#IMMEDIATELY Following The Episode That Was More Interesting In 3 Hours Than The Last 13 Episodes Combined

[xaykwolf]

Had an improv class tonight, and honestly it was WILD how much more relaxed we all were at the end of the third hour compared to the end of the first.

[tropical-kabuki]

30 questions tag

No one tagged me because I'm not really active in here, but this popped up on my "for you" page and I thought I would do it because why not

1. name/nickname: Kira. That's a nickname, I keep changing my mind on whether to share my real name around here or not

2. star sign: Virgo. And then it's Virgo Rising, Taurus Moon, Venus in Leo and I forgot about the rest (I'm not particularly into astrology, but after doing so many of those "pick an image according to your sign" things on twitter I've ended memorizing some stuff lol)

3. height: 164cm

4. birthday: September 7th

5. favorite band: Nowadays it's a split between Ghost and Poets of the Fall. I'm also listening to Voyager and Lord of the Lost a lot since Eurovision (yes, I'm an eurofan of sorts)

6. time: 4:50pm

7. favorite solo artist: ... I can't really think of any at the moment? I usually listen to bands more than solo artists, but I suppose either David Bowie or Freddie Mercury are always a very sensible choice (and very true because I love them both)

8. song stuck in your head: Buddy Holly's ‘Everyday’. Blame Good Omens for that #is it July 28th yet

9. last movie you watched: I rewatched 'Murder by Death' for the first time in many years. There's a few actors I love in that movie but... it hasn't aged too well imho.

10. free space!: Watch BBC Ghosts if you haven't yet! The last season comes out later this year, it's a wonderful show (truly funny and wholesome) and the fandom is *lovely*. That's it, that's what I'm using the free space for, you'll thank me later.

11. last show: I'm currently jumping between several (very different) shows, but the last episode I watched was 'The Thick of It' 3x01

12. when i created this blog: February 2023. I have been on Tumblr before, but for several reasons I decided to start over

13. what i post: I mostly reblog stuff about my favourite actors and fandoms... I should make a list I guess, in the meantime feel free to check my archive page to get an idea of what I like :)

14. last thing i googled: I searched about known side effects for some medication I've started with recently, because I'm feeling much more tired and sleepy than usual. Doesn't seem like it's related to the meds though.

15. other blogs: not really, no. I've thought about starting side blogs for some stuff, but I would only neglect them because I don't really have the time. I'm neglecting this one enough as it is.

16. do i get asks?: not very often and I'm terrible at replying in a timely manner anyway :') really sorry about that

17. why i chose my url?: When I watched the first season of The White Lotus I fell in love with Armond (Murray Bartlett's character) and the [SPOILER] tragic trainwreck of sorts that he goes throughout the season [END OF SPOILER]. The whole introductory scene to Armond and The White Lotus resort has him telling Lani, a new trainee, that the White Lotus experience is nothing more than “tropical Kabuki,” with the staff serving as “pleasant interchangeable players”. I thought it was brilliant and so funny and for some reason my immediate thought was that it would make for a great social media username. So that's exactly what I used it for a few days later, when I was picking a url for this blog. I've ended up using it in a couple other places, too.

18. following: 66 blogs at the moment, mostly people that I share interests with or blogs about my favourite celebs/fandoms.

19. followers: 16. I'm not very active in here so I'm thankful for every person that follows me despite of that.

20. average hours of sleep: 6-7 if I can. During the Summer months that number is significantly lower tho :')

21. lucky number: I don't know if I have one... I like 7, 9, 6 and 13.

22. instruments: I sort of can play drums and keyboard, but I'm self taught (I've learned mostly by ear) and a bit clumsy. I own a bass guitar but I've barely touched it, I hope I can make time for it soon because it's the instrument I've always wanted to learn (yeah, I know; bad mental health era and so on, it will get better)

23. what am I wearing?: tank top and underwear because it's too bloody hot to wear anything else, tyvm.

24. dream job: there's several, but poster illustrator/designer is the first one that always comes to mind.

25. favorite food: almost any chicken dish, I think.

26. tea or coffee: both! It depends on the occasion

27. nationality: Spanish

28. favourite song: I can't pick just one, so I'll give you a classic choice from my 'On repeat' spotify list: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Y7ndoyiIm0IaFJa13gV3H?si=ded0711cd472473e

29. last book i read: I'm currently reading 'Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War I'

30. top three fictional universes i would like to live in: this question is way more complicated than it would seem at first glance, so let me just settle for: Middle Earth, the Shire in particular, during a peaceful time.

[eliotquillon]

HIVE TIMELINE TWO, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (Updated and reworked for Bloodline; spoilers ahead!)

It's a year since my original HIVE timeline (which you can read here and is obviously pre-Bloodline), and how things have changed. Well...kind of. I was expecting more of my timeline to crumple under the weight of eight years' worth of continuity errors but, unlike most of my pre-Bloodline fic, my 2020 timeline has stayed somewhat intact. However, in light of Nessa's excellent post that used the Bloodline prologue to figure out Raven's birthday with a scary amount of accuracy, I've decided that somewhat intact just isn't enough. Lo and behold...find the C ottomalpense new and improved H.I.V.E. timeline under the cut. This is just my interpretation of the canon timeline; because Walden contradicts himself constantly when it comes to age and continuity, most of these dates are educated guesses and any other interpretations are more than valid. Bloodline spoilers below.

PART ONE: RAVEN

In my original timeline, I used two anchor dates: Otto's 13th birthday being August 29th 1993, and Raven being 16 in the 'fifteen years earlier' Hong Kong flashback, making her 31 in Aftershock/Deadlock. Using the age difference between her and Otto, I counted backwards to give Raven a birth year of 1979. Otto's birthday still holds up, but Bloodline has since made it clear that Raven was 15 in Hong Kong. Therefore, several options presented themselves in order to salvage the rest of the timeline.

Option 1: Raven was indeed born in 1979, and Hong Kong takes place in 1994. This would make her 27 in H.I.V.E., given that she has a September birthday and H.I.V.E. takes place between September-December 2006. However, this means Raven that if Raven is 30 in Aftershock/Deadlock, there are only three years between the first seven books....something that canon vaguely supports given Shelby's "I've waited three years for you two to get together" comment to Laura and Otto in Deadlock, but feels very, very unrealistic given the number of time skips and the sheer volume of things that happen in the first seven books. My original timeline was created to get rid of the stasis in canon and give a better sense of the progression of time between books. Keeping Raven's birth year as 1979 undermines that.

Option 2: Raven was born in 1981, Hong Kong takes place in 1996, and she is 25 in H.I.V.E., meaning that there's exactly five years between H.I.V.E and Aftershock. This supports my earlier placement of Aftershock being the start of fifth year, but 25 feels kind of...young? It also hinges on Raven knowing her exact birth date before she finds out that Nero is her father, which I personally don't think Bloodline supports - Nero didn't know her birthday, and I think if Raven did know, she would've told him pre-Bloodline.

Option 3: Raven was born in 1980, Hong Kong takes place in 1995, and she is 26 in H.I.V.E., but, because she doesn't know her birth date, she celebrates her birthday on New Year's Eve. So while Raven would technically be 31 in Aftershock, she would still consider herself 30 until the end of the year, as would Nero. This gives a little bit more leeway with her age, reduces the number of changes in the overall timeline, and accounts for the overall unreliability of both Raven and Nero's narration in the flashback scenes - given that one of them had been traumatised so thoroughly that she had recurring psychotic episodes just months before that scene, and the other had his memory tampered with to the point where he misremembered the date of worst day of his life.

I personally opted for Option 3, making Raven's new birthday 3rd-6th September 1980. She is 33 in the Bloodline epilogue. Therefore Hong Kong still takes place in 1995.

PART TWO: OTTO

This is just a rehash of my last timeline, but for clarity's sake: Otto being an August 1993 birthday makes him one of the youngest in his year, meaning that everyone else (Lucy, Wing*, Nigel, Franz, Shelby, Laura, and Penny) were all 1992/3 babies. Bloodline takes place right at the end of his final year (meaning I correctly predicted that it would be set in 2012), making him 19. Something I forgot to mention in my original timeline is that Tom is described as being a few years older than Penny in H.I.V.E., but given that Tom isn't really alive for long enough to present me with an issue timeline wise, I'm just going to let that one slide. The Bloodline epilogue thus takes place in 2013.

As always, I am ignoring Rogue's claim that Otto is 13, because it doesn't make sense in any context (if Otto really is 13, it means he magically ages three years in Zero Hour and Aftershock according to Walden's own implication that Otto is 16 by Aftershock...which I'm also ignoring, but whatever). Laura still choosing between universities in September 2013 is weird, because either she is very, very late for the 2013 academic year, or very, very early for the 2014 one, but, again, I am ignoring it. Essentially, nothing meaningful has changed for any of the student ages between this timeline and the 2020 one.

PART THREE - NERO

This is where it gets interesting. This time last year, my Nero section was just speculation. I was, uh, very off, and did not account for how early Nero knocked Elena up. That was on me. My bad!

Nero is in his early 20s when Elena is murdered. If we take the year to be 1980, and early 20s to mean anything between 20-24, we can get an approximate birth year of 1956-1960. I'm going to average that to 22, making Nero's birth year 1958. He's a practically spritely 48 in H.I.V.E, and 55 in the Bloodline epilogue.

(Also, I am treating the 'thirty years' in the 'thirty years ago' flashback to be an estimate. Nero has memory issues and also thirty years has a much better ring to it than thirty-two.)

PART FOUR - DIABOLUS

We can't talk about Nero without mentioning Diabolus because I, for one, have been haunted by the knowledge that Nero taught Diabolus for years. However, assuming Nero immediately joins the H.I.V.E. teaching staff in 1980 following Elena's death, he is 22. If Diabolus is a first year student, we can give him a birth year of 1966/7. That said, I tend to think Diabolus is a little bit older than that, given how close he and Nero are in Hong Kong, so if we age him up to a third year in Nero's first year of teaching, that makes him 15/16 with a birth year of 1964/5. There's only 6/7 years between him and Nero, leaving plenty of time for them to become close friends by Hong Kong, during which Nero is 37 and Diabolus is approaching 30. That means Diabolus had Nigel at 27/28.

PART FIVE - THE OVERLORD INCIDENT AND XIU MEI

The Overlord Incident (henceforth the OI) is the bane of my existence. There's no mention of Raven in the original flashback in the Overlord Protocol, implying that she wasn't around yet, but it's referenced as still being a work in progress in Hong Kong. Again, this is a rehash of my previous timeline, but the Deadlock interpretation doesn't work; regardless of anything else, Wing was definitely born in 1992/3 in order to be in the same year as Otto, and either Wing or Raven would be too young for the OI to occur after Hong Kong (Raven was only 13 in 1993 in this interpretation of events, and this is one that puts her on the older side - there's an argument to be made for her being born in 1983, which would make her 10). Ergo, in this timeline, the OI precedes Hong Kong.

As mentioned, Wing had to have been born in 1993 at the latest, and the evidence suggests that he's most likely one of the older kids in their year, pointing to a 1992 birthday, meaning Xiu Mei got pregnant by January 1992 at the earliest. There must be time allowed for the following to occur between Wing and Otto's births and the OI: survivors of the OI to start going missing, Xiu Mei and Wu Zhang /Cypher to marry and move to Japan in order to escape persecution, and Overlord to get enough soft power over Number One to convince him to start trying to produce a clone of himself to be his successor. At earliest this can be 1991. I, however, think that it's more likely to be January 1990, given Overlord's comments about how much Number One initially resisted having his brain hijacked. This is the same as my previous timeline.

Unlike my previous timeline, however, I'm also going to attempt to estimate the year of Xiu Mei's death. While the Overlord Protocol does not explicitly state this, it can be inferred that Nero receives Xiu Mei's locket and letter after she is murdered by Overlord for investigating the Renaissance project. Nero receives the locket "many years" before Overlord Protocol (which takes place roughly in Spring/Summer of 2007), but Xiu Mei was also presumed "long dead" already when he received it as a result of the OI. This puts 17 years between Xiu Mei's faked death and Nero's reminiscence over the locket and letter in 2007 after the assassination attempt in Vienna. Xiu Mei can't have died before Wing was at least 5 years old, given the strong memories he has of her and the fact that he made a promise to her not to kill anyone, so I'm tentatively putting Xiu Mei's real death at 2001, when Wing would've been 9. This leaves just enough time for Cypher to establish himself as a thorn in Nero's side, and for his relationship with Wing the deteriorate to what we see in the Overlord Protocol.

PART SIX - OTHER

I've been meaning to do the maths on this for a while, but H.I.V.E.mind was officially brought online April 10th, 2006! (He'd been online for four months, three weeks, and two days by September 1st.) Nero really was paranoid after the OI.

Brexit doesn't occur in the H.I.V.E.verse, because Duncan Cavendish (David Cameron) resigns in 2010, AKA way, way, before the rise of UKIP and the 2016 referendum. The Iraq war, however, does - Tony Blair is heavily, heavily implied to be the prime minister in 2006.

Not really timeline related, but the fact that both Otto and Raven are Virgos is enough to make me shudder.

TL;DR - THE (FINAL???) TIMELINE

1950-59: The Furan siblings are born at some point. Two siblings are twins, presumably Elena and Anastasia or Anastasia and Pietor. At some point, they are owed a blood debt by the Sinistres.

1958: Nero is born.

Early 1960s: H.I.V.E. is founded, most likely by Nero's mother.

1964-5: Diabolus Darkdoom is born.

Late 1970s: Elena and Nero start their affair.

1980: Elena is murdered by Pietor. Raven is born. Nero has his memory of Raven's survival forcibly erased by Francesca Sinistre, clearing the blood debt between the Furan and Sinistre families.

1980s: Diabolus Darkdoom and Duncan Cavendish attend and graduate H.I.V.E. Diabolus and Nero become friends.

1989: Raven runs away from her orphanage.

1990: The Overlord Incident takes place, leaving three named survivors: Nero, Xiu Mei, and Wu Zhang. Overlord begins to assert control over Number One.

1991: Raven is found by the Furans and brought to the Glasshouse. Wu Zhang and Xiu Mei marry and immigrate to Japan after survivors of the Overlord Incident start going missing.

1992: Presumably the year Raven claws out Pietor's eye and gets shot in the woods, it is also the point at which Overlord/Number One most likely starts considering cloning himself. In the final quarter of the year, some students - most likely Wing, Shelby, and possibly Laura - are born.

1993: Otto and the rest of the students in his year are born.

1994: Likely the year Dimitri's escape attempt fails, and Raven is forced to murder Tolya. Also presumably when H.I.V.E.'s Icelandic location became dangerously compromised, and Nero starts seriously considering plans to move. At this point his mother is dead.

1995: Nero and Diabolus go to Hong Kong to meet with the Architect, and thwart Raven's assassination attempt. Raven eventually defects to G.L.O.V.E., and the first Glasshouse burns.

1996-2000: Construction on H.I.V.E. 2.0 is completed. Nero starts work on the emergency Zero Hour protocol.

2001: Xiu Mei is murdered by Overlord for asking too many questions about the Renaissance initiative. Wu Zhang becomes Cypher. Nero receives his half of the amulet, and Xiu Mei's letter.

2001-2005: Lucy's parents die of unknown causes. Diabolus Darkdoom falsifies his death to escape execution for getting too close to the Renaissance initiative, possibly after divorcing his wife first. Otto drops out of school and starts scamming local business to repair St Sebastian's. At some point Pike convinces Nero to try AI again. Number One's will is entirely consumed by Overlord.

2006: H.I.V.E.mind goes online. Pike's experiment to give Ms Leon the same reflexes as her cat goes horribly wrong, leaving them both trapped in the wrong body. Shelby becomes the Wraith and makes headlines for stealing millions of dollars' worth of jewellery. Laura is caught hacking the nearby American air base's early nuclear warning system. Otto hypnotises the current prime minister, allowing Duncan Cavendish to come into power. During a failed escape attempt from H.I.V.E., several hundred million pounds' worth of damage is caused to H.I.V.E. by Nigel's experimental crossbreed plant, Violet.

