#a fairly short one by my standards. mostly just to show What's Going On

[cloudbattrolls]

Scattered

Etuuya Vannyn | Dormir Facility | Present Night

TW: disassociation, trauma-related memory issues

“The thing is.” Tuuya said, slowly, picking over their words like a vulture over a corpse. “I didn’t want to be here.”

They leaned back in the plush couch of the therapy room, legs outstretched, cane loosely gripped in one hand.

Serine looked at them patiently. She was good at not making it look artificial, they thought, but also good at not making it too intense, of trying too hard to understand. 

They hoped the place paid her enough for a pair of eyes like that.

“Not because of you, or because of therapy.” They added. “That would make sense, right? It would be nice if it made sense that way. If it was as simple as running from my feelings. I know all about that.”

Tuuya closed their eyes, holding their head in their hands.

“I really wish it was that simple.”

—

I know how I came to Dormir, but I don’t remember.

You’d think the two were the same, wouldn’t you?

I know I took a ship. I know I stood on the deck, leaned on my cane, presumably watched the island come up in the distance.

But I only know that.

It is like a story I have told myself.

It is difficult to think I was actually there. 

—

“You see, I am being haunted.” Tuuya said conversationally.

Serine winced. 

“Tuuya. We didn’t find any signs of a ghost.”

They frowned. “No, that can’t be right. There has to be something.”

How had she known to look? 

Oh, right, she’d been told.

They must have told her.

“There’s nothing there. Sorry.”

“No, I, no. I mean. There has to be -“

She hesitated. 

“You can ask our psychics yourself.”

She said, calm again.

—

I know who I am.

I know who I was, as well.

There are so many things for me to hold onto.

So I must be possessed, for I feel my grip weakening all the same.

It must be that.

—

“No, I shouldn’t trouble them.” The matron said, eyes closing. “I need to trust you. Trust them. Trust someone.” They said, slightly desperate.

“I…I do not think I can trust myself. If it isn’t a ghost I’m possessed by, then…”

Serine looked gentle, sympathetic. That was good. They weren’t being annoying…

“Your disassociation is getting worse.”

She knew that’s what it was? How did she -

They must have told her.

“It’s impacting your memory, I think. At least, memories that are linked with it. Tell me the names of your children.”

“Uunive, Ailene, Florah, Melina, Crimew, and Helixe.” Tuuya recited immediately.

“Your quadrants?”

“Channi, Jaskir, Kamala, and Vrayan.”

“Your brothers?”

“Tantor.”

Serine nodded.

“You forgot Gallen. This supports my theory.”

Tuuya squinted. “Gallen?”

Their eyes widened.

“Gallen…”

He was there, he was there when -

—

They laid on the floor and realized part of them was outside their skin.

Hm. That seemed bad.

Why had they come apart?

They tried to make those worms go back into their skin.

They weren’t moving.

Why weren’t they moving?

Serine stood over them with a spray bottle. 

“I’m sorry. We had to take precautions.”

Right. Tekras’s immobilizing spray…

Hopefully they hadn’t hurt anyone, not like they had before when they'd been possess -

—

Tuuya stood up, gasping, and they were…outside?

In the sun. It was daylight.

For a moment they basked in the warmth, as most undead were wont to do.

They were forgetting something…

“Do you know how you got here?”

Serine again. Covered in day gear.

Led down a hallway. Taking their free hand to guide them. Curious faces.

“That was me, wasn’t it…” they trailed off, murmuring. “How novel…”

—

I know who I am.

I know who 

I know

There is someone else in my head

There must be an explanation 

I have too many people 

Relying on me!

Kaningård needs its head matron -

— 

“You need you, Tuuya.”

They blinked. 

Back in the therapy room. 

“I’m not sure I’ve ever done myself much good…” They said with a nervous laugh.

“Then you should start.” Said the indigo calmly but firmly.

“You’re staying here for two weeks, at least. Your cavern has been notified. The place will be well cared for in your absence. We will meet your needs for blood.”

“Oh.”

Tuuya said, ears lowered.

“I don’t - I can’t decide for myself?” 

Their tone was pleading.

The bald woman looked at them, sympathetic but stern.

“You have lost your troll form over a dozen times since you’ve been here and keep not remembering how and when it happens when you reform again. You are quite literally unable to hold together during any discussion of your trauma. You cannot go on like this.” 

The worm swarm blinked.

“Oh.”

The highblood softened slightly.

“We are working on ways to help you. We have asked others for their input. There is hope.”

Tuuya laughed, sad and amused alike.

“Oh, I know. If only it could put me back together.”

Unbeknownst to them, their hand started to break apart. 

Serine, her own hands gloved, calmly pointed it out to them.

Tuuya stared at the white worms writhing and shedding their dark gray skin, exposing the bones. They should be worried…but it didn’t feel real.

It should feel real, right?

Vaguely, they tried to think themself back together.

The worms stopped moving, though they didn’t re-knit into their mimicry of muscle.

Serine looked pleased. Tuuya smiled faintly.

Well, if she was happy, they ought to keep trying.

It never did to let someone down.

[tornioduva]

Dungeon meshi and body proportions

Ok, i'm feeling the rush i got from binging the manga this last week is starting to fade away, i'll be back to being a normal person soon i think. at least, that is before i find a new something for me to dive into uhuh.

Before that happens, i want to praise Ryoko Kui for one last think. The design of the characters!

For years i've expressed (maybe not so much online) my hate towards the "anime style", this homogenization of traits and beauty standards to an artificial degree, and the mass spread and consumption of it. yes, trends exist for a reason, this is not the first nor the last art current to be popular and i'm not the first detractor of one in history. I do think there is something uniquely harmful in this one though, and that is why i'm able to find the energy to be such a pretentious dipshit about it. That is a discussion for another day though.

All this to say that going through Dungeon Meshi and seiing these characters, plus (and in a way because of it) all the additional sketches of the daydream hour bonus sections, was such a breath of fresh air! (at least for what concerns japanese exported stories)

All i could say and praise in regard to character designs in general is perfectly expressed in this video, which i recommend you to watch if you want to hear my opinions (and the video author's too, uhuh):

I want to leave you though with at least one specific praise for me: Falin.

i've seen countless time people (online) just not understanding how people's body work, how much differences there can be and how proportions do distribute and affect the body. in anime I see a lot of short and tall people (mostly women girls) that share the same proportions despite their actual height, and that often leads to think "yeah, she is short" and than she's tall when around someone, or (most often) the contrary. same lenght of limbs, same head to body proportions, and little details like this.

Falin you can tell at a glance she is a tall woman before she's around anyone, even when she is standing near her brother who is taller than her.

Kui did her homework in studying bodies and variations, and, whether consciously or not, she differentiated her in body in subtle but fundamental ways: her head being slightly smaller than her body, the neck being fairly long, and her having somewhat broader shoulders.

I accept that there might be an element of suggestion at play here, considering also how she is dressed most of the time, but I really do think there is a direct effort at differentiation here.

This is the first time in a long time (in a series like this at least) where i've seen a woman carrying herself around others and the space around here kind of like a person like me, tall, would; at first i didn't think much of it, but then i saw her near other characters and....i don't know, i felt a warm, joyful feeling, seeing that i was right in recognizing that trait and being right.

I was especially happy in seeing her next to marcille. not so much for the height difference, but for how different they were in proportions and mannerism. A lesser manga i fear would have used marcille's body type and way of moving and interacting as the default for most other girls, but here she was uniquely herself!

Now, i could've used more extreme exemples to show how this author rocks in body types representations (while aknowledging there could've been even more diversification still), given there are far larger, taller and stranger women, but to me, nailing the little, most subtle details in such a chirurgical manner shows a greater level of mastery and comprehension. As such, Falin left me with a deeper fascination than most other characters.

Sorry for this wall of text, but i needed to let my happy thoughts go, so that i could be free again uhuh.

Feel free to tell me that i'm wrong, or that i should just accept anime media as is. i'm just really happy Dungeon meshi exists as is and i want Ryoko Kui to keep refining her craft, and drawing beautiful women and dwarves.

Plus, this was very much a stream of consciousness, i didn't go into technical details about what i think conveyed what i described, but if someone is interested, or does not get what i'm saying (while expressing it in a curious and gentle way, i won't respond to spiteful assholes), i'll be happy to make a follow up post in which i try to dissect this! For example, i didn't reread the whole manga to find examples of her, i just went to the wiki uhuh. in a follow up post maybe i'll try to go through chapters and pick more specific examples of her.

Anyway, have a good day!

[obsessivestar]

'What If It's All A RomCom?' - a Ted Nivison x Reader.

!! This is Chapter 3! Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 can be found here! If you'd like to be here for the next part, ask to be added to my taglist! It'd be my pleasure ♡ !!

{{-Story Description: You're a youtuber with a fairly decent following deciding to help your good friend Tanner with a minor film project, with you set as the leading lady. When the actor for the male lead is a no show, Ted takes up the role himself. One problem: This short film's a Rom Com, and you just met the guy.-}}

//18+, Def gonna be some smut. Reader is implied to be afab, under 5'5 and has specifically named friends, all who have no real connection to Ted.

This story will be in multiple chapters. Also gonna post this on Wattpad and Ao3 (when I figure them out LMAO) under the same username: ObsessiveStarla. Hope you enjoy :^)\\

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@k-k0129

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Word count: 3.5k

Chapter 3: My Eyes Are Up Here

The first day of shooting the film finally came and went. We had spent most of that afternoon figuring out what every character's wardrobe would be like and making sure everything on set looked good on camera. If any furniture needed to be moved, we moved it. Paintings were taken down or added, blinds were closed or left open, overrall it felt like the first day was about preperation. While I had thought we'd get at least some filming done on the first day, it actually worked out well. It gave Ted an entire day to go over the script with Tanner, and Joe the entire day to play the role of my father, demanding I stay away from bad boy Ted. I mean that sarcastically. Mostly sarcastically.

The plot of the film is almost similar to our real lives: We're supposed to be a bunch of adults out of college trying to hold on to our youth while spending their last summer together at some...summer house. There's a few extras that are meant to be playing our friends, but the main focus is on the relationship of Ted and I; our characters, I mean. At the end of the first day, everyone part of the film crew leave to sleep at their own accommodations except 5 of us. Ted, Myself, Tanner, Joe and another member of the editing team, though I don't learn his name tonight as he spends the entirety of it in his assigned bedroom. Joe had offered to get me a separate Airbnb when he realized I was the only one staying here that didn't identify as a guy, but I'm not uncomfortable with these arrangements. I have a lock for my assigned bedroom if need be, but I have no reason to distrust anyone else that will be spending the next 3 weeks living here.

The first night passes with no problems from anybody, except from Ted. He started knocking on my wall around 12am. Took a good couple minutes and a quick Google search to realize the fuckass was knocking 'cunt' in Morse code. He stopped shortly after I messaged him a picture of my middle finger being held up at the same wall.

The next morning i'm involved in a few scenes with some of the extras first so I can get a real feel for being on camera in this light, which also gives Ted time to read over the script in another room. In the film, my name is supposed to be Kara, and he's Mason. Tanner picked simple names. Ted looks like he could be named 'Mason'. The scenes go by fairly quickly, doing the necessary repeats to get multiple takes and angles, standard procedure when filming. I find myself to be quite a natural at this sort of thing. Other than the occasional stammer, I'm able to speak my lines and act the part with little to no difficulty. No bloopers just yet.

Next thing I know, morning turns into noon and we're having to move outside to take advantage of the last bit of full sunshine we'll have for the day, including Ted, who will finally be joining me in front of the camera. Like Ted had explained yesterday, we'd been filming a lot of the scenes out of order, this one included. At this point in the story, several days have passed, and our characters have already shared their first kiss, so our chemistry needs to be on point to make it believable. We need to act like there are some real, lingering feelings for one another while keeping it subtle. It was actually challenges like this that made me agree to take the leading lady role. I could've easily been one of the extras and only have a page or two to read off of, but I wanted to explore true acting, not just pretending.

I can't say I'm inherently a romantic. I'm certainly intrigued by how romance in film was handled decade's ago compared to now and I'd absolutely invest myself into a romantic comedy of the 90's or 2000's if one was turned on in front of me, but I didn't sign up for this to play pretend with a handsome guy. I want to explore the trials and tribulations of this cheesy kind of storytelling I'm a sucker for. I want to see if I'm capable of bringing chemistry into one scene, then slipping it into my pocket for the next as if it were never out there.

My thoughts are cut by Tanner and Ted meeting me and the rest of the crew outside, with the script still in Ted's hand. He's still in the white t-shirt they fitted him with yesterday, changing his slacks into some dark blue jeans. He looked pretty good in jeans.

"Okay, so we wanna get some establishing shots.." Tanner explained to us, Ted moving to come stand beside me. "We're gonna get some of the extras to toss around a football and sort of...run around, get some shots of them playing. You two are gonna go stand over by that post and just...talk..." He pauses on that last word, as if to really emphasize it. "Just talk?" Ted repeats, raising both of his brows with a smile. "I don't like the way you hesitated there, my good man."

"No, I mean--"

"I feel like you're trying to imply something, good sir."

"Yeah, Tanner. He can talk to the 'pretty lady'." I pitch in with a knowing smirk, getting a look from Ted. "We won't need an intimacy coach just yet."

"No, I get it.." Tanner chuckles slightly. "What I was trying to say is now might be a good time to talk about what your 'tell' is going to be, if you can't think of anything to talk about."

I furrow my brows in confusion, silently looking to Ted for an idea of what that is. He looks equally confused. "Our 'tell'?" I ask.

"Yeah, for when you have to kiss." Tanner replies, pointing at Ted and I. "We can't just count down from three and shout at you. It has to feel natural, so if you have a tell, a non-verbal way of signaling that one of you is going in for it, it makes it...realistic and saves up some time."

I suppose the way Tanner explained it make sense. It makes me think back on a moment in Stranger Things. There's a scene at the end of Season 2 where everyone's dancing, and you can just barely see Finn Wolfhard's mouth move before he goes in for a kiss. He had mouthed 'I'm coming in' or something like that to Millie and it's noticable in the final shot they went with. Tanner wanting to avoid that is completely valid.

"OK. No problem." Ted was the first to agree with a casual shrug, turning to look at me. I give a quiet little nod in return. "Where should we go stand?"

"Just over there would be perfect." Tanner pointed over by the large empty flagpole in the distance, a bit farther away from the rest of the extras. "I'll just be a little more to the left with the film crew, I'll give you a. O.K. signal just before we start filming so you know when to start and I'll shout 'cut' when we're done."

