#a random smattering of films i enjoy

[leiawritesstories]

Familiar Stranger

written for @throneofglassmicrofics using the prompts "Morning," "Fracture," and "Rain"

Word count: 706

Warnings: mild(ish) angst ;)

enjoy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shades of gray blurred the sky at five-thirty in the morning, the clouds softened by a film of foggy mist as if some divine artist had smudged charcoal across the heavens. Aelin kicked off her shoes, tied them together, slung them over her shoulder as she jogged through the cool, shifting sand, the grains chilly against the bare skin of her feet. Early June at the Pacific Northwest coast was still cool, the days not yet bursting with sweltering sun, but she loved the misty silence.

The tongues of silvery fog that blanketed the forested hills in the distance reminded her of something, of someone. Pine trees and cool breezes and green eyes, soft words and warm skin and sweet love--first love. Her first love.

She came to this tiny town on the coast every summer to stay with her family in the place she'd grown up. And every summer that she continued not to encounter Rowan Whitethorn made the twinge in her heart get a little less strong. All for the best; she had no reason to see the man other than the lingering ties to the years they had grown up side by side until she had run away to college as far away from home as she could.

Because she had bared her fragile heart, and he had fractured it with three simple words.

We're just friends.

Aelin skirted the edge of the mighty Pacific, her strides leaving faint prints in the springy wet sand at the ocean's edge. Every year when she visited, she walked alongside the ocean early in the morning, soaking up the solitary peace that she'd only ever found beside the rush of the waves. Nobody ever came out to the beach that early, allowing her to drink in the much-needed snatch of alone time before she had to face another day full of family, friends, and random old acquaintances whose endless stream of questions about her life were well-meaning but incessantly irritating.

The mist thickened to a drizzle, and Aelin turned around, slowly heading back towards her house. A ways off, she spotted the shadow of another person, the blurry outline of a figure moving through the fog. She glanced at her watch--almost seven now, about time for the smattering of early-morning joggers to appear on the beach. She ignored the other person, certain she would reach the trail that led up towards her family home before her path could cross with anyone else's.

As she paused to tug her shoes back on, she felt a shiver that wasn't from the rain dance down her spine, and she glanced up to find an incredulous pair of pine-forest eyes locked onto her.

"Holy gods," Rowan breathed, his chest heaving beneath the athletic tank top that was plastered to his skin with rain and sweat, "Ae?"

Cracks splintered through her chest at that achingly familiar nickname. "It's Aelin."

"Aelin." Her heart fractured all over again with the mere sound of her name in his voice. "It's been so long--"

"Long enough to forget?" She broke through his polite words.

Regret, pure and true, washed over his face like the tide lapping over the shore. "I could never forget you, or how much of an idiot I was."

She laughed, the sound clipped, caustic. "An idiot would have at least texted, probably called. An idiot would have tried to apologize." The raw agony of his last words from seven years ago spilled over her, drenching her more thoroughly than the misty rain. "You trampled my heart and never looked back, Ro." His nickname slipped out before she could think twice about it.

"And I'm so, so godsdamn sorry," he pleaded. "I've spent the last seven years--"

"Doing nothing." Shoes secured, she turned away from Rowan and veered onto the path that led towards her house. "We're strangers now, Rowan. Goodbye."

Foggy mists of gray swallowed his plea, the broken cry of her name that pierced her ears. Blinking back the film of misty tears from her eyes, Aelin strode towards the safety of her home, away from the familiar stranger she hadn't expected to see.

