#Raja One Week Series

[booktownn]

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[orion-lake]

Happy New Year! I wanted to shout out “some” posts of 2022 that I really loved. I want to say thank you to all fellow gif makers to put in the time and effort to share their creations. 

Please do not feel bad if you’re not on the list. I have a running queue on my blog, so my post number per month is fairly huge. So I may just have missed your post. 

Feel free to share, and please, if you like a post, please reblog and share the love.

January 2022

Morgana Pendragon ▶ Season 3, Episode 02: “The Tears of Uther Pendragon: Part Two” - @katieskeep

YENNEFER APPRECIATION WEEK | favorite outfit - @yenvengerberg

— New Year’s Day by Taylor Swift - @antoniosvivaldi

WOLF MOON | S1E1 - @teenwolfgifs

February 2022

‘cause we never go out of style… - @jumpthensfall

HAPPY 32ND BIRTHDAY TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT - @newrcmantlcs

March 2022

the wheel of time gifset - @scinnlaece​

allison argent gifset - @bericas​

bau ladies + tarot cards - @cabotism (deactivated)

HARRY POTTER film series based on the novels by the same name (2001-2011) - @yourstarfuckerworld  (deactivated)

stiles stilinski & lydia martin TEEN WOLF (2011-2017) - @crazysjane (deactivated)

MISTY & NATALIE in Yellowjackets | Season One [insp] - @queencalanthes

April 2022

Charmed | Patty & Prue & Piper | Head Above Water - @littletonpace

NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES: The Marauders - @some-people-call-it-tragic

Man the boundaries. Protect us. Do your duty to our school. - @hermoiine

THE DORA MILAJE aka “THE ADORED ONES” - @rachelschu (deactivated)

May 2022

ALL MY GIRLS LIKE TO FIGHT. - @bericas

↳ ingrid, the snow queen - @thewildmother

hogwarts houses common rooms aes - @ostara-goddess

harry potter meme: [1/3] colours. teal - @19-17

laura’s 10k celebration (top 30 ships as voted by my followers) ✵ 21 ➳ buffy summers & spike - @katherineebishop

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (2009) dir. David Yates - @mike-mills

June 2022

i got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined - @learned-civility

the big seven + planets symbolism (insp.) - @hermiione

July 2022

doctor who appreciation week day three ☆ favorite season/era  - @benoitblanc

Taylor Swift in 2021 - @wishfulthinkinglove

AU SPUFFY - they can be a romcom if they want - - @l0veisntbrains

taylor swift gifset - @treachreous

August 2022

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - @drsattlers

↳ SCOOBY-DOO (2002) dir. Raja Gosnell - @wakandasforever

— Taylor Swift on 💜 Last Kiss 💜 - @antoniosvivaldi

September 2022

#MetalMonday | ✟ Rest in Peace ✟ (Dorothy) - @x--daughters-of-darkness--x

October 2022

TEEN WOLF APPRECIATION WEEK ☽ day one: female character(s) - @unspokenstydia

MERLINWEEK2022 | DAY 02 Favourite scene or season : season 04 (insp) - @thebookluvrr1816

#the journey - @payidaresque

MERLIN WEEK 2022 day 1: favourite character ➛ arthur pendragon + dnd character sheet (in/sp.) - @arthurpendragonns

DAILYMARVELSTUDIOS 5K CELEBRATION: FAVORITE MARVEL DYNAMIC - @dailymarvelstudios

November 2022

Bridgerton Siblings + Love Interest - @marlenadia

laura’s 11k celebration (top 40 characters as voted by my followers) ✵ 40 ➳ emma swan - @katherineebishop

Grace & Frankie + final scenes - @jakeperalta

Vampire Appreciation Week [2022] October 27th ~ Favourite Vampire/Vampire Dynamic - @sulietsexual

Bridgerton Couples + Tropes - @marlenadia

VAMPIRE APPRECIATION WEEK 2022 - day one: favorite vampire CAROLINE FORBES - The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017) - @naiey

December 2022

EDWINA & KATE SHARMA — The Sun & The Moon - @gifshistorical

WEDNESDAY CHARACTERS as TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUMS - @reputayswift

favorite non-romantic dynamic MISS EDWINA AND QUEEN CHARLOTTE - @edwinadaily

WEDNESDAY (2022) + RAINBOW - @usergif

marvel characters - @annelisters

WELL! THE PLAN HAS SOME FLAWS, ADMITTEDLY. - @phoebehalliwell

Favorite Romantic Pairing — Colin and Penelope Bridgerton - @wandarogers

WEDNESDAY: SEASON 1 (2022) - @vanessacarlysle

[welln594]

Understanding A Good Yoga Class

Most of my students have misconceptions or don't know what to expect during a Yoga lesson.Wellnessbeing Yoga is frequently misunderstood, so it isn't surprising that this happens. On one end, Yoga is an esoteric practice which can lead to a change in religious belief. It is also a series of dance moves that are powerful and can be done with ease. You can do anything between the two extremes: from levitation to carnal delight.

There is truth to every story, but half the truth is still a lie. You should have some basic knowledge of Yoga prior to attending any Yoga classes. You can then match what you need to a Yoga class. This article will not be about defining the meaning of Yoga. Instead, it will provide a broad overview. Yoga is divided into two categories.

Hatha Yoga- The emphasis is solely physical. It includes cleansing, postures, and symbolic gestures.

Raja Yoga is a form of meditation and breathing that focuses on the mind.

The three accepted texts of Yoga are:

Gheranda Samhita

Hatha Yoga Prathipika

Patanjali Yoga Sutra

Patanjali Yoga Sutra explains Raja Yoga. Hatha Yoga Prathipika, the Gheranda Samhita, and Hatha Yoga Prathipika recommend Hatha Yoga first before Raja Yoga. Gheranda Samhita explains that this is so a person can gain control of their bodies before beginning to control their minds.

What should you be expecting from a Yoga Class? First, before you begin your first Yoga class, make sure that the instructor knows what expectations you have. My experience has shown that these expectations vary greatly. It could be that you are looking to develop a flexible body or toned muscles. If you are looking to alleviate a chronic illness or simply have some fun, then this is the class for you. Your instructor should be able to match your needs with the correct class.

Second, the focus of a great Yoga class must be clear. The entire range of Yoga cannot be covered in a few weeks and may not even be possible. Yoga should be structured to suit your individual needs. Yoga classes can be divided into different categories that are based on your changing needs. Yoga can be used to gain a more toned physique. Once you have achieved this goal, it is time to move on to flexibility.

In small groups, you can get the most out of Yoga. The instructor can monitor the class more easily in small classes. The instructor can easily catch mistakes and fix them. The risk of injuries due to incorrect postures is greatly reduced. A small group also allows the instructor to react to rhythms and paces of the group. The dynamics of the group dictates that certain functions require a specific number of participants. Yoga classes are not limited in size. But, by keeping the class small everyone can interact and build strong relationships. The motivation can increase as a consequence.

In the fourth place, good Yoga classes focus on the correct and techniques. Many people are performing Yoga incorrectly, and I am worried about it. You can find the right techniques and methods in these authoritative texts. It is true that many people don't have the time or energy to study these texts. You should ensure, however, that Yoga is taught based on the scriptures. Yoga classes that follow correct practices will include the following features:

Muscle strain, minor aches and pains or injury

Postures that emphasize breathing techniques

A few exceptions aside, nearly every posture also has an opposite. As an example, the forward bend will be followed immediately by the backward bend.

Last but not least, you will get the best out of a Yoga session if it's fun. Are you enjoying your Yoga class? It is possible that you will not want to go or practice Yoga if this does not happen. The result would be wasted time and money. Although it's not possible to ensure a fun class in all classes, you can definitely induce one by:

It is fun to have a teacher with a good personality.

Class type and expectations: Matching the two

Joining the correct group class

[common-man]

Tribute 766.

Tribute to Actor, Producer Mammotty 766. Today, I am set to chronicle another intriguing luminary of the silver screen who has left an indelible mark over the years. He has etched his name not only in the realm of cinema but also in the vast expanse of media with his esteemed contribution to Kairali T.V. Furthermore, his benevolent endeavors and numerous accolades have solidified him as a formidable actor of our times. Stalwart Mammotty requires no formal introduction, for his name resonates with millions, and although many have penned tributes to him, I feel compelled to immortalize him in my blog for my own satisfaction.

I have had the pleasure of witnessing the brilliance of this legend through his remarkable repertoire of films, a selection of which I shall present below. They encompass his Tamil ventures as well as dubbed films:

MaruMalarchi

Dhalapathi

Alagan

Aanandham

Mounam Sammadham

Iyer the great

New Delhi

Karmegam

One

CBI 5

Perasiriyar Chanakyan

CBI Diary Kuripu

Pokiri Raja

Kasim

Lawyer Aravind

Additionally, he has graced the Malayalam film industry with countless unforgettable performances, although a few have momentarily eluded my memory. I deeply admire his composed demeanor in the CBI series and find immense pleasure in his impeccable dialogue delivery.

Today, it brings me immense joy to pay tribute to this illustrious stalwart, extending heartfelt wishes for a joyous, prosperous, and serene life ahead for him and his beloved family.

With warm regards,

K. Ragavan See you next week, 15-5-23

[historyhermann]

Behind the Screen: Indian voice actors who bring fictional librarians to life!

Images of Leela Ladnier and Aasif Mandvi

Part of understanding fictional librarians is understanding those behind the screen, specifically when it comes to those who voice these characters. Part 1 of this series focused on Black voice actors, and Part 2 on Asian and Latin American voice actors.

This post is reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine.

In this third part, I am profiling Indian voice actors who voiced librarians, specifically in the series Mira, Royal Detective.

About the voice actors

Leela Ladnier voiced Mira in Mira, Royal Detective and was a librarian in the episode "The Case of the Missing Library Book." In an interview in 2020, she talked about how she had been working on the show for two years (since 2018), how much goes into being a professional actor, have Mira come across as a good talent, sassy, intelligent, kind, compassionate, resourceful, everyone should be included. She also stated she had to change pitch of her voice, as she started when she was 14 years old, and isn't a trained singer. She also noted that she does voice overs every other week and she still went to public high school. If she was 14 in 2018, that would mean that she is 18 years old now.

Aasif Mandvi voiced Mira's father, Sahil in the same Mira, Royal Detective episode. He is much more well-known than her. He is known as British-American comedian and actor, a correspondent on The Daily Show. He has voiced a one-time characters for King of the Hill and Archer, King Raja in Elena of Avalor, to name a few.

They are the only two voice actors of Indian descent who I know, at this time, who voice librarians, even if only in one episode.

About the characters

(This is a video from the primary episode that features libraries in the series, although libraries also appear in other episodes)

In the episode, "The Case of the Missing Library Book," Mira and her father Sahil work together on a bookmobile, with both serving as librarians of sorts. Mira serves as more of a librarian than Mira, however. I wrote about this episode for I Love Libraries, noting that the entire episode emphasizes the value of libraries, even proper etiquette for borrowing library books. Mira pedals a bike-powered bookmobile across Jalpur, trying to make sure that Jalpur has a movable library. Later in the episode, Sahil checks out books to patrons and says that the last step is returning the book after you are finished with it.

Mira does the same thing, helping to make Dimple understand the borrowing policies of a library, saying that she cannot just take books. Rather, she can have books, but only for a short period of time. This library is nothing like today's libraries, however, as she stamps a book and has people full out a slip or the book, putting it in a box, which contains the names of everyone who have checked out books.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[harpianews]

'I will play practice matches in Australia and I am ready for India': Shaheen Shah Afridi feels fit for T20 World Cup, says PCB chief Rameez Raja

‘I will play practice matches in Australia and I am ready for India’: Shaheen Shah Afridi feels fit for T20 World Cup, says PCB chief Rameez Raja

With one week left for the T20 World Cup starting in Australia, teams are finalizing their preparations ahead of the competition. Pakistan are currently in New Zealand for the T20 tri-series featuring Bangladesh. A big question in the camp is the fitness of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who was ruled out of the Asia Cup due to a knee injury but was included in the squad for the World Cup. In a recent…

[m4nd0l0r]

CHAPTER 3 - Minsan, napapagulat mo ako.

chapter two. | masterlist. | part of the alignment (din djarin) series. | chapter four.

For reference: “Minsan, napapagulat mo talaga ako.” means “Sometimes, you really just surprise me.”

Description: You were an eye-opener to him. In many more ways than he himself knows.

Content: Small bits of yearning from Din (fuck slowburn, falling quickly + yearning is key to romance!—), + some small fluff and plot. Conversations in Tagalog are once again present, so there will be translations in parentheses and italics!

Taglist: @dearlawdimasimp @spacecatbowtie @altarsw @wintersshadows @prismaticpizza @stevie75 @slytheringswift @vikingqueen28 @cinnabunsprincess @solarwindscosplay @octavia6577 @graciexmarvel @sketchlove (if you want to be removed from taglist, please refer via dm!!)

A moon went by, the grass either wilting or growing even further from their weed states. And now.. another day has started. 

