#actually our real anniversary was monday

[asordidbarwere]

ONE WHOLE YEAR since I met the most perfect sweet angel to ever grace my life with their presence💖💗💕💗💖💗💕💗💖

[steterweek]

Steter Week 2024 - Text Prompts

Happy 10th Anniversary to Steter Week!!

Please enjoy our selection of new prompts and prompts from years past below!

SUNDAY, JULY 28TH

GLOW-UP/MAKEOVER Did someone come back from college or a long vacation looking hotter than ever? Did one of them decide to change their style in hopes of attracting the other?

OR

MURDER HUSBANDS Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2018. You know what this classic means!

MONDAY, JULY 29TH

99 PROBLEMS Is the pack dealing with an influx of issues all at once? Is Stiles struggling to juggle all of his responsibilities? Does Peter have a bunch of problems, but they're all actually his feelings for Stiles? You're in charge here!

OR

HUMAN PETER/CREATURE STILES Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2014/2019. What it says on the tin, folks!

TUESDAY, JULY 30TH

UNEXPECTED CROSSOVER "Teen Wolf" meets PBS's popular Masterpiece show "All Creatures Great and Small"? That bisexual firefighter from 9-1-1 has a threesome with Peter and Stiles? One of them decides to become an elementary teacher and ends up student teaching at Abbott Elementary? The entire world is your oyster!

OR

WEREWOLVES ARE KNOWN Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2014/2018. How does it change things if werewolves are a known entity in the world?

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31ST

REKINDLING AN OLD FLAME Are Peter and Stiles finally going to see if the hot and sex-filled summer they had years ago, that no one knows about, can transfer to a real relationship? Or is what's being rekindled more of a... spark? ;)

OR

FEUDS Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2022. The Hales and Stilinskis have a rivalry spanning generations?  Stiles and Peter have a petty feud going on for a petty reason?  If it fits your definition of a “feud,” then it falls under this day!

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1ST

LOWERED EXPECTATIONS Stiles lowers his expectations of what his dating life looks like? Peter lowers his expectations of the pack's behavior? They both lower their expectations of how their dream wedding day will play out? Surprise us!

OR

PACK OF TWO Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2020. Another classic that you can't go wrong with!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2ND

THE CLOTHES YOU LOSE IN THE DRYER END UP WITH YOUR SOULMATE Everyone has lost a sock or two, right? Well, what if they ended up appearing in your soulmate's dryer? What if, instead of just a sock or two, it was your entire load of laundry??

OR

NECKZ N THROATS AU Anniversary prompt from Steter Week 2018/2019. Unfamiliar with this AU? Read in-depth about it here!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3RD

FREE DAY! Had a prompt you didn't get to? Have a prompt you wish we'd included this week? Want to ignore all prompts and just vibe? Need to pretend the idea that you've wanted to get to for a while but haven't yet is the prompt so that you can actually do it? Today is the day for that!

Curious about other prompts used for the Steter Weeks of previous years? You can see the full list here.

Check out the visual prompts here!

[lutiaslayton]

Hi! I really love your timeline analyses and have been thinking about them a lot as I try to write my own Layton longfic. (I hope you don't mind me referencing your timeline and puzzle research for it ^^;) It's very well done! I have a hard time figuring out so many details at once like that, so it's been a huge help.

...I don't want to be annoying or overly nitpicky when I point this out, but I just thought I'd mention something.

We know that Dropstone was founded on August 12th (by the JP version) and Layton travels there on its 50th anniversary (also August 12th). In your deduced timeline you have that arrival date down as Wednesday the 12th, 1963. The year with a Wednesday on an August 12th is actually 1964. In 1963, the 12th falls on a Monday.

I don't know if the day being a Wednesday specifically matters at all, or if Layton's days of the week aren't in sync with ours, but from what I understand, your timeline might be 1 year behind. (Or that date was meant to be Monday the 12th...?)

I figured with SLS (one of my favorite fics ever, by the way!) being in 1953, a detail like this could be important to you, but you can totally ignore this ask if I'm wrong! I just wanted to let you know just in case.

Hi! The fact that you picked up on this is a true testament to your dedication and rigorous work, congratulations!!

I haven't touched this timeline in a long while for a number of reasons (far too many other projects + "um actually I think there might be multiple timelines and you can't put every single game/novel/manga/movie/other in the same chronology but it becomes soooooo much more interesting if you start placing them in multiple ones, also puzzle theory makes that not only plausible but also quite probable"), so sadly I have forgotten most of the details of how past me from over a year ago reached the conclusions that she did. From what I remember, however, the quick answer to your question is simple: yes, the days of the week in the Laytonverse are out of sync with ours.

(I kinda like how I take it as a bigger reminder that the Laytonverse really is disconnected from our world's History in a number of ways, from the mention in the novels of kings and queens that do not exist IRL to the simple logical fact that there is no way History happened the same way when mechas are a thing, the Azran happened, Targent happened, and also puzzles break the laws of physics daily. But that's just personal preference.)

I think what started it was the fact that London Holiday takes place on a Sunday and that I could not find any way to make the whole "a few days ago" for both Curious Village and Diabolical Box work alongside the "They arrive in Dropstone on August 12th." I won't redo the math right now because schedule and to-do list and other stuff (+ I trust you more to check it since your brain cogs are already warm and revving in the middle of it, so you would be more efficient at figuring it out as well as more critical than present me), but if memory serves, this was the best I could manage at the time, and I never went back later to recheck the math. I really just stopped at "Yes, there is a desync, so what? That's not supposed to be the real world anyway. Also huge kudos to whoever notices."

---

My mind is set on the fact that the Layton timeline places the original trilogy on the year 1963 because of the promotional UF artwork implying that UF would take place during the winter between 1963 and 1964, but that part is personal preference since I know (and stated on the timeline web page iirc) that in-universe, this date does not appear in the game. I know other people use for example the "Year 1960" unused artwork which had been datamined from Curious Village. I also know that the World of PL interview just says "There is no official date, it's inspired from the 1960s but we are never going to give a date because we don't want to." I also also know that some others, who consider the PLvsAA crossover canon, take the Ace Attorney timeline and thus completely yeet the "1960s" part into oblivion.

So the choice is ultimately up to personal preference, and you're free to choose a different one! The only reason I put 1963 in the timeline instead of "Year YYYY ; Year YYYY - 50 ; Year YYYY + 1" and such is for obvious readability reasons... and because past me had not thought that perhaps there could be a Javascript way to say "hey put here the year you'd like the original trilogy to take place in," have the user click on a button, and make the whole page do the calculations and display the new dates according to the user's chosen year of reference. darn it now I'm going to be nagging myself into implementing that but it would also be so tedious.

---

Anyway TL;DR yes I was aware of this, and past me either forgot to mention it or thought "Eh it's not like anybody will notice/care" hahaha. Rather insensitive from past me admittedly, I do now wonder why I didn't add that as a small paragraph in the preliminary notes... Most likely reason is that the thought just didn't cross my mind at the time.

Good luck on your own longfic, don't hesitate to send me the link (no promises on reading it the day it comes out because there are SO many fics already on my to-read list, but nnngnfhghh I wish I could read other people's works as well as continue working on SLS), and thank you for your ask! Even though I was personally aware of it, you can absolutely feel proud of having picked up on it, and don't hesitate to come back to me (and make me sweat cold bullets) if you figure out a way to make "1963" + "London Holiday on a Sunday" + "No week day desyncs with the real world" work. Thanks to you, other people can now be made aware of this detail which I had apparently forgotten to explain explicitly!

Lastly, I don't remember whether I mentioned it here or not because it's still far from done and isn't going to be truly useful before a LONG while, but just in case what little info is on there could still be useful to you or someone else in any way: among many other things, I'm working on a Lore Map. Imagine having the ENTIRETY of EVERY SINGLE CANON FACT we have been given, in a single web page, with a whole list of tags so you can filter only the trivia that is relevant to your fanfic research <3

---

(Now this paragraph is completely unrelated to your ask, I'm going to leave this here for a different person (or not? would be good luck if you're the same anon): I am so sorry to the anon who asked me if I considered the LMJ ARG event canon or not, I uhhhhh... got carried away and I don't think the answer will be posted anytime soon, because for the sake of answering it in an exhaustive way I wanted to re-read the entirety of what has been preserved of it + add every bit of trivia I could find to the Lore Map mentioned earlier. And I'm juggling between many other projects too so progress is very slow. TL;DR version of my personal opinion so far: as for everything else it is up to personal preference, but I could theoretically see at least parts of it being canon. The trickiest part I found by reading just the introduction of the ARG is the fact that Kat would apparently make livestreams. Which implies the existence of the internet or a similar technology, the existence of streaming platforms, and the fact that she would have a decent-ish enough following for her random viewers from all around the world to want to help her. And if we go with the hypothesis that there could be multiple timelines, I could see that happen in an Ace Attorney-based timeline such as the one in which the PLvsAA crossover is canon, for example! I don't know enough about AA to be able to speak about it with confidence, but I think that 20+ years after the original AA trilogy, internet technology is indeed quite advanced enough for this to be possible? anyway. Just thought I'd give you a first short answer so you don't have to keep holding your breath and/or think I completely forgot about you. I'm sorry :'D)

[cryingforhyo]

i guess it's safe to say that I'm one of your old readers in this fandom. 😅 I've been a reader since you drop Push and Pull out on that holiday night.

I read most of your fics too. there's only one or two fic that I haven't read in the past year because life is a bit hectic now.

this is not a subtle request btw, but I'm curious if you have a 'verse focused about coming-out or realizing one's sexual orientation. I don't exactly remember every detail but, iirc, most of your fics' characters have implied sexuality which are lesbians.