Away from the heart-stirring truth in his words that her unsteady heart couldn't bear to face.

~~~

TAGS:

@live-the-fangirl-life

@superspiritfestival

@thegreyj

@wordsafterhours

@elentiyawhitethorn

@morganofthewildfire

@mariaofdoranelle

@rowanaelinn

@house-of-galathynius

@tomtenadia

@julemmaes

@swankii-art-teacher

@charlizeed

@booknerdproblems

@earthtolinds

@goddess-aelin

@sweet-but-stormy

@clea-nightingale

@autumnbabylon

@darling-im-the-queen-of-hell

@llyncooljones

@silentquartz

@aelinschild

[declanowo]

Random Weekly (Horror) Film - Bonus Review - It's a Wonderful Knife

13/12/23

For me, one of the things that was indicative of the Christmas period was sitting and watching movies during lessons. Sometimes, they would be documentaries, which always felt like the boring and safer option, but what was always far more enjoyable, was watching a film that was slightly related to the course. However, college yielded my favourites; in English we would watch plays, this was more so of an evergreen event, while in Film one year, we watched It’s a Wonderful Life. Although I enjoyed most of the films I studied, seldom would I connect with any of them in a way beyond an appreciation for the craft (Pan’s Labyrinth might be the only exception) so when it came to watching a film in the build up to Christmas, I had just assumed that I would be impartial to it, and while we were meant to watch Home Alone, we instead watched It’s a Wonderful Knife. Although sceptical, the film did really connect with me, it feels universal in its ideas, and sure, some of it feels pretty out of date, yet the heart of the film is something I believe everyone can connect to, this belief that the world could exist to be far better without you, when in reality, this world couldn’t exist without you. 

I can’t say so far this week I feel any more enveloped by the season than I previously had. Although my house is now draped in lights and a smattering of decorations, I always enjoy decorating the tree too, especially since finding Tyler, the Creator's Christmas album, which I loop while I do it - truthfully, it is the only Christmas music I enjoy. Despite this, I have been on a few winter dog walks this week, which has ingrained itself as a central image of the season in my mind, alongside the others mentioned in my previous bonus reviews - I hope my final one next week will similarly continue this trend. 

When I sat down to watch the Christmas movies I had set out, I was most excited to watch 2023’s It’s a Wonderful Knife, and spin after spin, it didn’t appear. After finally watching it, I got what I wanted from it; the film was a fun, christmas slasher, and that’s all I was after. Sure, it doesn’t capture the same sensibility as its namesake, yet I never expected it to, because doing so would be near impossible, but what they do instead is craft a string of incredibly fun characters, an amazing villain and a fun time that never feels strung out. 

This film follows a trend of horror movies that I personally love, being that it takes family films, and then twists them into horror. There is most recently Totally Killer, which is based on Back to the Future, Happy Death Day, which is based on Groundhog Day, and my favourite of them, Freaky, based on Freaky Friday and written by Michael Kennedy, who also wrote today’s film. Of all these, It’s a Wonderful Knife is the only one where I have watched its counterpart, and maybe this helps me enjoy it more, as it feels referencial, and more reliant on its source material than the others, although I haven’t yet watched Totally Killer (which I can’t wait to see!). 

To start, I want to discuss the film's characters, which I think are often the strongest points of these films! Winnie Carruther’s, played by Jane Widdop, the film’s protagonist, who saves the town from a murderer, only to regret her decision a year later, seeing how it has changed her life. I enjoy her as a character, and think she is very well acted, especially this is the truth when she is trapped in another world after making a wish she never existed. Here she shines more, and her desire to change things back for the better is fun to watch; although not an infectious protagonist, she is enjoyable to watch and root for, which places it as a good Christmas movie. In contrast to something like Better Watch Out, which is subversive and mean to its core, this feels like a happy Christmas movie, embodying the traits one might expect to find within your average holiday piece of media, which I think works to its credit here. Although I love unique twists on things, this film feels cosy, it is like being warm while outside a blizzard howls. The kind heart at the core of this film is what makes me enjoy it so much! 

I also really enjoy Bernie Simon, played by Jess Mcleod, who plays the social outcast within the town, who we later learn is considering suicide. Even more so than our protagonist, we want to see Bernie feel better, and her friendship with Winnie is so lovely, it fuels even further the idea of the film being cosy, their relationship, alongside the perfect killer, are mostly what make this film so fun to watch, it’s sweat more than anything, and that was all I was looking for from this film! 

Finally, my favourite character is the mayor, and killer, Henry Waters, played by Justin Long. Recently, I have become more and more excited when I see him in a cast list, while I love his performance in Barbarian and Tusk (he was the most enjoyable part of the latter, for me) I was first introduced to him through the Alvin and the Chipmunk movies, where he plates Alvin. Although I did watch these as a child, I have fonder memories of watching them with my boyfriend when we first met. I love the accent he puts on, and overall found him to be a perfect villain for a Christmas movie - he is the antithesis of the Christmas morals and ideals, he takes and takes, he’s selfish and cares so little about those around him. Despite being despicable, although in a somewhat cartoonish manner, he is enjoyable to watch, and balances the film's tone perfectly! I like him a lot.

Throughout the film, there is a parallelism towards its inspiration, through its characters, town, themes and general references. To start with its characters, the film subverts our expectations, with our protagonist instead alluding to the role of Clarence, the angel - she eventually seeks to save, both Bernie and the town, rather than her own life. In contrast, the Bernie, who appears to at first be a guiding light to our protagonist, instead alludes to George Bailey, mostly through the theme of suicide. By living in this new world, she is saved, she makes a friend and finds a reason to live. The killer’s design is inspired by that of an angel, as is the town's name Angel Falls. The killer's design is my favourite allusion to the film, it’s instantly iconic and looks incredibly fun! Snow set horror is some of my favourite because of the crystal whites that bathe every scene, it's inescapable, and here this is no different, for this reason, the killer’s stark white appearance, inspired by an angel, is so perfect! 

This ties into the kills, which are great! They have a perfect tone, they’re goofy and gory, they inspire awe rather than disgust, at least to me! That’s what I enjoy most about slashers, the deaths don’t hold meaning, they are simple to watch and are enjoyable, they aren’t entirely grounded, yet they don’t feel too out of place. Specifically, I enjoy kills that use the movie's theme to good use, or like in Freaky, where they all feel fresh, fun and they are vibrant. 

Starting with the first kill, which is nothing special but I feel it’s also not bad - a man has his throat slit, and it sets up the killer in an incredibly fun way, it also sets up a much larger shock for the following kill, where a candy cane is pushed through someone’s head, coming out their mouth. The following evisceration is also fine, it reminded me of some of the more recent Scream movies, where they use grounded and realistic means of murder, while adding more blood and pushing them to be somewhat over the top. The subsequent kill of the angel killer is amazing, as he is fried to death by some jumper cables! Great stuff, and it links back to the Christmas setting with the lights. While many are simple knife kills, I still enjoyed them, they are stylized and fun! It also makes the more fun ones, like the aforementioned candy cane kill, stand out more, although even more of these styles of kills wouldn’t have hurt! 

I want to end this much shorter review by discussing just how gay this film is, which I love! Horror has always been a harbourer of queer themes and characters. This film has an abundance, from the main characters to a pair of aunts (who I loved!). Nothing about this feels out of place, as a queer person myself, you can often tell when characters were written by people who aren’t gay, and often it’s mostly harmless, but these characters have purpose outside their queerness, which I enjoy within the film - so often we have seen meaningless subplots about a character dealing with homophobia, or coming to terms with who they are, but I enjoy that not every story has to, or should, be like that! 

I enjoyed this film loads, it was a fun slasher, and provided on all the fronts I was hoping for! I’ll likely watch this one again in a few years, and I think the film’s strengths overpower its weaknesses, like some of the plot lines feeling half-baked and unimportant, only to aid the film's final sequence, an allusion to It’s a Wonderful Life’s, like Winnie’s boyfriend cheating on her which holds no real weight. But it’s snappy, I don’t care much about that because we never linger on any moment too long, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and was a fun time. 

7/10

[jaggedwolf]

airplane watch log

Ticket To Paradise

lasted till the daughter is talking to the seaweed farmer about balance in nature and then switched it off

The Mummy

watched till she's bribing the jailer to release the main guy from getting hanged and then switched it off

One Perfect Shot

watched all six episodes the plane had, did not expect to given that I don't watch that many movies. have a random smattering of opinions

really wide variance in how good the episode's director was at just plain talking lol. I could have listened to Lemmons or Sorkin forever, despite not having seen either of their films, whereas both Jenkins and Chu seemed to often stumble into awkward repetition

unfortunate bc Jenkin's episode had actual stuff I found interesting - that her foundation of WW is not just from the show but also from watching the Superman film with the dead dad x2 right after her own father passed

okay so when the directors go into their perfect shot, I thought it would be them marking up a screencap/video. No, it is them literally stepping into a 3D recreation of the scene

unfortunately all humans look like slightly melted dolls in those renditions. Sorkin's episode on the Chicago 7 did the best job of avoiding this problem, because they stayed in the 3D recreation for the longer distance shots of the cops and the protestors but flashed to the actual movie scenes for any closeups

Lemmon's episode was probably my favorite, despite having no plans to see Harriet (my instinctive attitude towards biopics is: what if I just read a biography someday instead of watching drama lol).

It also had the best trio conversation, with her talking to the music guy and the main actress about the shot that all three of them worked on

The two episodes where one of the trio is the film's producer made those conversations a little less interesting. Not that I didn't like hearing the producers talk about logistics, because honestly I love hearing about the logistics behind random shit, just that as a conversation between three people it never quite gels

Amused that Chu said the intention behind the flora in the CRA wedding scene was to feel like nature was breaking through the church and not to feel like a commercialized version of nature. because I definitely thought it was the latter and I thought it was on purpose?? sorry my dude, it was just peak SG-deliberately cultivated nature vibes. gardens by the bay-type shit.

Girls Trip sounds like a movie that a bunch of people who are not me would enjoy, and good for them. meanwhile I cringed my way through the zip line scene. (me, 5 seconds before the scene when the costume designer talked about how it's impossible to wear underwear with the dress in question: why would anyone pick such a dress. me, watching that moment on the zipline: i....no)

big fan of Chu's mom: "when did you become such a snob?" lmao sometimes one needs to get a little bit roasted by their mom y'know

wouldn't it suck to be a director with a really shitty signature and then have to end your episode by writing said shitty signature over the best shot you ever did. wouldn't that make you so mad.

i guess they probably do it like the disney channel drawing and so your signature can look like whatever you want but still. it's the principle of the thing

how do they do it

bruh there are planes that transport million dollar horses around the country, 21 to a plane at a time. what a smelly plane that must be. did enjoy watching a grown man address a horse as "baby boy" multiple times because said horse had never flown on a plane before

sometimes I forget how much stuff is still out there being made via individual, precise effort. people carefully carving into wood the mane of a knight chess piece, gluing weights to the bottom and covering it with felt. people placing six different wheel flies in a safe lock and adjusting each one

but also machines I did not even know existed, like the one in the stainless steel factory that removes excess carbon from melted scrap metal. (after they send a guy out in a fireproof suit to stick a probe into the melted metal to measure said carbon content)

TIL that jaggery is called jaggery

[itsperfectlyreasonable]

Post 10 gifs from your favorite movies, without mentioning them, then tag 10 people!

I was tagged by @acosineofmadness​ about... 10 years ago at this point, to keep with the theme of 10 so, that works, right?

in no particular order:

i.

Originally posted by gael-garcia

ii.

Originally posted by helenamanning 

iii.

Originally posted by maggiecheung

iv.

Originally posted by orwell

v.

Originally posted by dailyaliens

vi.

Originally posted by in-the-pale-gloom

vii.

Originally posted by kryzx

viii.

Originally posted by strangershames

ix.

Originally posted by ghiblipic

x. 

Originally posted by mikaeled 

Tagging @dreiser7, @paradospariah, and anyone else who wants to do this. 

[esperata]

In a little over a week my end of term exam will be done and I might actually be able to get back to some writing. With that in mind, I’m refreshing myself on what projects I wanted to do. Featuring some plot ideas for hattercrow, octogoblin and riddlebird under the cut.

HatterCrow

Pumpkin King Based on freakxwannaxbe’s post with Jervis in the role of the curious youngster and Jonathan as the supernatural creature. I have actually written this scenario but wanted to expand on it some way. My aim was to post this at Halloween, whether I’ve done more to it or not.

Quadrille A five-times fic featuring Jervis getting dosed with fear toxin. Maybe halfway done. I certainly have concepts for each part and have written out a chunk of the first three. It’d be easy enough to finish this with a few dedicated writing sessions.

Every Breath You Take An Arkhamverse project that I’d love to complete. These versions are a degree more twisted than, for example, their btas counterparts and that makes the dynamics more intricate to work with. I really want to do justice to this one. Its begun but I have no idea how long it will end up being.

Haunted House Something fun with the btas dork squad crew, and featuring some riddlebird on the side. Exactly as the title implies, the boys go to a Haunted House. Events unfold from there. This ought to be a one shot that I could wrap up quite easily.

OctoGoblin

Mermay Yes, this is not going to be posted in time for mermay (this year). Well underway but I ran out of time. Featuring Otto as an octopus-man in the laboratory of Oscorps and Norman increasingly under pressure to dissect him for science. A smattering of Harry bonding with his dad as well.

The Hands On Approach Mostly smut. Busy CEO Norman visits an exclusive club for some tactile relief. His thoughts all too fixated on the scientist working for him, Otto. Set in TSSM version although I have not finished watching that series yet. Started and will be finished without difficulty.

Suit A random idea I had while watching TSSM. With a corporate event coming up requiring Otto’s presence, Norman insists on buying him an appropriate suit to wear. That’s about as far as I got but I’d still like to conclude it somehow.

Fate Or Something Like It Because the idea of time travel and paradoxes intrigues me (even while it gives me a headache) I sketched out my own thoughts on what happens when, post NWH, Norman and Otto go back to their respective times. Quite complex but I would love to get this written up properly sometime.

RiddleBird

The Winner Takes It All Another Arkhamverse fic, set sometime after the first. Mostly smut but with an underlying power play as you’d expect from these two. Started writing this and have copious notes so its definitely on the cards to get finished. I always enjoy coming back to this version.

Batman vs Dracula I had a good chat about this idea with a friend on discord and it essentially would be reimagining the movie with Riddler instead of Joker. I do enjoy reworking canon like that and 2004 riddlebird is one of my favourites so I’d really like to try this. Plus I would have an excuse to rewatch the film XD

Living Doll Of all my half-planned ideas, this one has lingered as a constant for longest. Using the BurtonSchumacher pairing and setting Oswald in the title roll. The gothic vibe seems fit here. There is something very appealing to me about this and I would like to develop it further.

Museum Meeting Another enduring idea after seeing a few comic panels giving me ideas. What if Ed and Oswald actually met when they were kids? Both outcast oddballs with a penchant for visiting museums and art galleries. Its a cute visual to me and I’d enjoy building upon it.