You haven’t seen each other since three noons ago, with Raja and the Tatooine situation— So he has placed you in the back of his head, as he had to focus here . 

If the information about the merchant you managed to scam was correct, then it might be possible. A magician could be right under both of your noses- and he needed to be even more alert. You may never know when one man -or magician- can suddenly start to become spontaneous. 

Speaking of spontaneous— “Mando!” A voice threw him off his concentration. 

Turning, he saw his superior in all his glory, with a beamed smile. The knight then responded to his call. “Sir Karga.” He was an older man, his hair and beard almost greying. 

His clothing was in maroon, with dark details embedded in the cloth, paired with some rich armour to make him seem sumptuous . If that’s even a word enough to describe it.. that is, the Mandalorian thought. 

His chief slung his arm over the fully armour clad man’s shoulders, keeping him close. “Can’t believe I finally found you, I have news to speak!-“

��What about it?” This had Greef quirk a brow. “So you haven’t heard? The festival has been moved!”

“What?” Was all the knight said. “When?” 

“It was just said by a few scribes earlier- And you missed it!” Karga went on, “Apparently they moved it seven suns earlier.” Mando was stunned, scribes? No wonder he heard so much spectacle from the townspeople, murmuring around a bit more frantically than usual. It was out of panic, from such a fast approaching event.

“A week?”  

“Mhm- we’ll have to rush everything with the services- some quests have to be postponed for manpower-“ 

“And with the knights’ roster too..” Greef went on, but most of that was for himself. And while the older man tapped on, as usual, Mando only listened. 

Even if you’d want to escape public service by slaying a few monsters here and there, one would still be assigned to help around with the preparations. Mostly with putting up the flag pillars or larger tents that needed his hands to help. 

Least he doesn’t have to go through the process, he always stays here anyway.

More murmuring came from his chief, and the knight sighed softly for only him to hear. As Greef hammered on Mando's ears, the only thing Mando could say was. “Why?”

“Why change it?” Karga only laughed. “Profit maybe? It was voted by the nobles to have it early, I don’t know much details however—“ But as Karga could even continue, Mando could smell smoke— 

BOOM! Something exploded in the flurry of conversation- making their heads turn quickly to the source, guard up. “What the?—“ Ear-ripping sparks let out and flew high up in the sky in a fury of color, and it was blinding in the day, the sun glimmering as they all popped in the air. 

Karga was about to come after the perpetrator but it seems someone already cut him to the chase.

“Hindi yan kailangan, Raja.” (That’s unnecessary, Raja.)   

It was as if the knight was hit with whiplash. That familiar voice.

It was you again . 

You really had too much time on your hands, didn't you?

Right by you was the same merchant you messed with those three same days ago. He was coughing from the smoke that spewed right at him. And there you were, you sat down by the outside of a bar, legs crossed, and your arm bent to cup your face.  Right in front of the knight, so far away. 

You looked the same from the last time he saw you, so human .

It was off-putting to him, to not see the vines with you, or feeling that sudden power. Even if he’s seen you in this form already- he can’t help but think you were so concealed with your identity, hidden between sharpened leaves and tousled roots. He felt conflicted to even see you like this some reason, and he felt stupid to even feel that way. 

Was it because he wasn’t supposed to?

Greef was shouting right behind him, wondering loudly about the ruckus. The mess was all from a damn firework. It should have been obvious, and it was probably a funny sight to you, to see two knights all worried because of pyrotechnics. But you still had no change in emotion on your face, only feigning neutrality. 

“Taena— Oo na, pero di ka talaga nang sasabi sakin hah.. Kasama mo pala sila..” (Fuck— Yea yea, but you really never tell me anything huh.. You were one of them..) Raja wailed out to you, but you only shook your head, almost tauntingly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Ayan ka nanaman.. “ (There you go again..) 

You didn’t reply, only looking at Raja. “Hm,” your eyes are dull as you explain. “Your fireworks would need less gunpowder, you wouldn’t want knights to be alarmed.” Opting to side-eye at the armour clad men right in front of you. 

Only the distance kept you two apart. He felt stuck into the floor, unmoving even. Your eyes gazed up at him, and he felt too seen, but not uncomfortable, as if something bubbled in his stomach, it was.. strange. 

“Tangina, bat nandyan sila?” (Fuck, why are they there?) 

You only sighed, “Alis ka na dito bago may gawin pa sila sayo.” (You should go before they do anything to you.)  

Raja didn’t leave enough space to say goodbyes, already leaving with his powered entertainment. Humans were strange indeed , is the only thing you thought, with how they reacted to the explosion, yet you weren’t surprised. 

The fear you hear singing through you, like a choir with an odd one out in the rows, it was loud, and it was too noticeable. They always felt such strong emotions that are.. considered weak. 

But if you were so.. tested by humans? Why were you here? Honestly you don’t even know anymore, ever since you entasked yourself to help him, you’ve become more.. impulsive . You don’t hate humans for being unpredictable, that was in their nature, but not yours. Oh you detest it, that feeling of spontaneity, it sickens your core. 

Shaking it off, you stood up, walking your way to the two men- Specifically the knight you know, not minding the other one near Mando. He came by with long strides, and Karga followed warily. 

“We meet again, knight.” 

His visor gaped at you, the T giving quite an expression. “You seem so unresponsive this time, I wonder why.” But you already knew the answer. The older man behind him was like a restraint, he was too careful. If he lets one syllable out, he’ll spill it to his voice’s content. 

Turning, you went. “And you are?” 

“Chief Knight Karga at your service.” He said, his hand on his chest, lowering himself for a short bow. You only had your head high, confusing Mando. He thought you were trying to blend in, why try to make a scene?

“I see. Lord Agila then.” You reintroduced yourself, not giving a curtsy. Karga’s eyes widened, and Mando got even more confused. 

Lord Agila?

Karga visibly panicked, bowing lower than he did earlier. “Stars!- Forgive me for not recognizing you—“ 

“No need to apologize.” You held your hand up, stopping him. The cladded knight just gazed at you, perplexion shining through his helmet. It was.. amusing to you, even with the helmet on, it's as if you could see his face scrunched. Maybe you only see it because you feel it from the ground, the emotion radiating off of him. Either way, you weren’t used to seeing him so bewildered . Composure was something he always had, well until you suddenly come in like a character in a pop up book.

“But I may need to borrow your companion,” You were on him again. “I need an escort with me around here after all..” Your own voice snapping him into reality, making him share the same look back. “Will that be alright?” 

“Yes- of course!” Karga patted Mando’s back, as if encouraging to get over with it. “Accompany them, Mando!” He went on, and the knight briskly made his way, before tilting his head to you. 

“Let’s be on our way then,” You went on, “A pleasure to meet you, Chief.”

“The same to you, Lord Agila.”

You walked away quickly from this, making him trail behind you. He wanted to ask so many things, but he kept his silence. It’s too crowded, too many people could hear. He trudged his way, as if he was confusedly chasing after a swift doe. 

“Hey!—“ He hissed out, you paid no mind, only moving forward. The busyness of the streets helped you clear your mind, maybe a little too much. But it certainly only clouded him even further, with even more puzzles his own mind won’t be able to solve in such a small time. 

“Lord Agila!” He called out in a jeer, making you finally turn to you.  You glanced at him, giving him a look, not used to him calling you by that title. Stopping at your tracks, you both let the world move all around, letting time seemingly stop. “Not. Here.” 

“Then where?” 

“Somewhere- anywhere quiet—“ You went on, your pace getting slower. It was too noisy, and it was starting to throw you off, you weren’t used to this many living beings in such a confined space for such a long time. Not anymore at least. 

Before you could even let out another breathless huff- He finally got a hold of your forearm, lightly grabbing you out of the possible onlookers. “Careful.” You let out a small gasp from the sudden touch. His tug was strong yet it didn’t hurt. It was soft from his glove, and you could feel the warmth through the rugged cloth. 

You stayed close to him, almost feeling his beskar right through your skin, but you didn’t pay too much mind. The closed proximity made you feel dizzy, unused to the.. compactness. You breathed in, suddenly blinking your eyes. Did you just smell.. lavender? 

Your eyes glanced up then away from him, seeing stalls all lit up as he moved you by the sullen alleys, taking note of the passersby and the crowding people. 

“We have the finest fish in the plaza!” 

“Come by for exotic foods of Jakku!” You hear them say. You can’t help but hear them. You only looked back at the market. With their work down banners and compartments. 

It made you curious, what did humans do in their time? When they tally up their wheat, do they give it out? Or do they do the same as Raja, selling it out for some silver or gold? You knew they sell but that was it. You didn’t know, you never wanted to know. 

Even if you’d see them move around, outside of your abode, you never bothered to know, after all, what was the purpose of having this knowledge as a being such as you?

You wrenched your arm slightly, letting yourself break his hold. His helmet looked at you from this. Leaning at the cold wall, you sighed. His grip on you is already fading, his hand clenched at his belt. “Actually.. I changed my mind.” 

His visor stared at you like an indecisive buyer. And you felt like one, you felt so interested all of the sudden- It was the impulsiveness you’ve gotten from humans. You shouldn’t have come by here oh so often, you think you were getting infected, or were you just adapting? 

Either way, you wanted to look around, and you waited for him to speak. He did, letting out such a simple question through his modulator. “What if somebody recognizes you?” Clearly pointing out your -at this point, known- form right now. You only chuckled almost humorously, as if laughing at the obvious. “I have many alibis, knight.” 

He only tilted his helmet at you, earning himself an amused sigh. Running your hands to your hair, it simply grew shorter, no longer flowing through the cool air. Your shoulders grow broader, your palms and fingers are suddenly wider and longer as you adjust the fiber of your shirt to fit you. 

Your body is definitely different now from earlier, and he looks, and sees your own face regain its shape, your eyes still pierce the same way, and that same small smile you wore was still painted on your face as he watched you. 

But- he realized— You were shifting to resemble a man.

“Surprised, are we?”

“I—“ The knight was stunned. He was intrigued, and he couldn’t think of the right words. You were a surprise after a surprise to him; an endless wrapped box. 

“Don’t I look better like this?” You said to him, “Or do I change up my hair?” You mocked those posters you saw outside when he tugged you along, bobbing your hair playfully as you had your other hand on your hips.  

“Whew! But either way, it’ll be fun.” Your voice sounded.. strained? He noticed, but you still hummed a bard’s tune, like there wasn’t anything wrong.

“Knight, do you know any place you humans like going around at?” You ask, it made him think. He wasn’t the kind of man to stroll around after hours, that would mean he’d come by for his kid. 

But cathedral lessons end later, and he was entrusted by Karga to accompany you, so it wouldn’t hurt to relax, right? “You can try the food booths, if you want.” 

You thrummed a small melody, you really wanted to. He could tell, he couldn’t help but see you ogle earlier, as they all yelled about the strangest buys, mostly fares taken from the rivers early at dawn. “Do you have any recommendations?”

He stilled. He never indulged in these types of things, only buying food from here if his son seemed intrigued enough to try and grab it off the seller’s cabinets. He never really ate— or even did anything outside of his own confines either, not letting him try anything new. 

Noticing this, you were about to say something before he asked, “Were you here for.. the magician?” You raised a brow at him. “Yes.. and for other reasons.” 

“Why?” 

“Why not?” Not bothering to give off another answer. He can know in another day or never, you thought. “It’s not much anyway, I won’t bore you with the details.” You said, trying to find something to look at. As you carried on, he only accompanied you as you walked around. 

“I can listen.” He told you, this lightly surprised you from your curious state, and only looking at him as you huff. “Haven’t you heard the scribes? Thought the word would have travelled by then.”

He remembered what his superior said, with the festival- Seven suns- A lightning of realization struck through him. “That was your doing?” 

“Of course it is-“ You chipped, “It’s all coincidental when you think about it, knight.” 

You were right, it was too neatly placed, like a newly made puzzle on display in a toy shop. 

“As a lord..” He went on, “You did all of that?” 

“If it means we can lure in a magician earlier, then yes, I did do all of that for the sake of it.”

You really had too much time in your hands.

“It wasn’t easy,” You huffed. “It took a long time to try to convince the board, they were quite.. skeptical, I had to reiterate almost everything.” Sighing, you continued on with your little tale. “It was ironic to me really.” 

“Humans.. not wanting to try something new, and changing time isn’t much either.” You were bewildered. Profit would have been easier to gain, what was there to doubt? That was the question in your head during the spectacle. They were all naive, even before this whole meeting, you already knew that. 

“Don’t expect too much from them.” He quipped, making you chuckle. “You’re right with that.” 

“But Lord Agila..” The alibi rolled off his tongue so easily, it was almost pleasing to hear. “Why the name?”

“I’m called Mariang Agila by my woodland people,” You say, “It’s a suitable name.. so it seemed natural to continue.” 

You then quipped in almost quickly, surprising yourself. “Besides, ‘Lord Agila’ has a ring, does it not?” As if you actually wanted to know.

Maybe you did. 

