked if anybody had heard anything about Shaun. I was not at all surprised to be told that I should update the file to reflect that his current whereabouts were unknown (with friends back in the city was a safe guess, everyone agreed) and that he had packed a bag in the middle of the night and left a note for his mom asking her to please not bother looking for him until she got her own shit together.

I was a little more surprised to learn that Dave was in psych care after a suicide attempt the night after Shaun bugged out of town.

"You're shitting me," I said to my supervisor as she filled me in.

"Hand to God. Most fucked up thing. Maybe he...felt bad?"

"Fuuuuck," I answered.

I don't like cops. But like I say, I'm a white dude with short hair who's in good shape and wears his polo shirts tucked in, so cops usually do like me. Having a rapport with cops comes in handy for me, and more important for the kids I work with. So I called one of the cops who had been involved with responding to Dave's suicide attempt or whatever-the-fuck it was. Cop was a dude named Joe, and Joe suggested we grab a beer because he'd need a beer or three to tell the story.

I had about half Joe's attention as he guzzled his second beer--the other half of his attention belonged to the blonde bartender with big boobs who ruffled what was left of Joe's hair every time she walked past. That was fine. One thing I've learned is that getting information from a cop is like buying pot from some shitbird campus dealer in college--you always have to spend an uncomfortable amount of time pretending you like them before they give you what you came for. Joe finally took a breath and gave me the Product: "So me and my partner show up just ahead of the EMT's. And that's good because neither of us wanted to do any kinda CPR or whatever on that piece of white trash, which was double true when we walked into his filthy bedroom and smelled that he'd pissed himself. Like a lot. Like, bro, I've never seen a grown man piss himself that hard and I've had drunk duty at the county fair. Fuckin blood everywhere, too. That old boy had really done a number on his arms. Multiple deep cuts. Don't know how he stayed conscious long enough to make 'em, don't know how he stayed alive long enough to get medical help either.

So the kid had just gone missing the day before. This guy is a known shitbird who we figured was knocking the kid around. I'd have bet money he killed the kid and buried him somewhere and then for some reason--maybe a combination of his fine Christian upbringing and whatever his last fix of heroin was cut with--he just freaked the fuck out with guilt and decided to end it. So I made sure he was in cuffs with a guard posted at the hospital.

When he comes to, he tells us this bullshit story about how some kind of fuckin woman with saggy tits and a head like crow came dancing this crazy dance in his room while he was sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. Wanda was at work so he was home alone and this bird-head bitch is just jumping around and he is too scared to yell or even move and he feels like he's having a heart attack and she's, like, feasting on his fear. And then finally she stops and looks him dead in his eyes and opens her mouth--beak, whatever--and just screeches. Said it's this awful, high pitched noise like a tornado siren that just goes on and on and he's shaking and crying and the more he sobs the happier she seems and then he says the head changes from a crow head to just being the head of an old woman with long, tangled gray hair and now she's grinning at him and still making the exact same shrieking noise and that's when he lost it. Grabbed a pair of scissors from beside the bed and went to work on his arms while the old woman kept screaming."

"Fuck," I said, sipping my Dewar's.

"No shit. Two weird things. First one's minor--Davey boy doesn't recall calling 911, although someone did make the call from his cell phone."

"Weird," I said.

"Yeah but I mean, the dude clearly had some kind of psychotic break plus he was probably fucked up on H. So who knows. But the other fucked up thing is--I mean it's a trailer park so surprise surprise, a lot of the neighbors are home midday. Several of them say they did hear noises coming from the trailer while all this was going on. Screeching noises it's hard to imagine a human being making."

"Heroin's a hell of a drug," I deflected.

"Yeah. Hell. When your vic is fucked up on drugs and also going nuts and your wits are a bunch of slackjawed white trash who are ALSO fucked up on H and probably drunk on top of that....Anyway, bro, I give no fucks anymore. The mom got a call from the kid, said he was in the city and doing okay. I didn't necessarily believe her when she told me, but then the kid called the station himself and we asked him to come back or let us know where he was exactly and he asked if we thought he was stupid but then he faxed us a copy of his social and his school ID so we're satisfied. Plus you have to figure a kid who has the presence of mind to take important paperwork with him when he hops town has a good shot of coming out the other end. So there's that."

"Yeah," I yawned, "there's that." And I threw down enough money to cover our drinks and wished Joe luck with his new friend the bartender and he winked at me and said "Yeah, bro," as I walked away.

[davidmann95]

So, the JSA. Best as Kal's contemporaries, mentors, distant predecessors?

I know I’ve mentioned this before in passing, but it bears repeating. DC has made mistakes over the years with individual parts of reboots: with Superman, or with Wonder Woman, or even with wiping a whole narrative device like the multiverse off the table. But in terms of cracking the foundations that the entirety of the shared universe is built on? Nothing but nothing even approaches what an awful, awful idea it was to make the JSA exist on the main Earth publicly preceding the Justice League by decades.

Now look, I like…well, okay, I basically just like Jay Garrick and Ted Knight, and kind of Wildcat since my roommate thinks he’s fun, but the JSA are a perfectly decent superhero team, with enough fun characters and solid narrative hooks that they absolutely merit reasonably continuous publication. If nothing else they’re genuinely historically significant to the genre, and really the medium and pop culture as a whole. But they are not as important as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. They were not built to hold that kind of weight. If they were, they’d be the ones in the movies.

Just on that basic note before going into the universe as a whole: unless you’re going to majorly age up the Trinity, you’re putting the JSA as the Original Superheroes ahead of the actual original superheroes. Superman’s indisputably the guy, but once you throw in the JSA as publicly existing before him, that stops. He might still be the greatest and the example everyone ends up following, but if there were dozens upon dozens of superheroes before him, he isn’t exactly the most important thing that’s ever happened anymore. Him saving a spaceplane or Lois falling out of a helicopter of whatever goes from “Jesus Christ in Heaven above us! A hero from the sky with the strength of a million men who walks on air and kindles fire with a glance! Salvation, salvation! Truly, brothers and sisters, an age of miracles and wonders as come unto us all as gods walk the Earth!” to “Flying guy, neat! Been awhile. Did Hawkman have a kid that doesn’t need wings or something? Ooh, this guy has lasers, cool!” Much as I love him, I do not buy that the world would profoundly venerate Superman to borderline-savior status when there have already been 40 or so nice flying guys in capes before him in living memory. On the main Earth, the JSA is a ‘legacy’ that removes the in-universe significance of what they themselves are all in fact the legacy of. They reduce everything by being ‘the originals’ in a world where they’re not actually the originals. Hell, the entire reason any of this happened in the first place is because they weren’t as good as Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman; they were cancelled because they couldn’t hang in there through the end of the Golden Age the way the big three could, but for some reason they get to have this scene:

If there was an atom of sense in this world, the follow-up to that moment wouldn’t be Alan Scott going “I have an idea.” It’d be Ted Grant with“Guys, guys, I’m flattered as I’ve ever been in my life. Seriously, you have no idea. But, uh, I’m a nonagenarian ex-boxer in a leather fetish cat outfit, and you’re fucking Superman, what are you even talking about? Is this a Red Kryptonite thing?” Seriously try and make the argument that this is a scene that should be permitted in any version of the DCU. I would sincerely love to know how that train of thought goes.

Even moving past those three, the entire post-Crisis premise of the Justice Society is that they’re the big guns in a world where they may never, ever be permitted to actually be the big guns, but we all have to collectively pretend they’re still important anyway. Yes, they’ve had plenty of good comics to their name, and nothing can undo that. But they’re not the superhero team of their world - that’s the Justice League. Great as he is, in the eyes of the world Jay Garrick isn’t The Original Flash, he’s the Old Flash or the Other Flash if he exists at all, objectively no longer the most important bearer of his own name. So you end up in a position where you get two teams: the original heroes, and the current guys. The current guys are the big, vital ones with the iconic characters who show up in the comics and movies, but aren’t the original, primal heroes, just the current generation. But that puts a team that’s been presented as secondary for decades in the roles of being the originals, the platonic champions by which the heroes we read about every month are measured against, and they just can’t live up to that, because if they could, why would the Justice League even be around? Why don’t these guys fight any of the cool villains, or have Batman, or lack a need to justify their presence the way the League does? Again, the reason the Justice League exists at all is because the JSA wasn’t able to survive, with the League being made up of the actually successful characters from that era, and revamps of the originals that went on to tremendously greater success on absolutely all fronts. And the idea that they should be narratively ‘rewarded’ for that by everyone pretending they’re anywhere near as important as Superman or Batman is flatly ridiculous.

They’re not allowed to be the leads of their universe, and it diminishes everyone involved, making the originals unable to live up to their own hype, and the main guys are presented as not being fully the icons they actually are. It’d maybe be less of a problem if the JL were clearly the direct successors of the JSA - then you’d get something out of them being around in terms of their existence stitching something positive into the fabric of the universe - but outside of Green Lantern and Flash (the former of whom has no connection to his modern counterpart, the latter of whom was just a guy who incidentally went through the same accident as the modern guy for the first decadeish of the setup of them existing in the same world), the legacy of the JSA is limited to the JSA itself. It is its own little corner of things just as much as it ever was on Earth 2, but now it upsets the fabric of the main guys.