It will be cool to know how you guys write about the experiences of coming out from your time period. ( I don't mean to make you feel so old 😭 but I know you two are in your 30s and are wiser and more experienced than we are (early 20s) ) I remember reading a post that it was really a different social scene compared to now.

maybe I'm also curious how you two became friends, then roommates *cough* *coughhhhh* and then wives because tbh I'm surrounded by hetero couples irl that reading about you two fascinates me.

I'm sorry for this ramble. feel free to ignore it too if it's borderline invasive. and sorry if you'll see this on a Monday morning

first off, thank you dear reader for being with us for so long! time surely flies when you're having fun, because wdym push & pull is approaching its 3rd anniversary??? creating for this fandom has been such a joint delight for the both of us, and we're just happy to share the journey with friends like you :) take your time re the new fics, esp if they're wips! we're working on them relatively slower, because life has also been hella hectic hereabouts.

onto your second query: i think this question is very interesting, actually! to address it head on, for this particular fandom i don't think i've written a 'verse where the specific challenge for any of the characters is coming to terms with their sexuality. i quite like living in this fantasy world where people are simply as-is-where-is lesbians haha. for example in our childhood best friends to lovers stories, when someone realizes their attraction, the realization is not so much about falling in love with another woman, but about falling in love with this specific person.

this way, it's the characters' shared context and history that makes their dynamic compelling, instead of the much more global milieu of lgbt relationships existing alongside all these issues and history, etc. which i also think are interesting stories to tell! but for purposes of this fandom in particular, which i think exists in a sociopolitical context that is beyond my expertise--i leave those stories to better-positioned storytellers :) in the true spirit of creating in this era, i do not want to get anything so egregiously wrong it will detract from the reader's experience.

but seriously, i have been obsessed about writing coming out/ coming of age stories for the longest time, mostly for my original work, which are set locally with local OCs. they were all i wrote about back in the day, so i guess for fanfic i figured i could instead try all the other tropes that weren't so close to real life, where coming out can be fraught and complicated. it's for the same reason that i don't write compulsory heterosexuality (comphet) or i avoid writing men as third parties in general... i've already spent a significant chunk of my writing life writing /that/ story, or at least that’s how it felt like.

but you make a good point! i'd love to try revisiting that coming out/coming of age trope and give it some aged-up flavor. let's see about that :)

on a personal note, many times when i look at today's digital landscape, I often go, thank god [this or that] did not exist just yet back in the day [or at least not in this manner] when i was figuring my shit out, because oh boy. the clout i could have chased and cancellations i could have booked haha.

suffice it to say i'm happy the digital footprints of past egregious mistakes are now buried with the deaths of old platforms. we were very lucky to have lived and loved and lost in an age where the internet could still afford some measure of forgetting.

(i know there's probably no going back to that kind of landscape, but i hope it's not too late for us to be a little kinder to each other, and definitely more forgiving of ~youth and elderly~, given how fast information cycles around these days and how wide the age range of users concurrently using the same digital spaces right now can be. it's NUTS.)

that said, c would like to clarify she is still in her twenties! hahaha. i confirm this. i also confirm that you're right to say i (k) am already out of my twenties haha.

we actually became friends through fandom! we met on tumblr lmao because that's where you met other wlw back in the day (idk if that's still where people are, istg i would not survive the current dating landscape either!) so i would not be exaggerating when i say fandom brought us together, and we're still cycling through fandoms together, having been to various ones in the past handful of years. that said we look forward to more fandoms to add to our list lol.

thanks for this ask - it's actually the PERFECT thing to see on a monday morning, in fact. hope your week goes well!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Leanne Italie

November 27, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”

Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice.

Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company’s site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.

“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” he said ahead of Monday’s announcement of this year’s word.

“What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”

Sokolowski and his team don’t delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words.

Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate.

This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased interest in “authentic.”

This was the year of artificial intelligence, for sure, but also a moment when ChatGPT-maker OpenAI suffered a leadership crisis.

Musk himself, at February’s World Government Summit in Dubai, urged the heads of companies, politicians, ministers and other leaders to “speak authentically” on social media by running their own accounts.

“Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don’t always trust what we see anymore,” Sokolowski said.

“We sometimes don’t believe our own eyes or our own ears. We are now recognizing that authenticity is a performance itself.”

Merriam-Webster’s entry for “authentic” is busy with meaning.

There’s “not false or imitation: real, actual,” as in an authentic cockney accent.

There’s “true to one’s own personality, spirit or character.”

There’s “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.”

There’s “made or done the same way as an original.”

And, perhaps the most telling, there’s “conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features.”

“Authentic” follows 2022’s choice of “gaslighting.”

And 2023 marks Merriam-Webster’s 20th anniversary choosing a top word.

The company’s data crunchers filter out evergreen words like “love” and “affect” vs. “effect” that are always high in lookups among the 500,000 words it defines online.

This year, the wordsmiths also filtered out numerous five-letter words because Wordle and Quordle players clearly use the company’s site in search of them as they play the daily games, Sokolowski said.

Sokolowski, a lexicologist, and his colleagues have a bevy of runners-up for word of the year that also attracted unusual traffic.

They include “X” (lookups spiked in July after Musk’s rebranding of Twitter), “EGOT” (there was a boost in February when Viola Davis achieved that rare quadruple-award status with a Grammy) and “Elemental,” the title of a new Pixar film that had lookups jumping in June.

Rounding out the company’s top words of 2023, in no particular order:

RIZZ: It’s slang for “romantic appeal or charm” and seemingly short for charisma.

Merriam-Webster added the word to its online dictionary in September and it’s been among the top lookups since, Sokolowski said.

KIBBUTZ: There was a massive spike in lookups for “a communal farm or settlement in Israel” after Hamas militants attacked several near the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The first kibbutz was founded circa 1909 in what is today Israel.

IMPLODE: The June 18 implosion of the Titan submersible on a commercial expedition to explore the Titanic wreckage sent lookups soaring for this word, meaning “to burst inward.”

“It was a story that completely occupied the world,” Sokolowski said.

DEADNAME: Interest was high in what Merriam-Webster defines as “the name that a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning.”

Lookups followed an onslaught of legislation aimed at curtailing LGBTQ+ rights around the country.

DOPPELGANGER: Sokolowski calls this “a word lover’s word.”

Merriam-Webster defines it as a “double,” an “alter ego” or a “ghostly counterpart.”

It derives from German folklore. Interest in the word surrounded Naomi Klein’s latest book, “Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World,” released this year.

She uses her own experience of often being confused with feminist author and conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf as a springboard into a broader narrative on the crazy times we’re all living in.

CORONATION: King Charles III had one on May 6, sending lookups for the word soaring 15,681% over the year before, Sokolowski said.

Merriam-Webster defines it as “the act or occasion of crowning.”

DEEPFAKE: The dictionary company’s definition is “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.”

Interest spiked after Musk’s lawyers in a Tesla lawsuit said he is often the subject of deepfake videos and again after the likeness of Ryan Reynolds appeared in a fake, AI-generated Tesla ad.

DYSTOPIAN: Climate chaos brought on interest in the word. So did books, movies and TV fare intended to entertain.

“It’s unusual to me to see a word that is used in both contexts,” Sokolowski said.

COVENANT: Lookups for the word meaning “a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement” swelled on March 27, after a deadly mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

The shooter was a former student killed by police after killing three students and three adults.

Interest also spiked with this year’s release of Guy Ritchie’s "The Covenant” and Abraham Verghese’s long-awaited new novel, “The Covenant of Water,” which Oprah Winfrey chose as a book club pick.

More recently, soon after U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson ascended to House speaker, a 2022 interview with the Louisiana congressman recirculated.

He discussed how his teen son was then his “accountability partner” on Covenant Eyes, software that tracks browser history and sends reports to each partner when porn or other potentially objectionable sites are viewed.

INDICT: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on felony charges in four criminal cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C., in addition to fighting a lawsuit that threatens his real estate empire.

[abigail-writingstuff]

The Morning Briefing: Biden to Celebrate Dem J6 High Holy Day With White Supremacy Fairy Tale

In just a few short years, January 6 has become the holiest day on the Democrat calendar. While Christians have long celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, Democrats venerate it as the excuse they've been using since 2021 to eliminate political opposition through incarceration, legal harassment, and a general shredding of the United States Constitution. 

Now that we've entered an election year, the commie puppet masters who run what's left of Joe Biden's brain are adjusting the uppers/downers cocktail so they can send him out in public and turn up his hate-filled rhetoric volume to 11. 

Lincoln writes about the plan for this year's J6 unhinged festivities: 

Yes, with the anniversary of JANUARY 6 coming up on Saturday and with Joe Biden apparently planning to run for reelection (as far as he knows), the campaign is coming out swinging on Saturday and Monday. Biden is set to deliver speeches on JANUARY 6 and white supremacy. Not the economy, not the wars overseas, not finding a way forward from the vicious hate and the rise of anti-Semitism. Not even a pretty little lie about the border. Nope, we're headed right back to Mega-Mecha-Mooga-MAGA white supremacists. (They're robots in disguise.)

Roll Call reports the Biden campaign announced on Tuesday that its strategy for the new year would be to focus on Trump as a dictator. Biden will be at Valley Forge on Saturday to gin up hysteria for JANUARY 6. 

In recent months, I've noticed that many of the Democrats' flying monkeys in the mainstream media have toned down the J6 "insurrection" talk and are using the word "riots" a lot more. The majority of the legal haranguing of former President Trump that they're doing requires that they keep the insurrection lie alive, however, so look for it to make a comeback. 

In reality, what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fit the Dems' pet "mostly peaceful protest" description far more than their actual riots. 

