#a lorre by any other name

[peterlorrefanpage]

Idle Musings: Names

I've been sitting on this thought for ages -

I wonder if Peter Lorre ever referred to himself as "Laszlo" in private, or if his loved ones did.

Speaking specifically of actors changing their names, it seems a fair number of them do because someone told them they should - as in Peter's case.

Even assuming the actor's full agreement with the change, I was musing over things like - How long does it take someone to get used to it? Does the person ever truly think of themselves as that name for real, and not just a stage name they put on and take off?

Or maybe it's no more of different than changing one's name through marriage or other forms of partnership. I realize all this can be intensely anecdotal.

In any case, much as I adore the very name "Peter Lorre" because that's how I knew him first, and even one of his brothers changed his name to "Andrew Lorre," it's fun to wonder if Peter was still "Laczy" (pronounced Lazzy) to anyone. And if he answered to it. 😊

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/12/2024

this one's a bit short. i am now thirty and still unemployed (ten months this week) ://// if you enjoy the tuesdayposts and are not maxed out on your charitable donations for other causes (american healthcare access, healthcare access in other places, war relief, any number of other good causes) i am going to be $300 short for december rent. here is my paypal.

listening

listening to a lot of pete seeger, for my health. there are about one zillion recordings of Old Man Atom, all ever so slightly different. it starts off as a perky gee-whiz-science! tune and continues frog marching the listener along in an increasingly jaunty manner. it's

Then the cartel crowd put on a show To turn back the clock on the UNO To get a corner on atoms and maybe extinguish Every darned atom that can't speak English Down with foreign-born atoms! America for American atoms! I hold this truth to be self-evident That all men may be cremated equal!

it's very depressing to listen to early anti-nuclear protest songs and realize they hold even more true today! song's a bop tho!

-

reading

the feds nabbed someone allegedly related to the semi-dire Snowflake data leaks that have been ongoing throughout the year (Santander Bank, AT&T, Ticket Master, Neiman Marcus, etc).

this guy has been a real thorn in krebs' side for a year or so and participates in some of the worst corners of the internet, which explains the adversarial nature of the writeup. i read through the whole thing going "yeah this guy is Very annoying but why is krebs so mad at him" and then got to the bottom section about other activities. italicized OH moment in real life but bad.

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watching

continuing noirvember with The Maltese Falcon (1941, dir. Huston).

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American film noir in which a San Francisco private detective deals with three unscrupulous adventurers, all seeking a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.[3] Written and directed by John Huston[3] in his directorial debut, the film was based on the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and is a remake of the 1931 film of the same name.[4][5][6] It stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his femme fatale client, and as villains Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

i have two really snotty thoughts to get out of my brain: the modern letterboxed reviews like "i liked this but the homophobia ruined it" weak. all of you are WEAK.

and

i appreciate the work of the tumblrinas trying to queer this story in a more 2020s friendly way. however. sam spade canonically calls someone a slur for using cologne that he deems too feminine. the noir detective series you want is Philip Marlowe, who is at least homophobic in interesting and less physically violent ways.

anyway! gorgeous gorgeous movie. mary astor goes toe to fucking toe with bogey in every scene. a very frantic and frightened woman who is one jump ahead of the pathway crumbling behind her at all times. but she takes the jump and makes it! every time! except for the most important one!!!

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playing

having a normal one with 12 hours of powerwash simulator

new genshin update rapidly approacheth. there's a lot happening in this screenshot. accidentally careened right past this npc, with one bullet for the poor low-level slime in the background, floaty blue pet in tow. the npc wanted me to deliver something to her sister who is visible under the big tree in the background. i love early area spaghetti code.

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making

deep cleaned my house again bc i had people over for my birthday, which was a very lovely and very drunk evening of star wars on in the background while we played trivia. not how i expected to enter my thirties! i am not in the life circumstances i expected to be in my thirties, i do not have the life i expected to have in my thirties, etc. feeling a little maudlin and need to do crafts about it but also all the crafts in my home are not quite right!

[lorre-verie]

I was searching thru tumblr for modern atwow au crumbs but I found so LITTLE content of it??? So I decided i’m going to make my own headcanons for the avatar teens (neteyam, kiri, lo’ak, ao’nung, rotxo and tsireya) about what they would be like in a modern highschool au (they’re from the future but like pretend it makes sense please i keep tearing my hair out when I even try to fathom how this could be possible) .

Honestly after this my entire blog might just be modern avatar things

so i gracefully present to you…

◛⑅·˚ ༘ ♡ Modern Avatar Highschool AU A-Z (Pt. 1: A-G)

6:96 ───|────── 9:69

you are now reading a post by lorre

pt. 1 | pt. 2 | pt. 3 | pt. 4 | masterlist

⌲ A for Active (Are they active in class?)

neteyam: Yeah, but he really does his best not to seem like too much of a teacher’s pet or a tryhard. He constantly raises his hand to answer and asks questions, and the teachers love him for this. One time he was the kid that reminded the teacher about the homework; needless to say he got a lot of tomatoes thrown at him that day.

kiri: Yes, but by active I mean actively debates with teachers. She will not be afraid to point out something politically or literally wrong that the teachers say, and if they fight back, she will not hesitate to put them in their place. Watch any teacher be openly homophobic while she’s present and they’re gonna get it.

lo'ak: Yes and no. He’s the type of kid to sit by the window and peer out into the sky while not listening to the teacher at all, cause he’s having his main character moment. But he’s ALSO the type of kid to doodle all over the table in permanent marker, and when the teacher says anything remotely related to a joke (peanuts, walnuts, nuts, your mom, getting milk) he’ll point it out and say jokes and turn the whole class laughing and alert in a matter of seconds cause he said something about it. Or he’ll ask stupid questions to stall time. Either way he’s not doing the teachers any favours.

ao'nung: You’d be having a conversation with him by whispering and then the teacher would call on him to answer, and you know what he does?? He answers it PERFECTLY. Nobody knows how he does it. NOBODY KNOWS. This has happened so many times that all the teachers don’t even bother cause they know he’s listening somehow. In short he will only answer questions if called on and in case he needs to ask a question he just sends an e-mail after school, he never speaks voluntarily in class.

rotxo: Bro asks a lot of questions, always raising his hand and asking stupid stuff like Lo’ak but not even on purpose, he’s just oblivious. “Should we use a pen or pencil?” “Can I drink some water?” “Is blue ink okay?” “Can I just type this out on my laptop?” “Ms, do you like dogs?” “Oh. How about ca-” the teachers are sick of him but they don’t do anything about it cause they know he’s just unaware. They do appreciate him when the class is way too silent though. But not all the time.

tsireya: This girl is the sweetest. She raises her hand if the teacher asks a question but nobody answers, because she feels bad for them. In case you want to ask a question but are too shy or uncomfortable you can just send her a little paper note and she’ll ask the question for you! The teachers love her, and they all know her name, even the ones that have never taught her before.

