#OH WE'VE FUCKED IT. WE'VE FUCKED EVERYTHING

[admirationandromantics]

Forced Confession

He would. We've already seen it!!! Anyways, this does not feature some of Josh's "darker" methods, but just early game banter. I tried a little with just the two boys, but let me tell you, I struggle so incredibly much with the guy pov. I still think it worked out. You basically got two scenarios and the locked-in bedroom-bit. Enjoy <3

Word count: 1,4k (Unedited)

imagine josh trying to set you up with chris kinda like he tried to do with chris and ashley, he makes comments about you to chris pissing him off and getting him all riled up, he sends you off to do some tasks together until he locks you both in some bedroom at the lodge and he's kinda forced to confess to you 👀👀 -anon

“You know, she’s really hot, if you don’t do anything about it, Mike might” Josh tells Chris, stopping him in his tracks. 

“Dude, please, don’t rush me” 

“Oh come on, she’s not going to wait forever, you’ve been a perfect gentleman, now get going with it!” 

Chris furrows his brows, unsure about how to react. It’s true, you guys have been walking around the bush for too long, and now, you might set your sights on someone else. At the same time, if he did confess, and you didn’t feel the same, he’d ruin everything you guys had, everything you’d built up. 

“Man, I know, but what if something goes wrong, it might”

“Or you might fuck until dawn, and to be honest, I think I’m right” 

“I don’t know” 

Josh sighs, shaking his head in disbelief. His friends were dumb as shit, and it annoyed the hell out of him. If you guys just got done with it already, there’d be so much less tension in the room. 

“Okay, proposal. If you take her against that tree right there, I’ll give you fifty dollars”

“What?” 

“Seventy if I can tape it” 

“What, no, absolutely not” 

“You had your chance” 

***

A loud smack is heard, and both mine and Josh’s heads turn to the window. Chris is not there anymore. The lodge lock was frozen, and we had to find another way in. Chris seemed like he had a plan, and Josh and I followed through, managing to open a window and looking inside. Or, falling inside, at least Chris did. He lets out a loud whine, and Josh helps me up on the box to look inside. The clumsy blonde is laying on his back, on the floor, eyes pressed tightly together and arms laying weakly in each direction. I give him a look. This man needs to be more careful. Josh appears beside me, using the frame of the window for stability. 

“I should’ve paid more attention in climbing class” 

“You mean gym?” 

I let out a laugh as Chris gets up, groaning in pain. 

“You okay, Chrissy?” 

“Yeah, yeah” he mumbles, waving his hand. I look deeper inside the cellar. Everything’s dark and creepy, and I would definitely prefer to wait outside with the others. 

“Okay, you next” Josh exclaims, hand laid out as if asking for a dance. 

“What, absolutely not. Have you seen the inside?” 

“Believe it or not, but I have” he smirks, shaking his head to Chris. I roll my eyes, everyone’s being a prick today. Especially this guy with his suggestive comments and small favours. 

“Fine” I conclude, starting to climb. I get one leg in, laying flat on my stomach as I try to get through, hopefully safer than Chris. 

“Incoming!” Josh shouts, pushing me inside. I yelp, my whole body falling inside, muscles tightening and eyes closing, waiting for the impact. Instead of a concrete floor, two strong hands grab me, a little weakly at first, but then tightening the grip. I open my eyes, seeing Chris looking down worriedly, holding me bride style. 

“And there came the princess, off to the honeymoon guys!” he shouts, about to leave us. 

“Are you fucking insane, Washington?” I yell at him, cheeks flustered from my position. I try not to think about it, but every time I turn my eyes, he’s already staring at me. 

“No, just getting things going, you know?” 

“Man, be careful won’t you? She could’ve gotten hurt” Chris adds, hands grabbing me harder. I have to look away, ashamed by how turned on I get by his hands and grip. 

“Nah, you wouldn’t have let that happen. Enjoy yourselves, though not too much!” Josh finishes, jumping down from the box and leaving us in the cellar. 

