#Official Film Chart

[thepeoplesmovies]

The Ape Rules In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes At Official Film Chart

The Apes rule in the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes makes a Number 1 debut on the Official Film Chart. The standalone sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes flies in at the top spot with 59.6k sales entirely on digital downloads. Starring Owen Teague and Freya Allan, the takes place many years after the previous film; with apes now the dominant species on earth and humans living in…

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

ABBA - Waterloo 1974

"Waterloo" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA, with music composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and lyrics written by Stikkan Anderson. It is first single of the group's second studio album of the same name, and their first under the Atlantic label in the US. This was also the first single to be credited to the group performing under the name ABBA. The title and lyrics reference the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, and use it as a metaphor for a romantic relationship.

In 1974, "Waterloo" represented Sweden in the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Brighton, winning the contest and beginning ABBA's path to worldwide fame. The song differed from the standard "dramatic ballad" tradition at the contest by its flavour and rhythm, as well as by its performance. ABBA gave the audience something that had rarely been seen before in Eurovision: flashy costumes (including silver platform boots), a catchy uptempo song and simple choreography. It was the first winning entry in a language other than that of their home country; prior to 1973, all Eurovision singers had been required to sing in their country's native tongue, a restriction that was lifted briefly for the contests between 1973 and 1976 (thus allowing "Waterloo" to be sung in English), then reinstated before ultimately being removed again in 1999. Watch the performance in Swedish here. Sveriges Radio released a promo video for "Waterloo" that was directed by film director Lasse Hallström, whose first notable English-language film success was What's Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993. ABBA recorded the German and French versions of "Waterloo" in March and April 1974; the French version was adapted by Alain Boublil, who would later go on to co-write the 1980 musical Les Misérables.

The song shot to number 1 in the UK and stayed there for two weeks, becoming the first of the band's nine UK number 1's, and the 16th biggest selling single of the year in the UK. It also topped the charts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, West Germany, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland, while reaching the Top 3 in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. Unlike other Eurovision-winning tunes, the song's appeal transcended Europe: "Waterloo" also topped the charts in South Africa, and reached the Top 10 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, and the US (peaking at number 6, their third-highest-charting US hit after number 1 "Dancing Queen" and number 3 "Take a Chance on Me"). In 2005, at Eurovision fiftieth anniversary competition Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, "Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the contest's history.

"Waterloo" is featured in the encore of the musical Mamma Mia!. The song does not have a context or a meaning. It is just performed as a musical number in which members of the audience are encouraged to get up off their seats and sing, dance and clap along. The song is performed by the cast over the closing credits of the film Mamma Mia!, but is not featured on the official soundtrack. It is also performed as part of the story in the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, by Hugh Skinner and Lily James.

The Australian film Muriel's Wedding (1994), features "Waterloo" in a pivotal scene in which lead Toni Collette bonds with the character played by Rachel Griffiths. The film's soundtrack, featuring five ABBA tracks, is widely regarded as having helped to fuel the revival of popular interest in ABBA's music in the mid-1990s. "Waterloo" features prominently in the 2015 science-fiction film The Martian. The song plays as the film's lead, played by Matt Damon, works to ready his launch vehicle for a last-chance escape from Mars. In "Mother Simpson", the eighth episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns plays "Ride of the Valkyries" from a tank about to storm the Simpson home, but the song is cut-off and "Waterloo" is played, to which Smithers apologizes, advising he "must have accidentally taped over that".

"Waterloo" received a total of 89% yes votes!

(the video is posted by ABBA's own account, not Eurovision's = safe to watch)

[loguine-linguine]

Ok hear me out!!!

Steve is a musician who sings pop music and posts on TikTok. He’s kind of a C-ish list celebrity (definitely a bit of a nepo baby) and his music is poppy and catchy. It’s the kinda stuff that you can immediately tell is coming from someone who is actively holding things back/ isn’t writing from any truth. Mall music at its purest form. Then one day with no announcement Steve drops a double sided album that is like GOOD GOOD pop music. It’s also noted very quickly that the pronouns in all the songs have definitely switched to he/him. People freak out and he starts charting for the first time in his career. Kinda Chappell Roan-esque situation where he skyrockets to being a queer pop icon very very quickly.

He starts doing interviews. He shows up to these interviews in outfits aren’t dramatically changed from what he usually wore (polos, jeans, bomber jackets, 80s jock vibes) but it’s all just much more camp. The cropped shirts are shorter, the jeans are tighter, and the colors are all suddenly pastel. He has also started wearing makeup (not heavy makeup but it’s definitely a lipgloss, eyeliner, mascara, highlight/blush on the tip of his nose type situation). He shares that he dropped his old producer (who he had been set up with by his father) and that he’s now working with his best friend Robin. He comes out as gay, talks about his struggle with comp-het, and proudly shares that he is super excited to contribute to the growing movement of music that is being written by queer people, for queer people. His TikTok also blows up.

This is when Tommy Hagan first starts showing up. Tommy is an actor who is pretty well known for doing teen drama TV shows (like Riverdale type deals). He introduces himself to Steve at some sort of industry event right after Steve gets big and pretty quickly starts showing up in his TikTok videos. It comes out that the two are dating pretty quickly after that. They date off and on for about a year and a half. Tommy is a shitty enough boyfriend that even Steve’s fans don’t like him. He stands him up for dates, embarrasses him at events, says rude and dismissive things about his music, etc. Robin (who is also kinda famous by proxy/writes her own music now similar to Billie Eilish and Finneas) absolutely hates his guts. Publicly. They finally break up officially after Tommy cheats on Steve with an actress named Carol who is on a show with him. It gets exposed by the tabloids and Steve finds out by seeing a photo of them making out on one of those celebrity drama TikTok accounts.

Eddie is also getting famous around this same time. He’s the lead for Corroded Coffin and also starts acting occasionally in horror films. He doesn’t really pay much attention to other celebrities or the drama that goes on. He was never into that kind of thing before the band took off so he doesn’t see why he should now. Eddie and the rest of the band are at an awards show of some sort and the others make fun of him the whole time. He can’t stop staring at this absolutely beautiful man sitting at a table near them. “The guy is wearing a slutty little lace shirt, the tightest pants in existence, and has skin that looks like honey and caramel had a child Gareth you really can’t blame me honestly.” Steve and Eddie don’t officially meet until the after party where they immediately hit it off.

A few months later Steve announces a new album and releases a single. It’s just Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter but gay and clearly about Tommy.

The music video comes out and people loose their minds. It’s the same sort of video as what Sabrina Carpenter just released for Please Please Please with the stunning outfits and the whole bad boy thing. Steve spends the whole video in dresses and skirts. There’s even a corset at one point. The bigger freak out is the fact that the Barry Keoghan equivalent is Eddie and its a hard launch of their relationship that fans had absolutely zero clue was even a possibility because why would horror/metal man Eddie Munson even know Steve Harrington???? Robin and the Corroded Coffin guys think the whole thing is hilarious. Eddie and Steve are so so happy :)

[devosin]

— LATE NIGHTS & FLASHING LIGHTS !! episode four : participation prize . . .

♡. Spotify playlist | Updates, every Friday !! — Vil Schoenheit x reader | Dual pov . .

Setting: 3 years ago . . 

You looked down at your shoes, the expensive pair the brand that sponsored you had provided for the event of the 'century' they call it, and you just wished mentally you drowned a glass of something to ease your nerves before you got into the car. It was your first award show as an actor—as an official actor, and it was right after your first gig had blown up and a few months after your 4 year relationship with your fiancé had ended. 