Because Biden can't run on his disastrous record, the Democrats will have to lean more heavily than ever before on their habit of demonizing Republicans. They'll insist that it's only BECAUSE TRUMP that they're being so harsh, but demonization has been a part of their political arsenal for as long as I've been old enough to vote. George W. Bush was Hitler before Trump was Hitler. Mitt Romney gave a woman cancer. This year it's the "dictator" stuff. 

It isn't just politicians who they smear, it's anyone who might vote Republican. I don't know if the Democrats keep records of such things, but I would like to know how many election year grannies I've pushed off of cliffs at this point. 

This year's shiny object to distract voters from the Biden disaster will be WHITE SUPREMACY. 

While there no doubt is a scattering of white supremacists throughout the land, Sir Sniffsalot will spend the year saying that anyone who is even thinking of voting Republican has a collection of Klan hoods at home. This will be the case even if someone other than Trump is the nominee. Again, they can't let any undecided or independent voters' eyes wander anywhere near Biden's record. 

Remember kids: the real internal threat to the country is white supremacy-fueled domestic terrorism. The various criminal elements who have access to our southern border? NOTHING TO SEE HERE... MOVE ALONG. 

I hope they keep Biden squinting at teleprompters and barking "MAGA Republicans" like a trained seal with a saliva problem. He's going to scare people all right, just not the ones they're hoping he will. 

[horce-divorce]

Update for interested parties: the last few days were frought, the situation in Wisconsin was not what we had hoped it would be at all once we got here, and it ended up not working out. Too many people with not enough space and too many clashing needs. it ended up feeling very unsafe for everyone.

We're staying with a different friend instead now, and today their mom/owner of the property not only said we could stay here for the winter if we need to, but also was scheming to try and find us a pop-up trailer this morning which we were totally blown away by, she's wonderful. We still want the kind of mobility where we could take off again at a moments notice, so I'm sorting that out, but we're with friends and thankfully not in a rush to leave again anytime soon.

i'm not sure if a camper is what we'll end up with. It isn't quite as stealthy as i'd like (if we need to urban camp at all it doesnt really work), but it would certainly add a lot of space and be more than doable, and Bel really liked the idea. If that doesn't work out, I'll look at trading our current vehicle for a used camper van in a comparable price range. I've never done that before but I have time to do research.

Thanks to the donations this week, we were able to fill the tank and get Bels meds on the way out here, which was such a huge relief. That gives us at least another month to try to find a prescriber for another refill. We also got a great haul from the food pantry out here, which was fun because the lady we're staying with actually runs it and it's inside an abandoned building.

the pantry was already in the building when it wasn't abandoned. my friend's mom took it over and was allowed to keep it in its original space, but everyone else moved out. My friend had the keys, so they took us in thru the back and this series of totally unlit, crowded corridors with random appliances, furniture, books and clothes, all of it donated. it was one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had. I asked to go back to take more pictures, which is why the 2nd pic is lit better.

Their house is also really cool. It's an old farmhouse, much bigger, with fewer people here, and we have a proper room upstairs rather than in an unfinished basement. there's a super comfy bed in here, too. I actually haven't had back pain in the morning here, for the first time since my surgery in May!

Also, absolutely wild shit in the world of drugs: nary a weed dealer to be found in this area, because delta 8 has completely taken over the market. I was deeply unimpressed when I tried it a few years ago, but my friend got us a live resin hhc/cbd/cbg/thcp cartridge and........... I am stoned. Like PROPERLY stoned. I haven't been this properly stoned since like 2013. It does kinda give me a headache, but it also helps the pain and gives me munchies and helps me sleep just like real weed. I even remembered my dreams a bit better than with d9.

Anyway I'm very grateful for my queer community today, for my friends mom who has come to my rescue more times than my own mom, and for everyone who's been invested, sending us money, advice, locations to scope out, items, and links; everyone who's been reblogging; and even everyone who's just listening to us talk and post, watching quietly from the sidelines.

We still have to go retrieve the rest of our stuff from the last place (on Monday), and things always change in an instant. We still have a lot of complex feelings, and this week was especially hard for Bellamy. He's never been through all this before this year, and the 19th was the anniversary of his worst trauma, losing the only good and loving person in his life 6 years ago. To be kicked out specifically on that anniversary was brutal. it made me wish I'd never brought him here. I really thought we'd be better off with that friend than on our own for the winter, and I made a mistake.

But we will still be okay. For now, we aren't alone, we're with good friends in a safe place, we've got food and meds and gas. We even have another place to stay if we change our minds. We check in with each other and process our feelings multiple times per day. It's still hard to get used to coming and going all the time; we stay in one place just long enough to get comfy and then we take off again, which is never long enough form a routine. So we're trying to learn how to do that for ourselves, based on our own needs, rather than around the location. But we're getting used to that, and each other's habits. When I go out to the car for supplies it smells like home in there.

It's hard feeling like we don't belong anywhere, like strangers care more about our wellbeing than our actual families. My dad did give us the car, and six months of insurance. He even renewed my license for me. But neither of my parents checks in on me, asks where we are or how we're doing. My mom seems to be getting more reactionary in her old age; not only did my transition cause a rift between us, she's now doubling down on trying to "cure" my autistic cousin when she knows that for both of us (and for Bel), our autism is a source of pride. She knows my disabilities and neurodivergence are what started this housing instability 10 years ago. She knows my health has been worsening. She doesn't text or call. All of you following this story on here know more about how and where we are than she does.

But times like this show us who our real friends and family are, and it's not the people who've left us to our own devices out here. It's everyone who's been stepping in to ask, "How are you doing? Can I send you anything? Do you need to talk? I love you. I want you to make it." The random guy we met hiking who never told us his name but who told us, "I hope you guys thrive. I really do." It's everyone who's sent us another $10 for our supplies because I haven't spent long enough in one spot to get any work done. It's the people who have never even met us before who offered to take Bel's cats indefinitely, or to let us come stay with them across the country. It's everyone who's pitching together to buy us more time when we need it. Everyone who sees us and bears witness and feels something about it.

At the end of the day, we sort of are choosing this lifestyle; if we wanted out, we would have to stay in one place longer than winter, get jobs, save money, find our own housing. But we kind of don't. Despite the hardships, despite what this journey is revealing about ourselves and the people we thought we could trust, we feel like it suits us to live out of the car. We go where we want, when we want. We don't have to answer to anyone else's schedule. If we want to go south or west when it's cold and visit our friends, all we need is the gas money and the OK to come over. We love the woods and we love living out there. It feels distant and lonely sometimes, but so right. We like getting to bounce around and meet each other's people. We want to see the old growth and the redwoods and the mountains and the seaside and the grand canyon. We want to go to Cuba and Vietnam and Iceland and Denmark. Maybe our health won't allow for us to do absolutely everything we want, but working underpaid jobs and paying rent absolutely won't allow for it. We have a better chance at our dreams now. We can lose our place to stay again and be fine and just keep going; it's not the end of the world. It's what we planned on doing, anyway. No big deal.

Living in the car has already allowed us to do more and have more adventures in just 3 months than we did in 2 whole years of us both being housed. We do have a lot to process emotionally and there's a lot on our plates; it's hard, and we do need a lot of help. It's not always good. Not having access to the internet when we're running out of money and gas and food; not having anywhere to bathe; having to go long distances to collect water even when we're not feeling well; losing things because i put them in the wrong place and drove off; that doesn't even begin to scratch on converting the car for stealth camping, choosing our routes and places to scope for campsites in new areas, or trying to figure out which supplies would actually be more helpful and cost effective in the long run.

But it's still not really any worse than the rat race to stay employed and be good renters. It's just different. And after 10 years of housing instability, and waiting for something to change, it hasn't. I'm growing more and finding more peace by just leaning into it. Trauma and bullshit never ends. Life doesn't ever stop for you so you can think about what just happened; there's never gonna be a perfect, calm time for you to digest everything and then move on strengthened and changed for the next main event. You have to learn how to do all that and keep living no matter what bullshit is ongoing. That's what "rolling with the punches" means. The punches dont stop, you learn to expect them, you move with them. I cant put my life on hold just because I'm homeless. It's not stopping me from doing the things I want. It's not stopping me from being the kind of guy I aim to be, or from making the kinds of choices i want. My life before did that.

Tl;dr thank you for all your help and concern this week, we made it to a different space and are taking some time to breathe. We are feeling more than a bit bruised, this week has been awfully triggering, but we also feel very held right now and we have space to calm down. For another few days at least, it's gonna be okay.

✨️🛸✌️

[ncisfranchise-source]

After NCIS celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, the franchise is getting ready to air its 1,000th episode, and Brian Dietzen and Katrina Law spoke to PopCulture.com about how it feels being part of the growing legacy. Between the Mothership series, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawai'i, and Sydney, it was only just a matter of time before the franchise hit the massive milestone. Ahead of the 1,000th episode, which is airing on NCIS on Apr. 15, Dietzen told PopCulture that "it's every actor's dream, I think, to get on something and have it actually success and last more than a season."

While Brian Dietzen joined NCIS in the first season as Dr. Jimmy Palmer, Katrina Law only came on as NCIS Special Agent Jessica Knight towards the end of Season 18 before being upped to series regular for Season 19. Even so, Law said she feels "really blessed coming into this show a little bit later, a lot later. But one of my favorite things about the show is the amount of love that you can feel on-screen and off-screen. Also, the amount of love that you get from the fans. It's just a very beautiful symbiotic relationship. And coming to set every day is a joy. One of my favorite stories to tell is that this crew has been together since JAG. So some of these guys go back together more than 21 years."