Now that I’ve crapped all over them, I gotta say I do think they still need to be around for the reasons I said at the beginning, just either on Earth 2 or radically altered. On Earth 2, they can be the head of the table in the way they were built to be, with their elder statesmen Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and Superman and whatnot, and current guys directly descended from them who are Earth’s new Greatest Heroes but still walk in their footsteps. They can still cross over with the Justice League guys plenty just like they used to, with the two truly on equal terms (and on that note, Barry Allen being inspired by Jay Garrick is so much better when he’s from another world. It’s the difference between me being a fan of a celebrity, growing up to become a celebrity myself, and then meeting them, and becoming real-life Superman, then travelling to another universe to learn Superman is real and then we team up). Or, if you want them in the main world, make them a secret group like on Smallville, or the society of pulp heroes in the first issue of Planetary. It gives them mystique and importance and ties them even more directly into the development of the superhero as a concept by hearkening back to the 20s/30s characters they were inspired by, while maintaining the place of Superman as the first superhero, and of the lead characters of the DCU as the actual most important characters in it.

[crazy-multiverse-junk]

Hi guys! So, you want to hear about my little stories? That’s awesome! I already like you. Things be told though, it would be kinda confusing to send y’all into the near-infinity of the multiverse without a proper introduction. Don’t worry, I’ll be your guide along this tour through eras and parsecs. Hope we’ll have fun! Feel free to perk a glance at the pamphlet right here before we get started:

“What’s with the weird codes?” Oh yeah, you’re probably talking about things like “Ono-B9.2” and the likes. Well, as you probably guessed they are matriculation codes the Great Society came up with around, like, trillions of years ago. Alternate universes are cool, but if you can’t give them a proper name, things might get confusing pretty fast. Hilarious, but not really handy. I mean, I know YOU already have much better names for those, but, well. Gotta keep up with the official content, right? Don’t worry, I’ll give you the translation.

Also, just a little reminder: those “universes”, or “worlds”, or whatever it is you want to name them? The true “official” term the Great Society came up with is “PLANE.” ‘Cause they’re dodecadimensional, so of course to them all the other universes that only have up to three or four dimensions look FLAT.

But yeah, I know you have much cooler names for them. Just remember that the real word is “Plane” if you get to multiversal customs someday, otherwise you’ll look stupid.

“AUs” as you often call them are, though, not really working the way you might think they do. Some of them have been created for various reasons by members of the Great Society and hold in their ID their Creator’s name; followed by “Gen” when it’s the original one, or a number when the guy is stupid enough to make multiple “AUs” at once. Those guys are weird, and not nearly as smart and civilized as they claim they are. It’s just that it’s easier to be “naturally smarter” than most tridimensional beings when you’re dodecadimensional, able to create smaller universes, and live up to five Timesecs. That’s really all there is, really they hardly know anything beyond what they do themselves! The perfect example of their hilarious ignorance is the whole deal about the Onos.

“Ono” is an acronym. Or, well, if it were really just an acronym then it’d be “OON”, but they probably thought that a name sounding like a donkey’s cry isn’t the most dignified they could come up with. So they just rearranged the letters because they’re too dumb to try to find a better tridimensional translation for them. (As a side note, it sounds much better in their own language, but it’s hard to type a dodecadimensional sentence on a classic human keyboard. Anyways, even if you could see how it’s written, your brains would probably get a seizure. Would be funny, but not really the point here.)

Anyway. OON being an acronym, it actually stands for “Out of Nowhere.” Unlike most “inferior” Planes, no member of the Great Society has any idea as to where the heck do those Planes come from. And as if it weren’t enough, those parasites keep splitting every now and then, because apparently whoever is in charge is not doing their job very well. By that I mean… Ah, well. That’s the complicated and boring part, so I’ll just get back to that later. You wanted to know what those IDs referred to, so I’m gonna do that first! Those who want to hear about the metaphysical stuff can just wait for the next article. All you need to know is that all the “Ono” Planes initially came from a single one at first, but that stuff happened, and after that “Ono-Gen” split into dozens of different Onos. The Great Society has recorded 48 of them, by now. Don’t worry though, not all of them are of our interest here.

So! Here’s the list of the Planes that you will hear about in those little tales o’ mine. Notice that the little logos are just the product of Gabby’s imagination, they don’t have any sort of official recognition; we just decided to associate a little symbol to each of them because the codenames alone could be a little too confusing.

Alse-Gen: If I say “Gotta catch’em all!”, guess you’ll see my point. I like that one, good ol’ Arceus didn’t even bother to apply some of the most basic tridimensional physics laws in there.

Askal-Gen: A rather unstable Plane there, and it was basically created by accident by someone who had no idea what they were doing. Things get insane pretty fast in there! Easy when its Creator is insane herself. I heard some of you were calling that Plane something like “Symphogear.” Must be because of that whole song-related mess with magical girls who fight human-hunting monsters by singing. Neat.

Balal-Gen: First off, this Plane doesn’t exist anymore. That’s what happens when you get your Creator angry and then mess with stuff you don’t understand. Second… Well, there’s not much to say about it actually. It’s dead. What could possibly happen to it NOW, eh?

Feydis-Gen: A sweet place with rainbow-colored ponies that was literally made by a four-year-old girl. Well, she was two Mightyars old and a half, but who cares. Same difference. You usually refer to that universe as “My Little Pony”, in case this wasn’t clear enough. I wonder why though. They’re not yours. You guys are weird.

And now to get to the Ono branch: like I said before, they initially were only one, that got split quite a few times through history because of idiots who messed with interdimensional stuff without operating their quantum stabilizer properly— assuming they HAD one, ha. Dummies. They’re pretty similar in the way that they’re all geographically the same: same planets, same continents on Earth, roughly the same species— especially humans. Humans are the dominant species in all of these Planes. To be honest, it’s kinda tricky to tell these ones apart when you only look at the big picture; it’s only when you compare how the human society inside developed that you really see the differences. Planes including countries like Borginia or Zheng Fa, Planes in which France remained a constitutional monarchy, Planes where puzzles are basically part of the local fauna… Lots of stuff, see.

Anyway, to the introductions:

Ono-A1.3β: Welcome home, dummies! At least, well, that’s the Plane I’m in right now, as in the local space surrounding the chair and the keyboard.

Ono-A4: A unique Plane that looks a lot like yours, but in which humans are able to create actually tangible Imaginary Friends. Not gonna expand the physics as to how they’re doing it, although it’s very simple actually. Probably gonna leave that for later, if you ask me to. In case this wasn’t clear enough, this Plane is where Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is settled in, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest of this Plane’s Earth.

Ono-B2.2β: In this Plane, puzzles are the norm. As in, you can literally come across puzzles while walking in the streets. The guy who created them was pretty eccentric anyway, I tell ya. Well, he still was a nice guy though. Just a little too serious for my taste. This is the homeplane to a certain archaeologist who is also a widely known puzzle solver, a certain Professor Layton.

Ono-B6.8: Aside from the fact that this must be the Ono with the highest magic potential among the entire list, there’s not much to say here. Well— apart from the reason as to WHY it’s got that much magic of course. But I’ll leave that for later. Anyway, this Plane is where the videogame Rhythm Thief got its inspiration from.

Ono-B9.5: This Plane is pretty interesting, to say the least. It holds much more magic than the humans living in there will ever want to admit. And yet they’re surrounded by mediums, monsters, weird old artifacts… Also lots of lawyers, in our case. This Plane is home to that Phoenix Wright guy, among other people.

Ono-C5.4α and Ono-C5.4β: Those two Planes are very similar and split up quite recently, so even the humans living in there are for the most part practically clones. The only thing you could really say to tell them apart is that β has lots of magic while α practically doesn’t have any at all. These are the Planes in which you have among other people certain detectives and thieves, featuring in the mangas Detective Conan (or Case Closed for the official American translation) and Magic Kaitō.

[acehotel]

INTERVIEW: LYNN BREEDLOVE

Note: The following interview contains sensitive material that could be triggering for some readers.

Lynn Breedlove speaks calmly, honestly and resolutely. Nothing obscured, nothing censored. Through decades of work as a musician — Lynn was the founder and frontperson of the first American out dyke punk band Tribe8 — a writer, comedian, activist, CEO and radio personality, he has become a vanguard and visionary, working fiercely and fearlessly on behalf of trans, queer, POC and working class communities. Lynn Breedlove is revolutionary in his thinking, even if just for the radical potential he sees in unexpected things — the simple act of conversation, the nuances of a joke, a rubber dick, a ride home. In an era of immense uncertainty, Lynn is a light through. 

Lynn was a keynote speaker at last week’s New York Live Arts' Mx'd Messages Festival, a series curated by Justin Vivian Bond that examinines the idea of a world without binaries — across gender, politics, theology, sensory perception and race. We were lucky enough to catch up with Lynn to chat about the beauty of vulnerability, the 90s queer punk scene and what daily resistance looks like. 

You’re so prolific. You’ve written novels, you’ve toured in bands, you’ve had your own comedy show and radio program and you’re the CEO of a ride-sharing company. Do all of these satisfy different artistic parts of yourself? Or do you feel closer to one, and feel the need to constantly experiment with others?

