#Jack Harkness costume

[reusedprops]

This Resurrection gauntlet is seen holding by Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood: They Keep Killing Suzie (2006) and later seen on Rassilon hand in Doctor Who: The End of Time: Part Two (2010)

[itsatorchwoodthing]

im bringing back my theory that Cyberwoman was shot that way on purpose and how brilliant it is ( and how it gets shit on only because of the awful costume choice)

i find that the weird shaky camera and the zooms were some sort of a narrative device and artistic choice (even tho one can argue, not well done) that helps you understand how disconnected ianto is feeling from the team and how much his life is shaking - the whole episode IS from ianto’s point of view, his feelings and his way of seeing the team, its supposed to put you in his mind

[torchwood-99]

Torchwood Costume Carnage Semi-Finals Round 1

Jack Edition!

Option 1: The classic long coat look!

Ianto's last gift to Jack. It wasn't meant to be Ianto's last gift to Jack, but the beans were nearly done.

Option 2: Beige Jacket

Never trust a man in beige.

Option 3: Murder Sunglasses Swag

Torchwood at the peak of its power, when it could waltz onto a murder scene and everyone had to just let them through.

[psychicwound]

things i would put in the memory tardis:

the original jack harkness coat

one of josie day's paintbrushes

one of the original unit hats . yk .

SOMETHING of the masters . maybe missy's umbrella

hi-fi !!!!

at least part of the costumes from the black orchid specifically because they (or maybe just nyssa & tegan) got to keep them after

sonic lipstick if it isn't already in there

the crystal from metebelis three

one of rose noble's stuffed animals

TENS HAND . IN IT'S JAR . THE ONE JACK HAD

nine's jacket

the photos of river & susan that twelve had

[somedayonbroadway]

Newsies Halloween Party 2024

Jack Kelly as a Cowboy Astronaut

Jack is an astronaut Cowboy this year, not to be confused with the futuristic cowboy he’d done in years prior. His costume is an astronaut suit with a glowing see through cowboy hat and white boot wedges. He has a galactic gun at his hip in a holster. He’s been going through a depression for the past few months and uses this party to try to get out of it for a bit. He gets wasted, as always and ends up crying over everything. Race tries to calm him down but Jack is having none of it and admits that he feels like he’s not good enough for anyone. He ends up getting high with his stoner neighbor, Albert and David has to carry him back inside to bed.

Year previous: Undead Cowboy

David Jacobs as A Mad Doctor

Knowing that Jack is going through a funk, David, who is not a costume guy, dresses up as a mad doctor to try and cheer him up. David and Jack have been dating for a few months now, on and off, but David is hesitant to get serious with Jack due to his history of short, physical relationships. He and Jack have arguments the rest of the next day before Jack runs off and disappears for a few days.

Year Previous: “Dave”

Racetrack Higgins as Harley Quinn

Race goes as, what he describes as, The Good Harley Quinn. He did not appreciate the new Joker movie, though Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenal, he missed the traditional telling of Harley and roped his boyfriend into doing a couples costume with him. Can you believe that? His boyfriend! As of February. Jack and Spot’s relationship is strained over it, but Race tries like he’ll keep the peace between his brother and lover. He ends up sleeping beside his brother that night to try and make sure he’s okay.

Year Previous: Barbie

Spot Conlon as Joker

Spot is hesitant to go to the party because of the tension between him and his best friend, but Race ropes him into it and Spot goes as Joker, his shirt fully open and Race on top of him for the first half of the night before they find Jack crying in the bathroom. He sleeps on the couch to try and help his best friend and boyfriend.

Year Previous: Vampire

Crutchie Morris as Starlord

Crutchie is once again a superhero, going as Starlord. He is concerned the whole time but tries to keep the party light hearted and fun, getting drinking games going. He’s the one that pulls everyone together for the first few hours and they all have fun like normal before Jack’s breakdown. He gets frustrated and goes to his own apartment a little bit early.

Year Previous: Spiderman

Katherine Plumber as The Scarlett Witch

She comes as the one and only Scarlett Witch and is not prepared for Jack’s outburst. He tries to kiss her and she rejects him, reminding him that they dated years ago for a few months and she came out as a lesbian. They’d been close friends ever since. Sarah pulls her away from Jack, insisting that he’s being destructive on purpose and suggests David just leave.

Year Previous: Sexy Cat

Sarah Jacobs as Agatha Harkness

Sarah goes as Agatha Harkness. She tries, like Charlie, to keep the party light after feeling the tension but gets angry when everyone begins fighting and takes Katherine home, only for the two of them to sleep far apart on the bed after a heated argument.