You took a deep breathe, sinking into the leather fabric of the carseat, your anxiety off the charts, you didn't know how to react—well you knew you shouldn't react in the first place—all that media training would be for nothing if you fucked up now, and the idea of fucking up in itself made the anxiety boil . . they didn't quite explain what fucking up entails, just not to go againest your brand . .  but what even is your brand at this point?

The media was so unpredictable and so was your newfound fanbase, just yesterday you could remember how much of your fanbase turned on you because you joined the influencer to celebrity train by accepting an acting gig—and now you're being praised—your anxiety grew as you recalled how many friends had turned on you that day, as the trailer released, and now you're nominated for three different awards for your role? How fucking stupid. 

You could hear the cheers of the crowd as the car closed in on the red carpet, and you found it overwhelming—suddenly the makeup on your face, the designer clothes that weighed you down . . felt all too overbearing for you to take . . but as the car door opened and you were guided outside . . you put your best face on and walked down that carpet, because you got this far, might as well live through it. 

Time: 1:23 pm Location: arena

Vil sat down on his assigned chair and table at the Arena, a little sigh escaped his lips as he let his nerves finally cool down, he wasn't normally overwhelmed, he worked hard to trample those feelings of unease, anxiety, and perhaps even a bit of envy down to the mud, to the very corner of his very being, so it would never have to be touched.  

He saw someone in blue, walking towards a table just a bit far from his, and he didn't recognize them—to be fair there were tons of new faces all around, this year has been particularly . .  welcoming, if that's what he could even call it—but he couldn’t really make out their face either . . so maybe he’s mistaken.

An hour has passed, and Vil should be sleeping right now, he really fucking should be—relaxing in his new apartment at The Chateau . . it's newly furnished . . his silk bed sheets—he's pretty sure he's drowned about half a bottle worth of champagne as the announcer seems to be worse than last year, why do they feel the need to prolong every second possible and yet give the winners less than 30 seconds worth of time to speak?

Time: 3:33 pm Location: arena

You feel sick to your stomach, sitting alone at your table—you don't know if it was on purpose, or if the people who were supposed to be sitting beside you just hadn't bothered to turn up for tonight's event—or if they were ignoring you, your not aware at all and that just made your anxiety so much worse. 

You honestly felt sick, you haven't even eaten anything just in case you threw up . .  and yet right now, that seemed to be affecting you worse, the emptiness in your stomach made you feel weirdly uncomfortable, and yet you couldn't get up, not when your category was so close to being presented—what if your seat was empty when the camera lands on you? What would the people say? What would your sponsors do? What would— 

"And the winner of best lead actor in a romance film—", the announcer fiddled with the envelope, opening it and throwing it somewhere on the stage, "Y/n L/n!"—everyone started clapping, and for a second all of your surroundings went still, your body stilling from shock and your breathing for the first time in the whole night regulated back to normal . .  after all this fucking time it all felt . .  okay. 

You wanted to cry, tears of joy. You didn’t. And made your way up to the stage like a rational person. 

Time: 3:35 pm Location: arena 

Vil stares at you coming up to the stage, the way you struggled up the stairs—because of course you did—the way your shoulders seem to shake just slightly, and how you gulped on screen—so unprofessional . . you looked like you were about to cry . . and that made him feel . . angry? Angry. 

Vil clenched and unclenched his fists as he leaned back into his chair mumbling, "They look like they're going to break down", and Rook turned to face him, here on attendance in place of his wife, "You got all that from them climbing the stairs?", he asked with a raised brow, drinking his . .  whatever that was. 

“I’m an actor, of course I did.” 

Perhaps it was anger, maybe even envy . . or maybe he just hated that he liked looking at you—or your voice—or .  .  . Vil’s mind went quiet for a moment. 

And bitterness washed over him, he was never upset with losing an award, no not since he’s been in and out of therapy but something about losing to an influencer hurt him—hurt his pride, someone who stood on camera for 30 seconds doing little to nothing . . beating him. 

Wow, way to wreck a man's pride. 

Vil turned to face you as you walked back, eyeing your every movement . . Did you know you walked weird? At a 30 degree angle to be exact.

Rook mention <333

Sorry for the late update our wifi was so slow making and downloading graphics was actually hell and I had to eat.

Previous chapter | Masterlist | Next chapter . .

— LATE NIGHTS & FLASHING LIGHTS !! ♡. Synopsis : VIL SCHOENHEIT recently signed a contract under Descendant. Inc for his very own late night show, only to find out his co-star and fellow co-host is none other than Y/n L/n, someone he hates despite knowing very little about them and never having met them, previously. Y/N L/N, an actor who made their debut 3 years ago and hasn’t been able to catch a break since, recently decided to sign a deal with Descendants. Inc to host their new late night show “late nights & flashing lights”, as a break from acting . . Only to find out their favorite long-time actor will be co-hosting with them. Tune in every Friday, for a new episode of “late nights & flashing lights” to see if these two hosts can find a peaceful work-bond amidst their judgements . . and quite possibly even love? . .

♡. Want spoilers ?! . . Join my server . . !! (or to be namedropped <3)

— taglist ♡ ; @well-look-at-this , @honkai-freak , @kingnem10 , @merviolet-asks , @katzline , @pebble-bb , @meigalaxy , @lordbugs , @crowbird , @yuus3n , @azriel-sama , @reivelmin , @the-ghost-0f-t0m0 , @eliza-be-t-h , @feverish-dove , @yejiswifex , @l0v3r666 , @cece-cherries , @frootloopscos , @abell2029cluster , @ephemii , @alienlatteinspace , @frangiipanii , @vamprel , @kittycat246 , @jar-03 , @leifsclubroom , @everettelz ,

♡ . Ask to be tagged... (If you don't see yourself up here, I cant tag you)

© devosin , do not repost, plagiarize, translate, or adapt my work without prior permission and or confirmation.

[centrally-unplanned]

IRL (In Real Life) - Buffydom Propaganda And The Internet-That-Was

It is 1997. You just got back from the latest Hot Topic run to restock on whatever the most raven-black bomb of Manic Panic they have on the shelves is, so you can do double-duty bleaching your hair in the shower while watching a CRT TV precariously mounted on the lip of your sink. On that TV is the Season 1 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and you are obsessed. Unfortunately for you, no one else in Bowling Green, Ohio, shares your passion for a CW WB show about vampire hunting teens who purposefully fumble their line deliveries. You are alone, and you have shit you gotta say about it to someone, anyone, who will understand.

Fortunately for you, the marketing team at ye old WB anticipated that their audience would be a bunch of fucking nerds, and boy do they have a solution to your problem! Welcome to the Bronze:

A while back I stumbled upon the inexplicable existence of "IRL (In Real Life)", a 2007 documentary about the community that formed around the aforementioned Buffy fan discussion forum/chatboard. Officially running from around the launch of the show until it switched over to UPN after its fifth season (with the forum dying a dramatic death in the process), The Bronze was a highly active center for the Buffy fandom, which generated several spillovers into real life. In particular, it was famous for the creatives and even actors on the show occasionally posting on the forum, which culminated in members of the community organizing a yearly party in Los Angeles where posters would fly out and be joined by said cast and crew. This documentary charts its culture & history via interviewing an array of its members.

As always, I am not here to give the blow-by-blow; instead, what is the narrative this documentary is trying to sell?

