#all of this being said: for about 15 years from the 80's to the 90's their relationship was so terrifying and toxic

[n30nwrites]

Bring Me To Life (Prologue)

Summary: Against all odds, you've survived. Having graduated high school and moved out of your Parent's place, your sibling decides to join you for the summer, and your first stop is Santa Cruz in California, you had always wanted to live there anyways so why not now that you're experiencing freedom? One problem: This doesn't look like the 21st century, instead it looks like a scene from your favorite movie, in fact it looks exactly like your favorite movie.

How are you meant to survive in the murder capital of the world? With vampires of all things, and your sibling hates this movie.

a/n: prologue for this fanfic, this will also be on AO3 and wattpad. Preface for this, fuck Max :}

Reader: Male Reader, uses Y/N, third person.

Oc uses they/she pronouns. Will be using both, Y/n refers to them as both sibling and sister, which is okay

Fandom: The Lost Boys

Pairing(s): Michael Emerson x Reader, Paul x Reader, Dwayne x Reader, Marko x Reader, David x Reader, Sam Emerson x Nonbinary! Oc, Edgar Frog x Nonbinary! Oc, Alan Frog x Nonbinary! Oc,

It was one thing moving the United States to California by yourself, it was another thing bringing your 15-year-old sibling with you, not to live with you, but to stay just until summer was over and school was starting again, your parents believed it would help with their 'rebellious streak'. That streak being that they just don't care enough to do class work and keep staying up all night playing video games, therefore they fall asleep in class.

Nik had a firm belief in changing the radio whenever any song that they didn't like came on, and you had a firm belief that your sibling needed to shut up because you liked your music and if you had to drive without some good tunes you would probably turn into the next psycho on the news.

You two did listen to similar music, but for this trip it was specifically 80s and 90s songs that you shouted loudly, windows were rolled down because the air conditioner in your car didn't work. It was small and shitty and cost a year of pay, thankfully your parents were there to let you live rent free. One of the few things you could be thankful for.

"Do you know how to be quiet?" Your sibling groaned, their jacket wrapped around their body despite how hot it was, "Put on Hozier, or Doja, hell I'll even take Taylor Swift over this... What is this shit?"

'Cry little sister'

"I know damn well you aren't talking to me about my music taste-"

'Thou shall not fall'

"What's wrong with mine?"

Come, come to your brother

"It's literally only tiktok songs, half of them aren't even good."

'Thou shall not die'

"At least I don't say 'They sung this on Glee'"

'Unchain me, sister'

"Every hot, mentally ill, gay person went through a Glee faze."

Thou shall not fear

"I didn't"

'Love is with your brother'

"That's why I said hot."

'Thou shall not kill'

You quickly stuck your tongue out in a childish way, before looking back into the road, ignoring your sibling who mumbled and repeated your words. "Theres a reason we're heading to Santa Cruz. Found a nice place right near the beach so we can-"

"Sleep all day, and party all night. I know, you've said it hundreds of times." Nik had heard the phrase from you so many times, you had tried to show them your favorite movie, even almost tricked them into it, but they were quick to leave the room. They simply hated it because you loved it, something you were forced to accept about them.

The car ride became silent as you got closer, to fill it, Nik had turned up the radio as it switched to a different song.

"Finally some MJ." The beat of Billie Jean came in, causing you to start tapping your hands to it as your merged.

"She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene" The two of you belted the lyrics, switching over the 80s playlist to one consistently of Michael Jackson. "I said don't mind, but what do you mean, I am the one" you shook your head, "Who will dance" you turned to your sibling and sung the words to them before turning back, repeating it each time you sung, "on the floor" again "in the round?" and then turned back, "She said I am the one, who will dance on the floor in the round"

The house that you bought with a loan wasn't the biggest, at least not compared to your parents house. Two bedrooms, One master and One guest, and 1 in a half bathrooms. The half bathroom was connected to the master bedroom, which Nik tried to get but was quickly locked out. They would be staying in the guest room, while you set it up they would help. They were also supposed to attempt to find a job this summer, as their parents wanted Nik to learn some responsibility. 

"Okay, change outfits, shower if you need to! We are going to the beach!" You were excited, thrumming almost. You felt as if you belonged.

"I'm tired."

"Party all night!" You yelled, grabbing a suit case filled with your clothes. The two of you didn't have a lot. A few suitcases filled with clothes, and then a few boxes for the rooms. You didn't even have mattresses yet.

"Let's just sleep a bit." A nap did sound good, you didn't have the best sleep due to the anxiety about the drive.

"Fine, a nap! I'm setting an alarm." Nik went into your room, both of you grabbing the blankets and laying them on the floor, setting up some pillows and collapsing as soon as you could.

Instead of waking up to your alarm, you woke up to Nik shaking your shoulder, harsh rain hitting the window and the house was shaking.

"The doors are opening."

You stood up quick, running out of the bedroom to the backdoor refusing to close. You pushed against it but it quickly fell open, so you held the door. "Grab the heavy boxes." Nik followed through, pushing against the doors as lightning flashed. "It wasn't supposed to storm."

"Don't they get Hurricanes here." A siren went off, "Well-"

"Not another tornado." You groaned. You had your fair shair of them, being where your from. "We need to grab our shit, head to the basement."

The house shook again, you two grabbed your phones and chargers, rushing down into the basement that still had cobwebs. Nik almost ran upstairs at the sight of them, claiming they would rather take their chance with the tornado. You had to basically pulled them down as you two sat in the basement, the house shook as you two fell to the ground, hitting your heads.

Your eyes rolled back, your vision turns black as your body hits the ground. Your siblings hand lays against yours as their body falls onto you, and in that moment, you had gone through the impossible.

[raayllum]

so i deleted my poll & here's why bc it is both. sad, strange, and a little hilarious. for TLDR, skip all the way to the end

this is what it was gearing towards as of this afternoon & this is why it got weird.

for clarification, the poll was meant to investigate, because i was curious, how many people i had potentially influenced in my writing(s) about callum analysis wise. i actually expected option 2 to be the most common (aka that people already saw him that way) since that's what i've found in my circles; most of the other rayllum writers and shippers i've spoken to reached those conclusions themselves after S2 or S3, if not earlier. so option 1 being the most popular was the first big surprise, as was as many people picking "want to see the results"

here's where things go from surprising to weird. earlier this afternoon, the poll was sitting around 120-ish people and had been in that vein for most of the week since it was published, climbing maybe a few votes every day after the initial boom in a variety of the categories the first like day and a half.

then, steadily, over the course of 5-10 minutes, anywhere from 5 to 15 fresh votes flooded in... all to the same category of "nah i don't see him that way." which wasn't That strange, except

the fandom troll, who is notoriously obnoxiously loud about Not liking this interpretation of callum, also has a tendency of making sock blogs and sending anonymous asks to bait you over and over again, no matter how many times you block them. for Years.

then the number continued to steadily climb solely in that singular category, doubling and then tripling. now, i'm not going to say there couldn't be *check statistics* 50 people who don't see callum as being willing to sacrifice the world for his loved ones/help aaravos if rayla or ezran's lines were quit literally being held at knifepoint, But

When the poll started, I acknowledged the bias the poll would likely be prone to, as my followers - by virtue of following me and seeing and presumably agreeing with what I post - would probably skew in favour of the interpretation, and this was reflected in 6/7 days of the poll's backing, with 60-78% (roughly 70-80 people) of participants leaning towards a shared interpretation. "Nah I don't see him that way" also rose steadily in terms of votes throughout the week day by day, but never cleared more than 8-10 individual people (you're troopers, I respect you, and I hope having the "snake boi Callum" tag makes it easier for you to blacklist accordingly so that you can enjoy your fandom experience)

The Snake Boi Callum interpretation is popular enough in fandom that we actually had a fandom event for it a few months back, plenty of people participated who I felt I wasn't familiar with as well as people I knew I would, and the pieces of art/fic/playlists regularly got 50-150 notes. If there are 50+ people who disagree with said interpretation, they are, generally speaking, not a group who's often actually making things for the fandom at large in terms of fic, fanart, other forms of creation, and not a ton of meta weekly or monthly about the topic and/or outside of that general wheelhouse, either. The 'pro' side is conversely a lot more active; most of the people who have written fic about said topic(s) aren't even me, but other cool lovely talented individuals over the past 3-ish years