These are just a few pulled together and I have other ideas floating around (including my ongoing NaNoWriMo project). I like hearing feedback on things so feel free to drop a comment if anything strikes you.

[mylifeincinema]

My Week(s) in Reviews: February 18, 2022

Oops... I’ve lost track of time, once again. You haven’t been missing much, as I haven’t been watching much, but here are the ones I have seen since last time. Even more than usual, this is going to be a smattering of random thoughts because I’m tired and busy and really just don’t have much to say about these movies.

Marry Me (Kat Coiro, 2022)

Such an outrageously stupid idea for a movie. But, I have a general soft-spot for rom-coms. Also, Owen Wilson is awesome. Sarah Silverman delivers the film’s funniest moment. Overall not the worst of its kind, but pretty damn far from the best. - 5.5/10

The Take (James Watkins, 2016)

This is a film that exists. It’s not offensively bad, but it’s also pretty bland and nowhere near memorable. The writing is a mess, uninteresting and predictable nonsense through and through. There are some enjoyable scenes, most of which are chases, but other than that it’s mostly a drag. I’m also not quite sold on Idris Elba the way most seem to be. He’s a serviceable action star, but lacks something essential that I can’t quite put my finger on. - 4/10

Kodachrome (Mark Raso, 2018)

Holy shit... Elizabeth Olsen is so effortlessly gorgeous, here. Damn. The beginning features a giant, don’t-fucking-do-it move on Sudeikis’ part when he gives the venue security guard attitude for telling him he needs to have his pass on (We don’t care that you’re “with the record label”, you’re literally nobody to us, even if you’re the lead singer of the band. Seriously, unless said band is The Rolling Fucking Stones, you’re just another body. If you’re in an area not accessible to the general ticket-holder, have your damn pass visible at all times. Always. /rant), so the fact that I ended up liking his character at all throughout the rest of the film is some solid character work on his part. Ed Harris was unsurprisingly solid. Overall not the best, most original or insightful film of its kind, but the cast is really good and living in both the live music world and the photography world as I do, there was a bunch here for me to like. Especially Elizabeth Olsen, though. Seriously... Damn. - 7.5/10

I Want You Back (Jason Orley, 2022)

Having two likable leads will do a shitload for an otherwise generic romantic comedy. - 7/10

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[blouisparadise]

Here are some great bottom Louis fics that were posted or completed during the month of May. We really hope you enjoy this list. Happy reading!

1) Louis Punishments | Mature | 1759 words

Just a bunch of punishments Harry has given to Louis.

2) Hoping To Discover A Certain Kind Of Lover  | Explicit | 2353 words

He knew the basic idea of what was supposed to happen. It was the entire point of the film Zayn was working on. To match up unmated alpha and omega strangers and to film them as they kissed for the first time. The two of them shuffled awkwardly back and forth, unsure of what to do.

Enough was enough. “I’m gonna just go for it, yeah?” Harry suggested, and Louis nodded quickly, already leaning closer to him.

Everything was hesitant at first. Tender lips met, and all of it was soft and new, neither of them wanting to overstep. A little zing of anticipation and something unfamiliar shot down Harry’s spine as he swallowed the tiny sound of surprise Louis made. Neither alpha nor omega were pushing, but that was the point of all of this, wasn’t it? To see what happened when people let go and let themselves be? Harry figured he would try. For the sake of the experiment, of course.

Gently, so, so gently, Harry slid his hand up the side of Louis’s throat, cupping his jaw to hold him as close as he could. Their lips finally, finally, finally parted, and Harry could taste the hint of tea and honey lingering on Louis’s tongue. Suddenly and all at once, he couldn’t get enough.

3) Irresistible | Mature | 2380 words

Louis goes into his first heat at school and no one is able to resist him. Harry - who's been in love with him since forever - fucks and bonds him in the toilets.

4) Signed, No Name | Mature | 4647 words

Harry doesn’t know Blue, he just knows that he leaves random notes in the corners of the books he checks out, and he’s head over heels for him.

5) It Could've Been Worse | Not Rated | 4949 words

The one where a pandemic happens, harry is obssessed and louis hates apps made for 15 years old.

6) Take Me To The Stars | Explicit | 5840 words

Staring at his darling daughter, in the middle of the pasta aisle, Louis found himself on the edge of a neurotic breakdown.

"It’s your birthday tomorrow! And your papa better not do anything to muck it up! Because your dada worked very hard to organise it! And all of your aunties and grannies and granddads and friends will be there!” Louis continued in a sweet sing-song voice that seemed to get increasingly frantic as he continued. “And if your papa is in rut, then what? What’ll we do, honey girl? Your dada will be too busy! And your papa will be too horn-”

“Louis,” Harry interrupted, touching Louis’ arm. “I’ll be okay. It’s probably not even my rut. I can appreciate you… all of you… even when I’m not in rut.”

Louis looked at him skeptically, imagining the shitshow that would be Harry in rut, surrounded by family and friends, at their child’s first birthday party. “I hope you’re right, H.”

7) Kiss Like Fire | Explicit | 9093 words

Harry watches as his uncle's new omega walks around the backyard, serving canapés and drinks to all of the family members gathered. Harry is surrounded by his cousins, all sat together, too young for the adults but too old for the kids and teens. He lifts his beer to his lips and takes a sip when the omega crouches down by one of Harry's younger cousins and hands her a small cracker, sending her off with a sweet smile.

He watches as his uncle comes out of the house, sliding the patio door shut behind him and quickly making his way over to his omega. The omega looks up at him when he wraps an arm around his waist. His pretty lips move with soft-spoken words. Harry has to fight to keep his alpha in check when his dirty old uncle's hand dips down, grabbing at the omega's ass and making him jump.

"Dude," one of his cousins says, "Uncle Darron's new omega is such a milf."

8) Waking Up Alone | Mature | 10060 words

"Nothing makes you hurt like hurting who you love"

Love shouldn't hurt, loving somebody with everything you have shouldn't make you feel like you're dying. Louis feels like he’s drowning. He should have known where this was going from the start, he should have been prepared. Now he’s waking up in an empty bed, some days he doesn’t want to even wake up again. There's a hole in his heart; it's in the shape of Harry. Nothing he does can fill it. Drugs, alcohol, pouring out his heart into songs that Harry probably won't ever hear. When Louis is with him, he feels like he’s in heaven. Being alone, that's what he feels he deserves, at least Harry can be happier without him.

Maybe if they met at a different time, under different circumstances, he could have saved them. Louis had to do what was best for Harry, but it kills him a little everyday. Louis sees his smile everyday, but he knows it's no longer for him. Someone else makes Harry happier, but Louis wanted it to be him. They could have had forever. Louis would have given Harry everything.

"Forget what I said, it's not what I meant" Harry had tried to say, but Louis knew that wasn't the truth. After everything they’ve been through, Louis still loves him.

9) To The Beat Of My Own Drum | Explicit | 10285 words

A collection of drabbles.

10) Alone Too Long | Explicit | 10371 words

By the time The Temptress finally reached bay, the Captain only had one thing on his mind, and that one thing was Louis Darling.

11) Straight Boy | Explicit | 12251 words

Young, brunette and handsome, Louis attracts unwanted attention in prison. When his cellmate offers him protection, Louis accepts the offer, even though he doesn’t trust the guy. Little does he know how much it will change his life.

When he’s released from prison, Louis finds himself needing and wanting things he shouldn’t want. Louis is straight. He is. He has a girlfriend. What happened in prison stayed in prison—or so Louis tells himself.

Until he meets his former cellmate again. Harry. The guy he hates and craves.

12) Beautiful Crime | Not Rated | 13282 words

Note: This fic contins no explicit smut but since it’s a/b/o we’ve decided to include it in this monthly roundup. 

Louis is keen to defeat the one and only Alpha Harry Styles who has a notorious reputation in the entire country for his ruthlessness but a turn of events brings them on crossroads which deviate from their havens of war.

13) Anticipation | Explicit | 14156 words

Louis' a stripper. Harry's the new club owner. Louis decides he wants to get in his new boss' pants fairly quickly, but it might take more work than he thought to do that.

14) Strong Enough | Explicit | 20787 words

“So…” Liam starts, and Louis instantly knows where this is going. He’s actually glad it’s Liam that's dragging the subject out from the shadows and into the light. Louis turns to face him, mirroring his position on the couch and nods, ready for him to continue. Liam takes a deep breath. “Have you spoken to Harry recently?”

Five years after Vertigo goes on hiatus, the band comes back together for a benefit concert. Can Louis and Harry work through their complicated past, or are some wounds too deep to be healed?

15) Alpha and Omega | Not Rated | 22270 words

Note: There is no smut where someone bottoms in this fic, but it contains omega Louis, so we’ve included it in this monthly roundup. 

Louis finds a new sense of self when the son of the werewolf leader, Harry Styles, comes to town to quell unrest in the Chicago pack and inspires a power in Louis that he never felt before.

Not my own work but rather a reimagination of the book Alpha and Omega with Harry and Louis.

16) Amazing Grace | Mature | 24290 words

Harry’s a dedicated pastor who's happily married, Louis is the troubled youth that stumbles into his life.

17) A Trail Of Honey Through It All | Explicit | 27083 words

The boy in front of him, well really, the man in front of him, was like something out of a confusing wet dream. Built, tall, tan and muscular, his skin glistened with sweat after a long day of working outdoors with his hands. He was wearing a cut up old American football shirt, the bottom hem was torn and the sleeves were cut off to the point where the t-shirt was really just a loose tank top. The shorts he had on had clearly been full length jeans at one point, and were now just crudely cut off above the knee. His white socks were pulled up too high on his calves, and the brown work boots he had on were old as fuck, the leather peeling along the edges of the soles. Curly brown hair stuck out from the edges of his backwards snapback, and there was a smudge of grease wiped along his brow bone. The smattering of hair along his jaw proved that he hadn’t shaved in a week or two, the hair growing in thicker across his upper lip and around his chin. His sinfully bowed mouth was pink and plump, and Louis was suddenly hyper-focused on the way that he chewed at the toothpick stuck between his lips. He looked like he needed a shower. Louis wanted to lick him.

18) Just a Bit Twisted | Explicit | 30548 words

Professor Harry Styles is hated and feared by all of his students. Strict, reserved and ruthless, he doesn’t tolerate mistakes and has little patience for his students.

Louis Tomlinson is a twenty-year-old struggling to provide for his younger sisters after the death of their parents. On the verge of losing his scholarship, Louis becomes desperate enough to go to Professor Styles.

Everyone says Styles doesn’t have a heart. Everyone says he’s a ruthless bastard. Louis finds out that everyone is right.

He strikes a deal with Styles, but unexpectedly, the deal turns into something so much more.

Something all-consuming and addictive.

Something neither of them wants.

19) Like It's A Game | Explicit | 32223 words

There is little harry hates more than truth or dare.

20) We'll Be the Fine Line | Not Rated | 32474 words

“…Hey, Harry. It’s Louis…… um, yeah. Listened to the album tonight. It’s real good mate. Um, yeah, just real, impressed. I was kinda putting it off, ya’know, didn’t know if I wanted to listen to it. Saw you went on James and, uh, Saturday Night Live. Couldn’t watch you, have a hard time watching you on these things……. Anyway, mate, just thought I would drop a line. Don’t need to call me back. Alright.”

Louis listens to Fine Line, and, drunk, he leaves a voicemail for Harry after months of not speaking. This reminds Harry of a time before everything fell apart, slowly, painfully, a time when the two of them were still in love. And he desperately wants to go back.

21) The Space Between | Explicit | 33074 words

Living in East Verona was a privilege. One Prince Harry only found out when he decided to cross the borders into The Zone looking for entertainment, a temptation, a distraction, anything that would allow him to escape his boring, mundane life of luxury.

But what he found was something he never could have expected - poverty, destruction, chaos, but most importantly, a blue-eyed boy.

Together, they embark on a journey plagued with hazards and risks and twists and turns.

Can these two star-crossed souls fight for their freedom and keep each other safe at the same time?

22) Yes, Daddy, I Will | Not Rated | 33510 words

Where Harry is a dom and Louis is his cute little sub.

23) Last Blues For Bloody Knuckles | Explicit | 34241 words

Styles was a name everyone knew. It had evolved into something of a fairy tale, a far away problem that normal people didn’t have to deal with. Louis never thought he’d find himself falling in love with him. When he finds himself pregnant with Harry’s child, he knows he has to leave the life, and Harry, behind. For her sake.

He never expected Harry to show back up on his doorstep five years later.

24) Before We Knew | Explicit | 39593 words

Or Louis has been skeptical of soulmates for years so it seems like fate when he finally bumps into the owner of the obnoxiously large signature printed into his skin since age sixteen: Harry Styles, a human rights attorney who is firmly against soulmates.

25) Hit Me With Your Sweet Love | Explicit | 39690 words

Powerful people only end up with powerful people. The rest are just playthings in their lives. Louis Tomlinson was many things, but he wasn’t anybody’s plaything.

26) Stole My Heart | Mature | 51343 words

Louis doesn't want much. A warm bed, and people who care about him.

Harry has everything he needs, despite his mother insisting he needs a mate. Money, status, and any omega he wants, why lock his heart down.

Until Louis comes along, and steals it.

27) No Going Back | Explicit | 56102 words

Sales reps Harry and Louis are bored with their jobs and their lives. After meeting at a conference in Cardiff they hook up, have a few too many drinks, and jokingly apply to become remote lighthouse keepers. Six months, just the two of them, looking after the southernmost lighthouse off the bottom of Australia. It’s not like their applications will be accepted. Right?

This is the story of how one choice - a left instead of a right, a go instead of a stop, a yes instead of a no - can change the future forever and that sometimes, taking that leap of faith, is worth the risk.

28) Royal Desires | Mature | 66207 words

When Prince Louis falls into an early heat, his new personal guard Harry Styles is brought in as his heat partner for the time being until Louis finds a suitable royal prince to bond and take the throne with. The only problem is that Harry is everything Louis wants but can't have. Freedom, tattoos, individuality...and quite possibly love.

29) How To Break A Heartbreaker's Heart? | Teen & Up | 67447 words

Harry is straight.

Louis is gay.

Harry happens to be homophobic.

Louis has a dark past.

Harry had a dark childhood.

Will Louis and Harry unite and defy their past? Or will homophobia win for the umpteenth time?

30) Lavender Dreams | Not Rated | 77888 words

Louis is an outgoing person that goes to school for educational psychology and Harry is a biology major who happen to run into each other... a lot.

31) Be My Omega | Mature | 138372 words

It all started when the alpha laid eyes on the short curvy omega and he knew at that moment that his life would never be the same, in a good way of course.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

You can find other monthly roundup fic rec lists here.

[hand-crushing-crusher]

BAKUDEKU FIC REC 

Hey all! Quarantine has been dragging on, so here are some BKDK fics to fill your time.

All fics are completed works unless the [∆] symbol is next to it. Please note there will be no ABO fics in this rec, just cause I made a seperate list for that HERE

Enjoy!

1. ∆ The Space Between by Kanae_vR

Holding his expensive camera tightly between his hands, Midoriya Izuku looked up at the once-white letters displayed on the black storefront banner. “The Hard Luck Bar,” he murmured to himself, unsure if he was getting ready to enter or flee.

Amateur photographer Midoriya Izuku is stuck in a rut and desperate for a change of pace. Deep in his city's grimy underbelly, he finds exactly what he's looking for in the form of an underground punk sensation on the verge of their big break, fronted by a foul-mouthed firework of a human being.

Loud, brash and passionate, Izuku may have just found the creative spark he needed, as well as something new to set his soul ablaze.

2. Album Title in Progress by bkdkink

"I mean, technically, sure. Anyone able to sing can sing. But am I good at it?" Deku left the pen alone so he could gesture as though he was weighing two different invisible objects. "...Yeah, I'm okay."

Now that got a chuckle out of Katsuki.

"I wouldn't call that just 'okay'." -- OR; Izuku's singing makes Katsuki realize sex is Real™ and uses those feelings to make a bomb-ass(lol get it? cuz his quirk is...) album while also helping a self-doubting Izuku realize how fire his mixtape is.