Year Previous: Sexy Mouse

There was drama at this Halloween Party.

Wonder what Christmas has in store.

[rosetylerlesbians]

Had a dream last night that combined torchwood and my costume design program. Like we were still just designing costumes but Jack Harkness was in charge and at one point there were some alien handcuffs involved.

[spacefinch]

Okay, what kind of goofy Halloween fun would the MSB gang get into?

I think they’d enjoy watching some Halloween movies (the only one I’ve seen is “Nightmare Before Christmas.”)

They try to do coordinated costumes some years. One time, they all went as Star Trek characters. Another time, they each went as a different regeneration of the Doctor.

Carlos: Tenth Doctor

Phoebe: Fourth Doctor

DA: Thirteenth Doctor

Keesha: Ninth Doctor

Arnold: Second Doctor

Tim: Eleventh Doctor

Wanda: Ninth Doctor

Ralphie: Fifth Doctor

Yet another year, DA, Carlos, Phoebe, and Keesha went as Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, and Martha Jones, respectively.

During movie night, they try not to pick movies that are too scary. (Last time that happened, nobody got any sleep except for Carlos.)

Other things:

Pumpkin carving

Every year, Ralphie brings Fang to class for show and tell. On that day, Carlos calls in “sick.”

Trick or treating, but the kids visit the same houses multiple times in the night, wearing different costumes each time.

Mikey builds really cool costumes that fit his wheelchair (and usually go with whatever Carlos is wearing).

GHOST. STORIES.

[twistedtummies2]

Meeting Aaron Dismuke & John Barrowman (ComicCon)

Okay, SO! I just got home from ComicCon. First of all, yes. I did, in fact, get a chance to meet Aaron Dismuke - Tamaki, Lucifer, Professor Moriarty, and more. First of all, MY GOD THE MAN IS TALL. O_O Second of all, he was absolutely darling. Even before I got to him, I learned how nice he was: two young ladies wanted a picture and autograph, but the card reader at his booth was malfunctioning. He told them, very sincerely, that if he couldn’t get the card reader working in a short time, he’d let them have their signatures and pics for free. (That did not happen; they got the device working again...oooonly for it to malfunction once more immediately after. Go figure. :P ) In fact, multiple times during my encounter with him, he pointed out that he felt the prices for the convention were MUCH too high.  Once I did meet him...it only got so much better. I asked him what his favorite part of playing William in MTP was...and he got so excited he SLAMMED the book I’d brought for him to sign shut before going into this spiel about everything he loved about the show. I may be paraphrasing slightly, but I think it went like this... “So, when I was a teenager, I actually had this fantasy - I used it for a school paper - about how, if someone were to kill the ten richest people in the world, and then keep doing that every month...what would happen? How would the world be better or worse? Would this eventually lead to a better place? William’s ‘Eat the Rich’ Philosophy isn’t EXACTLY the same, but it tapped into that old fantasy, and so it was actually more personal for me. Plus, I really love his attitude: anger is actually an emotion I don’t find easy in my repertoire - I don’t really get angry much in real life, I don’t think - and it was interesting to play a character who, no matter what happened, NEVER gets angry. Or, you know, never EXHIBITS how angry he is. He keeps everything level. Plus, it’s a classic character from some classic stories, so that was just cool!” After all this, he signed my book (”Catch Me If You Can, Mr. Holmes.” - A. Dismuke, Moriarty) and then I decided to be a bit more daring. I asked him if it would be allowed for me to take a video recording of him saying that same famous line. He responded that it was allowed, but he would have to charge me for it. “How much?” “I don’t know, the price is probably dumb...tell you what. For you? Thirty dollars.” I SLAPPED THOSE BILLS DOWN, BOI. He then asked for me to put my phone in selfie mode, and proceeded to record not only him saying the lines, but an almost two-minute spiel of him talking about the dialect and how he actually had to change his pronunciation of “Holmes” slightly during the show, because apparently someone joked that the way he said that name “sounded like a Minecraft character.” I sure as heck wasn’t gonna stop him.  THEN, we took the picture...and in the past, people I’ve taken photos with at the Con usually just sort of smile for the camera. There’s nothing wrong with that, naturally, I wouldn’t ask for otherwise. But he actually wanted to do something special, so he came up with us posing with him reading the manga, while myself - in costume and character as Holmes - peered at the book through my magnifying glass. He and the person taking the photo cracked up and we had to take the picture a second time because it came out all blurry the first time. XD TO TOP ALL THAT OFF...later, I passed by his booth, and he was still there. I called out to him: “Professor! We meet again!” He bowed. BOWED, I SAY! Naturally, I am elated by all of that. (Also, I still have more to share, but I’m putting a Keep Reading at this point because I think meeting Dismuke is the part you all want to know most about, and this is clearly going to be a long post. LOL)