My previous documentary write-up was about nerd culture in the 2010’s; newly ascendant, growing confident in its own values and looking to justify that to itself, wealthy and with a developed enough ecosystem for crowdfunding to create professional, polished documentaries of its own heroes. None of that is true for IRL. Filmed on whatever camcorder/potato hybrid proto-Ebay would cough up from its zero-bid listings in a series of hotel rooms and people’s living rooms in 2003-2004 after the forum had died, this is the era of nerd culture at its most conflicted and insecure; mocked by the mainstream and unsure if it should be proud of that fact or deeply ashamed of it. And this documentary wears this conflict right on its sleeve; one of its opening lines is a confident assurance to the audience of “don’t worry, we aren’t like those nerds”:

Throwing Trekkies under the bus in the process, cold! Particularly given how it proceeds to barely even blink before pivoting to explaining their hobby of running “WITTs”, multi-day-long collaborative roleplays:

You are exactly those Trekkies my dudes; you weren’t just at the devil’s sacrament you were hosting it! "WITT" stands for Whedon Improvisational Theatre Troupe, you can't recover from that guys.

(I love how “dozens” is large by the way - it was for the internet in 2001, right?)

Anyway, beyond documenting the forum and its members, the conclusion this documentary wants you to hold is that the Bronze was a special place of real community, and it is a community of “normal” people, who made real relationships. And in particular, that internet relationships can be just as real as those found in meatspace, that these relationships transcended the digital and entered the physical; and that this is what fandom can be about.

I want to start with the ways that narrative was correct within the context of the time. I can actually explain that Klingon comment! I have one extant interview with the director of the film, Stephanie Tuszynski, and she put her motivation as follows: 

FFN: What made you decide to study Buffy fandom, particularly the Bronze, for your documentary? ST: The idea to do a documentary film about the Bronze actually came to me very early on, because "Trekkies" came out in the late 1990s so I was already a Bronzer at that point. And when I saw it I started throwing things at my television. I was incensed. That wasn't a documentary about the fandom experience, it was "hey let's find the most extreme examples possible and have a freak show!" It infuriated me […] It reinforced every awful stereotype about media fans while purporting to be objective.

It wasn’t a random example - the 1997 documentary Trekkies set the “standard” view of fandom as extremist oddballs, and Tuszynski specifically wanted to counter that. It was the early 2000’s after all, nerd stereotypes were strong, you had to fight them explicitly! In a society where there is strong background hostility to one’s identity, you will attempt to normalize it using known reference points; and certainly the people on these forums were more “normal” than the stereotypes admitted to because that entire binary framework is a dead end.

More importantly to the narrative is the online aspect, “making friends on the internet”. Another find I have is a blog post from a professor who used the film in a class; and in the film’s narrative of “people with no one ‘irl’ to share their hobby with finding friends online” triggered a debate around if the online relationships are “taking away” from in-person relationships that are presumed to be more valuable. A debate that still rages to this day over social media! But the contours were different back then, the internet was presumed to be niche, ancillary, and relationships made online in a completely separate box from “in person” friendships. The documentary goes to great lengths to explain that they were a real community because that idea is so contested. Ironically, they do this by emphasizing that they met up in person, hung out, attended each other's weddings, etc; as if only by meeting up in person could the relationships be validated as real? But you can’t truly fault them for meeting their implicit critics halfway in making their case.

So what can I fault them for?

*****

I was perpetually amused when watching the doc that they included two married couples in the filming, and for both one of the spouses would talk and the other would sit there, in silence, the entire time. Maybe they were members of the community and just not talkers; maybe their lines got cut in post. But what I kept thinking was that they were there selling normality to me; married couples are just inherently less oddball, less threatening, and in the era where “nerd = virgin” just less nerdy. Like with the Klingon line, there is an intentionality to the “just like you” vibe.

Which, as mentioned with the extensive forum roleplay, inevitably breaks down once the reality of forum activity is dug into. And I buried the lede here - you may have seen the title of the “longest” roleplay was “RTBS Soul Restoration Project”, but what does that mean? RTBS was a forum member’s name, and well:

Oh yeah, we are saving our friend from “a fate worse than death: worshiping Britney Spears” - welcome to 2001 baby! This is peak “nerd wars” stuff, the normies hate our shit so we hate the normie shit right back. Which is exactly how nerd culture was in the 2000's. I am not at all throwing shade at their tongue-in-cheek roleplay, resplendent in the ludicrously purple prose and asterisk-laden action descriptions as required by the early internet; but it sits in clear tension with some of the other messaging in this film. Leave Britney alone guys!

The documentary highlights a number of common practices from the forum - people doing daily greetings, the way that it being one unending massive chain of posts with no threading or topics meant people would mass-tag individual people to respond to and form “circles” that way - but there are things it leaves out. I did what any normal person would do after watching this documentary and read through over a year of archived posts on The Bronze to understand the community - but man did I not have to, as on literally the first page of my archived link I see:

And through God’s good grace that second link is archived:

Yes there are pictures at the link, and yes later on it does compare Buffy’s cleavage to the Mona Lisa. (The Giles link is not quite functional, but I was able to find it; sadly it is not nearly as thirsty)

I also found these “onboarding” sites for new members. Remember, this forum was the official forum, which meant there were no community mods or ability to “pin rules”, it was pure anarchy - so advice filled the gaps. And one of the bigger ones, in its *sighs and rubs forehead* blue font on black background, warns against “hottie posting” aka talking about how hot say Angel is, not because it isn’t allowed, but because it is like “pointing out the sky is blue” - it is so common that it will just get washed out.

It might seem like a similarly sky-is-blue comment to note that this forum was heavily about shipping, hotness discussion, fanfiction, and the like. Of course it was, right? These website “senior members” were trying to minimize it, police it, but it broke through constantly and also simmered under the surface through discussions and RP’s from my own review of the forum. The documentary, however, spends incredibly little time on it. Brief mentions of Angel fics, and no mention (iirc) of discussion of how hot the women were at all. Because once again those details really don’t fit into the narrative it is trying to sell.

At one point in the documentary someone notes how diverse all the friends they met in this community were? Which I broke out laughing over. In one way it is not wrong, I get it! Midwest college kids meeting people from all over the country, ages 40 to 14, talking about something no one in their podunk town understands. But on the other hand, you could not come up with a more standardized slice of humanity if you tried to rig it. Everyone here is an American+ with computer access in 1998, it is a grab bag of sys admins, nerd creatives, and comp sci majors.  I did a random sampling googling the people interviewed to see what they are up to now, and literally a third of them are librarians. Even their fashion is like God played a prank on this director; not even a 2000’s anime con panel lineup is this stereotypical in the combinations of alt-goth lit girls and nerdcore computer bros.

The evolutionary process of joining this forum -> liking it enough to go to the live meetups -> liking that enough to participate in a documentary about it was a pressure cooker spitting out only a certain kind of person. Which is truly fascinating to see on display! This is the internet-that-was; and it bleeds through the grainy film despite the director’s efforts at times to the contrary.

Though even then it was only a very specific slice of the internet-that-was, because this is a very special breed of Online; namely, the professionals.

*****

Something that is decidedly not typical of The Bronze as an online community is that, as mentioned before, Joss Whedon and other creatives posted on the web forum, answering questions and also just playing around, and how that led to in-person parties where both forum members and cast/crew attended - the Posting Board Parties, or PBP’s. At these they hosted fundraisers, talked about the show, and in the documentary one girl reverently describes with incredible Repressed Lesbian Energy her experience of seeing Eliza Dushku dancing next to her. The PBP had a panel of party organizers, admission systems to keep out the “undesirables”, budgets, the works.