2007: Cypher fakes his death as Mao Fanchu in order to lure Wing to Tokyo, and the Contessa betrays Nero. Nero keeps Cypher alive, unbeknownst to Number One, and starts to have suspicions about Number One/Overlord for the first time. By the end of August, everyone is fourteen, and first year is over.

2008: H.O.P.E. is formed, and Nero is captured in either April or May whilst meeting with Gregori Leonov. Three months later, he is rescued by Otto, Raven, and the gang. The Contessa and Number One/Overlord die. Laura and Otto kiss, but nothing comes of it. Diabolus resurfaces from the dead to be elected head of G.L.O.V.E.'s ruling council. At some point in late August to early September, Otto, Wing, Shelby and Laura first encounter the animus fluid on a train to Paris whilst on a mission to recover a stolen thermoptic camouflage suit. As a result of the Contessa's death, Lucy Dexter is transferred to H.I.V.E. at the start of third year, at which point everyone is fifteen. Following the hijacking of Dreadnought, and an encounter with Pietor Furan, the animus fluid, and the Disciples, Otto is captured by American forces after saving Air Force One and the US president. He is then turned over to H.O.P.E.

2009: Assassinations of key members of G.L.O.V.E.'s ruling council take place at the hands of Otto, now under the influence of animus. Raven is given executive privilege to kill him if necessary. Otto confesses his love to Laura. Following a confrontation in the Amazon jungle, Cypher, Ghost, and Trent all die. H.O.P.E. is destroyed. Otto feigns memory loss of everything that occurred under animus. By the end of the year, everyone is sixteen.

2010: Laura's brother, Douglas, is born. Otto has continual and repeated nightmares and is the subject of rumours. Overlord takes control of the Advanced Weapons' Testing Facility in Colorado. The Zero Hour protocol is activated. Wing and Shelby get together. Chief Lewis and Lucy Dexter die. Pietor Furan is killed by Raven. Nero becomes head of G.L.O.V.E. Duncan Cavendish is forced to resign. The Architect is contacted by Anastasia Furan through a proxy, and construction of the new Glasshouse is completed. Following the appointment of Security Chief Dekker, Laura is blackmailed into betraying the location of the Hunt after Tom and Penny's recruitment to H.I.V.E. Joseph Wright and several former members of the ruling council are offered the help of Disciples'. All of the Alpha stream save Shelby, Otto, Franz, and Wing are taken captive. Otto is expelled, and joined Raven on the hunt for the location of the new Glasshouse. By the end of the year, everyone is seventeen.

2011: Raven and Otto take down several Disciples, most notably visiting Dubai, London, and Paris. In Venice, they are pursued by the CIA after tracking down the Architect with the help of Diabolus Darkdoom. Tom dies. The new Glasshouse is stormed and destroyed, again. Laura is given the choice as to whether she wants to stay at H.I.V.E. or not, and decides to stay. Anastasia Furan is taken hostage in Nero's basement storage facility. The Disciples' countdown for the new batch of hostages starts at 99 days. By the end of the school year, everyone is eighteen.

2012: The majority of Otto and the gang's final year goes smoothly. Franz starts working out and loses weight, becoming conventionally attractive. A few days shy of graduation, the clone known as Anna becomes loose. Otto reconvenes with the CIA and is allowed access to the last remaining batch of the animus fluid. Francesca Sinistre dies. It is revealed to Nero by Anastasia that he is Raven's father. Raven kills Anastasia. Otto stays behind to destroy H.I.V.E. and dies. His consciousness is transferred to a cloning vat by H.I.V.E.mind. Everyone is nineteen.

2013: Construction on the new H.I.V.E. facility is already underway. Raven finds out her birthday. Shelby and Wing set up an orphanage, implied to be in Africa, for war orphans in Otto's honour. Franz is an instructor at the temporary facility. Laura gets in to MIT and Oxford. In early September, Otto shows up on her doorstep.

[historyman101]

Fena: Pirate Princess First Impressions

I watched the 1-hour premiere on Toonami with my friends on Discord. After sleeping and having a chance to collect my thoughts, I have a few things to say about it, both positive and negative.

Toonami has fallen by the wayside for me in recent years as they did not have any anime that grabbed my interest. This is actually the first time I’ve watched Toonami in many months. Fena: Pirate Princess and Uzumaki, first announced back in 2020, caught my attention as potential shows to latch onto.

It’s obvious to me that Adult Swim is investing heavily in this anime’s success and I thought that was one reason why we had a 2-episode premiere on Saturday night. However, after watching, I realize that it was also strategic: the two episodes don’t really do much other than set up the main conflict going forward and introduce the core cast of characters. Episode 3 seems to be where the action kicks off.

I’ve noticed a lot of people compare Fena to One Piece, and while I can see why given the importance of pirates and the vaguely 18th-century world, but beyond that initial aesthetic, that’s where the similarities end. If I can compare this to anything, it reminds me more of Scrapped Princess or Yona of the Dawn, especially the pirate arc of that story. In fact, the anime hits a lot of the same beats from shows of the late ‘90s and early 2000s from the animation, character designs, and overall plot.

Fena: Pirate Princess follows the titular Fena Houtman, who escapes an arranged marriage to uncover the secret of her deceased father’s final mission and become an independent woman. She’s accompanied by a troupe of ninjas who are all sworn to protect her family. I will say that it’s a fun, clever way to put an end to the eternal ninjas vs. pirates debate and I can’t help but think the folks at Adult Swim had a hand in that. 

Starting off with the positives, I’ll begin with the center of the story: Fena.

We’re only two episodes in and I already love Fena. She’s cute, funny, upbeat, and clearly has a wild, independent streak to her. That being said, some people may be a little chafed to see her largely being a distressed damsel for the majority of the first episode. However, that was never really a problem for me, as it’s obvious the anime is about her personal growth to being a take-charge woman. Her positive personality is also a good contrast for the world around her, since she starts off initially treated as an object to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. Fena’s introduction also serves as another positive for me in the series: the comedy.

I’ll be honest: I was rather taken aback to see the use of comedic slapstick in this anime when it looked to be billed as an action/adventure anime, but I never found it so overused that I started rolling my eyes. The comedic lighthearted moments weren’t too obtrusive for me to stop watching it, but it did catch me off-guard to see so much comedy in what I thought would be a serious show.

Speaking of disparate elements, there is some romance in this anime. The reason for this might be because of who’s directing the anime: Kazuto Nakazawa. In the runup to this anime’s premiere, Nakazawa cited one of his influences for Fena as shojo manga and it’s obvious that those elements are very present here, from the very first episode. And that wouldn’t necessarily bother me if Fena’s love interest wasn’t so cold and distant.

That brings me to my first criticism: Yukimaru.

I’m sorry, I just don’t like this guy. At one point I even called him “bargain bin Sasuke” in the stream and people immediately agreed with me. I get that he’s supposed to be this cool and aloof tsundere type who undergoes growth, but for someone who is supposed to be Fena’s oldest childhood friend, he treats her more as a nuisance than as someone to protect. For god’s sake, the first thing he does when they reunite is knock her out when she gets too chatty (a potential running gag that may turn off some viewers). I’m willing to give him a chance since we’re only two episodes in, but he still has a long way to go before he gets into my good graces.

Speaking of Yukimaru, the other problem I have is the other ninjas don’t really stand out to me in any meaningful way. Karin is the only one who I could potentially like as she’s portrayed as not only a gun afficionado and a gearhead (channeling some Winry Rockbell here) but I could also see her as a good friend and foil to Fena. The twins Kaede and Enju I see as either the funniest characters of the crew or the most annoying, depending on who you ask. Shitan is another cool hot guy that could provide grounds for a love triangle. Again, we’re only two episodes in, but if this starts going into shojo romance territory, I may be turned off. I can’t even really say anything about the others as they lack any kind of presence for me.

Let me circle around to another positive: the art direction. This anime looks visually striking and has some interested and varied locales so far. The island Fena escapes from reminds me a lot of sets from Pirates of the Caribbean. The entire island is covered in this purple light which gives it a foreboding air, especially in the red light districts. Fena’s room was packed with a lot of intricate details that tell me a lot of work went into the backgrounds and sets. 

The animation is no slouch, either. All the action sequences are eye-catching, the opening and endings are gorgeous to look at, and even the comedic asides looks visually appealing. If nothing else, this anime is pretty to look at, which is to be expected from a studio of such high caliber as Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass, Haikyu!!). 

My last criticism I have is the pacing of the show, which is rather breakneck and could cause some problems later if it continues at the current rate. Even the dialogue moves at a fast clip. I never felt like I got a chance to know all of the characters in this anime (except Fena) or understand the world. It might be because Jason DeMarco (VP of Toonami) has said this will only get more seasons if the first one does well in ratings, so they might just be going at the pace of a 1-cour anime to play it safe. However, I think that might work against the anime since there is only so much you can hope to accomplish in 13 episodes.  

Overall, Fena Pirate Princess doesn’t get off to a perfect start, but it’s sure a fun ride along the way. Fena is a cute and endearing protagonist who has the potential to be more, the world is a visually beautiful and interesting blend of 18th century steampunk, and there are even some moments that will make you laugh out loud. The potential love story might turn out to be lacking and the pacing may be too fast for some, but I’ve learned to never say never and always give everything a fair chance.

Can’t wait to see Episode 3.

[wastingoxygensince1983]

Madre Solo hay dos Spoilers

The las 4 months has being horrible to me. However the existence of this show is a light in the darkness. For that reason I want to share my dumb opinions and thoughts I have for the show.

There’s gonna be spoilers, so If any of you want to skip(I truly suggest to skip, I’m pretty dumb) keep moving. 

Those that stay and read, thank you. Sorry for the mess but I haven’t sleep in the last 30 hours.

1. I think what I love the most of the show is how light and happy it felts. Even the natural drama feels enjoyable.

2. Is basically a group of surprises. Mariana being queer is a nice surprise. Solving the drama between Ana and Mariana in the first episode is a surprise. Both male and female characters been enjoyable is a surprise.

3. Elena is introduce and immediate I thought it was the ride or die friend. Turns out the show gave me another surprise on that.

4. I thought It was weird that they didn’t change the names of the girls when the switch was revealed; but I love like everyone decide to keep the names. Even the ones that weren’t part of the direct family of the girls.

5. I like each character in their own. Well, not all. Hate Juan Carlos’s brother and Manolo.

6. Love how they present the males characters as interesting and lovely characters that more of the time are kind and nice but they follow bad decisions. Most of the worst moments from Juan Carlos and Pablo were made because they follow idiots advisers.

7. Don’t like that much the little kid. However I think is because I didn’t like the little plot they gave him. Wouldn’t care if we don’t see him more or at the same time they give us more of him.

8. Love Ceci. Love how they present her as some kind of antagonist to Mariana at first but it last almost like two minutes. Then she was lovely. Worried of her reaction at the drama at the end of the season.

9. While I don’t like what Juan Carlos and Tere did (and more important that he wanted to keep doing it), I kind of understand why he did it. Is hard, being with someone how was Ana at first. Because that annoying person from the pilot is the one that Juan Carlos has been married for 20 years. Someone that control freak is very tiring. It looks like he doesn’t love Ana anymore, but loves his family a lot. I love how he is a nice dad and a man with a kind heart. 

10. If I have to be completely honest, until episode 04; I was completely team Pablo. DOn’t get me wrong; I didn’t like what he did with Mariana, but he wanted to be close to his daughter and that for me was very nice. And I keep saying that if this idiot don’t follow bad advises he could be an incredible and nice gentleman; a great dad and very good ex boyfriend/business partner. That’s one of the reasons I love him with Cynthia.

11. Although, were’s the love for Cynthia? she is amazing and very hot and deservers more love in the little fandom is creating here.

12. LOVE Elena. Completely worried about her plans and what she is doing. Didn’t understand her decisions at the end. I’m worried they are setting her as a manipulative person to get back to Mariana.

13. Love how the show technically don’t have a villain. Basically the villain is Manolo but he is more annoying than bad. How the show continues like that and keeps the drama like it has being until now.

14. Ana is perfect. She is strong, kind, loyal and beautiful. Love how she opens her heart to Mariana and Mariana’s family. 

15. Didn’t understand why they made the first kiss son long. I know the second couldn’t be as long than the first, but besides that Mariana wanted that kiss, why she let it be that long?

16. LOVE Mariana. She is kind, and perfect in every aspect. Screw everyone that disrespect her and makes her feels less. While I like Tere, that’s one of the reasons I don’t love her. Hope Mariana solves her issues with Ana and gets happiness. 

17. Don’t understand why they did that at the end. They put themselves in that situation. It wasn’t something from their fans, so I hope they do something with that.

18. Ana’s ex storyline wasn’t good and didn’t have to happen. Don’t like it.

19. The “wedding” scene(if someone saw that scene please fight me if you don’t believe those were their marriage vows) made me scream. They are so in love.

20. Completely happy we got a second season. 

21. Considering do a family tree for Valentina and Regina if they make all the couples canon. That family is weird. Ana and Mariana would be a couple and the mothers of the girls. Regina’s grandma is with Valentina’s dad, and Regina’s dad live with Mariana’s ex. Mariana’s dad is also dating Ana’s ex assistant. That’s weird and I think there’s things I miss.

22. While I believe Anaur deserves better, Tere should not end with Juan Carlos. That relationship didn’t sit right with me.

23. I hope that whatever decision they make; they keep the family bond of all the family, like the scene in the pool.

[papermoonloveslucy]

GETTING OLD

May 20, 1949

“Getting Old” (aka “Liz Is Feeling Her Age”) is episode #44 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on May 20, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ Scanning her old high school yearbook, Liz decides she's old, and everything George does to try to snap her out of it just makes things worse. George tries to convince Liz that she's as glamourous as ever. His tactics misfire so George is forced to hire a psychiatrist.

Note: This episode partly inspired the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;E18) aired on February 2, 1953, which also starred Gerard Mohr as a psychiatrist.  In this case, however, the complex is replaced by fear of aging. There is another “My Favorite Husband” episode titled “Liz’s Inferiority Complex” (aka “Liz Develops an Inferiority Complex”) broadcast on February 3, 1951 which uses the notion of inferiority rather than aging. In that episode, the psychiatrist is played by Alan Reed.  

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) does not appear in this episode. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Gerald Mohr Psychiatrist aka Charley ‘Chuck’ Stewart) also played psychiatrist Henry Molin, who masquerades as Ricky’s old friend Chuck Stewart in “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;E18 ~ February 2, 1953), his only appearance on “I Love Lucy”. In return, Lucy and Desi appeared on his show “Sunday Showcase” that same year. He also made an appearance on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Phil Harris” (TLS S6;E20 ~ February 5, 1968).

One of the few times an actor recreates his role in a television version of a radio script using the same name. 

Bea Benadaret (Mrs. Annie Green) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

This turn as an old lady may have given Lucille Ball the idea to cast her as elderly Miss Lewis on “I Love Lucy”. 

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers, Liz is over by the bookcase, with books spread out all around her.” 

Liz tells George her club is having an old book sale. George warns her not to sell any of his book, especially ones he hasn’t finished yet.  She finds one with a bookmark and he tells her to put it back on the shelf: some books are too heavy to finish in one sitting.

GEORGE: “What’s the name of it?” LIZ: “’The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore’”

“The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore” was originally published in 1907, the third in a series of children’s books. There were 72 books in all, the first appearing in 1904 and the last in 1979. In 1953’s “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29) Ethel referred to Lucy and Ricky as the Bobbsey Twins. In “No More Double Dates” (TLS S1;E21) they are mentioned again. They were authored by Laura Lee Hope, which was a pseudonym for a series of writers employed by the publisher.  

Liz finds a book about how to play mahjong that George forgot to return to the library. 

GEORGE: “When was it due?” LIZ: “May 13th. 1936!” 

George wants to donate it to the sale, but Liz refuses to handle ‘hot’ merchandise. George sarcastically calls her Pear-Shape. 

George is not referring to Liz’s figure, but to the character in the Dick Tracy comic strip named Pear-Shape Tone, who was part of the storyline from April to July 1949. He was a racketeer who would steal jewelry from his wealthier clients, then fence it to make a profit. One of his famous heists was referred to on “My Favorite Husband”  in “Anniversary Presents” aired on May 13, 1949.