“Um, you can put me down now” I say, smiling up at him. He looks as if in a trance, eyes big and sparkly. My request makes him shake his head, nodding and gently letting me down. I don’t miss the opportunity to caress his chest, his jacket a little open. Hopefully, the touch is so subtle he doesn’t notice. 

“Of course, of course. Let’s find the bathroom” 

***

Sam walks up to me, head tilted in an innocent manner. A way that makes it feel… not so innocent. 

“Hey, I left my towel in the guest room, can you grab it?” 

“Can’t you?” I ask back, everything feeling out of place. Something’s up, and I don’t know what. 

“Josh is waiting for me in the cellar, to get the warm water running, I’m about to go down, can you just grab it, please?” 

I nod, giving her a sceptical ‘sure’, making her smile. She walks away, and I wait for a couple of seconds, just to check that this isn’t some set-up. After about 20 seconds, I make my way to the room. I would’ve seen or heard her by now if she was watching or planning something. 

The hallway is empty, the only sound being my boots on the dark wood floor. This year feels different than before. Something’s in the air, and that scares me. Maybe Josh is planning something? It wouldn’t be the first time. Sometimes I even wonder if he’s out to get me. Usually when it’s about Chris though. He can’t just accept that he doesn’t feel that way about me, and if I did something, he’d be freaked out and I’d ruin everything we have. I walk into the room, being met with the blonde himself. 

“Chris?” 

He turns, looking at me surprisingly, then shifts his gaze around the room. Before either of us can put two and two together, the door smacks shut, a small click coming from the other side. Shit, those little fucks. 

“Hey!” I yell, banging on the door. A load of snickers are heard from the outside, making me yell louder and hit harder. Chris sighs, walking over to me and trying a calmer approach. 

“Guys, come on. We’re supposed to get ready to party all night long, right? Now let us out” 

“No fucking way!” Josh laughs, earning himself a high five from Sam. At least that’s what it sounds like. 

“What was it you told me a while ago? Oh, that day Chris was wearing a t-shirt, showing off his arms?” Sam teases, and I hit the door as hard as I can. Chris looks my way, intrigued by the continuity. Sam and Josh talks as if they’re on a children's tv show, each sentence clear and horrific to hear. 

“What did she say, Sam?” Josh jokes, making the whole situation worse. My cheeks flush, terrified of the next sentence. 

“Yeah, what did you say?” Chris asks, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. I shake my head. This cannot be happening. 

“I think it was something about being headlocked and fucked from behind while he flexes his muscles?” 

“I’m going to fucking kill you, Sam!” I shout, head in my hands from the humiliation. Fucking god, Christ, holy shit. I’ll be dead before I get to kill her. Being locked into a room with Chris, forcing him to hear everything. 

“Oh, what a coincidence Sam, do you know what dear old Chris said the other day?” 

“Oh, do tell!” Sam exclaims, clapping her hands in excitement. 

“I think it was that day she was wearing a skirt” 

I perk my ears, and suddenly intrigued myself. Now Chris was the one banging on the door, telling them to shut up. His ears are red, cheeks flushed and eyes glossy. Josh continues either way. 

“Something about him pushing her against the wall, lifting her leg until she’d be fully exposed and showing herself off to him while he pounds into her” 

My mouth falls open, looking over at an embarrassed Chris. He’s turned away from me, too ashamed to meet my gaze. Sadly, I know how he feels. Carefully, my hand makes it to his torso, grabbing a bit of his sweater and turning him around. My pulse skyrockets, his gaze darker than ever, tongue licking slowly over his lower lip. I lean forward, and before I can make my next move, he does it for me. My back is slammed against the door, lips meeting mine in a hungry, passionate manner, eating me up. My hands fly to his neck, pulling him closer while nails scratch his skin. 

“Oh shit, that thud was definitely not out of anger. We don’t want to hear this, Josh” Sam says, both of their footsteps walking down the hall, the sounds growing lesser and lesser from the distance. But honestly, no matter how close they are, I can’t really hear them. I’m too caught up with Chris’s small moans and groans, the way they vibrate down my throat.