The knight only looked at you, as expected. You took that as some sort of agreement from the man. You were growing used to his quietness, and it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It was comforting… to say the least. 

Your eyes trail to the stalls once more, doing another check for the umpteenth time. All of them were vibrant, colours pop like the fireworks the merchant had earlier, and it was pleasing to see. They were extravagant- well for street shops that is.

With the royal blues and sunny yellows, You try to hunt for more things to feast your eyes on— like a meal for your eyes. As if you were a predator beneath the jungle, diving into unexplored waters for bountiful fish. 

You breathed in the air, it's been so long since you’ve been fully out like this. The knight only followed after you, accompanying you like he was your actual guard. But you didn’t think of it that way, this was more of a.. what did humans call it? A day-off.

A day-off from any sort of duties. You like that sound of that. 

.. Today, you wanted to enjoy your borrowed time in this part of the world, and you will enjoy it. 

That is the point of your impulse. A reward for your work earlier. As the sudden want in you bloomed, making you want to gain this. You relished in it, feeling so comfortable in a new appearance, this freedom.

Looking back at him, you only give him a a small smile, yet it reached your eyes this time. A little gesture- yet it made him feel something in the pit of his stomach. Like that spark, when he caught on you with unbridled worry seeping through him- holding your arm close in the crammed crowd. 

But he brushed it off, his lips pursed under his mask. Feeling heat in the tips of his ears, he tells himself- that it was merely the stuffiness of the air, the fumes of street food getting under his helmet. 

Just the fumes. Just.. the.. fumes. 

[ramp-it-up]

Everyday

Pairing: Rafael Casal x Reader, Rafael Casal (as Miles Turner) x Reader

Warnings: MINORS DNI, 18 + , RPF. CURATE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE IF YOU READ BELOW THE CUT. Cursing, drinking, allusion to smoking weed, fantasy, truth or dare, role play, SMUT, Graphic Depictions of Sex, oral sex (M/F receiving), a lil bit of bondage, established relationship, fantasy play.

A/N:  I have no idea what is for trade in prison; sex packets are a made up joke. And I’m really into 90’s rap this week. Anywho, this fic is in response to the following request:

Anonymous asked:

Rafa!!!!! Maybe a fluffy smut where he’s role playing Miles for you? 👀

-------

“Ok, Dare.”

You steeled yourself from the query from Daveed.

“Which fictional character, real or animated, would you like to bone?”

Everyone burst out laughing.

“Real or ANIMATED????”  

You were cracking up laughing and buzzed, feeling good surrounded by your crew of friends who were family.

“Ok, I will answer both.” 

Rafa cleared his throat and settled back on the couch beside you. 

You sat up straight and he watched the curve of your breasts underneath the Oaklandish tee you stole from him that morning.

“Rafael is getting swole! Don’t worry Rafa. She will still come home to your everyday ass.”

“Shut up, Ant. You always got something to say.” You rolled your eyes.  “Everyday with Rafa is amazing.”

You leaned over and kissed Rafa’s lips, which were in a slight frown.  He didn’t like that word, ‘everyday.’

“You good?” You whispered so only you two could hear.

He smiled at you, “No doubt. Answer the man’s question!” Rafa said a little louder, bravado on fleek.

“ANYWAYYY.”  You shook your head at him as you straightened up.  “Max could get it.”

“Max who?” Jasmine was confused.  Then she realized, then leaned over Ant and Rafa to give you a high five.

“Max Who???” Daveed was curious.

“Goofy’s son. Max.”  

Everyone erupted in laughter again. Daveed got up and took the bottle out of your hand. 

“Enough of this.” 

You battled him, jumping up and swatting around D’s head. You won your drink back and sat down.

“As far as ‘real’ fictional characters…” You took a drink. And smiled. All eyes were on you.

“Miles Turner could rearrange my guts.” 

Anthony groaned. Rafa sat up straight. You took another drink . 

“For Real. Ruffnecks kinda do it for me.”

“Gotta who? Gotta have a what?”  Jazzy started rapping. You replied.

“Gotta what? Yo, gotta get a ruffneck.” 

You two started dancing, rapping and singing with your drinks in your hands.

Gotta what? Yo, gotta get a ruffneck

Gotta what? Yo, gotta get a ruffneck

Gotta what? Yo, gotta get a ruffneck

I need it and I want it so I gotta get a ruffneck!

Rafael pulled you down to sit on his lap and Jasmine kept dancing, right in front of Anthony.

Anthony sucked his teeth, but was smiling at Jazzy’s ass. 

“That’s cheating. I mean. That’s just Rafa. I mean, he bones you on the regular.” 

Ant smacked Jasmine on the bottom and took a drink before she plopped down next to him and he put his arm around her.

“You know it!” Rafa and Anthony toasted. 

“But I ain’t Miles.”  

Rafa took another sip of his Abasolo on the rocks.

“And it’s just a fantasy. Right baby.”  

Rafael rubbed your back giving you a look that made you tremble. Rafa felt your warmth on his lap. He grinned into his drink.

“Trueeee!”  

You smiled, trying to keep it light and calm the fuck down. Everyone always made fun of you two smashing in people’s bathrooms.

“You aren’t Miles. I didn’t know you when you were younger....” 

You locked eyes with Rafael, and the green fire there did something to you.  

“I think Rafa is Miles’s wasted potential.”

“Wow. That’s deep,” said Ant from a cloud of smoke.

You and Rafa were locked in an eye embrace as well as a physical one.  When he arched his eyebrow, you had to look away, because you couldn’t take it.  

“Y’all need to use my bathroom?”  More laughter.

You and Rafa both flipped Daveed off. 

“Nah, Diggs.” Rafa stood up with you in his arms.  “We’ll use our own. We out.”  

Your man carried you willingly out of the door.

-----

About two weeks later, you came home with some groceries, you were looking forward to a night in with Rafa.

You’d both been busy and tired lately, only available for maintenance sex. 

Rafa was running around creating all of his creative shit, and you worked in the writers room of a popular series.  Life was hectic.

He was sitting at the kitchen table, hands together on top. 

He was wearing blue scrubs over a white Henley and had his face turned to the side, staring out the window. You noticed that his hair was different.

“Hey, babe. Did you get a haircut? What’s wrong?”

He turned his face toward you and that’s when you noticed two more things. Rafael’s eye was black, and there was a tattoo on his neck.

THAT California tattoo. 

You were very concerned and a little confused. Concern came first in your mind.

“What happened to your eye?”  He gave you a strange look, then he spoke.

“A mutha fucka sneaked me in the yard, that’s what happened!”  

You stood still and had to register what was happening.

Rafa was wearing a grill, and his voice was different, in a lower register  and with a long drawn out, almost southern drawl. 

But it wasn’t southern. It was all Bay.

He stood up and walked toward you, and you noticed that his scrubs had “Prisoner” written in yellow letters down the right leg. 

You suddenly realized what was going on. 

Oh, Shit.

“Baby. You’re a sight for sore eyes.  It’s been a minute.”  

You’d left Rafael in bed this morning.  But it seemed that you came home to Miles.

“Hey,” was all you could say. 

Rafael/Miles gestured for you to come over to the table.  It was then you saw that he was handcuffed. 

A strange feeling came over to you.  He stood up, and you saw that his legs were shackled.  You went close to him and looked at his eye closely.

“Rafa?”

His face was fine, up close, you could tell it was makeup.

“You been to see Galaxy today?”  

You were peering at his neck and the Bay/California tattoo there.

He screwed up his face.

“Who tha fuck is Rafa? And what the hell you talking ‘bout space for?” 

He peered into your eyes, then looked around furtively.

“Babe. Are you high?”

The drawl was a whisper now.

“These muthafuckas’ll kick you out if they think you got drugs on you.”

You smiled at him, pecked him on the lips and replied. 

“No worries. I’m not high.” You sat down at the kitchen table and ‘Miles’ sat across from you. 

“As for Rafa? He’s this guy I know.  Had a nice… conversation with him the other night.”  

You looked into his eyes to see if he would crack.  But your man was a pro.  

He huffed.  “Psshhht.  You MUST be high talking to another dude. What kinda name is Rafa anyway. Sounds like some hipster trash.”  

He peered at you again, anger radiating off of him.

Damn, he was good.

“Tell me what the fuck you mentioning some other muthafucka to my face while I’m locked up in here! Every day.” 

He pounded his bound fists on the table in front of you and made you jump.  It also made you wet as fuck.

He gestured with both hands (because they were handcuffed) to the nice kitchen that you loved to cook in, but that you were now seeing through his performance as a prison visitation room. 

But you were still shook.

“R, R, Rafael is a beautiful artist. He’s a poet. He’s gentle, and kind. And a wonderful lover.” 

Miles glared at you. You stuttered again.

“I-I imagine.”

He gave you a menacing smile and leaned back in the chair, pushing his crotch up in your direction.  Your eyes were drawn there.

“So you imagining fucking another muthafucka and decide to come visit me and tell me about it?”

You got into it.

“Well….I miss you Miles. But it gets hard. Not being able to be with you.”

He leaned forward, bearing his teeth.

“Don’t fucking tell me about it.  Here I am jacking off with leftover chicken grease from the kitchen at night.  Got my dick smelling like a Popeye’s chicken sandwich in this bitch.”

“Ew,” you said, disgusted, then you started giggling at the joke.

Miles pouted and sat back.

“ ‘S not fucking funny!”  He looked out the window again. 

“I shouldn’t even tell you about the surprise.”

You straightened up.  “What is it babe?”

You put your hand on his and he caressed yours with his thumb.  He looked at you, excited and mischievous now.

“I got us a conjugal visit.”

Your mouth dropped open, fully into it now.

“But I thought that was just for married couples, Miles…”

“I know, I know.” He leaned forward and looked around again.  “But I got me a side hustle.”

He shifted his eyes as he scanned the empty room.

“I make sex packets outta the leftover chicken grease from my job in the kitchen. Make a KILLING in oatmeal cream pies, ramen noodles, cigarettes and other tradeable currency.  I made enough to buy us a conjugal visit, girl.”

He leaned back, very satisfied with himself, his hands now on his lap, rubbing his crotch.  

Your eyes were drawn there again and you found yourself irrationally wondering how big his dick was. He had you caught up in this fantasy.

“Let’s go to the trailer and I’ll make you forget all about this Raja guy.” Miles winked at you.

“It’s…”  You saw the look on his face.  “Nevermind. Let’s go.” 

He stood up again, and shuffled his way to the bathroom, you at a safe distance behind him. 

He entered the bedroom and shuffled to the bed, sitting down on the edge. He gestured you to him and you went and stood before him.

He put his nose in your crotch.

“MMMmmmmm. I missed your smell Baby. It’s been too long. He lifted his hands and put them on the insides of your thighs. He pulled back and looked at you, green eyes staring into brown.

“The guards left the key over there. That is, if you wanna get me out of these.” He nodded toward the 

He trailed his hands up to your pelvis, managing to hook one set of fingers into your waistband and still have another at your apex.

He ran his fingers over your jeans right where it counts. This kind of petting felt good and made you want more. 

You let him play for a little while, but then pushed him back to sit and watch you. 

You peeled down your jeans to reveal a white satin thong. Rafael loved white against your coffee brown skin, but tonight, Miles would benefit. You stood there in your button-down shirt, that was really Rafael’s. 

Miles’s hands went to his crotch again as he eagerly watched.

“You seem to be doing pretty well all hemmed up, but let me see.”

You went to the dresser to retrieve the key, and you did, then turned around and put it in your mouth while you slowly unbuttoned the shirt.

Miles leaned back on the bed and opened his legs as far as the shackles would let them go, licking his lips as you disrobed.

You were wearing a white lace bra, your dark nipples and areola straining through the delicate material.  You were very excited at the entire scenario. 

The fact that Rafa was doing this for you because he remembered what you said on a drunken night weeks ago was the shit.

You dropped to the ground and crawled over to Miles’s feet jutting your ass up in the air as you unlocked the shackles.

You massaged his ankles and trailed your hands up his legs to his crotch, where you rubbed the hardness there.

“It’s been so long that you’ve been locked up, Miles.”

You raised up on your knees, loving the feeling of his eyes sweeping over you.

“I’m gonna give you the world’s best blowjob.”

Miles smiled at you.

“Aw, baby. That’s so cute.”

“I’ll show you cute.”

You were about to give your own performance.

------

Five minutes later, you were gargling his cock, relaxing your throat and taking him as deep as you could, nose nestled at his base, and gently pulling and kneading his balls.

Someone moaned, and you didn’t know if it was Rafa or Miles.  He bucked his hips up into your mouth while resting his cuffed hands in your hair.

“As much as I would love to … fuck baby… cum down your throat.. I need that… damn where’d you learn to do that?!... I need that pussy.  Unlock the cuffs, baby.”

His cuffed hands were in your hair, alternating between massaging your scalp and pulling your hair the way you loved it. 

The way Rafael invented. 

You smiled around his cock with the knowledge that what you were doing was making him slip out of character.

You pulled your head upward, mouth open, allowing the saliva to trickle out with his dick. 