LIZ: “George, look! On the second shelf!  ‘Little Men’ is leaning against ‘Little Women’!  Oh, look, George!  They’ve had a little pamphlet!” 

“Little Women” (1868) and its sequel “Little Men” (1871) are books by Louisa May Alcott.  A sequel was titled “Good Wives” (1869) but in America was combined with “Little Women” for publication. A third book (not a pamphlet) arrived in 1886 titled “Jo’s Boys.”

Liz finds the Arbutus, George’s old high school year book from 1929. George was a senior, Liz was a freshman. He reads some of the inscriptions from his friends.  The book has a photo of Liz as a Freshman Princess - dimples in her knees. 

LIZ: “I used to spend every evening kneeling on two collar buttons!” 

Liz suddenly feels very old.  She has turned from ‘a flower in the bloom of youth’ to ‘an old stink weed’.  She starts to cry and decides to go to bed because old people need their rest. 

In the morning Katie the Maid finds Liz gazing at herself in the mirror.  

LIZ: “I haven’t felt so old since the day Shirley Temple got married.” 

Former child star Shirley Temple married actor (and then Army Air Force Sergeant) John Agar on September 19, 1945, when she was just 17 years-old.  At one time, Temple was one of Hollywood’s biggest box office stars.  The marriage became troubled, and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949. On December 16, 1950, Temple re-married to Charles Alden Black, a Navy intelligence officer and assistant to the President of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

George is concerned about Liz, so he visits a psychiatrist (Gerard Mohr). He tells her to flatter her and make her feel young again.  

PSYCHIATRIST: “A few days of attention and you won’t be able to leave her alone without a sitter!” 

George comes home and finds Liz in a rocking chair.  He has brought her roses and candy.  She begins to cry and is immediately suspicious of his motivations for bringing her gifts.  She decides to go to her room - alone.  George immediately starts to dial Dr. Stewart, humming while he does: 

GEORGE: “Little Old Lady young and fair, you’re in everyone’s hair...”

The song “Little Old Lady” was a 1937 hit written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stanley Adams.  It was also heard on stage and screen. 

Dr. Stewart tells George that it is natural for a wife not to believe her husband.  He suggests an outsider flattering her would be more convincing and he has just the person - himself!  George reluctantly agrees and decides to say that Dr. Stewart is an old college friend.  He will drop by at eight o’clock that evening. 

When the doorbell rings, George announces him as Charley Stewart, who immediately takes Liz for George’s daughter.  After some flattery, they decide to listen to the radio.  Liz says her favorite she is “Life Begins at 80″.  

“Life Begins at 80″ was a panel quiz show that aired on radio from 1948 to 1949, before making the shift to television in 1950. In it, octogenarians answered questions sent in by listeners. Jack Barry hosted. 

Chuck insists that they play music and invites Liz to dance the Samba. After three hours, Chuck compliments her dancing, but George is getting impatient.  

LIZ: “Treatment, George. Treatment!”  GEORGE: “It looks more like a treat than a treatment.” 

Chuck starts whispering amorous compliments into Liz’s ear just out of ear shot of George.  He demands to know what’s going on. 

LIZ: “Treatment, George!  Treatment!”  GEORGE: “What do you know about treatment?” LIZ: “Nothing. But whenever he says it you leave us alone.” 

George finally can’t take anymore and tells Liz the truth about Chuck being a psychiatrist, telling him to leave at once.  After Chuck leaves, George finds Liz back in her rocking chair lamenting her old age. 

Next day the phone rings and Katie answers it.  It is George, checking up on Liz, who Katie reports is making out her will. 

KATIE: “She’s leaving you to me!”

George has a plan. He’s going to bring home a real old lady - seventy year-old Mrs. Green - to show Liz how young she really is.  Katie finds Liz happily singing. 

KATIE: “What’s happened to ya? Last night you were Grandma Moses and now you’re Junior Miss!”

Grandma Moses (1860-1961) was an American folk artist who began painting at the age of 78 and is often cited as an example of a person who successfully began a career at an advanced age. In “Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9) Lucy Ricardo is so proud of Little Ricky’s first drawing, she dubs him the next “Grandpa Moses.” The Ricardos had two framed prints by Grandma Moses next to their front door: “So Long” and “The Old Snow Roller.”  

Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories. She had a bestseller when Doubleday published her Junior Miss collection in 1941. The stories inspired a Broadway play (1941), film (1945), radio series starring the aforementioned Shirley Temple (1942), and television show (1957). 

Liz tells Katie that she got a call from the Psychiatrist asking her out on a date.  Katie says that since she’s now in a more upbeat mood, she’d better call George and tell him not to go through with his plan.  But Liz has other ideas.  Since he tricked her by brining home a psychiatrist, Liz will trick him by pretending to be an old lady when she brings Mrs. Green home!  

Liz dons a shawl, eyeglasses, a gray wig, and talks with a creaky voice. Mrs. Annie Green (Bea Benadaret) and ‘Lizzie’ sit down for a chat.  Whatever question Mrs. Green asks, Liz answers “Penicillin”!  Lizzie tells Annie that she can’t dance because she’s got the gout. 

LIZZIE: “I can’t dance any unless I get oiled.  In my joints, I mean.” ANNIE: “I’ve been oiled in few joints myself!”   LIZZIE: “Oh, Annie!  You’re a caution! Just cuz ya got snow on the roof don’t mean there’s no fire in the furnace.” 

Annie tells Lizzie about a hot Bingo game in back of the Blue Bird Tea Shop (which just a front). 

ANNIE: “Get your green eye shade and let’s go!”  LIZZIE: “I’ll get my wheelchair! We can ride down.” ANNIE: “What model you got?”  LIZZIE: “A real hopped-up job; I hooked it to a Mixmaster. I had some speed trials yesterday.” ANNIE: “What did ya make?” LIZZIE: “Fourteen miles an hour and a bunt cake!” 

In 1930, the Sunbeam Company introduced the Mixmaster mixer, the first mechanical mixer with two detachable beaters whose blades interlocked. Several attachments were available for the Mixmaster, including a juice extractor, drink mixer, meat grinder–food chopper, and slicer–shredder. The Mixmaster became the company's flagship product for the next forty years.

George has had enough and tells Liz to stop, so she gives up the old lady act.  She tells him she’s feeling better, but George lets it slip that he told Chuck to call and ask her out on a date.  She’s distraught again and Annie and Lizzie toddle off to Bingo!  

[asocier]

an in-depth health condition headcanon post

cw: contains mentions of mental illness/mental health, trauma, eating disorder, depression, suicide, and anxiety -- ask to tag. 

alison clair, 24, female.

           unspecified feeding or eating disorder ( undiagnosed ) -- exhibits behaviors such as restrictive intake of food, a disturbed self-perception of her body, and lack of interest in regards to eating, but overall eating behaviors “do not meet the full criteria for any of the disorders in the feeding and eating disorders diagnostic class” ( DSM-5; p.354 ), particularly because these behaviors do not typically persist for more than 3 months at a time and because alison is within normal body weight according to bmi measures. however, it is important to note that alison has a history of disordered eating behaviors stemming from her high school years, even if these behaviors do not usually last consistently for months at a time. 

          post-traumatic stress disorder ( undiagnosed ) -- exhibits a variety of symptoms both presently and in the past immediately following her sexual assault and forced prostitution such as:

reoccuring, distressing dreams related to the traumatic events she has experienced and intense psychological distress and physiological reactions at internal/external cues that are related to or remind her of her traumatic experiences

active avoidance of "distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s)” and “external reminders ( people, places, conversations, activities, objects, situations ) that arouse distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s)” ( DSM-5; p. 271 )

 negative changes in mood and cognition after experiencing the traumatic events, such as dissociative amnesia ( i.e. the inability to remember an important aspect of a traumatic events ), self-blame due to distorted cognition regarding the causes of the traumatic events, persistent negative emotional states ( e.g. shame, fear, guilt ), significant diminished interest in activities she originally enjoyed, and feeling of detachment and estrangement from others. 

hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, problems with concentration, and sleep disturbance ( notably difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep )

          it’s important to note that immediately following traumatic events ( 3 days to 1 month ), these symptoms would be classified as acute stress disorder. due to how long it has been since alison has experienced the traumatic events in her life, post-traumatic stress disorder is more appropriate, particularly because she continues to experience theses symptoms in present time. 

           genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder ( undiagnosed ) -- acquired ( “the disturbance began after a period of relatively normal sexual function” [ DSM-5, p.437 ] ) and mild in severity. symptoms include difficulties having sexual intercourse, pain during penetration, anxiety over vaginal penetration, and tension of the pelvic floor muscle. tension of the pelvic floor muscle can be a reflexive spasm ( i.e. vaginismus ) or, in alison’s case, “normal/voluntary muscle guarding in response to the anticipated or the repeated experience of pain or to fear or anxiety” ( DSM-5; p. 438 ). penetration in the latter case may be possible when she is relaxed and at ease with her partner. 

nate cain, 26, male. 

          reactive attachment disorder ( childhood; diagnosed ) -- exhibited emotionally withdrawn behavior towards adult caregivers, specifically not seeking comfort when distressed and being unresponsive to any comfort given when distressed. persistent social and emotional disturbances include limited positive affect and minimal social and emotional responsiveness to others. has experienced a pattern of extremes or insufficient care, including social neglect in the form of not having basic emotional needs met by caregivers, frequent change in primary caregivers, and being raised in unusual settings that make forming attachments difficult ( e.g. institutions with high child-to-caregiver ratios ). 

          disinhibited social engagement disorder ( childhood; diagnosed ) -- actively approached and interacted with unfamiliar adults with reduced reticence, did not check back in with adult caregiver after going off by himself, and was very willing to leave with unfamiliar adults with little hesitation. note, this is not due solely to impulsivity but also socially disinhibited behavior. these behaviors began after receiving insufficient care as described in the earlier bullet point ( i.e. social neglect, frequent change in primary caregivers, and being reared in unusual settings ). 

          oppositional defiant disorder ( diagnosed ) -- displays an angry/irritable mood ( loses temper often, easily annoyed, and is often angry ) and argumentative/defiant behavior ( often argues with authority figures or adults, defies or refuses to follow requests of authority figures or adhere to rules ) to individuals who are not siblings. oppositional defiant disorder is prevalent in families in which “child care is disrupted by a succession of different caregivers or in families in which harsh, inconsistent, or neglectful child-rearing practices are common” ( DSM-5, p. 464 ) and is commonly co-occurring with the next bullet point, conduct disorder.

          conduct disorder ( diagnosed ) -- childhood-onset type; exhibits a repetitive pattern of behaviors in which the basic rights of others is violated as manifested through the following ( all bullet points are pulled directly from the DSM-5 ):

often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others 

often initiates physical fights

has been physically cruel to people

has forced someone into sexual activity

often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age 13 

has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in the parental or parental surrogate home, or once without returning for a lengthy period

is often truant from school, beginning before age 13

the disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.

           bipolar II disorder ( diagnosed; medicated ) -- exhibits both hypomanic and major depressive episodes. hypomanic episodes are distinctly different from manic episodes specific to bipolar I disorder such that hypomanic episodes are not as intense as full-blown manic episodes and do not impair social or occupational functioning as would a manic episode. additionally, individuals with bipolar II disorder typically spend more time in a depressive episode than a hypomanic episode. as such, nate experiences depressive symptoms for much longer than his hypomanic symptoms. it’s also typical for him to experience a period of normal mood in between each episode.  

          symptoms of a hypomanic episode include: elevated mood, increased activity and energy, irritability, inflated self-esteem/grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, increase in goal-directed activity, psychomotor agitation ( e.g. tapping foot, pacing room ), and impulsive/reckless involvement in dangerous or risky activities. 

          symptoms of a major depressive episode include: depressed mood for most of the day almost every day, diminished interest/enjoyment in most activities, hypersomnia  ( excessive sleepiness ), fatigue and energy loss, feelings or worthlessness, difficulties concentrating, and suicidal ideation. 

leah nguyen, 20, female.

          generalized anxiety disorder ( undiagnosed ) -- exhibits signs of excessive worry and anxiety on most days about a variety of events or activities. the worry is difficult to control and is associated with feelings of being on edge/restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance, specifically difficulties falling asleep and unsatisfying sleep. the anxiety causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, and oftentimes has a longer duration than everyday anxiety and usually occurs “without precipitants,” meaning with no prior cause. to elaborate, leah’s anxiety prevents her from engaging in certain social activities and from taking on new opportunities regarding school or work. she spends a lot of her time worry about a lot of things and sometimes decides to stick to what is comfortable than to venture out even if it is severely limiting to her and ostracizes her from her peers. 

          lactose intolerance ( undiagnosed ) -- possesses a mild inability to fully digest the lactose in milk. condition is still very manageable as symptoms only become evident after consuming an abundance of foods containing dairy. discomfort usually manifests in the form of cramps, nausea, gas, and bloating. a severe reaction can lead to diarrhea or vomiting. 

aito matsuoka, 26, male. 

          caffeine withdrawal ( undiagnosed ) -- has established prolonged daily use of caffeine in the form of coffee consumption. lack of or reduced caffeine consumption can result in the following within 24 hours:

headache

fatigue or drowsiness

irritability

difficulty concentration

nausea

[mtvswatches]

Wynonna Earp 3x02 When you Call My Name

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Who is the fucker dragging Waverly away?! And the first thing that Wynonna says, even before she fully regains consciousness, is “Waverly.” I love these two sisters, I love that their relationship is the backbone of this show. Also, WTF.

How the fuck did she get there?

2) And I fucking love Wynonna Earp…

3) Is she… hallucinating her mother? I was wondering why, out of everyone else in her life, she would be fantasizing about her mother, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out. First of all, her ghost-mom reminds her of the survival rules she’d taught her when she was little. But most importantly, she reminds her that no matter how much pain she’s in right now, the pain of losing Waverly will be much worse. And that’s exactly what Wynonna needs to find in her the strength to survive.

4) Is the dude who kidnapped Waverly some time of supernatural weirdo or is he just your run-of-the-mill weird loner guy who lives in the woods and slowly goes batshit crazy? I’m still not sure…

5) Wynonna can’t leave Peacemaker there, can’t she? Why isn’t it like Thor’s hammer? Can’t she just like magically pull it back to her? Anyway, this badass motherfucker is going to climb the fucking rocks wearing a dress and heels. How is not the entire world in love with Wynonna Earp?

6) Oh, he’s not just a weirdo, he’s also a supernatural impersonator. He fucking stole Waverly’s voice and answered the phone pretending to be her. And now Waverly can’t scream for help, that’s just dandy.

7) “You ever seen me move when I’m pissed? I’m a frigging snow cheetah!” How is everything that comes out of her mouth so iconic?

8) So far, Ghost Mom seems to be doing a good job of helping Wynonna keep her head on your shoulders and not act impulsively, which could end up with both her and Waverly dead. She’s following her mom’s survival rules, and it seems to be working, and there’s this little moment when both of them push their hair behind their ears in perfect synchrony…

And I don’t know what I’m to make out of this? Does this mean that Ghost Mom is only a reflection of Wynonna herself? I mean, obviously, she is, it’s a figment of Wynonna’s imagination and it’s what Wynonna believes her mom would do and say in such a situation. But… are we meant to infer that there’s a stronger connection between the two of them than we were led to believe during the course of two seasons? Ghost Mom also called her a “Gibson girl” – her mom’s last name – and also mentioned how Wynonna got her snark from her. Wynonna even jokes that she got the crazy from her. It feels the writers are setting up this relationship as one of the arcs of this season. I guess it makes sense, after Wynonna became a mother herself. But I still don’t know what to make of Ghost Mom or Real Mom, for that matter.

9) Jeremy, Nicole, and Dolls have no idea what’s going on with Wynonna and Waverly, of course, and they’ve figured out that the demon responsible for the massacres is like a Flash demon that got to all their victims within seconds of one another. Also, the massacres may continue. Cool. Cool cool cool.

10) Jeremy is the biggest sweetheart in this show and he’s the biggest fan of literally everyone. I felt so bad for him when Dolls told him to get a life or something and stop bothering him, and did Jeremy get butthurt? No, he told Dolls he’s fighting for him, and my heart swelled a little. He’s the best. He was such a great addition to the gang. At least Dolls had the decency to indulge Jeremy with his pop culture references before leaving, and it was a nice way to say he was sorry and that he appreciates everything that Jeremy does.