The initial wave of votes happened when I posted the poll in the "snake boi Callum," "Rayllum," "tdp," and "the dragon prince" tags to reach a broader audience beyond my more immediate active follower range (as like, 90% of my followers are lurkers, which - respect). This is when it would've made sense if there was going to be an uptick in "nah I don't see him that way" to build

Instead, it happened 6 days into the poll when it was already decently buried by tags, I had recently self-reblogged it back into my accordingly biased circles, and rather than having a general variety, only a singular category went up by close to 40 people in like 3 hours. I tend to gain anywhere from 6-10 followers a week (for example, this week was 6) so that also does not account for the massive leap in a very short amount of time

Therefore, keeping to roughly 125 votes for posterity, and when removing the originally 30-ish or so people who voted for "see results" (significantly less than the first category, but more than the second by a decent margin) as well as the real 10 votes for "nah, I don't see him that way," approximately 85 people voted explicitly in favour of Snake Boi Callum / one of the first two options in general, with my meta being cited as the biggest influence. This is also with me rounding up the numbers of the other categories to likely more than they were, but I want to account for the potential error of my memory, as I wasn't keeping track of where things were super specifically before it started to smell like meddling.

Again, it's not that there couldn't be 50 people with that opinion, it's just that 40 of them, Realistically, did not suddenly come out of the woodwork in the span of 1-2 hours to consecutively vote in only one (1) category 6 days after that would've actually, marginally, made sense in terms of tagging / seeing it in the main tags.

If you're wondering why I presented all my ~ evidence ~ it's because if not, I'd probably be labelled as a liar and/or dismissed (it's happened before, unfortunately) and honestly, it ended up being a little funny to dig into how presumably nuts this got.

TLDR;

Anyway if you ever feel like you're deeply insecure and worried that you're idiotically clout chasing, remember you will never be as Embarrassing as the guy who made close to 39 sock blogs in one afternoon to try and 'one up' someone over an opinion they have regarding a children's tv show protagonist who's believed biggest flaw is that he Loves His Friends.

better poll that cannot be screwed with will follow

[dan-whoell]

13, 18 and 29 please! c:

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs

(i realized in looking for this answer that a lot of songs i think are 80s are actually either 70s or 90s. so thats fun.)

What's Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner is for sure high up on the list. her voice, man. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, a cover of which was my ringtone for years. Jump by Van Halen, bc i cant not have a VH song.

now you might think bfs not yet existing in the 80s should mean i cant answer them for this (though the 3/4 of the og guys were in high school meeting one another in 86 and all learning to play around that time) however they've been known to do a cover on occasion (1985 is a cover of an SR-71 song) so also Summer of '69, originally released by Bryan Adams in 1985 and covered by Bowling for Soup on their 2000 album Let's Do It For Johnny

18:A song from the year that you were born

i looked at the '1995 in Music' Wikipedia page as well as the billboard top 100 for this, and some that i found are just very funny to me.

Only Wanna Be With You- Hootie & the Blowfish

All I Wanna Do- Sheryl Crow

Cotton Eye Joe- Rednex

Waterfalls- TLC

I'll Be There For You- The Rembrandts

Just a Girl- No Doubt

Kiss From a Rose- Seal

Run Around- Blues Traveler

When I Come Around- Green Day

Wonderwall- Oasis

You Oughta Know- Alanis Morissette

Zombie- The Cranberries

Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under- Shania Twain

to me some of them are just So Big it's wild to think there was a time they didn't exist. and just... me and Wonderwall being born the same year, one of us wildly more successful than the other. it makes me laugh.

also technically released in 1994 on their self titled debut album (just three months after their formation!) i will also go with Nebraska by Bowling For Soup since it was out and about at the time.

29:A song that you remember from your childhood

im sure ive said this before somewhere, but i grew up listening to late 90s/early 2000a country, which undoubtedly did irreparable damage to my psyche but also is the reason i knew from an early age that i was queer (even if i didnt want to admit it then) i remember being so in love with Shania Twain in the UP! music video and the hot waitress from Alan Jackson's I Dont Even Know Your Name. Drive (for Daddy Gene) also by Alan Jackson was very big in our house. then my sister was big into Britney Spears and i was very anti pop music, which made sharing a room suuuuper fun (also we're eight years apart, so add thay layer in) but now whenever i hear any Britney songs i think of being a kid.

and the bfs answer is High School Never Ends, even though i was like 14 or 15 when i started listening. my childhood best friend showed me 1985 one day and i became obsessed. my favorite was always HSNE and i played it constantly

[madmanrambler]

“So walk me through everything I missed. It seems like it was a lot.”

“What, Everything? It’s 85 bloody years, there’s a lot to cover. And me without a degree in history.”

“Alright then, summarize. I can research whatever you mention that seems particularly interesting.”

I shifted to better watch Corv as he spoke, listening through ears that still felt chilly from 85 years frozen. Corv, one of my rescuers, shifted in his own spot, his diminutive form finding a comfortable seat. He glanced at me before starting in to the history.

“Let’s see, you went under in the 2020s you said, right? So you at least have an idea that climate change was getting bad. That was most of the 30′s and 40′s, handling that in various ways. Mostly bad ways. Lotta border skirmishes, plenty of fighting and arguing about bits of this and that. Big cold war between Canada and China about shipping lanes that opened up in the Artic, which was a miserable bloody time.” this at least all made sense, and I was nodding along.

“in the 50s things came to a bit of a head. Most of the ice that was going to melt melted, and the weather patterns were stabilizing. the countries and people left were figuring out how to handle the Sahara being able to grow plants and the American Midwest becoming a desert. We got some peace makers out of South America, and you’ll probably find some interestin’ stuff about indonesia and how its government in exile set an example for island nations and how to handle the shift in tides. Always found some of that stuff fascinating, you can look up Melati Hon and her speeches on the new world, great stuff.” Corv seemed excited about that part, really animated and I could see his eyes gleaming. Really might be something worth reading, and seeing what I thought afterwards. He reluctantly plowed on. “the 60s people kinda lost their mind, great art from the period but a lot of folks were recovering from being kids during the greatest ecological disaster. The 70s there’s big move of standardizing everything, making sure that plugs fit all over the world and all the measuring equipment can measure the same. Parts of America still insist on using standard but that’s more a local custom then a nation-wide standard at this point. the 80′s had a lot of discussion about the moon base, I think there was a big scare around a country grabbing it for themselves and a space war or something erupting over that, it was agreed to be a joint venture with every nation able to send people up, averted a lot of problems. The 90s are close enough I can remember ‘em, and there’s a ton you could focus on but overall it’s all about how to handle us living with these new batteries we’ve got, the Phazolyte batteries.”  This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to focus on, but Corv seemed to think it was important so I nodded and tossed in what I knew. “They’re batteries that mix with water to charge right?”

He coughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, I guess that’d be the second grader explanation. They mix phazolyte with water, and phazolyte causes water to be willing to compress as much as you push it, something it doesn’t want to do at all normally. S’why jumping off a bridge into water is like hitting concrete, all the force rebounds back into your body. With Phazolyte we get to store as much energy as we can compress into the water, then you just remove the Phazolyte and the water uncompresses, pushes against something, makes the electricity. And the Phazolyte, once removed, is good to use again, doesn’t lose anything in the process. It’s dead useful, and the last 15 years has been plugging that into everything and getting the supply chain worked out.” Corv coughed again, and glanced around. “That should cover the basics. Sorry we don’t have flying cars or nothing like that, I know you folks were keen on that.”