He looked at you like he couldn’t believe how nasty you were being. He was mesmerized. You looked a mess, eye makeup running, lipstick smudged, spit all over your face. 

Your dream man loved it.

“Am I ‘cute’ now?”

“Fuck no. You’re so goddamn beautiful.”

You smiled and quickly reached behind you and unclasped your bra, taking your breasts in your hands and pushed them up around his dick.

“See, if you unlock these cuffs, I’ll handle things the way they need to be handled.”

You just smiled up at him while you manipulated your breasts around him, knowing that he could not control his hips fucking into your cleavage.

“I got it under control.” You stuck your tongue out to tease his tip as it neared your face, lubricating it with your saliva.

“Fuck, baby.  I wanna fuck you so bad. It’s been so long…”

This entire scene was just about the hottest thing ever. You were breathless, dripping, and quivering with anticipation. But you didn’t want it to end so soon.

“How long ‘xactly?”

“Shit, 5 months of being here and jacking off to memories of you everyday.  I need to see that ass and fuck that pussy, babyyyy. Please.”

Those eyes.

Those words. 

The acting. 

Miles. 

You had to relent.

You reached for the key where you dropped it on the floor and unlocked the cuffs.

“Fucking finally!”  Miles rubbed his wrists as he stood up, stripped his shirts off and his pants the rest of the way.

“On the bed, let me see that ass up.” 

He smacked it about three times each and then rubbed it as you did as you were told. 

Miles trailed his hand from your ass up your spine to your shoulder and then pushed your head down further into the bed.

“That’s a girl.” Your back had that perfect arch.

He got behind you and swiped his hardness up and down your slit, teasing you with the head of his dick.

He grabbed your hand and brought behind your back, and very swiftly the other, and before you knew it, your hands were cuffed behind you, head in the bed and Miles was entering you swiftly.

“Fuuuuck! How does it feel?”

You couldn’t speak. The thrill of Miles’ dick inside you and being cuffed had you ready to cum already.

His stroke game was on point, as if he was fucking you to a brand new rhythm- Allegro. 

Strangely, it was different than Rafa had ever been.

That was blowing your mind.

Miles tugged on the metal restraints and the slight pain in your shoulders and wrists, combined with the thrill of this roleplay, made you release, all over him and the bed.

“Shit girl, you really are glad to see me.” That drawl got you ready to peak again.

“Oh fuck yeah, Miles, oh shit, oh shit.” Your pussy was clamping down on him at the thought of Miles Turner having his way with you.

“Shit, I’m cumming with you, hold up.”  

Rafa tried to slow down, but you did that thing with your pussy and he couldn’t help it.  His hips drove his dick inside you until it pulsed and started to flow, and then he pulled out.

“Turn over baby.”

You leisurely moved to turn over, and he motioned you down to the end of the bed, moving the pillow where he wanted your head.

“I need in between those legs, baby.  I need to see you, I need to surround me with you.”

You positioned yourself at the end of the bed, your braids hanging over the edge.

Miles gave you a forehead kiss as he got between your thighs, and pumped himself a couple of times as he aligned with you.  

He leaned down and pulled at your nipple with his mouth, moaning when you moaned, moving his eyes appreciatively down your body and keeping his eyes where you were about to join.

The look on his face when he entered you was very hot, and you found your pussy squeezing his cock in appreciation. It seemed magically somehow bigger, and all of your senses were alive as he started moving.

“That’s my beautiful baby. You’re so fucking tight. Don’t push me out, let me have the glorious pussy. Damn girl, this pussy, those thighs, your curves, these tits. What did a man like me do to deserve you. You’re such a fucking sweet princess for me…”

You were astounded. Missionary was far from your favorite position because you seldom came that way, but the way Miles was whispering praise in your ear and the total fantasy was getting you there. 

Quickly.

He watched your face and adjusted his pace in response to your cries, and that knowledge made you start to come. When your eyes rolled back in your head, that’s when he knew.

He pulled your hair back and sucked the shit out of your neck as you came, and he released inside you.  You wrapped your legs around him and held him as he shivered with the aftershocks of his orgasm.

Your lover rolled off of you and you snuggled into his arm. He lay there and held you as you tried to process.

“That was… wow.” You weren’t sure who to address, Rafa or Miles. Irrationally you felt you were in love with both.

He just chuckled at you, and gave you another forehead kiss.

“I’m going to enjoy a shower.  Goodbye for a while, baby.”

You grinned. “Bye Miles.”

He pecked you on the lips and you watched him go into the bathroom.

You rolled over on your back and tried to organize your thoughts. How would you write this?

Thoughts of writing this scene chased you into sleep.

---

You woke up to Rafael, grill and tattoos gone, freshly out of the shower and in a towel, gently trying to pull you from sleep.

“C’mon.”  

You let him get you up and into the bathroom to a hot bath.  You let him tenderly clean you up and then get you out of the tub and dry you off. You were more tired than you thought.

“You hungry?” You walked into the kitchen in a towel behind him.

Rafa had put the groceries up and was holding up takeout menus. He was truly magical. You smiled, nodded and told him what you wanted.

45 minutes later, you were in his softest Oaklandish tee and you were curled up on the couch in the living room together, food containers spead out on the coffee table.

You felt totally in sync with this amazing man.

“I loved tonight.”

He smiled softly back at you.

“Had to give you your fantasy since you help me live mine. Every day.” 

He leaned over and kissed you.  He looked you intensely in the eyes. Those green pools had you trapped.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Rafael.”

Your fantasy had been Miles, but your reality was Rafael. 

And that was fantastic. 

Everyday.

-------

Tags:

@braidedchallah @theatrenerd86 @sebastianabucknettastan @imatyoursurrvicesurr @riiyy @ivycomet @lonelydance @jbrizzywrites @delaber @honeysucklechocolatedrippin @janthonystan-blog @anh1020 @sillyteecup @ohsoverykeri  @theselilwonders @biafbunny @summerofsnowflakes  @wreakhavoconmacroissantdiggs @janthonybitch @einfachniemand @einfachniemand

[southeastasianists]

In late July, sitting in my sister-in-law’s home in St. Louis, Missouri, I waited in the “lobby” area of Cloud Theatre for Zoom Parah to begin. Itself a creation born of the pandemic, Cloud Theatre is an online platform which strives to offer a seamless digital theatre experience to global audiences. Their “lobby” is a simple but smart artificial space: a live chat box, available to attendees as they login for a show, is positioned next to the image of a theatre stage, framed by red curtains. The waiting room attempts to replicate the experience of audience members mingling and chatting before a performance begins. Joining others in this virtual space, I was excited to see another Malaysian, also based in the United States, mention that they were from Petaling Jaya—my hometown. I excitedly typed back, “I’m from PJ, too!” The spark of recognition flashing across the chat box was akin to overhearing a conversation between strangers, and interjecting to share a mutual connection. Months into social distancing protocols, the Cloud Theatre lobby reminded me that there was something inherently sociable about joining hundreds of people from around the world to watch this production together—albeit, online.

“We had people who’d never seen theatre before experience it for the first time using Zoom.” Malaysian theatre director, actor and writer Jo Kukathas stressed this point repeatedly when discussing Zoom Parah, the online adaptation of the critically acclaimed play, Parah. This digital theatre performance, and the new viewing experiences it made possible, is just one of many examples of innovative work being produced by Southeast Asian directors, producers, and actors since the pandemic. In the early days and weeks of Covid-19, theatre makers from this region—like so many others around the world—watched in despair as stages went dark and theatres shut their doors. Despite the dire conditions, they rallied—with little to no funding and even less governmental support—to reimagine theatre in the time of COVID. They created innovative forms of theatre designed for Zoom, streamed recordings of award-winning plays that had not previously been available online, and held numerous talk-back sessions to reflect on the creative process. The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre has provided unprecedented access to experimental and critically acclaimed work from the region. These productions have connected audiences and diasporic communities around the world, focusing often on urgent questions of race, identity, and belonging. These developments offer models not only for the professional theatre world, but also for teachers and students of the performing arts who are navigating online education.

In their articles for Offstage and The Business Times, Akanksha Raja and Helmi Yusof discuss half a dozen new Singaporean and Southeast Asian theatre projects which have embraced the digital turn. These include: Murder at Mandai Camp and The Future Stage from Sight Lines Entertainment; Long Distance Affair from Juggerknot Theatre and PopUP Theatrics; Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap from How Drama; and Who’s There? from The Transit Ensemble and New Ohio Theatre. While these are just a few of the productions that have emerged since the pandemic began, they are impressive in scale, quantity, and range of forms. These performances have taken advantage of every feature offered by Zoom, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. They’ve incorporated chat boxes, polls, and even collaborative detective work on the part of the audience. In addition to Zoom Parah (by Instant Café Theatre), I’ve had the opportunity to watch Who’s There?, as well as a recording of WILD RICE theatre’s celebrated play, Merdeka, written by Singaporean playwrights Alfian Sa’at and Neo Hai Bin. Of these three, Zoom Parah and Who’s There? illuminate the technological and socio-political interventions of Southeast Asian digital theatre, as well as the ways in which COVID-19 has redefined performance and spectatorship.

In addition to the virtual lobby and chat function, Zoom Parah employed live English translation in a separate text box, making the production accessible to those not fluent in Malay. Who’s There? like Zoom Parah, also made the most of the chat function, along with approximately a dozen polls which punctuated the performance. Each poll gauged audience reactions to the complex issues the play addressed and reflected the responses back to the viewers. This feature required audience members to pause, reflect on a particular scene and its context, and assess the perspectives through which they were viewing the performance. In effect, the polls created a dynamic feedback loop between the cast, crew, and viewers, offering an alternative to the in-person audience response that is so crucial to live performances. Augmenting their efforts to keep audience members plugged in, the play experimented with layering lighting, sound, and mixed media to produce different visual and sound effects within the Zoom frame.

Alongside their adaptation of online technologies, both plays are also noteworthy for their socio-political interventions. Parah, the critically acclaimed play on which Zoom Parah is based, was written in 2011 by award-winning Singaporean writer and resident playwright at WILD RICE theatre, Alfian Sa’at. It follow a group of 11th grade students of different races (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) as they navigate reading the controversial Malaysian novel, Interlok, which sparked national debates surrounding racial stereotypes. The classmates, who share a deep friendship, challenge each other’s views of the novel by reflecting on their lived experiences. Zoom Parah retained the original plot and script, bringing the play’s pressing questions into a national landscape marked by pandemic lockdowns and political upheaval, and shadowed by new iterations of Malay supremacy. At a volatile time for the country, Zoom Parah questions what it means to be Malaysian, making visible the forms of belonging and exclusion that continue to shape national identities.

Who’s There? was also invested in broaching difficult discussions of contemporary issues. A transnational collaboration between artists from the US, Singapore, and Malaysia, the play was part of the New Ohio Theatre’s summer festival, which moved online due to the pandemic. Who’s There? aimed to tackle some of the most contentious racial topics of 2020: the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests; the use of black and brownface in Malaysia; and the relationship between DNA testing and cultural identity. The production was structured as a series of linked vignettes, featuring different sets of characters wrestling with interconnected racial and national contexts.

Both Parah and Who’s There speak to the arts’ inherent capacity to not merely experiment with form and aesthetics in the digital realm, but to also engage the complexity of history, politics, and contemporary culture. As Kukathas recently reflected, “The act of making theatre to me is always about trying to connect to the society that I live in; that could be local, that could be global . . . people want to hear stories, and to connect through stories.” By taking on the dual challenge of experimenting with digital technologies and responding to what’s happening in the public square, Southeast Asian digital theatre joins work such as the Public Theatre’s all-Black production of Much Ado About Nothing to offer new frames through which to view race, rights, and identity—even and especially in the midst of a global pandemic.

Kukathas’ comments on the inherently social motivations of her work were shared during a Facebook Live discussion entitled “Who’s Afraid of Digital Theater?”. The conversation aired on 20 August, hosted by WILD RICE theatre and moderated by Alfian. Focusing on “the possibilities and pitfalls of digital theatre,” the discussion featured reflections from artists who have helped launch this new era of Southeast Asian theatre. The panelists included Kukathas, Kwin Bhichitkul from Thailand (director, In Own Space) and Sim Yan Ying “YY” from Singapore (co-director and actor, Who’s There?). Approximately 100 people tuned in for the discussion, and the recording has accrued over 8,000 views on Facebook. During the conversation, the theatre makers shared rationales for their creative choices, as well as strategies for navigating the challenges of developing online performances. Their insights offer potential pathways for other theatre professionals, as well as teachers and students of theatre who are continuing to work online.

Bhichitkul, Kukathas, and Sim’s approaches to digital theatre diverged significantly from one another. They each played with different technologies and were guided by distinct motivations. Bhichitkul was focussed on the isolation created by the pandemic and, responding to this fragmentation, he asked 15 artists to create short, 2-minute video performances. Bhichitkul explained that this project also had an improvisational twist: “Every artist need[ed] to be inspired by the message of the [artist’s] video before them. They couldn’t think beforehand, they needed to wait until the day [they received the video]” before creating their own. The creative process was thus limited to just a 24-hour window for each artist. The entire project spanned 15 days, with Bhichitkul stitching the videos together on the final day.