"Sounds good to me. Let's go." Ted beckoned me to follow, heading towards the flagpole.

I'm walking somewhat behind Ted, blushing a little to myself as I take in just how much taller he is than me. He's definitely at least a foot taller, maybe more. I'm only noticing it now. I wonder how tall he is?

"It's 6."

I stop walking for about a second, almost wondering if Ted had somehow read my mind. "What?"

"It's 6 kisses. I counted."

"O-Oh." I giggle a little to myself, crossing my arms over each other to rub them with my hands. "You counted them? Did you even read the script?"

"Better than you did! How do you over count kissing?"

"I counted 7!"

"You added one in, you fuckhead."

"Why the fuck would I add one in? What, you think I was enticing you with an extra kiss, asshole?!" I move up a bit to stand beside him as we walk, just so I can playfully nudge his arm. "I counted 7!"

"You fucking wish, princess."

"Ooghh, you fucking wiiiish!..." I start to mock Ted's strong voice again. "You're projecting. Maybe you under-counted."

"How about you under-count how cute you think you are, huh?" Ted snickered to himself, nudging me back a little harder. "We're supposed to want to smooch it up more once we get to this pole, I need to be able to stay in character."

"That sounds like a you problem. I can stay in character, even with your headass."

"I am going to stick you up on that fucking flagpole, princess. One more."

"Stick--" I pause and close my mouth, resisting the urge to burst out laughing. "Stick deez nuts down your throat."

Ted and I erupt into laughter, almost getting a little hysterical. I leaned forward and hugged my stomach while Ted flung his head back. I'm sure at least some of the others could hear us, our laughter was practically echoing out. We knew we had to come down from our laughing fit when we reached the flagpole, letting out a few more cackles and giggles. I lean back against the large flagpole, it's wide enough for me to push all my weight on it without shifting one way or another. From here, we can see that Tanner was still talking to the film crew as they mess with their large cameras. I'm having to squint and raise my hand up to cover them from the sun's bright, harsh rays, though I smile to myself. I'm glad I agreed to help with this.

"How much longer, do you think?" I ask Ted, watching as Tanner moved over to a different cameraman. Before Ted can answer me, I see Tanner turn to us and raise his arm up high. I can just barely make out the O.K. symbol he's doing with his hand. Next thing I know, the sun's rays are no longer over me. Did some clouds move over it, or...?

I turn my body, only to stiffen it up against the flagpole, almost like I'm trying to push my body into it. Ted is now completely towering over me, only being held up by his forearm resting above my head against the pole. He's crossed his legs somewhat, so if he were to remove his arm, all of his weight would come crashing down on me. "You feelin' alright there, (Y/N)?" Ted's grinning like an absolute winner, keeping his dark brown eyes on me as he removes his round glasses and rests them atop his head. I feel like his eyes could be replaced with the red laser of a sniper, and I'd be just as tense.

"Wh-Why are you--"

"Ohhh, nothing sassy to say now, eh? Where's more deez nuts jokes, hm? Where's being an annoying little cunt?"

Before I can create a coherent response, I feel another one of his hands move closer to me. Ted rests his hand right on my forehead. "You're burnin' up, princess. Did you pack some sunscreen? Gettin' real red over here.."

Something about the way he's bullying me is making my stomach twist. His tone, his words, his smile....

I try to turn my head away to get his hand off my forehead. It works, but his hand moved down to the side of my chin, gently pushing it to the side to make me face him once more.

"My eyes are up here, baby."

I glare daggers right back at him. I can't tell if he's actually flirting or if he's just fucking with me 'cause of yesterday. Both are plausible.

"Y'know this isn't helping your case." I collect my composure enough to speak plainly.

"What case?" He asks with a snicker.

"The case where you don't think I'm a pretty lady."

"I don't. Tanner said I need to act like I'm into you, so I'm acting like I'm into you."

"You're a terrible actor."

"I act for a living."

"You make YouTube videos for a living."

"Well, I'm good at pretending to like you, so.."

Ted's earthy orbs linger on me as he removes his hand from my chin. I'm not sure what I'm feeling at this moment. Is it embarrassment? Is it uncomfortable? Am I...intrigued? Interested, even? The way he speaks to me, it's just...

"Sh-Shouldn't we be discussing what our tell is going to be?"

"St-St-St-Stammerin' up a storm over here.." Ted mocks my stutter, his confident grin becoming even more annoying to me.

"You're not funny.." As the words leave me, I realize I've been smiling a little at him.

"What, and you are?"

"I mean it! I--"

"Woww, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, princess? All that knockin' bothered you?"

"I'm gonna knock you into this fucking pole if you don't shush. I meant about the tell." A chuckle escapes me. "He's gonna want to know what we've come up with. Any ideas?"

Ted let's out a gentle sigh, finally pulling back to stand beside me against the pole instead. I feel like I can breathe properly again. "It's gotta be subtle, yeah?" Ted asks, crossing his arms. "I believe the term Tanner used was 'non-verbal', but yes." I cackle a little. Tanner has a certain way of speaking that's rather amusing. He's one of those friends that are naturally funny, whether he's intending to be or not. "Something that, if picked up on camera, would make sense in the moment.."

"Like a wink?" Ted asks. I turn my head to him, watching as he gives the most non-subtle wink I'd ever seen a man give me. A chuckle leaves me. "More subtle...like..." Thoughts about how the kissing scenes are shot wander through my mind, where the camera may be at any given moment, whether or not there will be a close up. It needs to be as non-verbal as possible; the most subtle way a person can signal to another that they want to kiss them.

"...Like...a quick look at the lips."

"Like a quick little one-two?" Ted asks, moving his eyes from my lips to my eyes to give me a physical demonstration.

"Yeah. I'm sure people do that when they're about to kiss someone."

"You're 'sure'?" Ted's smile drops, his change in expression suggesting he's nervous. "Oh man, don't tell me I'm about to be your first kiss.."

"Oh fuck you! I've had my first kiss! I'm in my 20's!" I laugh at him, watching as he let's out a sigh of relief. "I've had several kisses with several other boys, thanks!"

"Wowww, okay, first of all, kissin' the bro's is different." Ted points his finger at me, trying to appear serious with his lips tucked in a bit. "Second of all, boys? I'll have you know you'll be kissing a MAN, (Y/N). A fully grown 26 year old man!"

"What happened to the 'man' that was supposed to put me up on the flagpole, hm?"

"I basically already did, and you turned into a tomato."

"My feet didn't even leave the ground."

"Were you expecting me to pick you up? Cause I can do that!"

"Oh please, looks like the heaviest thing you ever carried was a Tuba."

"Okay, fuck you, I was in theater, but I can throw a mean ball and could absolutely carry you."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely."

"Try it."

Ted raises a curious brow at me and turns his body towards me once more. For a moment, I thought I saw his eyes wander downward, but our moment is interrupted by a shout, though it's not from Tanner. Right before my eyes, like time moved way faster than I was ready for, Ted had moved around me to stand in front of me to catch a fast-moving football. His back was close to me, in fact, this was the closest he's been to me so far. Though for only a brief moment, I could feel his white shirt slightly caress the tip of my nose as the wind blew. He smelled like...pine trees.

"Dude!" Ted shouted at the extras as he threw the football back. He may not have been a jock in high school, but his form was pretty good.

His. His football form. Y'know, like, not--not his--

I think that football would've hit me if Ted hadn't reacted as fast as he did.

"Jesus..." Ted huffed before turning to me again. He noticed how tense I had gotten, reaching to touch my arm. "I'm sorry, I didn't back up into you, did I? You alright?"

"I-I'm alright.." I managed to mutter back. It was odd hearing his voice sound so concerned for me. Up until now, most if not all of our interactions had been full of sarcastic, tyrannical but overall light-hearted jabs at each other, but in this very moment, I realized we may have unintentionally developed something here. I'm not saying it's necessarily romantic, but...there's a tension building up between us. It's not just in my head, is it? Does he feel it too? Is that why he's?...

"That...works too." Tanner catches up with us, alongside the man that had thrown the football. I didn't even realize they had been approaching us.

"What, did you plan that?" Ted turns to Tanner, sounding quite frustrated with him. "That could've hit her."

"Dude, I'm so sorry, I messed up my throw..." The man next to Tanner spoke with a genuine frown. "I-I meant to throw it higher up and hit the pole, the sun blocked my view. It's my fault."

"No, I told Dan to throw it, I'm sorry." Tanner speaks up as well, his hands resting on his hips nonchalantly. "I've been shouting at you two for, like, a good minute. I thought it would've been funny if Dan hit the pole.."

Ted and I are silent. Oh fuck. How long have they been trying to get our attention? How did we not hear them? I can tell Ted still isn't satisfied with the answer. Angry wasn't a good look for him, I don't think it's a good look for anyone.

"We need to buy you a whistle.." I manage to get out a joke, smiling to show everyone that I wasn't upset. I knew Tanner hadn't meant for anyone to get hurt. He probably trusted this 'Dan' to make the shot. Tanner wouldn't hurt a fly. He /would/ hurt a spider, though. He hates those things. "Yeah. Clearly." Tanner chuckles slightly, slipping his hands into his shorts pockets. "I'm really sorry."

"I'm okay, Tanner. Teddy's got me." I move away from the flagpole to place my arm on Ted's shoulder, leaning against it somewhat. I think my attempts at showing him I was OK finally worked, watching as he looks down at me with a friendly scoff. "I should've let it smack you in your stupid face." He remarks, finally bringing some of the tension from that altercation down. "Maybe, but at least I believe you now." I smile at Ted, moving my hand off his shoulder. Dan apologizes one last time before moving to rejoin the extras. Tanner let's us know that we'll be moving back inside to check on the shots before returning to the cameramen to help pack up. Ted and I start walking back to the house, though he pauses for a moment.

"What do you mean you 'believe me now'?" He asks, furrowing his brows while smiling. "Believe what?"

I give him a cutsey smile and reply simply.

"That you could carry me."

I walk a bit ahead of him, feeling the weight of my cheeks from how wide I'm smiling to myself. I hear a quiet scoff from Ted, though the rest of the walk is quiet.

After a few minutes of packing up and walking, we all return inside to look over the footage and set up for other scenes the extras will be filming. Now is the time we let Tanner know that we've figured out what our 'tell' is going to be. I look over at Joseph in the meantime, who's across the living room helping an extra with adjusting their outfit. As Ted explains the idea, Joe shoots me a look, furrowing his brows like I had just disobeyed a direct order. I return the look with a shrug. He's just going to have to deal with it. Tanner absolutely loved the idea, said it would add 'real intimacy' to a scene if he caught it on camera.

I suppose that's it, then. If I'm ever going in for a kiss, I'll look at Ted's lips to let him know.

__________________________________

|| Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 (smut) || Chapter 7 || Chapter 8 || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 (smut) || Chapter 11 || Chapter 12 || Chapter 13 || Chapter 14 (smut) || Chapter 15 ||

[lurkingshan]

Since you've watched a lot of kdrama, what are common things you've seen in kdrama that have been consistently ported into K-BL, and what is your assessment of that approach?

Ooh, interesting question. So first, let's acknowledge a few things:

Korean bl is short format, with even the longest shows (Light on Me, The Eighth Sense) not even half the length of a standard kdrama (16-20 hours), and most clocking in around 2-4 hours

Kbl operates under much smaller budgets and significant constraints around casting as compared to mainstream kdrama

Kbl often draws from webtoons and manwha and mostly does not have the kind of auteur writers and directors behind it that you get in kdrama (Hwang Da-Seul is the most consistent creator in genre with Where Your Eyes Linger, Blueming, To My Star)

All that said, there are a few features of mainstream kdrama that have definitely ported over into kbl despite these constraints:

Slick production values and strong use of setting and color: even the cheapest kbls still look decent, and there is always intentionally behind the setting and use of color palettes to set the tone and feel. Korea has a very well-developed film industry and it shows. Color Rush, Semantic Error and Blueming were fantastic examples of this: even within more familiar school romances, the settings felt specific and the use of color to communicate character and themes was striking. I also think often of Our Dating Sim and Choco Milk Shake and the very effective characterization work achieved through design of the apartments.

Sound production and music on point: the home of kpop is not going to be caught sleeping on the OSTs. Nearly every production has original songs and given the leads of these shows are usually idols, they're often the ones on the tracks. And when they use music that is not original, like in The Eighth Sense, it's a very intentional choice to set mood and tone. Korea is not going to let a boy who can't actually sing take the mic (*side eyes Thailand*). To My Star is a great example of memorable OSTs even in a fairly low budget production, and Wish You and Sing My Crush showed us what kbl can do when it decides to bring the full kpop treatment to bear.

A keen understanding of the international audience: kdrama production is a big part of South Korea's explicit goals to take the global media landscape by storm, and kbl is included in that. It's not a coincidence that Korea decided to step up its game in this arena shortly after Thai bl exploded (shoutout to 2gether and pandemic lockdowns). Kbl follows trends and explicitly caters to international audiences in a way jbl does not. The Eighth Sense was basically a case study in marrying kdrama sensibilities and western aesthetics for maximum international attention.

Second leads and valorization of unrequited love: you and I have discussed this one a lot because this is a feature of kdramas that will never die and that kbls also clearly love. Korea loves a one-sided love story and culturally, there is a certain dignity afforded to owning your feelings and being honest with the object of your affection, even when there is no hope of reciprocation. Often second leads don't get the guy/girl because they hesitate or hide their feelings until it's too late: the trope is used to underline the important of honesty and effort as well as providing a catalyst for the main lead to make their move. In Korean culture, the trying is what matters much more than the succeeding. We are meant to like most second leads and see them as honorable and dignified for their sincere feelings toward the protagonist. Second lead syndrome is a thing for a reason. It's also just a cheap and easy way to create drama so you'll often see it in the lower budget kbls. Second leads showed up recently in kbls like The Tasty Florida, Jun & Jun, Oh! Boarding House, Bon Appetit, etc. We also sometimes see kbls playing with the idea of unrequited love in the main pairing that is actually requited, like in Our Dating Sim.

Love triangles: relatedly, Korea loves them a love triangle, and they are uniquely good at doing it well when they want to. Light on Me is a fantastic example of a narrative where you can legitimately see the protagonist liking and ending up with both the main and second lead. And that is rooted in the way the narrative treats Daon with dignity even as it punishes him for his hesitation in reciprocating Taekyung's feelings (see above). When you have a strong second lead who engenders real sympathy with the audience, love triangle excellence is achieved.