SO...Aaron Dismuke wasn’t the only person I met today. I also got to meet John Barrowman - Jack Harkness from Doctor Who & Torchwood, Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, Merlyn from Arrow, etc. For him, I brought along a DVD collection of all the episodes for the 9th and 10th Doctors - those were the seasons Jack appeared in.  This encounter was much shorter, but it was still no less enjoyable. He was also amazing; he talked to everyone in line as if they were people he’d met before, and was well-acquainted with, no matter who they were, what they were dressed as, etc. When I got up to him and asked for his signature, I also asked him, “what’s a role you’ve always wanted to play that you haven’t yet?” He paused then responded: “To be honest, I don’t think about that. See, if it’s a role I’ve always wanted to play, then that would mean it’s a role that already exists, and that somebody else has already done before. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but what I REALLY love most is playing a character who is completely new, and being able to bring my own originality into the part.” An interesting philosophy I found both noble and unique. Then came the pictures...and yes, pictures, because he took four of them. We took one of us just smiling for the camera, then another of the same (”just to be safe”), then a “sassy” picture (I looked more...weird than sassy, ha ha), and finally a “silly and ugly” picture. All around awesome. <3 Beyond those meetings, lots of fun was otherwise had. Bought a lot of cool goodies from the shops (nothing anime-related, so not sure how much of it you guys would be interested in; might share more info there with friends in private), and I took a lot of photos of some really cool costumes. A lot of people really liked my Sherlock Holmes cosplay, I was surprised and happy to find! One encounter I MUST share before I close this message out: right after meeting both Dismuke and Barrowman, I ran into a cosplayer...of William!  “Professor!” I called out. “What are the odds?” I think they were even more happy to see Holmes than I was to see Moriarty! They were with a couple of non-costumed friends, who commented that they hadn’t expected to meet any other Moriarty fans there...and then asked to confirm if I was one. I responded by pulling out my copy of the manga from my bag. This only got them more excited, and they remarked, “You must be so ready to meet Aaron Dismuke!” I grinned and revealed I’d already gotten the autograph. I’m pretty sure the squeal they let out might have broken the sound barrier.  We took a photo with each other, each holding our copy of the manga’s first volume. Of all the people I took photos with/of that day - from comic book characters, to My Hero Academia cosplays, to the Addams Family, to Alice in Wonderland characters, to Scooby-Doo, to the 11th Doctor, AND STILL MANY MORE...that was by far the most joyous. “I mark this day with a white stone.”

[allhallowsthemepark]

Introduction to All Hallows

So then.

Theme parks and Halloween. Halloween and theme parks.

Most of your big-name American parks do something interesting for Halloween, and it’s no wonder. In the US, this holiday is second only to Christmas in terms of popularity and theme-ability (and if the Millennials and Zoomers have their way, may just eclipse it soon…get on that, kids). What’s more, every park can find a Halloween vibe that suits its brand. Universal Studios, the outfit that basically invented horror movies, goes all-out on the grotesque with roaming hordes of ghoulish, chainsaw-wielding “scare-acters,” indoor mazes filled with horrific imagery and jump-scares, and an extra-frightening version of the tram tour. Disney, by contrast, goes family-friendly with smiling jack-o-lanterns, special parades and fireworks, and evening events featuring trick-or-treat stations and dance floors. Almost any park might toss in some zombified character performers, fog machines, and creepy music for its after-dark Halloween events.

And that’s not even counting the temporary Halloween attractions that spring up every fall like mushrooms after a light rain, and vanish just as quickly once November rolls around.

I’ve explored several types—not all of them, but enough to make an informed opinion—and that opinion is that none of them really reflects my feelings about Halloween. This is largely because that very expectation of brand-appropriateness means that only a small part of the full spectrum of moods and concepts represented by the holiday will be showcased. Halloween is complicated, man. The most obvious comparison is, again, with Christmas, and I think there's a pretty strong consensus as to what that holiday is about—the disagreements, when they arise, tend to revolve around not what Christmas means, but whether the things it means are good.

But Halloween has layers. It has textures. It's bound to, given its history as a pop culture-infused spooky extravaganza slathered on top of a romp day for children that grew out of an expression of neighborly mischief based on a Victorian celebration of mysticism and superstition harking back to a Catholic feast honoring the saints cribbed from a Celtic end-of-year harvest/ancestor worship festival. There are a lot of different tones and motifs associated with Halloween, and they're all equally valid.

What is Halloween about, when you get right down to it? Which aspect of this uniquely multifaceted holiday reigns supreme?