JAG premiered on NBC in 1995, running for one season before getting picked up by CBS for an additional nine and ending in 2005. NCIS' backdoor pilot aired as part of Season 8 in 2003, so it's actually about "30 years," Law corrected herself. "So not only have they spent 10 months out of the year for the past 30 years together, 14 to 16 hours a day, but during their hiatus, they still go on vacations together and I think that's a huge testament of how wonderful this cast and crew is."

As for the 1,000th episode, Dietzen promised, "There's going to be some good Easter eggs for people that have been fans of not only our show but also our sister shows. Potentially a few appearances from people we haven't seen in some time, not even from our series, but from others. And what's really great is it's told through the eyes of someone who has watched NCIS his whole life, and that is Vance's son Jared. And from the outsider's perspective, he asked the real question, what makes NCIS so special to my father? And this 1,000th episode is a celebration of that."

It sounds like the milestone episode is going to be one you don't want to miss, so be sure to tune in on Monday, Apr. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The previous week, the network will be airing NCISverse: The First 1,000, an Entertainment Tonight special hosted by Kevin Frazier that will include exclusive interviews with the stars across the entire franchise, sharing favorite memories and behind-the-scenes moments. The hour-long special will also reveal new details about the franchise's origin and how it became the global phenomenon it's known as today. It all begins on Monday, Apr. 8 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

[penname-artist]

Life Updates (Jan. 2023)

(Dated as such because I presume I’ll do more month-to-month updates, assuming I’ve anything update-worthy. Highlighted the section’s themes cuz I bounce a lot and there was a lot to cover for this month)

My commissions have been doing well as of late. I wouldn’t say they’re “booming” per se, but I have two done and two right behind them. Getting onto a real schedule has its ups and downs, though. For one thing, remembering to block my time for work (espeeeeecially for logging commission times) has been challenging. Nevertheless, I’ve done the thing, and I’m being good and making myself not work on the weekends and only putting in my work toward the week days.

That said, this Monday (the 16th) will probably be busy. Next to those two commissions, I have a pair of videos (which aren’t even mine, they’re my father’s) to edit for posting to help him advertise somethin-or-other. I really need to work on my own videos for my channel and get my setup back (the camera holder thingy I use when doing speed art has been moved since I replaced my floor last year and I still haven’t put it back) BUT, because Monday already has three to four projects in it, I’m not gonna push it. I know what I’m like, I want to do everything at once and then I don’t do any of it.

Which ALSO reminds me of the Dusty Collaboration project that I intended to do in August last year and never finished. My plan on that, going forward (and I’ll go back and poke the members of this project and re-ensure everyone is still on board with this) is to do it this August instead for the Planes 10-year anniversary. Because, you know, it’s TEN YEARS. That’s fucking INSANE.

Now mental health wise...well it’s kind of a mixed bag. I definitely feel a lot better and more alive right now than I had working 36 hours a week and wasting away in a chair. I have all of my side hobbies in the same place and I can add to them and work on them in my own time (and literally, I have a lot of fucking hobbies. In this room alone I have two dozen someodd video games, board games, card games, stacks of books I’m addictively reading, piles of crochet projects and yarn, a desk full of art materials, another desk full of writing materials, and now I’m putting in a TV and DVD/CD player for television and music). It’s also given me enough motivation/inspiration to do the things I’ve been actually wanting and needing to do - like make money - more effectively. So on that front, all is well and good.

But, the rat situation from a few months ago is still going on. And I literally have no fucking idea what it is or why it is and what we can do to stop it. I literally don’t even know if it’s a rat anymore. I never hear any active chewing or scratching, all that I hear is the movement of an animal from one end of the bedroom all the way around to the other, and the occasional bump of something in the wall as it hits it. A pair of times I’ve heard some weird squeaking like it’s a baby animal of some sort, but only a teeny tiny amount of times. And the other day I discovered a cat outside my window, so NOW I’m thinking he’s sneaking into the house walls to hunt and just fucking with me. Or it’s something else, I literally have no idea. Either way, I have slept with the wax melter light on EVERY night for the last month or so.

Lastly, on the side of financial state, we’re still going by the skin of our teeth at the moment, but I suppose it’s working. Dad’s jumping between fixing cars (which he knows) and trying to do real estate (which he does not know as much - also making money from that takes significantly more time and less consistency) and I’m only just now starting to scratch into my savings for things.

My biggest focus aside from my commissions and things will probably be getting my license and then finding a second job somewhere, hopefully art-related (please), between now and May. That is, assuming that I’m still not quite making enough to be comfortable. I’m teetering on the edge of qualifying for making money through Youtube, and commissions are making a fair bit of pocket change right now, but even that plus my work income right now is about half of the rent money for the month. I did say I’d give myself until April to do this, because I can make it that far on savings alone, comfortably and without much fear. BUT, nothing and no one can break until then because I ain’t got no insurance for shit anymore. *punches body* Stop being stupid!

(oh yeah physical health wise I still get occasional noodle days where my body is just, non-functional and I’m just kinda made of limp noodles. Not often, but, it does happen. I dunno man, maybe it’s just a normal thing, who knows.)

That’s all I can think of for the time being, y’all. I’m gonna work on this immediate stuff first and then hopefully I’ll have room to put out some videos for you guys. And, there’s fanfics to look forward to! If anyone remembers Night on the Bow, a project collaborated by Ivory, Shu, and yours truly, we’re making another one! It’s a beefy fic too, so hang onto your hats... ;)

There’s tons more in the wings but I can’t even remember what lol, but it’ll get there when it gets there!

Take care y’all and have a nice Sunday, til the morrow!

-Pen

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

11/19/2023 – 11/25/2023

Sunday

It’s great to see a more light-hearted/silly arc in Undead Unluck after Rip’s action-heavy one. And I’m soooo happy to see the little Agoo bunny girl again…and now I want ramen.

AGHHHH WOW CIPHER ACADEMY’S ANNIVERSARY COLOR PAGE IS SO COOL Some of the hair color choices are a little…but I’m just so happy to see Cipher Academy’s continued success. Here’s to many more years! Also wow Iwasaki’s such an incredible artist…not only is the cover page a big spread with a lot of characters, we’re also getting this army of Dekiai-chans in the chapter itself. I also love all the variations in Dekiai-chan designs, especially the Judge Dekiai-chan with her twintail scales. Super cute. The little Tayutan moments were also super cute. And the Toshusai backstory!!! Agh!!!! And the foreshadowing to Iroha having to face his own past!! AGHH!!!!

I do wonder about how long Cipher Academy will end up being. Since the beginning of its serialization, I’ve been scared about it getting an early cancellation because of its niche premise, but I’ve held onto hope that Nisioisin’s name being attached to the project would lend it some credence…and now that it’s survived a year and getting color pages and merchandise, I’m more at ease about it. But even then, I don’t think it’ll necessarily last a super super long time – they’re already on their way to the 50 billion morg that was laid out at the very beginning of the series, and we’re finally getting some insight and backstories for characters who have previously alluded our understanding. I can totally see Iroha facing some sort of final boss and maybe a twist or two before obtaining the morg in the digital Cipher Academy and save the battlefield dancer before the series just comes to a natural end. (And selfishly, if Cipher Academy ended up being like a 10 volume series, it’d be more appealing for VIZ to print physically and then I could collect the whole thing…). But on the other hand, there’s definitely room for expansion beyond the actual Cipher Academy (perhaps even to actual wars), so who knows. For now, I’m grateful for what we’ve gotten, and I just hope that Nisioisin and Iwasaki can create the story to their satisfaction.

Perhaps this week will be a record for the shortest Manga Sunday ever…

Monday

Watched the new episode of Make Some Noise and it was pretty fun but generally unmemorable. This group of comedians just maybe didn’t have the right synergy for me.

Tuesday

I read the first two chapters of At Summer’s End because they just got added to the Manga Plus app and the art style looked intriguing. It’s definitely of those quiet and subtle mangas, and the tone is refreshing, but the story itself didn’t really grab me so I don’t think I’ll continue.

I’m glad to get more insight into Nayuta and her motivations in the new Chainsaw Man chapter. It seems that being reborn didn’t necessarily curb her instinct to hold power over those she doesn’t care about – loving her is fine and good, but Denji really needs to teach this kid some empathy.

House M.D. Party time: the first episode was bad and unmemorable, the second episode was kind of bad but at least in an interesting way. First of all, I don’t care about Chase/Cameron so their scenes meant nothing to me. Second, I liked Thirteen and Wilson interacting but I didn’t like her convincing him to go date a woman. What happened to wlw/mlm solidarity, Thirteen!! Third, I hated the Foreman and Taub scenes because I feel like they had no idea what kind of dynamic or conversation they would have so they made them take drugs and do goofy stuff and I hate it! It felt so out of character…and it could’ve been a great opportunity to actually explore this dynamic but they just tossed it away. Fourth, the House scenes were okay. Fifth, the kid brother is right about naming the baby Toadette. It’s a better name than Walker, in any case. And also it’s kind of hilarious how the baby plot basically had no real culprit behind it (the nurse having seizures is a blameless culprit) or anything that would’ve made the incident interesting, so it was purely there to facilitate the bottle episode, huh? At least they took this opportunity to be more artsy with their shot compositions – lots of blocking and framing things in specific ways. Also Thirteen speed-flashing Taub was very funny; I like their dynamic the most in the group because they’re both a little cunty and fun.

Wednesday

More House. There are so many patients with relationship issues this season, I suppose to parallel the relationship issues going on with House and co., but I don’t like it! I wish we had domestic Hilson moments for at least two seasons without Wilson or House trying to get a girlfriend again. I also don’t like Taub going back to cheating – I want to just erase of all of this from the canon in my mind. At least we got the hilarious “I’m as straight as any of you! [Looks at the two bisexual people in the room]” scene and the “We just started milking him last night” line but other than that the episodes were unmemorable.