11) OMFG, Wynonna was a Hanson fan, just like I was!

12) Not liking Ghost Mom right now…

WYNONNA: Why me, though? You never brought Willa or Waverly, it was always just you and me... GHOST MOM: Willa was Ward's right from the get-go, and Waverly... She was everyone else's, but you... Ooh, you... You came into this world wailing and kicking just like I was so I wanted to make sure you could survive by yourself. But you know what? Being an heir, it has made you soft. WYNONNA: What's that supposed to mean? GHOST MOM: It means... You're leaning on your team of outlaws and misfits. WYNONNA: They're my people and I trust them. GHOST MOM: Yeah, well where the hell are they? It's been hours. WYNONNA: I don't know. GHOST MOM: Yeah. The moment that you rely on someone... to protect you, be there for you... you're dead.

Is this Wynonna’s own fear, that her relying so much on her friends is making her soft and weak and vulnerable? Because I feel that her relationships with everyone else have made her stronger. I hate the idea that a hero can’t be vulnerable, you know? It’s like what Buffy says, “my emotions give me power.” If you don’t have bonds and love in your life, is there really a reason to fight at all?

13) “We are the same, Wynonna, and that is what scares you, how similar we are.” Alright, yeah, definitely Wynonna’s own fears manifesting themselves via Ghost Mom. I mean, obviously, she’d conjure up her mom at this moment! Waverly is in danger, and she fears she’s going to fail her just like their mom did…

14) Wow, Doc is having an existential crisis after being shot by Dolls and going to hell in the alternate reality. He’s afraid that being good and doing the right thing is pointless if he’ll end up in hell with all the other demons anyway. But… I mean, he went to hell in that other reality where he had embraced his dark side, you know? How does he know that he’s destined for the same here and now? I wouldn’t think so. And damn, Dolls has some truth bomb…

DOC: We are murderers, you and I. Destined for the dark. DOLLS: We're not the same. Because I don't need a threat of damnation to fight for the right side.

 (EDIT: how did I not realize this was foreshadowing Dolls’s death?! And these words will probably haunt Doc... this was basically their last conversation...)

15) Nicole found the truck!

16) Hannibal the Impersonator is using Waverly’s voice to lure other people into the cabin…

Is he a revenant, though? He seems to be, but what about his weird stealing-voices power? Do revenants get special powers? I mean, Bobo did, but I thought he was an exception…

17) Jeremy is also so emotionally healthy? Like, he immediately called Doc out on assuming the worst of people and basically told him to get over obsessing over losing his immortality. But… why didn’t he call Dolls like Doc told him to? Is he also assuming the worst…? Does he not trust Dolls?

18) Oh, my god, Waverly and Wynonna’s entire “charades” conversation was fucking priceless!

19) I laughed and I also awww-ed.

DOC: You trust Wynonna's instincts? NICOLE: I helped her kill the revenant she had sex with! DOC: Let me rephrase. Do you trust her instincts about Waverly?

20) Are Waverly and Wynonna really having the you-didn’t-tell-me-about-mom talk right now, in this life or death situation? Of course they are.

21) I DIED!

Wynonna doesn’t have Peacemaker, so how is she going to fight the revenant? It should be interesting to see her fight without her special power…

22) So Jeremy also assumed the worst about Dolls. Interesting.

23) Like Buffy said, when scary things are scared, that’s bad news. The revenant almost shit his pants when Waverly mentioned Bulshar. Wynonna used her wits and booby-trapped him, so good on her. But look who’s stalking…

Does he have nazis with him or something?

24) So… Waverly didn’t take it too well. And I get it, it feels like she’s been made a fool by everyone she's ever trusted. She doesn’t even know who her real parents are…

25) Nicole is going to climb down the rocks and get Peacemaker back like a boss.

26) Uh-oh… I guess Jeremy was right…

Why is he saying that Wynonna is going to need Waverly more than ever?

27) WTF!!!

Fucking ghost terminator nazis!

28) Nicole is literally hanging from a wire and trying to get Peacemaker back! And I think Dolls is going to wolf out and get rid of the fucking nazi but will probably lose his soul in the process? I didn’t think the chilliest part of the episode would be a fucking voice-stealing cannibal revenant…

29) Nicole is asking Wynonna to let go of the wire…  what the fuck is this episode doing to me?

30) Why did he smile before doing this…?

Was he saying goodbye? Was that why he said that Wynonna was going to need Waverly more than ever?

31) He’s dead, and Nicole is trying to resuscitate him, and Wynonna and Doc are losing their shit… I wasn’t expecting this in episode two…

She doesn’t want to leave his side. Damn.

32) Wow. This is heavier stuff than I’d expected at the beginning of the season, especially after the heartbreak of giving birth to Alice only to lose her in the season finale. I feel like this episode is a game-changer, obviously because of Dolls’ death, who is going to take up his role? I mean, Nicole had become sort of his disciple, but no one can really fill his shoes, can they? There’s also the heavy emphasis on Wynonna’s relationship with her mother, which I think will definitely be one of this season’s arcs. And there’s the dooming presence of Bulshar, who still needs to introduce himself in a more memorable way.

I don’t know what to make of Dolls’ death, though. Personally, I wasn’t so attached to his character as to feel devastated, though I was truly shocked and if Wynonna cries, then I cry. There’s also this nagging feeling that no one can be really dead in supernatural shows unless TPBT wish it so, you know? There’s always a small chance he might return, in different forms – either through flashbacks or because he might actually be brought back from the dead.

Anyway, I’m super excited to see where this season takes us!

33) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi. Thanks!

[buzzdixonwriter]

Our Regularly Scheduled Program Vs Binge Watching

Every now and then the little light comes on and I grasp an insight into something that previously stared me in my oblivious face.

I was watching episodes of a popular sit-com* from 35 years ago, not a huge hit but certainly a cult favorite popular enough to stay available on recorded media and now streaming.

Not having seen it in well over two decades, I plopped down and started watching episodes back to back.

I got tired by ep. three.

The problem, I realized, lay in how the material was originally presented.

It used to be we’d have to wait every week for a show to come back at its appointed time, and present us with whatever shenanigans the characters got themselves into that week.

Most episodes were standalones, there was little forward progress in the stories and the tiny bit that did exist was mostly in the backstory, not the main plot.

Every week they gave us the same thing, only slightly different.

Mind you, I can appreciate the diametrically opposed tension facing shows of that era -- I wrote and story edited for TV at that time.

The audience wants the same thing they liked the last time…

…only different.

With daily shows like G.I. Joe and Transformers and Jem, trying to come up with something new enough not to be a dull repeat but not so different to alienate the audience was a challenge.

Luckily, the Sunbow series were awash in Joes and Autobots and pop stars and Little Ponies, so we could always find some underused character to build a novel story around, or to add a fresh twist to our old standards.

But even there, I don’t think one can binge watch too many at a time without feeling a certain sense of sameness.

Modern streaming series take that into consideration, but for me that works against them:  I like my stories done in one.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

I’ll watch a 3 hour epic movie without qualm, but I start balking at 7 - 13 - 26 episode story arcs.

I loved season one of Daredevil, never watched season two.

I loved season one of Luke Cage, never watched season two.

I hear people telling me how great The Mandalorian is and I believe them 100%.

No desire to watch it, however (though this may be more the fault of seeing too many Star Wars features films).

Likewise zero interest in any new Star Trek, or for that matter any of the various Star Trek imitators out there.

One and done ripoffs / parodies excepted, of course.

I have the same problem with old movie serials, a genre and format I adore.

Nowadays I tend to watch serials by viewing the first three and last two chapters.

Everything in between tends to be padding.

The Sopranos seemed to be the exception, but then the show lost Nancy Marchand, who played Mama Soprano, and with it the entire raison d’etre of the series.

I clung with it for several seasons past that before abandoning it long before the final blackout.

The Venture Bros. still grabs my attention, but like the Sunbow shows it has a large enough cast to give it the needed flexibility to keep the stories varied yet part of the same universe as well.

It’s reportedly coming to an end with season eight, and to that I say good:  Better to go out at the top of your game than jump the shark and flounder.

. . .

Modern audiences -- at least modern audiences with cable / satellite / Internet access --  no longer have the tacit sense of an appointed time and often and appointed place to enjoy media.

Prior to the electronic age, few people could be entertained whenever they wished unless they or a family member sang or played music or read aloud or told stories.

There were kings and nobles who kept musicians on tap and theatrical companies close at hand but even they were constrained by time and space.

Today’s audience can just whip out a phone and listen / watch / read whatever they want.

As a result, the sense of being an audience seems vanish.

An audience used to be those who came to a performance of some kind, even if it meant simply showing up in their own living room on Tuesday at 8:30pm (5:30 Pacific) to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly.

Even in one’s home, it meant setting aside a time to come in and listen or watch as a production presented its entertainment.

One may or may not like what one experienced, but the audience placed itself at the disposal of the program.

Transistors started changing that.

Transistors made small cheap radios easily affordable and eminently portable.  

People could take their listening pleasure with them, and that marked the rise of recorded popular music programs instead of live scripted broadcasts.

It proved the first technological step in a long line of dominoes that completely upended the relationship of audience to entertainment.

The audience used to come and absorb patiently.

Now the entertainment needs to break through a thousand and one distractions.

It does so by escalating the sensationalism -- and by sensationalism I mean anything that’s designed to grab an audience’s immediate attention, no matter how well or thoughtfully executed.

It undercuts the lower key / slice of life popular entertainment audiences enjoyed generations ago.

(And, yes, Shakespeare & co. are filled with blood and thunder tales, but again, those were things one committed oneself to experiencing as the performers intended; audiences didn’t walk out en masse and go to a neighboring theater in mid-performance.)

. . . 

The problem with ongoing stories is this:  At any point they can be upended by fiat, negating all that’s come before.

Go ask a comic book fan how many times DC has destroyed the universe.

My reluctance to enjoy open ended fiction is that I like being able to mull over a story once it is completed, teasing out the full measure and meaning of what I’ve just experienced.

I’ll risk a program like The Queen’s Gambit because I know it’s a limited series withn a finite ending.

I wouldn’t watch an open ended series based on Walter Tevis’ book.

My career as a writer and an editor enables me to see the gears turning behind the scenes in a story.

More often than not I’m already several plot beats ahead of any movie or TV episode I’m watching.

I bailed on a highly recommended current program recently just halfway through the first episode.

I got the joke.

I knew where it was going.

Nothing about it enticed me to keep following.

The classic sit-com mentioned above wore thin because it was the same damn joke every time.

It’s a funny joke, mind you.

And when seen the way originally intended, I’d have a week to forget about the details of the previous episode, to be hungry of that particular brand of humor for a bit, and be willing to take a repeat of material a week later.

But back-to-back-to-back?

No.

Legendary writer / producer Stephen Cannel sold the first story he ever pitched to a detective series called Ironside w-a-a-a-y back in 1971.

Cannel began his pitch thusly:  “One morning Ironside wakes up with the worst toothache he’s ever had in his life…”

And instantly everyone in the pitch session paid rapt attention.

Why?

Because they knew that whatever came next, it wasn’t going to be something they’d heard a thousand times before.

I’d rather have one simple thing that grabs me than a million and one fireworks attempting to get my attention.

And I’d rather experience that one thing and be able to process it rather than see another installment that undoes everything set before.

. . .

As I’ve posted elsewhere, there’s a place for comfort food TV.

My wife and I enjoy Emily In Paris.

It reminds us of our trips to France and the stories and characters are just interesting enough to be amusing but not so demanding as to require full attention.

Nothing wrong with comfort food TV.

But the real nutrition is found elsewhere.

And for me, this applies to all modes of art and entertainment.

    © Buzz Dixon

  * No, I’m not going to tell you the title.The point of this post isn’t the particular show, it’s the manner in which televised stories are told now as opposed to how they were told the

[jawnjendes]

the fog will clear up | shawn mendes

chapter 13/?, university au, shawn x goth oc

AN: sry its short and definitely a filler im sry its boring but it helps build up stuff thatll happen next ok ok im sry

*let me know if u wanna be added/removed from the taglist

masterlist | playlist

Annalise woke with a start. She was wide awake immediately. There was no room for sleepily rolling around the sheets, her eyes weren't heavy like always. She didn't know what dying and coming back to life felt like, but she was pretty sure it felt something like that. She had a weird urge to go for a jog.

Staring at the ceiling, Annalise reached towards the nightstand next to her, intending to grab her phone. Her hand touched the bottle, and she picked it up anyway, reading the prescription label.

Annalise Flores SERTRALINE 50MG TABLET Brand name: Zoloft

"You don't waste anytime, huh?" she murmured before setting it back down. Then, she grabbed her phone and checked the time.

8:47am. A new fucking record. Annalise rolled out of bed, unable to stay still.

In the 2 hours she had to kill before work, she tidied up the dorm, ate a decent breakfast, took a shower, and got started on the course work she had to make up. The energy levels were through the roof, she had never been so on edge and productive at the same time. Why wasn't she put on sertraline sooner? Sure, she felt hyperaware and borderline anxious, but that was apart of the process of getting on a new antidepressant. She was getting things done this way. Sure, she jumped when the lock on the door jiggled, but she was up and running anyway!

If she wasn't, she wouldn't have seen Stella entering the dorm. She was surprised to see Annalise on the couch, looking like a deer in headlights.

"Oh… I thought you were asleep. I'll, uh, I'll come back."

"No, wait!" Annalise sounded a little too frantic, but it did stop Stella from leaving. "Uh, come sit down! Please!"

Stella narrowed her eyes slightly as she went to the couch. At least she was willing to listen.

"I, uh, I'm sorry," Annalise began, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm sorry for what I said. A stupid guy isn't the only good in my life. I have you. You matter to me, and I'm sorry for making you feel like you don't." She really couldn't stop herself from rambling. "I miss you. I miss seeing you here between classes, and I miss your optimism because a bitch could use some of that. And, and I'm sorry for the negativity I've brought in here. I'm working on it now, I swear. Just… come back. Come home… because bro, you're my wife, dude."

It could have been funny, but there was nothing funny about the way she said it. Her eyes were wide and pleading, and she was rubbing her hands together. Stella merely blinked her hazel eyes, nearly overwhelmed by that string of words.

"Look at you, expressing your emotions," she said after a while. "I can see why you hold it back."

Annalise nodded rapidly. "It's my first day on a new medication. Got me all sorts of hyped up, but I'll mellow out in a couple of weeks. And I'm taking therapy seriously again!"

Stella was surprised. "Oh, I see. Well… I've missed you too. Bro…"

"Bro?"

"I'll come home too. Camila's bed is too small for the two of us."

"Bro…"

"I know. I have to update you on all that."

"Br-"

"Okay!" Stella broke out a smile and stood up. "Dame un abrazo, puta."

That was much easier than Annalise had anticipated. She stood up and hugged her best friend, relieved. Stella wasn't one to hold a grudge, nor was she as stubborn as her roommate. It was another person to cross off the list.

~

Shawn had social media mainly to get his music out there. Yes, he interacted with his friends on Snapchat, and some fans on Twitter. Most of the time, Shawn just tweeted when he had new music coming out. He didn't check any of his social media very often, not even to stalk Ann's accounts because she was rarely on her's. He didn't even have his notifications on, purely to keep himself from the possibility of getting too attached to the opinions of random strangers online.

That was why he woke up that morning to a number of texts from Camila.

"SHAAWWNWNN"

"SHAWN IM LKTERSLLY BALD RN"

"CHEKC UR TWITTER RIGHT NOW!!!!!!"

"YOIR FOLLOWERS!!! AAHSKSKSK"

"SKSKSK SHAWNMM IM SCRAMING"

So to Twitter he went. Shawn rubbed sleep out of his eye as he went to his profile. He had around 10k to begin with, that he built up on his own over the last couple of years. He nearly dropped his phone on his face as he read the new number.

50.2k

"What… the fuck?" he breathed out as he sat up in his bed. He scrolled through the list, making sure this wasn't a series of spam bots.

His mentions were just as wild, and it explained the sudden blow up.