On the other hand, Kukathas felt strongly that her foray into digital theatre required a deep connection to a live, staged performance. Therefore, she chose Parah—a play she directed for six re-stagings between 2011-2013—as the production she would adapt to Zoom. Kukathas explained, “If I was going to start experimenting with doing digital theatre . . . it needed to be a play that I was very familiar with, and a play that the actors were very familiar with. I wanted the actors to really inhabit their bodies, so that the energy of the actor’s body was very present even through the screen . . . I [needed] actors who have a kinetic memory in their body of that performance being 360 degrees.” Unlike Kukathas, Sim was “interested in doing something as far away from live theatre as possible” and did not want to be “beholden” to its conventions. She views digital theatre as “a new art form in itself; not an extension of live theatre, not a replacement, but something that straddles the line between theatre and film.”

The directors’ reflections on their respective productions illustrate the range of forms, techniques, and points of view with which theatre makers are experimenting. They also suggest that digital theatre has the potential to accommodate a surprisingly wide variety of directorial visions and investments.

And while their approaches might vary, these theatre makers all agreed about the benefits and opportunities of digital theatre. They returned repeatedly to the advantages of greater accessibility and transnational reach without the costs of international travel. Kukathas and Sim cited accessibility and the pay-what-you-can model as being particular priorities for them. Kukathas was especially proud of the fact that “we could reach the play to people who would ordinarily not be able to go to the theatre. And we made our tickets really cheap: our cheapest ticket was RM5 (US $1). We did that deliberately so that people who don’t usually even go to the theatre would get a chance to watch it. So we had people who’d never seen theatre before experience it for the first time using Zoom.”

The directors also view the digital turn as one which opens up new avenues for creativity and collaboration. Sim recalls, “We still spent 3-4 hours per rehearsal, 4 times a week, on this space together. We developed a closeness and a relationship with each other even though we never met live. And we still shared a lot of cross-cultural exchanges.” Kukathas views the shift to online technologies and platforms as one which prompts us to ask big questions about theatre and to re-evaluate the rules of spectatorship. Filming theatre at home, sharing it online, and watching it at home creates, according to Kukathas, a merging of “strangeness and ordinariness” that shrinks the spaces between public and private. The ensuing disorientation poses, for Kukathas, a number of pivotal questions: “What is theatre? What are the impulses that drive us to make a piece of theatre? What is it to watch theatre? How free are you now when you’re watching? . . . I think this could be a good chance to question why we have certain rules [in theatre] and whether those rules are really necessary.”

While we are used to hearing laments about the digital as the enemy of “the real,” the digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre suggests an opening and an expansion; a chance to reimagine the performing arts, develop new forms of collaboration, and reach wider and more diverse audiences. As Akanksha Raja notes in Offstage, “performance-makers have been recognising that the way they choose to embrace technology can not only enhance but possibly birth new forms of theatre.”

However, it’s crucial not to romanticise the very real challenges of alternative forms and platforms. Alfian noted that, “In a traditional theatre, you are a captive audience . . . you’re not allowed to be distracted, not allowed to look at your phone. On the one hand, we’re seeing there’s the freedom to not be so disciplined when watching a show. But at the same time, is the freedom necessarily a good thing? You’re actually quite distracted and you’re not giving your 100 percent [attention] to the work.”

Sim and Kukathas agreed to an extent, but pointed out alternative advantages: group chats and texts in a “watch party” format build a sense of connection among audience members and provide real-time audience reactions and feedback. Kukathas recalled how attendees used the chat box (along with text messages and DMs) to alert Kukathas and her producer to a sound issue that they were not aware of. Kukathas laughingly reflected, “I really appreciated how invested people were. They were like, ‘Fix this right now!’ and then we had to rush to try to fix it. It made me feel how alive we were—the audience was shouting at us!”

The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre is bringing a wide range of productions to global audiences. The literary and cultural traditions of this region are incredibly rich and have always been shaped by complex histories of migration, exchange, and adaptation. Digital theatre is borne of new practices of migration, exchange, and adaptation—and of necessity. While there have been controversial debates in countries like Singapore and Malaysia about the value of the arts during this pandemic, the creatives featured here are turning to the digital in order to keep art alive and to keep their companies and projects afloat. They are extending an invitation to audiences and to collaborators to embrace play and experimentation, to find opportunities in the challenges of online theatre, and to recognise that art is essential, now more than ever.

[thosefookinavacados]

Thanks for the tag @avocadolouis28 @farawaytatmybeloved and @tanktop-lou !! This took a while haha

MUSIC

Fav genre? Indie-Pop, Indie-Folk, Indie-alternative, Alternative-rock, Pop-Rock and Filmi (That is, 60s', 70s', 80s' bollywood)

Fav artist? Taylor Swift & One Direction (most of their solo stuff too)

Most listened song recently? The 1, Taylor Swift

Song currently stuck in your head? Always, Ashe

5 fav lyrics? Okay this is so hard I've got pages of my fav lyrics but here goes nothing: "Take the words for what they are, a dwindling mercurial high, a drug that only worked the first few hundred times." - illicit affairs, Taylor Swift "क्यों मैं तूफाँ से डरूँ मेरा साहिल आप हैं // कोई तूफानों से कह दे मिल गया साहिल मुझे" - आपकी नज़रों ने समझा, Lata Mangeshkar (Lyrics by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan) (Translation: Why should I fear the storms when you are my shore? Someone tell the storms that I've found my anchor.) "All the lonely shadow dances from the cradle to the grave, it's a solo song, and it's only for the brave." - Only The Brave, Louis Tomlinson "We can't control all the outcomes, let go of the reins, ride the rhythm." - River Road, ZAYN "Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?" - Coney Island, Taylor Swift ft. The National

Radio or your own playlist | solo artists or bands | pop or indie | loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio on

BOOKS

Fav book genre? Romance/Mythology/Mystery

Fav writer? Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Sudha Murthy and Oscar Wilde

Fav book? Murder on the Orient Express

Fav book series? The Shiva Triology by Amish

Comfort book? The mother I never had by Sudha Murthy (And Escapade, if fanfiction counts)

Perfect book to read on a rainy day? I like reading plays on rainy days. A Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo and Juliet!

Fav characters? I dunno

5 quotes from your fav book that you know by heart? I know a dialogue from Romeo and Juliet which I absolutely ADORE: "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; The more I give thee, the more I have, for both are infinite." It basically means her for him is as deep as the sea and the more love she gives him the more she gets backs because their love is limitless. I cri.

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator  | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once

TV AND MOVIES

fav tv/movie genre? I'm not picky when it comes to movies but Rom-coms/Action/Coming of age/Anything gay

fav movie? The half of it

comfort movie? PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and Love Simon

movie you watch every year? Tangled and Love Simon

fav tv show? Ooh Nver Have I Ever and Young Royals

comfort tv show? Love, Victor

most rewatched tv show? Don't have one

ultimate otp? Simon and Wilhelm

5 fav characters? Fabiola (Never Have I Ever) Sara (Young Royals) Felice (Young Royals) Felix (Love Victor) Mobius (Loki)

Tv shows or movies | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons(22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging |one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on (I'm not neurotypical your honour) or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online|

This was fun!! Tagging @herefortommo @saintqueer @dyingstars-x @starburns @stylinsuns & @louisnewera !!

[flowersandskeletons526]

“The Harshest Future We Could Have Imagined” - Lumity Future AU Fanfic Part 2

Here’s chapter two! Luz and Amity finally get their reunion and get a short chance to catch up. 

----

Luz tackled Amity in a hug. 

"I missed you guys so much!" she exclaimed, laughing past the tears in her eyes. "I'm so happy I get to see you again!"

Amity hesitated, eyes wide and watery, before finally putting her arms around Luz. The human winced as Amity's nails dug into her back but didn't let go. "Tell me I'm not dreaming," she gasped, clinging to Luz. "Tell me you're here."

"I am here," Luz whispered. "I'm sorry I was gone so long." 

Forcing herself to pull back, Amity beckoned to Willow and Gus. Both grinned and jumped on their friends, locking them in a tight hug. Eda, Lilith, and King followed. Luz laughed under the smothering hugs and held her family tighter. She somehow managed to keep from crying as Amity buried her face against her neck, talons still locked in her back.

"I missed you, Luz," she whispered in her ear.

"I missed you too, Ami." 

They all stayed like that for longer than any could tell, until Eda released them with, "Alright, enough with the parallel arms thing." 

Everyone broke apart laughing. Luz stayed close to Amity, pressing their arms together as Amity wiped at her eyes. Willow shot Luz that old knowing smile over Amity's head. 

Luz grinned at everyone. "Okay, you guys have to tell me everything that's happened while I was gone," she said. Every smile in the room disappeared. She frowned. "Guys?"

Eda sighed. "Come sit down, kid. Amity, Willow, why don't you explain?" 

Luz looked around with a concerned frown as Willow led her to the table. She sat beside Luz while Amity hovered behind them, tying the long part of her undercut into a messy bun. Luz watched her for a moment before Willow tapped the table to get her attention. 

Only then did she notice the scar on Willow’s face. Deep and ragged, it curled down the side of her face, revealed by her much shorter hair. Glancing back at Amity, Luz noticed the scars that littered her pale skin, as well. She noticed the dark shadows and creases beneath everyone’s eyes, their cuts and bruises, the fresh blood and dirt that covered them. They were her age; logically, she knew that, but looking at them now, it seemed that far more years had passed for them than had for her. Even Gus, though still short, had grown into hardened features and haunted eyes. Luz swallowed hard and looked to Willow.

“After you left,” the witch began, “things started to get bad.”

Her voice was somber and hollow. Luz’s stomach dropped.

“Belos started recruiting more members into the Emperor’s coven, powerful magic users and foot soldiers. They stopped allowing study of different tracks and anyone caught practicing outside a coven was arrested. The multi-track at Hexside was outlawed. Using glyphs was grounds for immediate arrest.” 

Luz felt for the pad of paper in her pocket and took a deep breath.

Willow went on. “Remember how Gus was digging tunnels beneath school?”

“It was just supposed to be one at first,” Gus interjected. 

“Well, he finished them. There’s a massive network under there now that we used to meet in to discuss plans, mostly on keeping them away from the Owl House and Eda while they tried to fix the portal. After that speech I made during the petrification, after people found out we stole the portal back, everyone started getting angrier with the entire idea of the coven system.”

“Most people,” Amity said bitterly.

Willow sighed and reached out to squeeze her hand. “Most people. Anyway, once all that started, Belos put us in martial law and put everything under complete jurisdiction of the Emperor’s coven and their leader. Alador Blight.”

“Blight? You mean…?”

“My father.” Amity gripped her staff harshly. “And now my brother.”

“Edric?” 

“What about him, Amity?” Eda asked. 

“He’s Belos’ new commander. We ran into him today at the fight in town. Eda, we’re going to need to set up more security for a while and try to keep him away as long as possible. He knows too much about us.” 

“So, you’re all fighting the Emperor’s coven now?” Luz asked. 

“We are,” said Willow. “Belos, specifically. Eventually he started petrifying people and spouting all that Titan’s will bullshit, so we got angry, and we snuck into his castle a year ago and tried to kill him.”

“You what?”

“Willow did,” Gus said. 

Willow smirked and tapped her scar. “That’s what this is from.”

“You’re kidding,” Luz murmured. “Really, Willow? That doesn’t sound like you at all.”

“Maybe when we were younger, Luz. A lot has changed since you left.”

“I guess so.” Luz rubbed the back of her neck. “What’s going on now?”

“War. Amity and I lead the rebellion. We’re doing our best to just take him down and destroy the coven system. We’re trying but it’s been awful.”

“Once it’s calmed down again, we should bring Luz through the Isles,” Gus suggested. 

“I’m not sure if that is such a good idea,” Lilith said.

Eda shook her head. “No, she should. She’s back with us now and she needs to know what’s been happening.”

“Tomorrow we’ll go on a stealth mission through town so she can see what’s been happening,” Amity decided. She touched Willow’s shoulder. “Does that work?”

“That works.” Willow stood. Luz stood as well, seized by a sudden sense of respect for the newly realized leader in her old friend. “Gus and I have to go. We have to make sure the base is secure before heading home. All our dads are waiting for us.”

“Your dads are part of the rebellion?” Luz asked.

“My dads help with the healers and Gus’ dad circulates our messages and newsletters.”

“Wowza.” 

“I’ll come with you,” Amity said.

“No, Amity, stay here,” Willow ordered gently. “We’ll be fine. We need you here.” 

“Okay.” 

Willow and Gus pulled Luz into a tight hug. “We’ll see you tomorrow, okay? I’m sorry we couldn’t stay long right now. It’s been an awful day.”

“It looks like it,” Luz said. “I’m sorry.”

“Tomorrow we’ll take you through the new Isles,” Gus said. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye, guys.”