⌲ B for Born For This (Which subject are they best at and most interested in?)

neteyam: He is a master of physics, and he loves it. He will dominate any physics group, always taking the lead and more often than not, doing 90% of the work even if his teammates aren’t lazy. He knows every formula out of the top of his head and consistently gets A+’s every physics assignment. If you aren’t good at physics, find him and be his group partner.

kiri: Interestingly enough, rather than biology, I think she’d love philosophy. She’d be the type of person to ponder really hard about her existence and the existence of others, and if anything was even real. She also loves to mess with people (and the teachers).

“Kiri, why didn’t you submit this assignment?”

“I did.”

“Well I’m not seeing it anywhere.”

“Maybe you’re not seeing anything at all.”

“What?”

“What is ‘anywhere’ to you?”

“...”

“You aren’t seeing it anywhere because ‘anywhere’ doesn’t exist.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“And the concept of ‘anywhere’ does?”

“...”

“Oh and you’re sitting on it.”

The teacher will look under themself and literally find it, and when they look up she’s nowhere to be seen.

lo'ak: We have 2 options. Either theatre or band, but I think he’d lean more into being the cool guitar guy in a band. He would shred really well and he knows all the chords, he can play any song with just 10 minutes of experimenting and he would write his own songs (some of them dedicated to….a special someone). And for theatre he’d be more into funny little school dramas rather than plays like Hamilton or Beetlejuice.

ao'nung: This guy is an insane math genius. He doesn’t even actually pay attention to the math lesson, he just listens for the first 5-10 minutes of explanation and boom he understands everything perfectly. Anyone would swear he has like a calculator built into his head with how freakishly speedy he is at calculating things.

“Does anyone know what 67 x 23 i-”

“1541.”

“How did you-” “It’s so easy??”

HE IS A MENACE. Don’t even bother doing your taxes just call Ao’nung (and give him 5 bucks) he’ll have it done in 30 minutes or less. The teachers keep trying to get him to join the math club but he keeps declining, insisting that he already knows what his passion is.

rotxo: He gives major literature vibes. Either that or he’d be really good at multiple languages (he learned 4 to impress 4 different girls that all rejected him). He’s really good with his words and never has any grammar mistakes, he knows the meaning of every word and every phrase. Dictionary who? Oh, and he likes poetry but he keeps it a secret from everyone (only Ao’nung, Tsireya, and Kiri know about it).

tsireya: Now THIS is a Hamilton girlie. Like Lo’ak, she’d be really into theatre or band as in the singer. Her voice is angelic and literally would enrapture everyone’s attention with the first note she sings. She is shy with it though, but Lo’ak is her designated hype man, constantly telling her how good she is at singing and encouraging her to be more confident (so sweet). One time they sang a little duet of an original song Lo’ak wrote and it blew up on YouTube getting like 1.7 million likes. If you ask them where the video is now they’ll say that Lo’ak’s little sister deleted it for her slime asmr youtube channel.

⌲ C for Coolness Scale (If you asked everyone in the school to rate how cool they were on a scale from 0-10, what would they get?)

neteyam: 0.1/10. Nobody considers him “cool”, he’s the golden boy of the school but not like Ao’nung. He’s perfect, but not cool. Kind, but never cool. You asked Lo’ak and he immediately gave his brother a 0 without second thought. Kiri gave him a 1 because she felt bad. Ao’nung also immediately said 0. Tsireya felt too bad to answer the question (cause she knows he’s not cool) and said “whatever Lo’ak said” because she expected him to rate him higher. He didn’t. Rotxo said “whatever Ao’nung said.” and he KNEW he gave him a 0.

kiri: A solid 6/10. Everyone thinks she’s funny, and a bunch of girls gave her a 10 because….👀 Anyways, she mostly keeps to herself and has the most neutral face ever by default, nobody really knows her except for her brothers and Tsireya + Rotxo (Ao’nung is an honourable mention since he knows stuff about her from Tsireya and Rotxo), so everyone thinks she’s the mysterious type when in reality she just keeps her personality to herself and her friends cause “nobody asked”.

lo'ak: 3.5/10. He’s funny and chill but tries to be cool but he isn’t. Tsireya gave him a 9, Neteyam gave him a 2, Ao’nung a 0, Rotxo a 0, Kiri a 0.5. Everyone else gave him 3’s or 4’s cause they appreciate the effort but he’s not cool he’s more of a funny guy.

ao'nung: 9.8/10. Everyone likes him, literally everyone. He’s super popular and all the girls (and some guys) swoon over him whenever he walks past them in the halls, wherever he sits there's bound to be people asking him stuff and wishing him good luck for his games. He’s cool with all the guys, super cool with the girls. He doesn’t like to play with anyone’s feelings so he hasn’t dated anyone yet (his mom raised him right fr). He does have a cocky side to him which he only shows if he knows the other person won’t take it seriously (so literally basically everyone). Even Lo’ak and Neteyam gave him 9’s. The only reason it’s at a 9.8 is because Kiri gave him a 0.

rotxo: I swear if you ask anyone about him they’d be like ‘Who? Oh the guy that hangs around Ao’nung.’ you would have to give up cause too many people would say “who” or “idk”, poor guy. Ao’nung gave him a 10 but you would ask him last cause of what happened with Tsireya (rigged). He’d get a 7/10 but the only voters were Neteyam, Lo’ak, Kiri, Tsireya and Ao’nung.

tsireya: A 10. But how? Ao’nung is the school’s golden boy and she’s the golden girl, but she’s not cool. Realistically she’d get something like a 2. Like Neteyam, she’s super sweet and kind but she’s not cool. Lo’ak was biased and gave her a 10. But here’s the thing; Ao’nung gave her a 10. So naturally….everyone else gave her a 10.

⌲ D for Diligence (Do they submit their assignments early or late?)

neteyam: Super diligent, he’ll submit any assignment as soon as possible. He never clicks on different browsers when there’s an assignment due by the end of the class + he types really fast like it’s insane (his wpm is 369).

kiri: She is literally UNHINGED. If an assignment is due 6.00pm on a wednesday she’ll submit it at 5.59.59pm on a wednesday. Doesn’t matter when the assignment is due, she’ll always submit it like either a second before or directly on time of when it’s due. If school is closed on the due date (like it’s a saturday or sunday) she’ll submit it on Friday right before that teacher goes home. She knows when they go home. Not even on their desk, It’ll be waiting for them in their bag/car. Unhinged.

lo'ak: Assignment? what assignment? It’s all late. LATE. But not like days late, they’re always max 3 days late. He’s not that irresponsible, sometimes he just forgets. He does care about his grades, he’s trying his best. One time he submitted it like 2 minutes late and sent a whole 10 paragraph email to the teacher begging them to not take points off just this one time. They did, thankfully.

ao'nung: He submits them a day before. He procrastinates a lot but he always manages to get everything done in time. Has never submitted an assignment late before.

rotxo: He too hasn’t ever submitted an assignment late, but he always submits his assignments at the most UNGODLIEST of hours. He would submit it on the day of but at like 3.33am for no reason. His teachers are very concerned about his health.

tsireya: Diligent like Neteyam but very relaxed, she does her assignments on her own time. She’ll submit it like 2-3 days before.