Costumes, free candy, and children roaming the neighborhood after dark?

The harvest season, with pumpkins and cornstalks and spiced apple cider to sip while enjoying a hayride in the country?

Witches and goblins and banshees and other beings from fantasy and folklore lurking in the forest at midnight?

Moldering graveyards, haunted castles, marauding vampires and unfriendly villages where every door is bolted and every shutter drawn promptly at sundown?

Horror movies, bloody murder, zombies at the mall and stalkers in the bushes?

All of these and more?

I have to pick the last option, and that's why I think Halloween, as a concept, could support an entire full-sized theme park, and not just during the fall but year-round. Christmas theme parks of various scales and scopes have enjoyed year-round success in the past, and while their heyday has passed by now…well, see my above point about Halloween gradually catching up with and even surpassing Christmas in popularity. Fans of Halloween seem much more tolerant of the “creep” phenomenon where it gradually gets promoted earlier and earlier in the year, than fans of Christmas. Additionally, Halloween crosses over almost seamlessly with a number of genres of fiction, including horror, thriller, and urban fantasy, all of which are evergreen in and of themselves.

If nothing else, the Goths would love it.

Stay tuned for more details about…

[pers-books]

Doctor Who: What to expect in the series’ return

The 2005 rival of the hit television show Doctor Who (2005) recently celebrated its 19-year anniversary by announcing season 14—comically titled “Season One!” Trailers and teasers previewed flashy storylines, vibrant costumes, and a stacked set of guest stars this March. At the end of the month, the official Doctor Who social media accounts released teasers, including titles for the eight episodes to come.

Fans are flocking back to the franchise with the knowledge that showrunner Russell T. Davies, the writer who rebooted the 2005 series in the first place, will be returning.  Before his return with the most recent anniversary specials, aired in November 2023, Davies had not written an episode of the show since the sensational fan-favourite two-hour special, “The End of Time,” aired in January 2010. These past two years have marked the end of his (too long) hiatus from the franchise. Thankfully, out of the eight episodes released this season, Davies will be involved with six, bringing brand-new stories, characters, and ideas with him. 

Through interviews, Davies revealed that he plans to do at least three or four seasons as showrunner and will incorporate some new sci-fi concepts never before seen in the series. While Doctor Who (2005) has long oscillated between fantasy and sci-fi, typically landing in science fiction as it is primarily grounded in reality, a recent anniversary special breaks this status quo with the return of “The Toymaker,” played by Neil Patrick Harris. This character comes from another universe, “where science is a game, and all of us are toys.” He can bend the laws of reality to his own will in ways that can’t be scientifically explained.

Davies has said in interviews that the cracks the Toymaker’s influence has left on the show’s canon will be important, allowing for more possibilities than fans could imagine. This opens Doctor Who (2005) up to a more supernatural or magical realm to a degree that is fresh and exciting for this long-running classic. 

Davies isn’t the only familiar face fans can expect to see from the original series, though! Jemma Redgrave, a beloved guest star, will reprise her role as Kate Stewart. Bonnie Langford, who first appeared in the 1980s, will also come back as Mel Bush. These familiar faces are sure to evoke nostalgia and excitement among long-time fans.

Many viewers have also expressed excitement about the casting of Jinkx Monsoon, American drag queen and season five champion of RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009-present). She will be playing a villain in the upcoming episode, “The Devil’s Chord.” which will take place in 1963, primarily at Abbey Road; Doctor Who (2005) has yet to do a Beatles episode, and fans are giddy just thinking about what the episode will entail. 

Another American actor set to play an antagonist is Broadway star Johnathan Groff, who will appear in the episode centred on the Regency period, “Rogue.” Unfortunately, little to no details about his character or the episode’s plot besides the outfits resembling Bridgerton have been revealed. After receiving insufficient information, the Doctor Who fandom did what all fandoms do—theorized! Many viewers have theories about who Groff may be playing, everything from a new villain to a younger incarnation of an old fan-favourite character, Captain Jack Harkness (formerly played by John Barrowman).

Amongst this spew of excitement, it’s important to bring up the concern of many fans regarding the lack of diversity in the writer's room, specifically when it comes to writers of colour. With the season being the first to feature a black actor to play the titular role, Ncuti Gatwa, many fans hoped to see more of a diverse influence in the writer’s room and on the screen.