LB: I have two talents, writing and performing, which I have spent some decades honing in to some semblance of skill. There are a million different options to express myself using those two talents. Stand-up comedy, music, books, radio. The easiest thing for me to do is get up and write, but then there’s the way of organizing the writing. That’s where I have to involve other people to help me, and it becomes a collaboration.

What is the collaborative element to performance?

LB: There’s an energy loop that happens between me, whoever I’m on stage with and the audience. All these different loops inform what happens next. It’s ongoing.

I was struck by your email signature, “Courage is fear with breath.” Writing can be a very private and personal endeavor, whereas performance opens things up in a very public way. How have you found the courage to translate the private to the public?

LB: I feel like self-disclosure is just a totally innate, natural impulse for me. I'm just like, "Blah, blah, I'm sad, my cat died." It's over-sharing. I've had to consider whether or not I wanted to put any boundaries on that. Sometimes I just blurt it all out, run around with my dick out, do all kinds of shit and later, years later, I'm like, "Oh my God. What were you thinking, dude? Really?"

Apparently people were entertained and it made whatever impression it was supposed to make. I don't even know if it made the impression that I wanted it to make. I let my gut tell me where to go and then if I have to make amends later with my brain, then I do.

With One Freak Show, my door was always open. I always loved to get off stage and talk to the audience members.

I was dealing with some pretty edgy stuff — a lot of discussions about what it meant to be trans. The whole LGBTIQ community — which is not a community, but a group of communities and individuals who have a whole bunch of different opinions about what to do and say — was having some issues communicating and accepting each other, so I was really interested in talking to people after the show and getting feedback.

And people would be like, "Well, you know, this part was weird, this other part was weird, too. And I would say, "Well, what do you think would be better?" Or "Do you think this part was too over the top?" And I'd be like, "Dude, can I tell people that I got your permission to say that so that they don't think that I'm making fun of stuff?"So, it was just really great to have that [dialogue]. There was one really memorable conversation with this guy. It was a daytime Tribe8 show where I had chopped off the rubber dick and threw it in the crowd and it bounced off of somebody's head and everybody felt better. Well, this guy didn't feel better. So, he went to talk to me after and said, "My God, this really hurt". And I was like,"Was that upsetting for you?" He was like "Yeah, yeah. It's abusive and I'm triggered." And I said, "Okay, well check this out. Imagine, you walk down the street everyday and you're in constant fear and constantly having to worry, just a nagging basic undercurrent that you're going to get raped. Everyday because everybody everyday is afraid. And every second that you're not looking out, you get attacked and jumped. And everybody you know has been raped. How do you feel about them? If that was the case, do you feel like you might want to sing a song that is symbolic of your suffering? Hm?" And he was like "Hm, maybe". And I was like, "Yeah, well that's how we feel. We walk around, feeling that way and we've gotta have a cathartic ritual. And we've gotta work out the anger somehow." And he’s all, "Oh okay."

So, I could have a friendly conversation with a guy afterwards and turn it around. And hopefully, he could go out into the world for the rest of his life and talk to all the guys that he was gonna talk to about this and spread different news.

Do you think that humor can be a medium to discuss change?

LB: Absolutely. It's the only way for me. Your heart opens when you laugh. Comics can tell funny story after funny story after funny story and then they come in at the end with the zinger and make you cry. Love that shit.

You lower your guard when you're laughing. You've got everybody laughing at themselves and each other and everybody's forgiving. And then you're okay. And that's how we learn.

But if you're constantly wagging your finger at people and saying, "You should do it this way because you're wrong," nobody will listen to that. They shut down. Nothing gets in.

So, yeah, humor is crucial, but comedy rots. Richard Pryor, for years, would say the N word and later, he was like “I'm actually not gonna say the N word anymore”. With One Freak Show, I use the T word a lot and I’ve been discussing whether or not it's okay to use the T word if you identify as trans, even if you use that word to describe yourself and you have for years, and suddenly along come some other people who are like, "Well, I don't like that word." What does all that mean? What does language mean? What does coping mean? So with humor, it's now. And then next week it's gonna be something different. And you have to constantly stay on top of where your culture is, where your society is, where current events are and what is okay to say and what is not okay to say, how to describe your experience and how to not describe it.

Lenny Bruce talked about racism. I thought it was very effective in 1965, but now, the words that he used and the concepts, the points he was trying to make, even if they were trying to take away power from people who had it, couldn’t be made now the way he made them then.

Does it retroactively make it less effective?

LB: If you look at Mark Twain’s Huck Finn, he used the N word quite a bit. But his intention behind using the N word was to say, "This is what southern society and southern culture is now. It's racist." It's built into their language. Language is culture and LOOK AT IT. And the only person that's transcending this culture is a child that's pushed out on the periphery by poverty. That kid is free to choose a different way. Even he is constantly questioning, "Is this right?"

And then they have people saying, "Let’s ban this book." I think we need to use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer to figure out how we want to discuss ideas.

What do you think daily resistance looks like?

LB: Well, the first thing I have to do everyday is not go to my phone and look at the latest nonsense that DT, Dick Tater, is doing. (That's the drag name I made up for him.) That's not gonna drive me.

What drives me: I wake up and I do spiritual practice, first thing. Prayer, meditation, yoga, shooting hoops with the pals — whatever it is that helps ground me in my reality. And then, I feel solid enough to go connect with my people. And then, after I write my morning pages, and I know what I feel and what I think, and after I’ve written my dreams down and I see that I'm having stress dreams about the apocalypse, I can asses where I am. Then, I can go and look at the news if I want.

Maybe I'm just gonna get to work. I'm gonna hire people that I like, that I feel need work and that I want to work with. People that are POC, trans, queer — these are the kind of people I want to work with, that I want to make art with.

I want to create a world that includes people that I like and that I respect and that I relate to. And people that are all on the same road of resisting together by the things that we do everyday. Whether we're in a band together or we work together. That's how I want to create my world.

And then, if I have to chain myself to a fence, well that's great. Because I'm gonna be ready for that. Because I will have spent the previous month gearing up and being strong. If you keep revving at 100 rpm all day long and go to every protest and sing your guts out, you're going to burn out.

How do you think punk has changed from the time of its inception? How do you think it functions now in terms of art, music and politics?

Well punk seems to be a whole bunch of different iterations now. It started in the late 60s with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed and all those guys, and then later with Patti Smith and Bad Brains and everyone else.

And then you have the “four white guys” for ten years in the 80s. And Black Flag was one of those four white guys bands. But, now there's a lot of trans, queer, non-binary, non-gender conforming, and lots of different cultures coming through with the punk ethic, carried through all different styles of music. It's not as restricted by verse-chorus-verse-chorus 3 chords, monosyllabic grunting. There's drag and guerilla drag that I feel lbelongs in the punk category because of its ethos. Because it's accurate in what it represents, because it’s fucking it up, because it’s folk music, basically.

Like Woody Guthrie, but it doesn't have to be a guy with an acoustic guitar. Anybody that's bucking the system with music falls into the punk category.

Yeah, it's protest music. Tribe8 was insanely influential in that scene. You were deemed leaders of the queer punk revolution. Can you tell me a little bit about the impetus for Tribe8 and how it all came together?

Me and Silas had just gotten sober and we had a lot of energy and we had to put it somewhere. And I was just around, spouting and spewing all kinds of rhymes about being a dyke and all my hilarious mental illnesses like, "I just want to manipulate my girlfriend. I just want to play games with her head. I want her to do some mental push ups. I want her to apologize and beg.”

I thought it was hilarious and so did my friends and they were like, "Why didn't you put that to music and get a bunch of people together and make a band and play at my birthday party?" And we did. So then boom: we were all of a sudden a band and people were throwing panties at us.

But to be fair we did pass out the panties.

You passed out the panties?

LB: We passed out the panties to our friends to make them throw panties at us.

Still, that must have been a really good feeling even if you knew it was going to happen.

LB: It was hilarious. Everything we did was spoofing boy glam rock and stupid stadium rock shit that dudes had been doing for 20 years. That influenced us greatly. And we loved that. Silas grew up in Vermont, listening to Bon Jovi. "Livin' on a Prayer" and Motley Crüe.

We loved it — but it wasn't about us. And it wasn't for us and it wasn't by us. We had to reclaim it and then put a new spin on it. It was [a reflection] of what I was learning as an alcoholic in church basements. Which was that you've gotta look at your shit and then you've got to laugh at your shit. And you've got to tell people, "This is my shit, it's so ridiculous. But here it is."

That's where I was, and I feel like we all got to do that for a minute. We were like, "Oh my God, I fucking love Bon Jovi. That is so dumb but I do. So how are we going to work this in so we love it?"

They have so much fun. People with power and privilege have a bunch of fun. And for the people who don't have power and privilege that’s just sit on the sidelines and go, "Wah, they get to have all the fun..." That’s not necessary.

You see people singing gospel at church and you feel like you can't be a part of it because of your big queer mouth. But fuck you. I just did it. I'm Aretha Franklin and I just sang a gospel song about fucking, how about that?

What was the queer punk scene like in San Francisco in the 90s? Do you have a favorite memory?