“Bye, Luz.” 

Luz sank back down in her chair as Willow and Gus left, staring at her hands in her lap. “What did I do when I left?” she whispered. 

“It wasn’t you, Luz,” Eda said. “This has been a long time coming. It was just bad timing. Amity, why don’t you and Luz go set up her bed with you upstairs for now?”

“Okay.” 

Amity grabbed Luz’s backpack and nodded to the stairs. Luz caught Amity’s hand, making Amity blush, and followed along beside her. 

Upstairs, Luz’s room - now Amity’s - hadn’t changed much. Eda’s clutter still bordered the room. The old, weathered Azura poster hung in its place on the wall, with the entire series stacked beneath it beside King’s bed. Along with the string lights hung up, multiple glowing orbs hung in the air. Sitting in the corner was a writing pad and pencil with multiple different glyphs scattered around it, including several light glyphs. A little keepsake box with an A on it sat on the windowsill.

Luz stopped in the doorway as Amity nudged her bed to the side. She grabbed another mat and sleeping bag from a chest on the side of the room as Luz looked around. 

“You didn’t change much, did you?” she asked.

“Not really. I was planning on you coming back soon so I didn’t want to move anything, and when you didn’t, well…” Amity shrugged. “It made me think of you. I used to read Azura sitting with King beneath the poster.”

Luz nodded. Forcing a smile, she tried at their old joke. “Did you miss me that much, Blight?”

“Yes, actually.” Amity paused. “And it’s Clawthorne now.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Amity Clawthorne.” 

“Oh. Since when?”

“Six months after you left, I think? I got into a fight with my mother because she found out I was hanging around the Owl House. She told me she was my mother so I had to listen to her, I told her I didn’t care, and she said fine. Then I must not care that I’m a Blight, either. She threw me out, I came here, and I shaved my head the next day. Eda and Lilith agreed to let me take the Clawthorne name a little after, and that was that. I was going to look for a bird palisman too, like them, but Raja came along and changed my mind."

“Oh, geez, Amity, I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine. Honestly, I ended up better than I ever would have been if I stayed in the manor. Better than what happened with Edric, anyway.” 

A hush fell over the room. Luz sighed and took Amity’s hand. Amity glanced at her. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get back here,” she murmured. “Believe it or not, the human world doesn’t have many how-to books on fixing portals.”

Amity laughed sadly. “Well, we weren’t exactly quick on our side, either. I’m just glad you’re back now.”

“Me, too.” 

King scurried into the room. “Luz! Amity! I demand cuddles!”

Amity laughed and sat on her bed. King jumped into her lap, curling up as she scratched his back. Chuckling to herself, Luz sat with Amity and patted King’s head. King closed his eyes and snuggled into them.

“You two get along now?” Luz asked.

“She gave me a cupcake!” King chirped. 

Luz raised an eyebrow. 

“I came by with peace offerings a few weeks after you left,” Amity explained. “I wanted to make up for being an asshole before we became friends.” 

“I’m glad you get along with everyone now.”

“It was touch and go for a little bit, but we got there. Eda really trusts me now, especially after everything started getting bad.”

“That’s good! I still remember the whole burning memory thing.”

Amity groaned, grinning as she went red and shook her head. “Titan, Eda did not like me back then. I was such an idiot when we were younger.” 

“Only a little.” 

The conversation drifted off. They smiled at each other, King sleeping between them, quiet in the fading light coming in through the window. 

Luz cleared her throat. “I really like your hair, by the way.”

Amity blushed and touched the shaved part of her hair. “Really?”

“Yeah. The brown looks nice. And you look, I don’t know, happier, now, even with everything you’ve told me about.”

Amity pulled her knees to her chest. “A little. It’s mostly because you’re back.” 

Without warning, Amity jumped into Luz’s arms, scaring King off her lap. Luz stuck one arm back to keep them both upright. She wrapped the other around Amity’s waist as the witch hid her face against Luz’s shoulder. Luz nuzzled against Amity, smiling as her pointed ear flicked and turned backwards, holding her tight. Amity let go of a long breath and relaxed in Luz’s embrace.

“I missed you so much,” she said. Hot tears dripped onto Luz’s shoulder. “I didn’t know if you were ever going to come back. So many years went by and we weren’t able to do anything and I didn’t think we would ever be able to fix it.”

“I know. I was scared, too.” Luz sighed and adjusted to put both her arms around Amity. She shot King a look. He nodded, taking the hint and bolting downstairs. “I only thought about you and the others when I was in the human world. God, Amity, my mom was so mad at me.”

“She thought you were at a camp, right?”

“Yeah. And when I finally told her where I really was, she thought I was crazy. She tried to send me to another camp.” Luz shuddered, thinking of the therapist’s office and all the brochures that woman showed Camila. “Well, not really a camp, but, something like it. She thought it was going to help me. I got out of it though, after a lot of talks and convincing. I’m still not sure she totally believes me, but I think she just finally, I don’t know, accepted it, I guess? I think she thought that most of my pictures were photoshopped, too.”

“Photoshopped?”

“It’s a way to edit pictures in the human world. Anyway, I showed her pictures of you and everyone else and all the weird things on the Isles, and I don’t know if she gave up or actually believed me, but she stopped trying to fix me. I think she was just glad I finally started acting normal in public, Isles aside.”

Amity pulled back, still leaning on Luz and only inches away from her face. “You told me you hated how everyone acted in the human world.” 

“I did. I do. But I knew that if I started acting the way she wanted me to, I could focus on finding a way to get back to you.” Luz turned aside and cleared her throat. “Um, all of you, I mean. Get back to all of you and get back to the Isles.” 

“Right.” 

Amity glanced down and went red in the face. Pursing her lips, she sat back away from Luz. The human smiled sadly and pulled one knee up to her chest. 

“So,” she said, “how is it being a Clawthorne?”

“It’s… fine. Eda and Lilith care about me, at least.”

“Are they still getting along?”

“They are, which is more than I can say for my own siblings.”

“Is Emira part of the rebellion?” 

“She is. She usually fights with my squad, but sometimes she gets put with the old detention kids.” 

“Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus?”

“Mmhm.”

“What about everyone else from school?”

“I haven’t heard anything from Skara and her friends. That little jerk from the construction track joined the Emperor’s coven, and we’ve seen him a few times on patrol, but not much. Last I heard of Boscha, she just stayed away from everything.”

“Huh. Knowing her, I would’ve expected her to join the coven.”

“She almost did. She got sick of the idea of being told what to do and dropped off the map. No one has seen her since then.” 

Luz nodded. She looked outside at the purple sky, watching the stars light up like the light orbs glowing in the room above them. 

“So much has changed since I left.”

Amity sighed. “It’s been hard. I won’t lie. But, we’re trying.”

“I’m glad I’m here to help now.”

“So am I.” Climbing to her feet, Amity dragged a hand down her face. “I’m going to go take a shower. You should get some sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow sneaking through the Isles.” 

Luz laid out her sleeping bag beside Amity’s and stretched out. Staring out the window, she took a deep breath and fished out her paper and pencil. She drew a light glyph and sent it into the air besides Amity’s pink-tinged lights. She sighed and allowed herself a tiny smile, the lights dancing in her eyes. Some things didn’t change.

Amity turned after a while, dressed in torn pajamas with her hair down. Luz turned over to look at her and froze. Her heart jumped into her throat. Amity was always pretty to her when they were younger, but now it suddenly hit her how beautiful she really was. She flashed Luz a little smile and lied down beside her. 

They faced each other, barely a foot apart. Luz held out a hand that Amity took. With hands clasped between them, they closed their eyes, finally at peace with the other beside them again.

****

Luz crouched behind Willow. Hexside stood before them, reduced from its former glory to a smoldering, pitted, burnt out husk. A picture of Belos’s mask with a red X through it was graffitied across the mighty tower in front. All the trees surrounding the campus were cut or burned down, leaving only stumps behind. The top of the tower and the eye inside were blasted away. Her heart sank at the sight. She clutched Willow’s hand, unable to look away from the ruined school. 

Willow lowered her head a touch. “That’s Hexside,” she said quietly. “When they found out we were meeting in the tunnels and using Viney’s passages, they sent in squads and destroyed the place. They wouldn’t let anyone fix it, either, even to continue using it as a school.” 

Luz grimaced. “Do I even want to see Bonesborough after this?” 

“Probably not, but you should.”

Willow ushered her along. 

The town looked no better. Little fires burned everywhere. Most buildings were scorched in places or had holes busted through the walls. Doors were torn off their hinges and windows were cracked and shattered. The normally busy town was deserted by its citizens, replaced by white robed soldiers and little flying creatures. The soldiers shouted at anyone wandering the streets. Some were forced back into buildings. Others were clubbed and forced into chains before being carted away. 

Propagandic pictures of Belos’ proud visage were plastered on every wall, alongside wanted posters of Willow and Amity’s dangerous caricatures. Luz was reminded of Eda’s old posters displayed everywhere. 

Hiding on a hill overlooking the town, the crew watched as a new patrol squad marched through the streets. Their leader stepped out in front of his soldiers and took off his mask. 

[romansrace]

Season 13 Sassy Reviews: Taking stock as of E07 ‘Bossy Rossy Ruboot’

So we know it’s not a good season.

Now all we’re watching to find out is is it AS BAD as season 7 or season 11?

It’s definitely up there for producer tomfoolery.

Let’s hit it.

So we know that going in to a new season, some queens are cast to go far, some queens are cast as filler (this year hilariously lampshaded by Joey Jay, self-aware queen), and some girls are cast to go midway and be allowed no further.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a certain proportion of queens are also now cast specifically to have a storyline of failing first time to set them up for an arc on Drag Race AllStars. (Why would producers care that it costs queens upwards of $10k per season to go on and that queens would probably prefer to only have to do that once?!)

As I mentioned in my last review, for some reason it seems that the production’s goal this time was to craft a season around Kandy Muse, a queen who was already fairly-well-known in the drag fandom scene for being a meme (just the one though) with links to existing Ru-lumni Alaska and Aja (and I suppose, Dahlia Sin).

If I had been in charge of production and wanted to craft a season around one queen (which, let’s be honest, has been pulled off successfully before: S3 Raja, S4 Sharon Needles; and semi-successfully before: S12 Gigi Goode and [Redacted], S6 Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio) I would probably make sure to cast queens that didn’t threaten, or didn’t fill the same lane as my chosen frontrunner.

In season 4, this was probably most successfully previously done. Sharon was posited as the only drag queen in the world with a horror aesthetic, and compared favorably in that regard to her more middle-of-the-road competitors.

Raja, in season 3, was posed as away and above all others the #1 fashion queen. I would hazard that Manila Luzon may have auditioned as more of a comedy queen (given her reliance on Asian stereotype humor through the season) and ended up being more of a threat to Raja’s dominance than prodution initially counted on.

Season 6 was set up to follow the storyline of Adore and see how far she would grow through the competition. This was both helped and hindered by Bianca Del Rio’s dominance, although at least she excelled in precisely the kinds of challenges Adore struggled at, and vice versa. In this season, I suspect that BenDeLaCreme was not cast to be a fan favorite, but that ended up happening when she proved to be unexpectedly strong and versatile at challenges outside of the theatrical remit that she probably played up at her audition.

And in season 12, of course, all the groundwork was laid in Meet the Queens and in all the pre-show interviews for a season-long rivalry between plucky fashionista strategic player Gigi Goode, and old-school campy theatrical comedy queen posed as the relatable heart of the season, Sherry Pie. It would have gone well, had the latter not been revealed to be a sexual predator sociopath, resulting in a hasty re-edit that led to a lot of the (I imagine) originally less visible queens getting more talking heads to fill in the pie-shaped gap in episode content.

So we come to season 13, where it seems one of two things has happened to the show. Either:

1. After the smash success of season 12 last year, the editors got comfortable to try a different and more experimental tack of focusing on queens who were all personality and less good at challenges, in the belief that personality alone was what invested viewers in queens, or

2. Season 12 was ALSO originally edited like this (as was its predecessor, S11), to focus on a small group of queens at the detriment of all others, and the finished product (that was a smash success with fans) only wasn’t like that because of hasty re-editing that they didn’t feel the need to do this time.

Because for this S13E07 episode...

The strongest performing queens (Rosé and Denali) were for the third episode running, absolutely sidelined, even after drasticatically improving on the previous challenge that tested these comedy performance skills, which is surely a ready-made dramatic narrative.

Queens who performed alright, moderately who happened to fall into the group of queens production is favoring were praised to the high heavens, extremely effusively, as if what they had done was absolutely groundbreaking and incomparable to anyone else in the show’s history. (e.g. in what world is a silent character that performs physical comedy the hardest character to play, rather than easiest, in an improvisation challenge???)

Queens who performed poorly were only acknowledged as doing so if they had been cast as filler queens, otherwise, their performance was excused and not mentioned, or even some praise was found for very basic attempts.