⌲ E for Extracurricular (What clubs/team are they in?)

neteyam: Oddly enough, he’s on the swim team, and he’s a hella good swimmer. I just think it makes sense, like just think about neteyam in the swim team. Just think about it. If not swim then he’d be part of the Student Council, like the secretary or something. Maybe both, who knows.

kiri: 100% a member of debate more than anything. She just loves using her intellect to fight people, and you gotta respect that. She’s also vice president of the student council, being much more intimidating than the actual president.

lo'ak: TRACK TEAM. Boy he can RUN, he’s super nimble on his feet and the coaches consider him a blessing from heaven. He has a really good stamina and great endurance, he could run for hours if he really tried. If you ever anger him by talking crap about his family or Tsireya, find a really good hiding spot because you cannot outrun this man.

ao'nung: Captain of the basketball team. Like come on. He loves basketball, it’s his life and he wants to become a professional athlete. He’s willing to do whatever it takes. Oh and he’s treasurer of the student council, just because the president thought he’d be perfect for the job.

rotxo: Newspaper team. He’s great with words and he’s everywhere like an NPC, making him the perfect guy to take photos of literally anything. He definitely has his own column in the school newspaper where you can ask for advice in his anonymous email and he’ll respond in the newspaper (his fake name is Tory).

tsireya: President of the student council. She knows exactly what the school needs and she provides it, the activities/festivals/events she plans are always the bomb and everyone supports her as the president. She’s super nice and is too afraid to get mad at anyone, so Kiri or Ao’nung will do it for her. She is not afraid to show her disappointment with a sharp glare, however, which would literally destroy the heart of any troublemaker trying to ruin any school festivities.

⌲ F for F#?@!!! (Do they swear at school?)

neteyam: No

kiri: Won’t swear at anyone (except for Ao’nung) but does whisper profanity under her breath if she’s stressed out or something. Constantly pulls the middle finger at her brothers (more often at Lo'ak) and Ao’nung though.

lo'ak: Yes, definitely not around teachers but yes, but he’s started to calm it down after Tsireya confronted him about it.

ao'nung: No

rotxo: Once. He was sitting a test in Economics one day and he yelled “F#?!” out of nowhere, got up from his seat and walked out the door. Ao’nung was confused as hell. Being the good friend he was, he snatched Rotxo’s abandoned paper when the teacher wasn’t looking and finished it for him, with a few different answers from his to avoid suspicion, letting him get a B- rather than an F.

tsireya: No

⌲ G for Girl/Guy Magnet (Do they attract more boys or more ladies?)

neteyam: Definitely the girls, they like him cause he’s the soft stoic type and a gentleman. The girls that aren’t into Ao’nung are definitely into Neteyam. He’s super nice and one time he helped a girl pick up her fallen books. That day she fell in love.

kiri: Both. She’s so chill with it and super sarcastic and funny which definitely earns her points in both departments. The guys enjoy her presence, they think she’s different cause her way of messaging is like a guy which confuses them at first but then they really enjoy texting her for no reason (annoys her to hell tbh), leave the woman alone. But if it was a GIRL texting Kiri, she’d have no problem rizzing them up subtly.

lo'ak: Not a magnet at all. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. He bagged a beautiful, gorgeous, kind, loyal, honest, funny girl and he’s not interested in anyone else.

ao'nung: Both. Be so fr. He’s nice but also likes to tease people, he’s funny and confident and hot. And he works out and he’s smart which is like damn how many blessings did Eywa give him? Both girls and boys adore him a lot and look up to him, but he always lets people down gently.

rotxo: Also not a magnet. It’s not like he’s unattractive or anything, but always sits next to Ao’nung or hangs next to Kiri which ultimately takes the attention completely away from him. But he’s alright with it, he already has someone in mind which he’s already close to.

tsireya: Both. Need I say more? She’s literally a mix of Neteyam and Ao’nung (NOT IN THAT WAY) and she always enjoys taking care of herself and she has an impeccable taste in fashion, earning her extra extra bonus points. She would have received like three dozen love letters by now if it weren’t for her older brother, always making sure she’s safe from stupid boys who might break her heart. He may have forgotten about Lo'ak though, but as long as he doesn't hurt her everything will be fine.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

pt. 1 | pt. 2 | pt. 3 | pt. 4 | masterlist

that's all for part 1! idk when part 2 will come out cause I have a lot to do this week, including 2 other WIP fics and making a masterlist. I hope you guys enjoyed it and please lmk if you have any suggestions or comments, i'd love to know what u guys think 💚

i'm also making a hashtag specifically for modern avatar au content that any other creator can use freely (it'll be the first one listed below) so it's easier for people to find this sort of stuff cause everytime i type avatar modern au its avatar the last airbender 😭

[edgy-ella]

I recently rewatched Invader Zim with @allshaftsfall, and something dawned on me that I should’ve realized years ago: Irkens have really weak backs/spines.

Or at least, it gets worse the taller they get, exponentially more so than with humans. The only tall Irkens we ever see in the series are the Tallest (obviously) and Sizz-Lorr, all of which are noticeably hunched over.

Sure, you could argue that Sizz-Lorr’s weird hunchback comes from his abnormally large PAK and the Tallest’s poor posture comes from the extreme corseting done to their midsections, but that in turn raises another question: why in god’s name would you ever fuck up your spine like that in a society where your status is determined by your height?

This stood out to me as weird for the Tallest in particular, because height is their status, so you’d think they’d be doing everything in their power to make themselves look as tall as possible rather than the opposite. It’s also something not unique to Red and Purple—concept art shows that Miyuki and Spork, the two previous Tallests before the current duo, had the same thing going on.

Hell, even Tak, who is barely taller than Zim, doesn’t always stand up straight.

This mostly applies when she’s in her human disguise, but still. Her height wouldn’t expose her as an alien—nobody cares about Zim’s more damning features, and Dib has classmates much taller than she would be standing up straight—so she doesn’t have anything to gain by slouching. To me, it seems like she feels like she has to consciously stand up straight when out of disguise, interacting with other Irkens (as someone with scoliosis, I can relate), but feels more relaxed as a human where height isn’t that big of a deal.

Before anyone calls bullshit on Tak ever slouching, look at her posture here compared to Gaz.

None of this is an art style thing, either. The humans in the series, both tall and short, stand significantly straighter. The only human I can think of off the top of my head that slouches is Ms. Bitters, and we don’t even know if she is human.