A pretty fanservicey chapter of the Kusuriya manga…and not one that I particularly liked… I don’t like when a manga introduces triplet (or triplet-esque) characters because it feels like they just want to fill out the roster without actually designing a bunch of different characters…and I mean design both in the visual way and in the character writing way, because they always play up the sameness as a defining character trait. It just feels like they’re redundantly taking up space in the cast…I would’ve much preferred three new character designs so that each of them could get a chance for their personalities to breathe. Also, small nitpick, but Chinese people (especially in historical China) generally wouldn’t wear something white in their hair casually because it’s associated with funeral rites. It’s kind of bad luck/vibes. Also also, I think I’m going crazy a little bit, but the art in this chapter was wonkier than in other chapters…maybe because we just got through an important and action-packed arc and this one was more lighthearted, so the artist loosened up a little… But man. I’m also tired of ghost stories – I prefer the medical mysteries, as you may be able to surmise from all the House I’ve been watching, but maybe all this ghost business is going somewhere (hopefully). Ahh with the serviceable anime and this middling chapter, I’m feeling my passion for Kusuriya slightly wane. I wonder if it’s still a 10/10 for me…well, the anime will take ages and the manga will take literal decades, so maybe once I read all of the light novels I’ll reassess how I feel about it.

Thursday

House: That was a pretty good season finale. It’s not as good as season 4’s, but it’s second best for sure. I really enjoyed the framing narrative of the penultimate episode, it let me imagine Dr. Nolan actually joining House’s team and being around to be his friend and allow him to be more open with people (not to mention how their dynamic in itself is pretty fun, what with Dr. Nolan being quietly insistent on not taking any of House’s bullshit). The end to Hilson’s domestic bliss makes me miserable, though. And then the season finale was also great – I love when there’s a big disaster in medical dramas because the sense of urgency and challenge is gripping and all sorts of things can go wrong in interesting ways. Seeing House genuinely connect with his patient and be so vulnerable was amazing, and it made the ending all the more tragic and heartrending… And then the Huddy happened and we skipped past it because we despise Huddy lmao. That one thing stopped it from being a perfect season finale for me, as petty as that is. But I have to be true to my Hilson bias.

Friday

A huge project landed on my lap so I had no time to do anything else in my frenzy, whoops.

Saturday

I watched the new SpyFam episode while I ate dinner and it was great! The action scene was as fluid as I’d hoped it would be, and it was even funny and beautiful at times (the fireworks lighting was amazing). I really enjoyed the editing for the comedic moments in particular, like Yor ploughing through a bunch of wacky assassins without even letting them introduce themselves and the dutiful Chief cleaning up after her. The serious part of the fight was also great, and helped elevate Yor’s internal emotional arc. I’m looking forward to seeing the arc conclude next week.

Undead Unluck: I’m afraid…it’s Fuukover……………………………………………..no actually I’ll bring out the visuals for the first time on this blog because after I saw this I had to pause the episode and sit in silence for twenty minutes because WHAT ON EARTH IS THISSSSSSSSSSS

WHAT DID THEY DO TO MY BOY AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This is extremely petty of me to complain about but it made me genuinely upset… The curvature of the smile is all wrong, and the overly full bottom lip makes him look like a creepy Chad meme AGH and the pronounced wrinkles under his eyes and on his neck just give off an entirely different connotation from the manga… Manga Shen looks sly and unsettling, almost otherworldly, while Anime Shen looks like a wojack I’m going to CRYYYYYYYYYY

It’s so sad looking at the past two weeks of me being like “I can’t wait to see my boy Shen be unsettling!” only for THIS to happen…even the usual slick graphic for the Negators was weaker in this episode…what happened…

After last week’s episode and now this one, I fear the production is slipping away from them a little… There was a lot of recapping and weird editing last week, and here there were…an unusually high amount of still frames, and they weren’t even used that artistically to hide the obvious shortcuts they’re taking. I really wanted to keep my hopes high for Undead Unluck after its amazing start, but now the cracks are really starting to show and the things that I’ve tried to graciously ignore are now rearing their heads… The ugly 3D zombie models, the weird pacing, the mangaka’s weak monster designs (sorry buddy, but you do make up for it in the human designs/writing)… Unfortunately, butchering Shen’s smile alone is enough to make it impossible for the Undead Unluck anime to be a 10/10 for me (and I was really hoping for it to be one. Because it’s fun to add new titles to my little awards page).

At least there was a lot of Chinese in this episode, and most of it was passable…even if I’m still a little bitter about Mui’s casting. But I don’t know, I feel like I’m seeing Undead Unluck slipping from me in real time and it sucks. This used to be the highlight of my week, but now I’m just dreading it…if it continues to be like this, I’ll eventually accept that that’s just the way things are (like I did with Kusuriya), but right now it stings.

Speaking of Kusuriya, wow that was a great episode this week. It’s on par with the Lihua episode for me, maybe even a bit higher because there wasn’t any janky animation. The pace kicks off quickly right away to highlight the urgency of the situation, and I can see that a lot of care has been put into portraying Maomao’s emergency medical skills. I like seeing the dynamic between Maomao and her dad, too – I feel like it’s a pretty unique anime parent-child dynamic (but of course, a lot of things about Kusuriya’s writing is unique). Maomao quietly solving the mystery was also fun, and it didn’t feel like a drag like last week’s did. What I like about Kusuriya’s mysteries is that there’s not always anything to really do about them once they’ve been solved (ie. no criminal to catch/prosecute), it’s more about the joy of solving the mystery itself. But this allows the situations surrounding the mysteries to be more fluid and ambiguous – they’re often not a specific moral judgement on the culprit but just an exploration of the setting or a philosophy. I also liked the conversation between Maomao and Meimei in the bath, and that shot of Maomao in the annex was amazing foreshadowing. Also, getting ponytail Maomao was such a treat. And then! The return to the rear palace! Everything about the conversion between Maomao and Jinshi was just perfect, the little animations of Jinshi tapping on his leg or the cup to show his irritation, the pacing and performance of the voice lines, Jinshi’s various expressions, it all culminated into such a pitch perfect comedic scene that closed out the episode nicely. I’m glad I’m ending this Week in Review on a high note.

[thedaveandkimmershow]

We returned from our wedding anniversary celebration vacation that was, I fully admit, an experiential bubble. Just the two of us in a land of perpetual summer.

This is the modern age, of course, so we're connected to our home/work lives in lots of ways.

If we choose to be.

I know that. She knows that. And yet...

A bubble's still a bubble. And it's easy to imagine our lives have always been thus.

Of course there's nothing like coming home to realize BAM.

That was vacation. Here's your life in progress.

It's a limitation of language that I can only communicate experiences sequentially. Meaning that I can't faithfully capture the actual complexity of any given moment that contains more than one of anything. More than one obligation. More than one experience. More than one emotional thread. More than one logistical challenge. More than one implication for the future.

And so on.

So we'll start small.

First day of Fall?

Monday, September 18.

Why?

Basically because that when it started raining for real. And it's been raining for real ever since.

First day of the Christmas season?

Wednesday, September 20.

Why?

Because I saw this.

So.

Do any of these things matter?

Inasmuch as they're mindsets, sure they do. They create the vibe in which we live. And yes. To such degrees as we allow them to.

Objectively, though, Fall living is different from Summer living. And we both loved Summer living. And Fall seems to have jumped out at us from the bushes.

And I also love Christmastime.

That won't kick in for real until November... but one of my Christmastime pursuits is to reflect on the grand scope of the year we just experienced.

So that definitely is on my radar now

Moving up the ladder, there's a lot of music present in our lives, not the least of which is because Linzy is a writer/composer/arranger/orchestrator/sound engineer/producer/teacher/performer/band mate/experience crafter with a lot happening even as daylight grows ever shorter. Her work, her plans, her experiences absolutely color our days. As do the bands with whom she performs and will be performing with. As do some other bands we know because it really is a small world.

And yes. Ours is filled with music, creativity, and a daughter who's reaching ever breathtakingly higher.

Up the ladder more, our careers are still going full throttle. We're still relentlessly engaged with them regardless of the challenges... maybe because of the challenges if I'm being completely honest. And then Kimmer's actively pursuing her doctorate and it looks like (I hope I hope I hope) I've got a pretty serious documentary in front of me.

These challenges are fulfilling, I guess I'm saying. They count as net positives to the quality and scope of our lives. And they've been part of the juggling act we do that goes back to our very first date.

Okay.

Now at the same time as all of the above, treachery's afoot. For starters, a number of major surgeries occurred among friends and family during our first week of return, all of whom are actively on our minds.

The death. Of a young person I knew once upon a time. That's also part of the week to which outrage is a legitimate response. As is sadness. As is a certain measure of heartbreak coupled with thoughts about the complicated mess that is life along with how and why people survive it and why other people don't and how do the survivors, well...

How do they continue to survive their trauma?

Closer to home, we're dealing with the impending though not imminent death of a family member. It's a complex, complicated situation we're navigating that's already given rise to discussions about memorial services and eulogies.

It's a monster ambiguity hanging right in front of us and I'm not joking.

It's complex.

And it's complicated.

We're in that neck of the woods on this one where it's not about winning or losing. Or even prevailing.

It's about making the best decisions and then living with them.

Gah.

Of course I'm laying this out as if it's a narrative when it's not. As if it's a list in ascending order when it's not. As if it's all arranged in some reliably doable way.

When.

It's.

Not.

Because it can't be. It's the complicated mess of our lives that's the manifestation of a full spectrum life.

E. All of the above.

And it's all the same moment. It's all present across our recent moments and our foreseeable future ones. It's a scattershot experience of everything, everywhere, all at once.