3. After Hours by Morpheel

Dialing a wrong number was no unusual occurrence. Everyone did it once in a while, and Katsuki was well aware of that fact.

However, possessing this knowledge made it no less aggravating for him to discover — a full two minutes into his rant about his day — that he’d been venting his frustrations to a complete stranger. As if that wasn't enough, said stranger was also inexplicably determined to hear his story to its end.

4. While You Were Sleeping by Belkacaramelka (annabelleg)

The one where quirkless fanboy Midoriya Izuku rescues Pro Hero Todoroki Shouto, gets mistaken as his fiancé while he is in a coma, and gets caught up in the most unlikely fake engagement... until his childhood enemy and Todoroki's classmate Bakugou Katsuki tries to catch him out, and they both end up discovering a lot more about each other than they'd expected.

Quirkless AU based on the film; endgame BakuDeku. -- Katsuki didn’t know when the change had happened: how he had gone from asking why Todoroki chose Deku of all people, to wondering why it was Todoroki that Deku chose. Troublesome Deku, who cooed like an idiot at cats, tripped at a random catcall and sang badly. Who, despite everything, proved that it wasn’t the quirk that defined a person. Deku, who was too much, not his, and undeniably off limits to begin with.

5. ∆ Hummingbird Heartbeat by Tokiji

“The knife went through his fucking chest, Kirishima.” Katsuki spat his name into his face, mouth twisting into a vicious snarl, teeth and all. “You know that's where his heart is, right? And his fucking lungs? All the vital shit?”

Kirishima blanched. “I-I know, I just meant—”

“What, you mean to tell me that your stupid fuckin’ ass is so ignorant to forget that he lost a shit ton of blood, hah?! Yeah, it was a flippin’ knife wound, oh hoo-ray, but look at the nerd now! He’s fucking dying because of it!”

6. Addiction by MiraChaDoodles

An abundance of freckles smatters his sun-tanned cheeks, and dark green waves curl around his face. But Katsuki gets hung up at his eyes. They’re huge and green, innocent and filled with tears, just li—

Wait.

Holy shit.

Is that... Deku?

---

Or... the first time that Katsuki gets off to a porno, Deku turns out to be the star.

7. In Another Life by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)

Katsuki's never been one for gentle words, but from the wild panic in Deku's face, he knows this is the time for it.

"Deku—" The weapon presses a little harder against Katsuki's forehead and he stops, getting his bearings. "Fine. Midoriya, then. Look. I'm not going to hurt you. I swear. I'm just looking for some answers I'm hoping you can provide."

After a battle gone awry leaves Katsuki stranded, he seeks out one of the few people he really trusts: Deku. Except when he finds his hero partner, he looks completely different, and the first thing he does is put a gun to Katsuki's forehead. So that's different.

Canon-divergent future fic where Katsuki gets sent to a parallel universe during a villain battle. One where Izuku's a cop instead of a pro hero, and Katsuki himself has been dead since middle school. In a world that's different enough to be strange and similar enough to be familiar, Katsuki does whatever it takes to find his way home.

8. F.U. by warschach

Izuku smiled; Katsuki understood why people warned that the devil wore a Sunday hat and fine clothes because deception worked better if no one expected it.

Not anymore. He knew Izuku’s evil ways, and his ass might be a 20 on the hotness meter but Katsuki held grudges.

“Izuku,” he sneered; he too could be evil right back.

(or Katsuki's a football player; Izuku's a cheerleader; they have a rivalry until it isn't one)

9. Oh My God They Were Roommates by Maginot

Bakugou had really, actually moved in with Deku.

They were roommates.

Oh my god, they were roommates.

In which Bakugou's hero insurance bills seem to climb with every explosion he makes, and Izuku happens to have an extra bedroom and an absurd amount of patience for his childhood best friend.

10. And It All Keeps Coming Back to You by GuardianMira

Ground Zero and Deku are the world's top two heroes, constantly knocking each other out of the number one spot. Their rivalry keeps them both sharp, and while Katsuki would prefer to be the undisputed champion, he’s not unhappy.

The thing is, he’s still a virgin. It’s not like he’s shy. He just doesn’t want to waste his time with people who aren’t good enough for him. But he’s admittedly let his personal life fall by the wayside so that he could focus on being a big damn hero. Anyway, now that he’s finally thinking about it, it’s clear there’s only one person who’s worthy of being with him. His oldest friend. His rival. His permanent pain in the ass. The only hero alive who comes close to being Ground Zero’s equal: Deku.

[ms-maj]

Thrill Me, Chill Me, Fulfill Me

It only took three weeks to get six songs in, it’s cool. This one ended up being way harder than it needed to be. Song(s) that make you want to dance- Time Warp (or really any song from Rocky Horror). 

This is also the part where I heap copious amounts of gratitude at the feet of @theheavycrown​ for making this cohesive and also for the PERFECT graphic. She is best. 

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Jughead tried to get comfortable in his white boxer shorts and undershirt— he’d drawn the line at tighty whities—but without his beanie, he felt exceptionally exposed. 

Betty looked at him, wearing nothing but a thin satin slip and a bra that looked equal parts uncomfortable and sexy as hell. “I did no such thing. You were a willing participant when we discussed…”

“It’s hard to say no to you when your mouth—” her finger came up to silence him. 

“We’re here for Kevin, remember? It’s his first performance outside of Riverdale High and we promised we’d support him,” her finger lingered on his lip until he nods, smirking she slowly dragged it down until his eyes narrowed and he nipped at the tip.

Jughead could say, without question, that The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not his scene. He’d seen the movie, or parts of it, just once and decided pretty quickly that there was a reason it was a cult classic. He’d heard that it wasn’t the film, or the show, per se, but the event. The spectacle was what made it so special. Sitting in an auditorium full of half-naked people who ran the gamut of ages did not assuage his initial fears. Nor did the prop bag in his lap. (Why exactly did one need a rubber glove AND playing cards?)

But, Betty’s easy smile made being there just a skosh more palatable. The theater was dark, intentionally, he was sure. It was atmospheric, the din; the fraying curtains, the worn seats, the broken lights lining the aisles and running across the spanse of the stage. It had the faint underlying smell of decay he associated with places people refused to let go of. It lingered in every corner bar or old department store. It was the dirt and the dust embedded so deeply into the fabric of a place that removing it was practically sacrilege to the patrons. 

He could understand the appeal, wanting to preserve a piece of history as it was remembered. Just looking around at the crowd with their many costumes, some presumably older than himself, would attest to that. 

And being the cinephile he considered himself to be, he thought that being part and parcel for one of the biggest cult events in history would be more…

(Finish below the cut or on AO3)

“You made it!!” Kevin sashayed up the aisle to where they were seated. Betty, in all her scantily clad glory, leaned over him to stand and greet their friend. She did not return to her seat, just perched herself prettily on Jughead’s lap.

Kevin looked every bit in his element. Of course, if you were playing Dr. Frank-n-furter, you’d have to be damn good, and completely confident in yourself. He was assuredly both of those things, with his stocking-clad legs and red pumps. His black-gloved hands rested against his corseted waist as he apprised the group.

“I love that Archie looks the most uncomfortable even though he and Veronica are the only two in your group that are wearing actual clothes,” Kevin laughed as Archie flipped him the bird from their end of the row.

It had somehow been decided, if he remembered correctly between Betty and Cheryl, that the couples would be dressing as Brad and Janet, through the various stages of the film. Veronica and Archie got wedding Brad and Janet, Toni and Cheryl were dressed like the mannequins from the end, and he and Betty, underwear. 

“Who’d have thought Jughead Jones would come to Rocky Horror as anything but Eddie?” Betty threw her head back as his arms tightened around her midsection.

“Those Veronica’s pearls, Kevin?” 

“Of course,” he winked back. “I hope you’re ready for this, especially you virgins!” Before Jughead could question him, Kevin was headed back toward the stage and Betty was sliding off his lap and back into her seat, an indecipherable look settling onto her face. 

“Hey,” Jughead started leaning closer to Betty, “what does he mean virgins?”

She shrugged innocently. “Guess we’ll find out.” She pointed to the center of the stage where Kevin was now standing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, non-binary and gender-fluid friends, and my sweet, sweet transvestites, welcome, to Rocky Horror!” Kevin transformed on the stage, he owned it, he was Frank. 

The crowd whooped and hollered.

“It’s been brought to my attention that there are several very special virgins in our midst tonight,” he said, stalking across the stage toward the side of the theater they were seated at. 

“What are you gonna do to ‘em, Frank?” Jughead heard yelled back, a smattering of voices throughout but most surprising, three from right next to him. 

“We’re gonna pop your cherries real good tonight, virgins!” Jughead could feel the blood drain from his face, stark white aside from the crimson lipstick V that adorned his cheek.

“Betty,” he said lowly. “Please tell me this scarlet letter isn’t going to lead to my very public humiliation?” 

“C’mon Jug,” she cajoled from beneath the thick veil of her eyelashes. “You like a little humiliation.”

He growled without meaning to. “I like to be the one doling it out, Elizabeth, you should know that by now.”

Her soft hand landed on his thigh. “Maybe you’ll just have to make me pay for it then.”

Eyes narrowed on the half-naked marvel next to him, he ran his tongue ran across sharp teeth before his mouth settled into a ravenous smirk. The words in his throat died as the house lights went down and the spotlights hit the crowd. 

“All virgins—those of you who were marked upon coming in—please make your way to the stage!” Kevin’s voice cut through the haze, snapping Jughead back to the present and making him painfully aware of the torturous glint Betty’s eyes had taken. He noticed more than a few people making their way to the stage. Veronica had stood pulling Archie up behind her, inching their way toward him; the aisle.

“We’ll see if you’re smiling later, poppet,” Jughead didn’t miss the way Betty shivered when the words hit her. He let Veronica and Archie pass before standing, raising a warning brow to his girl and stalking toward the stage. 

He could hear them: Betty, Toni, Cheryl, cheering for them as they hit center stage, but with the spots firmly affixed back to the production, he could barely make them out in the audience. 

“Look at this collection of delightful little V’s. Aren’t they just the cutest?” Kevin was wedged between an ever-increasingly anxious Jughead and Archie who, fully clothed, was enjoying being in the lights. When Jughead scowled in response to Kevin pinching his cheek, Kevin moved down to Veronica who preened under his attention, much to the delight of the crowd. “Don’t they just look good enough to eat?”

A chorus of delighted cheers ran through the audience.

As the lights followed Kevin down the line, the crowd became a little easier to discern. He could feel Betty’s eyes on him, even before he could fix her location. From the stage she looked absolutely in her element, shouting out random things along with Cheryl and Toni, looking way too comfortable in her underwear. He hadn’t been too happy about that if he was being honest. No one else was supposed to see her that bare, and yet, the possessive pride that swelled in him when she caught every passerby’s eye was enough to let him overlook punishing her for that particular offense.

Her smart mouth was another story. And so was this. Whatever this was.

And then he felt it. Something awkwardly large, not firm exactly but not soft either, something that prickled at his skin and pulled at the hair was thrust between his knees.

What he saw when he looked down is red. A balloon. A glance down the line assured him that he wasn’t the only one in this particular predicament.  With the quirk of an eyebrow and an impressive flourish, Kevin produced a giant hatpin; his eyes took on a wicked glint and he was standing at Jughead’s side. 

“Time to get rid of those pesky ol’ cherries!” Kevin paused and faced the audience. “One! Last! Time!” They all shouted in unison.

The ‘pop’ of the balloon Jughead was prepared for, even if he did jump a little. The moans from Kevin as he went down the line and took care of the rest of the balloons were also anticipated. What came most unbidden was that Jughead seemed to actually be enjoying himself.

It was probably because the whole process wasn’t half as humiliating as he’d imagined it would be. Or maybe he was just realizing he was one minute closer to being back in his seat. One scene closer to excusing themselves from their friends. Just a few more hours before he and Betty were back in their quiet little apartment (quiet until he had her screaming that is).

The newly devirginized were released to the raucous crowd, Jughead walking back with much more fervor than he’d gone up with. Maybe it was the ritualistic nature of the whole thing. The cherry popping or the dressing up or the audience participation lines that so many of the patrons knew. He only knew that the energy was palpable, it flowed through the space like electricity, crackling and sparking all around him as he finally sat back down. 

Betty was watching him from the corner of her eye, he could see her jaw clenching from biting her cheek, presumably to keep from smiling. “Something amusing, Elizabeth?” 

Their eyes finally met the moment the opening number began. She shook her head. “Nope,” the pop of her ‘p’ struck him like lightning.

“That’s good to hear because we’re already at ten when we get home, poppet. Five for knowing what was going to happen here and not telling me, and five for how much you enjoyed it,” Jughead sat transfixed, watching the graceful curve of her neck stretch as she sucked in a ragged breath. “Now watch the show.”

Her pretty, pink tongue slipped between plump, pastel lips as she turned her attention back to the stage. Before long, she and Cheryl and Toni were tossing lines out with the best of them, helping their virgin friends with their prop bags and truly embracing the spirit of Rocky Horror.

“So! What did you think?” Betty asked as soon as their feet hit the pavement. Archie and Veronica were doing the Time Warp as they walked out the door with several other revelers, Cheryl and Toni, now wrapped in heavy robes, were singing their best Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me’s, all-in-all he’d have to say the night was a success.

He stopped, wrapping his arm around her midsection and pressing his large, flat palm against her stomach. “It was something.”

Leaning back into his embrace, she turned to their friends and asked them the same.

“Well,” Cheryl started, tossing her crimson locks back behind her shoulder. “It’s Rocky so, I can understand how the production value could look like it costs less than a Jan Terri music video—”

“Get Down Goblin is a classic!” Archie interjected from behind, dancing his way into the circle. 

Cheryl turned to Archie, crimson-tipped fingers menacingly pointed in his direction. 

“Be that as it may, Ginger Rogers, I was simply stating a fact.” 

They kept at their squabbling for a while, the four of them sniping back and forth with no real venom until they grew bored of it. Jughead was just happy that the attention was finally off of him and his girlfriend. His hand crept higher, pressing her tighter to him as it came to rest fully on her ribcage, the other played with the band of her slip, fingers fluttering against the soft skin there.

Leaning up, Betty’s mouth landed at the juncture of his neck and ear. “You ready?”

The heat of Betty’s breath juxtaposed with the cool October air left trails of goosebumps down his already exposed skin. “Yes,” his voice had taken on a gravel-like lilt as the hand at her hip squeezed tightly. 

“Then let’s split, my creature of the night. I wanna be dirty.”

“Hot patootie, bless my soul,” he loved how it felt when she laughed pressed up against him. “Now tell our friends goodbye so I can take you home and remind you how good girls behave.”

The words were barely out of her mouth before he had turned them down the sidewalk and toward the subway station. It wouldn’t be long now before they got a taste of just how much pelvic thrusts could drive you insane. However, if that was insanity, Jughead Jones wanted no part of being sane. 

[fandomdancer]

1, 7, 22, 30, 40, 46, 49

Original post below so you can see the list. I am answering these questions but if you are interested in hearing more, I can answer more!

1:  What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded?

I have two OCs right now I could answer this for, so I’ll actually answer for both.

My first OC is Talia Talbot. I was brainstorming names and just wanted something fun and carefree-sounding. The first thing that popped into my head was ‘Tabby’ with ‘Tabitha’ as the full name. My brain just decided it didn’t want the ‘kitty cat’ subtext and I started thinking of names with the same rhythm. ‘Tally’ came next, with ‘Talia’ as the full name, and I got stuck on it. As for ‘Talbot’ as the last name, I was literally just thinking of last names that felt right and and ‘Talbot’ just sort of popped out of my mouth. So really - ‘Tally’ was kind of a random name that had the right rhythm and it stuck. ‘Talia’ itself means ‘gentle dew from heaven/by the water’ which is a soft and beautiful meaning and kind of fits her personality. She is the steady person in her relationships, the listener, the supporter.