LB: What happened is that all of a sudden it looked like the dyke scene was going down because all the dyke bars closed at the same time. I don't know what happened, all the dykes got sober at the same time and they couldn't fucking keep the bars open because they would come in there, order a Calistoga, pick out another babe and come back five years later and do the same thing. They couldn't stay open.

Calistoga, classic.

LB: We had to do something, so everybody started to go to straight bars and asked them if we could have a queer monthly or weekly night. And so we'd start having these queer punk dance parties, like Rebel Girl, Junk, etc. Then all these bands started cropping up all over the place, like DeathCard 13 and Her Majesty the Baby and so much other stuff. All these dykes and fags started to make bands happen and that was amazing because before that queers had to go to the disco if they wanted to hang out with other queers, and they had to order a fucking martini or a beer and they had to listen to Sylvester. Which was great, don’t get me wrong. I love Sylvester to death, and I loved Doing the Hustle in the 70s. But when I went home with my friends, we would listen to Queen and we would listen to Rock and Roll.

But you couldn't hear Queen at The End Up. You had to listen to Sylvester, which was great. Again, Sylvester was amazing. I love Sylvester. Sylvester created an amazing moment in the 70s where we were like, "Oh, my God. This guy is our guy and he is on the fucking radio." (At the time, we called Sylvester “he”).

But what the 90s queer-mo punk scene in San Francisco was about was the culture. It was kind of the epicenter of the queer punk scene and when we went to Europe and stuff we would bring that culture with us. New York had its own whole other thing, which was pretty rad. I would say the dyke punk scene was happening primarily in San Francisco. Then we would carry it like a little flame around the world and say, "Look at what we're doing! We've got the Butch/Femme thing and the Punk thing and we have mohawks and a face full of metal and ink and rubber dicks," and they'd be like, "Whoa."

How did other places respond?

LB: Well, most people were like, "Yeah, that's cool. For you. But we're not going to do that." New York did not actually get the Butch/Femme thing until maybe like the late 90s. I think a bunch of femmes moved there from San Francisco and they had to have a Butch makeover party at Meow Mix because they were like, “There are no Butches in New York. All the Butches are wearing lipstick and barrettes. We can't do this. No. So, they threw Butch makeover parties and, of course, all the dykes in New York wanted to go have babes fawn over them and put them in wife-pleasers and cut their hair and put them in boxers and fucking ties or whatever, but when they were done they're like, "Okay, now can we go on a date?" They're like, "Yep. All right." So, that happened.

But also, when we went to East Germany in the early 90s, well, what HAD been East Germany — the wall had just gone down a couple years earlier, but nothing had changed culturally — people were hella mad at us. They did not get the humor at all. They did not have humor in the DDR. That was wrung out of them and beaten out of them and if you wanted a sense of humor I guess you want to jail in the Yellow Misery, I think that was the name of the women's prison. The dudes were like, "Fuck you. How dare you. Really? You cocky bastards. How dare you walk around acting like you're something. You think you're something? You're not something."

They didn't get all the twists and turns of irony that we were pulling on them. They didn’t have the pool of reference, they didn’t get any of it. Everyone was wearing stonewash and the girls had big hair. They all looked like they were straight out of the 70s. It was scary. They were like, "You are a bunch of privileged Americans walking in like you think you're something, with your dick out."

They hated us, but in San Francisco when dudes would come to our show, they totally got it. They loved it. They fucking deferred. They got into the back, they got out of the mosh pit, they let the dykes take over. Bike messengers and strippers were always dating and stuff and they'd have a gnarly badass sex-positive feminist thing going on. So if you were a dude trying to date some badass chick in combat boots and cleavage in the 90s, you better fucking figure out what the hell she's trying to put down if you wanted to get laid. If you don't do what they say, you ain’t getting none of this. The dudes were pretty rad and feminist and standing up for their babes. And they still are.

We just did the Women's March a couple of months ago in San Francisco. First of all, there was what seemed like a half a million babes walking down the streets for hours, hours, hours down Market sStreet. Some of them had their boyfriends, their men with them, that had the coolest signs that were like “Her body, Her rights.” “Quit telling my woman what to do” kind of attitude. Just perfectly-worded signs that you're like, "Oh, my God. These guys get it."

Usually guys will just be like, "Oh, that's your thing. I'll just get out of the way." In the 60s, when feminists first started doing that, dudes were like, "Yeah, the pill will be good because I'll get laid more." So, I mean, yeah. We're getting somewhere.

I hope so.

LB: But the more things they change, the more they stay the same. Shockingly, there's also been this undercurrent rising — which for some folks has not been such an undercurrent. It's been really obvious and in your face. If you're a person of color or if your trans or a daily target of bigotry, you're going, "Yeah, no, this isn't really a shock."

I kind of thought that we were doing better. I thought people actually were changing. I actually did things that the assholes were in a way smaller minority and I was like, "Yeah, it's too bad you don't like having a black president. Isn't that hard? Shut it." I didn't feel like there would be such a major backlash of a retaliation, "You made us be led by a black man for eight years. Now we're going to fucking fuck you up." Really? Whoa.

Hopefully it’s the last, desperate gasps of that ideology, grasping at it as if for air. At least now it’s becoming visible for everyone that there’s so much darkness among us. We’ve always known it existed, but it’s actually showing itself in large, monolithic, terrifying ways.

LB: That’s really important. Awareness begets action. If any of us have been in denial about what level of bullshit exists, what element of bullshit exists in this country, we now know. Now we can deal with it. It's not going to be dealt with totally painlessly. I'm going to Europe and I feel like I have to sew a fucking maple leaf on my backpack.

What has been keeping you inspired?

LB: I'd say there's a lot of stuff being put out by trans women of color and people of color in general which is very inspiring. There was a video I saw the other day about parents of color teaching their children what to do when they see the police. It was heart breaking. It was fucking heart breaking. That that's what a person has to do to keep their child safe. Telling them, when you see a police officer, that is not your friend but you have to show them respect anyway and you have to put your hands up and say, "I have nothing to harm you," and this child is five years old. You know what I mean? But okay. That is what MLK would say, when you're going to sit at the lunch counter, you're going to have to maintain dignity and not fight back and you'll have to put your hands up. Gandhi said it, too. All the non-violent resistance actually worked and yeah, people understand and they're organizing and teaching them how to do that in the world. I think it is amazing.

What else. Coming together and organizing and saying to each other, "Okay, now who can get arrested? Let's not let the trans people get arrested. Let's not let the people of color get arrested. If they get arrested, they’re going to have shit to deal with, but if you're a white person who's never been arrested before and you're cisgender and you're not too queer looking, great, let's get you arrested. You'll be fine.“

I love the way we're all coming together and willing to resist. We feel because we have lived in a country with certain ostensible ideals, we do feel like we have some power to speak up and the difference between us and Franco’s Spain or Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany is that we have that.

We're all “hell no.” I love how people are rising up. The city of San Francisco is planning a Trans Cultural District at the old Compton’s Cafeteria, named after one of the first riots against the police where trans people rose up and were like, "No, we're not going to tell you what kind of underwear we're wearing." This was before Stonewall. They’re getting a whole block of real estate, and it’ll have transitional housing for trans women coming out of prison. There will viable employment situations. I mean, I love that we just keep delving more into that kind of thing.

The more bullshit you want to raise about what bathroom I need to go in or whether or not I can get an M or an F on my passport and whether or not you're going to let me cross a border or let my friends cross a border, the more I'm just going to make my shit fucking be cool right here, in my house, in my neighborhood. I'm going to really work on my local politics, my local culture.

I love the way cities are saying, "Oh, we are going to be a sanctuary city. No, we're actually not going to do what you say.” The New York Police Department standing up and being like, "No, we’re actually not going to harass immigrants. Fuck you." That's what needs to happen.

The police, the military, the people who have the guns and the sticks and the badges, they need to not fall into the trap. My mom was raised in Nazi Germany so I grew up asking, "Hey, mom, why did the [Holocaust happen]?" She was like, "Well, we were scared." People were always saying, "Well, I was just following orders." It's like no, that can't be your excuse. If your order is wrong, you can't follow it. You do have to take that to your grave, knowing that you're responsible for following an immoral order. So I was really impressed by the New York Police Department.

What advice do you have for queer and trans youth?

LB: One of the first things that happens when a dictatorship comes into power is that people start to anticipate a new law and start voluntarily following that law before it’s even a law. They start doing things that they think the government is going to want them to do as a defensive move. Censoring themselves, hiding who they are...It’s important that we become even more visibly queer. Even more visibly trans.

But again, everybody has their own way to resist and for a lot of people, visibility isn't the thing. That feels unsafe.

Everybody needs to follow their own gut about how to do that, but I feel like maintaining integrity and staying really connected with your community and not isolating oneself is crucial. Because I think it seems really alluring to go lock yourself in your house and sit in front of the little glowing screen and just drink and smoke a lot of weed and take a lot of pills and just pretend it's not there. No. I mean, it's easy for me to say because I’m clean and sober 27 years so I can't expect everybody else that's already been drinking and smoking weed and popping pills all day to suddenly decide, "Now's a good time to stop."