All this the documentary shares openly; it is a peak moment where the digital becomes real in a transcendent way, opening doors analog reality never could. It is also a cold-sweat-waking nightmare story from the lens of a modern Hollywood social media manager; one person in the documentary tells the tale of how one time lead actress Allyson Hannigan posted her phone number on the forum asking people to leave her cute voicemails. The person in question immediately called, and got Hannigan herself instead of the voicemail, so they chatted for a bit (The guy telling this tale is obviously lovestruck; his wife is sitting in typical silence next to him). Today this would be a code-red, nuke your phone situation; but the circle was so cloistered, and the rules so unwritten, that no one cared in these early years.

What they share less openly is all the drama that went into this event. They wax nostalgic about how the parties brought them together, but what isn’t mentioned is the church schism it caused, as the moment cast from the show started attending the party it got mobbed by outsiders. By its ~3rd year there were approximately 400 guests but only ~50 or so were from the forum. They had a huge fight about it, the head of PFP planning committee - “Morbius the Vampire”, who was later jailed for financial fraud btw - told the dissenting faction why don’t they just throw their own party if they hate his so much, and so they did. There was more fighting about it, and eventually they held a peace summit at an LA joint called Mel’s Diner to merge the two factions together. (My source for this is a book, which I will link later)

Hilarious, for sure, but while so much of what we have discussed is “proto online nerd communities”, this part is most decidedly not. The typical web forum absolutely cannot replicate the experience of roleplay-posting your way into shaking hands with Joss Whedon and having a shitfight over party budgets in LA. But most posters never got to attend these parties, of course, this didn’t mean much to them. While for those who did, you cannot help but imagine that this played a gigantic role in making them all become a “real” community. And care enough about that circle to, well after the forum was gone, schlep to a hotel room to be interviewed for a documentary about it. Participating in a documentary is always, in some way, an exercise in selection bias; but here the pruning is turned up to 11 - this is a very elite slice of a very unique fandom experience.

*****

I have one deeper level to go on this thread, somewhat buried in time today, that further shaped the participants here: “Whedon Studies”. The 2000’s was not the birth of media studies as an academic discipline; but it was the birth of fandom-driven media studies, and Buffy was nearly unassailably the leading light of that movement. Academics hosted entire conferences (and inexplicably still do!) on Buffy, Firefly, etc; almost all from the lens of gender & media, as Buffy’s brand was deeply entrenched in that deconstructive milieu. This movement would die a fiery death during the 2010’s shift in media & gender politics, and when the controversies around the toxic working conditions on the set of Buffy/Angel led to Joss Whedon’s near-total expulsion from creative pursuits. The whole edifice is, in a deep way, “cringe” for many of its former participants today.

But what is relevant for our story is that director Stephanie Tuszynski was a full member of that movement; while composing this film she was, for example, giving talks like these at conferences devoted to the Buffyverse:

God that is a lot of talks. This film itself was her thesis project for her I believe philosophy masters, and in our scant interviews lists other fandom-academic film projects she wanted to tackle (which as best I can tell fizzled out later). And the interview subjects were often participants in the same space as well! Academic-types doing media studies with a Buffy bent, or things like culture writers for new media outlets. One of them, writer Allyson Beatrice, even published a book about the Buffy fandom that was in regular bookstores:

To quote the blurb:

A hilarious collection of true stories from Allyson's days as one of the Internet's leading cult TV fan gurus, her mind-boggling escapades include meetings with network executives in dark steakhouses to try to save doomed TV shows and one hastily arranged wedding for two committed Buffy fans. 

I highlight this not to say that academics cannot make documentaries, they certainly can. What I am saying is that if you point your camera at career Buffyverse writer Allyson Beatrice, and label her as a typical forum member giving you the hometown everygirl perspective on the community, you are, however unintentionally, lying to your audience. In its quest to give you the just-like-me Buffy fandom experience, what this documentary elides is that it is often giving you the lens of people who are fans of Buffy as a career. Those people are going to be bringing very different experiences to the table - of course they are concerned with sanitization, with nerd culture debates, the works. That is their bread-and-butter trade.

This dynamic bled into the forum’s day-to-day; there was a very clear hierarchy of “veterans” and “top” posters, who organize the live parties, have deep roots in the community, and even the ear of the show team...and everyone else. Particularly because as mentioned there were no rules on the forum, but since that can’t actually function in practice they self-generated community rules and thus their own leadership class. Cliques and groups were common and named, and veteran posters even had formally designated groupies:

I had also by this time become a groupie. I so enjoyed one particular Bronzer’s posts that she allowed me to become the seventh of her groupies. It was through groupie-dom that I got my first taste of firsthand WITT: several Bronzers, on the occasion of the birthday of she-to-whom-we-group, each took turns grabbing the microphone and praising the day that she was born. In retrospect, I’m not sure why we did this. But it was fun, and very funny, too, as we each took turns waxing melodramatic off the top of our heads. And from work, no less.

The source for this by the way is a 400 page ethnography of The Bronze posted by academic who did *cough* “field research” there; I am sure their membership in the “Bronzers Adoring Darla” fangroup was purely for comprehensive data collection purposes.

And to emphasize, I am not saying this is problematic or anything - the groupie things were all in good fun, best I can tell. I simply aim to showcase how the Bronze wasn’t just a baby version of online fandom forum dynamics; but also a baby version of e-celebrity mechanics. Something the documentary does not even attempt to touch on because that would be something normal people would not understand.

*****

All of the above may have come off like one big roast, and it is a little bit, but as I have mentioned before every documentary is propaganda. It is just impossible to have a tight film building a narrative out of the pieces of letting people speak to the camera without that narrative being but a slice of the truth those people want you to know. The Bronze web forum was a very special place to these highly invested fans, and this documentary is not lying to you about that.

But it is also a big part of early internet fandom! The Bronze was famous at the time, and it is right there at the beginning of so many shifts; the first generation of non-technical internet users, a new era of ‘fantasy’ media with the trappings of prestige and social critique, a boom in critique-as-community, and more. I very much want the full picture of that community; who made it up, what did they want from it and what did they get from it, and so on. No film could offer the full picture; this film’s homebrew rawness gives a valuable piece of it, and I enjoyed it for that. I just aimed here to draw out not only what the broader, more accurate dynamics of The Bronze were, but also the cultural question of why the film focuses on what it does, hides what it refuses to show, and what that says about 2000’s internet & nerd culture. Hopefully I succeeded in that.

And also to have fun looking at some incredibly dated Buffy fandom bullshit. May it have been fun for you too! {hugs you and waves goodbye}

[yourladyem]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has officially passed Dune: Part Two at the US domestic box office.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is projected to close out its latest weekend in theaters with a cumulative domestic box office total of $283.97 million. Its 3-day gross of $5 million has pushed it past the domestic total for Dune: Part Two, which earned $282.1 million in North America. This means that the Tim Burton movie is now officially the highest-grossing Warner Bros. Pictures release of 2024 at the domestic box office.

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice box office making it the highest-grossing domestic movie for Warner Bros. also means that it has climbed to No. 4 on the overall domestic chart for the year.

Could be the highest grossing of the year for Warner Brothers studios. It's also ranked as one of the highest-grossing films for the studio ever.

Maybe this will cause the studio to push for a third film!

Sources: Screen Rant and The Numbers

[doomed2repeat]

✨CONGRATS BRIDGERTON SEASON 3!!!✨

This is the final count for the show, so it’s officially at #6 on the Netflix most popular chart at 106 million views! It should be a while before S3 is knocked off the list. Hope this means more Bridgerton in the future with an announcement for renewing for seasons 5 & 6.

Polin’s season was so loved! Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan should be proud of the work they did to lead Bridgerton and reintroduce the show to new audiences and fans. They can walk into the beginning of filming for the next season with their heads held high!