The second OC is Roslyn and to be honest I haven’t decided on her last name yet. My original idea for the character was a rich girl with an aristocratic name. I asked my girlfriend for help and she replied: “Roslyn” without hesitation. I don’t usually choose the first name that comes to mind but it sounded so absolutely perfect, the only thing I asked was: “Roslyn or Rosalyn?” She said: “Roslyn” and that was that. So...I don’t have her maiden name, but that is how I got Roslyn Thawne (yep...you read that right). The meaning of her name is ‘gentle horse/rose’ and while I know the story she is involved in, I’m not sure if the meaning of her name fits.

7:  Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)?

Tally tries to keep her swearing down. How does she do it? Usually by muttering: “For the love of....” without actually finishing the sentence. Her frustration level can be determined by how loud, soft, fast, or slow she says it!

Roslyn is a big fan of asking questions without actually asking them. She’ll flatten the end of a sentence so she isn’t actually making a questioning sound, but usually the sound that comes out is pretty sarcastic. “Really...” is something she’ll say, usually to let someone know they’re going too far, or doing something completely ridiculous.

22:  What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have?

Tally and her best friend Ren (short for Renault...but only she can call him that ;) ) have matching tattoos. I know they have but honestly I don’t know what they are yet haha. (They’re both still in development)

Roslyn is even less developed so I’m not sure of any distinguishing characteristics. I know she has a smattering of freckles on her face and her significant other (Eobard) does like to kiss them when he feels affectionate.

30:  When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like?

Tally loves music. She listens to most kinds from all decades, from Billie Holiday and Kay Starr to Elvis Presley and The Runaways, to the Bangles and the Backstreet Boys. She does prefer songs with lyrics and doesn’t spend a lot of time in the classical or smooth jazz range. She does have a solid appreciation for movie scores. She has a tendency to annoy the Wells (EoWells and Harry both) by blasting classic rock when she’s burying herself in work, but Cisco will often drop by for an impromptu dance party. Film wise - she gets along like a house on fire with Cisco Ramon so the two of them share their love of classic - and not-so-classic - films. She’ll quote scenes from Die Hard with him over the course of a day, and then flop down with Buster Keaton and a bowl of popcorn in her off hours. She isn’t big on going to the theatre for plays but will sneak over if it’s a musical or a dance show (like Riverdance).

Roslyn received piano lessons at a young age (which she eventually traded for violin lessons), and is definitely quieter than Tally when it comes to musical tastes. She enjoys film scores, orchestral or symphonic music, and even band music when she can get to it. She considers opera to be an impressive vocal achievement but doesn’t listen to it on a regular basis (unless Eobard’s listening and letting it play in the house). Roslyn doesn’t quite enjoy sitting and watching many films or plays or television but will do it occasionally. She prefers to be outside, enjoying what nature she can.

40:  Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others?

I actually can answer this for Ren, not Tally or Roslyn (because I just don’t know yet). Ren’s guilty pleasure is comedies. He was a more casual fellow before the catastrophe that ripped him and Tally apart, but later he comes off as very grumpy and dark. No one would suspect his favorite actor is Dan Aykroyd and he secretly loves to watch Addams Family and Get Smart and Max Headroom.

46:  What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover?

Tally will blow kisses at Ren randomly. She doesn’t do it during serious moments like when they’re at work, but relaxing, or even at a dinner party, she’ll send one when she thinks no one is looking (however, someone often sees).

Roslyn knows Eobard isn’t huge on contact so she adapts the Vulcan affectionate gesture between Sarek and Amanda, and usually keeps two fingers in contact with a part of him when there is need for support or when her heart is full. Eobard will at times be more comfortable with contact, and instead of letting her rest her fingers on him he’ll take her hand or place his hand on her opposite waist. When the two of them are truly alone they are in much more prolonged contact with each other but in most situations it’s just the two fingers.

49:  What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood?

Tally consistently dreams about the final moments of her Earth - Earth-15. As she spends more time on Earth-1, the dreams are less frequent but they still happen. They heavily affect her mood at first but again, over time, the effect lessens. She never truly stops being affected by them and they never truly stop. Sometime she dreams about what actually happened, and sometimes her mind makes up alternate. She has woken with a start, woken normally but disturbed, woken screaming, woken crying. In a few short hours, she lost everyone and everything but the clothes on her back, and she is scarred from that for the rest of her life.

Roslyn doesn’t start to really have nightmares until she sees how far Eobard is falling into his obsession with The Flash. She dreams often of him turning on them, or leaving them. Little does she know their daughter Melody also dreams of him killing them. This is an additional strain on her marriage to him, particularly when he begins to say and do things she thought she had only dreamed. She is watching her husband and the love of her life descend into madness and she is helpless to stop it.

Original Post:

Get to know my character

Reblog this so your followers can spam your ask box. Have fun! ♥

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded? 02. What is one of your character’s biggest insecurities? Are they able to hide it easily or can others easily exploit this weakness? 03. What would be their favorite physical trait about themselves? 04. What are their favorite traits about their lover? (one psychological and one physical) 05. Are they sexually confident or more of the shy type? 06. Do they have any hobbies that their lover finds unusual, odd, or otherwise annoying? 07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)? 08. What is, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it? 09. Do they have a favorite season? What about a favorite holiday? 10. Is your character more feminine or masculine? 11. What is something that would make your character fly into a rage? 12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up? 13. What are your character’s sleeping habits? Heavy or light sleeper? Blanket stealer? One that always rolls onto the floor? Pushes their lover onto the floor? Sleep talker or walker? 14. Do they live alone or with family? How do they feel about their family/roommates? 15. Is there a certain person in this world that they cannot stand? The very mention of this person’s name makes them tremble with anger or fear. 16. Is your character the athletic type or more of a couch potato? What are some sports/games that they like? 17. Does your character have dreams of getting married and/or having children? 18. What kind of home would they want to live in? Where would they place this abode? 19. Would your character be the kind to get into fights? (physical or verbal) Would they be a good fighter or cave in rather easily? 20. Does your character like animals? What are some of their favorite animals? Would they want pets? What about mythological creatures? 21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear? 22. What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have? 23. What is your character like when it comes to school? What subjects are they good/bad at? Do they get in trouble a lot or are well behaved? 24. In their own words, how would your character describe what their lover is like? 25. Is there something traumatic from your character’s past that greatly affects them even to this day? 26. What is their lover like sexually? How do they feel about their lover’s quirks, needs, etc? 27. If your character was going to get arrested, what would be the most likely reason for it? 28. If your character became a celebrity, what would they be famous for? 29. What is one of the most courageous things your character has ever done for a loved one? 30. When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like? 31. Would your character be the kind capable of killing? Would they enjoy killing or only use it when necessary or, perhaps, refuse to kill no matter what? 32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do? 33. If your character wanted to be alone, where would they go? 34. Does your character have favorite foods? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, etc) 35. Is your character afraid of death? If they got to choose how to die, how would they want to go? 36. Does your character have any medical conditions? Are they serious or minor? Do they affect their day to day life? 37. What are some of your character’s pet peeves? What are some things that annoy them or disgust them? 38. What kind of weather does your character like? Cloudy skies, rainy days, sunshine, etc? 39. When people look at your character, is there some assumption they might make about them just by appearance? Is that assumption correct? 40. Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others? 41. Does your character’s family affect your character in any way? 42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change? 43. Does your character have a switch that changes aspects of their personality whether they are around friends, family, etc. Is there someone who gets to see their true self? 44. Is there a particular event that would emotionally devastate your character? 45. Is your character the kind to hide their true emotions or do they wear their heart on their sleeve?

46. What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover? 47. Is your character outgoing? Would they be the leader of the friend group, or the quiet one that gets dragged along? 48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious? 49. What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood? 50. If your character confessed love to their crush, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc, what would they say?

[hellopugeroni]

21 questions tag

I got tagged by @cantseemtohide​ 😊

RULES: answer 21 questions, then tag 21 people you want to get to know better.

nickname: V or Vee

zodiac: Taurus

height: 5′3″ (160 cm)

last thing searched: A recipe for matcha cake. 

favorite musicians: I honestly have the most random and eclectic taste in music. I generally just listen to anything I think sounds good (lol). 

If you had a time machine, would you go back in time or visit the future? I don’t think I would want to know what the future holds, but I also don’t think going back in time would be productive. I’ve seen and read enough sci-fi to know that there are some serious consequences if you disturb events that took place in the past. 

do I get asks: I mainly just get tags, but not a lot of asks. I don’t mind getting the odd message here and there, but I am glad that I’m not a “popular” simblr. I don’t think I could keep up with answering everything.

following: (how many I’m following?) 110

would you rather be rich or famous? Neither is particularly appealing, to be honest. In my field, it is possible for someone to become “well-known” (maybe not “famous” on the same level as a movie star or musician, but everyone in the field knows your name and your work). I don’t know if I want to be known as a “superstar academic” but I wouldn’t mind being known for the work I do. It’s just nice to feel respected by your colleagues. :) 

amount of sleep: I try to get at least 7-8 hours. I’ve gotten a lot stricter about having a bedtime as I’ve gotten older because I cannot function on little sleep. 

what I’m wearing: A sweater and jeans - I’m getting ready to go to my weekly writing group and it’s a little chilly this morning.

dream job: I wanted to be a journalist when I was in high school, but I don’t think I would be cut out for that career, especially now with how insane the news cycle is and how some state figures (won’t name names) have turned people against journalistic integrity. I am very happy with my current path in teaching and research because I am, by nature, a curious person and I love discussing ideas in depth. I also really enjoy contributing new knowledge to my field and teaching my students how to look at culture in different ways.

dream trip: Well, Japan was one of my dream trips (and I just went there back in August)! I also want to travel more in Asia.

if you were an animal, what would you be? A friend once told me that I was kind of mouse-like - not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not. 

what are some of your favorite books/films/shows/games/etc? The majority of what I read nowadays is for research and I do have some books in my field that I would say are my favourites because they have been so influential to me as a scholar (I know, what a nerdy thing to say). However, I will spare you all a list of boring academic books. A few works of fiction that I’ve read recently or that have stuck with me over the years are Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, A Map to the Door of No Return by Dionne Brand, and Beloved by Toni Morrison (I was really saddened by her passing this summer).

I haven’t been watching a lot of television lately, but I am very excited for The Good Place to start up again this week (though I’m actually a season behind ... just hoping it finally gets added to Netflix Canada). 

As for games, The Sims all the way. :) I have fond memories of playing TS1 and TS2 with my sister when we were kids. I didn’t play TS3 much because it came out when I was in undergrad and I had a crappy laptop that couldn’t run the game (people who wax nostalgia for TS3 sometimes forget that you really needed a beast of a machine to run the base game + all the darn expansions). My partner bought TS4 on sale a few years ago and I started playing it as a way to de-stress from my grad school work. 

play any instruments: Piano, but as a child. I don’t play it anymore. My dad also tried to teach me how to play guitar when I was about 10, but he’s not the most patient teacher and was very frustrated that I have small hands and wasn’t able to do chord changes very well (lmao). 

language(s): English is my native language and I can speak French. I also speak a smattering of German. 

describe yourself as aesthetics: Like what is my personal aesthetic? I don’t know if I could describe it specifically, but I dress very collegiate (like collared shirts, pencil skirts, etc. I’ve been known to wear a blazer with jeans and a t-shirt too). 

I think most people have done this tag at this point, but if you haven’t (and you want to do it), consider yourself tagged. 😊 

[emeraldsiren19]

Completely different anon here. Hiya. Something that occurred to me this morning is that with all these hokey leaks from JediPaxis, this is the very last part of the trilogy of a very important franchise. He really has nothing to lose by lying his head off, & frankly I think he's enjoying the hubris of the attention. While there may be a smattering of truth to some of the leaks (i.e., we see Rey wearing a necklace in the Vanity Fair photo), TBH I think he's blagging it 99.9%. Reylo WILL happen.

Good morning Anon! 

I promise that you can take all the “leaks” with the biggest grain of salt in the galaxy. Don’t ever forget that Domhnall (Hux) and Richard Grant have discussed at length the INTENSE amount of security measures that DLF is giving to the production of the ST that would rival any government organization. Anyone that claims to have insider knowledge and is not employed by DLF is lying about any alleged “leaks”. Some people think that lying about anything makes the most friends and the happiest life which couldn’t be further from the truth and only makes life worse when they are called out it. 

The “flukes” are just that. The saying goes “a broken clock is right twice a day” or something similar and this is no different. He’s taking random stuff that was already known from interviews and production stills, etc and modifying it to fit his “theories” and I even hesitate to call them that. Even the ACTORS don’t know details outside of their specific scenes so Random Joe Smith is not going to have any more information that they do. 

TROS is the only movie I have paid any attention to during the production process and, while I have no issues with spoilers because the final product is always a surprise from beginning to end, I do avoid leaks because they’re always from someone with nothing better to do with their lives beyond constantly lying to everyone else (who takes them all seriously unfortunately) because 99% are fake. By giving in, the perpetrator is being validated that they can get away with what they do with no repercussions.

It has been WIDELY publicized that Adam (Kylo) knew going in before filming what the end result would be as far as the character and general storyline. Reylo was endgame the second that the opening crawl came on the screen in TFA. Not to mention, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the Force is INCREDIBLY DESTRUCTIVE to the point of near-apocalypse when Rey and Ben don’t get along at the end of the first two films, because they are the balance the galaxy needs to survive. You don’t even have to be a Reylo to see that happening. And DLF would never end a sacred 40+ yr old franchise on a dismal note with no redemption, no Happy Ever After between the prince and his girl, etc. It will all work out in the end. Promise. 

Thank you for the ask :)

[thesweetblossoms]