[televisionenjoyer]

WHY ARE MOVIES GETTING DARKER I AM ON MY KNEES

Ok fuck it let's go. My amateurish opinions on the three biggest mysteries of film: why they're getting darker, less vibrant and harder to hear. As someone who has worked on camera, montaging, effects and animations, colorimetry when I'm allowed, and on one weird occasion, audio (but I'm an enthusiast ok?)

The short answer is because of technology. The long answer is more nuanced

- Why are movies getting darker?

The "official answer" that filmmakers give actually is technology. Digital cameras allow for much more detail with less lighting required. It also allows videographers to play with different light and exposure settings on the go, instead of having to go with the limitations of the pre-bought film's asa and the precalculated ideal settings. Also film is notoriously bad at capturing dark scenes and responsible for much of the graining we see on analog tv and film.

So basically, they claim it's a stylistic choice. Which could be debated, I mean, after at least five years of everyone complaining about poor lighting, you'd think they'd finally give it up.

BUT there's the whole fact that (certain) special effects are generally easier to pull off when the viewer can't see enough to detect any flaws. They require less care and thus are cheaper and faster to produce. Any studio's wet dream.

Less notably, it's easier to work "down" on colorimetry than it is to work "up." Taking away light from a shot is easier than "creating more light", the latter sometimes leading to very "digitally broken" results. It looks bad. Just grab any video and crank the exposure. It looks horrible.

"But what does exposure have to do with color?" Everything!!! Color IS light!!!

Which leads me to the last reason, HDR. Which leads me to one of the reasons why everything looks so dull.

- Why are movies less vibrant?

So. What is HDR? High Dynamic Range refers to technologies that achieve a much wider light variation. And as we established earlier color IS light, okay? So. More light, more color, brought to you at the hand of display technologies such as OLED and microdimming.

These technologies ramp up the price of domestic screens exponentially. This is why you see domestic televisions that are way above the 2000 dollar mark. And then people will say "oh but my low end television supports HDR, so that's not the issue". Yes. Supports. As in supports files encoded in HDR. Doesn't mean that they have the necessary technology to take advantage of it. Yet they get to put the HDR10 label on their product and get in on the newest marketing fad (it's the new 4k dude. Which is the new 3D. You get what I mean)

And since it is the newest fad, then of course filmmakers HAVE to get in on it. I mean, it's more quality, who doesn't want more quality?

me!!! please stop. not everything has to be aimed at high end equipment (more on this when we get to the audio aspect, aren't you excited?). HDR looks like DOGSHIT if your tv isn't actually OLED. And most consumer TV's aren't OLED.

Tech rant over, I assure you that there is a cultural aspect to this. Don't worry, you're not insane. And it probably is related to the clean girl minimalist iOS style UX modest and demure mentality that is advancing on the 2020s. But it is also related to an art medium shift that we've been undergoing since wayy back when. The sixties.

Yes. I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna talk about Star Trek. I'm going to elaborate on my previous slight outrage.

So. Star Trek marks the beginning of a transition from black and white television into color. It also lands on that weird spot where the whole medium of film and television was still figuring out which elements to import from the ancient medium of theater and which were best left behind.

As a result, Star Trek is very theatrical. And color is a good friend of theater, a medium where everything has to be maximized so that the people in row fifty could appreciate the show almost as well as the people on the first row. Color is a good friend of theater: in wardrobe it helps the performers stand out, boosts up the characters' personality traits, etc. And in lighting, it amplifies moods, conveys emotions and atmospheres related to particular scenes.

The version of Star Trek that you can find on streaming these days is considerably altered from the original product, remastered to make it more palatable to our contemporary brains. As a result, many scenes have been visually altered. The following example shows the original master on the left and the remaster on the right

And while at first I held my head in my hands and asked "why, god, why??" The answer is probably that this reads as unserious as fuck. Having the technology now to desaturate scenes and make certain settings look "cloudy", "gritty", "dark and grim," and so on changed the way we perceive colors in regards to mood on modern film and television. This primary color ass setting in today's context reads as goofy, on a scene that is actually meant to impose concern on the viewers. This wouldn't read this way on theater, but it does on television, because we see them as completely separate mediums.