This was all even emphasized inside the show itself by the filming technique of setting the queens who weren’t performing up on lawn chairs as an audience in another room to comment on each others’ performance, all suspiciously having the same comments which didn’t really match up with what we were actually seeing on screens.

Speaking as a fairly involved Drag Race fan (I mean, I make hypothetical videos of things that didn’t happen in the show...), I don’t watch this show to watch a scripted reality series focusing on performed characters. I watch the show for a competition in what’s essentially a queer community sport medium, an artform, to be judged by professionals with experience.

For queer people’s hard work to be rewarded, and their struggle recognized.

And this way of favoring the same people week on week, regardless of their craft or skill level, while leaving others to sit underappreciated, essentially televising the results of the creative queer struggle - at that, pretty much inadvertently recreating the feeling for these competitors of what it feels to be marginalized by a normative society that doesn’t respect your art and presentation... Mama, this isn’t it. It’s not the kind of thing I want to be spending my time watching in 2021, and it’s not feeding my soul.

[artificialqueens]

Nostalgia, Part 3 (Rujubee) - Dartmouth420

nostalgia is a series that follows the re-ignition of raven/jujubee’s friendship (with benefits) while jujubee competes on all stars five and raven is working on set. there will be one chapter for every episode of AS5 where jujubee appears. drag names used with male pronouns.

summary: Jujubee’s coming off the thrill of the challenge win and the lip-sync battle. But jealousy is a double-edged sword… and bad habits are hard to break.

tw: smut, dom/sub dynamics, mild degrading language, mild jealousy

a/n: i’m enjoying the heck out of AS5 and i hope y'all are too.

Jujubee was very pleased with his performance in the challenge. Designing and presenting the hotel room had been surprisingly fun and despite his early misgivings, India and Alexis had been great to work with. Jujubee was confident, he’d been funny, coherent, and had delivered exactly as he’d intended. One hundred percent pure Laotian gold sheets indeed.

Raven hadn’t been around much and Jujubee hadn’t sought him out.

“Girl,” said Mariah, in that patient, knowing drawl of his as they painted their faces in the mirror in preparation for the runway and the judging, “I know what you’re doing.”

“Do you now?” responded Jujubee, carefully covering his mild panic. Not that there was anything to panic about but he had technically broken an important rule…

“Don’t you look at me like that, I ain’t a snitch!” laughed Mariah, “But I noticed that hickie. Maybe next time I’m feeling the stress of the competition I’ll go see for myself if darling Raven is around. I’ve got good memories of that mouth.”

“Since when?” responded Jujubee. He hadn’t realized the two of them had ever been involved, though hook-ups were certainly common among the community.

“We’ve both been around for a while,” said Mariah, with a knowing shrug, “We’ve both been getting around for a while.”

“Damn, who hasn’t he let fuck him?” joked Jujubee lightly, but slight jealousy was twisting in his stomach. He couldn’t deny Raven’s reputation. Though Jujubee had vaguely hoped he had the other man to himself, at least if their on-set shenanigans were going to continue.

“Out of the old generation? That list is short. From what I’ve heard he and Raja are working through the younger ones, too… just ask baby Naomi.”

Jujubee chuckled and he and Mariah returned to the task at hand. 

-

Jujubee won the fucking challenge! 

He couldn’t help letting a few tears escape his eyes as the pride and relief overflowed. It was a lot. And then the damn Untucked was a lot, too. Connecting with Mayhem and Blair was great, but emotional as hell. Nerves and anticipation were creeping up for what was to come next.

He spoke with everyone, changed into his leopard-print catsuit, picked out his damn lipstick and then before Jujubee knew it he was standing on the runway, and Ru was shouting “Ru-veal yourself!”

Jujubee turned, heart in his throat as he stared at the screen and the assassin contained behind it. Jujubee’s prediction from the other week in the bathroom with Raven returned to him, and his heart pounded in anticipation. Was it Raven behind that screen? Production would never be able to wrangle it, there was no way, but-

The screen rolled up and Jujubee saw soft orange velvet ankle-boots and while they were lovely shoes Raven would never wear something like that in a million years. As the screen rose Jujubee forced Raven to leave his mind as he focused on the task at hand, which was going to be beating Monét-motherfucking-X-Change in a lip-sync battle, to a Lizzo song.

All Stars Five was hard, damn it.

Monét gave an amazing performance, and Jujubee did his best but the emotion of the day left him a bit thrown off. Jujubee was disappointed with the loss, he could admit that. Somewhere in back of his mind he knew if he had been lip-syncing against Raven he could have beaten him, and felt ever-so-slightly cheated that his prediction hadn’t come true. Oh well, it was water under the bridge. 

Then there was the matter of sending Mariah home which was way more fucking tragic than anyone including Jujubee had been ready for. 

“Good luck, girl,” whispered Mariah in Jujubee’s ear as they hugged and he left the runway, “And have fun.”

-

When Jujubee finally, finally got back to the hotel after a very long day, he walked down the hall to his room and noticed a figure leaning against the wall next to his door, one arm tucked under the opposite elbow, eyes down on his phone.

It was of course, Raven, looking like a tall drink of… chaotic whore. But what else was new? Jujubee approached, quiet, waiting for Raven to notice him. 

“Hey bitch!” said Raven when he looked up, a grin his face, “I heard a rumour that you won the challenge today.”

“Mm-hmm,” replied Jujubee, self-satisfied, sliding his hotel key into the slot and then opening the door. The day had been an emotional roller coaster, full of highs and lows. He was dead tired on his feet. 

Raven followed him inside without needing to be asked and said, “Congratulations.”

“Thanks, fuck I needed a win.”

“I know, you deserve it. It’s been a long time coming.”

Jujubee tossed his day bag onto the chair, and laughed, “I thought it was gonna be you behind that screen. Bitch I was like ooh shit we just talked about it last week and now I’ve won? Hope he’s ready… ”

Raven put his phone down on the table, “I wasn’t lying to you when I said I’m not an assassin-”

“Jury’s still out on that, I can’t trust anyone.”

Raven laughed, and Jujubee gave him a suspicious side-eye that was mostly for show. Mostly.

“Monét destroyed you.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘destroyed’,” replied Jujubee, mildly insulted. He thought he’d held his own pretty well in the lip-sync, but the disappointment that it wasn’t Raven had thrown him off… 

“Kicked your ass, cut you to pieces, sliced and diced,” continued Raven, stepping closer to him.

“Shut up.”

“No, I live to give you a hard time,” said Raven, passing by Jujubee and making his way over to stand next to the end of the bed, “One more bitch down, huh?”

Jujubee took a moment. Raven was posed awkwardly, looking down at the bed with his arms crossed, avoiding eye contact. Jujubee cocked his head to one side, and considered his response. He was pretty damn tired tonight but elation and pride were still tingling under his skin. He had just won, after all. And curiosity was pulling at him.

“Did you get a chance to say goodbye to Mariah?” asked Jujubee, casually, reaching for the water bottle he’d left out on the table.

“Yeah, I saw him afterwards. You know how emotional the eliminations are. We, uh, talked,” said Raven quickly. Jujubee recalled his earlier conversation with Mariah, noted Raven’s avoidance of eye contact and presumed something must have happened. But it seemed odd that Raven wouldn’t brag about it.

“Did he say anything interesting?” asked Jujubee.

“Interesting?”

Jujubee shrugged and took a drink of water. All he could picture was Raven’s mouth around his cock the first week in the supply closet, how good it had felt and whether Raven had done the same thing for Mariah. Jujubee was certain that he had, but there was no rational reason to feel jealous. Both he and Raven were in serious, if open, relationships and fucked all kinds of people on tour and in the ins and outs of their lives. This wasn’t anything special. 

“Anyway,” said Jujubee, putting his water bottle down. He decided to be straightforward. “It’s been a long day girl, what do you want from me?

“Oh, well,” Raven practically purred, an absolutely salacious expression appearing on his face that caused a tight thrill to swoop in Jujubee’s stomach, “You won today. I’m here so you can claim your reward.”

Ah, of course. I’ll let you fuck me if you win. Jujubee had assumed Raven meant the crown, not just a main challenge. Perhaps Raven was using it as an excuse, and he was more interested in keeping this thing going between them than Jujubee had realized. What exactly were they to each other?

“I don’t have the energy to top you tonight, I’m exhausted,” said Jujubee, crossing his arms.

Raven’s mouth fell open for a second, and then he closed it, and he shifted, still standing by the bed.

“Okay, but like, I prepped and everything-”

“Wow. Someone’s entitled.”

“Fuck off.”

“I don’t think I will bitch, this is my room.”

Raven let out an annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes. Jujubee felt a kind of calculating power, because there was something so fun about fucking with Raven. It was easy. It was almost as much fun as actually fucking him.

“Sit down,” ordered Jujubee and there was an instant change in the air, and to Raven’s expression. But Raven didn’t obey immediately, he waited, drawing out the moment. And then Raven sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at Jujubee expectantly.

Jujubee approached him. There it was, the thrill of the power exchange that occurred so smoothly between them every time. 

“Keep your mouth shut,” said Jujubee. “I don’t want to hear your whining.”

Raven bit his lip and nodded.

“Take your pants off.”

Raven unbuckled his belt and undid his fly and lifted his hips, sliding his jeans to his ankles and taking them off his feet. Jujubee just stood and watched, and then brought his hand up and examined his nails, performing indifference. Raven huffed and removed his underwear as well. He was already hard. Well that was certainly fun, considered Jujubee, allowing an approving smile to appear on his face.

He approached, closing the distance between them and took Raven’s face in his hands. Tilting his head back and kissing him. Raven responded, hands going to Jujubee’s back. Jujubee broke the kiss and stepped back out of his reach. “Don’t touch." 

Raven looked disappointed but he didn’t say anything, doing as he was told. A jolt of excitement shot down Jujubee’s spine.

Jujubee decided he might as well cut to the chase.

"Open your legs.”

Raven obeyed. Jujubee stepped froward and dropped to his knees, hands on Raven’s overly-tanned thighs and regarded his cock for a moment. Raven was still, practically holding his breath.

Jujubee dipped his head and took Raven’s cock in his mouth and felt the other man practically shudder at the sensation. Jujubee went to work with his hand and his mouth, and while he didn’t fall over himself to suck cock at any given moment the way Raven did, he’d been doing this a pretty damn long time and he was pretty damn good at it too.

“Mm, fuck… ” murmured Raven.

Jujubee pulled back instantly, digging his nails into Raven’s inner thigh. Raven hissed at the pain, and Jujubee grabbed him by the chin with his opposite hand. 

“Did I say you could talk?”

Raven shook his head, a smirk growing on his face. Jujubee held eye contact until Raven looked away and pressed his lips together, pouting, submissive.

“Keep your mouth shut you little slut, and maybe I’ll let you finish.”

Jujubee wasn’t entirely sure where that had come from, because he really hadn’t been planning for things to get this intense. But Raven inhaled sharply, and his cock twitched and he obediently remained silent, so Jujubee returned to his task. 

They really shouldn’t let this become a habit, considered Jujubee as he sucked on the head of Raven’s cock and Raven let out a heavy breath. Warm nostalgia rose in Jujubee’s chest.

During All Stars One there had been part of the Untucked that had remained unaired, during the heavily staged Fuck, Marry, Kill conversation. Raven had just infamously and hungrily told Manila, “I would actually fuck you.” But what Raven had said next, in response to Jujubee’s name coming up had been to simply give him a wink and say, “Been there, done that. Marry.”

They hadn’t done anything yet, of course. Raven had been holding off on him since Season Two. It had only made the tension between them higher, much to Jujubee’s frustration. Jujubee’s response to Raven’s name had been, of course, “Fuck. Baby, I’ll make sure you can’t walk the next day.”

And he had.

Jujubee snapped back to the present, because it seemed like Raven was going to come soon. Raven had fallen back to his elbows, his breath shallow, and a flush was beginning to creep up his neck to his face. They really weren’t supposed to be doing this. The stakes were too high and Jujubee wasn’t exactly sure where Raven would fall under the ‘no conjugal visits’ rule, should anyone find out.

But anyway, Raven finished, staying obediently silent and keeping his hands off Jujubee as ordered. There was a certain satisfaction to it. Jujubee efficiently spat into a tissue and tossed it into the wastebasket in one swift movement. Raven lay back on the bed with a lazy hum, rolling onto his side. 

Jujubee didn’t have anything better to do so he flopped down next to him, propping himself up on his elbow. 

“You can talk now,” said Jujubee dryly.

“Mmm, permission received.”

There was silence for a moment. Jujubee considered whether he wanted to go to the effort of having Raven give him a handjob or something and then decided against it. He was dead tired. Sleep was looking attractive.

“You know you could be getting laid plenty this season, if you want it,” said Raven, seemingly out of the blue.

“What makes you say that?” asked Jujubee.

“That short bitch Cracker wants you, it’s obvious,” stated Raven with feigned nonchalance, rolling onto his back, tucking his arm under his head, “You going to fuck him?”

“Perhaps,” replied Jujubee, delicately touching his collarbone, giving Raven a smirk, “Are you jealous, bitch?”