So, what does this all mean? Why’s this important? Well, to me, it begs the question: if the Irkens end up with significantly worse posture the taller they get, why does their society run on a height-based hierarchy? It’s already a silly concept, and the fact that Irkens already seem to have weak backs is just the cherry on top.

To me, this says that this is not naturally a part of Irken culture, and that the Control Brains put it in place whenever they assumed total control of the species, and it seems like it’s there in order to make the Irkens more reliant on the Control Brains. You can’t expect to have a stable leadership if your rulers are chosen arbitrarily, so the people supposedly in charge have to rely on the giant supercomputers to handle all the hard stuff for them. We already knew that the Control Brains were these shadowy figures controlling everything from the shadows, and this is just doubling down on that. And the implications there are wild: were the Control Brains originally made by other Irkens, only for their AI to gain sentience and weaken the Irkens biologically, socially, and culturally? Were the Control Brains made by a completely different race, only to appear like gods before primitive Irkens and force themselves upon them? If so, what happened to whatever race made the Control Brains? What’s the Control Brains�� overall purpose? How far does this “meat shield used to carry the PAK around” thing go?

Unfortunately we are never ever getting any answers to these questions because the franchise is in indefinite hibernation right now and they didn’t tackle the Control Brains in any meaningful capacity when they had the chance in either Enter the Florpus or the comics. But it’s fun to think about!

[noirgasmweetheart]

We see Peter Lorre suffer onscreen so often, and he rarely gets any sympathy from anyone besides the audience. So I really treasure this cute moment from "Passage to Marseilles." Not the least because out of context, you can imagine this as any number of other PL characters who could use a blanket and some cocoa.

A few ideas off the top of my head:

When Cairo met Wilmer: During some misguided treasure hunt in the tropics, Joel Cairo almost dies, and is rescued by a young man named Wilmer Cook. The rest is history.

The Baron is retrieved from the Wild Goose: ...and already talking about getting back on track with plans before they even get him onto a stretcher.

Ugarte was only mostly dead! "Ugarte is dead" my ass. If Strasser executed Ugarte before extracting the location of the visas from him then he's an idiot, and if he tortured him to death in one night then he's incompetent. So after Rick and Louie declare their beautiful friendship, they make a stop at the jail to free the tight-lipped prisoner, and bring him to Ferrari's to recuperate in hiding. Now that he's at his lowest and literally stripped of everything he had, Ugarte actually has impressed everyone.

Johnny West is just hung over: Icey is trying to sober up her boyfriend yet again. Johnny eagerly drinks the offering, only to realize that it's coffee and not booze.

Leyden needs coffee: ... or it's Corny Leyden, after attempting to pull an all-nighter working on his new book about Dimitrios. A member of his house staff gives the unkept artist some much needed caffeine and informs him that he's got a press conference in twenty minutes.

Dr. Herman Einstein: ...is sleeping in the Brewsters' basement, either during or after the events of the film. The aunts announce that coffee is ready, and Elanie brings the hung-over doctor a cup.

Vicky Emmric: ...has talked Lottie into camping out at the cemetery overnight with hot cocoa. This is his way of coping with his friend's confession to murder and going to the gallows.

Feel free to add your own ideas.

[khaliarart]

God, I just realized that it's been too long since the last Irken question I asked, believe me I haven't lost interest in the slightest, you're still one of my favorite artists par excellence, I'm just a very distracted person.

Let's go with the great imperial questions, my dear artist.

Do you have any oc x cannon artists that you really like? Any Irken oc that you think have a great design and a cool backstory? (It is not valid to name Sun, Sun is the wave)

Of all the Irken seen in the show, what encourages you to choose Announcer as the other protagonist of your comic? I'm just curious.

And finally, and something a little more related to what we saw, has Announcer given up his search for little Irken girls now that he has Aka nearby or does he still hunt in a flock?

That would be all, maybe it was too much, you take the questions you feel comfortable with and take the time you need, also remember to drink water, okay?

—With love: a fish that would lose its head if it didn't have it attached to its neck.

Hi!!! This took a while to compile but I hope it answers all your questions:

Callie X Lard Nar by @spacegoathours is my favorite!

Aroflowey's Mint x Purple, the most fun OC X Tallest dynamic in my opinion.

I wished I knew more OC x canon creators :0 Someone give me OC X Commander Poki. Or X Sizz-Lorr. Aaa-

In no particular order, here's more bugs I really like:

Siv by @chewyena! What a lad.

Rot by @ruby-hux is freaking adorable. Definitely a fave even though I dont know the lore.

Meva and Cho by @gingerbreadart1, I am basically their godmother.

I want to preface the next answer by saying Anno is not a protagonist- It‘s not yet clear what he is >:3c

To answer why I chose him here’s the tldr of how I got attached to the character almost 5 years ago:

I had just made Aka to ship with my irl crushe’s Irkesona (Dr. Lola). I was trying to think of a conflict to Aka‘s story. So that Dr. Lola could swoop in and save her duh (subscribe for more dating advice with Khaliar).

The same day I rewatched The Nightmare Begins with a friend who hadn‘t seen the show yet. And went into a whole TED talk when I finally noticed how out of place the Announcer‘s design is. It opened so many questions. Why the helmet? Why only one eye? He looks like he should be tall and thus important but we don‘t know! And then I smashed him and Aka together and said "now kill each other“.

And for the last question, no, Anno is still on the lookout. He‘s not the type to settle🫥

[soapkaars]

OBSESSED with ur Peter Lorre characters n their tattoos post. Do you think Herman Einstein would have any or does he strike you as too meek? The combination of his drinking habits and vaguely homoerotic devotion to one man makes me wonder. Idk, I could see him having some motif to remind him of Jonathan, if not having the name "Johnny" tattooed somewhere. Anyways love ur art as always <3

Herman! I completely forgot about him! In my defense, it was three in the morning when I was done. Yeah, I think our timid little lastic surgeon probably has only one, and that must’ve been after a particularly rough and wild drunken night. Johnny on the other hand…

[rheallsim]

Azure Keahi for @wrixie's "Jumping for Juniper" Bachelorette Challenge

Let me introduce Azure Keahi! 🏝️

Age: 23 y.o.

Pronouns: They/Them

Traits: Jealous, Maker, Vegetarian

Azure is a trans non-binary sim from Sulani. They're an only child, but they were the youngest by a couple years of all the other children living nearby, so they were constantly treated like a baby by friends and relatives. This lead to a bit of a tendency to over-achieve, rebel against authority, and try to prove to people that they're more grown up than they look.

[More under the cut!]

That being said, Azure is a bit of a quiet, old-soul. They're really into fixing up old things and engineering new furniture out of scraps they find around the island. They spend more time thinking and observing than they do talking, and love spending time outdoors in nature whenever they can.

They're a socialist anti-capitalist and have so far only worked odd jobs around the islands to supplement their family's rather meager income. One of their dreams is to live in a commune where its members help each other out and try to be as self-sufficient as possible. That may not be very feasible, but they live their life around the ethos of trying to consume as little as possible (and sticking it to 'The Man' whenever they can).