Workplace romances: kdrama loves workplace romances, and we have seen kbl start to move into that space recently with shows like Roommates of Poongdock 304, Love Mate, Our Dating Sim, Jun & Jun, and The New Employee. Kdrama workplace romances run the gamut, but they often feature chaebol characters paired with a "normal" aka not wealthy person, and we are starting to see that more in the bl genre as well, as we discussed a bit yesterday. I believe @nieves-de-sugui commented on your post about how the rich/poor romance fantasy trend in recent bl may be coming in from kdrama. I think there's some truth to that, but really it's a foundational romance trope that predates kdrama by literal centuries, and is absolutely rooted in heteronormative patriarchal dynamics that assume men are breadwinners and caretakers for women (translated to seme/uke dynamics in bl). Often in kdrama the chaebol character is unable to live an authentic life due to the demands of filial piety and the expectations tied to their wealth, and I do think that dynamic is ripe for enrichment when you layer on gay identity in a homophobic society. But that requires shows leaving the no homophobia bubble, which few kbls have done.

Physical intimacy squarely in the middle space: comparing to heat levels we see across the spectrum of dramas, I think kdrama and kbl are pretty consistent in that they tend to land right in the middle of the spectrum. It's rare to see straight up dead fish kisses from romantic leads anymore (though it still happens, wincing at Unintentional Love Story), but they are also not going to be serving authentic sex scenes. What you get instead is very pretty open-mouthed kissing that feels more realistic than, for instance, the pure jbl lane, but still polished and aesthetically pleasing. Think Semantic Error, Blueming, Roomates of Poongdock 304, Love Mate, To My Star 2, Jun & Jun. This seems to be where the genre is landing and I don't expect heat levels to get any higher for kbl, as this is right in line with mainstream kdrama. The Eighth Sense offered a less polished version of intimacy that felt right in line with its grittier sensibilities.

So, after that long list, on to your second question: my assessment of this approach is that kbls are doing fairly well for themselves when you consider the constraints they are operating under. Look at a show like Love Tractor stacked up against something like Hometown Cha Cha Cha. These are both based in the classic romance trope of a city slicker coming to the country and falling in love with a humble working person. But where HCCC has 16 hours to build a quasi-enemies to lovers narrative with a rich community of side characters, LT has 3.5 hours to achieve the same thing. So it makes sense that it would fall back on well-worn tropes and story beats it knows the audience will recognize to help save time. These shortcuts help the audience ground themselves and get invested in the stories quickly.

One thing I'll say is that kbl mostly stays in the romcom lane with very occasional ventures into melo, and despite what casual observers think, kdrama actually has a lot more to offer than that. It's a giant world with stories based in every possible genre, tone, and style, and Korean media is particularly adept at embedding romance plots that actually work in all kinds of stories including action thrillers, horror, crime narratives, mysteries, supernatural and fantasy epics. I'd love to see kbl try this, though of course it would require the resources and runtime to do it successfully. Here's hoping they get the chance.

[deadmanscity-writing]

Blitzø x Fem!Reader

Request:

This was requested by a friend of mine :)

Now, she didn’t give an outline/scenario, so I’m going to place it in the first episode! Do I care if it’s not canon anymore? No. Am I using this as an excuse to rewatch, potentially, the whole series..? MAYBE.

…

Anyway!

Background:

Reader is a sinner that was originally murdered by some self proclaimed (psychotic) saint/savoir, and she wasn’t meeting his standard of being a “good christian.” Reader does lean quite a bit towards atheism here. So! Reader hires Blitz to [Unalive] him, he also ends up in hell. What a surprise..!

Story outline I have chosen:

Reader works with Blitz, and knows the whole… deal.. Going on with him and Stalos. But, it’s no secret that they’re down right in love with each other. Well- It is a secret to Blitz, ‘cause he is the king at not knowing how feelings work, nor how to read them.

.

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.

.

With busy streets and honking cars, a meeting took place in a fairly sorry excuse for a work studio.

Blitz paces at the front of the room. He claps to get our attention before speaking, “All right, now I know business has been a.. bit slow…” He moves one hand to his hip, keeping one in the air to emphasize his words, “lately, yes. It’s no one’s fault! Okay?” I look at him with an eyebrow raised as he brings his hands up, fully facing us. Ya’ Know he’s going to blame… *someone* He hits his hands on the table we sit at. “I’m not naming any names here-” here it comes.. I sigh at what’s coming next. “Moxie.”

I, and Moxie give Blitz the same look. “Now.. I don’t think it’s his fault…” I mutter, slinking back into my chair.

“Now, does anyone have any bright ideas?” Moxie’s face now looks completely with discuss as he looks at him, to which I snort at. Blitz looks at me, having a short lived smile gracing his lips, before looking forward, and continuing his lecture. “On how we can get business drummin’ up again?!”

Me, having shortly spaced out, while looking in the general direction of Blitz, *totally not /at/ him*, I jump as Millie enthusiastically suggests, while standing on her seat and leaning over the table with one hand; “What. About. A car wash?”

“Why a car wash..?” I ask, “To be frank, it really mostly helps with school fundraisers… in the living world.”

With his arms crossed, he brings an argument to Millie, “Yes, what [Name] said. And this is Hell, Millie.” He throws his arms out, “No one cares about CARS BEING CLEAN HERE! Okay?!” He rubs his temples, before getting quite the mood change. “Oh- What about a billboard?” I swear on Satan’s red Hell, that he just summoned sparkles out of thin-air with the childish-cheeky attitude. Cute…

Moxie looks to the side, “We can’t afford a billboard, Sir-” being interrupted with Blitz sliding next to him, and throwing his arm around his shoulders.

“Helpful, Moxie. Really glad you’re in the room right now.”

“This room is drowning with sarcasm, my dear, Blitz~” I say, with my cheek propped up on my palm, a straight face, and almost hooded eyes.

Blitz looks at me with a flushed look, and jutted out lips, almost a pout, before clearing his throat, and continuing to speak.

Well… not before throwing Moxie off his seat. Poor guy.

“Have you guys forgotten what service we provide?!” He reaches into his inner coat pocket, fishing out a remote.

As he presses it, the 80’s styled TV turns on and plays an ad that Blitz paid to air. An ad I didn’t feel like participating in, even after all Blitz’s whining and begging.

It shows:

Blitz whacking a character with a wooden sledge hammer with a short cackle, as the other falls off screen.

Then, Moxie with his gun in someone's mouth, that is tied up to a chair, blowing their brains out, which makes a transition to Loona… umm… how do I even describe that..?

Then.. Millie cleanly slicing another's head off, with a smile and laugh.

While watching it, Blitz stands in front of the TV with raw amusement, holding a bowl of popcorn in front of Loona while she eats it. Millie sitting on the table, Moxie in front of her rubbing his head, and I, right next to Loona, occasionally reaching for a kernel or two.

“Ah. Those were the good times.” Blitz says as if he was an elder looking back to his teenage years.

“I don’t need any reminding, Sir,” Moxie responds, almost bitterly.

“You tell him, Mox..!” I say with boredom.

“Now- wait a minute, whose side are you on?” Blitz turns dramatically to face me.

“Mine.” I reach over, grabbing a popcorn kernel, popping it in my mouth while I stare at him.

“Anyway…” Moxie says, “I don’t need any reminding, considering YOU blew most of our salaries on an obnoxious TV ad last week.” He holds his face in annoyance, while Blitz just continues throwing handful after handful of popcorn in his mouth, staring at the TV while sitting on the floor. “One that you then additionally paid to run for a full THREE HOURS on a channel NOBODY. WATCHES.”

I sigh, rolling my eyes, “Blitz, baby, at the very least look at him?”

He sighs, responding to Moxie, peaking at him over his shoulder, “Uh- Hey- excuse me! What’s obnoxious about a super fun jingle? All right.” M&M sit back down in their respective seats at the table. “It’s a fun distraction when an advertisement spittin’ bullshit!”

I exhale dramatically, Not what I meant- “you know what..? Good enough!” I slam my hands on the table, standing up.

Everyone’s eyes widen, looking at me, even Loona.

I lock my hands together, taking a deep breath… “Sorry. It’s just… can’t you two be in the same room without grabbing each other's throats..?”

“Ha-”

“Blitz.” I interrupted. Pointedly staring at him. His face falls as he clears his throat, waiting for me to finish. “As I was saying,” I side eye him, before looking at both him and Moxie, “You two are always at each other's throats, bickering, pointing out the others faults.” My grip on the table gets stiffer, my nails scratching the wooden surface. “And right now, it’s just about to get on my last damned nerve…”

They both swallow.

“Now! That’s over with! Let’s get back to /business/ shall we?” I sit back down, with an one-eighty attitude and a feigned smile.

“People love musicals, sir!” Millie breaks the tension.

“Exactly, Millie!” He points at her, then brings his arms to a shrug, “and we’re basically doin’ a musical.” He makes jazz hands, before pointing at Moxie with an incredulous attitude. I roll my eyes once again at what’s coming. “Are you gonna crush my musical theater dreams, like my dad did?”

“Well damn, que the dramatics.” I say with an impressed expression.

“Sir-”

“‘Cause right now.. All I see is just my dad’s ASSHOLE talking to me. Crushing my dreams of being who I truly am inside..” He faces away, closing his eyes, and clutching his fist.

“Are you trying to crush his dreams, Moxie?”

“I- what?”

“I thought I knew you..”

I blink blankly. Then I turn to look at Blitz. Then back at M&M. Then at the table in the areas that I scratched up. I start picking at the indents.

“I’d like to go on record-” Wait- what’s going on?- “and say that the incident was /Loona’s/ fault. Dispatch is suppose to give us the right info on the target. It’s very simple.”

Oh… That’s what's going on…

“Oh, sit on a dick, Moxie.” I snort at Loona’s response, quickly looking away and covering my mouth.

“I know I’d want to sit on one~” I bit my lip, not-so-slyly looking at Blitz. We make eye contact, and he blushes, clearing his throat and looking away.

Ignoring my comment and the small tension I’ve caused, Moxie attempts to backhand Loona; “You sit! Sit on a- and the- di- DO YOUR JOB!” He gives up. He hits his hand on the table, making a small *thump*.

“Hey! Now we don’t blame our screw-ups on Loona, okay?” He walks behind Loona, also ending up behind me as well. “She didn’t do anything wrong.” Blitz wraps his arms around her, and rubs his cheek against hers.

I smile, even as she growls.

“Are you kidding me sir? She’s awful.”

My smile drops as I look towards Moxie, “Moxie, not really the time.”

“Oh, please, just because you’re in love with sir doesn’t mean you can just boss us around! You have to agree that Loona is at fault, at least some of the time. And that she doesn’t know how to do her job, let alone have a decent amount of respect for anyone here!”

“Well, that is true, and I will not deny that, but now is not the time, Moxie-”

“Wait- wait- wait. What did you just say Moxie..?” Blitz puts his hands up in a back-away motion, eyeing Moxie wearily.

“I said; just because she’s in love with you, sir, doesn’t mean she can just boss us around. And-”

“In love… with me?” He points at himself, confused. He then gestures to me, “Her? In love… with me?... Yeah. No way. Don’t lie here Moxie.” He tries to play it off, waving his hand, as if trying to wave away the thought of me actually liking him.

“Sir, is it really not that obvious? She chooses to go with you if we have a split off mission, with just three or all four of us. She asked you directly where you live, and your number so she can check up on you, make surprise visits, and make sure you’re happy, and in no way lonely. She has everything about you memorized. She’s practically obsessed with you, sir.”

“Wha..?” His gaze drifts to mine. I carry a blush on my cheeks, and an upside down smile.

“I wasn’t really trying to hide it…”

[pizzatrocious]

So! With the end of this wonderful little event, I do have a bit of a bittersweet announcement.

I'll still be around here and there on a low-effort multimuse I plan to make a while from now... but, save for any light activity you'll still see from me, I plan on retiring from writing.

I'm not retiring for any bad reasons, quite the opposite! But as someone that's been writing on Tumblr for roughly... 14 years? I think I've done most of what I've wanted to do. Every kind of thread you can imagine, every type of character, and every type of genre. For the past few years I've jumped blogs A LOT, but really only because I loved chasing whatever next big thing felt fun to write.

I was here when ask blogs were the standard instead of RP blogs, regardless of whether or not the mun could draw. I remember my first ever Bowser RP blog, iconless and full of crack on a classic Redux theme. I unfortunately remember the Homestuck and Danganronpa craze, and an era where icons were a semi-new novelty that only the 'fancy' blogs used. I remember back when a majority of the Pokemon RPC was a fairly popular crack group that, at its peak, had 300~ active blogs all at once.

I remember the Splatoon Marie roleplayer that chased after me, even when I'd socially isolate myself during the darkest spots of my life, and the Rosalina blog she made later down the line. You might know her now as my wife, Rosie. Funny to think, our more popular duo wound up being Peach and Bowser.

I remember all the different iterations of the Smash RPCs, and all the people that rocked the community with every post. Then there was the Sonic RPC, a place that was almost torn apart by an awful person's hold on the community, only to rise from the ashes! That RPC's pretty quiet nowadays, but those guys may as well be sleeper agents for Sonic content.

Then there's the people I affectionately call 'The Elder Gods'. The ones that, despite being here over a DECADE, they still dedicate themselves to the same characters they always have. They're usually the ones with the ancient-looking blogs that go largely under-the-radar nowadays, but they're the foundation that built these writing communities. You guys mostly just keep to yourselves nowadays, but I see you.

And of course, my good ol' kindred spirits, the people that roleplay the most obscure, hyper-specific characters. Those one-off indie games, obscure shows, characters stuck to a spinoff title or are just dubiously canon, or characters with basically no canon that they've made into their own!

Of course, that's not to forget the people that take the big popular characters, and absolutely ROCK them in a way that makes the character all their own. Gotta toot my own horn, considering one of my old Bowser blogs had a couple thousand followers.

I could go on, and on, and on... but long story short, I've had a great time here.

Part of me never wants to stop, to be honest. But in all this time, I've become a different person. My hobbies have changed, my interests have changed, I'm a completely different person now! But I've also always been a stubborn creature of habit, never wanting to give anything up.

As a result of being anchored to my old habits so long, I'm left a little at a loss for what I want in life. More and more I've felt like a caged animal, just circling around my little enclosure and doing the same things over and over for enrichment. Add to that the usual struggles of adult life being rough and expensive, and you can imagine wanting to spend more of my time on survival is a factor too.

Nobody's gonna know what I really want now, except for me. I need to get out there and do some soul-searching. Find new hobbies, make new friends, experience new things... who knows what I'll be doing a year from now!