@hollaestor: @shawnmendes hiii bella told me to follow you

@samxriv: @shawnmendes i am free to hang out on tuesday to hang out when i am free

@gisellenjh: @shawnmendes bella sent me here and im glad she did! loving your music!

And there were plenty more like that. There were so many tweets, Shawn couldn't even get through all of them. It was making his head spin. There was only one Bella he knew about too… He just couldn't spell her last name. Thankfully, her handle was just @bellasanti, and it was the first one to pop up when he typed it in the search bar.

Right under Bella Santiago's name and the blue checkmark were the two little words: Follows you. Shawn refreshed the page ten times before it sank in. This YouTuber, who has over 2 million followers, somehow found Shawn's music… and she liked it. She liked it enough to tweet about it… 3 days ago.

@bellasanti: underrated spotify artists: @shawnmendes. give him a listen. send him some love. truly talented guy💖

Shawn had only overheard Bella's videos when Ann was watching them in the other room. He never really watched any of her content. But he wanted to pass out at the fact that she took the time to listen to his music and tweet about him. He wanted to jump on the bed. He wanted to call-

He texted Camila back. "Wtf why did no one tell me sooner?? This is so crazy!!!!!"

"We thought you knew and you were keeping it from us!! LMAO congrats rockstar!"

He couldn't believe it. His follower count was rising. He was getting emails from Spotify saying his songs were being added to many different playlists.

@shawnmendes: @bellasanti wow thank you so much! Love you bella❤

He deleted the last bit before tweeting it. Holy shit. Shawn lied back down on the mattress, completely breathless.

How does someone like Bella Santiago find Shawn out in cyberspace? What Spotify rabbit hole did she go down that led her to him? How many of his songs did she listen to? How many songs did she save to her library? How many of those playlist emails were from her? Shawn had so many questions.

~

There were two things Annalise noticed when she was out on the courtyard after Biology. The first thing was a table on the side of the walkway, with a handmade banner hanging off the front. It read in big letters: Shawn Mendes: Live at The Cameron House. Brian, Alessia. and Camila were all sat on the same side at this table, talking to a student who was interested in the little display.

"The lounge called back," Annalise muttered to herself.

The other thing Annalise noticed was Patrick sitting under a tree nearby, reading a book. She went to him first.

The last time she had spoken to Patrick was when they cut up flowers together. He was never one to explicitly state when something has upset him, and he has seen Annalise in a depressive episode before. Annalise knew him well. Patrick kept his distance because he didn't like the negativity around her, and he couldn't afford any more of it himself.

"Hey," she greeted.

His blue eyes tore away from his book to meet her gaze. "'Sup?"

"Trying to be less fucked in the head," she told him.

Patrick nodded in approval. "Cool."

That was all that was needed for the two of them. Content, Annalise turned and went for the table. A small line had formed when she wasn't looking, so she waited behind the last person. However, with three people running the thing, Annalise got to the front fairly quick.

"Oh, she actually showed up," Brian chimed, amused.

"Meaning?" Annalise asked.

"Thought you were too pissed at Shawn to care about his show, that's all."

She swallowed the pit of annoyance, discovering that even more people knew about that. Brian is his friend, though, of course he'd know.

"Selling tickets or something?" Annalise turned her attention to the two girls.

"Yeah! Ten dollars a piece!" Alessia explained.

"Cool, I'll take one."

Just as she opened the flap on her book bag, Camila spoke up.

"Wait. I'm pretty sure Shawn said he wanted to buy you your ticket himself."

Annalise rolled her eyes. "Well, he's not here and I can do things for myself." She pulled out her wallet and paid her own goddamn ticket.

Camila breathed out a laugh. "Are you ever gonna let him do anything nice for you?"

None of your fucking business.

A new thought occurred to Annalise. "Why are tickets being sold for this show? Aren't his gigs usually free?"

"There's more production going into this one," Brian told her. "The lounge gave him the option to make it a ticketed event, and we need to make back what we already put into it. So now, it won't be a performance, it'll be Shawn's performance."

Shawn already knew how to make an audience his bitch, but…

"Alright then." Annalise shrugged and then accepted her ticket and receipt from Alessia.

The ticket alone was already quite extravagant. There were little red roses designed around the edges. This boy really loved his fucking flowers.

"I'm guessing rose petals will fall from the ceiling or something?" she guessed with a chuckle.

"I was given strict orders to not spoil anything," Brian told her, folding his arms.

The two had a mini staredown until Annalise shrugged again. "Whatever."

Then, Camila piped up again, suddenly excited. "Ooh, Ann did you hear? Bella Santiago followed Shawn on Twitter!"

"She what?" Annalise stupidly replied.

Camila practically squealed. "She gave him a shoutout too! He's blowing up on Spotify! Isn't that awesome?"

Annalise wanted to say something, but her brain wasn't quite caught up yet. So she just walked away.

The other three students watched her leave. Needless to say, they were confused.

"Is she ever gonna be happy for him?" Alessia wondered.

"I think she was excited?" Camila said tilting her head.

"I can't believe Shawn is going through all this trouble for that," Brian said with a scoff.

"I can still hear you!" Annalise called over her shoulder as she kept walking.

All three of them went red in the face, embarrassed. Brian would have made a comment about her being a vampire with supersonic hearing, but he didn't want to be called out again.

_______

taglist: @normalcyisoverrated-beyou  @ilsolee @mendesromano @1-800-khalid-mendussy @kitykatnumber @strangerliaa @iloveshawnieboi @goldenmndes @shawnvvmendes @shawnsunflower @shawmndes @ruinhoney @someoneunimportantxx @calyumthomas @yourdeflightfullyleft @havethetimeeofyourlifee @wronglanemendes @chillingbythesea @softmendesss @mutuallynotmutual

[hope-for-olicity]

Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - December 7th, 2018

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them. 

Earth 2 Felicity Q-Smoak by @cruzrogue - A look into Earth 2 Felicity's life and how she may meet Oliver http://cruzrogue.tumblr.com/post/180523358099/earth-2-felicity-q-smoak-having-fun-with-this-i

Homecoming by @alexiablackbriar13 - The journey home from Slabside is exhausting for Oliver, who is already bloody, battered and bruised from the riot. Felicity takes care of him and stops him from fracturing. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16764172

Love and Little Cupcakes multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - Felicity loved sweets so much that she paid no attention to her lovelife. Until Thea Queen came into her store wanting fabulous cupcakes for her sixteenth birthday. SO ADORABLE! http://archiveofourown.org/works/12400539/chapters/28216053

Just Beneath the Surface multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow arrow - When an S.O.S signal is sent to the FBI from a woman named Felicity Smoak, Director Oliver Queen knows that she is in grave danger. He can’t help but notice the haunting similarities between what’s happening to her and what happened nine years ago; in thirteen unsolved cold cases that drove ex-agent John Diggle out of the bureau. With a race against the clock, Oliver enlists the help of his old mentor to reopen the investigation, and hopefully save Felicity’s life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16239002/chapters/37963052

The Gate by @foreverfelicityqueen - What might have gone through Oliver's head as he was being released and seeing his wife for the first time in a while. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16768138

To Have and To Hold by anythingbutplatonic - It's been six months and twelve days since she's seen him. It’s been five thousand, four hundred and sixty-eight hours since she’s really, really seen him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16761286

Carry You Like You Carry Me multi-chapter Complete by inlovewithimpossibility - three-shot on post-7x07, dealing with the immediate after-effects of Oliver's release https://archiveofourown.org/works/16760950/chapters/39324724

The Numbness of Disuse by @juvinadelgreko - A short one-shot about Oliver and Felicity’s return from Slabside. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16758562

(Tear Me To Pieces, Skin and Bones) Hello, Welcome Home. by @inenochian - Oliver and Felicity spend their one year anniversary in their bed. Recovering. Healing. Loving. (pure and unadulterated fluff because that's what we deserve) https://archiveofourown.org/works/16773454

With the Speed of an Arrow multi-chapter WIP by @academyofshipping - Oliver Queen’s elite and silver-spoon life has taken some blows in the past few years, but he is still the carefree billionaire everyone knows of and loves. When his role in the family business is in jeopardy and he is introduced to a motley of new people, his status quo is threatened. With a changed perspective, Oliver realizes his feeling for his best friend and anchor-in-life, Felicity Smoak, may be more than just platonic. OR A modern adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma with a gender swap* and no island. *Knowing that gender is not binary https://archiveofourown.org/works/16559846/chapters/38799857

Doppelgangers P2 by @lostolicityscenes - Oliver is taken by Faux Felicity who believes she can spice up his sex life https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/180592892411/doppelgangers-part-2-part-1-nsfw-more

Home To You multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Oliver Queen has never done what his family expected of him. He took a gap year after high school instead of going to college right away. He quit his fraternity sophomore year to join the student newspaper, switching his major from business to journalism. He became a photojournalist for a wire service instead of taking a place at Queen Consolidated. He went missing after six months instead of coming home for his sister’s twenty-first birthday. He survived five years of captivity in a war zone when everyone thought he was dead. He came home. But home didn’t have a place for him in it anymore. His parents were both dead, casualties of their own mistakes and a city they had turned against them. His sister was all grown up, the CEO of Queen Consolidated with a fiancé and a dog and a life of her own. Oliver didn’t belong in his old life, but there was nowhere else for him to go. He was a man without a home, without any way of finding one, until he stopped by the IT department of his sister’s company to get files off an old, battered memory card, and found a woman with curly blonde hair and bright, intelligent eyes chewing on a bright red pen and swearing at a computer screen. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12613188/chapters/28734552

Time for a Story multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances. YOU NEED THIS STORY IN YOUR LIFE. https://archiveofourown.org/works/3912157/chapters/8757172

The Queen's Mage multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Words have power, and mages, those with the aptitude to draw on that power, are few in number. Thus, their services are highly sought after by anyone who has exhausted all mundane means of solving whatever problem is plaguing them. Felicity is reminded of this fact the hard way when she is hired by Moira Queen, the Lady Starling, to find and return to her son Oliver, who fled his family home five years ago following the death of his father. With a threat hanging over her should she return without Robert Queen's heir, Felicity begins her search. When she finds Oliver, and ends up joining his vigilante crusade while she waits for him to decide whether to return home, the last thing she expects to do is fall in love with him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14617068/chapters/33781269

Charmed I'm Sure! multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - What happens when three witchy sisters take on the evil in the world? https://archiveofourown.org/works/15852249/chapters/36922482

Hard To Find Love multi-chapter WIP by Mellowyellowdiamonds - Through a tragic twist of fate Felicity finds herself left with an orphaned young William Clayton. Keeping her promise to her friend, Felicity raises William diligently, loving him as if he were her own child, only to have Moira Queen storm into their lives several years later demanding custody of her grandson. Locked in a war with Moira Queen, things get complicated when Felicity finds herself developing unwanted feelings for William's biological father, Oliver Queen. At the same time she must try to manage her meddling 13 year old son, who has it in his head that if Felicity would just cooperate and fall for his father, everything would be right in the world. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941786/chapters/37173917

Different People by @geneshaven - Olicity after their talk in 7x08 https://geneshaven.tumblr.com/post/180822452124/different-people

Arrow Ficlet: Oh the Past, It Wanted Me Dead by @theshipsfirstmate - post-7x07. It’s hard to believe she’s seen him look worse. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8435797/chapters/39324094#workskin

Rebels Connected multi-chapter Complete by @mindramblingsfics - Felicity Smoak is an escaped mutant on the run. Oliver Queen, leader of an underground safe house for mutants to call home comes to her rescue. Everything changes once he brings her into the organization and his life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014089/chapters/37369784

From Somewhere Within multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - Their connection has always felt natural to them, safe and secure. But others tend to fear what they don’t understand, and as far as their enemies are concerned, the world isn’t ready to accept two people who can know each other the way that Oliver and Felicity do. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009244/chapters/37356257

Pieces of Always multi-chapter WIP by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

My Thoughts on You multi-chapter WIP by @rachelrenalove -Felicity Smoak is sure of 3 things: 1. She's a badass and she is damn good at what she does. 2. She hates the man in the green hood. 3. Oliver Queen is a pain in her ass and she cannot wait until the day she can quit her job at Queen Consolidated. Or Felicity Smoak goes undercover at Queen Consolidated and meets Oliver Queen. She quickly realizes that she doesn't like him and wishes she was never chosen for this mission. Outside of QC, she is dealing with her hatred towards the man in the green hood that has found out exactly which buttons of hers to press in order to piss her off. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15089954/chapters/34989344

Life's All About Changes multi-chapter Complete by Crazyreader2468 - After agreeing to plead guilty to being the Green Arrow in order to get FBI assistance in capturing Diaz, Oliver finds himself in a supermax, a maximum security federal prison, serving a life sentence. As he struggles to become accustomed to life in prison, his family, friends, and teammates struggle to live without him, as well as continually attempting to find a way to get him pardoned. Will they succeed in obtaining a pardon and will Oliver survive until they do? Mostly AU from right before the ending of episode 6 x 22 and after most of 6 x 23. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936172

Re-Airrow 2x10 by @lostolicityscenes - Just one scene for the episode: A riff on the line that Oliver says to Felicity about Barry. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/180799804486/re-airrow-2x10

If I Tremble multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - A collection of prompts and ficlets, with all the smut! Olicity sexy times are the best times. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409122/chapters/35762643

seemingly impossible (but not untrue) multi-chapter WIP by @alexiablackbriar13 - Young genius historian Dr Felicity Smoak unknowingly and accidentally calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript within the Oxford Bodleian Libraries - a book that has been lost for centuries. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Felicity wants nothing to do with magic, despite her unruly and powerful abilities. But her discovery of Ashmole 782 sets the world of creatures stirring; with a mystery afoot and new, dangerous magical abilities manifesting for her to navigate, she is approached by the enigmatic vampire biochemist Professor Oliver Queen, who seems to have a deep interest in both the manuscript… and her. Based on A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16224353/chapters/37923743  

// @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @wrongshipper // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 // 

[thekoshertribble]

“Surely you can see that ours is a better way.” Women of Star Trek Blog Entry #13 “A Taste of Armageddon” Mea 3

Hello again, my dear readers, I’m back with my next blog entry in my series on women of Star Trek: the Original Series, and today I’ll be discussing Mea 3, from the episode “A Taste of Armageddon.” Since we don’t get much about Mea 3, I’ll be focused more on how she represents Eminian culture and the scenes she is featured in.

Mea 3 is from the Eminiar 7, a planet the Enterprise is ordered to contact in the hopes of establishing a Federation port in that strategic part of space. There’s just one problem: the Eminians don’t want any contact from the outside. They transmit code 710 to the Enterprising, telling them to under no circumstances approach them. Kirk wants to respect this order and move on, but Ambassador Fox, the Federation representative on board gives Kirk a direct order to violate the code and beam down a party. Kirk reluctantly agrees. Taking Spock and some redshirts, he beams down to the Eminian capital’s control division, where they are greeted by Mea 3 and two escorts. Their Eminian technology was somehow able to predict where the Enterprise contingent would beam down, indicating that the Eminians are very advanced technologically. Their fashion, however, leaves much to be desired.

Mea 3 is the only Eminian character who can pull off her own outfit. It’s very simple: black tights and shoes with this long, striped scarf thing wrapped around her upper body and secured with a broach. You’ve probably already noticed that Mea’s name is followed by the number 3. We learn soon enough that all Eminians have numbers instead of last name - this means they value precision and order in their society, to the point they assigned numbers to their names so as not to get people with the same names mixed up! (”Wait, do you mean Mea from work, or blonde Mea, or Mea from spin class?” There’s none of that.) They’re very efficient about stuff. 

Mea 3 leads Kirk and his crew to the Capital’s council room, while she tells them they should not have come:

MEA: You were warned not to come here.  

KIRK: I had orders to come here. Why did your people tell us to stay away?  MEA: It was for your own safety, Captain.  

KIRK: I see no danger here.  

MEA: The danger exists. Nevertheless, you are here. It would be morally incorrect to do less than extend our hospitality. 