“No,” said Raven, rolling his eyes, “You can do what and who you want, obviously.”

But Jujubee knew him well enough to read his body language, to see the set of Raven’s jaw and the tension in his shoulders. Raven was such a brat, and he was clearly feeling insecure about being left behind for someone younger and more fun. Oh, sweetie. 

“Well, now that I know such a great place to fuck people on set-” began Jujubee.

“Hey, no, that’s my spot!”

“Who else are you possibly fucking at work?” joked Jujubee, a vision of Mariah flashing before him.

“Eh, there was this twink PA I liked but he’s working somewhere else now, so-”

How intriguing. Ah, Jujubee could certainly pursue Cracker if he wanted to, the man wasn’t unattractive, but playing with Raven’s ridiculous emotions would probably be more fun. It wasn’t that Jujubee wanted to actually hurt him by any means, but Raven could be so dramatic and self-centred that there was a certain satisfaction to winding him up.

“So it’s just me?” teased Jujubee, pushing his luck.

“Do you think you’ll fuck Cracker?” responded Raven, dodging the question.

“Hmmm… I could.”

“But will you-”

“I don’t know yet, bitch!” laughed Jujubee, “I need to focus on winning. We probably shouldn’t even be doing this, it’s a distraction.”

“No it isn’t,” said Raven, a sly smile growing across his face, “This is what they call emotional support." 

The two of them laughed and Jujubee rolled his eyes, "You’re so stupid.”

“You like it.”

“To a point.”

Raven shrugged and then yawned, “Well I better go, I have to drive home.” He looked down at himself, amused, “Ha. I’m still naked.”

Jujubee admired Raven’s ass as he got up and pulled his underwear and jeans back on, heaving a deep sigh.

“Bye bitch,” called Jujubee, as Raven got his phone and left with a casual wave of his hand. The door shut behind him, and Jujubee blinked, the exhaustion of the day crashing back down on him. He got up and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. 

Tomorrow would be another challenge, and in all likelihood another twist. But whatever, Jujubee was ready. Bring it on, All Stars Five. 

[dropitlikeitspop]

The musical journey from originals to remakes!

By Shatakshi Saxena

The Golden Era of Bollywood music was home to legends like Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Rajendra Kishan, Anand Bakshi, R.D Burman, Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle and many more. Each song written and sung was a masterpiece, leaving a lifetime imprint on the listener’s heart. From ‘pal pal dil ke pass tum rehti ho’ to ‘dum maaro dum mitt jaye gham’, the unmatched music, the magical voice of legendary singers and the thoughtful scene setting made these songs the masterpieces they are. In the past decade, Bollywood has chosen to remake some of these old classics. The introduction of more peppy music, objectifying portrayal of actresses and mismatch between lyrics and context have made remakes a disaster. The iconic ‘Ek Chattur Naar’ sung by the maestros Manna Dey, Mehmood and Kishore Kumar is the finest song produced in Hindi cinema. The classical beats and comical lyrics add to the beauty of this song. The remake for this song was released in 2017 in the film Machine. The new version was nothing but too many peppy beats with elements of DJ and rap, filmed in a party setup. It is technically a spoilt hip-hop version of the most classic Bollywood song. 

Original

Remake

Similarly, the famous ‘Mere Angne Mein’ sung by the living legend Amitabh Bachchan is still remembered for its lyrics and the drag performed by the Mr. Bachchan. The mood of song was very vintage and comical. It was just a week ago that the remake for this song was released by T-series, starring Jacqueline Fernandez and Asim Riaz and sung by Neha Kakkar and Raja Hasan. The remake completely changes the concept of the song and adds a more objectifying touch to it. It also finishes the comical aspect of the song, destroying its core identity.

Original:

Remake: 

The remake of the iconic ‘Laila Mai Laila’ originally starring the glamorous Zeenat Aman lost its beauty when its remake was released in Raees (2017). The original was shot in a more sensible gathering with no objectification unlike the remake which portrays a cheap gathering of alcoholics, hooting with every objectifying move of Sunny Leone. The remake has been made the typical ‘Bollywood item number’ when originally it wasn’t the same. While Zeenat Aman added glamour to the original, the remake made it a point to be sexist in its approach. The objectification of Sunny Leone was a selling point for the makers. It was disrespecting towards women and the original track.

Songs like ‘Mere Angne Mein’, ‘Laila Mai Laila’, ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ and many more are classics for a reason. Creating new versions of such songs destroy the feel of the original, also highlighting the fact that Bollywood is unable to produce new songs! Old songs had an everlasting shelf life because of the lyrics, music and how contextual the songs were. The remakes destroy that very element; concept and music. Even though the lyrics remain the same, the song doesn’t sound good because it loses its essence. It is also an insult to the lyrics for their originality is severely affected. 

For example, the remake of ‘Pal Pal Dil Ke Pass’, a classic romantic song sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar was released in the film Wajah Tum Ho (2016). This is possibly the best example of how the most beautiful lyrics can lose their essence when combined with irrelevant depiction and context. The lyrics were written around the concept of two lovers longing to meet each other. The original portrayal was absolutely simple, heart-warming and revolved around something as beautiful as love letters. The remake, without understanding the concept of the lyrics, made the song extremely sensual and objectifying. The depiction is completely different from the thought of the song and comes out as a disaster. It is one of those sensual songs made to sell the film. The lyrics of an amazing song have been misused in the worst manner.

Making remakes of songs is not a problem, if it is done with respect. One should realise that certain songs are fit for a particular scene and context. Also, not every song can be made peppy, objectifying or sexist to gain box office numbers. It is important for the new age music directors to understand the depth of old classic songs before destroying their quality. If Bollywood continues to make disastrous remakes like this, the future generations will never know about the original classics.

[brokehorrorfan]

Retro Review: Ravenous

Ravenous opened in theaters 20 years ago today. While it has earned a reputation as a cult classic over the years, it’s no surprise that the film didn’t land with audiences upon its debut in 1999. Production was problematic from the beginning, with Fox 2000 executives reportedly micromanaging the project. Screenwriter Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven) was constantly being asked to provide rewrites, while original director Milcho Manchevski (Before the Rain) was dropped three weeks into production. His proposed replacement, Raja Gosnell (Scooby-Doo), was allegedly rejected by the cast and crew before Antonia Bird (Priest) was finally brought in to complete the film.

The $12 million picture ultimately flopped with a paltry $2 million at the domestic box office. Even if Ravenous’ production had gone smoothly, it still would have been a difficult film to sell. The eccentric effort is part gory horror movie, part Western period drama. Furthering the marketing nightmare, its disturbing subject matter - a tale of cannibalism inspired by the real-life story of the Donner party - is approached with a pitch-black sense of humor. With those kinds of odds stacked against it, the film was destined to be either a disaster or a hidden gem. Thankfully, Ravenous is the latter.

Set in the 1940s during the Mexican-American War, Ravenous stars Guy Pearce (Prometheus, Memento) as Captain John Boyd, who is stationed at Fort Spencer, an uneventful weigh station in California. He and his Army platoon discover an emaciated man by the name of Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle, 28 Weeks Later), who tells them of a savage colonel that turned to cannibalism after his party was lost in the harsh winter - and came to enjoy the taste of flesh. When the clever Colqhoun later becomes Boyd’s superior, Boyd must stop him from devouring people. It’s no easy task, as cannibalism is said to possess curative powers.

Like the film itself, Pearce's top-notch role runs the gamut from shock to drama to dark comedy. Carlyle is at the top of his game as well, bringing to mind the cunningness of Christoph Waltz. Jeffrey Jones (Beetlejuice) also provides a stand-out comedic performance. David Arquette has a surprisingly small role - considering the success of the Scream series at the same time - as a stoner soldier. The impressive cast of character actors also includes Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan), John Spencer (The West Wing), Stephen Spinella (Rubber), and Neal McDonough (Minority Report).

Director of photography Anthony B. Richmond’s (Candyman, Don't Look Now) careful eye captures striking imagery of the vast, snowy landscapes of Prauge, standing in for 19th century California. The cinematography is in stark contrast to the gruesome content; although there aren’t any particularly elaborate special makeup effects, the gore is more plentiful than one might expect. The pairing of talented songwriter Damon Albarn (vocalist of Blur and Gorillaz) and minimalist composer Michael Nyman (The Piano) provides a quirky, versatile score.

Bird sadly passed away from cancer at the of 62 in 2013, but she lived long enough to see her efforts on Ravenous be appreciated as it achieved cult status. 20 years removed, the film has only become more delightfully twisted and surprising, as it would be even more difficult to get a script of this nature produced today. It's a title that may not be brought up often, but there's a sense of kinship when you meet a fellow genre fan who understands, embraces, and champions Ravenous' unique tone.

Ravenous is available on Blu-ray via Scream Factory.

[shylocktamilrockers]

Shylock Full Movie Download In Hindi Dubbed 720p Filmywap

This conversation in the middle of the bloody climactic fight follows about two hours of a singer screeching out a signature refrain for Mammootty every time he, in his avatar as Shylock, wallops a villain or spouts a grandiloquent line.The music of Shylock is so painful and the narrative so clichéd, that if this were an Easter week release, Jesus might have raced back into his tomb begging never to be resurrected. And don’t get my imagination started on paavam William Shakespeare’s reaction to the appropriation of one of his most famous characters for this story’s protagonist. Shylock Full Movie Download 480p HD Tamilrockers, 123mkv Filmywap, Watch Online, Pagalworld, mp4movies, movierulz, khatrimaza, utorrent with torrent magnet, filmyzilla download.

The film stars Mammootty as Devan was seen playing the role of a moneylender, Meena as Lakshmi playing the female lead for Rajkiran and Rajkiran as Ayyanar in the lead roles.Along with these, the film also stars Siddique as Felix John, Baiju Santhosh as Balakrishna Panicker, Kalabhavan Shajohn as Prathapa Varma, Ajai Vasudev as Thotta Raja, Jhon Vijay as Rangan, Bibin George as Velmurugan in the important role, Hareesh Kanaran as Ganapathi.

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The music of the film was composed by Gopi Sundar. The film was Edited by Riyas K Badar and Cinematography by Renadive. The film was set to release theatrically on 23 January 2020. 131 is the run time if the film. The Veteran Tamil actor Rajkiran has made his debut in Malayalam cinema with this film. Rajkiran and Meena had worked earlier for Rasavin Manassile and again after 28 years, they have worked together in this film.

Tamilrockers are known for leaking the latest films within a few hours after their release. In the same way, this film was leaked within no time after release. They have initially started with leaking Tamil films and then extend their base across the county. Now they are well equipped to leak films across the country of any language. not only films but they leak Famous Tv shows, Web series and many others.

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He is known simply as Boss or Shylock to the film industry. He has held producers in a vice-like grip since 2016. This nameless moneylender (hence the nickname, in a mindless nod to Shakespeare) is played by Mammootty, whose sole goal through the insufferable Shylock seems to be to emphasise his conviction that his stature remains intact and that he is a pan-generational star.

No really, I am not talking about subliminal messaging – he literally says so here.

Actually, scratch out that paragraph. Because “subliminal” is a word that should not even be whispered in the vicinity of this film directed by Ajai Vasudev who earlier made the Mammootty-starrers Rajadhiraja and Masterpiece. Every point here is stressed ad nauseam, the background score is loud enough to make a hole in the ozone layer and Mammootty’s character actually says in the closing minutes, “This is a game that will be a massive hit of the year,” in response to Villain No. 1 telling him that his game is up. This exchange is followed by the same bad guy (the Ernakulam Police Commissioner Felix John, played by Siddique) telling Shylock that the era of heroes like him is over, we have entered the age of villains and so he needs to look for secondary roles. To this, Shylock – who does not pretend to be anything but Mammukka’s alter ego – replies after bashing up a bunch of men: across generations, Boss is still the hero.

തിയേറ്ററുകൾ ആഘേഷമാക്കുകയാണ് മമ്മൂട്ടി ചിത്രം ഷൈലോക്ക്. പ്രേക്ഷകരുടെ കാത്തിരിപ്പിനൊടുവിൽ ജനുവരി 23 ന് ചിത്ര തിയേറ്ററുകളിൽ എത്തിയിരുന്നു. ഇപ്പോഴിത ചിത്രത്തിന്റെ വിജയത്തിനോടൊപ്പം സംവിധായകൻ അജയ് വാസുദേവിന്റേയും പിറന്നാൾ ആഘോഷമാക്കുകയാണ് ഷൈലോക്ക് ടീം അംഗങ്ങൾ. മമ്മൂട്ടിയുടെ പുതിയ ചിത്രമായ ദി പ്രീസ്റ്റിന്റെ സെറ്റിൽ വെച്ചായിരുന്നു ആ ഘോഷം.മെഗാസ്റ്റാറിനോടൊപ്പം നിന്ന് കേക്ക് മുറിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു.

Though the leaked print is available, people love to watch the film with good theater experience. So many people watch films in theaters but few people for their convenience watch the piracy of the film. Watching the piracy print of a film is not a good practice which is an offense.