(however I insist that, star trek being a culturally significant show, making these type of creative decisions strips it of its original intent and shits on its cultural value as a window into how they did television in the sixties. so like. fuck you paramount)

Now, television has been getting thematically darker this century (some call it the post-9/11 effect. I wouldn't know. I am latinoamerican) and our palate as viewers has grown more used to these desaturated settings, to the point where seeing something vibrant like the original star trek makes us feel like we're watching a kids show. And not even a modern kids show, more like teletubbies or barney, because have you guys even seen bluey?? It's so... pastel-y.

It's not just HDR. Movies have gotten less vibrant because we're miserable. Sort of. And television and film have grown obsessed with appearing more serious. (Not that sitcoms and comedy movies have ceased to exist, I'm generalizing.)

- But why is dialogue less intelligible?

Official Answer? Technology. Nowadays we are able to capture subtleties in dialogue, so actors don't have to project their voice 24/7, and we can get more intimate dialogue, something almost intended to be a secret that you shouldn't be listening to, making you feel like an intruder. It's the intent.

Unofficially? Technology (marketing fad edition). It's surround audio!!! That's the real culprit!!! And listen, I love surround audio, I have two 5.1 systems at home that we bought secondhand and work like a charm. All that being said: why is star trek tos in 5.1? (YES I'm still on star trek). Why is everything natively encoded in surround audio on streaming these days, left to be down-mixed in real time by your tv?

I'm going to quickly explain surround to y'all using 5.1 as an example. On stereo (which is how most consumers watch film and television) you have two audio channels: your left and right speakers. 5.1 has six: front-left, center, front-right, rear-left, rear-right, and subwoofer. Most dialogue goes through the center speaker. Downmixing is when your tv takes all these channels and mushes them into two: left channel (containing left-front, left rear, center and subwoofer) and right channel (right front, right rear, center and subwoofer). So your center channel is suddenly competing with all these other frequencies and gets a bit muffled.

But wait! It gets worse! 5.1 is now ancient by technology fad standards. For a while there was 7.1 and now the newest, incredibly expensive marketing fad is Dolby Atmos (you might have seen it as a badge on streaming services such as Disney plus). This protocol supports up to 64 channels. You know, if you're crazy and rich enough.

Dolby Atmos was originally developed for cinemas but it's now being sold to direct consumers. According to Dolby, the ideal sound configuration in your home in order to listen to this material the way it was intended from the comfort of your living room is of at least eight (very fancy) speakers and up to 12 speakers.

So. Even with a 5.1 system your audio is still down-mixed.

In conclusion:

Film and television did not get shittier (well, they have, but that's not the sole culprit of this crisis), it just became less accessible and overall uninterested in catering to the average consumer.

[gonkaccino]

so uuuuh finally got to start double exposure chapter 3 and WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK??? WHAT THE FUCK?????????????

[jonesandashes]

[aroaceleovaldez]

non-exhaustive list of canon powers Nico di Angelo either has shown or is heavily implied to have:

Shadow-travel

Manipulation of shadows/darkness (also possibly use of shadows as a pocket-dimension a la Magicians using the Duat in The Kane Chronicles)

Becoming intangible/shadows

Complete control over skeletons/bones (dead or alive, including summoning, reanimation, and/or changing shape of them) and being able to sense their presence

Summoning, reanimating, commanding, and dispelling the dead/undead (Skeletons, zombies, ghosts, etc & varieties) and being able to sense their presence

Ability to understand/communicate with the dead/undead and potentially other beings of the Underworld

Inherent complete comprehension of Latin

Ability to perceive the usually unperceivable/possibly look upon a deity’s true form without repercussion (at least moreso than the average demigod, though possibly is restricted to chthonic beings) (ex: Tartarus, potentially also interacting with his parents, etc)

Interacting tangibly with ghosts (implied to be a Ghost King thing rather than a Hades/Pluto thing)

Partial or complete immunity to different effects of the Underworld/things within (can consume food/drink of or in the Underworld without repercussions, effects from the Lethe wear off over time instead of being permanent like usual for mortals, etc)

Astral projection/”Walking in dreams”

Dream manipulation and projection (Sending dreams to others, etc.) (presumably includes sharing/projecting dreams with others) alongside inflicting sleep upon others even from a distance.