The season will premiere on May 11 in the United Kingdom and May 10 in the United States. Two episodes will be released simultaneously, and the season will follow a weekly release schedule after through June. One thing of crucial note is where to find the highly anticipated season 14, “Season One.” In the U.S., “Season One” will be available on Disney+, and if you’re a fan of any kind, make sure to tune in!-

-- I am posting this purely for the line I highlighted - beloved guest star indeed! Yes, thank you! 😍

[galacticlamps]

actually ascension needs its own post since that's the one with the most details to speculate over and im starved for soho talk so i will talk to myself if need be

First the cover again, because I kinda can't get over it:

my only thing is that I had been hoping we might get Lizbeth on a cover again since she's never been on one of the boxsets before, despite being the 2nd person credited on all 4 of them (even if that's just alphabetical, still, she's the only one of the four main characters who never makes the cover)

But letting that go...

I know we already kinda knew the brief for this one but damn I didn't expect it to go quite this hard. Maybe that's just because the Parasite & Ashenden covers were (comparatively) similarish to each other and I was so pleased with Unbegotten's, and then got so used to it as the placeholder for Ascension while they kept postponing it, I wasn't expecting anything this colorful or detailed or with what I can't help but register as Fun New Outfits even though these are still like, pretty damn basic as far as costumes go. Still, it's a different vibe from everyone in suits and trenchcoats on every cover, technically. (Oh the woes of being an audio fan such that two characters owning sweaters actually does qualify as new information)

On top of just being visually delightful though, I know we knew religion was gonna be a fairly big part of this one, but I didn't actually expect to get quite this much of it - though I'm glad of it for a number of reasons. The BF twitter already made the ineffable joke so I don't have to, but also yeah I did very much spend all of season 2 episode 4 of good omens half convinced Samuel Barnett & Dervla Kirwan were about to pop up around any given corner (if you will go around being gay supernatural and horrible at your messy bureaucratic jobs in midcentury soho then I'm sorry, this is where my brain's gonna go) - so, fuel to that fire. But in terms of actual important things, at least one of my Soho wishes looks to be being granted because we have a Rev Edward Folgate on the cast list, which must mean we're finally meeting Norton's father, even if his mother & brother don't appear (which they could, technically, I've definitely seen BF not list all the doublings on their cast tabs before). Religion, domesticity, and the nuclear family are all things that absolutely fascinate me when it comes to Norton's character, so getting any amount of story involving his father & his church is something I've been actively hoping for for a long time now.

(I will say I'm a tiny bit bummed Saffron Coomber isn't on the cast list to play Mia again, but I kinda figured she wasn't going to be since Greg Austin's Armitage, who's making his first recurring appearance after originating in Unbegotten, was listed ever since the boxset was announced - presumably if she was also returning, that would've been handled in the same way. But since Unbegotten ended with Lizbeth and Mia going on a date, I still held out hope. Who knows though, maybe things did go well for them and Lizbeth just has a better work/life balance than Norton so she can date someone without them getting dragged into every scifi plot. I know that's not a very common accomplishment for any Torchwood agent, but a gal can hope)

At this point I know I'm completely in the realm of speculation & even wishful thinking, but I'm really really hoping we get some more clues as to Norton's overall timeline in this one, and I have a feeling that even if there's nothing as direct as dates given, the events of a plot like this one are going to heavily influence my personal interpretation of it.

To say that life & death are major themes for the soho crew feels wildly reductive, but even by Torchwood's standards and taking into account its origins as a piece of media with Jack Harkness & his newfound immortality at the heart of it, the living/dead status of this bunch has always been fantastically up in the air to me. Obviously Ghost Mission introduced Norton as kind of a ghost before revealing more obvious ghostly characters later on to which the title might have been referring, but his being from the past did beg the question of his survival into Torchwood's present era all the same, which Outbreak later alludes to much more directly, and his habit of showing up via hologram in multiple stories only further obfuscates any certainty we might have about where & when he definitely can be said to be alive and well. Then you've got Lizbeth and Gideon both being effectively 'brought back to life' via paradoxes that prevented them ever having died in the first place. Again, they are very very far from being the only Torcwhood characters this happens to (for a sprawling EU, it's really rather impressive how often & in how many different ways Torchwood as a whole manages to circle back to being about like. chaotic undead queers at the end of every day. though I suppose that consistency is part of why I keep falling in love with its different iterations again and again). That's without even getting into the question of Norton's dubious fate in God Among Us - and I say dubious because I know some people take that to be his ultimate death, but I personally think that reading something as vague as that as having any kind of finality rather goes against the spirit of this whole world/series, not just because I want him to live. (There are obviously other ways to make him survive/reappear, but I don't see this as a River Song scenario where we can safely assume one of his earlier-released adventures had to happen at the end of his personal timeline). But wherever God Among Us falls for him, he does very much meet God in it - or at least, a god, since the sentinel in Unbegotten is also described as a god of sorts, and even if he doesn't ultimately have the status of the god Jacqueline King is playing there, Unbegotten is still full to bursting with ghosts/undead/came back wrong/echo characters to continue underscoring that life/afterlife theme.