She brings them to the Council room, and introduces them to High Counselor Anan 7. I should mention here that we don’t really know what Mea 3′s job is. Since she receives the Enterprise crew when they beam down, we might assume she’s some politician of high importance, but she doesn’t do anything once they arrive in the war room. Is she like their secretary or something? It’s a mystery.In the war room, Anan 7 echoes Mea 3′s sentiment that they should have heeded their warning. He explains that Eminiar has been engaged in a 500-year long war with it’s neighboring planet, Vendikar. The war casualties are enormous - one to three million dead each year. Coming to Eminiar therefore put the Enterprise in grave danger. Kirk and his crew are confused - the planet appeared quite peaceful when they entered orbit. They saw no signs of destruction, no signs of mass death. How could they be at war? Their questions are answered when an Vendikar launches an attack on the city. Anan 7 orders Mea 3 to “care for our guests” - honestly, what is her job, I don’t get it?? While Anan 7 and his board members work at some computer consoles, Mea 3 calmly explains the situation:

MEA: It will not last long.  

KIRK: Don't you take shelter?  

MEA: There is no shelter, Captain.  

SPOCK: Are these attacks frequent?  

MEA: Oh yes, and we will retaliate immediately.  

She shows some signs of distress when she sees one explosion hit the city’s center, but she treats the situation quite normally. She’s like a person from California explaining earthquakes to an out-of-state visitor. 

At this point Spock has figured out that there is in fact no “war” - at least, not one as they know it. The two planets are fighting a “virtual” war with computers simulating attacks and then calculated casualties. Hence, the lack of explosions, devastation and ruin. Instead, “casualties” are registered and those listed have 24 hours to report to a disintegration machine. Anan explains they’ve resorted to simulated fighting because the prolongation of the war would’ve destroyed their planets cultures and civilizations: “our people die, our culture goes on.” Unfortunately, Anan also tells Kirk that the Enterprise was targeted in the attack and therefore all on board must be disintegrated within 24 hours.

Kirk and his landing party are held prisoner in a nearby room. Mea 3 comes to see them again, saying she’s been sent to ask if they require anything. (Is she like, the public relations officer or something?) She and Kirk get into a heated conversation:

KIRK: We require a great deal. I wish to speak to Anan Seven.  

MEA: He's busy co-ordinating casualty lists.  

KIRK: He'll have more casualty lists than he knows what to do with if he doesn't get in here and talk to me.  

MEA: Don't you understand? Our duty  

KIRK: Your duty doesn't include stepping into a disintegrator and disappearing.  MEA: I'm afraid mine does, Captain. I too have been declared a casualty. I must report to a disintegrator by noon tomorrow.  

KIRK: Is that all it means to you? To report and die?  

MEA: My life is as dear to me as yours is to you, Captain.  

KIRK: Then how can you stand 

MEA: Don't you see? If I refuse to report, and others refuse, then Vendikar would have no choice but to launch real weapons. We would have to do the same to defend ourselves. More than people would die then. A whole civilization would be destroyed. Surely you can see that ours is a better way.

KIRK: No, I don't see that at all. 

MEA: It's been our way for almost five hundred years. 

I like this conversation because we get to see how real people are affected by this “simulated” war, and how they feel about it. Mea 3 is not a lemming blindly going to her death. She doesn’t want to die, but she knows that the acting in self-preservation could result in mass devastation of her people. 

She knows that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.

You didn’t think I’d go there, did you? 

After Mea 3 leaves, Kirk and the others break out of their office lobby-like prison room and to find some weapons and get their communicators back to warn their ship. While searching the vast corridors of the building they find people lining up to die in front of a disintegration machine, and who do they see going to join the line? Mea 3, of course! 

I know she’s there for plot convenience ultimately, but I think it’s interesting she’s reporting just a few hours after she was registered. This can’t be because she is eager to die - we already know she values her life - I think she had everything planned out in case this occurred. This is probably the standard in this super-orderly culture - when the chance of dying is so high, it would make sense to have a plan in mind in case one was registered. Otherwise, each time an attack occurred, thousands of people would panic and cause chaos during their last hours alive. Mea 3 probably just went home, got the note off the fridge that said, “What to do if you’ve been declared a casualty,” checked all the boxes and reported at a disintegration station. This is where Kirk and his crew stop her, much to her distress:KIRK: Mea. What do you think you're doing?  

MEA: I'm going  

KIRK: You're not going in there.  

MEA: But I must.  KIRK: No you're not.  

MEA: Please. All right, don't worry about me. 

Note that Kirk calls her Mea, not Mea 3. He sees her as a unique person, not a number on a casualty list. 

Kirk then has Spock sneak over to the station and knock out the guard. Kirk destroys the station with a stolen disruptor, resulting in an almost unintentionally humorous exchange:

MEA: What are you doing?  

KIRK: Throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery.  

MEA: You can't do this.  

KIRK: I've done it.

After destroying another station and stealing some weapons and uniforms, Kirk and crew retreat to their “prison” room to contact the ship, with Mea 3 reluctantly in tow. Once again, she objects, trying to explain herself:

MEA: Captain, you've got to let me go. My time is almost up.  

KIRK: Are you that anxious to die?  

MEA: You don't understand. 

While Spock works on signaling the ship, Kirk tries to convince Mea 3 to not only change her mind about reporting, but also to help them stop the war: 

KIRK: Mea, I want you to give me a complete layout of this building complex. How do I get to the War Room?  

MEA: No!  

KIRK: Now listen to me. I'm trying to help you. To save your life and the lives of millions like you. If you help me, maybe I can do it. If you don't, you'll die, we'll die, and the killing will go on. Or are you that fond of the war?  

MEA: What are you going to do?  

KIRK: We're going to try and stop the killing. 

At this, Mea 3 looks at him as though he’s gone insane, but she says nothing. Kirk continues, more gently this time:

KIRK: We're trying to help. Believe me.

MEA: I believe you, but

KIRK: Tell me what I want to know. Please.

I’m not really sure what made her change her mind. Maybe it was Kirk’s trademarked shoulder-grab thing he does when he’s really trying to convince someone about something. Maybe she decided to take a chance on these savages from outer space - the Eminians clearly look down on the Federation and it’s representatives as “barbarians” as Anan 7 says - and help them to save her own life, which we know she values. Either way she chooses, she figures she’ll end up dying. What does she have to lose?  Several scenes go by before we see Mea 3 again. When we do see her again, she’s still in the same room with Spock and the others. 

Spock orders Yeoman Tamura to guard Mea 3: “you stay here and prevent this young lady from immolating herself. Knock her down and sit on her if necessary.” 

That is…an oddly specific visual, Spock. 

Spock leaves Tamura to guard Mea 3 in the room, and that’s…that’s it, folks. This always felt off to me – while Kirk and Spock destroy the computers and Fox offers his services as negotiator, we sort of forget about Mea 3. You expect her to have one more conversation or encounter with the crew, to bring her part of the story to a resolute end, but we don’t get it. Maybe a scene was written but it ended up getting edited out. I just feel that something is missing. What do you think?

That’s all I have for you today. Once again, thank you reading, and I hope you like it. Please like, share, or comment below!

Next time: This Side of Paradise!

BONUS ROUND!!! (Airhorn sounds) 

That’s right! We’re not done just yet. We’ve got one more person to talk about who’s in this episode: Yeoman Tamura!

I want to talk about her because we rarely see Asian characters besides Sulu having speaking roles in the Original Series. Although she doesn’t get many speaking lines, Tamura warrants our attention because of her responsibilities. First, she is given the landing party’s tricorder, which is normally in Spock’s hands. 

Later, when the landing party escapes she’s given one of the stolen disruptors and is ordered by Spock to guard Mea 3. 

These different duties assigned to Tamura imply that she is a multi-talented and highly skilled officer. It would have been nice to see more of her in other episodes. 

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F” - 4th of July, and Dealing With Grief - “6/28-7/9″

We are going to do it baybees! I can't let you down! I have to get caught up. I am 13 shows away from being caught up. I got this. I can do it. I don’t want to do it, but I have to. So let’s go

6/28

Tonight was going to be Buskey. Last month was super fun, so I was stoked for this one. I get there early and record a new episode of The Winstmas Games. I had Carlton K and Jack Gerow vs Will Minor and Kate Carroll. It was a short but fun episode. I need to get in the rhythm of recording more.

This was a super good lineup. It had Dylan, Beswick, Anthony, Nick Deez, Liz Carr, Alida Harper, myself and Carlton was hosting. It was board game night again so there was already a pretty good crowd in there.

The pre show hang was great and the crowd just got even bigger. The coolest part is I had four friends from high school come out. Honestly it meant so much to see them. I wanted to impress them to show them this side gig was for real. My friends Porter, T-Bone, Abby, and Matthew were all there. 

The show started and I was up third. The show was going pretty well. The crowd was into it. When it was my turn to go up there was one group in the back still playing board games and I did a little crowd work with them and I guessed correctly that they were playing Monopoly. This got a huge laugh. I then went into my Monopoly bit that I haven’t done in ages. This hit really hard as well. I then did the rest of my material and even talked about dad a bit. I did pretty well and I’d give it an A-

The rest of the show was awesome. Dylan had a really good set as well. His material was hitting and he willed that audience to enjoy him. Beswick did well, and so did Alida. Nick had a fine set, and so did Liz. Anthony had a great closing set. I knew he wouldn’t be happy with it because the room was so rowdy by that point that he didn’t get to just do his material, but he reigned in the crowd. He had to handle a bunch of hecklers including a woman on a date with Carlton’s dad in the back of the room who was yelling at the people playing board games. She thought she was helping but she was awful.  I then had my friends come and talk to me about the show. They really enjoyed it and it made me feel good that I am doing the right thting.

I then hung with a few comics after and then went home. I needed to rest. It was a long, but fun day. 

6/29

My summer break started today. I drove to Lynchburg to go to a coworker’s wedding. No shows this day, but I probably had the best time at this wedding. I haven’t had this much fun at a wedding in forever. I drank a little, and I danced some. The food and service was amazing. Also it was dope to just get to hang with my work friends. I had to leave a little early because I didn’t want mom to be alone at home. So I went home and passed out. This was a truly great day/ 

6/30

Today was chill as well. Only thing I had planned was substitute teaching in Patrick Buhse’s standup class with Francesca Lyn. Then I was just planning on hanging out with my family a bit before doing an open mic.

I honestly had an absolutely wonderful time teaching the class. This class was on punchlines. But honestly it just turned into them asking Fran and I questions for the first hour and then us going over punchlines for the second. 

It was so interesting having them ask questions that seem like second nature to me. They’d ask questions like, what is a setup, what is a premise, what is a punchline, how do I make this funny, and stuff like that. 

They were a super nice group of people and they all had some funny ideas. Hopefully they’re able to continue to work in that class and channel it into something super positive and funny. It was neat being able to punch up their premises to end the class.

I then went to my brother’s and had dinner, and played with my niece. He cooked the meal that was sent through the mail to me by Keaton Ray. It was it was delicious. After dinner I headed over to Thirsty’s hosted by Carsen Young. 

I get there right before showtime and I get to go up third. The first couple of people did ok, but honesty not a huge crowd. There was a weird heckler during Jameson’s set, but all in all nice people.

I went up and just tried some stuff. I got a good response. For that room it felt like killing. I got to do some dad stuff that worked really well. It was the type of people that really appreciate that kind of stuff.  I’d give the set a B. I left immediately afterwards feeling really good about myself. I slept pretty well that night. I felt pretty good about it. 

7/1

Today I didn’t do much other than go to The Southern. I got to chill with a bunch of my friends. There was a pretty good crowd here tonight. It was Shawn’s first time bartending for comedy as well. 

I get to tell Keaton and Meredith thank you for the food.I get to catch up with Chris, and Paige as well. Most of my friends are there and it is a packed room. I was ready for this show. I was up 7th.

The crowd was a little tight, but honestly fun. Everybody did ok. I don’t remember what material I did. I know I did some new dad stuff that did ok, but I also tried some older stuff that I had dropped. I did ok and would give this set a B.  I had one of the better sets of the night, and honestly it was the type of crowd that if I did old stuff it probably would have killed. 

Honestly it was just nice to see everybody. Nothing crazy happened, and I actually left a little early to try and get to another show. I didn’t end up getting to go up there I just went to my brother’s. I just didn’t want to be at home alone, and we were both having a tough time. 

7/2

Tonight was pretty relaxed. I had a couple of mics to hit, and I had gotten to spend the whole day relaxing and watching tv which was nice. The first set of the night was at Mojo’s hosted by Patrick Buhse. 

I get to the show and find out it is the bartender Keara’s last shift. So she was going to do a set at the end of the night. She’s pretty dope and will definitely be missed behind the bar during comedy nights.

The list for comics was not very large and I was set to go up first. I wanted to so I could head over to Fallout afterwards which was being hosted. by Ben Braman.  There isn’t a huge crowd at all, and the list is only like 11 people. So it was going to be a quick night.

Buhse goes up and does maybe one joke before bringing me up. I bombed my dick off. IT didn’t feel good. I did some dad material and it bombed super hard. I got a few chuckles but overall it felt horrible. I couldn’t connect and stumbled on a few jokes.  I’d give this set a D-. After me was Ry Mather and I asked if he wanted to ride with me to Fallout and I’d drive him back. He agree. After his set we closed out and dipped.

We got to Fallout and the list was even shorter than Mojos. Shelby was behind the bar as usual and I was set to go up first. There was only about 6 comics so we decide to hang and watch the whole show, and I decide to get wings after.

I go up and have a really fun set. I was super stoke to follow up Mojos with that. The dad stuff worked better, and I riffed some other ideas. I need to go back and listen again because there was some things that I could definitely use again. I had a heckler who was a nurse and I was able to get some good laughs from the small crowd by messing with her.  I’d give this set a B.

After my set I stayed and watched the rest go up. Carlton K, Ry, and a few others. All in all it was a fun show even if not everyone did super well.  I drove Ry back to his car at Fallout and then headed home.  I had a couple of shows to do the next night and I wanted to play some video games so I went home and games until I passed out. 

7/3

The next day I was at the Funny Bone doing the best of RVA showcase. I was added at the last minute. It was going to be me Dylan, Jaye, James Lawson, and Remo Millz. I was up first after Remo.

Remo went up and did ok. He tried to crack them, but the crowd just wasn’t that into it. I went up next and just felt awful during my set. It was my first set in that club since dad passed away and I just wasn’t feeling it at all. I did some crowd work, and started with the wrong bit. I couldn’t build momentum. There would be pops and lulls, but honestly it was a long 20 minutes and I was very unhappy with it. I'd give it a D+. I just struggle to do what I want on that stage. I have no idea why I am so scared, but I will work on it. 

After my set I headed down to Cary Town to do Home Sweet Home. There was a guest host and I get there and the guest host is just Kusterer anyway. It was a good gag. The crowd was actually pretty hot. I got there and Bryan Williams was on stage doing very well. 

I was up in a few so I went downstairs and hung out and caught up with my friends. We had a fun time just joking and busting balls. Stella was there, and so was Beswick (who I was up after). It wasn’t a crazy long list, but a definite good hang. I also got to catch up to and talk to Jesse Pearlstein for the first time in a while which was nice. 

Beswick went up and had a super fun set. He handled a heckler and connected immediately with his energy. I love that dude. He was killing. I had to follow it and I went up and had an ok one. I did a lot of dad stuff, and I think it was more off putting than anything. I think this has to do with the fact I wasn’t in the best mood. I got a few good laughs, and honestly it was a much better set than the Funny Bone. I’d give this set a C+/B-. But it was a better way to end the night.

I went to leave and Dylan and I both walked to our cars. We talked comedy and caught up with each other for about another 30 minutes outside. It was really fun, and nice to talk comedy with a dude I respect so much. After saying goodbye I headed home and passed out. 

7/4

I took off the next day and spent the entire day with my family at my grandma’s for the 4th. I really needed it. I played video games during the day and just joked around and ate food with everybody. It was a super wonderful day. 

Holiday’s are going to be incredibly hard. My father loved holidays. He loved giving gifts, and he loved family. It was hard to not think of him the entire day, and it stirred up so many amazing, yet emotional memories. I am glad I have the family I do, and that I could be there with mom, but I know this is going to be a very long trial and I am not looking forward to my birthday next week.