A full spectrum life.

Which we signed up for.

Which we signed up for although I'm guessing we couldn't imagine how, at the time, that was possible. And what it would entail.

Our little twenty-something love-filled beating hearts just figured

Yes. Absolutely.

I choose you.

I choose us.

I choose this.

And we did

And we still do.

Which is a helluva thing because now we do for a fact know the full scope of the life we're leading. And it's breathtaking.

That we can lead this life.

That we are leading this life. This full spectrum messy life together and yet still consider ourselves winners of some cosmic lotto.

That's overly simplistic, of course. But the vows were richer or poorer, sickness and health, 'til death do us part. And we signed up wholeheartedly without knowing what came next.

The unwritten part of those vows, of course, is an assumption. An assumption about the quality of the life we will lead together in the eye of the hurricane which this is. Which it always has been. With no sign of letting up.

Had we the forethought, we would've contractually obligated someone to assure us conflict-free and trauma-free happily ever afters. But we didn't.

Our bad.

The vows, though, are what they are. A shared commitment to a specific quality of our relationship regardless of the hurricane and the damage around us. A shared commitment to a specific quality of our relationship that itself creates the eye in the middle of the storm. The calm. The peace.

And you wouldn't believe the life that's possible in there. Our own bubble of the universe from which we can and do manage and navigate the messy complexity of the universe itself.

Don't know how else to say that.

But knowing how it all plays out and with whom I'd be playing it out?

Yeah.

I still choose her.

☺️

[atlanticcanada]

Weather cancels Moncton air show but plenty for military buffs

It was supposed to be a weekend of parachute jumps and aerobatics, but instead, it was three days of rain and cloudy skies in Moncton.

The Soldier On Air Display by the CF Snowbirds was grounded. So too was the SkyHawks Parachute Team.

Neither the SkyHawks or the Snowbirds got off the ground all weekend long.

The flight demonstration team needs a cloud ceiling of a minimum of 1,000 feet to perform their most basic air show and it was nowhere near that on Sunday.

Snowbirds Public Affairs Officer Cpt. Gabriel Ferris said it was disappointing not to be able to fly over Moncton this weekend.

"We were trying last year, we were trying the year before, so we were really hoping to be able to put on a display here in New Brunswick. It's disappointing, but there's not much we can do with the weather. Mother Nature decides and we just follow what she decides," said Ferris.

The SkyHawks were supposed to make a jump during the Three Fathers Memorial Run in Moncton's Riverfront Park.

SkyHawks Public Affairs Officer Lt. Rebecca Garand said the weather just didn't cooperate.

"We were expecting to jump for the whole weekend for multiple events and we tried so hard. Last time, we were just waiting by the plane to have it clear up because sometimes miracles happen, but it wasn't the case for us this weekend. We're really sad, but also safety is the number one issue for us," said Garand. "But we still came to the crowds and met people and signed some autographs and made the best of the time we were here."

Ferris said the snowbirds do have a maintenance day planned on Monday so it's possible a few of the jets may fly over the city, weather permitting.

While the cool, wet weather cancelled the air show, there was still a lot going on for military buffs.

The Canadian Armed Forces had armoured vehicles, jeeps, patrol cars, inflatable boats and weapons on display downtown.

The event was in support of Soldier On, a program that helps ill and injured veterans.

As expected, the display was a big hit with kids.

Canadian Forces Cpt. Adair Howe said kids want to know everything about the equipment.

"They want to know what the vehicle does, how fast it goes. They want to get in them, they want to play around in them and we want to make sure they know why we do it and have a fun time learning about it," said Howe.

Kids could also climb into a replica Spitfire fighter plane from the Second World War.

Flying Officer John Stewart Hart from Sackville, N.B., was the only Atlantic Canadian to fly a Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Air Show Atlantic executive director Colin Stephenson said they're always excited to bring the three-quarter scale model out to the public, which was built in 1990 for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

"It's tremendous. It attracts so many people. It's travelling history is what it is. We put it in our trailer and we go to all three provinces around to different events and we're so proud to show it off and draw attention to our show. It's a promotional piece for the air show, but more importantly, to honour veterans because our Spitfire is actually named after a Canadian veteran," said Stephenson.

Stephenson said kids usually ask the same question.

"Is it real? I'd love to say yes, but it's just a really good model. They always say thank you," said Stephenson. "They're thrilled the controls work and the surfaces move, that it has sound to it. They're really excited to get in there."

Noah Alizadeh of Saint John said he's never seen anything like it before.

"It was fun, it was cool," said Noah.

The John S. Hart Spitfire will be on display at an airshow in Debert, N.S., on Aug. 26 and 27.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/uZd3Tbq

[bookwormstarwarsfan]

So after a little Tumblr trouble I'm back with the second part on the actual anniversary.

I already told the story, let's see the explantation: why is this event so important for the Hunagrian millenials (or Ducktales generation as we like to call them)? And how is this event gives a perfect picture of Hunagrian political culture?

It's December 12th 1993. A few long minutes passed since the Funeral March started playing. Now the majority of the country knows that Prime Minister József Antall is dead.

But 2.2 million kids don't care about this, they are just waiting for the Ducktales episode to continue. But it doesn't. They have to wait for the Monday repeat, which also never comes. And this is when the trauma becomes whole.

And I'm not overreacting, or misusing the word trauma, this real phenomenon is studied by phsyhologsists and media experts for 30 years now. But what are the reasons?

Of course the first thing that comes to our minds is the death part, this is not a nice way for kids to come in contact with death, but surprisingly this has the smallest part in the trauma. One of the studies talks about how until around the age of 9 children don't fully understand death and this is why even in their adulthood these people only remember the lost episode and don't show much empathy towards the death of such an important, honorable figure.

Reading lot of comments and anecdotes from those children, it seems the biggest wound is how this event, the best part of the week was lost. Everybody was preparing for days, this was the reward at the end of the week, when there is only 2 channels, not so much programme is for the children. There are even urban legends about how the at that time usually crowded playgrounds were empty because of the Disney afternoon.

Also, as I said, this happened not long after the terrible socialist era, the memory of transmission breaks, programme interruptions and politics poisoning everything was still a vivid memory.

A much worse consequence was how this affected their relationship with politics. Lot of them says that with a little stretch this made them instantly hate politics for a long time, really the worst way to meet politics for the first time.

This leads us to another interesting discovery. Majority of these people only remember this one political-social event, even though there was a lot spectacular stuff happening in that decade, but this one is so clear that they can recall all the details. This is a flashbulb memory for them, just like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11 for many other.

And while reading this, you may have noticed a strange detail. The episode was interrupted at 18.08, it's normal for such breaking news, you would say. But didn't the old man said Antall died just after 5 pm? Why not announce it at the minute they get the news, or if they already waited an hour, why not wait a little bit more until the end of the episode?

His death didn't come unexpected, he was very ill for a long time already. So why was the channel so unprepared, interrupting a children's tale with an awkwardly long break before the announcement?

The reasons for these two questions are Boross and the Hunagrian political culture. Now we know that days before the death he clearly stated that only he can announce the death, meaning that the channel had to wait for him when the time came:

'I only know one thing guys. If it happens, I run to the television and announce the news.'

What politics wants, politics gets.

Seven years later the first commercial channel finally played the whole lost episode, and now, 30 years later anybody can watch it on Disney+, if they are not too effected by the trauma. But this event will forever be one of the most iconic, interesting moments in Hungarian politics, and today, as every year on this day, more 'Ducktales interrupted' than 'Antall died on this day' headlines will be seen.

Thirty years ago the interruption of the Ducktales shocked a whole generation of children

A few days ago I saw some Ducktales here and decided to write about one of my favourite Hungarian historical moments, but then I realized that the anniversary is in less than a week, so I scheduled this post exactly on the 30th anniversary even for the minute, at 18:08 CET. (Edit: fuck Tumblr, it messed up scheduling, but second part is on its way)

So let me to present you the story of the Ducktales generation of Hungary, the children born in the 80s, who were traumatized by the aforementioned cartoon exactly 30 years ago, on December 12th 1993 at 18:08.

The year is 1993. The ill-fated little Central-European Hungary is barely out of the more than 40 years of terrible communist dictatorship, it only elected it's first in decades democratic government in 1990 and the last occupying Soviet soldier left the the country in the Summer of 1991.

The first media war is on full rage, meaning that there is still only two, government owned, tv channel, (and time to time HBO, if you were at the right place at the right time) but unlike during the socialism, Western programmes are allowed. This two facts together mean that every time there is a kid's programme on, practically every children who has access to tv, watches it.

Every Sunday afternoon is for Walt Disney, but most importantly for Ducktales. This one has a chokehold on every kid, the absolutle favourite. (Interestingly never became popular for any other generations in Hungary, unlike other iconic programmes, despite being aired a few more times in the following decades.)

So we get to the Sunday of December 12th. Allegedly 2.2 million children is in front of the tv, accompanied by many adults. The episode "A Whale of a Bad Time" is at its emotional high. Scrooge McDuck (or as we know him, Uncle Dagobert) is histerically jumping on the dinner table, because the ship with his money is lost. At 18:08 one of the most famous last sentence is said: 'A sea monster ate my ice cream!!!'

The screen goes black and white, the programme stops, blackness, then the grey channel logo shows up and Chopin's Funeral March starts playing. For long minutes nothing happenes, except of course for the hundreds of thousands of kids having a temper tantrum. By the time the March is coming to the end, even more adults are in the room, either because of the screaming kid or the sudden change of mood.

After 2 whole minutes again a moment of blackness, then a fat, old man in thight black suit comes up with a flag in the the background.