[kaiispost]

Charles Leclerc x artist!male reader

Fake Media | Face Claim: no one | y/n is a pop artist

announcement: i’m officially back for a lil while

***

yourinstagram

liked by charlesleclerc and 1,547,359 others

yourinstagram you can take me hot to go!!

view all 3,388 comments

charlesleclerc watching me win?

* liked by yourinstagram

taylorswift not even inviting me?

dojacat icon

ferrari so let’s ride!

f1 vroom 🏎️ 💨

charlifanxcx collab with charli when?

*liked by yourinstagram

charlixcx

*tagged yourinstagram

liked by 2,346,299 users

charlixcx the 360 remix with yourstagename out this friday.

view all 11,248 conments

yourinstagram can’t wait for them to hear it…

spotify they ain’t ready

theshaderoom thot daughter and gay son 😭

charlesleclerc brat summer and it’s the same but i’m in the music video so it’s not

taylorswift can’t wait to hear yourstagename

lizzobeeating he’s so julia!

*liked by yourinstagram

charlixcxdaily waitttt this is going to be ICONIC! 🤭

ynisfather OMGGG FINALLYYY😭

mileycyrus ommfgggg!

ynleclerc literally everyone rn

charlesleclerc

liked by yourinstagram and 2,486,086

charlesleclerc bumpin’ that

view all 5,497 comments

yourinstagram i’m everywhere i’m so julia!

applemusic oh absolutely!

juliafox so stylish!

ynfan1 wait so it’s basically confirmed?😭

leclercxyourname yess omgg!!! also him sitting infront of yourname’s piano?

charlixcx literally their fav reference 🥲

tmz 👀🔍🎹

sza this is going to be such an epic record

f1 bumpin that beat!

yournamedaily omg even THE f1 account is in on this?? oh they’re endgame

yourinstagram

liked by charlesleclerc and 2,005,342 others

yourinstagram the 360 remix with me out now everywhere! thank you to everyone who was in the music video, it was fun :)

view all 6,455 comments

charlixcx thank you for being on the remix

yourinstagram omg it was so fun to record, the bts is crazy.

billboard instant cult classic

spotify ur such an icon

charlesleclerc that was so fun to film, especially the the aftermath 😉

leclercdaily WAIT WHAT OMGGG YALL ARE CRAZY

sza that was such a lit party, u should def host another party soon!

arianagrande made so many core memories

troyesivan legendary

yndaily on repeat all day

f1driversdaily

liked by ynhater2 and 6,789,206 others

f1driversdaily charles via yourname’s story

view all 33,957 comments

ynhater2 ewww this is gross, i thought the f1 was safe… i guess not🤢

antilgbt right, this is a sad day for all f1 fans

sza babe this is so embarrassing for u… touch some grass and smoke a blunt, stop being weird.

f1fanpage OMGONGOGMOMG

sza ugh so happy for themmm

normalpeople32 god no, THEY got charles

christonly1 can we not promote this behaviour?

ylnstarsign this is so hot

yourlocalchurch god will lead him to the right path

yourinstagram no thanks!

zendaya y’all so weird, their relationship doesn’t have any effect on you whatsoever. you people be so miserable and single, get a life.

zendaily spot on!

yn4life yes absolutely zendaya!!! ilysmmm for thisss

yourinstagram

* tagged charlesleclerc

liked by charlesleclerc and 11,496,937 others

yourinstagram we did it, number one on the charts! these last couple of weeks have been crazy, ily charles for going through it with me and staying with me. forever grateful ❤️‍🩹

view all 45,496 comments

charlesleclerc forever yours ♾️

charlixcx WE DID ITTT ILYILYILYILY

chrlixcxfanpge U DID IT, UR FIRST NUMBER 1

sabrinacarpenter so happy for you and charli🥹

yourinstagram when r u and barry coming overrr

billieeilish sososososososo proud of uuuu, uuu made itt andd urr sooo loveddd

rayeofficial ahhhhhh soo happy for the two of u love birds and congrats charli on ur first number one!!

yndaily YESSS YALL FINALLY OFFICIAL

ynleclerc yessss ur finally outt

haterofsin i’m unfollowing, this is despicable

ynhater2 🤢 don’t shove it down our throat, it’s nasty

fanofyn these hate comments are so💀

nickjonas so glad to have been a part of this video!

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

I have the Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down: The Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion book, I got it in 2018, so here are some fun facts from it

In the party’s dnd charts it says Will’s class is “magic-user” 👀👀 and one of his abilities is “true sight” 👀👀

The first scene written and the first scene filmed are both the dnd game at s1 ep1

Mike supposedly has rainbow blinds in his room (as a reference to E.T since Elliot also has rainbow blinds)

When El throws Lucas against a wall, that was Caleb, not a body double. Apparently he was excited to film without a double and asked for it (he was thrown against a mattress). Called said he had so much fun.

During the scene where El sends the van flying, the duffers said than when they first tried it (without filming) it all went as it was supposed to, it flew the right directions. The first time they filmed, tho, the van fell on top of one of their cameras and destroyed it.

Steve is in his last year of high school (as opposed to Nancy, who is in her second, or Jonathan who is in his first)

Steve plays basketball and baseball. He was supposed to be an asshole and die the first season, but Joe Keery came and gave a bit more depth to Steve’s character.

243 people auditioned to play El

Some of El’s powers include biokinesis, teleportation, and psychometry

Hopper fought in Vietnam 

At first the upside down wasn’t supposed to appear on screen at any moment. We would have heard what happened over walkie talkies or radios.

A demodog is just a teen demogorgon (I think this was explained at the show, but I have seen people say they are different creatures)

Jonathan does cycling, is in the school newspaper, and the photography club

Caleb is very good crying on command

Mike’s bike is the newest because his family has the most money, Dustin begun painting his bike but hasn’t finished it yet, and Lucas has a fluorescent saddle

At first they weren’t allowed to use ghostbusters costumes but they talked to Ivan Reitman and eventually got green light 

Dart was supposed to appear in the first season but they didn’t have enough time

The upside down was originally called the underworld 

Nancy and Jonathan (their relationship) are inspired by David and Jennifer from WarGames (1983). Also by Willie Scott and doctor Jones from Indiana Jones

Bob was supposed to die on ep 4 instead of ep 8

For the scene with Will and Morse code (when he’s tied to a chair) the duffers just told Noah to watch a YouTube video on Morse code the day before 

Talking about Noah, after being possessed and convulsing to the point everyone was amazed with his acting, the moment they stop filming he just gets up and asks for a cup of tea like nothing happened

For the upside down spores they actually used dandelions 

Hopper is repeatedly described as a cowboy lmao

In s1 when the boys dress El up in a wig and a dress and Mike does her makeup, they are dressing her up in their vision of what a girl is

Finn said than it was only halfway through the second episode than Mike realized than El is a real girl, a real person, and not E.T.

The duffers were inspired by the breakfast club for the making of Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve’s characters!!

Nancy played volleyball, was in the cheerleader team (?!?!?!), was in the French club, volunteered at church and did social volunteering, and did a writing workshop

Barb played softball, the clarinet, was part of the Mathematical Olympiads, volunteered at the library, and was a babysitter.

[akookminsupporter]

Just read something on hardcore Jimin fanbase accounts along the line that Jimin might release a song (collab with Benny Blanco..whyyyy him) in near Future.

I hope around the end of January or February.

If it IS true. Then...such a good news. Plus collab at this point will be good. Jimin is so smart, the way he established himself as soloist first and THEN going for western collab.

Although talking about gossip, like 2 months or so ago, JK fanbases were also talking about HIS collab with western artist in near future.

I wonder who will be this time. It will be great if JK releases a song now. Timewise, he should do that for his presence on charts. But of course, they didn't have much time.