So all things considered, even allowing for the fact that we know Norton's twin hobbies are lying about himself and abusing time travel to suit his own ends/ever-shifting alliances, I find it difficult to believe we could get through a whole 6-part boxset about religion & death without something providing some kind of compelling evidence about where this adventure fits in among his other run-ins with apocalypses and gods and ghosts and dead-but-still-here characters/creatures, so I'm very much looking forward to any further exploration on that front.

And lastly, and least intellectually, I really want to know what the hell 20th-century Torchwood's obsession with Reginalds is. Reading through the cast list, I had to do two separate doubletakes over the character 'Sir Reginald Peebles' - firstly, because I had Reginald Rigsby on the brain, this being Soho (and the other Troughton brother being so active on BF's releases for this same month) - and secondly, because reading this in conjunction with the announcement for the July monthly adventure in which the new main Torchwood guy of the 20s is apparently called Sir Reginald Dellafield, there was a brief moment where I took that monthly release to be a tie-in with Ascension. I don't expect it to be, but damn. was it really so popular a name?

anyways, catch me thinking about those stained glass windows for the next couple months I guess (and knowing Torchwood Soho, for a long long time after it comes out as well lol)

[byneddiedingo]

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Darrell Zwerling, Diane Ladd, Roy Jenson, Roman Polanski, Richard Bakalyan, Joe Mantell. Screenplay: Robert Towne. Cinematography: John A. Alonzo. Production design: Richard Sylbert. Film editing: Sam O'Steen. Music: Jerry Goldsmith.

Where there's money, there's murder, and where the sun shines brightest, the shadows are darkest. That's why film noir was invented in Hollywood, and why California's greatest contribution to American literature may have been the pulp fiction of James M. Cain and the detective novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. Chinatown, which draws on that tradition, has a kind of valedictory quality about it, harking back to the 1930s roots of noir, although the genre's heyday was the postwar 1940s and paranoia-filled early 1950s. (Curtis Hanson would exploit that latter era in his 1997 film L.A. Confidential.) But it's also very much a film of the 1970s, which is to say that 42 years have passed and Chinatown is showing its age. The revelation that Katherine (Belinda Palmer) is both the daughter and the sister to Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) no longer has the power to shock that it once did, incestuous rape having become a standard trope of even TV drama. Nor does the "dark" ending, which director Roman Polanski insisted on, despite screenwriter Robert Towne's preference for a more conventionally hopeful resolution, seem so revolutionary anymore. It remains a great film, however, thanks to those quintessential '70s stars, Dunaway and Jack Nicholson, in career-defining performances, the superb villainy of John Huston's Noah Cross, and Roman Polanski's deft handling of Towne's intricate screenplay, carefully keeping the film limited to the point of view of Nicholson's Jake Gittes. Production designer Richard Sylbert and costume designer Anthea Sylbert (Richard's sister-in-law), aided by cinematographer John A. Alonzo, are responsible for the stylish evocation of 1930s Los Angeles. The atmospheric score is by Jerry Goldsmith.

[universe-on-her-shoulders]

You Can't Tame Me

Summary: An undercover mission requires the Torchwood team to get into costume and eschew creature comforts for a night. Some of them get more into character than others.

Relationships: Ianto Jones/Captain Jack Harkness, Team Torchwood.

Characters: Owen Harper, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Captain Jack Harkness.

Read it on AO3 here.

[torchwood-99]

Torchwood Costume Carnage Round 3 Results!

Jack's replacement coat, Ianto's last gift to him. It would have been Ianto's second to last gift, except the beans were nearly done.

Bloody beans.

So people either really loved the rolled up sleeves/open waistcoat/purple shirt combo, or are just into a spot of attempted colleaguecide.

But how can you want to hurt a man who pins badges to his white lab coat? How!?!1

The blouse Tosh wore when finally getting a date with Owen. Alas, it was the date that never was. Sadly, some inconvenient deaths got in the way of fixing a time and place. And whereas only one of them being dead meant they could still give it a go, both of them dying for good in the final episode really ruled out a future for these two. Getting shot/turned into radioactive dust really puts a dent in your love life.

Tight trousers? Hot. Black boots? Hot. Red shirt? Hot. Leather jacket? Hot. Guns? Mega hot? Gwen Cooper? So damn hot it hurts, but for once (despite being English) it's a heat I'm not gonna complain about.