A Ship Called Repose

Thoughts on Space

The differences in between living in a big or a small space, impacts the quality of life, the ability to generate ideas, to encumber happiness, to design imaginary or real worlds, and is the three dimensional stage to play out the rapidly flickering scenes in ones life.

It is in our bespoke covens, nests, tree scraping lofts, Connecticut colonials or gargantuan cloud kissing condos, where we find replenishment, sanctuary and respite between the daily hustles, or where we bind ourselves to our sun bleached and white cotton sheeted beds to heal, or where we wander carelessly into the garden to pick roses, dahlias and sunflowers.

Our home is also the location of our most frequently visited chair, in which we lounge to read, or watch film, or to sip tea, to write poetry, or to carelessly surrender to intense reveries. It is our private corner of the world, a well deserved, personal, protected cavern, that we are given fleeting, yet certain time to create; to draw, write, design, research, dance, paint, craft or more.

Perhaps, it is with this knowledge, that I often notice, that the brightest, shimmeringly awakened and unrepentantly positive people, are the ones that are unequivocal determined, focused and hellbent on creating happiness in whatever space that may find themselves dwelling within. They are unopposed to tiny quarters in a hive of a city, with spatial possibilities limited to a single pair of shoes or a lone pot, or they may be unalterably content with a suburban semi detached Spanish colonial townhouse with many rooms and a southwestern sunset facing balcony, or, they may be well aware of their fortune to live in a minuscule Parisian flat with a dainty crystal and tapered candle lit chandelier, black and white marble tiled floors, large silver decanters filled with old garden roses by a plum pink velvet settee and French windows left open to receive bare breezes perfumed with magnolias, or even, they may call a Cadogan Lane London attic room with piles of robin eggs blue linen and gilt edged books, a scraped cherry wood writing desk by the window, a canopy bed, a English tea and Italian coffee station, their home. For as long as we are surrounded by space, often, with a few entities that enhance it, for myself, a blue apothecary vase with a single christening gown white cosmos blossom, a cornflower blue and white striped wool blanket, a Japanese misty blue ceramic cup with Earl Gray tea, a smattering of flickering votive candles, the company of candid palos verdes, date palms, and saguaro, with their slumbering frames, struck by decanting silver, from the mid November waxing gibbous moon that falls like a prayer over the desert. It is a sanctuary.

A Ship Called Repose

I recently learned of an U.S hospital ship named Repose, it is where, the elderly mothers of one my co-workers served as a nurse during the Korean War. The practice of naming ships, is an emotional, elegant and imaginative art. It consists of infusing planks of wood, steel, cotton sails, twine, and netting, with a personality, a thought, a memory, a vision, a dream or an idea. There is a mysterious transmission of energy when one names an inanimate object, imprinting a particular charm, through the names meaning, symbolism or poetic nuances. The way something is addressed, influences its adventures, demeanor and personality, as it sails through treacherous mists, mischievous icebergs, and restless plates under the sea.

Saving A Life

Isn’t it amazing how a friend could save a life? For example, a friend could call up at a random time in the afternoon and ask to meet up to hang out and drink coffee, cajoling one into accepting the invitation at the cost of changing an original plan, only to find out later, that the spontaneous meeting, caused one to be be away at the time of a monstrous and horrific attack at a public venue, thus actually, unknowingly and blessedly, rescuing their friend from a fatality. Of course, friends save one another in less dramatic scenarios; easing and tempering the stings of the everyday, like a balm of aloe upon a burn, they do it perhaps over long years of friendship, from surprise sweet 16 birthday parties at midnight, and continuing the birthday wishes, onto their second marriages, or even through newly introduced sparks of companionship, by sharing novel perspectives, cultures and worlds, or sometimes the level of nurture, is so entrenched it is barely discernible, when the friend contacts you without fail, every few months, to catch up, or to share a happy story, or it could be from a level of safety and confidence, that is the mark of friendships that are taken for granted, like the ones you know exist even if you haven’t seen them in a long time. Friends are our lifelong security blankets, encouraging ones hobbies and artistic pursuits, applauding or supporting ones life’s choices, attempting to provide sound advice on a decision, yet respecting ones actual choices. On a dull Tuesday, a friend could exonerate you from mild depression or blanketing numbness, by inviting your to their wedding, even many years after law school is over, or they could be the graceful omen enroute, coming to meet you at the airport for an afternoon, in Hong Kong during a stopover, to catch up, eat delicious Chinese food, before you fly to Vancouver, or they could saturate your scene with the rich fragments of their own, by inviting you to travel to Cambodia to visit them while they are working at the UN War Crimes tribunal, or it could be a sudden, hurriedly planned meeting at the plaza bar at the Scottsdale Princess, when you find out that they see visiting, from Bangladesh, for a three day, international cotton conference, and you are lucky enough to meet them by a blazing fire, with French 75 cocktails, phenomenal sunset over the desert backdrop, savoring varied conversations, of snippets that color the past, or updates regarding the current happinesses, goals and distractions, or dreams and ideas for the future. I realize that, like much else in reality, friendship manifests in a chain, so that when you save one friends life, you also save another.

Upon A Rocket

I believe that comparison with others steals from our own light. Noticing and tallying others accomplishments is a futile and unnecessary waste of time, acting as a distraction from our successes, fortunes, or individual circumstances. For we seldom understand the true picture of another persons struggles, motivations or habits. We often only see the casual, brilliant and lauded results, as the long effort, the heart ache, the doubts, the resilience or the ability to carry forth despite setbacks are obscured. For very few share the stories of their previous projects that barely made an impact, or the initial forays that left one disheartened, or the lack of traction even after immense numbers of hours and intense energy expanded on an activity. Without these insights, any iteration we observe or are privileged to see from the individuals highly curated, strategically placed and positive tinted news is less meaningful. Unfortunately it is a disturbing facet of human nature to try to inspire envy or jealously in others, as we often feel better about ourselves in context to other people. Yet, when we undertake any activity with an audience in mind, we are negating various rich, complex and nuanced aspects of the scene that is difficult to enjoy as well as show off at the same time. For hardly any picture, conveys the magical, hypnotic and charming qualities of an early morning sunrise, or the dark relief from the first sips of milky coffee, or the way the Sunday afternoon light transfixes and ignites the garden chrysanthemum, cosmos, tuberose, tomatillo and basil blossoms. We never know the denial of extra hours of luscious slumber, the eschewing of dark chocolate and pistachio cake, and the many sets of push ups that a dedicated person may do consistently and regularly to enhance their body image in a pair of designer skinny jeans. The will to persist, to chip away at a goal, to come up with new ways of thinking, to continue at a seemingly thankless task, or pick up again on a project, even though growth seems eons away, is not apparent, for we only see the celebrations, the accolades, the start up venture capital infusions or the news of an highly valued exit. While it is true that some aspects of competition are unfairly stacked, such as the access to capital, or a network of influential people, or the fortuitous luck of being placed upon a rocket that is about to launch off, yet, often the truest successes come from more intricate details, such as ones relentlessness, positivity, endurance, work ethic, clear sighted and undeterred vision. Therefore, rather than stew in any misgivings, or suffer the jaded tinges of envy, we should focus on the moment we have in hand, this precious, often fraught, ridiculously scant, and unfathomably poignant window of time, we realize that we are masters of our reality, that what we see or experience might be just as crazy, brilliant, mystical or awe inspiring if only we would look at it, patiently, clearly, with wonder, in a new way, with every new breath, rather than squandering our thoughts and energies on others.

Immeasurable Songs

There is a calming ritual of sitting with someone and lingering in the tonic of silence, of hearing the soft inhales and the unhurried exhales, secured in a mutual understanding and respect for a respite from conversation, a common affinity to merely sit together, yet in solitude. This level of comfort may arise over many years acquaintance, or sometimes, immediately, when one encounters a similar fan of muted worlds, a kind of understanding of the desire to seek the healing powers of the inaudible realms, or a desire to learn more from the universe sans sound.

Quotation Marks

Words take a special meaning when surrounded with quotation marks. Even the simplest words such as “magic” or “healing” or “love”, for when, these words are heralded and chaperoned by symbolic punctuation marks, these take on a new character, as if they are inexplicably more potent, as they are being used as a reference, that another mind or energy spoke, wrote or thought of them, that they are relevant, mulled, contemplated and considered. Sometimes, the most beautiful thoughts and ideas have already been thought, and repeated again, they take on different nuances, shades of meanings and emotional responses.

Hummingbird Winged

It is the Sunday before thanksgiving, I am sitting in my petite balcony garden after yoga, the approaching midnight sky is the color of spilled indigo ink with distant, snowy clouds streaked like a seven layer chai. The chorus line of palms are at rest after a tender, hummingbird winged, gold nectar and emerald leaf flecked autumn day. Higher among the fading lines of mist, the moon reveals tipsy constellations, it is the aftermath of contented leisure hours, twining with the mysterious, faint visions of the future. Below me, in the quad the floating lunar emanations, remain steadfast, upon the frothing, atmospheric sea, while its cache of silver, traces poems, charms and shadows across the grass, lantana and oak trees rooted beneath. My votive candle’s, fragile, gale tempered filaments, scintillates the dreaming marigolds, sweet alyssum and jasmine plants, engulfing me in a minty, sand edged, bittersweet, hopeful and potent perfume, yet, I feel the sinister edge of darkness, the unwelcoming palos verdes, eucalyptus and mesquite trees, and I pull my thick blanket higher over me.

Walk Through Walls

Darling reader, anything that you find challenging or difficult, instead of lingering on the seemingly impenetrable impediments, tell yourself you see only possibility and accomplishment, turn the obstacles into a heady challenge, savor the strenuous activity, or the long winding, uphill, and peril ridden road, as acknowledging the barriers let’s us see them clearly, while extinguishing them increases our confidence and skill.

Scattering Petals

Why would the universe follow any other rulebook for life? For living entities follow certain, inherent, irrevocable and immutable rules. It is like a flower, after it is planted, it becomes a seedling, it buds, it produces nectar, it makes new seeds, then in dies. But what stage are we at the current moment, within the universe as well as in own animation?

Mermaid Totem

My love for seashells began when my I was a serious, curious and extroverted little girl. The bewitchment carries itself past the invisible channels of palm swept, seaweed sprayed and dune grass steeped memories; of the lavender, peach and marigold painted sea at Coz Bazaar beach on the Bay of Bengal, opening to the Indian Ocean, to the mists and mountains soaring above Hong Kong bay and to the many picnics to the azure, eucalyptus crowned Sydney beaches near our Darling Point home during my childhood years in Australia. But, the obsession cantors past early reminisces, streaming closer to the present moment, from experiencing the sand, flotsam and stone gilted shore at many of the edges, curves, points, coves and angles, where the earth conspires with the sea. These precipices into watery realms, include, Costa Rica, Montauk, Martha’s Vineyard, Bali, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Marbella, Cassis, Malibu and many more. Yet, currently living in the Arizona desert, the distinct energy of the sea is richly palpable, perhaps as being situated in a land that was once the ocean bed, itself, embedded with copper, quartz, aquamarine, chollas and prickly pear cacti, adds context as well as offers faint hints to the secret, hidden possibilities, undulating unknowns and shaded mysteries of the seemingly bottomless seas. Or perhaps, because, here, between low mountain crested valleys, beneath sea level, I am ruthlessly separated from the waves, denied, even, murmuring laps, from Toronto’s Lake Ontario, Vancouvers Burrard inlet, or Manhattans East River. Therefore, the organic, tender, emotion ridden shells, seem like fragments of my soul, drifting into reality, like a slowly gliding seagull, as a tangible, barely pink, amber, lilac, spotted, striped or shaded objects. These fragile conches, pearl grazed scallops, sand dollars, cockles and junus volute shells leave no sense unturned. They transfix me upon their sight, causing me to pause, breath and notice their indelible energy, or I lift one up like I did as a little girl to my ear, to hear the wondrous rush of my blood, or the sea, for they could be the same, or I’ll stroke a piece, my preferred totem to awaken, for my emblem is unquestionably a rose and a shell, or I’ll lift one to my nose to imbibe the lingering perfume of the obscured, inimitable, hypnotic, salty, mineral and brackish composition, but on moon drunk nights meant for alchemy, enchantment and romance, I may nibble upon a fresh oyster and submerge recklessly, softly and irreversibly into Neptune’s star drowned kingdom.

Palm Fronds

While sipping down my tea hurriedly, eager to rinse, wipe and store my nebulous pink striped Paris cup in the cupboard, in order to move onto the next activity, a chamomile infused realization wanders into my mind, and I recognize how guilty, I am of moving too quickly, risking the passing of chance, predestined, or dream like elements of experience, without grasping its beauty, solace or grace. Yet, sometimes in the rush to seal deals, to create products, to appease the economy, in providing childcare, in nourishing our own homes and bodies, we unknowingly numb ourselves to those charms that linger in a space devoid of velocity. So when we are at leisure, with no motive to create, to work, to think, scheme or organize we might let our consciousness slip into different layered realms that comprise reality; our eyes might see drifts of jeweled pollen falling in a denuded, musical shower, in waves, swirls and pirouettes, laced with the future, infused with wild herb nectar and faraway gypsy songs, while backlit by copper, amber and dewy flecks of the sun, or we might notice the poetic energy, tension and unheard music, surrounding the extinguishing of a candle flame, by a moon swathed November breeze, or we might be reminded that taking a walk and cutting dove white sweet alyssum, prom dress pink snap dragons, palm fronds and a sultry bird of paradise stalk from the apartment grounds is the ideal choice among other more fruitful seeming plans, activities or intentions. Slowing down to arrange flowers, is one of the greatest joys of these often meandering, yet mostly galloping hours. Colluding with blossoms, requires, a level of calm, so as not to shock, insult, or perturb, these subtle characters, our breaths also, must match the identical level as theirs, our minds must be clear, meditative and open to appreciate the haunting loveliness of petalled whorls, the shy cups, or fussy temperaments of botanicals that linger so briefly among us. I enter spaces beyond the present when I handle flowers, perhaps a dimension, beyond or before time. My other concerns drift away, like lilacs in the early spring, while languorously deciding which of my carefully cleaned antique, ceramic and apothecary vases to fill with comfortingly heated water, then, unhurriedly deciding which leaves below the water level to strip, or which flowers to place in the heart of the bouquets, which blooms to add as a supporting cast member, or if a fern leaf is necessary as an alluring accent, next, I am unfazed by larger contexts, rooted to the earth, while considering the scene before me, deciding where to place these flower and water symphonies, by our beds, on the dining table, on the coffee table, consoles, work desk, by the sinks and more. I discover my heart with these collaborative creations with nature, these gathered translations of ecstasy from my garden, or from the terrain whereupon I currently dwell, found on atmospherically charged, romantic hikes in the desert.

My Paris Apartment