But I do think what's needed right now is clarity. I feel like the higher you are, the easier you're going to be to manipulate and taken down and thrown in jail and have other things done to you. You have to get your brain cells together and connect with other people with their brain cells and we need to be strong physically, mentally and spiritually and fuck shit up. They want us to be scared and to be high and be ineffectual.

Right.

LB: There was a trans person performing the other night who was totally amazing and she was like, "I'm so freaked out, so I am really high right now. I have to be really high all the time because that's how I'm dealing with this.” There were several trans women murdered in New Orleans recently, and that was really, really scary for trans women of color. That is a terror. I definitely would not judge somebody who feels that drugs or alcohol is their only out, but there are a lot of people in the world that will help you out of that. If you feel like that's your only option and you don't want that to be your option, there's a lot of people that will guide you to other options.

Tell us about Homobiles.

LB: Well, there's Homobiles  [the rideshare service] and then there's The Homobiles, the band.

Homobiles the ride service was started before Uber. Uber existed as like a limo service, a black car service, and it was kind of high priced and Lyft did not exist. We started zipping around doing this text thing, loosely inspired by my all girl bike messenger and truck messenger delivery company called Lickety Split. Homobiles were really time-oriented and all about queer people and those who are, because of their gender or sexuality, a little more vulnerable at night in the city.

We were handling people coming out of gay bars that cabs were whizzing by and ignoring and then Uber was like, "Wait a minute. This looks like something good. Let’s do what they're doing business model wise, only it’s for profit," and then Lyft came in and they were like, "Yes, we're going to do this." They became billion dollar global industries in that space, but we became a non-profit. Basically, the way it works is if you have money, good. Donate it. It goes into this kind of transportation fund and if you don't have money, then great. You'll still get a ride. There's no price on safety.

We really like to help people get home from their sexual alignment surgery. Maybe they don't want to get in a car with some random person that's not going to treat them with the dignity that they deserve. They want to get into the car with people who have some sensitivity training. The public utilities commission actually pointed out Homobiles when trying to regulate other rideshare services. They said, “See Homobiles is doing it right. You guys should do it like them. Don't discriminate against people because of their race, their gender, any of that. Treat them with respect. Don't gouge them.” I feel like even though Homobiles isn’t the only option, any time you get into a [rideshare] vehicle these days, 99% of the time you're going to be treated fairly and with respect because of the standards that Homobiles put into place. I’m pretty happy about that. It would be nice if we made a million dollars, but the primary goal is everybody's getting home safe.

What about Homobiles the band?

LB: There's a band called The Homobiles. We sing songs about cars and babes but also crimes and change. Ed Varga, who was the creator of Homo A Go Go, is the drummer and his wife, Corrie is the violinist and Stephany Joy Ashley's the executive director of St James Infirmary, which is a clinic for sex workers in the Tenderloin. She’s the singer and I'm the singer and Fureigh from the Shondes plays guitar and Mya Byrne is the bass player and we're about to go to New York to play this fabulous of refuting binaries called Mx'd Messages. And yeah, that's that. We’re having a good time.

Thanks for reading. If you’re an artist, too, feel free to use code ARTSCHOOL for a discount on any room at Ace Hotel New York.

[fuckyeslilkim]

BillBoard: Lil' Kim Sets the Record Straight on Remy Ma & Nicki Minaj Beef As She Readies Fifth Studio Album 

Last November, Lil’ Kim's solo debut album Hard Core -- which saw the rapper born Kimberly Jones exiting her teens -- turned 20 years old. A lot has changed since then. She has a child of her own, a two-year-old daughter named Royal Reign who is running and talking during her mother's candid interview with Billboard.

This is Lil’ Kim’s new era. Gone are the days of her single-breast-revealing 1999 MTV VMAs outfit, elaborate multi-colored wigs and consistent bars about male inadequacy. There are hints of that still, but to reduce Kim to her former self would be placing her right back in the box she’s been attempting to break out of since the ‘90s.

It’s tough for her fanbase to accept, especially when a new beef surfaces involving one of her enemies, Nicki Minaj. Rumors have circulated that Kim will be partaking in a follow-up diss to Nicki Minaj alongside Remy Ma. Rumors have also suggested Lil' Kim still cares about her feud with Nicki. In this revealing interview, Kim sets the record straight, while giving some new details on her emerging fashion line, upcoming fifth studio album, and the need to grow for both herself and her loyal fans.

First off, congratulations on your own clothing line. As an artist who has been a part of fashion for 20 years, what took you so long?

It’s always been an interest, but you got to understand I came in the industry as a little baby. I was a baby. I was 16 or 17 when I made my first hit record. At that age, you’re not really thinking about [making a fashion line]. Timing is everything. At this point, it’s like I’m really trying to just bloom and blossom as an artist in certain instances, because there was a lot of current events that happened in my life. I’m a very spiritual person. I believe in God so God’s timing is the right timing, period. Enough said.

What is the clothing line called?

I don’t want to get into it, but I’ve always had the name 24/7 Star. That was the first part of my line. When I had my shoe line with Petite Paton, it was called Hollyhood, but we changed it to 24/7 Star. We’ve got different lines inside of the lines that we’re working on, and we might change up a couple of them. We’re working on that right now.

You’re also doing it through La Scala Boutique.

[Proprietor Rose Cordon] is a monumental figure. She’s like a mom to me. When I had my clothing line before, she wanted to put my stuff into the store then, but the company I was with was a small company and they folded. So I had to wait many years later and try to figure it out. That was another reason why it would have happened a long time ago. But like I said, God’s timing is the right timing.

We’re going to take our time with it. I’m not gonna allow the demand from my fans to be rushed. This is like my album. My fans are the awesomest, but they can be the most non-understanding at the same time. I love them, but I’m not gonna allow them to dictate certain things, whether it’s the timing or direction of my album. I think that this album is definitely going to have a happy medium, and that’s all I’m concerned with. I’m a hustler first. Music is my life, music is what I do, music is my livelihood -- this is how I make money! At the end of the day, I gotta give my fans certain sounds and music that they like, but they’re also gonna get with the new sounds whether they like it or not. They gon’ get with the new thing, because I’ve always been a trendsetter and I do have a new sound and that sound was stolen from me. This is years in the making of another new sound.

Let’s talk about that a bit. You shaped hip-hop music in such an amazing way through your four previous albums…

This is very important to me that this is clear: I was a child. A lot of people don’t even know that because I was marketed to kind of be and look a little older and look a little older, the lyrics of my album was the way it was. I didn’t mind, because when you’re 16, 17, you want to be older so bad anyway. But at that point, I was becoming a child star. At a young age, I didn’t get to fully tell my story. I mean you would think that in the time I’ve been in the game that I would have 10 albums out or something, but I haven’t. If you looked at it like that, this is one of the reasons why my cult following is still there, because I never truly finished telling my story through my music.

So basically for my fans, I’m still kind of a novelty to them. I’m still very much a mystique to them. They’re still very interested in this story. I’m blessed to be well-respected, but at the same time, I would not allow anyone to try to date me because of the simple fact that I was a child. I’m like a child star, like Bow Wow -- he was 10 years old [when he came into the business]. I came in the game seven years later as an artist at 16, 17. 17 is still very young. You’re a kid. You don’t know what’s up at that point; you’re still getting your life together. By the time I was 21, I was a multi-millionaire. I had no clue what I was doing, because I was still very young. At this time, I want to be allowed to tell my story without people like, "Oh you’re such a legend, you’re such an icon in this game!" I will take that icon and the legend talk, that’s fine and I love that! At the end of the day, I’m gonna embrace that. But like I said, I won’t allow no one to make it seem like what I’ve accomplished is all I had to give because I never really got the chance to tell my story and really say, “Okay, I’m gonna go for my own Grammys in time." I got a Grammy, yes, and that’s one of my biggest and proudest accomplishments, but I want one for my own album. It’s like at this point, that’s where I’m at with it, and I never really truly got to display my fullest talent.

Do you feel that on this project, you are going to tell that story that people wanted to hear?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that this is one of my highly anticipated albums and I want it to be fun. What comes with telling a story is fun. I’m not gonna sit here and just make an album that’s story-telling; you can’t play that in the clubs. When I came out, it was a lot [of songs] like that. I had songs on the album where I’m telling a story and these are some of my fans’ best songs like "Heavenly Father" I can’t do. It’s a different time. Don’t get me wrong and I love my fans, but a lot of my fans, when I came out, some of them were way older than me, some of them were my age and some of them were way younger than me. The ones I think that were older than me, I think they never really grew from that with me. They were tryna keep their childhood with me, and so the ones who haven’t grown with me, I can’t do nothing about that. They gotta grow with me, you know what I mean?

At the end of the day, I’m still gonna do what I’m known for. That’s never gonna stop, because I would not be able to make the album without doing what I’m known for or giving them a piece of Hard Core. I wanna give them that feeling, but I also want to bring them into my world a little bit like I did on The Naked Truth. And you know why a lot of my fans loved The Naked Truth? It’s because I was going to prison at the time and I touched on a lot of things that were happening. I’m not gonna make the same album twice -- that doesn’t make sense. I’ve never, for the life of me, understood why fans would think that any artist would make the same album twice. That would not make me a real artist. It’s not realistic. That’s why one of my favorite lines from an artist to me is the Jay Z line when he says, "You want my old sh-t? Buy my old albums." At the end of the day, he’s not gonna do the same things he did seven years ago. He’s a different person, you know? But he’s gonna remind y’all, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna give certain things. Just like me, I’m gonna remind them of what I did before. So it’ll be a perfect mix, and whichever of my fans don’t understand that -- I’m sorry. They got to get left like a lot of my friends who haven’t grown with me. I came up with a lot of friends, and a lot of my friends had to get left because they weren’t growing with me. It’s nothing personal, I love them still with my heart but if my friends aren’t growing, I can’t be held back.