When it comes to love Azure is pretty inexperienced (never been kissed!), but they're impatient and eager to find their special someone and have so much love to give. They're very attracted to hard-working feminine sims, and love nothing more than sitting on the beach around a campfire talking about hopes and dreams for the future long into the night. <3

(They were assigned male at birth but take female hormones.)

Fun Facts:

Has had many burning crushes, but hasn't yet had the courage to act on them 😥

Their family has an ancient pet iguana named Humphrey that was treated like Azure's sibling growing up

They absolutely love anything with cherries in it 🍒

They're responsible for much of the "If it's called 'tourist season' why aren't we allowed to shoot them" graffiti hidden around Sulani 😅

Loves old-timey film noir and mystery movies (The Maltese Falcon is their absolute favourite movie of all time and they have a powerful crush on Peter Lorre 👀)

Still doesn't have their driver's license (not much call for it in Sulani, though they are pretty good at piloting boats of all kinds!)

Likes: Film noir/mystery movies, cherry-flavoured everything, grunge music and aesthetic, tinkering, thrifting, thunderstorms

Dislikes: being condescended to, pessimism, capitalism, cooking, littering, tourists, the colour pink, shopping

I tried my best to make them as CC-Free as possible! Wrixie, please feel free to dress them up or re-do them however you like to match your aesthetic/preferences. ^^ Also get in touch if you want more info or have any other questions. I'm so excited to see how this BC goes! <3

Here's a screenshot of their likes/dislikes and traits in-game:

[femmeleatherface]

Spooky Movie Marathon: Week 3

Day 13: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell

Day 14: XX (2017)

Day 15: Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007) - unrated version

Day 16: The Comedy of Terrors (1963) - followup to the film Tales of Terror (1962)

Day 17: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920) - third and only extant film in Paul Wegener's Golem trilogy, which was itself based on the book Der Golem by Gustav Meyrink; Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation restoration

Day 18: Planet Terror (2007) - originally part of the Grindhouse double feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof; extended international version

Day 19: Death Proof (2007) - originally part of the Grindhouse double feature with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror; extended international version

i swear i did not intentionally choose to watch a bunch of films from 2007. return to house on haunted hill was already preplanned for the week, and then the weekend came and i wanted to take advantage of it chip through some longer movies and planet terror/death proof were the first films on my watchlist to meet the criteria of "horror-related" and "over an hour and thirty minutes."

individual thoughts:

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - i decided on this for an already-seen safe pick palette cleanser for Mary Reilly last week and it was SUCH a good decision. this movie gets better every time i see it. i'm still mad that i missed it in theaters when it got re-released for its sixtieth anniversary a couple years ago, because UGH this movie is so fucking gorgeous lighting-wise. but hopefully there will be other opportunities. in the meantime, i will freely oo and ahh and scream over the pretty, narrative-driven cinematography in the comfort of my own home.

XX (2017) - this movie left no impact on me. i neither liked it nor disliked it, it simply was. the stop motion segments were cool, though.

Return to House on Haunted HIll (2007) - definitely the weakest of the haunted hill movies, i don't know what they were thinking making it an indiana jones-style artefact hunting movie. very baffling decision there. also, somehow this movie gave jeffrey combs even less to do than the 1999 film did, which is impressive but has also got to be a crime somewhere or other. he looked so sad and malnourished without scenery to chew on! but all that said, it was fine for what it was. definitely could have been MUCH worse. when they used practical effects, those looked good, and while the setting got boring from repetitiveness the death scenes themselves had enough variety to be serviceable as a fun waste of time. definitely worth the $1 i spent on it at goodwill back in may, at any rate.

The Comedy of Terrors (1963): i was really in the mood for a peter lorre movie and this one had a bonus vincent price thrown in, plus the bisexual millionaire from some like it hot as a surprise bonus. it was good! maybe this is a hot take but this is what the raven (1963 should have been in terms of being both funny and also dark and blending it together into a screwball black comedy. i definitely enjoyed this one more between the two.

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920) - i had a whole rambly mini essary typed up about this and ran out of text characters so the abriged version: i initially tried finding the original 1915 film der golem, but it's partially lost and if there's a publicly-available reconstruction, i couldn't find it in the five minutes i looked before getting impatient and skipping ahead to the 1920 film, which from my understanding is a prequel to that and a... sequelish/followup to Der Golem und die Tänzerin (1917), which is the earliest known horror spoof and completely lost :( anyway, after watching the 1920 film i am now mad we didn't watch this in my german cinema class because there's a lot to unpack here, particularly in how it portrays the jewish characters and the golem (read: pre-nazi germany antisemitism). german expressionism is fascinating both for its innovation but also as a very clear product of its time and place and i think this film is the best example of this that i've seen so far. but anyway. i'm rambling but what can i say, this was just such an interesting film, for all that "product of its time and place" stuff and also the usual expressionist reasons (funky sets, dramatic boob-clutching acting, excellent karl freund cinematography, spooky imagery, etc). it was also kind of ridiculous? an entire act is dedicated to watching the golem go grocery shopping and do other banal chores, and this is after a really neat special effects scene where he's brought to life. i just... amazing. peak cinema. exactly what i want to see from the creation brought epicly to life to valiantly defend the ghetto: him picking up bread at the store. but it was also neat to see a precursor of tropes like the manmade monter and the "big scary monster guy bridal carries damsel," and it's absolutely amazing to tentatively pinpoint it back (cinematically, at least) to a little german film from 104 years ago! definitely a monster movie where the monster is an uncomfortable metaphor though, which is unfortunately also par the course for those tropes.

Planet Terror (2007): THIS MOVIE HAS A COOL BISEXUAL LADY FIGHTING ZOMBIES. her name is dr. dakota block and she is my everthing. i was destined to like the movie anyway because it's sleazy good fun and also meta and a love letter to 1960s-1970s exploitation movies, but throwing in a bisexual lady who battles zombies is just icing on the cake. she's not even the main charater, she's a side character but the best thing about the movie to me, which is already pretty amazing. because of her amazingness i am a little mad about the "missing reel" segement, though. i understand why it was there, but i feel like we missed out on some quality bonding time between her and her estranged father who it was implied disowned her due to the bisexuality thing. BOOO LET ME SEE THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. anyway, i need an entire spinoff movie about this lady where the zombies are a metaphor for her escaping her abusive husband and coming into her bisexy own. bonus points if her girlfriend doesn't die OR comes back as a zombie girlfriend and it becomes a sapphic version of fido, or this song. the son already came back to life at the end, CLEARLY the zombie virus makes dead people who are immune be alive again and also cured of what killed them. We Can Make This Work!