For many of the children watching, this was the first time to ever come to contact with politics, and for some of them, with death. Because the man, Péter Boross, who at that first moment still unbeknownst to the audience had already been the Prime Minister for less than an hour, had an important message:

'Fellow citizens, Hungarians, here at home and around the world. Destiny gave me a painful duty. Dr József Antall, Prime Minister of Hungary today after 5 pm passed away.'

Of course the passing of the reigning Prime Minister would be breaking news everywhere, especially if he is the first democratically elected one in more than 40 years, but this event became more important for a different cause.

[xtruss]

Former CIA Analyst: Iraq War a Scandal, Fraud Pushed By US Media as Part of Military-Industrial Complex

— Global Times | March 20, 2023

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Editor's Note:

Monday marked the 20th anniversary since the beginning of the US-launched Iraq War. For Iraq and the Iraqi people, the wounds and pain caused by this unjust military conflict are yet to entirely heal. What was Washington's true objective behind the Iraq War? Has the war changed the US society and political landscape? Why do some US politicians tend to make warmongering remarks with regard to China? Former CIA analyst Raymond McGovern discussed these issues with Global Times reporter Xia Wenxin.

Global Times: As an analyst with the CIA for 27 years, can you elaborate on the CIA's role in the war?

McGovern: This is very sad for me to say, but not only the CIA operations people, but also the CIA analysts - the division in which I worked - are responsible for corrupting intelligence to justify an unnecessary war of aggression.

Now, I guess the best thing I can say to you is that a Senate Intelligence Committee conducted the investigation and drew the conclusion. And here, I quote the words of Jay Rockefeller, who was the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. When he announced the findings, he said: "In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed."

What does non-existent intelligence look like? As you probably know, there were forgeries. There were all kinds of mechanical things that were used to justify this war, especially to associate Saddam Hussein with the 9/11 attacks. They did that by claiming that Iraq had ties to Al Qaeda. Then, of course, came the weapons of mass destruction. We analysts in retirement tell people that it was a scandal and that it was a fraud, but the American people were persuaded by our media. And that's key here. In any discussion of this kind, one must emphasize the role the media plays as part of the military-industrial complex.

Global Times: A recent Financial Times article argues that "the Iraq war left Western societies unchanged." Do you agree with such an assertion?

McGovern: I don't usually agree with the Financial Times. But in this case, they are quite right. It was well-known that this was a fraud. It was well-known that the real objectives were not weapons of mass destruction, but permanent military bases in Iraq, oil, and Israel. But no one was held accountable, rather, some of them were promoted. And the same people are around today. Victoria Nuland, who worked for then-vice president Dick Cheney at the time, now is the No. 4 figure running the State Department. These things are very sad, but that's the reason there has been no change.

Global Times: When the US started the Iraq War, it claimed it would create a "friendly and democratic" Iraq and set an example for the region. What's your take on this?

McGovern: The aim was not to establish democracy in Iraq, in the Middle East, or anywhere else. That was simply the reason adduced when there were no weapons of mass destruction. When there were no ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, they couldn't say that they went in there for the reasons that I mentioned, namely oil, Israel, and permanent military bases. So they invented this excuse, claiming that "we are promoting democracy there."

In my view, democracy is not something you export or that you fix on a country by virtue of attacking it or removing its leaders. That's not the way democracy is supposed to work. That was ludicrous on its face. It was simply justification that "We were promoting democracy. Saddam Hussein was not democratic. And so we did what we had to do to remove him."

The only positive effect seen in that part of the world, was the fact that Saddam Hussein was no longer any threat to Israel. Iraq, indeed, was on its back militarily. And the Israelis rejoiced, and those who were responsible and those who were under Israeli influence in our country also rejoiced.

Global Times: Several US officials have intensified their clamor for war against China, with some even saying that the two countries will be at war by 2025. What is the cause of this?

McGovern: I don't know why the US is doing this. I guess one reason is what they call the military-industrial complex. I already mentioned that the media is an essential fulcrum in this military-industrial complex. And you make a lot of money waging war, or even just building up to wage war. Now, what lies at the bottom of all this is that you need enemies to spend more money on armaments than you do on programs of social uplift. That's precisely what America is doing. And very powerful people who have great influence in Congress, which controls the purse strings, are profiteering on arms build-up and war.

I think any objective observer would ask: "America, do you really contemplate getting into a two-front war with the two other big superpowers? Is that what you want to provoke?" And the answers from Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan would be that we're very exceptional; we're the best and the brightest.

Now, some of your audiences will realize that The Best and The Brightest was the name of a wonderful book written about the people that got us into Vietnam and got 3 million Vietnamese civilians and fighters, along with 58,000 US soldiers, killed. So the best and the brightest are not really bright if they come from this exceptional attitude that believes they can do whatever they want and they will prevail. Because this time, with respect to Ukraine, they're not prevailing, and that will become clearer as the weeks go by now with Russia on the march west.

Global Times: Regarding the Taiwan question, how do you view Washington's enhanced provocation against the Chinese mainland?

McGovern: The US officially agrees that there is only one China, and [the island of] Taiwan is a province of China. Now, what are we doing? Giving people on the island of Taiwan a false sense of security that they can do whatever they want and allow their island to be a major arms depot, a warehouse full of very sophisticated weaponry? But to use against whom?

Well, is the Chinese mainland threatening to launch a military attack on [the island of] Taiwan? I have not seen any evidence of that. I think China is very patient. But why is the US meddling? The only somewhat reasonable explanation I could get is the military-industrial complex. As long as China has a very potent navy, which it now has, we have to build up our navy. And who profiteers from that? The same defense outfits collapsed a decade ago, when Obama said that "we're pivoting to Asia, and defending against China is a major test." Because that's going to cost a lot of money, and the military-industrial complex is going to make a lot of money on it.

[mariacallous]

Watching Joe Biden stroll through Kyiv alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy, flexing the muscles of democratic solidarity under a blue Ukrainian sky, it should be difficult to imagine any US president preferring the company of Vladimir Putin. But it is easy. America had such a president only three years ago.

There is no doubt whose side Donald Trump would have taken had he been in the White House this time last year. He told a rally on Monday that Putin would “never, ever have gone into Ukraine” if he had been president. He reminded the audience that he “actually had a very good relationship” with Putin. Just ahead of the Kremlin invasion, Trump declared the massing of Russian troops a “genius” move by a “very savvy” leader.

Biden’s Ukraine policy has bipartisan support in Washington, but there is a streak of sweaty Putinophilia running down the right flank of the Republican party. In last November’s congressional elections, pro-Trump candidates took positions ranging from isolationism via appeasement (reluctance to “poke the Russian bear”) to regurgitating Kremlin propaganda. Tucker Carlson, the ultra-conservative Fox News commentator, delivers a diet of punditry so rich in pro-Putin flavours that portions are served on Russian state television.

Defeat for some of the more hysterical Republicans in the midterms sapped Trump’s momentum. But the kernel of his foreign policy is embedded in the conservative mainstream – scorn for rules; affinity with demagogues; dismissal of western Europe as a decrepit relic, overrun with Muslim immigrants, emasculated by “woke” ideology.

It would be comforting to think of that as an exotic American dogma, like the conflation of liberty and firearms, unable to thrive in Britain’s more temperate climate. Maybe it can’t, but seeds were sown in the hothouse atmosphere of Brexit insurrection.

In March 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea, Nigel Farage described the Russian president as the world leader he most admired. Eight years later, when Russia moved on to full-scale invasion, Farage blamed Nato and the European Union for provocative expansions into Moscow’s back yard.

This is Putin’s argument, too. In a speech today marking the anniversary of the war, he explained at great length how the west started it. In his warped retelling of history, the Kremlin record of bullying its neighbours is, in fact, self-defence against malicious encirclement by the west using places where Moscow has a proprietary claim (derived from Soviet nostalgia and a refusal to recognise the borders of smaller countries).

This inversion of reality has double purchase on the fringes of western democracies, common to the “anti-imperialist” left and nationalist right. It means rejecting the principle that independent democracies should be allowed to choose their own allies. The leftwing variant also ignores the fact that Russia was once an empire, and that imperial autocracy is the governance model for its current president.

The idea that western overreach provoked Russia to raid Ukraine for land also got an airing in the Brexit referendum, via Boris Johnson. He told a campaign rally that Kyiv’s decision to sign a trade partnership with Brussels had “caused real trouble” and that things had “gone wrong” in Ukraine because of EU meddling.

What Johnson says one day is no guide to what he will later do. He defines truth as any statement aligned with his immediate career interest. But he also believes in his destiny as the incarnation of Churchillian resolve. Happily, those impulses made him swift and energetic in support for Ukraine against fascistic Russian assault.

It is the most (maybe the only) creditable thing Johnson did as prime minister. His critics might point to vanity and flight from domestic scandal as his motives, but that doesn’t diminish the military advantage bestowed on Ukraine at its moment of maximum peril. Zelenskiy’s gratitude was powerfully expressed in a speech to parliament earlier this month.

Zelenskiy’s address also contained a note that doesn’t harmonise so well with a tune that Conservatives started singing under Johnson. The Ukrainian president located his country’s plight at the forefront of a wider struggle to protect the “rules-based world order and human rights”. Those are things that Tory ministers are all for, except when they aren’t.

Universal human rights sound noble and inalienable when projected on to Ukrainians threatened by genocidal Russian mercenaries. Then they are suddenly a nuisance when attached to refugees, upheld by European courts and put in the way of deportations to Rwanda. A rules-based order is something the Conservative party cherishes when it means the G7 and Nato – any multilateral institution, in fact, apart from the EU. Then it is a conspiracy against sovereignty or a disposable nicety that mustn’t get in the way of a purer Brexit.