Or here is a crazy thought.... may be JM JK should do a song together.... say amen.

hola, anon.

Where are they getting that information from? I saw some accounts talking about the supposed rumour of the collaboration with Blanco, but where is it coming from? I saw a comment saying that a sasaeng account or one of those that claim to have inside info mentioned it, so please, don't tell me that's everyone's source.

Something I really admire about BTS and their agency is their planning ability and how much content they record well in advance. Recently, Tae's MV is yet another example of this—it was filmed two years ago and only just released now. That’s wild. That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me if Jungkook, Jimin, or any of them had recorded things years ago to be released during this time. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Honestly, I’ve accepted that we’re not getting an official song from Jimin and Jungkook together. AYS is as close as we’ll get to the sun hahaha.

[marvelmaniac715]

As of precisely 5 seconds ago, I’ve officially finished listening to Epic the Musical, and I wanted to talk about that for a second. For months I’ve refused to shut up about being an ‘OG fan’, because I found Jay Herran’s account before he even released the first saga, but none of that matters now, because the journey that this fandom has been on has been beautiful. Coincidentally, I began studying the Odyssey in my Classics lessons around the time I discovered Epic, so in addition to being an incredible musical, this show has been a comfort and companion throughout my revision, reminding me of key plot points and encouraging me to take a further interest in mythology. I listen to at least one Epic song a day, I truly think that it’s the best musical to ever exist. I was too young to fully appreciate Hamilton when it was released, but Epic is the Hamilton of the 2020s - Jay Herrans is a phenomenal composer and a genuinely wonderful man from what I’ve seen of him on social media. He and the Epic team have achieved ever so much in such a short amount of time - they have a production company, they’ve achieved Billboard success with several chart-topping sagas, Jay and Talya have found love together, and as I type this, they are all in Ithaca together celebrating the release of the final saga of their acclaimed musical. I listened to the final song of the Ithaca saga with tears in my eyes, because the Epic team’s own Odyssey has been awe-inspiring, I’m so proud and amazed of everything that they’ve achieved, and I sincerely hope that Epic is adapted, either to the stage, as a video game, or as an animated film. Epic is too important, too special and sacred, to be forgotten by the world.

[thepeoplesmovies]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Fires Right To Official Film Chart Top Spot!

Fury Road is no problem for Furiosa as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga rockets to Number 1 for the first time on the Official Film Chart. Following its release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD, Furiosa flies 30 places to land at the top in its sixth week on chart, knocking The Fall Guy down to Number 2. Also re-entering the Top 10 this week is star-studded family film IF, leaping eight places to Number 3,…

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Wham! - Last Christmas 1984

"Last Christmas" is a song by British pop duo Wham!. Written and produced by George Michael, it was released on 3 December 1984 via CBS Records internationally and as a double A-side via Epic Records with "Everything She Wants" in several European countries. Wham! donated all of their royalties to relief efforts for the Ethiopian famine.

Upon its initial release in 1984, "Last Christmas" spent five consecutive weeks at number two in the UK singles chart—it was held off the top spot at Christmas by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (poll #444), on which Michael also performed. After many chart runs in subsequent years, which included three more weeks at number two, the song finally reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on New Year's Day 2021, more than 36 years after its initial release; in doing so, it became the fifth UK number one single for the duo. Prior to it reaching number one, "Last Christmas" had for many years held the record as the highest-selling single never to top the charts by the Official Charts Company (OCC) with 1.9 million copies sold (not including streams). The song reached number one in the UK after it was streamed 9.2 million times in the last week of 2020 and sold 1,555 downloads, resulting in a total of 40,149 combined sales.

Having been the Christmas number two again in 2022, "Last Christmas" finally achieved the accolade of Christmas number one in 2023, 39 years after its initial release, and, in 2024, became the first song to be the Christmas number one in back-to-back years. Combining sales and streams, it also became the third biggest song of all time in the UK. It was certified sextuple platinum in December 2023. Outside the UK, the song topped the charts in fourteen countries and peaked within the top ten of the charts in several countries including Australia, Canada and the US. In Germany, the song is the most successful Christmas single of all time, having spent 169 weeks on the German Singles Chart and attained a peak position of number 1 on 24 December 2021. It has charted every year since 1997. It is the eighth best-selling single of all time in Japan released by a non-Japanese act. It also reached number two on the Billboard Global 200 in January 2021. On 10 December 2024, the digital single was certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), indicating US sales of 7 million digital units.

The 2019 film Last Christmas prominently features the music of George Michael, including this song.

"Last Christmas" received a total of 78,3% yes votes! Previous Wham!/George Michael polls: #62 "As", #108 "Everything She Wants", #219 "Freedom! '90".

[jupiitersreturn]

A Mini Analysis of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: How It Ends - Part One

As we know, actress Blake Lively is currently in the midst of a sexual harassment lawsuit against her "It Ends With Us" co-actor Justin Baldoni. This lawsuit comes after weeks of rumors and accusations of discord on set, with Baldoni being the accused.

First I will share my predictions about what’s going to happen and how I think it’ll play out, then I will do a mini astrological analysis about some hidden truths in this situation and how it might play out.

Official Timeline (Unimportant Information Omitted)

Blake Lively Comes Under Fire For Tone Deaf Comments || Justin Baldoni Accused of Fanning Fire

Damning Interview of Lively Resurrfaces || Bullying Accusations Ensue

Baldoni Is Awarded A “Men Who Elevate Women’s Voices” Award

Blake Lively Files Harassment Complaint Against Baldoni

Baldoni Has Awards Revoked And Is Let Go From Management

Baldoni Announces Plan To Retaliate || Releases Court Argument

Lively Officially Files Lawsuit

PREDICTIONS:

The Beginning of the Lawsuit Will Not Go In Blake Lively’s Favor. She will be faced with accusations of manipulation, emotional abuse, inappropriate conduct and even extramarital affairs by Baldoni with proof.

(TR Venus Opposite Natal Sun, Venus, and Mars)

(TR Venus Opposite Sun, Ruler of the 1st House = overuse of connections and status to garner support)

TR Venus Opposite Mercury, Ruler of the 2nd and 11th House (verbal manipulation and manipulation or the public by use of social circle)

TR Venus Opposite Venus and Mars (issues with relationships, stability, material possessions, and partnerships)

Lively will be exposed for withholding the truth about an emotional connection between them. Likely one-sided or started out reciprocal but quickly became one-sided.

Blake Lively will either win the Lawsuit late 2025 - early 2026 OR concede. It’s too early for me to tell.

Let's start from the beginning;

August 13th - Feud rumors circulate as Lively and Baldoni avoid each other, director hires Johnny Depp’s crisis management PR firm

According to TMZ, the reasoning behind Baldoni and Lively's decision to avoid each other was due to fat-shaming from the former, as well as inappropriate comments and allegations of Baldoni kissing too long during intimate scenes.

It is also noted that many of the film cast, as well as the writer of the novel "It Ends With Us", Colleen Hoover, do NOT follow Baldoni on social media but DO follow Lively.

Additionally, Baldoni hired Crisis Management and PR Professional Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients included Johnny Depp. Nathan successfully represented Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Heard during rumors of an organized social media campaign against her.

Let's look at this first;

This is Blake Lively's Natal Chart with Transits the first day of discord between her and Baldoni.