That said, I give my genuine, most heartfelt thank you to everyone I've ever crossed paths with in throughout all of the Tumblr RPCs I've been in. Honestly, the only reason I don't list off names is purely because I want to make sure nobody gets left out of my little expression of gratitude. You all know who you are, anyway.

I wish I could've known some of you a little better... but that's just life, isn't it? Sometimes the most impactful people in your lives are the ones you never get to really know. I'm sure I've gotten to be that person for my own fair share of people, with how reclusive I tend to be.

Again, this isn't goodbye. I mean, I'd be a little embarrassed if people thought I was gone forever, only for me to pop up a week or two later. This is a hobby I've always loved, I'll always find my way back to it. I'll always be lurking about, sometimes posting during funny shenanigans. Like I said at the start of this post, I plan on making a private, low-effort multimuse! Mostly I'll just use it to keep tabs on my friends and the writers I really enjoy seeing, but I still have a small list of characters I'd like to play around with a little.

Otherwise though, it's time to leave the nest and try other things.

Thank you again. This is Vincent, signing off.

[lamuradex]

Writeblr Interview Tag

Thanks @sableglass for the tag. Sorry that this took me a while to get to. Time to answer some question.

Short stories, novels, or poems?

Mainly novels but also a collection of short stories. One collection of short stories is potentially becoming a novel.

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy mostly. Magic and mystical creatures and all that.

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

Planner. Super planner. I usually don't write word one of a story until I have at least a skeleton for where it's going. I'll then let ideas emerge as I go, but I still stick to the plan.

What music do you listen to while writing?

I struggle not to get distracted while writing. I tend to properly write without anything to listen to.

Favorite books/movies?

Books: Discworld, The Count of Monte Cristo, Artemis Fowl

Movies: Absolute fave is The Crow. Beyond that, a big fan of stylish animated stuff.

Any current WIPs?

Oh boy, yes. I've got links.

Signs of Light and Shadow

Stitches of the Mind

The Madman and the Princess

Tales of Hero City

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you what would your standard outfit be?

I'd like to say a suit or something, but more likely it would be jeans and a green shirt. It's what I usually wear.

Create a character description of yourself: 

Short brown hair, untanned skin, very light freckles, beard and a moustache. All of which is fairly scruffy and could do with a shave and a haircut.

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

No, seems like a bad idea to me. Once or twice I named characters after friends I had, but it feels weird having stuff happen to them. I don't do it anymore.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

I very rarely kill.

There are worse things to do to your characters than kill them.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Neither. I'm one of those weirdos who doesn't drink any sort of hot beverage. It's mainly fizzy pop for me.

Slow or fast writer?

I'd say surprisingly fast, honestly. It'll happen in bursts, but once I'm going I can get a few thousand words done in a few hours.

Where/who/what do you draw inspiration from?

TV shows, music I listen to, any media I consume. My process usually starts with "What would I do with this situation?" and follow it from there. And sometimes a story is born from that.

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

A scrivener. I am a writer after all.

Most fav book cliche:

The Unflappable Badass who secretly has a heart. Sam Vimes from Discworld's Guards series, Sgt Jack Jackrum from Monstrous Regiment, The Count of Monte Cristo(sort of), Butler and Root from Artemis Fowl, and likely a heap more. Never gets old really.

Least favorite cliche:

Forced hetero romance. I love a platonic relationship between a boy and a girl in a story, and it infuriates me when they suddenly decide they're really in romantic love. It just feels cheap.

Favorite scene to write?

Honestly, self introspective scenes. Scenes where the character can just rattle around their own head and I don't need to worry about positioning or speech tags. I don't know how interesting they are to read, but I always find them fun to write.

Reason for writing?

Too many stories in my head. If I don't get them down, then they'll only be driving me mad. I need to get them out.

Alright, there we go. So, here come the tags. I'll likely tag the usual people.

@wintherlywords @tryingtowritestuff24 @fayeiswriting @mikathewriter @agirlandherquill

Sorry if you've been tagged before, but enjoy.

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay!: Superman TAS: Last Son of Krypton Review (Comission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy kryptonians and welcome back to Supermay! And.. another schedule change. So long story short I got hit upside the head with a cold, so I was sick most of last week so doing a long 16 part serial THEN a three part mini series may of been a bit much and Kev graciously offered to do something else. And since we've covered plenty of Batman the Animated Series and will again, i'ts only fair we take a look at the other side of the coin, the three part pilot to superman the animated series, Last Son of Krypton

Superman TAS came about for the reason a lot of animated series often do

DC was considering a new superman film, likely the one where braniac wrestled a polar bear, and wanted a series to go with it. Timm naturally agreed. He tried to go for a style reminsicent of the 40's flescher cartoons at first, but realized he simply coudln't match it and instead went full art deco again, going for a chunky futrist design.

The result got us three great seasons of a fantastic show. Like Batman TAS I grew up with this show, though I didn't see it as often on cartoon network or kids wb. Even then Warner's bat bias was strong. I still liked what I saw and rewatching it years later, the series is excellent, distlling decades of superman into a stylish package the same way batman did.

While the two shows would look similar and have simliar "Retro universe that has modern tech and sensiblities", styles, they fitting take opposite approaches to how they tell stories: Batman is case of the week, Superman has overaching big bads in Luthor, Braniac and eventually Darkseid alongside various villians of the week. Gotham is dark and and feels cramped, Metropolis is perptual blue skies and bright optmistic arctechture. The villians Batman fought are mostly people who need help but won't take it and have some sort of tragic past, most of the villians of superman tas are assholes, with the ocasional sympathetic vilian, but the big three especailly are pure monsters, if very intresting and layred monsters. It's not a shock a superman show an da batman show would contrast, but it's neat in HOW they DO SO, yet still feel consitant with each other: Superman still feels like an "ultimate unvierse" take, taking all the best ideas from decades of media and compressing them down similar to batman, while bringing it's own bold new ones to the table.

That approach is seen well in this opening three parter/movie: Last Son of Krypton succesfully crams superman's origins on krypton, his youth, and his first days as superman into one narrative that never feels overpacked while setting up two of the series rotating big bads perfectly. Come with me under the cut and see what I mean and see that a man can fly.

Part one takes place entirely on Krypton and as a kid I found this bit boring, and feel it colored my later perception of stories based on krypton: kinda boring and sterile. I admit I still haven't completely shaken this, as I prefer Superman as throughly human and krypton being a part of his past. There can be GOOD krypton stories, see the New Krypton arc of superman, but the culture's just never fascinated me that much in the incarnations i've seen. So a full episode there wasn't a great prospect.

So it's telling that Superman the Animated Series DOES sell it on me a bit. The design of it still isn't fo rme.. all crystal spires and pretty standard sci fi stuff: robes, stuffy councils etc. But character wise it tells a fairly heartbreaking story of a man BEGGING his government to listen to problems that will destroy them and said government refusing to hear them due to their own petty arrogance and self intrest. And a rampant ai. It helps the idea of a planet destroying itself and not realizing it is all to prescient into how humanity treats the planet, only with thousands of jor els instead of just this one guy. While stuffy boards who don't really buy into what the heroes says are PAINFULLY common and get tediousu, it's part of why krypton has'nt really grown on me, the fact it's all to realistic helps a lot.

That one man? Shooter McGavin

Okay technically that last man is PLAYED by Shooter McGavin actor Christopher McDonald, who you may also remember from such films as Grease 2 , Thelma and Louise, and the tv show Hacks. McDonald does a fantastic job, to the point it was only on this second watch I recognized him.

He fights a monster as he researches because this episode needs more than one action scene apparently, and returns to his wife Lara, voiced by All My Children and Charmed alum Finola Hughes, whose distractingly british but like McDonald does a great job.

At home Jor El plays with Baby Kal El, and argues with his father in law Sul Van. Sul Van is played by voice acting legend Tony Jay , who usually plays the bad guys in these sorts of things but here is just "disapproving old man" which to be fair Jay also did a great job with. Van is a mouthpiece for the council Jor Els on, all of whom think he's crazy and avoid him. Jor-El is confident though that they will belivie him and krypton CAN be saved

Yeah as usual.. it dosen't go this way, partly because the council is utterly flabbergasted at his solution to temporarily shoot everyone into the ghost prison dimensionk nown as the Phantom Zone.. and partly because the planet's AI refuses to back him on this and changed the numbers. That AI.. is Braniac.

Superman TAS choose to completely rework Braniac, mostly thanks to co creator Alan Burnett. As Bruce Timm recalled it was burnett's pitch to make him an AI.. and Timm was skeptical as in the comics, Braniac is an alien invader man. He was also a hypnotist once but we all ignore that. But Timm couldn't deny Burnett's brilliant idea: that Braniac here was the AI for all of krypton, it's backbone.. and didn't prevent it's death because it was downloading EVERYTHING. It didn't really NEED Krypton itself and planned to leave, taking everything it was with him.

And honestly.. it's a brilliant concept and works perfectly :Sure he's no longer Colluan.. but it still keeps the heart of the character as a collector of worlds, taking their knowledge.. then destroying them so he can hoard it. The AI part of it makes his cold logic to it more simple: he didn't really evolve emotions like some ais, simply a purpose and a desire and thus dosen't care about the lives lost to get what he wants. When Jor El confronts him... he only gets away because he poitns out if Jor El kills him, Krypton's remains die with the computer.

Jor el sadly can't prove it in time as the death spiral of the planet has begun. He dosen't even have time to evacauate, only to dodge security for one desperate gambit: use the small, multi person spacecraft he planned to use to help migrate the phantom zone projector to send clark there on autopilot. The autopilot was a sneaky way to keep the rocket in good condition, unlike most versions where it's in tact or i'ts soley there to deliver

So Superman would have a spaceship for later adventures. So the parents tearfully part as Tony Jay leads the others away and Braniac and Clark are the only ones to survive krypton.

Part 2 opens with the kents finding the baby and the portrayal of martha here is hilarious. She's just like "The baby likes me we're taking him home and i've already named him" Which is sweet but also is all done as her husband points out some very logical things "He could've been sent up by the us or the russians, we don't know who he belongs to, we shoudl turn him in". It's for the best theyd idn't, don't get me wrong, Martha's heart is in the right place, but she should ask some followup questions.

We have no time for that as we jumpcut to years later. Clark's a teenager and the design for this clark kent REALLY dosen't work on a teenage frame

It does a little but it's clear they didn't QUITE Know how to draw teens just yet. They'd learn, as seen with Kara later on, but it took some time.

Clark has been spacing out lady and his friend Lana Lang asks if he's okay... with the ENTIRELY natural dialouge of "Clark it's me the girl whose had a crush on you since she was three years old". Lana is played here by Kelly Schmidt, who... does her best. I don't want to critcize a child actress.. but it's really stiff and woden and she could've been given better direction.

She sticks out next to clark's actor, Jason Marsden, coming freshly off his star making voice acting role in a Goofy Movie, and soon to be a fixture on Step By Step, his major live action role, who was also young but nails it well. I admit his voice dosen't QUITE fit the character model, but I'm not sure what voice would fit a character model that awkward, so he does his best.

Clark admits to lana he can hear conversations feet away and see through things. Lana just asks how many times he's looked into the girls bathroom. Lana this is a superhero work not porkys. superheroes don't do that

Anymore. What the fuck was that gag.... I swear... anyways Clark hears a car about to have a tire burst and rushes to save it... and then wonders what the fuck IS he and how did he do that.

He confides in his parents who reveal the truth.. well what they know: they found him in a ship and they found a weir dbox with it. Said box shoots a superman signal into clark's brain that reveals holograms of his parents

They explain the basics: he's an alien, distant planet went boom, last survivor that they know aside from his cousin, and his dog and his monkey, all the basics.

Clark takes it poorly saying he's not a freak.. then punching a support beam into splinters. I do like this idea for clark, that he dosen't automatically accept "i'm an alien" as something easy to swallow. It's somethign that takes time to process and MANY a good younger superman story have taken this balla nd ran with it: Superman Earth One, Superman Smashes the Klan and My Adventures with Superman are all good examples of dealing with superman's push and pull between being human and alien, and the latter two cases turn it into an immigrant story and a story about being diffrent respectively and do so brilliantly.

Here they don't really dive into it and honestly the Smallville portion of things feels underbaked in this three act story their telling. Krypton gets a full episode, Metropolis gets one and a half.. but Smallville and Clarks childhood and teen years is compressed into half an episode and while it does a decent job, it feels like they were struggling to cram everything into this space.

How Clark Reconcliles things is nice though.. he jumps.. realizes he can jump long chasms in a single bound and soon flies.. and i'ts the JOY of this that makes him realize while he's not sure HOW he feels about being an alien... it's not all bad. That there is something to it, some piece, some piece of this new side of him that brings him joy. He reunites with his parents and we begin act 3.

The Metropolis Portion like I said takes up about half of the runtime, and while I do feel smallville got short changed as a result I get why: Krypton sets up braniac, one of the series main threats and Metropolis sets up damn near everything else, with a good chunk of the supporting cast and one of the other big bads being introduced, while one of the major pieces of the rogues gallery is also given some small setup for later.

So for the past few weeks Metroplis has had reports of a guardian angel, a mysterious man who has been helping people, most notably saving a small child who fell out of a skyscraper. I'ts nicely set up too, as a human intrest story that pisses lois lane off as her smuggling story got pulled for this "crap".

She's soon has more pressing issues as we meet the daily planet's new staffer, Clark Kent, from Smallville. Lois procedes to respond to him asking if she's been to kansas with a sharp

And is asked to take Clark along to a press confrence on Lex Luthor. She responds by ditching clark as soon as possible by foistering him off on Jimmy. Run clark, run before he can extract your tears!

As you can see Lois and Clark .. don't exactly get off to the best start and this is in line with what the cartoon's taking the most inspiration from: the late 80's reboot by everyone's least faviorite old man yelling at clouds, John Byrne. In the late 80's byrne, fresh from marvel, was tasked with retooling superman: as a result his power set was reduced, and several things were given an overhaul.

One of these was Lois which was mostly for the better: instead of being obessed with superman to early amy rose levels, Lois was a hardnosed military brat who took no one's shit and was often in danger not because she was stupid, but because she was that gutsy and could often get out of it.

As a result her and Clark's Romance was put on the back burner, with him having other love intrests first. Here they split the diffrence: theirs chemistry present and Lois is easily clark's closest friend in both identities, but it's clear their not QUITE as close as they'd get in the comics and never seem to reach that level: they care about each other, but they just aren't together yet and may never get there. Justice League never really gave us any closure.