If you don’t write down what you want how ever will you get it? For there is a power of self actualization through the craft of embedding words onto a blank page, but it must be balanced with the risk of being presumptuous or arrogant, for in one bewilderingly scant life, we have far too many barriers to achieving all the dreams we might be capable of birthing. But throwing caution to the cascades of drifting clouds, my list of delicately simmering desires, include living and working with my family in Paris, or spending hours painting in a light saturated watercolor botanical studio, or traveling to outer space to see our earth hanging indolently like a drop of opal upon a scrap of ebony velvet, or to play the piano hauntingly at an ancient English country house with views of a mature and exuberant stone walled rose garden, or to eradicate poverty with new financial technologies, or to be able to defy gravity and fly over oceans, deserts, hills, caves and meadows, or to discover an edible wildflower that allows us to travel in time, or to visit hidden, secluded, gem like islands on earth and lazily swim in untainted waters, or to develop theories on consciousness, love, memory, pain and reality, to maybe buy a Bottega Veneta purse, to dance a little bit every day, or to fall deeper in love with the mystery of being alive.

Toronto in November

I returned to Toronto after an absence of nearly a year and a half, during which my memories had matured slightly, yet remained tenuous and raw, lingering in that bittersweet space time continuum of recent experiences, that slightly hazy window of closely trailing past, that appears relentlessly fresh, even though, in actuality, a couple hundred of days have passed so quietly, steadily and unalterably by. I took the train from Union Station passing King Station, the old Toronto neighborhood, where, I had lived for more than two years, the days often beginning with croissants from St Lawrence Market and capped by evening coffee and legal study sessions at the King Edward Hotel. Though my purpose for a late November excursion to Toronto, was to attend a Professional Practice and Conduct course at the Law Society of Ontario, I made use of all my precious free hours to return to a few of the places that had unfailingly enraptured, charmed and inspired me, during my time in one of Canada’s most dynamic cities. I had coffee at Fika Café, before, savoring every second in the the wild, incense smoke enfused, bohemian, gorgeously designed and free spirited ambiance at Kensington Market, I continued a food and wine oriented trip by sipped green tea and dim sum on Spadina, dined upon mesmerizingly evocative Thai food at Sabai Sabai, feasted upon, redolent, scrumptious and creamy mushroom and chicken crepes at Coquette cafe, reacquainted with the much loved and delicious lemongrass beef at Ginger and imbibed delicate coupes of Cava at Constantine at Yorkville. I stayed with my sister who cooked our mothers chicken palif recipe, appropriately substituting cranberries for raisins, medium rare steaks and salmon cakes, and plied me with bottles of sauvignon blanc, wine from nearby Niagara vineyards, and foamy, rich and frothy cappuccinos, she also made breakfast omelettes, parathas and turmeric stained potato bhajis. I also relished engorging the Law Societies tantalizing spread of incredible buttery croissants, clementine danishes, hazelnut tortes, mocha marble cakes and more with foreign barred, future Canadian barristers and solicitors. During, my visit, I also was able to indulge in my beloved Toronto pastime of lingering and reading books at Indigo, relishing the incredible evening downtown energy while, perusing books on floral design, makers and lifestyle. The sartorial elements also shaped my visit to my childhood hometown as I carefully considered and choose from the beautiful and minimal tops and dresses that my sister lent me, experimenting with her aesthetic of clean, modern, and flowy pieces from COS, bright J Crew emerald green cropped pants, Peter Pan collar shirts, a Harvard maroon wool coat, and seal gray suede boots, effectively letting me relive the persona of a Torontonian in multiple overlapping dimensions of dress, culture, food, and other lifestyle categories.

Memories of my visit to Toronto in the attenuating days of 2018, isn’t complete without mentioning the friends I met there, including coffee fueled brunches with apple cake desserts with childhood friends from our navy blue and white school uniform days, or hanging out with old friends from UofT with bubble tea or negronis, to making new friends at the Law Society course while deliberations upon exceedingly difficult, heartbreaking and perplexing conundrums regarding legal confidentially and privilege that lawyers contend with. For each friend, of many moons, or of the latest season, acts as a channel to experience the momentous and unique energy of the particular scene: the present in a prosperous North American city, with early snow, mixing with banana yellow falling leaves, sunset-pink rosebuds enrobed in frost, plant, macrame and old book lined coffee shops, people buying chips and other sundry items at Shopper Drug Mart, fusion cuisine, newly debuted ballets, concerts and basketball games, each frame enriched by the people that comprise the town.

Yoga In The Dark

One of the session in my legal course, mentioned above, dealt with wellness in the legal profession. The speaker delivered an interesting, persuasive and informational speech regarding, not only the resources available for lawyers who are undergoing stress, depression, anxiety, burnout or substance abuse, but also the paramount importance of availing help, advice, counseling or support at times of need, confusion, pain or despair. No matter the line of work we are engaged in, any individual may benefit from learning more about strategies for wellness and how to navigate uncertain, unhappy or turbulent times. Speaking to people about issues helps us to understand our experiences and to consider the elements with altered perspectives, to make the situation clearer for ourselves, to alleviate the burden of carrying ones problems alone, for as the lecturer mentioned, ones own mind can be an exceedingly dangerous place. One may also find a measure of solace in reading about another’s similar experience, such as those who might have survived divorce, a terrorist attack, an earthquake or other shattering calamity. But, beyond recognizing certain patterns in the way that misfortune is meted out, or finding recommendations and sound advice on how to circumnavigate the chilly roads that lay before us, when we discover that people before us have mirrored our sorrows, or fell off a stony precipice of poisonous emotions, have floundered upon unrelenting waves of doubt and uncertainty, or have found themselves in dire rapidly disintegrating sandbars, yet somehow, in some fashion, in the infinite mercy of random tears in the fabric of reality, surmounted and risen above their unsavory circumstances, we realize we are seldom alone in the darkness, and not for very long. Thus, I often seek the kind words endowed to us in the past, those paragraphs, acting as healing lifelines, reminding us to meditate, to drink forget me not ceramic blue cups of chamomile tea, to bathe in the stars unhampered by the third quarter moon, to design a floral arrangement of brilliant orange marigolds in a copper cup, to read about the paintings in The Wallace Collection, to do yoga in a palo santo, sound bathed and houseplant infused room, to make banana, vanilla, cinnamon, almond and kefir smoothies, to sleep and mediate in abundance, to dance a tiny bit every day, to play with children, to allot hours for a carrot seed oil facial, bright manicures and pedicures, and a dry brush followed by homemade rose coconut oil, or to talk walks to collect sprigs of eucalyptus while breathing pure, untainted air.

Tuberose Perfume

When I lean in to imbibe the heavenly, poetic, soft, scintillating, ecstatic, blissful, romantic and haunting perfume of a quietly unfurling tuberose in my petite balcony garden, I linger into a separate, singular, alchemical, hidden and unimaginably gorgeous realm within reality. It is merging of senses, but an exoneration from the barriers of our own, limited human understanding of time and space. For drowning deeper into the stellar performance of a tuberose in the late morning on the first day of December, in the desert, awakens, enlightens and mesmerizes us. We learn about drama, about healing, about the palliatives offered from nature, in its simple, pure, elegant, graceful, sensitive, hypnotic and intelligent spell.

I wish I could offer you the perfume or the tuberose blooming under the waning crescent moon, it is an exceedingly peaceful time and we are lucky.

[daleisgreat]

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

The time has come to put a bookend to keeping up with Kevin Smith with today’s entry focusing on his latest film, 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (trailer). Before we get there, I feel obligated to say I was a huge fan of his first half of his career, primarily of his old ‘View Askew-niverse’ days when he first started off with affable stoner characters, Jay & Silent Bob being carryover characters in his first several films. I think I saw Clerks and Mallrats at least five times each and feel safe in saying those two would stand the test of time, especially Clerks. I dug Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when they originally released in my teenager days, but cannot help but think I outgrew Smith’s style of verbiage and humor he honed in on by that point, and have a feeling I would cringe at going back to them. I think I would like Zack & Miri and Clerks 2 more if some certain scenes got nixed. I thought Jersey Girl and Copout were not among his best, but both solid studio comedies and a nice way to mix it up from his regular output at the time. Red State felt like a hard left turn for Smith, and some parts I detested, but it kind of came together towards the end. Tusk however was absolute dreck and upon hearing how his follow up Yoga Hosers was an all-in spinoff of Tusk caused me to avoid Yoga Hosers at all costs and casually back away from the Kevin Smith fandom. This brings us to Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The sequel/reboot to 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. 18 year-old Dale, eagerly anticipated Strike Back, rushed out to see it opening weekend and poured through the DVD in multiple viewings of it and all its extras in the weeks after it hit home video. 37 year-old Dale however ignored Reboot during Smith’s nationwide tour where the only way to see it for several months was when Smith was touring it to boutique arthouse theaters and doing a Q&A afterwards for around $50-80. I only reluctantly picked up Reboot a few weeks after it hit video when I noticed it was on sale for half off and thought for that price I could get my fill out of it with some expected callbacks and cameos that were a big standout in Strike Back and I hope would save Reboot….and that is essentially what happened.

Reboot kicks off with Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) up to their old shenanigans loitering outside the Quick Stop, until they are promptly arrested, but saved in court thanks in part to their attorney. The attorney then informs he just tricked them into signing away their names to big budget Hollywood studios who want to reboot the Bluntman & Chronic movie Jay & Silent Bob failed at preventing in Strike Back. Worst of all, the reboot will be directed by Kevin Smith who is advertising fans to attend a fan fest in Hollywood to audition for a cameo! This leads to the duo condemning Kevin Smith, and travelling across the nation to stop Hollywood once again. Conflicts arise during their journey when they run into Jay’s old flame, Justice (Shannon Elizabeth) who informs Jay that he is now a dad. He soon meets his daughter Milly (Harley Quinn Smith), who brings her friends to tag along in order to win that cameo spot in the movie contest. I do not want to be a downer, but the actual core movie I did not care for that much. Jay’s potty-mouth humor had me in stitches in its small doses when he was a side character in the early Smith films, but it is agonizingly overkill here. There are the occasional gags that landed, like a certain free bonus a cab driver offered that appeared a handful of times throughout and Kevin Smith is legitimately good at portraying a kind of over-the-top grating version of himself at the fan convention. Jay eventually putting in an earnest effort at being a good dad in some of the final scenes culminated in some touching moments with Milly. These core parts of the movie that I enjoyed though are only peppered throughout, but what wound up saving Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was the avalanche of cameos littered from beginning to end.

There are some expected cameos from Jason Lee and Ben Affleck coming back as their former View Askew-niverse personas as Brodie and Holden, respectively. I feel safe saying that is not a spoiler since those two had extended cameos relative to the core plot in Strike Back and more-or-less do the same in Reboot. However for the rest of the film, well….I think Kevin Smith dialed in a lot of favors because this is one of the most impressive deluge of cameos in a film yet. Some play amped up versions of themselves, while others are quirky shillers for Funko Pops. During those struggling first two acts of the film, the saving grace was seeing who would pop up next and what Smith had in store for them. There are countless blink and miss it callbacks and references to other View Askew lore and Smith fandom throughout, especially at the convention in the end. I remember Kevin Smith’s early movies being loaded with extra features, and while there is a fair smattering here, it is comparatively lackluster to the deluxe sets from yore. I was stunned the BluRay omits a commentary track which are usually present in most of Smith’s home video releases. I do not blame him since he re-watched it dozens of times on his nationwide tour, but……hold on scratch that after a quick Google search it appears a month ago Smith released a special quarantined-themed commentary track for the film for free on YouTube that can be found right here. Good on him for that! Actual extras on the BluRay are highlighted by a near hour-long bonus merely titled ‘Cast Interviews.’ It is a barrage of two-to-three minute interviews from nearly all the major and minor/cameo players from the film. Lots of good little anecdotes in there and well worth your time! Following that is a half hour extra where Mewes and Smith interview a variety of the cast and crew which a third of is dedicated to….one major cameo I shall not name here. I will give props to Mewes for randomly getting quick interviews from some of the behind-the-scenes crew to make sure they get their proper due. Wrapping up the bonuses is the requisite blooper reel that does not disappoint and a two minute Hair Reel which is solely of Smith and Mewes adjusting their hair between takes.

Part of me wanted to say Reboot was the ideal farewell film of Kevin Smith to watch, but I see he has Clerks III in the pipeline, so I will ultimately have to cave and check that out too. Regardless, if you are a lapsed Kevin Smith fan and wanted one last trek with his style of comedy you grew up with, you kind of get that here and you also get why you left that in the past too. Regardless, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot does have its moments, and the cameos make it well worth riding this out until the end….including all the bonus shots/alt footage in the credits, lots of gold in there too including one last cameo I did not anticipate. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[sweet-star-storybook]

Hey all, back at it again with the random posts, aha. I have been working on something that will formally address the month long art / comic hiatus I’ve been on, but that’s taking a bit longer than I expected. So as a break (I guess?) I took it upon myself to update what I call my Original Stories Timeline, i.e. a chronological list of all of my story ideas (as of October 2019 anyway). I have not posted this list anywhere, but I like to update it on my laptop every now and again.

There is a bit of ambiguity with some of the years that these were made, as sometimes there’s a difference between coming up with the title or lead character for a story versus actually making it a “thing” with an idea or scenes attached. As an example, Moth to the Flame technically began when I first drew Kiida in April of 2015, but aside from a snippet of reasoning for why she was an archer, the story as it is now did not start to take form until I drew Zander in December of 2017. Other times I flat out can’t remember when some of these stories were made, and digital files don’t always have the correct dates. 

For this post (and for curiosity’s sake), I wanted to add up and categorize them to see just how many stories I have in this brain of mine. It was actually quite a fascinating exercise, so I thought I’d share! I might as well list the titles for each category too, even if some of these are only titles at this point. I’ve renamed a few over the years and others are still working titles, but if any pique your interest at all, feel free to send me an ask about them! I love chatting about this stuff. :)

This got quite long once again so I’ll put it under the cut. Enjoy!

Stories that are old and/or need revamping: 6

Titles in this category:  Pasha & Marley (2003), Sonora (2004), Billy and the Rainbow Fish (2005), Spirit Fire (2006), The Darkest Light (2013), Polarity (2013).

These are stories that I’ve either had since I was a kid and would need overhauls to make them usable, or are simply dormant stories that I haven’t touched in a while and may need similar upgrades. This doesn’t mean that I will revamp all of them, but either way they serve as an interesting look at my progression as a story writer and character designer. My oldest story dates back to around 2003, and to put that into perspective, I was 8 years old that year.

Stories that are just titles / a smattering of ideas right now: 10

Titles in this category:  Fletcher (2016), The Dragons of Kitevale (2016), King Ace (2017), Ochako & Mai (2018), Psychanimate (2018), Mage Lights (2019), Trickster’s Gambit (2019), Switching Gears (2019), The Owlands (2019), Goodnight, Starlie (2019).