I stared at Corv for a long while. “Corv, that’s great. I’m glad you covered all the uh. The battery stuff. But.” I hesitated, glancing from him to the window to the chair he was sitting in. “You uh. Skipped the part about you.” Corv shifted in his seat again, glancing away from me. “Well it really isn’t all that important, it’s just part of the world really. I’m a British citizen, we still say god save the queen, we keep playing football-” “That seems like it’d be a bit hard for you to play.” I interrupt, glancing at how small Corv was. “I mean, Corv, you didn’t mention a damn thing about when birds started talking.” Corv looked what I thought was askance. “Well you did ask me to summarize.” He reminded me as his beak preened his feathers. “If I summarize I gotta skip the things that are less important. That’s how summarizing history goes.”

[oneinathousand]

Mediocre Extras in Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages Re-release Leaves Price Questionable

Since the Epic Games Store doesn't let you review games and it's not on Steam yet (a release there is supposed to happen eventually), I'll have to make my review here.

Some of my followers may recall that when the 90's point-and-click adventure game Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages was illegally put on Steam for $15, I raised the alarm about it to get it taken down. As I came to learn later, this incident inspired the rights holders (producer Algy Williams, co-creator Alastair Graham, and creator Harry Horse's estate) to come together and produce a re-release that is currently on the Epic Games Store for $25.

Since the original source code was lost long ago, all the developers could do was polish it slightly to make it run better on modern computers and hopefully iron out the bugs, but to justify the price point the advertisements on the new website promised several enticing extras including: a new walkthrough, the original pitch documents, an all-new art book with never-before-seen art, and most exciting of all - Diary of a Plagiarist, the 11-volume tome Harry Horse created in the 80's that served as the inspiration for Drowned God but was thought to have been lost (well, not really lost, the guy Harry sold them to refused to sell them back).

When I brought up the illegal version of DG on Steam, I said then that the game by itself would not even be worth $15 even if it were an official re-release because 1. It's a short, linear point-and-click game 2. It's over 25 years old now. Do the extra materials make the $25 price tag worth it? I'm not so sure, right now I'm leaning towards "no, not really". I'll tell you what's in this package and you can decide for yourself.

First, the game, which is fundamentally the same as it was before. This is not a remake or a remaster, there are no subtitles to alleviate the often awful audio mixing, it's just the original game made easier to play now. The producer of the re-release said in a Q&A video on the DG Youtube channel that he thinks the audio mixing sounds a little better now than it did then, but I couldn't tell you because my Airpods broke recently and I had to play the sound through my potato laptop's speakers.

Well, at the very least, from what I've played of the re-release so far (I'm not planning on playing through the whole thing right now, I'm not strong enough to go through that goddamn 9 Men's Morris puzzle again, I'm sorry ;_;), it is indeed functional and the mouse sensitivity felt better from what I remember playing on my emulated version.

So the re-release delivered the bare minimum with the game, and if that's all you care about and don't mind spending $25 on it, have at it, but now onto the extra materials, which I feel are a mixed bag that wouldn't have been so disappointing to me if the advertisements had been more honest about what they contained.

I have no qualms with the new walkthrough and the original pitch documents. The former is made to look like a top-secret folder complete with bits of redacted text and handwritten notes, it's very cute. The latter is very interesting to those interested in the lore of the game, as it gives a very different picture about what the story could have been. There are many pieces of art and writing that depict very different scenarios for the player that were changed for the final release, such as a description of the original goal being to collect a key plus several pieces of a UFO to fly to Atlantis and raise it from the ocean, with no mention at all of Kether and Malchut.

As for the other main extras, I have my qualms. Firstly is the purported Drowned God Art Book, which isn't really a book at all but a booklet, a short collection of concept art and musings from Alastair Graham about Knights Templar and Mayan mythology that abruptly stops and mostly only shows art from the Binah section of the game.

Don't get me wrong, the concept art that actually is in there is great, but I was left wanting more. If those pieces of art that were there were all that the developers had managed to track down after all these years and they titled the collection something like "Drowned God Art Booklet", I would understand, but they oversold the art "book"'s contents by a long shot, I feel.

And I know for a fact that there's more artwork out there that for whatever inexplicable reason wasn’t included anywhere in this re-release, but I can’t go into more detail at the moment, I’m in the process of trying to find out what’s been going on with this topic and will hopefully be able to give an update on it in the future.

As for the "Diary of a Plagiarist", that was a straight-up lie. It's in fact just a handwritten letter from Harry Horse giving the premise, a few story details, explaining how and why he made the volumes, and apologizing that he couldn't remember a whole lot about what was in them because he could never get them back. Imagine paying 20-something bucks for what you think is a copy of Moby-Dick, only to open it up and just see a note from Herman Melville going "I think it was about a guy in a boat chasing a whale, I forgot, lol".

I'm glad we have these notes from Harry in this case because it's probably the most detailed information about DOAP that we're ever going to get, plus it has more concept art of what looks like an even earlier version of DG before the pitch documents. However, the ones who put this re-release together could have avoided pissing me and potentially other people off by just being honest about what it really was rather than pretending like it's the real deal on the website.

So what we've got here are a few pretty good pdfs that have been blown out of proportion in terms of their contents. If you think that plus the old game is worth $25 and you can spend that, go right ahead, but for the rest of you, I would recommend waiting for a sale.

I have a few ideas for what they could add onto the package in the future to make it more worth the price tag: 1. Include a text file of all the spoken dialogue and hard-to-read pieces of writing in the game for those who might need it. 2. Expand the art book to include interviews from the developers about the making of the game and put in those other pieces of art that weren’t there the first time. 3. Update the website and social media to be more honest about the contents of the extras. 4. If tracking down the creators of the game's soundtrack is feasible, create a new, remastered soundtrack that makes the music longer than the original short loops.

If they cannot add any of these things in the near future, then there is really no excuse for this to be $25. Other PC games that are about as old as Drowned God such as Fallout 1 and 2, Diablo 1, Half-Life 1, Quake 1, and more are not only much cheaper to buy, but have more to offer.

[saffronapplemanga]

Anime/Manga Recommendation Round Up

Anime and manga recommendation thread of things I’ve been enjoying in recent years~ 

~I’ll link any dedicated posts I have to these~

~Links to my other manga posts here~

My personal favs/ones I super enjoyed will have a ✨ on them :)

(Some of these might not have official EN translations since any physical manga I read are JP copies. I guess if any sound interesting, ask publishers to license them!)

I won’t get too much into what they’re about because I think finding out is part of the fun. I’ll mostly list the genres and a little blurb. Some of these I feel like I rarely hear anyone talk about so it would be cool to see people try these :) 

 PLEASE LOOK UP ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS!

HORROR, SUPERNATURAL 

✨The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumoku Ren 

(4 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

Picked it up earlier this year up knowing nothing but was immediately gripped by the eerie mood. Takes place in the country side where mysterious things have been happening. My friend couldn’t stop reading when I recommended it.

ACTION, THRILLER, DRAMA, CRIME

✨Banana Fish by Yoshida Akimi

(19 volumes + side stories, completed)

It’s getting reprinted in English, so what are you waiting for!

Anime - yes and it’s so good…

The manga is from the 80’s-90’s but the anime updated it in 2018.

Without giving too much away, it takes place in NY where our characters are trying to break out of the vicious cycle of violence and figure out a mystery that’s also connected to a conspiracy. Lovable cast, keeps you on the edge of your seat. I’m obsessed.

DRAMA, ROMANCE, LGBTQ

Lovers’ Kiss by Yoshida Akimi

(2 volumes, completed)

JP only

A short story where high schoolers are just trying to figure life out. Yoshida-sensei has this way of writing human stories and melancholy/tragedy while still leaving a glimmer of hope.

HISTORICAL, SUPERNATURAL

✨Mushishi by Urushibara Yuki

(10 volumes, complete)

I think the physicals are out of print but you can read it on bookwalker. It deserves a reprint!!!

Anime - yes, it’s a whole vibe please watch it

I watched S1 ages ago but never got to the rest until recently. Recently picked up the manga and plan to read it eventually. Another top fav of all time. Amazing atmosphere. We see the daily life of mushi expert Ginko deal with mysterious phenomenon mushi cause.

COMEDY, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Yotsuba&! by Azuma Kiyohiko

(15 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

This series is super cute, wholesome, and hilarious! Yotsuba is honestly a delight, and following her daily life as she befriends her new neighbors is just a good time. Yet another fav of all time.