Also, it was 20 years ago. You started as a kid, and your career is just getting started again. Even though a lot of other artists have struggled with this, regardless of gender, it has a lot to do with how in the industry, people want to give just one identifier to a woman. People just wanted to remember Lil 'Kim as Lil 'Kim, age 19 in a purple wig in one video, and not give you the opportunity to evolve. I can understand your frustration in wanting to break past that with this project.

I mean yeah because if I wore that same damn outfit to the club, you would look at me like I’m a damn fool. People still say, "Put that purple outfit back on!" That’s bullshit. They don’t want to see me in that [1999 VMAs] outfit. First of all, if I was still with my record company and we were still moving -- I would update. My music is gonna be updated, my look is gonna be updated. You just update. But there are some fans who don’t understand the meaning of updated. They just think you do the same exact thing and put some blonde stuff in your wig instead of it being all purple. It’s not possible. That’s what I like to constantly do, and that’s what I was known for -- being a trendsetter and always reinventing myself. That’s the moral of the story of my life -- reinvention. Whoever don’t like it, they’ll get with it sooner or later. I like to do what I like to do and I’ma also give that feeling of when I first came out with Hard Core, but on a different level. A classic is a classic for a reason. You don’t touch it. You try your best to top it, and you try to do something just as great as that, but you don’t try your best to duplicate it. I’m not going to try to beat Hard Core, I’m going to try to be just as great as Hard Core on this album or better.

This is also going to be your first project as a mother -- does that change how you approach music too?

Nah, it doesn’t change how I approach music, but it changes how I have to work, because I got a baby now. Before, I could be in the studio long, long hours. I could stay in the studio from one o’clock in the afternoon to one o’clock the next afternoon and it’s all good but I got a baby now. So I’ma work and I’ma do what I do. But I’m not changing anything because I don’t hide anything from my daughter. I also don’t allow her to be disrespectful. I don’t allow her to do certain things. A child should stay in a child’s place and a baby should be babied. I can’t change who I am because that’s when things change. I’m not gonna become a gospel rapper. That’s the only thing left I could do, and it’s not that. So at the end of the day, I’m still gonna be who I am, and I will teach my child as we grow, the difference between certain music. Being a mom is not going to change my content in my music, but it will change the approach in how I work. I’m a mom and I’m always with my baby, and I got to make sure my baby is good myself because nobody is gonna make sure my baby’s good the way I do.

There’s also a possibility you may be doing another type of "Ladies Night" collaboration on this project.

I’m glad you brought that up, because in the media the other day, I had a show and I hate stupid blogs when they try to take my damn situations and clip them. We all know the situation that’s going on with Remy and ol’ girl. That’s their situation and I have nothing to do with that. They have a rumor out there like, "Kim is gonna do a diss track with Remy.” First of all, let me tell you this. Number one: y’all giving ol’ girl too much credit. I’m not even thinking about that. I’m not even thinking about ol’ girl! I’m so far past that. That’s never on my mind. Ever. Ol’ girl has never been on my mind for a long ass time at all. So I hate the fact of that being in the equation. But the situation with Remy, for them to say that we were coming together to do a diss track? First of all, after hearing "ShETHER," that shit is so hard, Remy don’t need no damn help! Why would I need to come together for that? I mean, I’m into the music and I’m speaking musically wise -- the song is just hard, period. Just like [Drake's] “Back To Back” was hard -- just good hip-hop music. But I got nothing to do with that. When I had my situation and my situation came up, I handled my business. If anybody comes to me, if ol’ girl came to me, I’ma give them the business. That’s just the bottom line of it. So if it ain’t coming my way, I ain’t got nothing to do with it. Me and Remy is cool. I hate when media do that. That’s the thing.

What I said was, "Shout out to the beautiful ladies who was on this stage with me tonight, Cardi B and Remy!" because we needed more of that. We don’t do shows together like the men do shows together. That’s what I said! I said, “It’s about time for another 'Ladies Night,' and maybe you’ll see something in the future,” because we’re putting it together! Me and Cardi are already working. I already have stuff in the works with Cardi. We’ve been sending each other texts back and forth. A long time ago when Remy first came home from jail, she sent me a text, so we were kind of already working.

What I was saying was it’s about time for another "Ladies Night" song. Let me explain something to you – I’m a hustler first. The “Ladies Night” record got me a Grammy nomination and several MTV [award] nominations, and we performed the song on MTV during one of the biggest awards moments and my album went double platinum. At the end of the day, I want another one of those. I ain’t thinking about no other bullshit, because like I said, this ain’t what you want when it comes to that because I’m an extremist. Plus, I already handled my business. Everybody else already know, I already put it down. Once that situation came at me, I addressed the person. Like I said, that’s done and over with and they know what it is. That person knows what it is. Me and Remy is cool so I just want these blogs to keep my damn name out the bullshit.

So moving on from that, I would like to have something like that on my new album. Even if I just did records separately with different females, it’s still the unity. I was looking at the footage of me, Cardi and Remy all up there on that stage, and everybody did they thing, everybody held they own. I’m also in the business side of things. I also stepped my game up from when I was a kid in the game and I was not really business-minded. I just was told what to do, so now I’m putting business moves together.

You’re taking complete control over the business aspect because you started so young and said a lot of times that you weren’t in the driver’s seat. It feels like you’re really in the driver’s seat now.

Exactly. I’m independent. I’m not signed to a record company. I do have a situation going on that I can’t really talk about until I can talk about it, but I have a situation going on and it’s kind of a partnership. Again, like I said, it feels good to be in the driver’s seat, be independent and do my thing. It feels really good. At this point, it’s about the artistry. It’s also about the entrepreneurship, the boss moves this time around. At the end of the day, I’m good at certain things behind the scenes as well, so that’s just basically something that I wanted to make good on.

When are you looking to actually drop the album?

I don’t have a specific date, but it’s definitely coming out this year. I have a couple people I want to work with. I’m not gonna tell you who but there’s a few people I want to work with, so I'm just getting those people together and getting them on the album. With me traveling, performing and doing music, it’s kind of hard. Plus I got my baby so I’m just leveling everything now. But I’m going hard.

[alright-hamilton]

Examining Kyle Gibson’s apathy toward strikeouts

Kyle Gibson has thoughts and feelings and opinions that sound like they make sense, but they don’t. He has Reasons with a capital R that he doesn’t need strikeouts to be successful, but his Reasons don’t actually hold up. Let's look at Gibson's public statements and see if we can figure out what he's really thinking.

1.  "Guys who hit .300 are making outs seven out of 10 times"

Shawon Dunston once hit .300 and made an out 6.88 out of 10 times. That’s comical and also the closest anyone has ever come to the accomplishment that Gibson believes is the norm. Guys who hit .300 also draw walks, which are not outs. Guys who have an on-base percentage of .300 are making outs seven out of 10 times, but are also probably in danger of being sent to AAA. When Gibson faces Mike Trout (315 batting avg last season, 441 on-base) I hope he doesn’t think to himself, “Hey, this guy stinks, he makes outs almost seven out of 10 times!”

2. “If I’m able to keep my hard contact rate low, ground balls are almost automatic outs for me."

Gibson is correct that ground balls turn into outs at a good clip (76% or so). That fact shouldn’t be used as an argument against strikeouts, though, since strikeouts result in an out at a much better clip - about 99.9%..

And so even though he has an above average career ground ball rate (52%), some of those balls sneak through. Even more sneak through with the Twins’ defense behind the pitcher. Gibson seems to understand this.

3.  “When hitters put balls in play, they’re going to get a hit sooner or later. But if I get five ground balls in a row, I’m more than likely going to get out of the inning. Offensive numbers will tell you that. If they only get a hit three out of every ten times they put the ball in play, that’s less than two out of five, so I like my chances.”

I guess Gibson is cool with not converting batted balls into outs at an above average rate. He knows balls will drop for hits 30% of the time. And it’s comforting to him! He uses this as evidence that he has the advantage and doesn’t need to strike anyone out. Just look at Kyle’s imaginary inning - he got three outs but gave up two hits and he likes it.

Imagine a carnival game where kids shoot a basketball and win a stuffed animal if they make a basket. It’s the carnie’s job to prevent this from happening, and because this is the worst carnival game ever, he’s allowed to very easily block the shot if he so chooses. Like Mutombo against Danny DeVito or something. If it were Kyle Gibson, he’d he sit back and say, “they only make it about 30% of the time, so I like my chances. No need to block the shot.”

Front offices have reached the opposite conclusion as Gibson: why even give them a shot? Give them fewer opportunities to get lucky. In other words, try to allow fewer balls in play.