Lois is portrayed awesomely by Dana Delany, an actress known for China Beach and Desperate Housewives who'd go on to play lois throughout Justice League and Justice League Unimilted after this and is my faviorite in the roll thus far, getting her down as whip smart, no nosense, and hilarious all in one, though Alice Lee's take is a close second.

It works though as it not only lets Lois be her own person, but let's her be bold brash and a bit of a dick: as seen here she isn't the most plesant to work with.. but later gives clark his due when he beats her to the scene and requests a bi line, now getting he's not some clueless newbie, but really sharp.

I also like that Superman TAS dosen't completely short change Clark Kent. Clark.. isn't really diffrent in either identity, something taken from the post crisis/byrne era (he wasn't the only writer) and that's thankfully become the standard. Gone are the days of Clark Kent as a pathetic mask for superman so he can do normal people stuff because shut up. Instead Superman is throughly human and simply wants part of him to be able to live a normal life, while still using his power to help. Clark is witty, helpful and kind in both identities and that's how it should be, with people not finding him simply because most assume he's just... superman 24/7.

Their at a weapons press confrence for Luthor and like everything else, this takes more after post crisis: There Luthor was a captain of industry, the richest man in metropolis who owned most of it and earned his money via his inventions instead of using them to try and conquer the world. He was still a schemer and still did evil shit.. but it was modernized: he kept his schemes on the downlow and used his giant pile of money as a shield from consequences. It was a much needed refresh: Luthor was every bit as dangerous and smart... he was just now a problem superman couldn't punch.

Perfectly playing this version of luthor is Clancy Brown, one of the greatest voice actors ever and one of the most decorated, with plenty of live action work such as his breakout roll in highlander to also sweeten the pot. The man's an icon and THE lex luthor for me. Unlike Clark it's not even REMOTELY close. No other luthor thus far has perfectly matched him. He's THE Luthor, the guy to play him and gets him perfectly. the ego, the facade of friendlness, the thinly veiled threats. He was and still is my lex luthor.

Luthor is unveling a prototype, but soon terrioists hyjack it because it's the mid 90's and that isn't as horrifying as it would be soon. We get a great shot of Clark ducking away and doing the iconic undoing his shirt thing, and thus superman leaps into actoin. He does his best and mostly saves the day, but ultimately the head terroist, John Corbin, shoots a plane an dpart 2 ends as the plane goes down

Part 3 begins as it goes up up and away as superman grabs it in a great sequence where he then helps land it, struggling all the way, a nice way to set him up.. and make it so Clark can no longer keep his other self secret. Superman is out to the world and gloriously so, as Clark finds out when Perry dubs the guy this while Lois is curious.l.. mostly due to his "nice s"

So Clark confides in Ma and Pa, with Ma having been keeping clippings of his exploits, a nod to said Byrne run, and both encouraging him. Clark worries this is the end of him but Pa encourages him "Your clark kent. Superman is jsut a part of you". A perfect incapuslation of who clark is and the anthethesis to captain "i'll kill myself with a tornado so you don't out yourself as a freak son".

Clark does decide to answer some questions by giving lois an interview.. and does so by lifting her car into the air. Maybe it's because he likeeees her, maybe it's because he trusts her, my guess

And tells her he's an alien which she has trouble buying. Keep in mind batman at this point has had a man made of clay and they outright refrence batman.. but I do kinda get it as while batman's had demons and man bats, it hasn't quite got to aliens YET. She still agrees, though can't get him to spill all his secrets, and I like the touch that she DOES get he probably has another identity as he's not around 24/7.

With this Clark and Lois pay a visit to lex.. and Clark once again impresses her this time by pressing lex, not directly implying anything.. but by pointing out some facts: the war suit he made behing heisted means the government will want more, and better since Kanznia now has one, and that he stands to mak ea lot... heavily implying he let them take it. Luthor is pissed, and Lois.. is shocked. He's only the second person to piss Lex off that much. The first was her when she dumped his ass, another nod to the byrne run and something thankfully glossed over here and it fits: Their both smart and tenacious, but Luthor lacks a soul.. and his penis is presumibly concave

Clark backs up his statment too as it might be MORE than just Luthor defrauding the us government: he saw some old photos on file of luthor.. with the head of Kanznia, a fictional country the government recently stopped sale with, but Luthor seems close with.. and in one of the pictures is the head terrorist john corbin.

Clark here is played by Tim Daly, star of Wings and Private Practice and one of the best supermen ther'es ever been. Ther'es just a nice warmth to his performance copuled with a lot of charm. It's subdued, but in a way that conveys a lot of emotoins at once. Clarks' a calm collected guy, but you can always tell how he feels and when he's pissed you can feel it, as you shoudl when someone this nice is honked off.

Lois goes off to find a source, her old friend Bibo. Bibo is a longtime supporting character from the superman comics. Bibbo is a sailor, dockworker and loveable sailin man whose a massive fan of superman and will help his hero when asked. He's mostly comic relief but he's loveable as hell anytime he shows up which is often as no matter the run, writers really love this guy and I can't blame them. Here he's played by sitcom star and my boy Brad Garret, who does a phenominal job. He'll also later guest star as the main man lobo and do a great job there too.

Bibbos been dealing with a ship tha'ts been pissing him off, so far so normal, because it won't hire anyone union, and is shady as hell. Lois tries to sneak on and is let on by the captain, played my Malcom Mcdowel, neither of which is a red flag. Turns out he was just baiting her til lthey could get out to port and then get out to interinational waters to unalive her for snooping. Seriously lois at least pack some bear mace or a crotch seeking purse dog.

Thankfully she has the best crotch seeking purse dog in superman, as clark figured out she was in danger, zoomed off from having to deal with jimmy and clears the boat. Head Terroist John Corbin flees in the battle suit and we get a drawn out fight sequence as the two lock horns. It's decent, and shows off that this superman isn't super invunerable: miniguns affect him, and it keeps the fights fair. The writers admit he was as weak or strong as they needed to be and it works as Clark is both new at fighting threats on his level, and that power scaling really isn't important when he's the main focus: it keeps the tension up to where needed and he has a more consitent power scale in Justice League when stacked up against others.

Superman saves the day and I love his final line to corben"Want to try another round without th esuit?"

Superman wins ..... and naturally luthor is pissed, as the represnative from Kaznia wants thie rmoney back as they never got their delivery. then gets to get out of haggling as superman is hovering angrily outside Luthor's tower.

The following scene.. is my favorite in the pilot. Luthor rants to superman, figuring he figured out his scheme but can't prove it and Brown delivers the monologue perfectly pointing out he owns 2/3 of the city, and some of them don't even know it. Superman can prove nothing.. and all while superman just GLARES at him, not giving luthor the satisfaction of responding till luthor finally snaps

"SAY SOMETHING!" "I'll be watching Luthor"

It's the perfect incaptulation of their relationship: Luthor has all this power.. but ultimately.. superman disrputs all that. he's outside the systems that let's corrupt billionare jackoffs like luthor get away with their shit. In Real Life Luthor probably would've pulled off his scheme. Here.. superman is there to hold him acountable, to ruin it, to cost luthor billions.. and to watch him. He'll be there again and again till Luthor is finally stopped.. and true to his word.. he is. He's there again and again: he's the one who finally takes Luthor down over in justice league, and does so multiple times. He'll always be there to help us with threats we can't face.. and sometimes that's something embedded in the system. It's a brilliant update of his leftist routes and I support it wholeheartedly.

So we end with superman flying away to an adoring crowd.. while on a disatant ship two aliens are slaughtered..as braniac uploads himself.

Last Son of Krypton is a solid pilot, deftly setting up everything for the series, and setting the tone briliantly: the threats won't be gone as easy, the stakes are slightly bigger, the hero is sightly bigger.. but he's ultimately still human. A truly great set of episodes that unlike far too damn many cartoons is still on max if your curious. Truly worth your time

Next Time: We finish Supermay! with style as we revisit superman's FIRST superteam in their first and only series, it's time to meet the legion of superheroes.

[various-things]

This is a little retrospective on things I made in 2023

Fic and video edits (mostly the latter, not counting clip compilations). Because slow progress is progress and it's nice to look at it all together. Putting this under a readmore since it's going to be long.

Video edits:

January: Julian x Garak: I Wanna Be Yours (Star Trek: DS9) This was a very simple edit I made in like a day (most complex edits take me a very long time; I'm a slow editor). The song doesn't fit my headcanon for them very strongly but it was fun, I'm just gonna quote part of what what I said in the description on YT "I really enjoy moments in my edits/making edits that focus on where characters get to kind of exist in contexts/settings/we can spend some time as a viewer in the moment with them." March: A lot of these I was working on wellll before March, the two succession vids are based on S3 stuff. Kendall Roy: Elijah (Succession) (mind the content warnings on this one) I actually think this is one of the best edits I've ever made and I'm quite proud of it overall. I would have liked to have done a better job of balancing the audio of Kendall's dialogue but otherwise I'm really pleased with it. Julian x Garak: Stay Soft (Star Trek: DS9) First finished more-complex garashir edit! I'm overall pretty happy with it. ✨🪩 pain 🪩 ✨ Roman Roy: The Metronome (Succession) (mind the content warnings) Quite happy with this one as well. I think a big reason that I tend to like my Succession edits so much (I think they're probably my best work) is just how good the cinematography of the show is and how much I vibe with it. April: Julian x Garak: Plans (Star Trek: DS9) (mind the cws) Bloc Party <3 Quoting how I described it in the tumblr post "I’ve got like a lot of thoughts about it but it’s broadly about like… violence and sacrifice and what people are capable of, ways people misunderstand Julian, and Garak and Julian’s friendship." I missed a frame of a following shot at one point, alas, but this was a fun very-dense with dialogue and lyrics one. June:

Tom x Shiv: Heat Lightning (Succession) More Mitski! (I have two other DS9 Mitski WIPs also) Like the quote above where I mention characters existing in contexts and settings, this really feels like a peak of me doing that for me, it's mostly them sitting/lying down/standing quietly and not being happy. Also did some juxtaposition against shots without people in it. Quite pleased with it.

August: Shax fancam (Good Omens) I did this in Final cut and Oh the effort into making those transitions happen. Here's the version on tiktok but I uh... the captions did not turn out well but they are synced to the audio. Aziraphale x Crowley: De Selby (1) (Good Omens) I made this one quite quickly as well, in under 2 days I think. Overall pretty happy with it except for the fact that I had a lot of trouble with the audio levels and I think re: overall structure of the edit that it lost some of its oomph towards the end, but I don't really know what I would have done differently with the latter. Some of the transitions in this were fairly complex and I'm mostly happy with them. The YouTube version unfortunately is pretty... artifact-y? November: I got Capcut sometime in the fall. Everything from here on out that I've posted this year has been made in that. Still vastly prefer Final Cut if I don't need fancy transitions, but harddrives and needing to update things etc. I'm also not putting anything else on YouTube until I finish my brightness edits. These two juxtaposition-y popular tiktok sound edits. (1) (2) (Star Trek: DS9) Quark bottom edit (18+) (Star Trek: DS9) - Very pleased with this. December: All of these were made pretty quickly (by my standards). a garashir edit to "Atlantis" by Seafret (Star Trek: DS9) Mostly made this out of wanting to finish something and the cuts feel a bit too fast for me but hey the act of creation! a short murder-y Garak phonk edit to BRODYAGA FUNK by Eternxlkz Mostly pleased with this. Still getting the hang of various transition things. a garashir edit to Placebo's "Running up that Hill" the text animation is kind of a mess (even on the version without the lyrics the captions are too big—I'm still figuring out caption size stuff re: what to choose) which is a shame, but I do like some of the clip timings (though some others don't quite work for me and I would have liked the cuts to have been a bit smoother in some places) and also hey made and finished something

Fic

Tuscany and New York (Succession) - [fic abandoned/not to be completed] Started this one and then chose not to finish it. However, one thing I was really enthused by was seeing part of an argument I wrote have a big parallel with what ended up in a scene on the actual show in S4. Felt very affirming re: my understanding of the characters.

with hope in your hands (Star Trek: DS9 [WIP] This is a fic I started as part of ectogeo's Garashir Wedding Registry. It's kind of a (mostly) Julian POV of the events in the continuity where ASIT/The Nexus/The Calling happened but it's also a reflection on some of Julian's closer relationships and where things related to marriage/possibilities of marriage came up within some of that. I'm currently almost done with chapter 4. 1: (Star Trek: DS9)

I think my lack of titles here and this standalone fic's place within a series probably has affected how likely folks are to read it but it's a short fic that is mostly Garak on the Defiant after it leaves Cardassia in Second Skin. Initially put most of this on tumblr but then properly put it on ao3.

2/3 ficlets for the rare pare ficlet game hellostuffedtiger made: Garak/Sloan, Julian/Picard

[seabreeze2022]

2023 Bahamas Cruise, Part 4, Mar. 10-12. Morgans Bluff to Normans Cay, to Sandy Cay to Lee Stocking Island.

This is, Natalie, our friend from Islamorada. She and her husband left one week before us and went directly to the Jumentos as quick as they could. She is holding a really, really large Crawfish, at least by Florida standards. But these are kind of common this far south in the Bahamas. Deep water canyons allow them to grow to this size without being caught. Q: What is the easiest job in the world? A: Bahama Minister of Tourism.

All they have to do is post some pictures like this!

Our time time in Andros was short and we are looking forward to coming back, but we need to make haste heading south. Cold fronts are still coming down, the water is 75 degrees and chilly. We were under way at 0538 weaving our way through the anchorage. When we first showed up five days earlier we were the eighth boat in the anchorage. Three were “cats”, one Hatteras yacht, and three other sloops. Four were buddy boating. One of the cats was from Tavernier, the next town up from ours.

As we left there were about ten boats, with only two cats in the bunch. One was an old trimaran. No fancy mega yachts here. No chartered catamarans. Pretty quiet group and little drama.

Windy App is my go to for wind and wave prediction. Friday was the smoothest ride across the Tougue Of The Ocean (TOTO). It would be a bit lumpy at daybreak but getting better as the day went on. We have been beat up before crossing TOTO into steep short spaced waves. See the photo below of our buddy remora boat in March of 2023 crossing TODO.

This year the crossing was smooth. We just set a straight line for Normans Cay 73 nautical miles away. The day started out a bit chilly at the helm and we made notes to bring some warmer clothes for sailing the nightshift.

Resting with foul weather gear on to stay warm, note the smooth water in the background.