DRAMA, ART, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Blue Period by Yamaguchi Tsubasa

(15 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

Anime - yes, but… listen I’ve never said “don’t watch the anime” because everyone can enjoy stuff however they want but... don’t watch the anime… I’ve never been so offended by an adaption ;_;

After discovering something he’s passionate about for the first time, Yatora navigates the art world despite his fears and being a complete newcomer. This series made me cry so much, I love it… please

ROMANCE

In the Clear Moonlight Dusk by Yamamori Mika

(7 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

Blind-bought this a while ago. Yoi is dubbed “Prince” by her classmates for her cool demeanor, but she’s not the only one.

YOI IS MY GIRL!!!

ROMCOM, ACTION

MARRIAGETOXIN by Joumyaku and Yoda Mizuki

(3 volumes, ongoing)

Available for free on Shueisha’s mangaplus site

Assassin Gero needs to produce an heir so his sister can stay with her gf, but the social skills he needs to win a girl over need some help. This series is so funny and wholesome, all around a good time!

ACTION, ADVENTURE, FANTASY

✨Yona of the Dawn by Kusanagi Mizuho

(44 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

Anime - yes, but I haven’t seen it yet so idk

I’m not very far in this one yet, but I’m having a great time. Love the friendship, the found family vibes. Seeing Yona acknowledge that she is naive and then stepping up is awesome.

idk how I slept on this for so long since it seems like something right up my alley. Literally picked up a lot of all the 39 currently out volumes (it came with the light novel too), no questions asked. I’m only a few volumes in, but I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s giving me Ertugrul vibes (the historical Turkish drama). No, I won’t expand on that point, go watch Ertugrul!

I’m committed apparently...

ROMANCE

A Sign of Affection by Morishita Suu

(10 volumes, ongoing)

Available in English

Blind-buy. A cute romance between a deaf girl and a well-traveled guy.

FANTASY, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Ascendance of a Bookworm by Kazuki Miya and Shiina You

(3 seasons, ongoing)

Available in English - originally a light novel

Anime - yes, I’ve been watching this not reading it yet

Listen, isekai just don’t ever click with me, but this one does. There’s political drama and we get to learn about the culture and daily lives of people living in this world.

Our mc is reincarnated into a medieval fantasy world where access to books is limited, making it her personal hell. But don’t worry, she gonna do something about it! This series is so interesting and I love the character dynamics. Even if isekai aren’t your thing, try this!

DRAMA, HISTORICAL, POLITICAL

✨Requiem of the Rose King by Kanno Aya

(17 volumes, complete)

Available in English

It has an anime but I heard fans were really mad at the adaption. I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment.

Normally not the kind of thing I would go for, but this series has me constantly screaming. IT’S SO MESSY, but the good kind of messy. It takes every fiber in my body to contain myself when reading in public. It features an mc who was born intersex and a battle for the crown of England.

DRAMA

My Broken Mariko by Hirako Waka

(one shot)

Available in English

Saw this at the bookstore and I looked at the cover like “wow, she looks like she’s really going through it…and she’s carrying someone’s ashes, oh no…” Didn’t know anything else about it but, oof, it’s a heavy one…

DRAMA

Look Back and ✨Goodbye Eri by Fujimoto Tatsuki

(one shots)

Available in English - also on the Jump app

While Fujimoto-sensei’s more well-known work wasn’t 100% clicking with me, I tried his one shots and really enjoyed them. I particularly liked the cinematic feeling and environmental storytelling.

Maybe when I’m up to it, I’ll do posts on some of these that go into a little more detail on how I felt about them idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[green-day-unofficial]

what the fuck is a green day?

tl;dr - good band from the late 80s/early 90s that makes banger music

the long version:

Green Day is a very influential band in punk rock, pop punk, and other associated genres. They were founded by Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt in the 1980s and have continued to make incredible albums to this day. They have 14 studio albums, a few live albums, and a few compilation albums. They have made like 1 bad album, and outside of that, 1 bad song. I say theyre from "the 1980s" because i dont actually know WHEN they were formed. I mean, Wikipedia says 1987 I believe - when Billie Joe would have been 15 - but Billie Joe himself said that he's been around since 1988 (source: the iheartradio festival rant), so I'm really not quite sure what to believe.

They grew up on the likes of Motley Crue and started out making love songs because "[Billie Joe has] the shittiest love life known to man" (source: the 1991 interview where mike and tre are wearing silly outfits). Their album 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours is a compilation of their EPs 1000 hours, Slappy, and their first album, 39/Smooth, although 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours is generally considered to be their first studio album. It contains 10 love songs which makes over 50% of the album. This means that it has the highest percentage of love songs in any album.

Their second album, Kerplunk, is similar in theme to their first, as it too contains a large amount of love songs. Notably, this album's love songs are all directed at one individual - Adrienne Nesser (Billie Joe's crush/love interest at the time). For example, 2000 Light Years Away is about Billie's upset at not being near her due to being on tour.

1994's Dookie was their first breakout album - signed to a major label and armed with classic hits such as Longview, Basket Case, and Welcome to Paradise, they found fame, selling incredible amounts of records in a short span of time. It covers themes of growing up, finding love, finding hate, and one of the songs is literally about coming out. Did I mention Billie Joe is bisexual? Because he is. I think it was entirely written before Billie Joe and officially Adrienne got together, but I'm not sure. I know they started dating and got married and had a kid all in 1994, so...

In 1995, they released Insomniac, which has a sound similar to Dookie, but more...It's just more. They actually have a budget to work with, now, since Dookie was a hit. The sound quality increased dramatically with the purchase of new instruments and such. Brain Stew and Geek Stink breath are the most known songs from this album, which deal with themes of drug use, since Billie Joe was using them to cope with the struggles of fame.

Nimrod, released in 1997, marks a shift in the band's direction. It's an exploration in sound. They would go into the studio, fuck around for a bit, and record any song idea that came to mind, no matter what it was like and whether or not it fit with the rest of their songs, which resulted in classic hits like Hitching a Ride. The most famous song from this album - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - was actually first written in 1994, but only got released in 1997 because it didn't fit with neither Dookie nor Insomniac.

Warning is similar to Nimrod in that it, too, is an exploration in sound. However, this is the start of their focus on societal problems. Before 2000, the songs all dealed with personal problems - love, hate, drugs, mental health issues, etc. - but with songs like Fashion Victim and Misery, it's clear that the band is finally waking up to the shitty society around them. But they still have personal-focused songs in this album, including Jackass (self-explanatory), and Blood, Sex, and Booze (about a BDSM mistress).

Their next album was American Idiot. Need I say more? The rock-opera-turned-musical was their second career definining album. After Dookie, the band's popularity had been steadily declining, but after the shitshow that was early 2000s American politics, they released something incredible. American Idiot was their first proper political album, with the titular track being undoubtedly its most popular song.

21st Century Breakdown was also an incredible album, although it doesn't see as much praise as American Idiot, due to people comparing the two a lot. It contains many underrated songs, like Before the Lobotomy and Peacemaker, although 21 Guns is the most famed song from it. I personally quite like every song on the album.

A few years later, in 2012, they released the Trilogy. This was a set of 3 albums based on the concept of "What if Green Day was bad?" Okay, that's not quite true. They're just desperately grasping at their early sound and failing miserably. I don't really have a lot to say about them except that there's like 2 good tracks per album. Don't listen to Nightlife from ¡Dos!, either.

Then in 2016, they realised what they did wrong, and they released a third political album - Revolution Radio. I think the only really famous song from that is Still Breathing, really, but the first line of the whole album - "I'm running late to somewhere now that I don't want to be" - is both mine and Billie Joe's favourite, because it's so universal. The only song from this album I don't think fits is Youngblood, because it's an unnecessary love song in the middle of a political album. Like, seriously: we get it, Billie, you love your wife. My favourite song from this album is probably either Too Dumb To Die, Forever Now, or one of the other tracks.

Father of All was a mistake.

Saviors is brilliant, I don't need to talk about it, just listen to it. I'm still in the incoherent brainrot phase.