[waters-and-the-wilde]

okay so one of the fun and neat things about going on T and shifting into boy mode is. i'm hot now??

it's not that i've changed that much or was dealing with negative self-image stuff, like i was already the prettiest boy you've ever seen before i got on T. back in girl(?) mode i dodged the worst of the usual body image issues due to a confluence of factors, such as

a.) enough early messaging to the effect of 'hey trying to make girls be attractive all the time is kinda fucked up' and me going 'yeah! that is fucked up! fuck being pretty'

b.) just. extraordinary amounts of asexuality. and with that came the primary incentive to go 'oh fuck i don't want to be attractive. dear god get that away from me. engage the Somebody Else's Problem Fields to maximum capacity!!'

c.) 'but also hey i've got great hair and look dashing in a waistcoat, i just do it for me you know? i'm like if a vain creature spent a lot of time scrabbling about in a tree hollow'

like i felt like i looked fine as a girl(?) and i didn't want to deal with the social baggage of being pretty (TM) or hot (TM) and clearly all that took so much effort anyway so it was super easy to just. not. although I liked wearing fancy costumes so in a lot of ways it's easier to look back on like. girl formalwear moments and be like 'oh yeah. that's drag. i was in drag.' without getting hit with the dysphoria stick. and the moments i felt really good about myself, like, 'flirt with myself in the mirror' moments were. boy drag. but i wasn't going to call myself hot. (also probably an autism thing, bc The Neurotypicals and the CisHetAlloNormies love to take the things you say literally and contort them to fit their assumptions so i couldn't risk them conflating 'hot' with 'sexually available'.) i was 'allowed' to be hot when i was dressed as jack harkness but under all other circumstances i didn't want that and wasn't willing to risk being thought of in those terms. never mind nipping it in the bud i was gonna salt the earth first.

which, maybe was a little overkill, i've got a bit of a tendency there but tbh i'm incredibly grateful for how much that kept the background society noise from getting the worst of its hooks into me. like the rampant asexuality and baby's first genderqueer shenanigans did me so many favors for maintaining a neutral-to-positive outlook on my relationship with my body. especially when it came to keeping prospective attention at bay so any time someone actually tried to ask me out it was just like. reaction gif of those girls with the red cups at the party. how did you get past security.

didn't hurt that i didn't want to hang in the kind of environments that made a big deal about appearances slash recognized it's rude to be a dick about peoples' appearances, but also there was probably a certain amount of baseline white/able-bodied/skinny privilege that i wasn't really aware of at the time, and lately i've been suspecting that contributes to other people trying to reinforce their idea of my place in 'the girl club'. something something same coin as those standards that also exclude and deny cis women for not measuring up.

recent years it's been weird because it sort of hasn't mattered how obvious i think the transmasc cues are, how much i look in the mirror and go '!!! hell yeah look at that handsome little guy!' because it just wouldn't translate. there was just a lot of 'yes fine i know i know i kNoW what people see when they look at me. it is still weird to me but i have to maKe Allowances for our soCiAL coNText riGht?? just because i got sick of being low-effort nonbinary and decided I wanted a turn at the blue hair and pronouns thing doesn't mean that other people aren't stuck in their assumptions. yes i know who i am but i have to wear a little sign and point it out to people and most of the time they don't notice or remember and if i'm lucky they'll wring their hands and get all conCerNed about having oFfEnded me instead of telling me they don't think they should have to make the effort of trying.' and don't get me wrong i love meeting cishetnormies who are cool and onboard and supportive or just baseline chill about it, but there are a lot of them where there's this definite undercurrent of knowing they're just humoring you and it itches like a shirt with the bad textures.

anyway it's not as if i didn't know i built in a bunch of defensiveness around knowing I was being perceived female and trying to control for the implications of that. (it's been a perennial topic of household conversation bc sibling and sibling-in-crime are a bit more settled into their own flavors of genderqueer especially in terms of dealing with other peoples' perceptions and i've still been grappling with a lot of 'i need to look GAY i need to look QUEER i need to look LIKE A BOY I need to look COMPLETELY UNAVAILABLE. do NOT perceive me. ENGAGE 'SOMEBODY ELSE'S PROBLEM FIELD' to MAXIMUM CAPACITY. i am JUST SOME GUY. FUCK i dress like a 12-YEAR-OLD and people think i'm in HIGH SCHOOL but they STILL DON'T THINK I'M A BOY' 'buddy hey do you think maybe you're overthinking the way people perceive you and trying to accommodate for that instead of being yourself' 'I KNOW BUT HEY'

i think starting to working in a much more public retail job kind of threw it into sharp relief because before I wasn't doing that on purpose, i just got so used my Whole Deal just sort of automatically flying under the radar. and suddenly every day i'm having to deal with other peoples' assumptions. and every day i'm still kicking and yowling and biting because all i'm getting is other people trying to shove me into a box. they see a girl-shaped person and it doesn't matter about the collared button-down shirt and what's usually a boy's name on the apron, lol what's a pronoun button, she's young and skinny and cute and white and that's what the quirky young ladies do these days because androgyny is trendy right??