7/5

I played video games and relaxed all day before heading to Petersburg to do Wabi Sabi. I asked to be on this show so I could hurry up and cancel my fear of the room. The last time I was here I got the message my dad was sick and on the way to the hospital. I didn’t want to have a mental block in one of my favorite rooms so I made sure I got in there as soon as possible. 

When I got there Carlton Kotalo was doing some impromptu head shots with Kenny and Klingman. We had a blast busting balls and taking pictures. He got some really good ones of everybody and I got some fun one’s on my phone as well. 

As we got closer to showtime I was ready to do it. I was chomping at the bit and I was up second after Carlton did a quick set. Klingman went up and had a fine set. He lost track of time and did like 25 minutes but that was ok. Two people had bailed on the show so we needed to fill the time anyway. 

Carlton went up next and he did ok. He got some laughs and then it was my turn. I went up and had a hot one. I was able to crack them and did only crowd work for about 18 minutes. I was going in and calling back. It was three girl’s birthdays so I played off of that. One was on a date and didn’t know it, and that was amazing. Honestly one of the best sets I’ve had there in a while. I was on fire and I’d give it an A.

After me was James and he destroyed. He followed my energy and his material was working. He did about 12 and it was straight fire. Unstoppable on stage. Then some people got al little rowdy when Wingle went up. He did some crowd work, but he mostly just had to do crowd control because of how loud the side room got. I felt bad for him because he was doing well with the room, but it was hard to hear due to the damn noise from the other side of the bar.

Then we went up and did sex with me is like. I usually hate this. Wingle gave me some advice. He told me to heat check myself and just say anything that popped in my head. He was super complimentary and it meant a lot to me. I listened to him and had the best set of sex with me is like I have ever had. Everything hit and I had some absolutely huge laughs. We ended on a good one and chilled for a bit. 

I had a bunch of people add me on IG which was fun, and I also had a good hang after. I chilled and talked to some of the audience members and watched Lawson get his headshots taken before I headed home. I had a long day ahead of me the next day. 

7/6

I drove up to DC and took the metro in. I was going to try and get three sets in and I hadn’t been in town for over a month. So I was ready to hit the ground running. I got to Comedy Club DC at Club Heaven and Hell and it is looking like it is going to be a super packed show. I get to meet some new comics and catch up with my good friend Mark Mensh. Tom Mango was there, but he had this comic Joc hosting. 

Job went up and set the room up pretty well. He got some good pops and then he brought Mark up. Mark was able to connect throughout his set, and he closed pretty well. I could tell he wasn’t going to be happy with it, but he did a good job of building the momentum. Next up was this dude Quentin Hardy I know. He did ok too. I was in my own head during his set because I was up next.

After Quentin gets off stage Joc did a quick joke and brought me up. I just used all of my energy to will myself into an amazing set. It felt so good for 7 minutes to really do some crowd work, but also weave about 5 minutes of jokes in. Everything hit really hard and I felt like I had finally popped the crowd. I’d give this set an A. It felt so good. 

I stuck around for a few more sets to just unwind and relax. Some people did pretty well, and I thanked Tom Mango for the time before I headed over to DC Drafthouse to do their open mic.

I got to Drafthouse and Dylan showed up. He was in town working the Improv lounge. I got to see and catch up with Martin Phillips as well which was fun. TJ and Chris showed up right before the show started. I got to talk to Matt Deakins as well which is always a blast, and can’t forget about Jose Sanchez. 

The crowd inside was pretty light, but that was ok. Glenn Lawrence was hosting and he went up first and had a fine hosting set. He got people in the mood and the show got rolling. Dylan had a good set, and so did Chris. I went up and did ok. I didn’t love it. It was super mediocre. I tried some stuff that I shouldn’t have and I couldn’t get my rhythm right. I got laughs but it felt bad. I’d give it a C. After me was TJ and he couldn’t connect at all. They didn’t vibe with him, and when he got off it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and then headed to Big Hunt.

I got there and Andrew Cook was super kind to me and said some kind words about my dad. It meant a lot to know he was thinking of me. I was up 13th so I just used my time to catch up with some friends like Denis, and Naomi. David Tveite was there and so was Charlie Ross. The show was going great. Honestly everyone was doing awesome on the mic so I was ready to go up. As the night went on though they got drunker and rowdier. 

TJ went up right before me and he had a rough one. They just weren’t into it at all. They were drunk, an it was after 1 am. When he got off stage like half of the crowd got up and left so I was brought up to a room that was emptying out. I felt horrible during my set, but I did the best that I could. There were three hecklers but they weren't being mean. People were on their phones. I did my set and got some laughs, and I closed pretty poorly. I don’t know. It just wasn’t my night. I’d give this set an F.  I don’t know how I could have done better, but still it felt so bad. 

After this we all headed back to TJs. I grabbed some Mcdonald’s and it was super fun catching up with TJ and Chris. WE had a fun night talking and riffing. We also watched some Netflix before I passed the hell out. 

7/7

Woke up the next day and got to just chill with Chris and TJ which was fun. Chris and I went to Freddy’s and grabbed some sandwiches. It was a really fun day, before I had to head up to Frederick, Maryland to do Cellar Door for the first time. 

I drive up there and meet up with the other comics. Ryan Neser was hosting and he runs the room. It is a pretty dope setup. He tells me they have some cancellations so they are going to start a little late. I get to meet Kurt Ryan and Chris Hudson for the first time.

We have a good time talking comedy, and getting to know each other. We do this for a bit before the headliner Elliot Chang gets there. He is a super nice dude and joins right in with the hang which was awesome.

The show starts and everybody is doing pretty well. Ryan has a solid hosting set. He gets the crowd ready and then brings up Chris. Chris has a good set, and has some really good jokes. It was fun to watch him work. Then Kurt went up and got some really good pops. He is a good joke writer and they are both super nice dudes.

I went up and hated my set. I did about 22 minutes and it felt all over the place. I couldn’t connect right away. I’d got them going after that and got some big laughs. Then I’d lose them. Then I’d have to get them back. This went on and on for the entire set. The only problem is I lost them with the last bit. I did my Waffle House shooting bit and they weren’t into it. I’d give this set a C. 

I got off stage and the other comics said it was good, but it did not feel good at all. I got to watch Elliott perform for a bit and he started out hot. I said my goodbyes and then drove 3.5 hours home. It was a long ride, but I got to reflect on my break and it was nice to have time to myself. I got home and passed out ready to be back at work. 

7/8

Work was ok. It was super good to see my coworkers and my students. Afterwards I hung around town and relaxed before heading up to Charlottesville for The Southern. 

There was a super light crowd this night. About 11 comics and maybe 8 audience members. They were into the show though. Chris went up and had a pretty good hosting set. During this time I went in the back and got some dates firmed up with the gm Danny. 

I then came back out and watched the rest of the show. Everybody was doing ok and I was set to go up 8th. As the show goes on it is fun, but there isn’t a ton of energy. The people there dig it, but man there aren’t a lot of them.

I go up and have a very good set for the room. It is extremely productive. I riff and do a lot of new stuff. I get about one or two new jokes out of the set. Honestly could I have done better? Absolutely, but I don’t think I would have gotten as much out of my set if I had. It was awesome. I’d give it a B. 

I watched the rest of the show and said my goodbyes. There was a girl there who does photography and she said she was going to come to the Winstmas Games and get some pics which will be dope if she follows through. After we talk I say bye to everybody and head to my car. Paige and I talk a bit and then I head home to pass out.

7/9

Today was hard. I had a good day at work, but I also had therapy. Therapy was cathartic and it was nice to catch him up with how I have been feeling about everything going on. It was a great session. Afterwards I met my mom at dad’s work.

Today was the day we were going to clean out his office. This was a very emotionally trying few hours. My father was a bit of a pack rat so we had a lot to go through. We found a lot of his awards, pictures, and knick knacks. I also found a Virginia Tech trunk that was just full of pens. That is right full of super nice pens. Literally like 1,000 nice pens. I will never have to buy another pen in my entire life. 

After finally clearing it all out my mother and I kind of broke down a bit. The walking away and turning the light off in the office was so emotional. It felt real. Like I’d never see him again in his office when I’d randomly stop by. He’d never introduce me to his customers again and brag about his comedian son. Even as I type this right now I am tearing up thinking about this. It hurts like a bitch an always will.

My mom and I went to grab dinner at Ecotti in Goochland. It was a good meal and then we got gas and headed home. I unpacked the trunk and spent the rest of the night going through and testing all the pens and organizing the ones that still worked. I also decided to use the trunk as a comedy trunk. I went and rounded up all of the comedy posters and mementos I have from my time performing and put them in there. I know dad had a lot more of them, but I couldn’t find them. As we clean the house I will just keep adding to it. After this I watched some tv and had some junk food. I passed out pretty late. I knew it’d be hard to sleep, but I needed it,

THAT IS RIGHT I DID IT! I am caught up. I will never stop doing this blog (unless I quit comedy). This has been he toughest month of my life. It is starting to really sink in and I don’t really know what to do. Thank you all for following me. I will probably do a big write up about dad sometime next week. I want to really be able to honor him and what he did for me and my comedy. I love you all very much! Thank you for being you laydees!!! xoxo til next time. 

[chocolateghost]

Jonsa Office AU Anyone???

Ok so I’ve had this story idea for a long time, and thanks to the encouragement of @uchihabat @asongforjonsa and @patritxi I think I’m finally ready to tackle it. So the idea is that Jon/Sansa are Jim/Pam and each new chapter will cover a different episode. I’ll start at the beginning and probably only go up to somewhere in the fourth season just because I'm a slut for all the mutual pining and the angst. But I’ll be sure to give ya’ll some fluff along the way.

So what follows here is just a little sneak peak specially requested by @uchihabat. She is hella bloodthirsty and was dying for a good fight so here I’ve altered the Jim and Roy non-fight from season 3 to make a more delicious Jon and Harry fight. Dany is Karen. Get rekt h8rs.

This is pretty damn angsty so be warned. Also Madeleine, I’m sorry if this isn’t bloody enough lol. It’s the first fight I’ve ever written and this is just a rough little sketch and will most likely be altered when the time actually comes in the story. Pretty much all the dialogue is ripped directly from the show with minor changes here and there to suit my needs.

Let me know if you’re interested to see more! Enjoy!

*******

Sansa’s eyes stared unfocused at the paper on her desk. The words on the page blurred and jumbled together. She was desperately trying to not pay attention to Jon and Dany making plans 5 feet in front of her. She was failing miserably.

“So, do you want to see it or not?” Dany asked Jon with a beautiful grin.

“I don't know. I feel like, Friday night crowds…” Jon grumbled, trailing off. Sansa hated the way her body reacted to his low gravelly voice. For a moment, her eyes shifted up to the back of his head. It was a view she’d gotten to know very well the past 5 months and 13 days. Not that she was counting or anything. She blinked a few times and once again tried to focus on the purchase order form that should have been filled out an hour ago.

“Oh my god. You're like agoraphobic,” Dany teased.

“Agoraphobic? Really?” Jon mused in return.

“Uh yeah!” she laughed. “You would rather sit on your couch and watch a Direwolves game than go out to a movie with your awesome girlfriend.”

“Absolutely correct.” Jon made to stand and Sansa’s eyes immediately jumped to his body. Long and lean, she saw the strain of his shirt against the muscles of his back as he slipped his sport coat on. Not wanting the cameras to catch her staring, she quickly averted her eyes back to the paper.

Sansa sighed and wished for the millionth time that things were different. That it was she and Jon making plans. That she could be the one teasing him. But Jon didn’t want her. He wanted Dany. And Sansa was just going to have to learn to deal with the two of them being cute together and rubbing it right in her face. She can’t imagine she’ll ever get used to the sinking feeling in her chest at the sight of them together. Is this how Jon used to feel when Harry would come up to the office?

A few days have passed since the failed rekindling of her relationship with Harry ended in a crash of glass and beer bottles. She’d heard through Margaery that he and his brother had practically destroyed Poor Rickard’s in his anger.

Sansa should have never gotten back together with him. She should have known better. She did know better. But her crippling loneliness had clouded her judgment and let her fall into Harry’s outstretched arms in a moment of weakness.

It had all been a big mistake - getting back together with him and confessing to him. But still, she’d thought that maybe he might be able to understand and forgive her for kissing Jon last year. She realizes now that she had been a fool to even entertain the thought. Sansa was just glad that Harry hadn’t tried to come after Jon at all. That was the last thing she wanted.

“Okay,” Dany started, “so this is what's gonna happen. You're going to suck it up…”

“Here we go,” Jon interjected as he gathered up his things and started putting them in his bag.

“...and we're gonna go to dinner. And then we're gonna go to the movies.”

“Sounds good.” The tone Jon used sounded less enthusiastic and more defeated. Or at least that’s how Sansa interpreted it as she silently willed the two of them to just leave already. But just when it finally seemed they were about to, Harry burst into the office red-faced and angry.

“Hey, Snow!”

Jon slowly turned his body halfway to the door, his eyes briefly flitting to Sansa before settling on Harry. Dany was the only thing standing between the two.

“Hey…” Jon offered cautiously.

Sansa’s mouth hung open and her eyes jumped back and forth between the two men. This was it - the moment she’d been dreading. She sat rooted to her chair, powerless to do anything. When she saw Harry's fist clench, Sansa shouted out his name in a weak attempt to stop him.

But it was too late.

Harry lunged and Dany screamed as Jon pushed her out of the way just in time for a meaty fist to slam into Jon's face with a sick crunch. He toppled backwards onto his desk, knocking over his computer and scattering his things to the floor. Jon was quick to recover though, rolling off the desk and scrambling back to his feet before Harry could land another blow.

Now frenzied, Harry whipped his fist around, catching Jon on the cheek and smearing blood down the side of his face. Jon caught himself mid-stumble and pushed his weight forward into Harry. His fist connected and a gush of blood spurted out of Harry’s nose, spraying into the air.

Some of the droplets landed on Sansa’s desk and she watched them with rapt attention as the men tumbled down on top of one another, the sound of screams and fists colliding with flesh filling her ears. At some point, security came to pull the two apart. As Harry was being dragged away he shouted obscenities at Jon.

“She was my fiancee you motherfucker! I trusted you!”

“You didn't deserve her,” Jon spoke softly, spitting blood on the rough industrial carpet as Dany tried her best to comfort her injured boyfriend.

Sansa wanted to scream. She wanted to cry - for herself, for Jon, for Harry, even for Dany. But she couldn’t. Her eyes could only focus on the way Jon’s knuckles looked. Bloodied and raw - just how she felt on the inside.

So what do you think? Interested? ;)

[thecrownnet]

Emmy Voters Shouldn’t Take Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ For Granted, as It’s The Last Chance to Reward Beautifully Understated Work

Season 2 is the final chance for "The Crown" stars like Claire Foy and Matt Smith to collect Emmys as they move on to other opportunities and new stars step in.

Netflix’s lavishly appointed Season 2 of “The Crown,” which takes place from 1956-1964, landed the same number of Emmy nominations as last year (13). But the series faces a mighty lineup of dramas this time, including Season 2 of last year’s winner “The Handmaid’s Tale,” as well as the penultimate season of “Game of Thrones” and the lauded final season of “The Americans.” This intense race could be close.

Netflix knows how to campaign, and the royal saga is popular, which would appear to give it an edge. But many Emmy voters seem to take for granted how well the team led by showrunner Peter Morgan (“The Queen,” “The Audience”), who writes and delivers all ten episodes at the start of each season, pulls off an historic costume drama on a fast-paced television schedule, complete with elaborate period sets and costumes. At a hefty $6 million-$7 million per episode for 20 episodes (a total $130 million), Morgan calls it “cinematic television.”

“He doesn’t mess around,” Smith told me. “It’s the only show I’ve ever been on where all ten scripts are in pretty good lick. He manages these characters and episodes and stories we think we know well and finds an interesting angle of approach.”

The Crown (L to R) Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth discuss Charles’ education [s2e9] Robert Viglasky / Netflix

And the acting is top-notch too, led by Golden Globe-winner Claire Foy (“Wolf Hall”) as rock-solid Queen Elizabeth. The Queen is trying to hang on to her fragile prime ministers as well as her dashing swain Prince Philip (Matt Smith) and keep the peace with her hipper sister, stylish Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby), who recovers from a broken heart by falling for swinging photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode). All earned nominations this year; last time only John Lithgow as Winston Churchill took home an Emmy statue.