[oceanic-sunsets]

"To Turn Back the Clock", or: More Hints about Time Travel and Possible Soundtrack

We've known for a while that there's a big possibility of time travel being a major part of S5. The hints are endless, from 8:15 and Will's clothes resembling Marty Mcfly's, to more obvious hints like the reveal that the U.D is "frozen" on the day Will went missing.

Here you can find an amazing post about time travel, I'm sure there are more (please lead me to them!) but this is the one that came to mind.

So this all started because my music taste right now is "anything you'd find in Mike's/Will's playlist or the ST soundtrack", so my weekly discoveries are always full of 80's music. This week the first song in my list is "Shattered Dreams" by Johnny Hates Jazz, but what caught my attention was the Album's title: "Turn Back The Clock", as said by Hopper in the letter he wrote in s3 and basically foreshadowed the entirety of the character's arcs in s4.

But maybe it was a coincidence, right? it's unlikely it's from the 80's, maybe the 90's! ...or so I thought. So as one does, I immediately looked up the year: 1988! so not only it's from the 80's, but also from the year s5 is likely to take place. Just take a look at the titles:

And I swear I was expecting maybe a song or two to fit in with the plot and characters, but this album is no joke, you can't make this up:

Notice something familiar, besides "turn back the clock"? I really encourage you to look/listen yourself: the album is FULL of references to the heart, lies/how to make someone understand it was NOT a lie (hello? the painting?), needing answers, a friendship that turned into love but one half is scared of what it might mean, needing/loving someone, something you say before a dommed future, minutes/time slipping away, a person who is not who he used to be so he wishes he could turn back the clock to a better time...

And I could go on and on. I was extremely impressed because I wasn't expecting this many coincidences and so many songs having such specific lines. Besides, we know they like to foreshadow the plot with songs: Time after time, (s2. one of the most direct references to time/clocks/memories) and "should I stay or should I go" (s1-2) which makes reference to the consequences of someone staying (til' the end of time)/leaving.

So what does this mean?

I don't know. I've got no proof they're going to include any of these songs in s5, except a gut feeling and way too many coincidences.

If you ask me, I personally tie most of it to Will. I should make another post with a compilation of how he's been tied since the beginning of the show with the concept of time and the importance of memories.

I do not think they're going to approach time travel in the conventional "let's undo all the issues" way, but rather in a way that portrays how you Become, Accepting the past/face the truth, and What Makes You Human & Worth the Pain that comes with Being (love).

[onlinecompanynews]

Avatr cancels its last directly-managed stores, shifts fully to dealer model - Information Global Internet https://www.merchant-business.com/avatr-cancels-its-last-directly-managed-stores-shifts-fully-to-dealer-model/?feed_id=134314&_unique_id=669780524d87a Previously, 90 percent of Avatr’s s... BLOGGER - #GLOBAL Previously, 90 percent of Avatr’s stores have been converted from directly-managed stores to dealerships, with only a few directly-managed stores remaining in a few cities.(An Avatr 12 on display at the new energy vehicle show in Shanghai in early June 2024. Image credit: CnEVPost)Avatr Technology, an electric vehicle (EV) brand backed by Changan Automobile, CATL, and Huawei, canceled its only remaining directly-managed stores and shifted to a full dealership sales model.Avatr’s last directly-managed stores in Beijing will soon all switch to a dealership model, local media outlet Jiemian said in a report today.Previously, 90 percent of the company’s stores had been converted from directly operated to dealerships, with only a few directly operated stores remaining in a handful of cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, according to the report.Avatr’s previously built self-operated after-sales service team was completely laid off at the beginning of the year, with after-sales service being done by Changan’s dealers, as with Changan’s other brand Deepal, according to the report.Avatr was initially set up as Changan Nio by Changan and Nio on July 10, 2018. Nio has now substantially exited from the company, holding less than 1 percent stake.The company had previously adopted a hybrid sales model of direct stores alongside dealerships. For after-sales, Avatr’s own team provides service at the dealer’s stores.In 2022, about 30 percent of Avatr stores were directly operated and the other 70 percent were dealer stores, according to Jiemian.Starting in 2023, Avatr attempted to utilize more outside forces to sell cars and entered Huawei stores in February of the same year. In July 2023, Avatr signed up more than 30 additional dealers.In the second half of 2023 alone, the number of Avatr outlets increased by about 120, equivalent to 80 percent of the entire dealership network at the end of 2022.In April of this year, Avatr announced that it would add another 120 outlets throughout the year, with the total expected to reach around 500 by the end of the year.Avatr’s sales performance has been lukewarm, however, with only 27,600 vehicles delivered in the full year of 2023, which was only 27.6 percent of the full-year delivery target of 100,000 vehicles, according to Jiemian.Avatr’s net loss for the full year of 2023 widened 83 percent year-on-year to RMB 3.69 billion ($500 million), Jiemian’s report noted, adding that it has accumulated net losses of RMB 6.07 billion over the past four years, counting from the start of Avatr’s restructuring in 2020.Changan chairman Zhu Huarong himself became Avatr’s chairman at the end of 2023, when rumors surfaced that Avatr would convert its directly-managed stores into dealer stores.In April, Avatr began channel changes. By June 15, those adjustments were essentially over.Regardless of which sales model is adopted, the key is to provide the best user experience as well as improve efficiency, Avatr vice president Wang Jinhai said in a recent interview with another local media outlet Yicai.For Avatr, it gets Changan’s support in sales channels, which can ensure the customer experience while solving the asset-heavy issue of the direct-sales system, Wang said.($1 = RMB 7.2673)Nio considering dealer network in Europe to boost sales, report saysBecome A CnEVPost MemberBecome a member of CnEVPost for an ad-free reading experience and support us in producing more quality content. Become A MemberAvatr cancels its last directly-managed stores, shifts fully to dealer model #Avatr #cancels #directlymanaged #stores #shifts #fully #dealer #model http://109.70.148.72/~merchant29/6network/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Avatr-cancels-its-last-directly-managed-stores-shifts-fully-to-dealer.

jpg #GLOBAL - BLOGGER Previously, 90 percent of Avatr’s stores have been converted from directly-managed stores to dealerships, with only a few directly-managed stores remaining in a few cities. (An Avatr 12 on display at the new energy vehicle show in Shanghai in early June 2024. Image credit: CnEVPost) Avatr Technology, an electric vehicle (EV) brand backed by Changan … Read More

[shizucheese]

Hi guys, taking a moment to step away from fun video game/ live streaming/ podcast things to put this out there (sorry it gets a bit rambley): If your only issues with Biden are "old" and "has a stutter" and that's making you seriously consider if you want to vote for him, congratulations, you're agist and ableist. Let's just cross the age thing off from both lists, shall we? One of them doesn't seem to be having any issues with running this country regardless of his age, and the other one has a long enough list of other issues going on that his age would be the least worrying thing even if it was an issue. Also, since I've seen a number of people make these points when scrolling through the reblogs, just gonna put these things out there: * Roe v. Wade got overturned because of Trump, the people who voted for him, and the people who voted third party or didn't vote at all during the 2016 election. It doesn't matter whose administration it got overturned during. The reason it got overtured was because of the judges Trump put on the Supreme Court. So if you're upset about Roe v. Wade being overturned, and you voted third party or didn't vote at all in 2016 and bought into the "Hillary is just as bad as Trump" bullshit, congratulations, that one's on you. * Tara Reid, the woman who accused Biden of rape, fled to Moscow a few months ago and has spoken on Russian propaganda networks since. And her credibility wasn't all that great even before that. She also already had a history of being a Putin sympathizer. If you actually google her, the more you look into her and her allegations, the more the whole thing stinks. And when you take that in the context of everything that's happened between the 2016 election and today between the US and Russia, it shouldn't take that much critical thinking to put 2 and 2 together and make 4. * And if you need to reach back to something that Biden did as a senator in...what, the 1970's/80's/ 90's? to try and claim that Biden is racist today, in 2023, then I want you to take a long hard think and see if you can figure out for yourself why trying to use something from 30-50 years ago as "proof" that someone is racist today might reflect more poorly on you than it does on them. People change. As recently as 15 years ago there were people who were against gay marriage, either entirely or because they thought Civil Unions were a "good enough compromise" or w/e, who today understand why that stance was problematic and have evolved with the times. Same deal goes for many other LGBTQ+ issues. Same deal goes for women's rights. Same deal goes for race issues. If you have to go back decades to support your claim that someone is racist or any other kind of bigot, with nothing more recent (like, say, within the last 5 years? I'd say 10 but even that can be stretching it. Can you honestly say you held 100% the same beliefs now that you did a decade ago, or have you evolved and changed as you learned new things?), then you have nothing. I could go on, but this is already super long.