And they’ve succeeded dramatically. Balls in play are way down and strikeouts are way up and it’s become a big point in the “games are too long” debate. But from a strategic standpoint, it’s rock solid.

Putting the strategy into place involves measuring what a pitcher does apart from balls in play - homers, walks and strikeouts. But since Gibson doesn’t understand the strategy (remember, he thinks the odds are in his favor even when running a .400 BABIP), he doesn’t understand a primary measurement for putting the strategy into practice:

On succeeding with a low K-Rate: “Maybe someday someone can explain FIP and xFIP to me, and I’ll get it."

Kyle understands pitchers don’t have much control over what happens after the ball leaves the bat. And that’s the fact that was the genesis of the stat Fielding Independent Pitching, so Kyle has a great foundation for understanding it. But because he uses the same fact to arrive at a different conclusion, he can’t wrap his mind around FIP.

4. "I’d benefit from increasing my strikeout rate, but the same time, you have to know what your strengths are. Going after strikeouts for 27 out of 27 guys isn’t my strength right now. Sure, there are times where I’d like to get more strikeouts, but 27 outs are 27 outs. Whether it’s 27 strikeouts or 27 ground balls doesn’t matter to me.”

After cutting through the hyperbole, it seems that Gibson simultaneously believes the following things:

a. I can’t get more outs via strikeout (Going after strikeouts for 27 out of 27 guys isn’t my strength right now)

b. I would benefit by getting more outs via strikeout (I’d benefit from increasing my strikeout rate)

c. It doesn’t matter to me if I get more outs via strikeout (27 outs are 27 outs. Whether it’s 27 strikeouts or 27 ground balls doesn’t matter to me)

______

a. I can’t get more outs via strikeout

Let’s tackle the first one first: Is it within the realm of possibility for Kyle Gibson to increase his strikeout rate?

People who know baseball certainly seem to think so. Last year at this time, even strikeout under-rater Terry Ryan saw the K skills:

"There's a lot of talk about his strikeouts. If you evaluate that guy pitch by pitch, he's got three plus pitches in his approach, but you wouldn't know it with his strikeout ratio," Ryan said. "He's just gotta attack the strike zone more and not nitpick. He shouldn't be a finesse guy. He's got stuff with a power slider, a fastball that can sit around 92-93 [miles per hour] and a good touch and feel for a change. So there's a good chance Kyle Gibson is a guy who can take a step or two forward."

And there have been articles written by really smart people examining his strikeout upside and saying, “he’s proven himself as a quality arm. Take a quality arm and add some extra strikeouts, and you’ve got a dominant arm. And it seems like he should be getting those extra strikeouts.”

It’s not all just potential. He has the results, too.

This excel sheet sorts every career start into one of three categories: high k%, medium k% and low k%.

Take a look at the top third by K% of his career starts - every start in which he K’d more than 17.8% of the batters he faced. In those 32 starts, he struck out an average of 24.96% batters. League average since Gibson broke in is about 20.4%.

In other words, he’s had a lot of games in which he had a high k percentage. So yes, he can do it.

I suppose the quote, “going after strikeouts for 27 out of 27 guys isn’t my strength right now.” might not mean, “I literally can’t strike out more guys”, but could be read as “If I tried something that isn’t a strength, even if I succeeded in raising my K rate, it would not benefit me overall because any gains would be negated by going away from my signature strength - inducing grounders.” If that’s what he meant, he’d obviously be contradicting himself when he said that raising his K rate would be beneficial. But furthermore, he’d be presenting an either/or type situation. As in, there’s a choice between being a groundball pitcher or a strikeout pitcher, because it’s impossible to increase one rate without decreasing the other.

Being a ground ball pitcher is part of Kyle Gibson’s identity. No one wants to lose part of their identity. Especially if they also think it will hurt their performance.

The line of thinking is this - adjusting approach to go after more swings-and-misses (whiffs) and not pitching to contact means he’d be throwing his sinker less often, meaning the success in missing bats would be offset by giving up fewer grounders when they do make contact.

Luckily, we have fangraphs correlation calculator tool so we can see if ground ball rate goes down when swinging strike rate goes up.

Not so much. 

For Gibson himself, it’s a little different. Looking at the top third of starts by swinging strike rate, we see that his groundball rate doesn’t change much when he gets more whiffs, but his BABIP does.

Swinging Strike Rate - Upper Third of starts - 53.08 GB% and .312 BABIP 

Swinging Strike Rate - Lower Third of starts - 51.80 GB% and .294 BABIP

On the other hand, these thirds are only composed of about 35 starts, a little more than a season’s worth of games.

Inducing grounders and suppressing BABIP isn’t the only thing to worry about. Pitchers also need to avoid giving up extra base hits. Maybe Gibson is freaked out about giving up harder hit baseballs if he tries to miss bats as opposed to throwing his sinker and going for contact, which means that even if the guy gets a hit on it, at least it won't be for extra bases.

First, is this true generally? We’ve seen bright guys like Zack Greinke trade in swinging strikes for pitching to contact, so there must be something to it. Let’s go back to the correlation calculator and check if Isolated Slugging Percentage goes up when swinging strike rate goes up.

The opposite! This shows that improving whiff rate actually makes ISO go down, even though it’s an extremely weak correlation and we shouldn’t actually say that. 

I don’t have Gibson’s ISO-against, but we can look at hard%. The top and bottom third of swinging strike rate games produced almost the same exact Hard% and GB%. So, it doesn't seem like he has to choose between getting swings and misses or getting grounders OR avoiding hard contact. 

Swinging Strike Rate - Upper Third of starts - 29.13 Hard% and 16.50 HR/FB%

Swinging Strike Rate - Lower Third of starts - 26.66 Hard% and 11.50 HR/FB%

According to our spreadsheet, Gibson’s home run per flyball does rise slightly in games where he gets more whiffs, though. Gibson’s fears that we just invented are maybe valid. Maybe he’s right to be scared that his GB% will go down and his hard% will go up resulting in both a higher BABIP and ISO against.

That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t increase his strikeout rate though. It’s pretty clear that any losses in those departments will be more than made up for by the increase in strikeouts. And he knows this. 

b. I would benefit by getting more outs via strikeout

Damn right. And the proof is right there in the results. His ERA is significantly lower in games that he strikes out a higher rate of batters, which is probably mostly because he lets fewer people on base. And when they do get on, they’re stranded more often.

c. It doesn’t matter to me if I get more outs via strikeout

If this interpretation is correct and Gibson believes both B and C, then he’s admitting that he doesn’t care about getting better.

However, the actual quote is “..27 outs are 27 outs. Whether it’s 27 strikeouts or 27 ground balls doesn’t matter to me.” Maybe he’s referencing Tom Tango’s work that shows the value of a strikeout is only marginally better than a groundout. If so, he’s correct that the way he gets the outs doesn’t matter, as long as he gets them.

However, getting outs isn’t the only goal of a baseball pitcher. It’s getting outs while not giving up runs.

It’s like if your goal was to get to the top of Mount Everest and you could use a wheelchair or a jetpack. Gibson would be like, “Getting to the top of the mountain is getting to the top of the mountain. Whether it’s with a jetpack or a wheelchair doesn’t matter to me.” But it does matter because the goal isn’t just getting there, it’s also to not get frostbite on your nose and have your nose fall off because of the frostbite. Imagine Kyle Gibson saying “yeah I chose to take a wheelchair to the top of Mt. Everest when I could have taken a jetpack but the result was exactly the same” without a nose.

[thevalkyriesonline]

In the first instalment of ‘Let’s Talk Comics’ we talk with Son and Sam of SCSM Comics who have just finished their Kickstarter campaign for their comic ‘A Vampire in Paris’. 

Sam is a queer freelance artist known for her character designs, concept work and witty sense of humour. She has been drawing professionally for over 10 years and dedicates her time to telling new and original stories through her artwork.

Son is a queer Muslim freelance writer who actively works in comics, and is known for her work in ‘TEETHING’. She is an active fan of horror and monsters and often complains about the lack of positive representation of POC mythical creatures.

‘A Vampire in Paris’ is a queer love story that follows two bartenders at the Spade, a bar located in the heart of Paris. Kara Belmont is a working college student, studying Art History by day and spending her nights filling up empty glasses. It’s a weird bar, packed with interesting patrons. But the most interesting person of all seems to be her own coworker. Selma Nazari seems to only work at night and is rather mysterious, not to mention unearthly beautiful. Despite her calm disposition and incessant teasing, Kara is sure that Selma holds a terrible secret.

There’s no doubt about it: She’s a vampire.

  Let’s dive straight in! 

Sam, how did you get started in illustrating? Was there a moment you can recall where you really fell in love with it?

I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I stumbled upon a good old show called ‘DragonBall Z’ on Toonami. I thought the style and animations were so cool I just had to recreate them and it kinda kicked off from there. I had always been into drawing and doodling as a kid but I really fell head over heels in love with it after drawing Trunks an absurd amount of times.

Sam- What inspired you to go the comic book route with your artistic skills out of all available mediums?