This is a screen shot of our chartplotter while crossing TODO. Our boat is depicted bottom center with a red icon over it. Just to the left shows a depth of 8500 ft.. To put this in perspective, if you stacked 45 Empire State Buildings on their side. They would still not break the surface.

By the time we finished the day crossing White Bank south of New Providence the seas were glassy calm. Winds had been mostly on our nose and seldom more than 30 degrees off all day.

Beans were cooked in a pressure cooker while underway. Pressure cookers save a tremendous amount of propane fuel.

This year we bought a Hot Spot from Aliv to use in the Bahamas. It is working great. It allowed me to check the weather as we approached Normans, I changed my plans on anchoring right off the island. Winds were due to pick up after midnight from the SW. So I tucked further off shore behind a sand boar hoping to break some of the waves. This would also give us a quick departure in the morning.

We woke early with the boat pitching on the anchor in 2 ft. waves. Today would be a 32 mile sailing day on a beam reach to Sandy Cay. There are few places to hide from SW - W - NW winds in the Exumas. Sandy Cay was our favorite.

Taking turns on the helm and resting. Lots of sailboat activity on this route today. We were the “privileged vessel” with wind coming over our starboard rail. So I tacked a bit further upwind allowing the “burdened vessels” to clear any sand bores and run their course.

Nancy resting on the upwind side of the boat in the sun. By attaching her tether from the jackline in the cockpit around a winch and then back to her. This helps secure her in place as the boat heels over.

A shot from the lee rail at 6 kts.

Our anchorage was fairly calm, with only two other boats nearby. We dropped the dinghy and took a quick bath at the stern. Water is still chilly at 78.5 F. When we woke in the morning our anchor was in sight 30 feet away directly on our left. Currents and wind have that effect here. Neither is strong enough when they oppose each other, to straighten out the anchor chain. Game plan for the day is head outside for Lee Stocking Island after topping off jerry jugs in Staniel.

Using two of the diesel jerry jugs on the deck we put 8 gallons in the tank assuming we had burned 10 gallons since Andros. Nancy is using the “jiggle hose” to siphon the diesel out of the jugs. We also ran the watermaker for an hour as soon as the solar panels could keep up.

We ran the gauntlet of boats anchored between Big Majors Spot and Little Majors Spot. At least 40 boats were anchored in here hiding from the SW winds.

The fuel dock at Staniel Cay Yacht Club is first come - first serve. We were number 3 in line. It took almost 2 hours to get our 8 gallons of fuel. Boats were taking 40 minutes each. Once it was our turn we tied up, Nancy ran the trash to the trash tailer. I pumped 4 gallons in each jerry jug, then quickly walked to the office to pay. Nancy met me there. We were off the dock in 10 minutes.

The Exuma Sound is 5000 ft. deep, but was smooth all day as we motored to Adderly Cut.

Adderly Cay with its unique stone marker passing down our starboard side.

Dana helming through Adderly Cut and hooking a left behind Lee Stocking Island.

Our son, Lars, recently bought a PDQ 34 power cat. Only 106 were ever made, and we just found one tucked behind Lee Stocking Island. Named “Headway”, it was flying a “Great Loop” flag on the bow. Which is a circle with the Mississippi on the West side and the Intercostal Waterway on the East side. The Great lakes connecting them on the North, and the Gulf of Mexico on the South.

Absolutely stunning sunset, unfortunately we were a hair north and could not see a green flash due to the tip of Normans Pond Cay.

Picture perfect ending to finish our first week back in the Bahamas.

S/V Sea Breeze, Lee Stocking Island, Exuma, Bahamas.

[acertainmoshke]

Happy STS, Moshke!

It's always character playlist that— which lyrics best describe your oc this— What I want to know is which one of your ocs is most likely to randomly burst out into song for no reason? Can they actually sing or are they happily shouting off key? What song would they be singing during such a show tunes moment? How would the rest of the ocs react?

Also this is for TDATS, what do you do/how do you get into different character's perspectives?

-HD

Thanks, HD, I love both of these questions so much!!

For the first one, I feel like there are Levels. In Cold Iron (since the second question will be TDATS), Shaka sing-narrates under their breath as they do stuff but would rather get stabbed (again) than sing aloud. Kris and Harry both burst into song randomly just because they can. Kris can actually sing and has a rich velvety voice; Harry very much cannot and no one is sure if he doesn't know this or doesn't care. Anyway, Kris never sings in the shower for fear of embarrassment if someone is listening (despite openly singing various older radio tunes at other inopportune times). Harry definitely sings in the shower, and he prefers musical soundtracks. Everyone else mostly giggles and vows never to tell him just how bad he is at it.

The perspectives thing for more than one character within a narrative has actually always been hard for me. In TDATS specifically, I cheated a little by making two of them distinctive in ways that are unavoidable--Pixel focuses a lot on their sensory world and misses a lot of the verbal and interpersonal moments that most characters would describe, and Ri is very much in his head, counting things, focusing on the static or lack thereof, slipping away from the solid reality around him and thus forgetting words and events. That sounds complicated but it actually made my job easier, because then I could just look at the story from Zippy's POV as in a regular limited narrator voice. Maybe that's why I have so much trouble with peppermint; they're the extra, who has had weird experiences but should narrate in a fairly standard voice and I wasn't sure where else to go with it. The main narrative difference between Peppermint and Zippy is that Zippy is focused on people, relationships, and emotions, and Peppermint has been taught those don't matter so they focus on knowledge and observation.

Short examples of each voice beneath the cut

Pixel:

Hot and bright and BIG. Pixel hopped out of the train and squinted. Their skin felt too big in the heat. Through the shimmering heat and glaring sun, they could just make out endless dusty land. Trees and bushes dotted the desert and the tracks cut through it, but otherwise the world was empty. Pixel’s hands twisted in their new green tunic. Their bare toes wiggled down into the hot sand. This was wrong, not how the world was. Like a planet up in space. 

Pixel squinted up. The greenish sky was less hazy than at home.

Ri:

In the back of his mind, Ri never stopped calculating through the static. He knew the wind speed from the way the “tree” (really it was an antenna) waved out the window. He counted how many puzzle pieces they had. He counted the ceiling tiles and calculated the area of the room. When he ran out of things he could see, he ran random calculations to see how long complicated square roots and six-step problems would take him. 

Maybe later, after the puzzles, he would try reading again. The Center wanted to better people, to heal them, and there were always screens available. Every now and then he would try reading and rediscover how uninteresting stories of human lives were without strings of data to keep him focused. 

Zippy:

Zippy liked going out. She really did. The air was better downtown where the cafés were. Sira had always had a way of making the worst parts of life seem like silly inconveniences. It was nice just to be somewhere that wasn’t her pod. It was the getting there and back parts that she didn’t like. She wasn’t hurting too much today, but her progress was always slow. It didn’t matter how cool she thought her cane was with its elaborate drawings and other decorations, it didn’t make the stares she got any more comfortable. Her entire body felt tense, waiting for the punch of “But she’s so young.”

Peppermint:

Peppermint could feel their fur bristling as they sat on the concrete hanger floor later that day, the group squeezed between rows of identical ships. Void would listen. Void had always listened, could not really do anything else, so Peppermint never really had to. They let the cadence wash over them—they finally had a different presenter, one who was more melodic than monotone—and looked around the hanger, more carefully than they’d been able to last time. 

Rows of identical ships. Yes, they all looked exactly the same. Peppermint wasn’t an expert in ships, or technology of any kind, but they were very good at observation. There wasn’t a single noticeable difference between them. Something tickled the back of their brain.

[deflare]

Day 16 brings us a shiny-bronze set of real bastards: the Minotaurs!

The Minotaurs are a successor chapter to... somebody. Their history is locked down super-tight behind layers of clearance that even Inquisitors can’t break into. Complicating things, there may have been two different Minotaurs chapters in Imperial history--a chapter of ferocious berserkers who didn’t bother working with anyone else, and the modern, more disciplined force.

What’s known about the Minotaurs: Unlike other chapters, they rarely disperse their companies across different theaters, instead tackling every problem as a full chapter. They’re cold and aloof to others. They fight with particular brutality, even by Space Marine standards, with a willingness to eat really nasty losses in close assaults and heavy-duty siege warfare. They’re often brought in to fight internal enemies, like rogue Space Marine chapters. They’re unusually well-supplied for a chapter of their caliber, with a particularly robust recruiting pool. And they seem to answer directly to the High Lords of Terra.*

This all suggests that the Minotaurs are meant to be the High Lords’ agents in the Astartes, the mailed fist of the Imperial government. This plays poorly with some of the other major power of the Imperium, like the Inquisition; the High Lords’ interests don’t always line up with the Imperium’s interests as a whole.

One of the major military actions of the Minotaurs was in the Badab War, a fairly nasty civil war. I’ll go more into detail on this when another chapter pops up (probably the Mantis Warriors or the Lamenters), but the short version is that s Space Marine chapter tried to make its own little empire, and several chapters got embroiled on both sides of the war; the Minotaurs were one of the most brutal of the chapters on the loyalist side of the war.

In another major incident, after Roboute Guilliman woke up from stasis and started reforming the Imperial government, the High Lords tried to rebel against him and launch a coup. During the incident, the full Minotaur chapter arrived in orbit around Terra and... waited. The rebel High Lords had called the Minotaurs in to help their coup d’etat, but the split in the council caused the Minotaurs to wait until the dice had fallen, a looming threat to Imperial stability, until the matter was settled and they departed.

Aesthetically, the Minotaurs have some Greek theming to them; this mostly shows up with character names, but their chapter master also wields a spear and shield like a hoplite. Their grim bronze armor is cool as hell, but once upon a time, they had a whole different color scheme. One that makes the Howling Griffons look subdued.

My eyes.

Anyway. The Minotaurs are total bastards, but I can’t help kinda liking them. Their theming and aesthetics rule, and there’s a certain appeal to a chapter whose whole thing is “attack dogs of the ruling oligarchs”. There’s a certain menace to stories where the Minotaurs show up, an air of ‘shit just got serious’, and that’s fun.

*Who’re the High Lords of Terra?

So as the Great Crusade neared its end, the Emperor decided that running everything through military councils sucked. So he started to set up a civilian government that would administrate the Imperium during peacetime. This loss of influence among the military elite (most especially the Primarchs) was one of the motivating forces for the Horus Heresy.

After the Heresy and the Emperor’s entombment, someone needed to run the Imperium. Guilliman and Rogal Dorn did a lot of the heavy lifting for a while as the Emperor’s regents, but one got put into stasis and the other died (maybe?), so ruling the Imperium was left in the hands of mere mortals. Thus, the ruling council that act as the regents of the Imperium: The High Lords of Terra.

There are 12 seats on the council total, though who fills each one has fluctuated over time. Always on the council are the leaders of: the Administratum (the Imperial bureaucracy), the Inquisition, the Ecclesiarchy (the state church), the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Adeptus Arbites (the Imperium’s police force), the Navigators (mutants who guide spaceships through the Warp), the Astronomicon (the psychic lighthouse that lets Navigators do their job), the assassins, and the Astra Telepathica (the order of sanctioned psykers who allow FTL communication). Various military and religious leaders have occupied the other 3 seats.

A few thousand years ago, there was a fun little period when one guy managed to sit on two of the seats at the same time. This turned out very badly, as the guy became a super-tyrant and caused a period of civil strife called the ‘Age of Apostasy’. Since then, there’s been a very firm one-butt-one-seat rule.

The High Lords are the embodiment of the Imperium’s ossification. They’re a council of amoral, paranoid, nigh-immortal arch-conservatives who care only about maintaining their own positions and power. Each one got to their position through backstabbing, ruthlessness, and the ‘mysterious’ death of their predecessors. Until Guilliman resumed his seat as regent, High Lords didn’t retire; they were assassinated. They sit in their fortified residences on Terra, with no need to care about the endless masses of humanity that they order to fight and die with a penstroke.

In an empire full of people who suck, these guys suck the most.

Master post here

[autistic-autumn]

Music Rambling No.6

Got a bunch of short sort of interesting contemporary pieces I've sifted through rather than the standard 40 minute orchestral works. Been given stuff by lecturers for extra study so probably will be able to give a lot of shorter pieces which is always nice. I'm going to leave this as a short set of little pieces that you could reasonably listen to. If you also have pieces to recommend then my inbox is always open and I love receiving music.

Yuri Umemoto — Moe²Girl - 5 minutes This one really surprised me. Partly because my lecturer showed the thumbnail of this on spotify without explaining what it would be and I thought he was about to blast some vocaloid piece to the class (he has done this before but doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about vocaloid). This was of course far more weird than that. You really need to watch the video of this for the full effect of this piece really.

It is kind of almost vocaloid is the thing. The vocal line that plays I believe might have been sampled from anime and then processed, with the intention of sounding like a vocaloid synth. The cello doesn't seem to be playing the dynamics listed on the score which is a shame. The cello mostly mimics the vocal line with some added extra notes and sometimes drops down to play more bass notes.

I think the thing that really throws me with this piece is just the kaomoji's written next to tempo markings in the score. Something about that is really incredible.

As a side note, the video for this is made with score follower which is a great place to find contemporary art music being made right now. You can even upload stuff of your own there during their spring and autumn calls for scores.

Julia Wolfe - Reeling - Performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars - 6 minutes Normally excessive repetition is not my thing, and is one of the reasons I struggle with fairly repetitive genres. Minimalism falls into a weird category at times as it's repetition to almost an extreme, yet you often find small changes everywhere and the focus is reusing the same motif or idea for as long as possible. Juila Wolfe is a famous post-minimalist from New York and this piece is a very neat example of this idea.The piece itself is a mixed ensemble with a digital recorder of a vocalist in the background that forms the entire basis for the piece. It's a person from canada who was mimicking the sound of a banjo, although Juila didn't credit them (BAD!).

The recorded voice gets slowly more distorted over the duration of the piece and more and more instruments come in. The way the piece functions and keeps up interest on the same idea for 6 minutes is very impressive. The constant shifts in instruments playing almost the same thing is not quite enough. What really catches me with this piece is the rhythmic shifts where the accent constant shifts around. The piece is likely just written in 4/4, although I would suspect the agoic frequently doesn't fall on beats 1 or 3. Simply shifting where the downbeat falls on the melody is enough to make it sound completely different. Additionally there is some really nice little clarinet notes that just sustain over the top to add some nice extra rhythmic contrast. Overall a very interesting piece of minimalism and a great way of stretching the same idea over and over. Lots to unpack and think about with this.