As a final note (and I know it's long, so the TL;DR is fact check, verify, don't take anything you hear second hand at face value): Always fact check if you're getting information from a secondary source (whether it be through the social media grape vine or an article you read). Always verify. If you see people criticizing a politician or other public figure for something they said, always double check the context--find the original source and read/ watch the whole thing, if you can. And if someone shares a source or fact checking resource with you that contradicts something that you've said or shared, always read the whole thing. A lot of times, it turns out that in context, what the person said isn't nearly as bad. Sometimes, like in the case of Trump, the full context ends up being so much worse than just the snippet that got quoted. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen with my own eyeballs someone say they didn't like Biden or Hillary or whoever because they had said xyz thing, who then admitted it wasn't nearly as bad as they had thought once they were linked to the original source and knew the full context.

I also can't tell you how many times I looked through articles friends had shared on Facebook that were making a claim, that linked to sources that allegedly backed up that claim, only for those links to in fact not back up the claim at all when I actually looked into them to verify the information. There is so much propaganda out there coming from sources that are trying to make our country weaker and weaker, and they would love nothing more than to put Trump back into power and repeat their success from 2016. The best way to make sure they don't win is to always question, always fact check and verify, and never share something without verifying, no matter how much you like the sound of what it says or want it to be true. If you actually care about LGBTQ+ issues, or civil rights, or women's rights, or preventing the right from rewriting history in terms of what kids learn in schools, or protecting libraries (and the books within), or access to education or all of the other things that people on the left claim to care about, you'll do what needs to be done. I once read an article that pointed out that what people call a "vote of conscience" is a misnomer, and it should be called a "vote of ego." Your conscience is supposed to be what guides you to do the right thing, even if it's not something you want to do, while your ego leads you to do what feels good to you even if it ends up having negative consequences later. When you vote, make sure what you're making really is a vote of conscience, and not a vote of ego. The consequences of the 2016 election and how close the 2020 election were prove just how important that distinction is.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, your regularly scheduled anime/ video game/ podcast/ book/ etc. programming will resume shortly.

Look, Biden isn't my first choice, either. But it's going to be one of these two guys, and I'm not voting for the rapist.

[bellmo15-blog]

This is a vent post. Yeah I'm sorry to dumb a massive vent post like this on you all but I really gotta get this off my chest because I'm seriously starting to think that sharing your opinion about anything in regards to games, movies or shows just isn't worth it anymore and it's been eating away at me for a while now.

I've seen way to many examples of people who either say you have no taste if you enjoy somethings that's hated or dislike something that's loved, clowned on constantly for certain opinions even if you have genuine reasons for thinking what you do, have your taste called "the most reddit shit ever" or some other stupid buzzword insult, get criticized for not liking a particular genera of gaming that isn't for you, seen people continue to give someone shit over there opinion on a game they reviewed 15 years ago and probably don't even stand by anymore or in a more personal example told that your the reason we will "Never get another good game in this franchise" all just for admitting you have fun a certain game in a long running series. And that's not even bringing up how overly aggressive I see people get when talking down on someone's opinion.

Yes, some people can have really hypocritical opinions or only say those opinions for bait but not every one is like that! We all have our own things we enjoy and don't enjoy and that's fine! Why is the concept of being respectful of what other people's tastes and opinions are so difficult nowadays? Oh what's that? Someone likes Fallout 4 over New Vegas because they prefer the combat of 4 over New Vegas? Someone said that they find it difficult to enjoy an old game from the 80's or 90's because it hasn't aged the best? Who gives a shit! Your an adult! Move on!

Maybe it's just because of how I grew up and was exposed to so many varied opinions on various things and learnt that everyone thinks differently but this is the kind of behaviour I'd expect to see from a child who hasn't matured yet it's mostly done by grown men close to my age! There's a good reason I've considered just leaving the internet entirely in the past.

[forevercloudnine]

Hello! You mentioned in a tag that you think Pamela is Bruce's favorite, and it made me wonder. I'd definitely be interested to hear more on that, if you feel like talking about it! Love hearing your thoughts.

💗💗 So a few years ago I was reading the "Gothtopia" arc and was incredibly amused by Bruce casually letting Ivy escape from Arkham to return a favor she'd done him.

Notably, Ivy was the only inmate imprisoned in Arkham at the time, because Scarecrow locked her up for interfering. So Bruce literally helped her escape and then lied to Jim's face about it. I know you recently read Run, Riddler, Run, so here's an amusing comparison: in this story, Ivy is pointedly not reformed, she punches Bruce in the face before helping him, and Bruce still sets her free. Meanwhile, Bruce rewards the assistance of a reformed Edward by punching him in the face and making sure Edward is re-imprisoned.

And then ever since reading Gothtopia, I’ve just been noting how much more tolerant Bruce seems of Ivy than his other villains. Obviously a large element of that is the metatextual factor of Ivy being a female character-- it would clearly Look Really Bad for artists to depict Batman brutalizing a woman with the same sadistic detail with which they depict him assaulting his male villains. (Though ironically the metahuman plant goddess could probably brush off a punch much easier than his variety of entirely human gimmick villains).

There’s also the factor of writers continuously flip-flopping back and forth on whether or not they’re attracted to each other. I kind of thought Pamela’s current commitment to Harley meant this was over, but then Tynion’s run depicted Ivy as holding the same spot in Bruce’s subconscious as Selina and Talia, so I guess it isn’t (though maybe that just means the attraction is one-sided on Bruce’s part now, which would be an amusing twist on Ivy having an unreciprocated crush on him in the 90′s).

But over time I think Bruce’s faith in Ivy has become less about her being a woman (who he may or may not be attracted to), and more sympathy for her motivations. Especially now that she’s transformed from a femme fatale who wants to be the queen of crime to a zealous ecoterrorist who wants to save the planet.

For as much as their interests are entirely alien to each other (Ivy wants to protect nature, often at the cost of human life; Bruce wants to protect human life, often at the cost of... well, human life, actually), their obsessive dedication to doing what they think of as “good” is very similar. Which means Ivy is easier to negotiate with than other villains, since she has goals beyond greed or sadism that Bruce is able to compromise on. Which means it’s easier for Bruce to believe in her capacity for good, in a way that he normally doesn’t bother to believe in his villains, because it’s inevitable that they’ll disappoint him. Which also means that he GIVES Ivy opportunities to disappoint him...

Detective Comics #823 is a huge point of frustration to me because the concept is so fascinating and the execution is just ENDLESS objectification to the point that it almost erases the plot (story of my life trying to read Paul Dini’s writing). But I love the bones of it as a comic where Bruce sympathizes with Pamela, to the point of letting her stay in the Batcave to protect her from an attacker (I can’t even think of another example of Bruce doing this for a villain, outside of Joker in the BTAS comics, and doesn’t that say a lot on its own). But then he discovers evidence of Ivy having recently gruesomely murdered several people, and he is so illogically hurt and betrayed by this-- a woman he knows is a murderer having murdered people-- that he threatens to kill her.

It’s not uncommon for Bruce to threaten his villains with death (I have a whole subfolder on my computer dedicated just to times where he does so with Mr. Freeze), but it’s fascinating to me that Bruce frames the threat here as a question. He wants her to give him a reason to believe in her, even though he has just been faced with undeniable evidence that her view of human life is fundamentally incompatible with his. But Ivy doesn’t give him a reason-- she just calls him on his bluff, which I love.