Death Proof (2007): okay full disclosure i have not seen grindhouse (2007). i want to, i just haven't been able to track down a copy through legal means. but from my understanding of cursory research i did this morning out of boredom, this and planet terror were extended for their separate international releases, and those releases were the ones i watched on tubi tv (my beloved). from this, i am just BETTING death proof is so much less awful in the original grindhouse version, because the main problem was that the film was just too goddamn long. other tarantino films are like this, but the character banter is usually engaging enough to keep things afloat, but not here. all the women in this talk like they were written by a cishetero white man--which. they were. but i shouldn't be able to tell, because That Is How Good Writing Works. they are so vapid and annoying and i do not care about what happens to them and their sexy feet. i don't know if it's any better in the shorter version, but at least it would feel less like a waste of time. spitballing a rework of this, but the intro kills should be 10, 15 minutes tops, just to set up kurt russell's character and that's IT, these girls are not interesting enough to try pulling a psycho with. (or you know. make them interesting so i care what happens to them.) then spend the rest of the first half of the film setting up the real main characters, and at the midway point have kurt russell show up again and try to kill them. or make it later. i think doing it around the middle would be more interesting, though, because then they could make the second half a revenge film à la i spit on your grave. though that might be difficult to pull off with only one guy to get revenge on. but also if tarantino could spend nearly two hours doing basically nothing, i think he could figure out a way to spend 45 minutes doing SOMETHING. ARGHGH! to close with some positivity, though, i liked the way this film looked, especially compared to planet terror. planet terror was clearly shot digitally and all the film grain and whatnot was added in the editing room, and it's fine but it really doesn't look authentic. the way the film captures light just isn't right (except during explosions. every explosion in that film looked amazing). death proof was clearly shot on film and looks a lot more natural because of it, the lighting is softer and brighter and the grain looks more real because it IS real. but overall. oh my god tarantino shut up and please let me just have a movie.

phew finally. onward to productive writing now. no plans for next week of film, but before the month ends i want to try and hit at least one film per decade of narrative-based filmmaking up to the present. based on what i've seen so far, i still need to hit:

1910s

1940s

1980s

2020s

also i want to watch at least one film with christopher lee and peter cushing, if i get the chance. but we shall see...

rankings, ratings, and lists thus far:

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (duh)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Planet Terror (2007)

The VelociPastor (2018)

The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The House on Haunted Hill (1999)

The Black Cat (1934)

Witchcraft (1964)

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)

The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

Lyle (2015)

Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007)

White Settlers (2014)

Bijo to Ekitai-ningen (1958)

Prometheus (2012)

XX (2017)

Death Proof (2007)

Mary Reilly (1996)

Encounter with the Unknown (1972)

[sm-baby]

mushy i need your opinion what do i call my dnd campaign LMAO

for context the other campaign i used to dm i called "The Tyranny of Talus" (talus was the continent's name) (kinda unimaginative i know but i digress) and my friend's campaigns that i've been in have been The Sands of Vorsareth (desert-based campaign) and Sorren's Draft (that one's too complex to explain, also now we're playing Sorren's Draft pt 2 cause the first one went up in flames)

i've also played a oneshot called The Secret History we all made fun of my friend for that one lol

anyways any ideas? just off the top of my head i'm thinking Scars of Osira maybe (you may remember osira is the name of the continent)

HEHEHHE EEEE

My titles are usually linked with the LORRE and the main plot, I only know the lore for now, my brainy brain can't think up one since I don't know the story your players are goin on!

However while I was lookin for the main plot I just ywy WENT OVER THE FILES AGAIN, and got REALLY giddy at your characterization of Zeus DIWJDJSJDJS

SHE SO MEAANN FRRR I HOPE ITS SATISFYING WHEN SHE DIES im really happy you did the characterization so well-- Zeus' servants in canon are supposed to be much more relaxed than the lowers ones, very much "heaven" vibes. the idea of it being the completely opposite with Elaine Axtia makes me so!! Thats so good!!

Elaine Axtia going "poor people simply aren't working hard enough" showcases how spoiled and privileged she actually is--and speaks volumes since she herself worked her way to her position, unlike Elaine Zeus who was born in it

Also absolutely LOVE the added point of wanting control and saying that she IS better than everyone-- CUZ THOSE ARE CANON-- THE FACT THAT YOUVE CAUGHT ON TO THOSE MAKES ME HAPPY??? You took Elaine Zeus' characteristics and made them absolutely evil and self centered I LOVE IT.

Elaine Axtia wanting control and order cuz it makes her feel powerful and in turn GIVES her power, and Elaine Zeus wanting control because she genuinely fully believes that others would not be able to strive with out her.

Anyway, with all the information that I gathered, I have u the titles:

" The Cherished Osira"

" Calls from the deep dark"

" Mercy for the Ungrateful"

[razorsadness]

It’s the season of the scent of burn barrels and the sound of trains. It’s the month when all my ghosts come back to me.

I just don’t have much to say. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have a lot to say, but it’s all coming out in poetry or essays about past experiences, or in visual art. Not in journal entry form. I’ve been making copious notes for things-to-write re: my current life, but sometimes I need time to process it before I turn it into any kind of writing, even a journal entry. (Why do you think I’m always writing poems and essays about events from decades ago? Or writing epic-length journal entries about everything that happened in a particular day/week/month?)

It’s not that nothing is going on, currently. I’ve been doing a lot, feeling a lot. There’s of course all the general life-stuff: hustling for freelance gigs and then doing them, printing/collating/packing up zine orders, doing schoolwork with the kiddos. Even that stuff has been going quite well overall (there have been bad days, but not an unmanageable amount), and there have also been a lot of special, interesting, things. My and P.’s sex life has picked back up again after a couple months of it being pretty sparse and lackluster, and thank g-d for that. I’ve been embracing the delights of the season, in all their myriad forms. There have been trips to the north woods to chase the autumn; jaunts downtown for coffee and wandering or for fancy lunches and the art museum. I’ve been lurking in cemeteries, decorating my house for Halloween; I've been dressing up in some way or another, whether I'm going downtown or even just going to run errands, and some days, I dress up even just to stay at home. I’ve been painting pumpkins, making spooky art, writing poems about cryptids and graveyards and ghosts. I’ve been asking myself “what would the Great Pumpkin do?”; waking up in the morning and listening to goth and post-punk playlists while eating candy for breakfast, or drinking red wine or pumpkin beer while cooking dinner, and dancing around my kitchen when that one DJ on my favorite radio station who knows what's up plays Big Star and The 'Mats back-to-back. I've been reading horror and ghost stories and spooky poems, watching my favorite spooky films. I've been re-embracing my obsession with Peter Lorre, as I tend to do every year around this time. (Not that it ever really goes away, it’s just stronger this time of year.) I’ve been redecorating my altars to suit the season, and I’ve gotten back into tarot. I’ve been watching live videos of old favorite bands. My heart has been breaking every day over the state of the world, and I have been trying to do what I can while not getting down on myself for not being able to do more. And on days when it’s not raining, I’ve been sitting outside to watch the leaves fall, to listen to the trains, and to think of long lost friends and old flames.