Fun fact, initially I didn’t want to do art as a career/profession at all. I kind of fell into the freelance thing out of necessity and realized that it was awesome and I love doing it! As for going the comic book route, that falls on Son actually! I was not confident in my abilities to do full comic page work initially but after freelancing for 2 years and Son shoving me into a locker and demanding I go into comic work I decided to take the plunge! Setting up the kickstarter and producing the sample pages really solidified my confidence and how much I enjoy it!

Sam- What character would you like to give a full makeover to and why?

If I could give any character in AVIP a makeover it would probably be Levi. And I only say this because she’s the type to change her appearance most often. I also love drawing and coloring hair and she has a lot to work with.

If I had the choice to give any character a full makeover I would laugh at myself and say “I can give a full makeover to any character I want” because I do. One of the things I love drawing the most is redesigns of characters that I like. Be it “what they look like in 20 years” or just full on AU designs, the possibilities are endless!

Son- Was there a defining piece of work for you growing up that made you realise you wanted to take up the writers mantle?

As much as I want to say ‘Dragon Ball Z’, I think the most defining pieces of work that convinced me that writing is my passion were R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike novels. I used to read the dime horror novels (the ones on a lonely rack at my library) religiously all throughout elementary school. Was I too young to be reading that? Yes. Did I like them immensely? Hell yes.

  Son- What is your favourite scary movie?

‘Let the Right One In’. I used to read it once a year in high school because of how much I adored the writing. The Swedish film is amazing and paints my favourite type of horror: slow moving.

Son- Who would you say your biggest inspirations are?

There’s so many. In literature, I’m just like any other post-college student with a knack for writing. Which means I like a lot of works by dead white male authors. Thankfully, Afrofuturism is saving my life. But no matter how much I read, anime that I grew up with and learned to appreciate as an adult really shaped me. My biggest inspirations are Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Berserk, and other shows from that era. Also, Hellboy changed my life.

Son- Which famous classic horror creature/ mythical creature would you like to reimagine and why?

The Bride of Frankenstein because I really want to examine her under the points brought up in the essay A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway. I also think it would be wild to examine how we do AIs and Cyborgs in science-fiction as a form of Frankenstein and his bride in a setting that leads you to believe that artificial advancements are the future. It’s a cool reversal.

I love these thoughts on The Bride of Frankenstein, AI and Cyborgs, I had not even considered how much those things align! That would make for a fascinating topic especially with AI being the hot topic that it is! 

How did you find the process of raising funds on kickstarter?

Sam: It was nerve racking initially. Especially because for me it was my first time running a kickstarter.  We both took the time to go over successful and failed kickstarters to get a general picture of what we’d be dealing with on both sides. It was a lot of “what to do and what not to do”s.

Son: It took a bunch of research and trial and error. Sam is excellent at creating a schedule and together, we made airtight plans. In the end, it’s great to have support and to work with someone you trust. It’s hard, but exciting.

What advice would you give someone looking to self-fund on sites like kickstarter?

Sam: PR IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. Seriously. Don’t feel bad about boosting your projects 3-4 times a day and being active with your audience. It’s the best way to show that you’re in it to win it! CONFIDENCE IS EVERYTHING!

Son: It’s okay to be a little shameless. An issue I had to jump over was my inability to promote myself. You need to ignore that little voice and be shameless. Tell all your friends, tweet about it nonstop, bring it up whenever you can. It’s only for a month, you gotta be your own hype man! Learning how to PR is important.

What have you found the biggest challenges for you as women in this industry?

Sam: I like to think that I’m incredibly lucky for choosing to go into the freelance industry over a big name comic book corporation. Crowdfunding is a game changer because it opens up opportunities to female identifying artists to explore stories and styles that suit them and their experiences. Instead of some old fart at the top of the totem pole doling out slices of “The same shit we see all the time”.

Son: As someone who’s been working to get into comics, the freelance industry is a great place for women. Or it’s starting to be. As a female identifying writer, I’ve been on the short end of the stick, that I’m not “taken seriously” about certain genres, such as horror and science fiction. Jokes on them because with the growing community of freelance projects and crowdfunding, women and other marginalized groups are finally building their own platforms with their own stories and variations that are creative explosions outside the major publisher comic book industry. ALSO WHY DOES EVERYONE SHY FROM TWO FEMALE LEADS?

What advice would you give to creators just getting started?

Sam: DEADLINES. ARE. YOUR. BEST. FRIEND. I’m a big fan of deadlines, especially because I’m a freelancer and have to make my own schedule. Setting simple deadlines for yourself helps keep you on track and gives you a sense of accomplishment whenever you meet one! Always ALWAYS set deadlines that are simple to achieve so you aren’t just setting yourself up for failure. Having a friend (Like Son) to help keep you on track is super important too. Working with a friend or a small group helps with the workload as well, but always remember that this is work and to succeed you need to put in the work.

Son: DONT. GIVE. UP. As someone who really struggled with making the content I want to be seen, not giving up despite all the times I failed really got me into the position where when working with Sam, I was so prepared. It takes a while, it really does. There’s nothing immediate about comics, no instant success. Kickstarter makes it look like projects happen overnight but it was the cultivation of ALL of my past experiences, my active engagement on social media, my practice in writing that eventually lead me to Sam and the confidence to push this project forward. Don’t crumble after failure because you’ve already learned how to do better the next time.

Which comic book character do you wish you had created and why?

Sam: Jason Todd. Specifically new 52 Jason Todd. New 52 Jason Todd is a trainwreck that totally derailed his entire character from what he was initially. Jason Todd is the physical representation to Bruce that “You can’t win 100% of the time without casualties”. His death was a symbol that sometimes Batman fails, and that being a hero doesn’t mean everything works out in the end. And Jason Todd also countered the norms, he came back ANGRY. In superhero comics, back then being ANGRY wasn’t a hero quality. He defined antihero to me, and I’ve always been more partial to antiheroes because it really drives home the conflict of being a, you guessed it, VIGILANTE. Also I’m a firm believer that if any character in DC was bisexual it’d be him.

Son: Jason Todd. Specifically new 52 Jason Todd. He comes from a place where not a lot of Robins do and it shaped his character, eventually leading him into the path of an antihero rather than the “benevolent” Batman. He’s an outlier in the Batfam, and he holds certain values that I really vibe with, especially due to his upbringing. That you don’t have to be perfect to be good and you don’t have to bend to societal norms to make a difference. The new 52 kind of forgot about all the qualities that made him so special (to me anyway) so I wish I owned him. Plus, he looks cool as heck and if there was one character in all of DC that would have absolutely been bisexual, it’s Jason Todd.

What are the pros/ cons of working in this field?

Pro’s: You work for yourself when you crowdfund. You make all the artistic decisions, the financial decisions, all the deadlines. You don’t have to comply with any decisions from higher ups or deal with “bosses” because you are your own boss.

Cons: It’s all on you. It can be incredibly stressful to successfully fund, manage and complete a large project on your own. There are a lot of different factors to take into account that you need to be ready and/or flexible for. If you’re not good at organization then this field is going to be rough for you.

What advice would you give for women looking to break into this industry?

Sam: Share your work. Apply for those jobs. Take that leap into freelance or crowdfunding. Even if you think you wont make it, or you’re not “good enough”, or you don’t “meet the qualifications” put yourself out there. There is always an audience for every story.

Son: Support each other. Your best support is from people who resonate with your work. And it’s not easy, but nothing worth having really is. Don’t be shy to put yourself in your work. A common misconception is that you have to write like those dead old white guys I mentioned above to be considered publishing worthy or literary and the answer I have to that is: fuck that. There’s a uniqueness that comes from your own self that no one can imitate. So why try to imitate what’s been done when you can show your own spin? And again, don’t give up!

Would you say there is a shift in the diversity within this industry? What in your opinion could readers do to ensure that the industry moves in the right direction?

Sam: I think the industry is slowly making the attempt to move in the right direction. I’m gonna reiterate “Slowly”. In my opinion showing support, both with your words and your wallet is key to moving in a more diverse and inclusive direction. Yeah we’re sick of the same rehashing of the same story, so put your money where your mouth is.

Son: Show your support for the things you want made. Don’t just say you want more queer or female led stories, actively engage and support with creators who are trying to make these stories. The comic book industry’s favorite go-to argument is that there is no active audience for these types of comics. The only way to counter that is to support the people trying to make them. And I do think it’s happening. Image Comics have been pumping out some amazing female identifying artists and writers. The indie scene is RICH with stories by WOC. And I think the industry is beginning to take notice.

What is next for you guys?

Sam- Hopefully, after the completion of AVIP, we plan on making our own webcomic, as a team. We’re lucky to work with each other as we often act as foils and complete what the other person needs. SO MORE DORKY COMICS, I GUESS. We’ve got a dark comedy planned so fingers crossed.

Big thanks to Sam and Son for giving us some insight into their process and their thoughts on the comics industry. The Valkyries chose to back AVIP during it’s Kickstarter campaign and we are thrilled that it smashed it’s target and will be going to print! If you want to keep up to date with Son and Sam you can find them here:

www.twitter.com/istehlurvz

istehlurvz.tumblr.com 

www.twitter.com/bogboogie 

son-mess.tumblr.com 

    Let’s talk comics! #1: Sam and Son on ‘A Vampire in Paris’ and a whole lot more! In the first instalment of 'Let's Talk Comics' we talk with Son and Sam of SCSM…