In the current continuity, Ivy is honestly less Bruce’s supporting character so much as she is Harley’s, but Bruce IS still the main character of DC Detective Comics, so they still interact on occasion. Although ironically, I think the most recent example of my point is actually Ivy’s ex-girlfriend Bella comparing the two of them in Batman Secret Files: The Gardener.

Bella believes that Bruce will ignore her and simply try to imprison Ivy more effectively, which is probably what he would have done normally: Bruce is extremely set in his ways, and his way is to drag any villains he defeats back to Arkham even though he knows Arkham helps no one. The 2021 Detective Comics Annual was all about how Bruce still has to be dragged kicking and screaming into investing in the idea of any criminal being reformed, and resolutely does not consider it his responsibility to help them do so.

Ironically, however, we know that Bruce DID listen to Bella. The issue with their conversation is set in the timeline right before Everybody Loves Ivy, which ends with Bruce deciding to bring Pamela to “Sanctuary,” the therapy center he helped build for superheroes, rather than bringing her back to Arkham. His dialogue with Ivy even uses a lot of Bella’s points here, which is very fun retrospective writing from Tynion. But then Heroes in Crisis happened and... well, Bruce’s attempt to help her instead of hurt her ultimately made everything worse, and has now domino effect led to her current solo series where she is trying to kill off a significant portion of the planet’s human population. (In his defense, Bella’s attempts to fix Ivy also failed and backfired just as spectacularly.) But the fact that Bruce was willing to try is notable and so fascinating to me, since as a character he’s so resistant to setting himself up for disappointment.

[bogleech]

hi, read your antichrist post. asking in good faith here: how are people supposed to know what the antichrist means and reprisents if its never outlined in the bible? becuase thats how (i assume) most people who arent religious would do their research on christianity

I wasn't raised religious at all, and I grew up in the Northeast of the country pretty far away from the "bible belt" but I still found it impossible to avoid hearing that stuff, anywhere you went there was someone talking about it, people on TV talking about, churches sneaking pamphlets and propaganda to children who would share it at school, everyone knew someone who knew someone totally reeled into the apocalypse cult.

But I guess that was the 80's and 90's and I'm "old" to most people on tumblr. When I got the internet around 1997, fanatical religious stuff was even harder to escape, there were thousands of online communities dedicated to spamming their antichrist prophecies to every forum and chat they could find, and so it was also a major source of memes and comedy. There were even websites devoted entirely to riffing on Jack Chick comics, these things:

I feel like it was only around 2005 that all this started to change and this fanaticism began to fade from popular consciousness. It became harder for these people to spam it everywhere as the internet grew, they stopped being a meme anyone cared about and they may have just gotten used to the fact that nobody took them seriously. Unfortunately that's kind of the exact problem, nobody even back then thought to worry about how many of these folks are in our government and that's only gotten worse in the last 15 years. Also as some other folks have said, the beliefs of the radical evangelists aren’t even in the bible anyway. They believe a LOT of stuff that was just thrown in by TV preachers in the past 50ish years.

[atmosphericradar]

I find that nostalgia tends to really show how much societal trends and vibes (and being alive at the time) affects people's perceptions of "decades".

Once I heard someone say: "The 50's didn't end until Kennedy was assassinated in 1963", and that totally decoupled my perception of what a "decade" is. IMO the 90's didn't end until September 11th, 2001. And the 90's didn't start until Nirvana released "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in 1991. Depending on how you judge it, I could believe the 2000's ended in 2008, 2010, or as late as 2013. I've heard different people posit that the 80's started in the late 70's or in the early 80's. It's all about how you measure the cultural moment.

To focus more on your thesis, I think that the early 2000's themselves had a lot of reflexive 90's nostalgia because of 9/11. I know from experience that the echoes of the 90's toy culture, eclectic art, and the "world music" movements didn't die until the mid-2000's. The blending and bleed-over make it hard to recall who is nostalgic for what.

The Goth scene was theoretically "authentic"/"original"/"diagetic" for like, twenty-five years. The same could be said for the Emo scene, but for roughly 15 years. So some people could be referencing trends that lasted more than one decade.

But to counter your thesis, young creators are doing "2000's revival" things on TikTok and YouTube. Roleplays, moodboards, and playlists. There's the whole "web revival"/Loveweb movement. I have seen some echoes of the Scene subculture bubbling back up on Tumblr. The Slutpop genre is bringing back some of the Jersey Shore/Juicy Couture 2000's fem vibes, if only ironically.

What I haven't seen is revivals of particular 2000's cultural tends that are considered "cringe": Pop-punk, Mall Ninjas, Nu Metal, Steampunk, the aborted 60's revival that Chevy and Pimp My Ride and Guy Fieri all somehow simultaneously pushed for.

All of this is, of course, very USAmerican culture focussed.

Thesis: the reason we're having a nostalgic revival of the 1990s in 2024 even though nostalgic revivals usually trail twenty years behind the genuine article rather than thirty is because what everybody is picturing when they think of "the 1990s" is actually the early 2000s.

[dahbeez]

1. "You're such a dork."

2. "Get over here, you doof."

3. "Cheeky."

4. "You're so needy."

5. "Kiss me again."

6. "You're so adorable!"

7. "Look at you... goodness, you're so cute!"

8. "I'm just so happy!"

9. "I can't stop smiling."

10. "I like that you make me laugh so much that my cheeks hurt."

11. "You are being extra sweet today."

12. "Oh, look at you!"

13. "Your eyes are so pretty."

14. "I'm really happy that you're here with me."

15. "Thank you for staying with me."

16. "I don't think I've ever loved someone this much before."

17. "I feel like I'm in the clouds when I'm with you."

18. "You're like my hero/heroine."

19. "I'm gonna tickle you if you don't come over here."

20. "My, oh my. You are such a beautiful creature."

@drink-it-write-it​

21. "Go with me?" "As long as you hold my hand."

22. "Is there a reason you're blushing like that?"

23. "Have you seen my hoodie?" "Nooooo..." "You're wearing it, aren't you?"

24. "OH you're jealous!"

25. "Can we stay like this forever?"

26. "Please just kiss me already."

27. "I think you might be my soulmate."

28. "Sleep over? Please?"

29. "Are we on a date right now?"

30. "I think I'm in love with you."

31. "Are you flirting with me?" "You finally noticed?"

32. "Am I your lockscreen?" "You weren't supposed to see that."

33. "I wish we could live together already."

34. "They're so cute when they're asleep."

35. "I just wanted to let you know that I think you're beautiful."

36. "Quit touching me, your feet are cold!"

37. "Sharing is caring, now give me the hoodie!"

38. "Give me attention."

39. "You met me yesterday." "Yes, and I would die for you. Next question."

40. "She's hiding behind the sofa."

41. "Did you just hiss at me?"

@wishiwasanavenger-archive​

42. "Have you kissed anyone before?"

43. "Can I kiss you?"

44. "You're not hurting me, you're not heavy. I've got you, love.” 

45. "I look at them and I just... it's like when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes."

46. "I don't... I've never... been in a relationship before and I'm going to make mistakes... I just need you to tell me. I need you to talk to me."

47. "You didn't tell me your friend was cute! Now what am I going to do?"

48. "You give me a reason to be better, to do better."

49. "God, you are so fucking cute."

50. "I love you, but I need you to go away because you're really bloody distracting and I have to pass this test tomorrow."

51. "Oh no... they're cute."

52. "I can't talk to cute people, okay? I don't know how to flirt!"

53. "God, I love your face."

54. "Don't look at me, I'm a mess!" "I love it when you're a mess!"

55. "Please do your homework for me...? Just one time." ... "I said one time, y'know... you didn't have to start studying. Not that I'm not proud or anything."

56. "I'm already home."

57. "Your comfort and happiness is more important to me than some stupid dinner."

58. "Stop moving! I'm going to have to start counting all over again!"

59. "I just thought that since you weren't feeling too good, this would help."

60. "I'm not kissing you in the rain! We'll catch our death!"

61. "Would it help if I stayed?"

62. "I apologise sincerely if my beautiful/handsome face has kept you up all night."

63. "God, you're pretty."

64. "Calm down, it's just a chocolate bar!"