Treaties are sacrosanct, except when they are signed in Brussels. Then they are feints and holding positions that can be rewritten by one side if it feels buyer’s remorse.

If Britain doesn’t like its obligations under international law it can breach them “in a specific and limited way”, as Brandon Lewis, Johnson’s Northern Ireland secretary, argued of clauses in the internal markets bill that overrode the Brexit withdrawal agreement. That was 2020. Johnson is still arguing that the way to get a good deal in Europe is to pass laws that assert Britain’s right to ignore whatever it signs.

That is the idea behind the Northern Ireland protocol bill, currently stalled on its way through parliament. Rishi Sunak knows it corrodes trust with the EU, stains Britain’s reputation as a reliable partner – especially in Washington – and grinds the gears of transatlantic diplomacy. But hardline Eurosceptics cling to it as the cudgel that will beat concessions out of Brussels.

They are wrong. Sunak’s de-dramatising approach has yielded more technical progress on problems with the Northern Ireland protocol than threats and swagger achieved under his predecessors.

The Johnsonian method also belongs on the wrong side of a wider argument about the kind of country Britain wants to be post-Brexit. It is a hangover from the period when Tory radicals were playing wingman to Trump’s maverick rampage through constitutional order and conventional diplomacy. It belongs to the thrill-seeking phase of Conservative politics when success was measured in decibels of liberal outcry; when it was a kind of sport to denigrate compromise, evidence and expertise as emblems of a pro-European establishment.

That ethos still governs much of the Conservative party. It isn’t Sunak’s natural style, although there is no sign he intends to challenge it. Failing to do so makes him look not only weak, but obsolete – a product of flawed design, the last Tory prime minister in a line that should be discontinued because it isn’t compatible with functional European diplomacy, and no longer meets the specifications for serious government in a dangerous world.

[strawberiitea]

So me and the homies (@morning-glory215 and @mcmoth) were vibing in our discord and Eshi asked for drawing ideas and

My adhd ass fucking FIXATED

So here's the worlds best fucking concept, brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood tommy apologists :]

-------

Oh yeah. We're doing bullet format. It's the real deal here.

Keep in mind this is. Before the 6th lmfao

Before tommy's exile entirely actually.

In the small little moment of. Quiet they had.

Anyways so imagine it's L'manburg's anniversary or something right

Tubbo, Tommy and Ranboo all decide to do something special for it

Ranboo suggests a festival, immediately gets panicked "NONONONONONONO"'s

"We should open a strip club"

"Tommy, we are not opening a strip club."

"It would be funny though."

They settled on a play where they would act out the history of L'manburg, since Ranboo is unware of it's history

Tommy : why don't we do a play?

Tubbo : like a middleschool play?

Tommy : yeah! Of L'manburg's history! Since Ranboo doesnt know much about it.

Ranboo : oh :O?

Tommy : me and wil did it all the time as kids! We'd do these little shows for phil-

Tommy : and we'd act it out on a stage with costumes and props and music and-

So they get ye old play prepped

Tubbo builds the stage out of spruce slabs, logs, fences, and sheer fucking will power

Tommy writes the entire script for the play on his own

He gets SO fucking into it. It's detailed as SHIT his theatre kid ass went OFF

I hc c!Tommy with adhd and let me tell you he violently hyperfixated on that script

Mother fucker deadass stayed up several nights perfecting the script

Tommy, with bags under his eyes : [slams a stack of papers onto the table] i finished act 1

Ranboo : oh c- act 1?

Tommy, yawning : yeah. 2 more to go.

Ranboo :

Ranboo : tommy when was the last time you slept

Tommy : uhh... Tuesday?

Ranboo :

Ranboo : Tommy it's Monday.

Ghostbur catches wind of the project and he helps with the props, special effects, and music (he uses noteblocks :])

Ghostbur and Tommy mostly worked on the stage together

They had a little too much fun

A little too much childhood nostalgia

Ranboo and Tubbo made costumes out of cardboard boxes

The original plan was for the three of them to fill in all the roles (Three man show!!!) But they really needed more roles. And help in general lets be real.

So they get in contact with Eret

Eret offers to help with the stage

Their dramatic ass ends up revamping the whole fucking thing

Eret : yeah so i added a little touches to the stage :D

Eret : *reveals a whole newly built stage with working curtains, lights, special effects, and hand painted scenery* now I know its not much,

Philza 100% built it with him

He wasn't even asked for help he just saw Eret building it and decided to just throw himself in

Tubbo and Sam wired the lights with redstone

Tommy's a bit saddened by his set with ghostbur being discarded, but he doesn't tell anyone

Eret contacted Niki, and she made hand sewn costumes from fucking scratch

They're such high quality you can't even tell they're costumes

Eret helps Ghosbur with the music more, causing them to accidentally compose an entire ost with 12 different melodies and vibes for each stage of the revolution. Oops.

Tommy finds out, proceeds to name demand to name each melody

To everyone's surpise the names are actually good

Tommy, Ghostbur and Eret singlehandedly turn the play into a fucking musical

SO THE ROLES

Since they were lacking people, they got in touch with Fundy and Jack Manifold

Eret, Niki and Ghostbur all offered to help fill in the remaining roles

Tommy and Tubbo acted as themselves

Tommy insisted on taking Wilbur's role aswell

He just carries a beanie with him and has to constantly run across the stage while hastily putting it on and taking it off, but he fucking insists

For no apparent reason at all, Fundy and Eret switched places and acted as eachother's roles

Ghostbur took on Dream's role, Niki took on Sapnap's role, Jack Manifold took on Punz's role, and Friend was George

Ranboo was the narrator

Everyone was dicking around and very light hearted with their acting

They sat there fucking reading their lines from their palms trying not to laugh

But Tommy? He took it dead serious.

Mother fucker was acting his heart out

Tommy just goes around yelling at everyone to memorise their lines

Tommy : LEARN YOUR FUCKING LINES

Tubbo : PISS OFF

Tommy : L I N E S

Just imagine the contrast of everyone else joke acting while Tommy refuses to break character

The scene with the camarvan has a very close replica to the van itself

Hot dog and all

Lmfao so the flaming hot dog recreation set the stage on fucking fire

So that was something they needed to replace :]]]

I want you to sit down

And I want you to imagine all the solo Wilbur and Tommy scenes

Yeah that's all Tommy running backwards and forwards across the stage taking a fucking beanie on and off

Tommy, standing solemny : Wilbur. I must duel now, to the death. For freedom.

Tommy, suddenly spinning around, quickly pulling a beanie out of pocket and putting it on : No, Tommy! What about your safety! Oh, but I care about you so much more, Tommy, you're so important to me 🥺

Tommy, spinning around again, now with messed up hair and trying to not cry about his own fucking reassurances : Oh no, wilbur... Oh no. I must- I must do this,,,

Tubbo watching from the sidelines, not getting why he couldn't just play wilbur : why are you like this

And SOMEHOW it was COMPELLING acting

THIS MOTHER FUCKER KEPT RUNNING ACROSS THE ROOM AND HIS ROLEPLAYING WAS STILL WAS GOOD THATS HOW GOOD HE IS

Jack Manifold gets no lines as Punz

Niki was insulted by Sapnap, saying she wasn't accurate enough with his role

This led her to ACTUALLY burn down part of the fucking set with flint and steel

Ghostbur as Dream. That's it. That's all you need.

Ghostbur : we- Wait. What am I saying?

Ranboo, whispering : we are at war

Ghostbur, in his sweet crackle voice : oh... we uh. We are at war! So, if you would like to surrender, uh... please do?

That whole scene where Dream tells George how he'll become a king but take in the fact that Ghostbur is Dream and Friend is George

The final control room scene is fucking hilarious mind you

You got Fundy as Eret, Eret as Fundy, Tommy as himself AND Wilbur, Tubbo, AND Ranboo as a narrator

Ranboo, dramatically doing a narration off screen : and they said, with confidence -

Tommy, as Wilbur : OI, THERE IS A TRAITOR IN OUR MIDST

Ranboo, narrator voice : but alas, there was a traitor in their midst

Fundy, as Eret : I'M A TRAITOR, BITCH

I havent even got to Ranboo being a narrator but this man is the true star of the fucking show

Tubbo constantly tells Tommy he can call in an extra person for Wilbur and he just REFUSES

Tommy, doing the duel scene : ah fuck the countdown

Tubbo : Tommy I could fill i‐

Tommy : ABSOLUTELY NOT

At one point Tommy gets frustrated that everyone isnt taking anything too seriously and how it didnt align with his expectations and that it wasnt perfect

No shut up im not projecting wdym

L'manburg means the fucking world to him, of course he wants the history to be portrayed right

So Tommy just decides "fuck it" and takes every role himself

Only like. Ghostbur remains.

Tommy : Y'KNOW WHAT. FUCK YOU ALL. YOU'RE FIRED.

Tommy : ME AND GHOSTBUR ARE DOING THE PLAY NOW >:(

Tubbo : tommy how the fu-

Tommy : WE WATCHED HAMILTON ON LOOP EVERYNIGHT SINCE I WAS 5 DO NOT TEST ME

On the day of the play, it's actually fucking good????

It was terrifying and impressive at the same time

Quackity is brought to tears

Phil is aggressively clapping

Sapnap angrily throws flowers onto the stage

Dream probably slow claps from the fucking shadows

Everyone is moved

And no one knows how

There's this final end scene where they do a cover of the L'manburg anthem, composed by Ghostbur and Eret, sung by the 5 original L'manburgian's

Tommy didn't cry. He definitely didn't cry. What are you talking about

Also the scene contains the old set pieces

Yeah, no, Tommy burst into tears

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