Illusions

Manipulation of emotions/aura that inflicts specific emotions on others (ex.: radiating fear/death onto enemies)

Projection of emotions and memories onto others (can be so forceful it causes physical damage like a shockwave)

Geokinesis (all forms but also specifically generating black marble) (presumably also specialized control over precious gemstones & non-paper currency)

Temperature manipulation (seemingly only lowering temperature)/creating frost)

Control/manipulation of souls, including living beings (ex: ripping out Bryce Lawrence’s soul)

Perceiving/reading/judging of souls (most likely also a Ghost King thing over Hades/Pluto thing, but possibly both)

Converting living into dead/undead, aka instakill (ex: disintegrating monsters to bone with one touch)

Lowering or manipulation of own vitals (breathing, heart rate, etc)

Death Trance/pseudo-hibernation (possibly also general control over states of consciousness at least for self, in combo with control over vitals & dreams)

Sensing death (impending or when it occurs, sometimes receiving dreams/visions of it occurring)

Able to sense other children of Hades/Pluto (potentially also other chthonic beings in general/able to identify based on sense alone) and also just living beings in general, such as mortals (possibly via souls).

Improved navigation underground/in the Underworld and ability to traverse restricted or normally unnavigable parts of the Underworld

Enhanced strength/abilities when in the Underworld

Inherently unnaturally quiet (possibly able to silence sound on a designated target)

Hiding/shielding self from being perceived (seemingly related to shadows/silence)

[synonymroll648]

from a vibes perspective, i totally understand why so many people look at keefe and go ‘this guy would be the male equivalent of a wine aunt when he’s older’. 

but. but. 

taking lore into consideration, in my heart, he’s terrified of alcohol (even if he tries really hard to hide it). because. like. his first exposure is almost guaranteed to be through cassius, and cassius canonically threw a glass extremely close to him at least once when he was, like, 8. maybe cassius wasn’t always extra nasty when he was drunk, but there’s gotta be a correlation in keefe’s brain between risking getting seriously hurt (emotionally or physically) and alcohol consumption that’s really hard for him to shake. 

[catboycyrus]

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS ABOUT CYRUS BEING CANONICALLY AUTISTIC

well sure but I figured we all knew that for years due to his nature? One of the most obvious autistic characters ever invented right behind Fegan Floop of Spy Kids fame.

[queeranese]

oh its so fucking over 😭

[gravesung-moving]

hoooome! i'm not feeling the greatest emotionally so i might keep off the dash for a bit, just chew on drafts & touch grass (or bake somethin sweet !!) to remind myself that internet social anxiety is natural bc we weren't designed for such constant public interpersonal contact without physical connection JKSDJKDSH mwah mwah. salutes. ON A BETTER NOTE the arcane season 2 trailer has me in SHAMBLES OH MY GODDDDD

[hauntingblue]

Them doing a photo lineup of the mugis for the battle and when it's Robin's turn she just turns and does a blue eyed stare at the camera 😭😭

Look at her 😭😭

[autumn-applepie]

University ever pushes you so low you have to go buy a couple of beers? /srs/neg

I'm gonna vent in the tags for a moment humor me for once /gen

[lesbiansanemi]

I am so fucking sick of living with my roommate and his fuck ass boyfriend. Also watching my roommate burn every single one of his (already rather minimal, I might add) bridges for this guy is also kind of painful but also his relationship with me is one of said bridges so I'm almost past the point of even feeling bad for him lmao

[innielove]

.

[freebooter4ever]

holy shit for the first time in ten years i forgot nicks birthday

[timoswerner]

might just smash my head against a wall you know

[newtness532]

im so annoyed with everything today, i think i need some tasty food and a million hours of sleep and then I'll be back to normal