Which leads me to the main thing I do want to get down. One of the old flames that’s been most heavy on my mind is “Harvey” (aka “Hertz,” neither are his real name but I have referred to him as one or the other in various writings over the years). There are many reasons for this, one being that he had the Inferno-connection too, so in the lead-up to Hallowmas, he is one of the people I think of when I listen to/think of the band. Another being that it was during October/November 2004 that our ‘thing,’ such as it was, was at its peak. After not having spoken for something like 12 or 13 years, we briefly reconnected after Jack’s death, because both of us needed to talk to someone who would get what we were feeling. The initial emails we exchanged were in no way romantic or flirtatious, but then after a while we admitted to each other that we still occasionally thought of one another That Way. And then we both stopped emailing again because, well, nothing good can come from opening all that up.

The night before last, I was thinking of him, and thought about sending him an email, and then I said to myself: “Not today, Satan.” He’s not Satan; Satan in this situation is my fucking feelings and complete inability to let the past be the past when it comes to certain people (such as Harvey). Satan is the fact that it doesn’t even make sense to still have these feelings; we barely had a relationship, we only kissed once, we never slept together. (Though that might be allonormativity talking; sex alone doesn’t make a relationship and lack of sex doesn’t mean a relationship wasn’t real. And I think the fact that we never fucked is part of the reason I have a hard time letting him go completely; there’s more to wonder about, more of a question of what might have been.) Satan is all the ways it could fuck up my life if we dredge all those feelings up again. So I didn’t email him, and I was so proud of myself for my willpower, and then I checked my inbox yesterday morning, and there was an email. From Harvey. And it fucking figures, because there are certain people in my life who seem to know when I’m thinking about contacting them and then contact me, and he has always been one of them. I haven’t even opened the email yet, because I’m scared. It could very well be an innocent ‘just saying hey’ message, except I doubt it is, because he sent it at like 3 a.m. his time and who is up in the middle of the night thinking of old flames only to send them a casual message? Ugh. I just. I’m not looking for advice, really, it just hurts.

[peterlorres21stcentury]

Skyrim is probably my favorite game of all time (with Morrowind as a very close second). I love tinkering with the mechanics of these games just to see how badly I can break them. While you can't break Skyrim quite as much as you can with Morrowind, where you could become a literal flying god with the power of ridiculous potions and spells (I do recommend, btw, it's so fun), you can still accomplish many other things. For this replay, I wanted to try one of my favorite character types, a thief and assassin, but with a small twist.

This is my little Breton named Polo. Yes, he is named for my favorite pickpocket of "I Was An Adventuress" fame. His face is partially obscured by a hood because it's appropriate to his profession, but also mostly because I could not make him look so much like Peter Lorre as I wanted. Character creation has its limitations, but whatever, it doesn't matter. What does matter is he joined the Thieves' Guild and maxed out his pickpocket skill in short order. This means he can steal weapons and even clothes right off the victim's person without them noticing (don't ask me how, I always rationalized the Perfect Touch perk with "magic.")

I decided he should join the Dark Brotherhood too, but Polo is a kleptomaniacal, pathological case and a soft little thing at heart. He's much more interested in stealing than the fine art of murder. However, he does have a rather high skill in Illusion, which means he can influence other peoples' emotions. Calm spells will stop angry folks from attacking, and frenzy spells can make groups of enemies fight each other. This means he doesn't actually have to be the one with the knife--he can reverse-pickpocket a knife onto someone else, frenzy them, hide in a corner, and let someone else do the dirty work.

In some ways, this is even more evil than if he just did it himself. Case in point: the quest "Mourning Never Comes." Polo is tasked with eliminating one victim who had stolen a family's ancestral warhammer and absconded with a group of bandits in a Dwemer ruin (easy, just frenzy him and the bandits descend on him in seconds). But as a bonus, he was also asked to kill an innocent member of said unlucky family, as an act of poorly-conceived revenge from the client. (The full story of this family, the Shatter-Shields, is actually one of the saddest things in the game imo).

Now, Polo didn't have to kill her, but he just got back from the Dwemer ruin with the Shatter-Shield warhammer in tow, and he got an awful idea. That night, when everyone was asleep, he sneaked into their home and placed the ancestral weapon in the mother's hands, then frenzied the daughter Nilsine with a spell. Then he hid while the daughter attacked Tova, her own mother. Tova, already grieving the loss of a different daughter (killed offscreen as part of her backstory), proceeded to whack her surviving daughter over the head with her own family weapon before going back to sleep, perhaps too stunned by wtf just happened to fully process what she just did. The deed done, Polo sneaked out of the house, technically innocent of any murder as far as the game was concerned.

Tova's fate will be even more tragic, as the game checks the following: if her daughter is dead, the mother will later be found dead by her own hand. Thus Polo destroyed an entire family through pickpocketing. 🤷‍♀️

[angelamontoo]

Peter Lorre character related questions I think about a lot

•Did Herman let Elaine go on purpose when Jonathan made him take her to the cellar?

I've always wondered since not only does Herman seem so hesitant to harm her, but neither of them seem like there was much of a struggle between them while they were in the basement. Plus, with Elaine not escaping till after Mortimer and the aunts showed up, it's possible Einstein heard their voices upstairs and saw it as an excuse to let Elaine go without Jonathan being able to just throw her back in

•Was Hans Beckert telling the truth about not being able to control his urge to kill and feeling disgusted with himself for his crimes?

Perhaps it takes away some of the films complexity, but I'm partial to the idea that Beckert isn't as haunted by his actions as he claims to be. I feel like the only negative emotion about his crimes Beckert displays before he's caught is a fear of getting caught and every step he takes in finding a victim seems intentional and done in a sound state of mind. Not to mention, as others have pointed out, the letter he sends the police and infamous mirror scene make it seem like he enjoys his reputation as a killer

•Was Roderick remorseful for murdering the pawn broker?

I wanna say yes because he's one of Petes few leading man characters and there are enough moronic critics from around the time who vastly overestimated how much of a villainous character Rod was just because he was played by Peter Lorre and killed someone. But if I'm being honest, I don't feel he was all that guilty, at least not after the night of the murder. Again he seems more frightened of being caught than guilty to me. But on the other hand he's obviously shown to be sensitive and compassionate in general in the film so perhaps its just unrealistic to assume he wouldn't feel at least some guilt for taken a life? I really go back and fourth on this one

•What is Professor Fenningers real name?

I've guessed Moritz Veidt in the past

•What is Mr Munseys first name?

I've heard 'Henry' here and there as a potential first name for Prentiss, but I don't believe I've ever heard one for Munsey. I personally like Rudolph Munsey. 'Rudy' to those he's close with

•Is Cairos hair naturally curly?