It’s the last round for this cast, however, as Season 3 sends in an replacement crew to play the Royals as the hit middle age, including Olivia Colman (“The Night Manager”) as the Queen, “Outlander” villain Tobias Menzies as Philip, and Helena Bonham Carter (“Sweeney Todd”) as Margaret. While the original cast are wistful to leave the “The Crown” family, they’re moving on to opportunities aplenty. Before Season 3 started filming, Kirby was in touch with Bonham-Carter every day, sending her a music playlist for Margaret. “I’m grateful to get to share Margaret with somebody,” she said. “My obsession is extreme!”

Morgan did not know when he started how popular the show would be, but he signed his stars for only two years. “I don’t think it’s fair to ask an actor to age more than 20 years,” he said at a TV Academy panel. “If we’re going to be doing 60 years, it’s not fair for them to spend five hours in makeup every day. But it’s hard for me, now that I’ve got used to how Claire is. I’ve hit my stride in writing for her, it’s writers interruptus. You meet these wonderful actors and discover what they can do. The same with Vanessa. The new cast will present new challenges–it’s hard enough without new challenges!”

Smith had already experienced giving up a popular role with Doctor Who. “I’d rather do two years than seven,” he said.

While Smith (“Doctor Who”) and Goode (“The Imitation Game”) are fairly well-known, both Foy and Kirby launched film careers with the series, from Foy’s punk hacker Lisbeth Salander in the upcoming “Dragon Tattoo” sequel “The Girl In the Spider’s Web” to Kirby’s flirtatious turn opposite Tom Cruise in summer smash “Mission: Impossible–Fallout.” Meanwhile, Smith has taken on two creepy characters, Patrick Bateman in London musical “American Psycho” and Charles Manson in upcoming “Charlie Says.”

The issue of who got paid what has hovered over the series. Although Foy was cast first as the Queen of England and commanded more screen time, she was less established at the start than Smith, who broke out as a star in Doctor Who and had salary leverage when Morgan insisted on casting him because the chemistry with Foy was so strong in their auditions. “There was electric, immediate energy in the room,” said Morgan. “The producers said, ‘look, we’re in negotiation, does he really have to be Philip?’ ‘There is no option. It has to be him.'”

So they paid him more than Foy.

“I find a huge amount of support around me and in the industry and around the world,” said Foy of her unequal pay vs. Smith, “knowing that if I don’t speak up and support myself than nobody else will. You have to be your own advocate, without being difficult, and be willing to step away from something you don’t agree with. That’s happening and it’s extraordinary.”

If Season 1 set up the royal stakes in the central fraught marriage between dashing Navy man Philip and the Queen to whom he had bow and kneel, it was also a hard act to follow.  All the directors came back to shoot Season 2, including Stephen Daldry (who cherry-picked episodes eight and nine). There was more color and travel, roving from Tonga, Ghana and Papua New Guinea to the Antarctic.

With Season 2, the team moved with more confidence into the story that digs deeper into Queen Elizabeth’s relationship with her husband and her prime ministers, such as Anthony Eden (Jeremy Northam), as he colludes with Egypt on the Aswan Dam. Fashionably modern John and Jackie Kennedy come to Buckingham Palace. And old-fashioned Elizabeth faces harsh criticism from one politician, Lord Altrincham (John Heffernan), causing her to change the stilted way she speaks in public.

The cast who played royals practiced the accent constantly. “We spent all our time speaking it on set,” Kirby told me in a phone interview. “It must have pissed off the crew. We were all in it together. I tried to find a middle ground, we didn’t want to alienate people too much, I tried to make my voice slower. She sounds different by the end of the season, we’re growing up with them. “

As Morgan writes the episodes himself, he doesn’t have a writers’ room, but a researchers’ room. He sifts through history, dumping the obvious stuff in favor of delicious details that might surprise or upend conventional wisdom. “It’s an absolute joy, as a dramatist, looking at the intimate and the epic,” he said. “They are just like us and they are nothing like us.”

On “The Crown,” where the Queen tends to keep a stiff upper lip, a scene between Jackie and Elizabeth having tea and scones is as dramatic as it gets. “I’ve long been writing this for so long, everyone is so polite, I’m desperate for a fight scene,” Morgan said. “I long to write a punch-up, there’s been no blood on this show for 20 episodes. That scone was my fight scene. She buttered the scone irritatedly.”

Claire Foy, “The Crown” Stuart Hendry / Netflix

Most dramatists don’t pick an introverted, shy, middle-aged woman as their central protagonist. “With someone like Tony Soprano, any emotional response was valid: kindness, cruelty, gentleness, butchery sexiness,” said Morgan. “You don’t have that with the Queen. You’ve got her trapped within this other thing: it is very Russian doll. You’ve got the woman within the woman within the thing that is not the woman– the Crown–which is not gender specific, neither feminine or masculine. How a woman connects with that is complex, so she’s lost some of herself. She’s not an articulate person, so you can’t go on and on to explain that complexity. So someone like Claire is skilled enough to do it in repose. So you never feel that the character is not complex, because you’ve got an actor skillful enough to give you that, even in silence.”

In the editing room, Morgan found that whenever there was a missing transition he learned to rely on Foy’s reaction shots. “When Claire was on screen the whole thing was settled,” he said. “That wouldn’t involve her throwing plates. It was just the strength of her performance and how completely she inhabited the character, and how she as an actor in that character could give the whole thing an orientation and center and an anchor. As the Queen gives anchor and stability to the country, so Claire was doing in our show.”

Luckily Foy has always been a reactive listener. “I love being in a scene and not thinking about anything but what that character is thinking,” she said. “I’ve always loved listening and being able to think like the character. And this show appreciated a character who doesn’t go forward, but sits and lets people come to her. And not many shows appreciate that, they don’t put someone at the center, who’s just being and listening.”

Smith is Foy’s exact opposite. He brings a competitive athlete’s physical masculinity to Philip. “I quite like Philip’s maleness,” said Smith, “which in this day and age is interesting. And Elizabeth liked that about him.”

“Philip is a tough man,” said Smith. “Charles notoriously wasn’t, he’s the antithesis of Philip, emotional and sensitive. Philip is those things deep down. But he was growing up in a different time, he had to grow up quite quickly. He went through death and tragedy as a young man. He was essentially orphaned.”

Foy and Smith were opposites as actors. “We work in different ways,” Foy said. “We brought out in each other instantly a friendship, we’re able to give each other what we needed. Matt wants to try new things and get an extra take; I’m ready to go on the first take, to be real and never do it again. That was a tricky thing to negotiate.”

Foy admired Smith’s willingness not to make audiences like Philip. “He’s masculine and feminine, able to be emotional and vulnerable and bit of a love,” she said. “He can be incredibly selfish and you still like him, he has the gift of being likable.”

At the end of the series, as pregnant Elizabeth is lonely and isolated at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, scandal-plagued Philip finally comes to her on his knees, a supplicant. “That scene was a pain in the ass,” Smith said. “It took three days. The history is tricky. How much of it to reveal, a sensitive subject, that. With the Queen of England you never acknowledge the fact that Philip was over the abyss. I look at it as a man on his back foot fighting for his life. Whatever you say, they endure. They are a team. He makes her laugh.”

“The Crown” Alex Bailey / Netflix

On the other hand, Vanessa Kirby as Margaret gets to open up more. “The biggest gift was that she feels everything so deeply,” she said. “Whatever color of emotion she’s having is 100 percent. Claire is the master of subtle and internal; I’m sweating and spit is coming out. Margaret’s emotions are all on the surface, while Elizabeth’s are buried.”

In Season 2, Kirby gets to smash up her room a bit. Margaret is “someone in pain who descends into something quite scary,” she said. “Along comes Tony Armstrong-Jones and she meets him when she’s in the worst place.”

In the first cycle, Foy got to wear an elaborate wedding dress; now it was Kirby’s turn. “I’m not very fashionable, I wear jeans and shorts,” said Kirby. “Margaret taught me a lot, to express my internal life through costumes.” She and the costume designer Jane Petrie spent weeks choosing ratios and shapes and fabrics. “Her costumes are an indication of where she was at. Even when she trashes her room she’s wearing a gothic robe. The next morning, she’s pale in a yellow granny nighty, she had lost all sense of her identity. I wanted to take her on a journey to  show how Margaret finds her place in the world. She’s born into something she couldn’t escape from.”

Meanwhile, Margaret yet again has to seek Elizabeth’s permission to marry. “I didn’t want to overplay it or underplay it,” Kirby said. “It’s a mixture of resentment and intense need and exhaustion and vibrancy. She is in active denial, looking away from Tony who is massively disloyal and destructive and dysfunctional for her. All those things in one scene feels quite scary.”

[rickrakontoys]

Pre-Infinity War MCU rankings

How I'd rank the current 18 movies, from my least favorite to most favorite, with some brief thoughts:

18. The Incredible Hulk (5/10): I barely remember this one... and I dont like Hulk's look here. Liv Tyler gasps all her dialogue. Ed Norton did an ok job I guess, but I didnt get much of a lasting impression.

17. Iron Man 2 (6/10): I remember being extremely annoyed by Tony and his behavior, and the blatant Avengers setups. Least we got War Machine out of this. Whiplash could have been great if he didnt have to share the villain role with Justin Hammer. (Also, without this mess, we wouldn't have gotten Jon Faverau's amazing film "Chef", which was made in response to his frustrations making IM2)

16. Thor: The Dark World (6/10): Forgettable plot and villain. Some chuckle worthy scenes. Not sure what else there is to say. You could tell the movie was butchered trying to fit Loki into the plot. There is barely any chemistry between Thor and Jane.

15. Thor (7/10): Decent intro to the characters and world of Asgard. But the movie looks strangely cheap, especially the New Mexico town. I never felt Thor and Jane could be a thing, despite their performances being good. The cast all around was terrific too (Hopkins as Odin is great). Loki was a great, tragic villain though. Thor breaking the bifrost is immediately undone by the Avengers...

14. Iron Man 3 (7.25/10): I enjoyed the deconstruction of Stark and common comic book tropes. What they did with the Mandarin was pretty ballsy and I respect that. I don't even remember the true villain's name... Having Tony deal with PTSD was also interesting.

13. Ant-Man (7.25/10): Surprising that this worked at all. Pretty fun ride, if a tad generic. Cool shrinking visuals. I look forward to the Wasp.

12. Doctor Strange (7.5/10): Again... plot is generic as hell. Forgettable villain. But very cool visuals. And I love the leitmotif and main theme music.

11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (7.75/10): I loved Ultron but felt he could have been a bigger threat. The middle of the movie plods... badly. Some wasted potential for sure. The third act action is comic book action nirvana. You could tell the movie was meddled with by the studio... I don't blame Joss Whedon at all for the film's shortcomings. He was obviously frustrated with it too.

10. Spiderman Homecoming (8.25/10): Gives us a great young spidey and a terrific villain. Seriously... Michael Keaton makes this movie work. The scenes with Peter and Tony are good. The supporting cast is good too. I wish they gave spidey a more memorable theme song for the movie.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger (8.25/10): I don't know why this movie resonates with me more than with other people. The look of the movie is gorgeous. The themes sincere. The music is wonderful. The performances are memorable. This movie showed us that Chris Evans was the perfect man to play Captain America. Hugo Weaving gave us a menacing yet charismatic Red Skull. One too many montages though. "The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan" is seriously catchy! Classic Disney songwriter Alan Menkin helped write it... no wonder!

8. Guardians of the Galaxy (8.5/10): How could a movie with a talking raccoon and a senient tree man be this good? Its all about the building of a family of friends, borne from people with broken pasts. Ronan is utterly forgettable, hence why I rank it here. The supporting cast is otherwise stellar. And the soundtrack... now thats how you integrate it into a movie's soul.

7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (8.75/10): Took the characters of the first movie to new places. Elevated them, broke them down, made them weep. The jokey dialogue can get grating. But thematically wonderful. Lots of small touches that gives life to even the most minor of characters. Everyone has an arc! Ego is a fascinating fellow, and seems genuinely likeable, until the revelation of his madness. The Sovereign are pompously silly and didn't amount to much of a threat (though I dont think they were supposed to be). The cinematography is sublime. The colors intense and vibrant. The soundtrack used impeccably. Just a wonderful piece of cinema. Others may disagree about it, but I rate it highly. It feels like a personal film by James Gunn.

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (8.8/10): Truly great and heartfelt while being relevant to the current times. A movie that brought Cap to the modern age, while haunting him with a spectre of the past. It just works on so many levels. Alexander Pierce didnt leave a big impression as the villain despite being played by Robert Redford. Could have been more intimate exploration of Cap and Bucky's relationship. Despite being called "The Winter Soldier", the focus is more on the fall of SHIELD... At least this gave us Falcon and some cute chemistry between Steve and Natasha.

The TOP 5 were very hard to place...

5. The Avengers (8.8/10): That this movie worked at all is a miracle. That it was actually infinitely watchable is amazing. This was the sign that the MCU ahead was heading to good things. The cast was excellent together. The dialogue refreshingly snappy. It made Loki into a staple of the MCU. The Avengers theme was memorable. Lots of fan service without it being intrusive... the middle act can be a bit slow, but it is otherwise nicely paced and tonally even. The look of the movie can border on TV production values at times... but it manages to overcome any shortcomings by being so darn fun.

4. Captain America: Civil War (8.8/10): This movie broke down our well-known heroes and gave us a villain in Zemo that is mysterious, tragic, and understated. Revenge permeates the themes of the movie, but the true heart of the movie is friendship and Cap's desire to hold onto the final relic of his past, Bucky. Motivations are clear between most of the characters and neither side of the conflict is right or wrong. Some Avengers are just along for the ride, but everyone nonetheless has a moment to shine. New characters are introduced (mostly) seamlessly (T'Challa is woven into it naturally, Spidey... not so much but he leaves a great first impression). The airport battle was a fantastic bit of fan service fun before the gut wrenching emotionally driven climax. The final showdown between Cap and Iron Man was like watching two parents fight over a child. This is a comic book movie that had ideas, and though it didn't totally follow through on some concepts like the Sokovia Accords, it did give us an emotional rollercoaster that built upon our pre-existing attachment to the characters. This movie was a true culmination of all that came before.

3. Thor Ragnarok (8.9/10): This movie felt the most fun and thoroughly enjoyable out of all the MCU. It may not be thematically challenging or very deep, but it isn't trying to be. For pure intentions, it accomplished what it sought to: make a fast and funny Thor-Hulk buddy comedy, and reinvent the God of Thunder as a likeable, dunderheaded oaf. Hela seeths with sultry menace. Korg is simply a treasure. Valkyrie is a drunken badass. Grandmaster is.... Jeff Goldblum. The score is the best in the MCU, instantly setting the tone. Led Zepplin's Immigrant song used twice to great effect. Quotable, hilarious dialogue. Korg. Taika Waititi injected new life into the MCU after a few serious installments. This reminds me of the goofy "fun" episode of a series before the finale. I love this movie!

2. Black Panther (8.9/10, bumped up after my second viewing): Epic world building and a villain that outshone the hero for once. It may have its flaws in plotting and pacing (the first hour is meandering), but what it tried to do is highly admirable. The supporting cast is great. The look of the movie is utterly beautiful. The action scenes are the least interesting part of the movie oddly enough due to bad execution and dodgy CGI. It has plenty of ideas regarding Wakanda and its place in the world, and the duty to use great power to help others. Killmonger should have been the chief focus beside T'Challa... You can tell Ryan Coogler made this film with his full heart. This is the only MCU film to make me tear up. With a few tweaks it could have been the best of the MCU.

1. Iron Man (9.5/10): Nearly everything here works. Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast, and turned Tony Stark into a household name. There is genuine chemistry between him and Pepper. Obadiah Stane is a likeable yet menacing villain (Jeff Bridges playing a bad guy?! He's terrific at it!). The action scenes are exciting and not too overdone. The score is energetic (why isn't Iron Man's leitmotif from this movie used more often?!). This movie wasn't bogged down with setting up a universe. It was allowed to be its own thing. But from this success, all the rest followed.