I always have too many of these for my own good, but this happens a lot if I have stray character designs that I think could maybe go together, and then before I know it the gears start turning in my head to add something more. I’m also really good at coming up with titles and logos to make me love the idea even more, even if there’s not much else to it. I guess you can blame my affinity for wordplay and clever puns for that, haha. Coming up with titles is really fun, but at this point I don’t know what kinds of stories these will be if I choose to develop them, so I gave them a separate category. Making this timeline reminded me of how many logos I still need to make!

Short films / animatics that I could also make into short comics: 7

Titles in this category:  The Aurora’s Child (2016), Blue (2016), Harpy (2017), Hearth & Lantern (2017), Leif & Shel (2018), The Healer (2019), In Your Orbit (2019).

My background in animation has afforded me the skills of writing for animation, specifically short films. I have always loved short films that communicate their story through little or no dialogue, and using the character’s actions and emotions to do the talking instead. Unfortunately my dreams of making a short film during school did not come to fruition, but that doesn’t mean the ideas have to go away, regardless of what form they take. I’ve made too many at this point to stop now anyway! I will likely do both a comic and an animatic for each one I decide to flesh out, as I want to practice both kinds of storytelling and they each have their advantages. Plus I could potentially make a comic anthology of these shorter stories in the future. Much like the animatics, the comics would likely be “silent”, in that they communicate more with action than dialogue.

Things I call “illustration worlds”: 2

Titles in this category:  Fruit Bats (2017), Lucky Stars (2019)

This one is a bit strange to explain, honestly. I picture these as more of a series of character interactions rather than a cohesive narrative, i.e. snippets of ideas carried out in a bunch of individual scenes, portrayed via illustrations. I am reminded a lot of the character interactions that exist in concept art for games and movies (the ones from Spyro: Reignited Trilogy come to mind). These illustrations would feature characters that could be in any sort of environment or setting, and we learn more about their personalities through each one, whether it’s a simple domestic scene or a fantasy world. There may not be anything much deeper than that, but there doesn’t have to be. A great deal of energy and expression can still be shown with these, and I love illustrations that have their own little stories contained within them. I could even compile them as a series of themed illustrations, hence why I still gave them titles (and once again, titles are fun).

Novels / story ideas I don’t plan on making into comics: 2

Titles in this category:  Shining Trigger (2014), A Mightier Pen (2017)

I’ve always loved writing long-form prose ever since I was a kid, and based on how many words these posts end up having, I can’t say much has changed! As such, I’ve always wanted to write a novel someday, but it does require a different skill set than script writing. With my background in animation and my new love of comics added in, I’ve done a bit of both. I might do novelizations of some of my comics later on, but these stories are, for the most part, better suited as written prose in my mind. They focus more on the characters and dialogue, rather than an imagined visual design. Not to say that novelists can’t paint detailed pictures of a character or world’s attributes, but it is communicated differently via words than pictures, especially when you consider the mind’s eye of a novel reader. That “design” has to be malleable enough for the mind’s eye to interpret, but clear enough so the reader knows what it is. I’d have to make sure that any reader could picture what I’m describing with my writing alone, and that’s a difficult balance to strike for a primarily visual storyteller such as myself, but a challenge worth taking nonetheless.

Large comic stories that have big worlds, a lot of characters, etc.: 3

Titles in this category:  Starglass Zodiac (2015), Id Pariah (2015), Feather Knights (2017).

I call these “The Big Three”, as they are the stories that will take the most world building, character creation, and story development to complete. They will have multiple chapters, expansive lore, several character arcs, you name it. I am very excited to tackle all of this development of course, but I want to make sure these are given the time they need to come to fruition. These projects will take me years to complete, which is why I choose to balance them with smaller projects in between. The potential these stories have is not something I want to squander, so even if the production moves slower, I feel it’ll be worth it in the end.

Smaller comic stories with fewer characters, simpler concepts, etc.: 5

Titles in this category:  Moth to the Flame (2015), The Onomancer (2015), Demon Exchange (2018), Take Wing! Emilia’s Tale (2018), Ashes (2018).

This is worded kind of strangely, but this category is meant for stories that have a smaller “scope” than the larger comic stories I mentioned. That doesn’t mean I love them any less or that they’ll be less developed, but they are far simpler in concept and rely less on the development of a massive world and lore and more on individual character experiences. I feel like any creator needs these smaller projects to tackle every so often, especially when tackling the behemoths gets tough. These stories will also have a faster turnover when it comes to completion, and I hope to complete one of these stories in the near future. These will also help me practice writing good foundations for stories, like proper character motivation, pacing, and relationship development that would translate into investment for the reader. There’s a great degree of skill required to do this correctly for any kind of story, but starting smaller in this regard is usually better.

Smaller stories that are supplements or spin-offs of other stories: 3

Titles in this category:  Counting Hearts (2019), The Serpent and the Sun (2019), Riders of Eldrigar (2019).

I know it probably seems a bit early to be thinking about stuff like this, but I do like thinking about the extended stories or supplements that I could add to my pre-existing projects, especially with characters or ideas that would best be told separate from the main story, be they backstories or another perspective on something. I also like the idea of stories that could exist in the same worlds, but can function independently of them as well. It’s a lot of fun to see how these could connect with each other, like having your own equivalent to a cinematic universe. This category currently only has smaller supplements to my comic stuff rather than fully fledged sequels, but who knows what might happen later on? I need to make the beginnings of these stories first!

And with that, the grand total is: 38!

-me after reading this total and spending way too much time on this post-

In all seriousness though, while it is a bit daunting to see just how many things my brain keeps tossing at me and how much that number has increased in recent years, it does make me excited for the future, even if I panic about time a lot. It tells me that I always have stories to tell, and new ones could be right around the corner. I’ll always have something to work on at least! I might periodically update this post as I edit the timeline as well, but for now, thanks for coming along on this little journey with me! :D I hope it was at least entertaining, haha.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #483

Top Ten Non-Predictions About Not-Quite E3

So E3 is upon is at last! Nearly. Almost. Sort of. A bit. But after a year in which the world-famous videogame trailer convention and Keanu Reeves meme factory was sidelined by this virus thing (Google it), it’s nice to have a major entertainment landmark back in the calendar.

Last year was a bit frustrating, but also interesting. For a long time I’ve wondered about the need – as a consumer – for huge conventions such as E3. It makes sense for the industry, sure, the same way Sundance or something does for film: it’s a way for creators to showcase their wares and hopefully secure deals or employment. But as a way of showing to the public games that are in development, or announcing new things, it’s seemed old-fashioned for quite a while. It requires developers and executives to turn into PT Barnum or something, hawking their wares on elaborate stages, titivating their offerings with dances and celebrity appearances. Sure, sometimes it’s genuinely excellent and entertaining, but most often it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. With many companies now engaging directly with fans by releasing curated videos that announce their games in their own way, in their own time, would that not have been better? If last year is anything to go by, then no, not really. What we got – and this may have been in large part due to 2020’s unique circumstances – was a long, long summer and autumn filled with rumour and conjecture, and occasional, uninspiring videos, often featuring CG trailers, often for games that were literally years away. On the one hand, lots was announced; on the other, it all felt vague and woolly, and the slow drip-feed did nothing but build anticipation to unrealistic proportions. Without E3 serving as some kind of anchor point – in time, if nothing else – then the spray-gun smattering of videos, trailers, and announcements felt disparate and a little disappointing.

And so it’s back! But not quite. Because, understandably, the huge convention aspect is gone, replaced by a wholly online event. And whilst this may be detrimental to people who want to secure a distribution deal for their game, it might actually make for better showcases for us, the unwashed masses. Instead of a ninety-minute stagebound light entertainment extravaganza that ends up feeling like a ten million dollar school play, we’ll (hopefully) get tightly edited videos that highlight the games, alongside trimmed-down and relevant talking head interviews from developers explaining what we can expect and just how many bumps they’ve managed to map this year. At least, that’s what I hope will happen.

Of course, exactly what E3 is nowadays is a bit weird anyway, and this year exacerbates that. Loads of companies seem to shun the show itself but schedule their presentations for the same week or thereabouts, giving us, what, a fortnight (with a “gh”) or so of things to look forward to. I mean, it feels a bit weird putting this list out a full week before E3 formally kicks off, but I wanted to try to pre-empt any interesting amusing reveals that might occur in the days preceding (at the time of writing, Nintendo haven’t announced a new Switch, despite everyone on Twitter saying it was due any minute now). To be honest, I always like to look for the random stuff anyway, as the huge games tend to be known about or heavily rumoured well in advance (it felt like an open secret for at least a year that Playground Games were developing a new Fable, for instance, and we were just waiting to see when Microsoft would announce that). So I’ve tried to make these predictions daft, wish-fulfilment, or at least offer some kind of personal spin on the sort of thing we might expect. And, of course, as someone who tends to prefer to play on Xbox or Nintendo, there will be a skew towards those companies (anyway, Sony don’t really have a presence at E3 nowadays). And like I’ve said before, the really personal wish-fulfilment stuff I always used to “predict” in these things have started to come true – we’ve got Fable and Perfect Dark on the way, and we had Crackdown 3 a couple of years ago. If it goes on like this I’m just going to have to start wishing for loads of old Amiga games to get rebooted.

You heard it here first: E3 2022 is when we get the third-person open world Ruff ‘n’ Tumble reboot we’ve all asked for.

Anyway, here are ten predictions for E3 that probably won’t happen.

Halo Infinite multiplayer beta: we know Halo will be there, because it’s front and centre of Microsoft’s little announcement picture thing (along with what appears to be a bit of the Starfield logo). As the image also seems to show multiplayer Spartans, I imagine this will be the focus rather than more campaign gameplay. I actually think this is a big risk, as the main criticism of Halo last year was that its graphics weren’t good enough; typically, I’d say, the campaign visuals are stronger than the multiplayer portion, which tends to focus on elegantly designed levels and fast-moving gameplay. I wonder if there’ll be another, longer look at the campaign sometime later in the summer, in a dedicated Halo presentation. Anyway, one thing I think MS will do to curry favour is announce an imminent multiplayer beta. Maybe there’ll be a sign-up, but I think it would be cool if it was available for anyone in Game Pass Ultimate. It’s a way to get people to sign up for the service, and that seems to be Microsoft’s main goal right now.

Games ready to play RIGHT NOW: Psychonauts 2, Age of Empire IV, and the Xbox version of Flight Simulator have all been given age ratings recently, something that only happens relatively close to a game’s release. I think that at least one of these – maybe all three! – will be shown at the Xbox presentation, and then declared to be available immediately on Game Pass. Again, it bigs up Microsoft’s service, and would also be a cool mic drop moment for games that might be anticipated but aren’t quite the triple-A behemoths of Halo, Fallout, or Gears.

All the rays, nicely traced: one thing that’s been a bit frustrating as an Xbox Series X owner is the lack of genuine next-gen feeling experiences. I’ve really enjoyed the upgrade from a base Xbox One, and playing a game like Gears 5 feels like a huge improvement (and it’s gorgeous too). But I want to see crazy stuff that the old box couldn’t do, and not just in higher resomolutions. One of the things that I’d love to see is more ray-tracing; this is a next-gen graphical treat that, to me, feels like when I first saw games with dynamic coloured lighting twenty-five years ago. So I hope we get a proper reveal/release date for the ray-traced Minecraft expansion, but I’d also love it – now that Xbox owns everything – if the ray-traced version of Quake 2 was announced for the console. Give me them rays, Microsoft!

Quaking: speaking of the Quake series, it’s the first game’s twenty-fifth anniversary this year, and I think it needs some love. Now, id are working on their Doom reboot trilogy thing, so I don’t expect to see a fully-fledged reimagining for a few years yet, but how about re-releasing the original game on modern consoles? Doesn’t need anything fancy, just like the ports of the first Doom that are ten a penny. Quake is a bit more complex to port, it’s true, but I still think it’d be amazing to see it on consoles before the end of its anniversary year.

Nothing but Star Wars: outside of the Xbox-Bethesda conference, I hope we see some lovely, lovely Star Wars goodies. There are a few projects in development, but I’m gonna stick my neck out and say that we’ll get a fairly long look at the Knights of the Old Republic remake/reboot, a very vague teaser trailer for Fallen Order 2 (maybe even just a title reveal), and a teaser for the open-world game from Ubisoft. I don’t, unfortunately, think we’ll see anything of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga until the Lego livestream later this summer, but for what it’s worth I’m not expecting that game till Christmas now.

Old games on Switch: I think one of the things Nintendo is going to announce is a bunch of older games coming to the Switch. We already have Skyward Sword coming, but I think we’ll hear about other classic Zelda games coming in the anniversary year. Maybe remastered Metroid Prime games too? And I think they’ll do another one of those battle royale-style versions of their classics, maybe the first Donkey Kong?

New games on a new Switch: the sheer weight of “New Switch” rumours seems to suggest it is real, but when are they announcing it if their E3-ish Direct is all about software? I wonder if we’ll see some new games for Christmas ’21 going into ’22 that are then revealed to be enhanced by this mythical Super Switch. We’ll probably see a bit more of Breath of the Wild 2 (although I think there’ll be a bigger Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct later this year). I’m gonna predict Pikmin 4. And vague teasers for both a brand new Metroid Prime game, and also for Mario Kart 9. And all of these will be designed to run better on Switchy McSwitchface. Whenever that comes out.

Microsoft buys more companies: I just think this is inevitable, and I reckon we’ll get another announcement next week. Which companies? God knows. The Flight Sim guys maybe, or The Medium developers. Or, I dunno, Team 17. Probably not Sega, as funny as that would be. Maybe a medium-sized Japanese developer. So, yeah; Microsoft’s spending spree isn’t quite over.

Sony’s not-E3 announcements: Sony appears to be skipping E3 altogether, again. So when will they have their next big video presentation? I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long personally. So what will they talk about? I’d have thought we’d see the next Spider-Man revealed this year, but the big chitter-chatter at the moment is the whole “cross-gen” conversation (my opinion is: who cares?), and also when their games will come out. well, call me pessimistic, but I think Horizon: Forbidden West will end up being early 2022, with the new God of War and Gran Turismo ending up as late 2022 releases.

Crazy talk: I think this has ended up being a relatively straight and rational list, which just won’t do. So let’s get some wild ones out of the way here at the end. Sony announces remastered versions of Lemmings and Lemmings 2 for PC! Microsoft is making new games starring their Avatars! Double Fine release a PC version of Scurvy Scallywags for Game Pass! A brand new Duke Nukem! Lucasfilm bring Ron Gilbert back to oversee a reboot of Monkey Island! Nintendo announces Switch Sports! Gabe Newell announces VR support for Xbox Series X with an exclusive port of Half-Life: Alyx! Peggle 3! Phew, glad to get that out of my system.