I prefer to assume it is, but it works either way for me if you have an interesting enough HC about why he chooses to curl his hair

•Who is the Emily, that Dr Lorentz mentions a few times?

I feel like I heard someone suggest that she's Arthurs sister once, but I prefer to imagine she's Arthurs maid or housekeeper. Specifically a very underpaid, world-weary, unlucky, chainsmoking one who hates her job and Arthur and Arthurs cat(who hates her back and goes out of her way to make Emily's job harder) and Arthurs crazy boyfriend and the bickering straight couple that lives in Arthurs crazy boyfriends attic and her life

Well that'll do for now. Feel free to add more questions or throw your two cents in about any of these. Or don't. You're your own person with your own agency. I assume

[refried-ghost]

Tarr tar, Blubber, and Velx. Were the names of the Vortian Pups. Zim felt... Zim didn't like them when he'd first heard about them. But he'd just keep bringing them up.

Whenever he would finally get a rest period and checked his messages, he'd bristle at the sight of them. They didn't deserve him as a parental unit. And yet they were there. And Zim was here. Banished to this horrid place.

He enjoyed food before this. It was away he connected to Red and Purple before everything. But now... The filthy grimy grease seamed to seep into deep into his skin, into every crease and creavous if his PAK. It effectively blinded him to every other smell because no matter how much he'd tried to get clean, more just seemed to be there. A disgust wriggled with in him at the though of eating.

Everytime he did it the food tasted rancid. His Fry Lord noticed rather quickly and questioned him on it. A full deep clean of the restaurant and food audit was done to ensure quality. Issues were corrected. And learning of how truly filthy the food was the wriggling got worse. The food tasted just as rancid afterwards and Sizz-Lorr seemed to get what was going on. Said it was simply another aspect of his punishment. One his PAK had given out

They got coddled and cared for by his 'mentor'. Fed sweets and savories delighting in the flavor while Sizz-Lorr forced him on a strict eating schedule so he wouldn't starve. It'd bring down moral he said.

They got his praise, attention and love and Zim simply got calls. Overtly faking friendliness and care. Acting like there wasn't a sword swinging over head. No growing dread over what would happen. No thoughts about how'd they escape when the invasion surely become.

Neither said it. Never put it into words. But he knew how the vortian felt. He was sure of it.

Purple said it frequently in the past. Zim would actively ignore him. It was honestly more concerning when he stopped. He didn't think he would.

But it wasn't his fault. It couldn't have been.

She'd deserved it. They were left to die down there.

The Pups' couldn't open their eyes. They'd flop over when they tried to move. Tinier then any smeet he'd ever seen. Their tiny mouth gaped light fishes.

He could understand why Vortians were so secretive about their young with how dumb and fragile they were. It was hard to see how something like the could become something like his mentor.

"Were you like that?" Zim asked.

"Hmm?" The speaker crackled from the seeming endless interference here. "Was I a pup?"

"Yeessss," he narrowed his eyes unsure of the term.

"Every Vortian was a pup at once point Zim. Just like every Irken used to be a smeet."

"That sounds fake."

"I don't follow."

"Why are they like that?"

"Zim."

"Look at them. They're so tiny, dumb and weak. We have specials that would put up more of a fight!"

"Okay, I'm not going to get into how messed up that is. You're hurting me Zim. These are my children. I'd give up the world for them. Please don't insult them like. And I think of-" The rest was drowned out by a loud knock at the door that made the Irken jump.

"Go away!" Zim shouted, scrambling to end the call and hide the radio in his PAK. He grabbed the blue prints and the device he was working on and quickly hid them as it opened.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | The Raven (Corman, 1963)

This review contains mild spoilers.

You know we're off to a good start when a movie opens with horror legend Vincent Price sitting in a chair wagging his finger. There's gonna lots more sit down finger wagging and lots of Price and other horror legends making funny faces. Turns out he's trying to conjure a raven through the magic of 1960s optical effects, and indeed one does come to greet him, only to immediately start talking shit. So we get a few minutes of Price reacting to a bird that's being really condescending without much cause. It turns out the raven is a magician, and needs the help of Price to turn himself back into a human by preparing a complex potion.

"Well, you got some dried blood of a bat in the house?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Bat's blood! Dried or evaporated, bat's blood."

"No."

"How about some chain links from a gallow's bird? Jellied spiders? Rabbit's lard? Dead man's hair?"

"No, we don't keep those things in this house. We're vegetarians."

Anyway, it turns out Price has less than he needs to for a full serving, so the raven gets turned into Peter Lorre but with a raven's body, so we get Price now acting alongside Lorre in a stupid looking bird suit. Eventually other characters enter the picture, namely Boris Karloff as a more sinister magician who may or may not have wronged the others, although who started it seems to be up for debate.

This is the third of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations I've seen this week, and it's definitely the lightest in tone. As you can probably guess from the above, what happens isn't all that terrifying, but it is pretty funny in a "sitcom doing a Halloween special" kind of way. The reason to watch this is obviously the presence of Price, Lorre and Karloff, all of whom are having a ball playing off each other and lounging around in the production design. While Corman isn't an absentee director here by any means, you do get the sense he was happy to sit back and watch these legends goof around. The handful of other actors don't make too much of an impression, with two exceptions. There's a young Jack Nicholson, who brings humour of a less intentional variety as Lorre's dorky son, mostly because this is the dorkiest Jack has ever been. And there's Hazel Court as Karloff's wife, who is perfect for the movie's campy wavelength and deserves an Olympic gold medal in heaving for her performance here. That being said, this is the second of these where Vincent Price gets cheated on by his super hot wife who he mistakenly believes is dead, and I have to wonder how Corman's marriage was doing at the time.

Like The Pit and the Pendulum, this mostly takes place in a handful of sets and benefits from the same appreciation for texture. Every costume in this movie looks like it would feel very nice to the touch. Even Peter Lorre's bird costume. The climax is a magical duel between Price and Karloff, which Corman directs the shit out of with a barrage of dramatic close-ups, canted angles and optical effects. It's a good demonstration of the importance of direction, because it's really just the two actors sitting in chairs twirling their fingers and raising their eyebrows and probably looked a lot lamer on set. Or maybe not. Price and Karloff look like they're having a lot of fun, and the energy is infectious.

[noirgasmweetheart]

Lorre's Cat Café: Toady

Why this beautiful chonky boy has such an unflattering name is anyone's guess. In any case, Toady enjoys attention, and likes to hear himself talk. He appears seemingly out of nowhere right next to you, and immediately begins yammering for treats and tummy rubs. When he's finally tossed a treat, he scrambles wildly around the floor, fumbling comically to grab it. When you rub his tummy he kicks his hind legs like a rabbit.

Besides cat treats, he also has a strange love for Boo-Berry cereal. He discovered it because he likes to stick his face in other people's food. And sit in their seats. And sleep on their faces.