Roman Tsypyshev — Darwin's theory - 3 minutes Following the Umemoto piece from score follower earlier I was reminded of one of my favourite pieces I've found on score follower. This piece is just so funny to listen to. It would almost be hard not to burst into laughter if it was performed live but I feel maybe that's part of the intention of the piece. I'm not going to spoil very much about this piece because it's the sort of piece you really need to go into blind. It feels like a piece of performance art music but works very well just as a recording however. Whoever handwrote the score has very neat handwriting.

[arbitrarygreay]

Anime vs. PoI

While watching anime with @mimeparadox, one of the things that has guided my selection of shows is our shared fandom for Person of Interest, and as much our shared frustration around how PoI ultimately dropped the ball on its themes around ASI and how our world is indelibly changed by advancing technology. So, enjoy this rundown of "Can this anime do better than PoI?" One of the interesting things about this "project" is that we still love PoI despite its thematic flaws because PoI continued to have a strong command over storytelling fundamentals: making us invested in its characters and their relationships. That's not so rare in this age of Prestige TV, but what put PoI over the top was that it then still had some fairly novel levels of hard-ish science fiction in its plotting. What we get in anime is often that they can explore their science fiction ideas far more thoroughly and in novel-to-audiovisual-media ways, but mostly don't end up meeting the standard PoI sets for character and relationships. GITS:SAC 2D: Have not watched the Oshii Movie, Arise, or the new 3D SAC seasons. Yes, I think this is better than PoI. Really digs into what's happening with civilians on the ground, and how they're still getting screwed over by governments and corporate greed (ballooning housing and healthcare costs, same as always), in novel ways enabled by new technologies. Meanwhile, the members of Section 9 all have vibrant personalities and distinct interaction dynamics, which really gives this show the edge over most of the other anime on this list, which tend to beat out PoI on the sci-fi side at the expense of traditional character and relationship narrative work. Dennou Coil: Yes, better than PoI! Excellent character and relationship work makes all that it's trying to say about technology look effortless. On the other hand, PoI never put Bear in such danger. Kaiba: The best cyperpunk show ever. Is it better than PoI? It undoubtedly far surpasses PoI in how much it delves into transhumanism, and the stand-alone early episodes are pretty devastating, thanks to them going beyond Black Mirror in exploring the true depths of the technology's implications. Unfortunately, it kind of whiffs the landing on the main characters in the back half, so PoI retains the edge there in terms of my emotional investment. Beatless: The best show about AI on this list. Adapted from novels, it has the most novel depiction of writing about AI you've ever seen in television or film. Zero dumbing down of hard scifi novel explorations of its concepts. Very much superior to PoI in that regard. But, the characters are pretty bland, with the exception of Kouka, and the wasted potential of Shiori. They even have bargain-bin Vigilance! The strength of the ideas Beatless wants to convey managed to make me root for these potatoes, which is nothing to sniff at, but it means that I would only want to rewatch the parts of Beatless that dealt with those ideas directly, whereas I can watch so much more of PoI and feel a higher level of joy at it, instead of just cognitive interest. Gatchaman Crowds: Superior to PoI in its exploration of social media, from gameified altruism incentives to mob dynamics' deleterious effect on democracy. However, the characters are nothing but discussion mouthpieces. Most of them are outright annoying. For that reason, while it provides a lot of discussion value, it has very low narrative investment or rewatch value. Orbital Children: Orbital Children comes really close to unequivocally doing better than PoI, only hobbled by its quite limited runtime, which cuts short how well they can develop their themes. Still, Orbital Children makes a strong effort at both its ambitious ideas (corporate sponsored space technology, ASI Asimov-esque Psychohistory) and their characters and relationships. As expected from Dennou Coil's creator. Expelled from Paradise: Explores a post-Singularity world, and so gets to dive into the lovely technology implications there that PoI could never. Unfortunately, they had to make their main character a KuguRie twintailed tsundere with The Worst Shoes in order to get this movie made. If you can ignore that, though, the character and relationship work isn't bad at all, even if this being a single movie means that it obviously can't build those as much as PoI can. Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories: Magnetic Rose, the only section to apply to this list, is undeniably gorgeous, but its tricks have basically been all pilfered by live-action, and at this point isn't so different from a standout Doctor Who episode. Is it better than PoI, though? Character and relationships, no, by dint of its shorter running time. Having something to say about technology, no. But it does have stronger aesthetics, since it isn't constrained by a crime procedural setup. Here is our turning point, where the shows below this are unequivocally not better than PoI. Summer Wars: This is the only entry on this list where it's here on the strength of the character and relationship dynamics, rather than the world-building or themes around technology. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song: Extremely pretty animation. The action scenes are undeniably cool. However, the writers never explore any of their ideas to the depths of the other series, but think that they're getting pretty deep, which in turn makes us care about the characters less than they had the potential to do. Still, I would absolutely rather more creators shoot for their own stars with such confidence and style as this. The show goes a long way on that confidence alone, with the cracks only showing because I was hoping that it could do better than PoI, and so really interrogated those ideas. Tezuka's Metropolis: Basically here only on the strength of its animation and world-building, because the character/relationship work is thrown all out of whack by the finale. The devoted focus on the central relationship between Tima and Kenichi also means that its ideas about AI are really basic, with any novel implications happening in the background based on the environments. Deca-Dence: "I would absolutely rather more creators shoot for their own stars with such confidence and style as this", I just said up there about Vivy. Well, now I have to eat crow, because this show is that, but the writers think that their ideas, their world-building, and their character/relationship work are WAY better than the actual execution was. This show is shallow and hollow. I will, however, laugh forever that even like this, anime can do Westworld way better than Westworld with a fraction of the development time and budget. Even with all of this criticism, Deca-dence understands MMO dynamics and how they interact with society infinitely more than Nolan has given lip service to, but has not demonstrated. Speaking of bloviating about tech without actually understanding it... Serial Experiments Lain: I dislike this show. Towards the end, I actively resented watching this show. The basic storytelling (character/relationship) is so crappily executed, especially in the wake of Prestige TV raising the bar on integrating those elements with arthouse aesthetics, and its predictions around technology have aged so badly. Worse than "Peter and Valentine Wiggin, powered by Blogspot" aged badly. This guy knows so many buzzwords and conspiracy theories and whatever, but has zero conception of how any of that technology actually works, in ways that sabotage the story he's trying to tell. So I can't take any of it seriously, not even as a metaphor for the character/relationship stuff, which again, is crappy executed anyways. I get the impression that this guy would be all in on crypto and NFT but couldn't explain a blockchain to save his life. Getting addicted to 8chan will not give you superpowers, fam, no matter how autistic you are. Injecting it directly into your brain is just wireheading. The goggles, they do nothing! Have not watched Megazone 23 Lupin Part 5 Psycho-pass Time of Eve Casshern Sins Atom: The Beginning Robot Carnival (low priority) Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (very low interest in watching) Zankyou no Terror (very low interest in watching) Ergo Proxy (not interested in watching) Texhnolyze (not interested in watching)

[hongism]

05 - j.wooyoung + lingerie (18+)

» j.wooyoung x gn!reader » 18+ dni if minor, nsfw/pwp » language, feminization, lap dancing, strip tease, bratty wooyoung, manual stimulation, grinding, cum eating, dirty talk, finger sucking » wc 3.3k » link to masterlist

you’ve almost come to the conclusion that tonight was a complete and utter waste of time when your eyes pause in their subtle search across the room. it’s fast, and you almost miss him because of how quickly you’re surveying the club, but you have to backtrack at the sight of the pink head of hair. it’s not too out of the ordinary — not for a club like this one at least, and frankly, the face connected to the stark hair entrances you more than the hair does. the friend at your side seems to notice where your gaze keeps lingering, elbow careening into your ribs seconds later.

“like what you see over there?” she giggles, most likely amused by how you jolt and startle with the contact.

“he’s pretty,” you mutter back as you strain your neck a little to catch sight of the rest of him. he’s not up on a stage with the other dancers, not wrapped around a pole or anything like that, so you can’t get a full and clear view of what he’s wearing.

“he doesn’t perform with the others, i hear. solo performer, and only does private shows.”

sure, there’s a stack of money set aside for this particular reason, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to cave and spend it all on this one man.

you aren’t.

it’s not going to stop you from getting up and going over there to get a better look at him.

“i’ll be back,” you mutter, picking up your wallet and drink with the same hand. you’re hoping it won’t look obvious to your friend, but the laugh that follows your movements is telling enough.

“have fun!”

you step through the crowd of couches that are mostly full of older men and women, apologizing each time you cross in front of them and accidentally block their view of the dancers. your target hasn’t moved, still lingering near the bar with a drink set in front of him as he also indulges in the sight of the dancers on stage. you’re almost fooled into believing that he’s simply a client here and not actually a worker, but there’s a certain sway to his hips and head against the music thumping through the club that says otherwise. he moves his body too well even with subtle and small movements. elbows propped up on the bar counter behind him, a lollipop dangling from his fingertips and periodically going up to catch on his tongue, and that pretty pink hair bouncing with each movement he makes. you’re enticed in an instant.

the obscenity of his outfit doesn’t help one bit either. and perhaps obscenity is a bit too strong a word to describe it, but your brain goes to static and white noise the more you see of him, and it’s easy to see why that is. a sheer lavender crop top that does nothing to hide the lace bralette underneath, along with a pretty plaid skirt that tapers his waist almost too well, belts and buckles hanging from both sides and jingling when he sways his hips in time with the music. the further down your eyes go, the more overwhelmed you get because he’s got fishnets (of course) that lead to chunky black combat boots. he looks simultaneously quite out of place here while also seeming like there’s no other logical place for him to be. your steps towards him falter a little; it’s no wonder that he doesn’t have anyone at his side right now. he’d outshine them without even trying, and the air around him feels a bit untouchable as well like he’s too good for anyone’s presence except his own and the bartender behind him. the thought to turn around and return to your friend like a dog with its tail between its legs crosses your mind. that’s all it does though because as you shift to act on that thought, sharp eyes snap over to meet yours across the bar counter.

opposite ends of the spectrum, separated by at least ten barstools if not more, plenty of other people in front of him to look at, yet the dancer cranes his head in your direction and makes eye contact. 

your tongue darts out to wet your lower lip, an act more out of nerves than meant to be seductive in the slightest. 

there’s no direct invitation to go further towards him. really all he does is incline his head slightly, and you take it as a cue to step around the barstools and walk over to where he’s tapping his chunky boot against the floor.

“hi.”

you startle upon hearing his clear tone, although you aren’t wholly sure why that’s the case. 

“hello,” you greet in return. you keep your glass caught firmly between your fingers as you sit in the barstool beside him. he looks even prettier in this light — with blinking up at him from where you sit and the neon lights cascading over his face and hair. there’s a stunning beauty mark under his eye, and another on his lower lip under the sheen of pink lip gloss. something sparkles under his eyes and in the inner corners, what you can only assume to be eyeshadow and glitter. 

“i caught your eye, huh?”

there’s a twinge of embarrassment that shoots through your body, and you duck your chin to your chest, clearing your throat as quietly as you can like it’ll dispel the nerves accompanied by the feeling. 

“cute,” the man continues. his sweet tone is almost like honey, or some syrup that tastes like it could be too much after a certain point. “wanna buy my time then?”

the offer comes so quickly that you’re a bit shocked. all these people in the club and yet not one has approached him? or accepted his offer? it seems far too unbelievable.

“you’re not gonna ask me anything first? my name, my age, anything like that?”

he laughs for the first time tonight, and you think you’ll grow to love that sound by the end of it. the lollipop pushes back between his lips only for him to make a show of how he swirls his tongue around the ball of candy. when he pulls it back out, it springs free with a lewd pop in its wake.

“you’re the first one tonight who’s stopped me to ask that. most just jump straight to it. i’m wooyoung. and you?”

“y/n.”

“hmm, it’ll sound prettier coming from my lips later.”

your brain buffers and hits a wall. you lose whatever thought was lingering in your mind, and wooyoung has the audacity to flash a grin and send a wink your way.

“you’re in luck tonight, y/n. i only start taking clients at ten o’clock, and it’s two minutes past ten right now.” a strobe of neon red flashes over his face, illuminating his eyes in a way that makes your heart jump in your chest. “assuming you want me, that is,” he adds through a stretched grin, and you wouldn’t dream of denying him the pleasure of hearing your affirmation.

“yes, i’d like that quite a bit.”

wooyoung leads you off to the side of the club, where the hallway of private rooms begins, and he wastes no time in bringing you into the nearest unlocked one. you’ve got your wallet still clasped between nervous hands, but your drink was long forgotten on the bar counter you found wooyoung at. it’s fairly standard for this type of room, nothing to gawk at or make note of aside from the metal pole that stretches up to the ceiling. you’re certain your attention will be firmly planted on wooyoung throughout the entirety of your stay here, so you aren’t worried much about making yourself at home.

the dancer seems keen on the same as well, or at least he’s excited to get started. knowing how much money you’ve got in your wallet, you can’t blame him for the excitement. he turns to face you after shutting and locking the door, skirt billowing around his thighs a little. you think you see a flash of lace underneath, tucked under the fishnets, but that could very well be merely a wistful thought and nothing else. 

“lay down,” he demands, motioning to the short round table right in front of the couches.

“um…” you blink from the white surface to wooyoung’s serious expression. 

“what? never had a lap dance before?” he quirks a brow and flashes another dastardly grin, and you hate the way your stomach flips over at the sight of it.

“not one where i’ve had to lay down, no.” 

wooyoung huffs out a laugh and pops his lollipop back into his mouth. he steps around your awkward, still form to put one of his feet up on the pristine white surface. the boot releases a hollow noise when it hits the table.

“oh, you’ll love it, i promise. now come on, on your back, legs relaxed. i’ll make it worth your while. and your money too, we hope.” 

wooyoung’s little tilt to his chin and the soft bats of his lashes are what convince you to do as told. you slip your shoes off next to the couch and tuck your wallet away in one of them lest wooyoung has the bright idea to make off with all your belongings. then you scramble over the slick surface to lay flat atop it, eyeing wooyoung as he hums and steps up fully on the table over you. his feet straddle your body, right in the gap between your hands and hips, and he pushes that stupid lollipop back between his lips.

“here are my rules, y/n. no touching, no kissing on the lips, no marking, and no demands. you’re here for a show, so i’ll give you one. and maybe i’ll use you to get off a little too? what do you say?”

you suck your lower lip between your teeth, contemplating his words and rolling them over in your mind a bit.

“and if i say no?”