We know that Lively’s initial complaint against Baldoni was allegations of body shaming and inappropriate behavior from Baldoni which can be seen in her chart from the Venus - Uranus Square in Virgo (and we know Virgo rules the Work Place) so this aspect can indicate sudden romantic attention under Virgo themes. She also has her transiting Venus Square her Natal Saturn in the 5th House (and we know that the 5th House rules Artistic Expression, Theater, Acting, Romantic Endeavors)

Blake Lively had her Transitting Mercury conjjunct her Natal Mars during this time. This aspect can indicate some communication issues. Its commonly associated with arguments and misunderstandings becoming a lot more frequent, and because this conjunction is in an Earth Sign, the communication leads a little more towards stubborn and subtle than fiery and passionate.

Mercury is also the ruler of her 11th House which indicates that these communication issues were with her networking circle, friends, and community.

Lively has transitting asteroid Dejaniria conjunct her MC AND opposite her Natal Pluto. She also has Uranus transittting that house as well. Uranus indicates sudden occurances. Pluto indicates transformation and destruction. Dejanira indicates the area of life where one is susceptible to abuse and mistreatment. Blake Lively has suddenly become a victim of mistreatment through the [ALLEGED] destruction being done to her career by Baldoni.

This is where it starts.

Moving on to August 15th when Lively faced immense backlash for her tone-deaf comments regarding "It Ends With Us" and August 16th and 17th when past interviews and exposes regarding Lively started coming to light.

We still have that Dejanira - MC conjuction but NOW Blake Lively's Transitting Mars and Jupiter have made a direct conjunction with her Natal Dejanira in her 11th House so again we have that abuse/mistreatment theme with Dejanira, but with it being amplified by Jupiter and Mars (Expansion and Impulsivitity) we have an explnattion as to why past wrongdoings and mistakes ofrn Liveluy as being dug up and why she is being put on blast by almost all of Hollywood.

Additionally, we still have that Mercury-Mars conjuction however her Mercury has gone retrograde at this time, and if you remember, all attempts that she made to redeem herself or fan the fire went unnoticed or were seen as an attempt to save face or just straight up backfired on her.

December 21st Lively files a complaint against Baldoni for sexual harassment which is seen through her Transitting Retrograde Leo Mars in the 1st House combined with her Moon Opposite Saturn aspect entering its final stage at 0 Degrees.

A Moon-Saturn opposition can indicate grief or emotional distress and in the his case Lively’s emotional distress was directed towards her reputation (Saturn is the ruler of her 7th House) Her finances, (The Moon is in her 2nd House) and Settlement Issues and Contracts regarding the movie.

(Retrograde Mars = Misdirected Anger, Impulsivity, Dominance, Heightened Ego [REGARDING] Ethics, Morals, Law, and Publication and Broadcasting, as those are 9th House themes and Mars is the ruler of Lively's 9th House.

(In The First House = Assertiveness, Confrontation, Energy, Action [REGARDING] Physical Appearance, Self Worth, Personality

(Mars as the Ruler of the 9th House = Ethics, Morals, and Law as well as Publication and Broadcasting.

However, based on her chart this was not meant to go well for her in terms of favoritism from the public regardless of the truth. She has placements that indicate that in addition to the public not believing her, her lack of immediate communication will backfire on her, decreasing the level of support she receives [For now, her luck changes mid 2025]

At the time of her lawsuit, Lively had the transitting ruler of her Natal 7th House (I used Saturn instead of Uranus) opposite her Moon and Mercury.

Saturn (Truth, Responsibility, Honor, Nobility) Opposite Moon (Emotions, Feelings, Trust, Support) - Lack of belief towards Lively's claims. Specifically from people who are still harboring feelings or unease towards her due to her prior missteps.

Saturn (Slow Moving, Truth, Responsibility, Honor, Nobility) Opposite Mercury (Communication, Social Circle, Intelligence, Evidence or Information) - Slow communication AND lack of substantial evidence (further fueled by her transitting Mercury being Square her Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

Part Two (Justin Baldoni’s POV) Will Be Up A Week!

[seren1tyhaze]

road snacks

PAIRING: haechan x afab reader

WORD COUNT: 1.6k

SUMMARY: a cross country move with your boyfriend is exciting and sometimes a little more steamy than you thought it would be

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I officially present my first Kinktober 2023 entry! This is another piece I had finished but was trying to finish other wips but don't want to hold off posting things that are ready anymore. Please enjoy prompt number 16 "Public" :)

WARNINGS: explicit smut, public sex, soft Haechan who is actually not very soft

PLAYLIST: Lost in the Light by Bahamas, Yacht by NCT 127, Malibu 1992 by COIN, Daylight by Matt and Kim, Catch by Epik High + HWASA

~~

The sun is starting its descent in the horizon, bright rays stretching across the sky as you stretch your arms across the dashboard in a deep stretch. It’s nearing the sixth hour of the long first day of your road trip and your energy is starting to fade. You’ve been up since early this morning, taking on the first few hours of driving before swapping with your auburn haired boyfriend currently tapping his thumbs on the leather wheel car beside you, humming lightly to the music filtering through the sound system.

Leaning back in your seat, you sink down, letting your eyes slip shut as you lean your head against the window and let the sun warm your bare arms and face. The music is calm and filled with beautiful harmonies, lulling you to sleep for the first time on the journey. You had promised each other you would help whoever was driving stay awake, but with plans to stop at nightfall at a hotel, you figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a short cat nap.

You don’t know how much time has passed when you feel a light brushing of fingers along your exposed shoulder and you reluctantly push your eyes open to see an apologetic gaze from the handsome man next to you.

“Babe, I’m so sorry, could you hand me something from the cooler?” Hyuck asks, applying some pressure to your shoulder to massage it with his fingers.

You melt into the touch, nuzzling your cheek warmly against his hand before nodding, unbuckling your seatbelt to carefully lean between the front two seats and open the cooler in the back. Travelling together has been a dream, stopping at different tourist spots on the way, letting him take pictures of you on his film camera, and charting out which cities along the way had all-you-can-eat hot pot.

“Water? Ginger ale?” you ask, wedging your waist between the seats to get a better angle.

Suddenly you feel Hyuck’s hand on you, causing you to jump and your upper body to lurch forward, trapping you between the seats.

“HYUCK!” you squeal, craning your neck to try to get his attention.

“What?!” he whines back, laughter seeping in as you feel the car slow down, easing his foot off the gas to reduce speed.

Without further explanation, he spreads his hand out over your ass, kneading with his fingertips slowly, just as he had been doing to your shoulder a few moments before. Despite the awkward angle you are currently curled into, you sigh and feel your cheeks start to heat. Despite all the alone time on the trip so far, there hadn’t been much time for anything beyond quick kisses or spooning in bed in the weeks leading up to the move. You’ve both been so busy and exhausted that every night your eyes have slipped shut the minute your heads hit the pillow.

“I’m sorry, what am I supposed to do when you’re on display for me and I’ve been horny for days,” he adds, voice dropping into a gruff tone as his hand moves between your thighs that are pressed together from the position.

“I thought you wanted something from the cooler,” you reply, trailing off as you feel him slide his fingers slide up the seam of your leggings, getting dangerously close to your core.

“You know what, I am kind of hungry, now that you mention it…” he replies, applying more pressure to your ass with his thumb, glancing up in the rear view mirror wickedly as he pulls off the highway and into a deserted corner of a rest stop.

As he puts the car in park, you wiggle trying to free yourself from the awkward position, feeling your calf starting to cramp. You let the lid to the cooler drop shut, knowing he’s definitely not thinking about that drink anymore.

Hyuck turns around in his seat, moving his hands to your waist, making contact with your bare skin from your shirt riding up just below your breasts. He pulls you gently so you are no longer wedged between the seats but keeping your ass close to his face.

“Now, how about that snack,” he murmurs barely audibly as cool air sends shivers up your spine when Hyuck pulls at the waistband of your leggings, exposing you fully.