(do not get me started on how women are not allowed to age and how trans guys get infantilized and how i keep getting clocked as much younger than i am, what does a guy have to do to get treated like a goddamn grown-up ah fuck i gotta show up with healthy boundaries and self-respect probably because i'm not about to stop dressing like a twelve year old because i am fighting for my life to retain my youthful whimsy on this godforsaken bitch of an earth)

and then. not much changes but I change. six weeks on T and i'm like ugh nothing's happening it's fine it's fine it's gonna be gradual it's gonna take its own time. and then two weeks later, holy shit. the goddamn second i unlocked the slightest bit of facial hair and boom. 'not my fault you think i'm a girl. skill issue. oh shit i look GOOD'

they (the charming and helpful transmascs who make youtube videos) said T won't just up and fix your confidence issues, and yeah okay they're right because something something gotta find that in yourself or whatever, but also. they were right when they said it doesn't not fix your confidence issues.

now. sometimes it's even more fucking jarring when it's easier for me to forget that it still doesn't always translate. last week some middle-aged guy tried to ask me out while i was at work (it was a short and not ill-mannered interaction but pretty obviously 'area man has interacted with a Young Lady for five minutes and decided to go for it' way) and it was like. The FUCK? now?? like. sir. babygirl. you are not only barking up the wrong tree you are not even in a forest right now. this is in fact. a lumber department. 'you look lovely' my ass i am the grubbiest little dweeb you have ever seen and these aprons flatter nobody, not even me. who the fuck do you think you're trying to kid. also i'm a boy. no sparing your feelings no laughing it off no 'easy mistake to make' i hope you feel super awkward about this. not my fault you tried to pick up a grown-ass man with a mustache. i don't care if you were polite about it you're old enough to be my dad and this is my workplace. i am once again asking how the fuck did you get past security.

(work-life gender is totally a thing too. at work i am 'actually a boy but thanks', i'm they/he and uh him actually when people use 'her', i am just some guy, fuck you i am a grown-ass man stop telling me how to do my job boomer. and then i get to go home and be a creature and a weird little man (nonbinary) and i'm suddenly more comfortable in a bunch of the girl(?) shirts i had stopped wearing and i'm looking forward to approaching more of a queer guy flavor of femininity on my own time)

it's weird too in that materially very little has changed, like it's been all of four months, i sound like i'm getting over a cold and my face can do a new party trick. it's all still mine, it's just that maybe it feels a little bit more mine now.

anyway the point of all this was that. i couldn't be hot because i couldn't act like i was hot because i couldn't envision a version of events where people didn't make this my problem. and suddenly I'm Just Hot Now. because I Am. like it's just a fact now it's an immutable law of the universe. all those posts about 'i'm transgenedner and sexy' and i was like 'love that for you, couldn't be me tho' and now i'm transgedener and sexy. am I going to do anything about it?? god no. i'm gonna make this everybody else's problem.

(be funny if i had a slut era in an asexual way but one thing at a time perhaps)

[leibholz-moved]

5, 10, and 11 for Nene ^.^

heyo!! thank you for the ask sm! 💗

5. does your self insert have any special powers or abilities?

— n.’s curse can be called such, though its probability manipulation is often detrimental to them..

10. how do the other characters feel about your self insert and f/o’s relationship?

— voted shrekverse’s worst couple it depends really! the movie character n. interacts with the most must be the ethical bug and he’s at first cautiously excited about using them as an emotional connection to try and reform jack.. only to find out n.’s own moral compass is completely self-centred as well and they’re no help whatsoever >:) in turn, jack’s employees often try to get in néné’s good graces.. butter up their boss’ beau so to say))

(as for the characters who only exist in my au, almost everyone in néné’s immediate family just Loathes the idea of having a commoner nouveau riche for an in-law..)

11. what kind of outfit(s) does your self insert wear?

— stripes for days. over time i’ve drawn néné in a (narrow) variety of fits, inspired mostly by the 1790s(-ish) european fashion. as a member of an affluent family and a hereditary royalty they allow themselves to dress up NICELY

here are some examples of extant pieces and costumes that i’ve referenced/was inspired by —>

(honourable mention of striped dress from sleepy hollow that had the whole generation of goth she/thems by the throat. and this iconic bit from hark! the vagrant because it’s the entire mood)