“then i’ll give you a simple lap dance, and that’ll be that. and don’t worry. if i cum… i’ll clean up after myself. you don’t have to do any work really, if you don’t want to.”

“if i don’t want to?” you echo your question.

“how do you feel about sucking my fingers?”

your dumb and stuttered blinking are answer enough for him, and wooyoung leans over to the couch, balancing on one foot as he stretches to reach for something on the cushions. the position give you a far too direct view straight up his skirt. you get confirmation that you did indeed spot lace — a matching set with his pink bralette it seems on top of that.

the music that begins to thump through the speaks is foreign to you, not a song you’ve ever heard before, but the beat is sultry enough for you to understand why wooyoung would play this.

and truly, when he starts to move above you, you fully understand the appeal of this angle. getting to watch the way his skirt sways and teases what’s underneath as his cropped top flutters with his winding movements — it’s a heady feeling being under him and seeing this unfold over you.

wooyoung does his job, and he does it well in only a few swaying moves that promise more to come. if you had to make a comparison, you’d say it’s like watching art in motion, an exhibit where the artist shows you each stroke and twist of his brush. that’s wooyoung now, with the showcase of how he stretches his arms to the ceiling and brings them down the front of his body. the dim lighting in the room does nothing to make the mood less than what it is — pure seduction at its finest, and wooyoung is quickly bringing you down that pit of lust with him. you only know that’s where he’s headed as well because of how his skirt begins to tent a little as time goes on, evidence to how turned on he is by merely dancing to the music. he hasn’t gotten down far enough to even have physical contact with you, but with the way he’s moving now, you aren’t sure he’ll even get that far either.

he does go lower as the song shifts, beat still unfamiliar against your ears, but you’re barely hearing the music beyond how the bass thumps through your veins. as his knees settle on either side of you, close to your waist now and closing in just enough to squeeze you with a hair of pressure, his hands move up under the fabric of his top. they press higher and higher, catching on the hem and tugging as he reaches his neck. your eyes burn like you haven’t blinked in ages, and to be frank, you most likely haven’t because the grip wooyoung has on your focus currently occupies every fiber of your being.

wooyoung works the shirt off, tossing the sheer material over to the side. the look of his tanned skin with blush pink lace overtop clinging to him like a vice under the low lights: it’s sin in its purest form. and that sin only amplifies as he draws his hands down to the waistband of his skirt. he teases and pulls at the material, still lost somewhere between his mind and the music. one of his hands works back up his chest and throat, and when he reaches his mouth, he pulls the lollipop stick out to reveal a now empty stick that is also promptly tossed in the same direction his shirt went. 

“aren’t i pretty, y/n?” he asks all of a sudden. he’s not looking at you, not with the way his eyelids are barely shut, but it captures all your attention nonetheless. “pretty and feminine, hm? some people think i don’t dance as well as the girls out on the stages. but i’m just as pretty as them, aren’t i?”

“more,” you exhale without thinking.

“more,” he echoes back to you with an airy giggle to accompany it. his hands go to the side of his skirt, grabbing onto something on the left, and two seconds later he’s pulling away the entire strip of fabric in one swift movement. you inhale so sharply it stings your nostrils and aches in your chest, and wooyoung takes that as the opportune moment to roll his hips down against your abdomen. it’s not meant for your please, not in the slightest, but you still feel the coil of arousal in your gut snap and pull at itself as he repeats the motion and rubs his barely concealed erection against your stomach. “i’m always prettier than them, y/n.”

wooyoung’s eyes snap open at last, and he drops his skirt to the side before sitting up on his knees over you. the position is nothing if not lewd with how close to your face he is like this. you don’t have much time to think about it because he’s tugging the band of his fishnets down as well, shoes still caught on his feet so there’s no way they’ll go all the way off, but that doesn’t seem to be his intention anyway.

no, wooyoung just tugs them low enough to go under his knees, then he’s back to sitting on his heels and splaying his thighs to the side. the whole thing is a show: each piece of clothing, each drag of his hands, and every word from his lips. 

it continues with him pressing his hand against your chin, then teasing your lower lip with his middle and pointer fingers.

“you know… people always call me a brat. a bratty little bitch, to be specific. they aren’t wrong, of course. but they mean it as an insult whereas i take it as a compliment.” you suck wooyoung’s fingers between your lips and let him explore your mouth with the pads of them. he makes a show of stretching the insides of your cheeks, stabbing against them and watching your skin bulge under the pressure, then he’s pinching your tongue and scraping his nails over the top of it. it tickles in a pleasurable way, the kind that makes your stomach knot up and tense with lust. “i think i’m prettiest when i cum though. and that’s not something i let a lot of people see. they always get handsy even after i tell them not to. think that because i’m all subby and docile, they can break my rules.”

you watch in something of a daze as wooyoung reaches his other hand down to the lace lingerie clinging to his cock. he grips hard enough for you to see the harsh outline of his member, strained and stretching the fabric like it’s about to break. his slow rolls and sways of his hips continue even as he fucks into the palm of his own hand. you don’t think you could move or touch him even if you wanted to right now. each limb feels like it weighs ten tons.

“call me pretty again, y/n. a pretty little brat, yeah?” 

you can’t very well do that with his hand halfway down your throat like it is now, but it doesn’t stop you from trying. all that comes out are muffled moans caught on wooyoung’s fingers. he laughs, throwing his head back as the sound permeates the air, and you were right. you love the sound even more now when he’s a bit breathless and hoarse from arousal, hips canting against your abdomen still as he pushes himself closer to the edge.

“gonna cum, y/n, and make a pretty mess of myself. pay good attention to me please. i want you to see every second of it.” his eyes blaze with unbridled desire as he rubs over his panties a few more times. teeth sink into his lower lip, his nose scrunches up, eyes fighting to stay open and stay on yours without blinking. then he hits his high. it’s beautiful the way he falls apart over you, how his hips stutter and give a few jerky thrusts until his whole body goes still on top of yours. you think you have to agree with him too; this is the prettiest he’s looked all night in your eyes. 

it lasts either ten seconds or ten minutes — you have no concept of time right now, too enamored with the man above you and every movement he makes.

when he does come down, there are stars in his eyes and a sheen on his brow that trickles down the side of his face to his chin. he pulls his hand out of your mouth, but you can’t even bring yourself to close it as you watch him tuck the same hand into his underwear and scoop the stain of translucent white cum out. 

“taste for me?”

you manage a shaky nod, letting wooyoung return his hand to your lips, and when he cups your mouth gently, you poke your tongue out to lap the cum off his palm. 

“hm, now wasn’t that good? better than promised, in fact?”

“y-yeah,” you exhale, finally finding your voice after god knows how long of shocked and aroused silence. wooyoung grins. he leans over you, all but bare chest pressing to your clothed one, and you can feel the heat radiating off his skin with ease. his face hovers over yours. you can see his eyes clearer than ever.

“how about we go again then?”

[writing-with-olive]

How to write essays fast

I've been writing a lot of papers, so that's what's on my mind.

So this mostly applies to your standard 5-paragraph paper, though it's fairly straightforward to adapt it to longer (or sometimes shorter) assignments.

One of the main things to note is that essays are VERY formulaic, so knowing the formula and being able to write down your ideas in a way that fit into the formula is probably the number one way to get stuff done fast. Because of that, most of what I’m covering is breaking down the formulas so they’re more accessable.

Also this got very long. If there’s anything you want me to expand on just let me know in the comments or send me an ask/DM and I’ll make another post that goes more in-depth about it.

Structure (I hate this step, so I’ve figured out how to do it very fast becuase it’s still important)

The first thing to consider is prewriting and structure. To start, there are two major paper structures I usually consider. The first goes

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Main point #3

Conclusion

This is good if you have a lot to say on the topic, or if it's something closer to a summary essay where there's not really an opposing side. In something where there are distinct sides, (or if you have less to say to support your own side), you may want something that looks like

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Why the other side is wrong

Conclusion

The "why the other side is wrong" side is involves thinking through the MOST credible arguments the other side might make, and methodically breaking them down to show how they don't work. The stronger the argument you choose, the more effective this is.

Since I personally hate prewriting with a passion, I usually do this step very fast and end up with an outline that looks like

Intro [insert thesis statement]

P1: [three word summary]

P2: [three word summary]

P3: [three word summary]

Conclusion

(thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion tips are all below the cut)

Usually, this is enough so when I look at my outline, I can see what I'm trying to focus on for each paragraph - and do so without straying from my main point.

For the prewriting, the main things to do are identify with basic structure of the two will serve your purposes better, and write a thesis statement that solidly supports your argument.

Thesis Statement

There are so many guides about creating thesis statements that are powerful, but I'm just going to quickly go over how to be fast about it.

The first thing to know is that a thesis statement is usually a complex sentence: it's your entire essay distilled down to a single line. The general formula I follow goes something like this:

"In their [media type] [name of specific piece], [creator's full name] explored/demonstrated/other verb [theme you're going to be arguing about] demonstrated/using/as evidenced/as shown by [example 1], [example 2], and [optional example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“In his short film Job at Place, David Davidson explored the manifestations of human stupidity through the absurdity of the main character’s home, school, and office.”

Or, if you're writing a historical piece, it might look something like this:

"In [place/time period], [thing you're arguing was happening]: they had to/the conditions were such that/other thing to set up a list [example 1], [example 2], and [example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“During the Tusken Invasion of 32nd century Tatooine, it was the lives of the children that were most affected, from their social development and connections with others to more personal struggles they didn’t yet have the tools to overcome.”

The examples you give are going to correlate to your paragraphs - example 1 is for body paragraph 1, and so on. 

Introduction

I like to think of the introduction as a funnel that gets more and more specific.

First, write a broad statement that touches on whatever theme you’re referencing. 

Job at Place is about human stupidity, so something like “while great minds have flourished throughout the ages, so have the not-so-great.”

Tatooine is about war, and about child development, so something like “children’s development has always been impacted by the state of the world around them.” or “war has many effects, many of which impact those not directly involved with the conflict.”

The idea is that it’s a broad statement that can almost be looked at like a universal truth.

Next, you’re going to go deeper - two sentences that narrow down the time and place you’re talking about specifically, and how that time and place fit into your universal statement. 

The fourth sentence gets even more specific - introducing how the thesis sentence fits into your first three sentences.

Then the last line is your thesis statements. 

Body Paragraphs

Your three main body paragraphs all follow the same formula. (I’ll get to the “why the other side is wrong” paragraph in a minute)

The first sentence you’re going to want is a topic sentence. For this, you’re going to want to look at the example you gave in your thesis statement that corresponds to this paragraph, and see how it relates to your central claim. 

If we’re going with the Job at Place example from above, for the second paragraph, you might open with a line like:

“A striking characteristic of Davidson’s short film was the abnormality of the main character’s school, used to showcase exactly what happens when poor decisions get taken too far.”

Everything within the paragraph will then back up the claim you’re making in the topic sentence (which in turn is backing up your thesis). 

For each paragraph, you’re probably going to want about three pieces of evidence, either in the form of direct quotes (plucking words directly from the source) or paraphrased quotes (summarizing what happened in your own words). The quote should be used to directly support your argument.

After each piece of evidence, you’re going to want about... twoish lines of analysis (this number can change as you need it to, but two lines is something solid to fall back to). 

While analysis can take all kinds of forms, one pattern you can use if you’re stuck is

evidence sentence 

what it means

how that meaning ties back into your main point

Following this pattern, a piece of analysis of Job at Place might look like:

“One of the first images of the private school is that it’s a tall spire with creaking stairs and loose floorboards. Despite this, the principal has eight personal cars parked outside on full display. While the first glimpse of the school might indicate that there is little money to care for the structural integrity, the notion is directly negated by the principal’s actions. By using these two images, Davidson demonstrates what can happen to the youth when those in power let greed carry them away.”

After you write your analysis, include some kind of transition phrase, and go onto the next piece of evidence.

The last line of your paragraph is going to transition into the next paragraph while also summing up the main point of what you talked about in the current one. (This line can also get moved down and tacked onto the beginning of the next paragraph, before the topic sentence, but I have found it tends to look less cohesive that way).

You might choose something like:

“While the school was a disaster in its own right, it wasn’t the only example of human folly.”

If you’re writing a “this is why the other side is wrong” you’re going to want to think about the MOST compelling arguments the other side could make. Take the top one (or two), and figure out ways to crack them apart using evidence from your source material.

In this case, your topic sentence might start off with something like

“While opponents might say [insert compelling counterargument], their reasoning breaks down when one takes into account the evidence.”

At this point, you’re going to follow the same formula as above. The main thing to keep in mind is that for the duration of this paragraph, your point is that the other side’s claim of X is wrong.

Conclusion!

If you know what you’re doing, this is actually the easiest part.

(wait, what??????)

The thing is, you NEVER want to introduce new ideas into your conclusion. Instead, you’re summarizing your main points.

The formula I follow per sentence is:

Thesis statement but reworded (you can change the sentence structure too)

Topic sentence for paragraph 2 or 3, but reworded (I’ll explain why you shouldn’t do the sentence for P1 in just a sec)

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 3 but reworded

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 2 but reworded

Wow sentence or question (i’ll get to this too)

The idea for the middle three sentences is you don’t want them to read as repetitive, so you’re going to mix up the order so it doesn’t match the order of the rest of the essay. This will help to keep it fresh.

The wow sentence is basically the last impression you get to make. I find it’s usually a good idea to go just a tad dramatic (it sounds dumb, but it has never failed me). If I can’t think of anything, a declarative statement on whatever major theme was being discussed throughout the essay usually does the trick.

Examples:

All of this shows that in the absence of friendships and platonic love, humanity will falter.

Fiction may seem far fetched now, but if the world falls into those same mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until it becomes a reality.

Art has existed for as long as humans have populated the earth; it’s not going away any time soon.

A lesson everyone must understand is the most powerful weapon isn’t anything physical or tangeable: it’s the ideas that exist in the minds of those who care.

(I told you they were going to be dramatic) A way I look at it is if you can’t imagine dropping the mic on the last line, it needs to be stronger (yes I found that plagiarized with not even a whisper of credit on Pinterest, but it works).

If you wrote a SOLID essay, consider ending with a question aimed at the reader (this will push your essay in the direction of either the positive or negative extreme: a strong essay will become stronger, a weak essay will become weaker). Questions can be a call to action or rhetorical as a means to drive home your final point. Becuase they’re more nuanced to the content of the essay, I don’t really have great examples to give you though (sorry).

Hopefully this is useful to at least some of you - good luck!

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