“Donghyuck!” you cry out, arms tensing up and teeth digging into your bottom lip. The sun is setting slowly and a hazy dusk covers the sky. Anyone walking by would definitely be able to see and your cheeks burn at the thought of someone tapping on the window or pulling out their phone at the sight.

He only laughs, dipping his head down to press kisses at the thin lines of the bear tattoo on your lower back, laving at the skin there with his tongue as he always does. His hand slides up your chest, massaging you there and taking your nipple in between his fingers to squeeze it gently. A moan bubbles up in your throat and you dig your palms into the back seat below you, letting your head drop down.

Hyuck keeps kissing your skin, brushing his lips over and over, making you squirm. He gently lifts your hips up to give him a better angle, pushing your thighs open gently and lowering his head between them. You can feel his breath cool across your dripping core, arousal building in you and your temperature starting to rise in the cramped car.

“Baby, please,” you groan, turning your head to try to make eye contact with him as he continues to tease you.

“Begging? We’re begging now, are we? I thought you were scared someone would see,” he chuckles cruelly, sitting back and dragging a finger suddenly through your arousal before pulling it up to his lips and loudly sucking on the wet digit.

You groan in annoyance, feeling frustrated at not being able to move and have a sneaking suspicion he’s going to edge you despite the urgency of the situation.

“Please Hyuckie, I need your mouth on me now,” you mutter, voice barely above a whisper, almost drowned out by the soft music still playing in the car.

His eyes darken at the sound of the nickname in a lust-filled tone and his hands return to your ass cheeks, spreading them lightly to give him better access. His mouth is suddenly on you, tongue dragging along you to gather your arousal on his tongue, swirling at your clit. Your legs start to shake with pleasure and he tightens his grip as he slides a hand up your back to push your ass up further.

You don’t realize you’re holding in your moans until you taste blood in your mouth, having punctured your lip lightly. You know you aren’t going to last long after weeks without sex so you push your hips back, grinding against his lips for more friction. 

You can feel him smile against you, pulling you even closer to him by the waist, moaning against your core and tasting every inch of you. He was starving, nose bumping up against your clit repeatedly and sending waves of pleasure through your body.

Your mouth drops open to warn him of your impending orgasm but there’s no time as it crashes over you, a strangled cry falling from your lips that surely could be heard by anyone parked nearby. His grip on your waist tightens as you try to pull away, refusing to breathe until he’s worked you through your pleasure with his wicked tongue.

He finally breaks away from you with a messy sounding smack of his lips and you don’t need to look back at him to know that his cheeks are flushed and silky strands are dangling on the sides of his forehead. He pulls your leggings up for you and gently pulls you back into the passenger seat, slumping back into his own once you’re settled.

You’re out of breath and your arm hurts slightly from being pressed in an awkward position for so long. Your chest is heaving underneath the thin material of your shirt and you sigh, finally bringing your eyes up to meet your boyfriend’s gaze.

He’s smirking deviously, as he always does, and his legs are spread wide, cock visibly hard in his loose sweatpants. There’s a slight sheen across his forehead and his lips are still wet. You flush at the sight of him, heart pounding in your chest as you reach forward to close the space between you. You can taste yourself on his lips and moan into his mouth as your tongue makes contact with his. You run your fingers through his hair, dragging his head back to break the kiss and meet his eyes again.

“Now, is my boyfriend going to let me have snack time too? Or is he not going to share?” you ask menacingly, shoving your free hand down the waistband of his pants suddenly to grasp at his cock.

All he can do in reaction is moan, letting his eyes roll back as his head gently hits the window as you tug on his sweatpants and lower your lips over his lap. As much as he craves eating you out, you know blow jobs are his biggest weakness and it was your turn for payback in the darkening parking lot on the side of the highway.

This trip might end up taking longer than you both had planned if your quick snack breaks turned into full course meals, but neither of you really minded.

[venusvity]

2022, the year Venus finally secured the Converse and a Pepsi sponsorship. Arguably, this is the least liked year of Venus for a majority of Constellations for numerous reasons. Trying to replicate the success of Summer Luv!, the girls would release their 8th mini album, VENUS HIGH! with the title track Hi-Tops, along with a collaboration with the brand Converse.

Commercially, the song peaked at number ten on the Gaon Digital Chart and topped the Billboard K-pop Hot 100, their first number-one song on the chart. Following the release of Venus High!, Venus promoted the song with live performances on several South Korean music television programs and amassed six music show trophies. They also held a concert by Converse, which sold out in seven minutes.

VENUS' collection with Converse. Each girl got to desgin their own shoe. The collection sold out in 15 minutes.

Venus would come back with their fourth full album, their last project with beloved creative director LEXA. Love, Venus would feature the title track, "So Sweet," along with eleven other tracks.

"So Sweet" won eight first-place music program awards in South Korea, including a triple crown (three awards) on Inkigayo. It also won a Melon Weekly Popularity Award.

"So Sweet" debuted at number one on South Korea's Circle Digital Chart. It remained atop the chart for thirteen weeks, becoming the longest-running number-one song in its history. The song debuted number one on the Billboard Vietnam Hot 100 chart issue. It topped the chart for three consecutive weeks. In Japan, the song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and number 13 on the Oricon Combined Singles Chart.

The music video would feature heavy Pepsi product placement but is still beloved by fans as it's the last video directed by LEXA. Lexa would make a lengthy Instagram post announcing their departure from Angelico and Venus' creative director, leaving fans and the girls concerned in what direction they would go in next.

LEXA'S DEPARTURE LETTER: it only feels right to share my favorite moments with my favorite girls, though there are plenty more. if i could post 100 images on this post i would lol. as of today, i have officially stepped down as the creative director of venus. these five girls are so special, talented, and overall wonderful visionaries i wish had more freedom over their careers. i do not wish to get sued so i won't say much, but i hope you all can use critical thinking skills as to why i've decided to leave angelico. i wish yoonah, bliss, chloe, sena, and jiah nothing but so much love and well wishes for the best. I'll always have so much love for my five favorite stars in the sky 🌟 until next time, venus! ❤️

The girls would take a short break, something unheard of in their career, to regroup and find a new creative director. In comes Adrian Reyes. Adrian would take over as not only their creative director but producer and marketing manager, ushering Venus into their most controversial era.

??? would be the ninth mini album by Venus with the title track GOTCHA. The ??? era would be defined by the marketing used to prepare for the era. Posters were posted around the world about the "missing sister of Venus" with four girls on the poster. Billboards asking, "Have you seen our moon?" would be put up around LA, Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, Shanghai, and various other cities featuring the four members Sena, Baebi, Jiah, and Bliss, but no Chloe. This led fans to believe she wasn't going to be included in the comeback until a thirty concept film, "Why Venus Has No Moons: ???" It was posted to their YouTube channel.

Venus was finally getting lore, and fans were...very mixed about it!

Stills from "Why Venus Has No Moons: ???" directed by Adrian Reyes.

The album would come, and the title track, GOTCHA, would cause a mass debate on Twitter on whether the song was good or not. The debate still goes on to this day. "GOTCHA" won 10 first-place music program awards, including a triple crown on M Countdown.

In South Korea, the song debuted at number 17 on the Gaon Digital Chart for the issue dated and peaked at number 5 in its second week. It also debuted at number 1 both on the component Download Chart and on the component BGM Chart.  In the United States, the song debuted at number 5 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. It also debuted at number 37 on the Billboard Global 200 and 29 on the Billboard Global Excl. US during the same week.

Venus would win Artist of the Year and Best Female Group at the 2022 MAMA Awards.