65. "Please, tell me you brought a toothbrush?"

66. "You take the bed, you need it more than me."

67. "You're so warm!"

68. "You're freezing, Jesus!"

69. "You always look beautiful."

70. "Your hands are so small!"

71. "Sometimes I just want to cuddle, okay? Is that so bad?"

72. "Now I know where half my wardrobe went."

73. "Here, let me just–" 

74. "You're really special to me."

75. "That tickles!"

76. "We only have one room left for the night..."

77. "Naps are life, okay?"

78. "I don't think I could love you anymore than I already do."

79. "I had the weirdest dream..."

80. "I got you a trophy, it's only plastic, but it's for being the best human I know."

81. "Someone keeps leaving love notes in my locker and I don't know if I should find it endearing or creepy..."

82. "I love your voice."

83. "Put me down! I can walk!"

84. "Can... can you come over?"

85. "You're the best."

86. "Can you please stop biting your lip, it's distracting."

87. "I thought you liked love songs!"

88. "I know you're not a fan of Valentine's day... I just thought that maybe I could change your mind..."

89. "You're my favourite know-it-all."

90. "That was the least romantic proposal in the entire history of proposals."

91. "I never knew you were a romantic at heart."

92. "I made it. For you. I know it's not the best, but..."

93. "Let me carry that."

94. "How do you know my favourite drink?" "I'm observant."

95. "We've known each other's for years and I don't think we've ever had a proper conversation."

96. "You're the clumsiest person I know, how did you survive past childhood?"

97. "It's always time for a milkshake."

98. "You know, humming the James Bond theme tune defeats the point of sneaking."

99. "I think your cat wants to kill me."

100. "Where have all my jumpers gone?"

101. "I don't get paid enough for this shit."

102. "Oh my God, I love you."

103. "I told you to bring a jacket."

@writings-of-a-hufflepuff​

104. "Is that my shirt?" "You mean our shirt?"

105. "It's you, it always has been."

106. "You're everything I could've wanted and more."

107. "Kiss me."

108. "Home stopped being a place when you entered my life."

109. "You should probably go home." "But I'm already home."

110. "You're an idiot." "But you love me."

111. "I'd do anything for you."

112. "You took all the pillows so I'm using you as one."

113. "Stop moving and let me braid your hair."

114. "I'm so proud of you."

115. "You are my family."

116. "I'm right here."

117. "Can you just please hold me?"

118. "I'm pretty sure they're my soulmate."

119. "This reminded me of you."

120. "Your hair is really soft."

121. "Are you blushing?"

122. "Can I stay here tonight?"

123. "Because I love you."

124. "Make a wish!"

125. "I love seeing you smile."

126. "You're just a softie."

127. "You are crushing me right now."

128. "Darling I love you and all, but please step out of the kitchen."

129. "Take my hand. Just trust me."

130. "You're the only thing that matters."

131. "Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"

132. "Hey, look at me. Focus on me, alright?"

133. "Why can't I get you out of my head?"

134. "Don't let go."

135. "Stay."

@blisfvll​

136. "You smell really nice."

137. "If you steal the blanket, I'm going to put my cold feet on you."

138. "You're comfy."

139. "But I want to hear you sing."

140. "Don't get up – I'll do it."

141. "Care to give me a back scratch?"

142. "Your bed head is really cute."

143. "How about a kiss?"

144. "Uh oh, I know that look. What do you want?"

145. "Are you really flirting with me right now?"

146. "I like the way your hand fits in mine."

147. "You have something in your hair, umm... do you want me to get it out?"

148. "It's nice that your voice is the first thing I heard today."

149. "This movie is really scary, but you're into it so I'm trying not to cover my face the whole time but– WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

150. "Wait, don't pull away... not yet."

151. "Half the time I get too embarrassed to say anything."

152. "No, it's fine. I can wait until you're done talking to them."

153. "No, like... it's just, I can't believe you're actually wearing my clothes."

154. "I've been trying to get ready for like an hour and an half because I know you're going to look so good and I need to try and match up."

155. "I wanted to say 'I love you' for the first time without stuttering, but that failed."

156. "We could order pizza and just stay like this all day."

157. "It's not a double date. We're just third and fourth wheeling."

158. "I remember practicing how to ask you out in the mirror..."

@marauder-exe​

159. "It's not funny!"

160. "That wasn't suppose to happen."

161. "Hurry back."

162. "I can't take you seriously."

163. "Problem solved."

164. "That was embarrassing."

165. "It's freezing in here."

@love-me-a-good-prompt​

166. "I love you, baby."

167. "Hey, cutie."

168. "I promise to love you for the rest of my life."

169. "You're my world."

170. "I don't care if you're sick, catching a cold from kissing you is worth it."

171. "You are so perfect."

172. "Marry me?"

173. "You're the best part of me."

174. "Stay here with me. For the rest of our lives."

175. "I'm speechless, you're so beautiful!"

176. "Come here, I need to hug you."

177. "When everything's wrong, it's you that makes it right."

178. "You're the one."

@raggedy-dxctor​

179. "Well, it's the thought that counts." "Wait, no, don't take my kisses away from me!"

180. "Oh, you've started stealing my socks now?"

181. "You owe me a kiss."

182. "How did you get in here?"

183. "That's not even fair."

184. "You promised me a cookie!"

185. "Ew, that is so sappy, I might vomit."

186. "You're not very intimidating."

187. "That was, by far, the stupidest thing you've ever done."

188. "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer."

189. "Why the hell is there glitter everywhere?"

@whcczes​

190. "I'll feel much better if you let me walk you home."

191. "Apparently, all our friends have a bet going that we end up together."

192. "You make me feel alive. For the first time ever, I feel like I can breathe."

@moanlightlust​

193. "It's two in the morning and you want to cuddle?"

194. "You shine so bright it's intimidating. I love it."

195. "I'm here."

196. "What's your name again? Sorry, I just got that super weird feeling that we only see in movies, you know? Like, the whole world stopped turning and all I could see was you."

197. "I was born to be yours."

198. "Isn't it a bit too cliché?"

199. "So, you're just kissing strangers for no apparent reasons?"

200. "You'll always be my favourite person."

201. "You're making it weird, stop making it weird."

202. "There's nothing I love more than running back into your arms."

203. "I'm yours. Forever."

204. "You always know how to cheer me up."

205. "I... I lost the ring."

206. "Will you be mine?"

207. "Darling, you look perfect tonight."

208. "You saved my life."

209. "Don't give me that look. No... NO! I said no puppy dog eyes! You know I can't resist them! Argh, fine!"

210. "I missed you and your bad puns and even your horrible cooking and the way you fit perfectly against my body when we cuddle. I just really missed you."

211. "We're a team, remember?"

212. "There's no place I'd rather be than by your side."

213. "Your smile brightens the whole room."

214. "I kinda adopted a puppy behind your back... don't be mad! Look at those cute fluffy paws!"

215. "You're burning up. Guess I need to activate my nurse mode."

216. "I love you. As in more than friends, more than best friends and more than super extra best friends."

217. "I love you just the way you are."

218. "We need to kick his ass, no questions asked. You in?"

219. "Hot chocolate and cuddles? Kisses?"

220. "You make me feel pretty."

221. "You'll always be my best girl."

222. "Never hide yourself from me."

223. "Babe! There's no toilet paper!"

224. "I'll never give up on you."

225. "Do you feel that shirt? That's boyfriend material."

226. "That prank went so wrong."

227. "Care to dance, my love?"

228. "AH! You're stuck with me!"

229. "You're too good to me."

230. "Is it that time of the month?"

231. "Can I braid your hair?"

232. "It's okay to have doubts, as long as you don't let them overwhelm you."

233. "Come here! I can't stand to be so far away from you!"

234. "I got you."

235. "I wanna fall asleep next to you every night and wake up every morning with you by my side."

236. "Stop, I need to finish this!"

237. "I just wanna binge watch The Office, but it's not the same without you."

238. "Because I care about you!"

239. "I just wanted to impress you."

240. "I love you even though your breath stinks right now."

241. "Did you just puke on me?"

242. "We should get drunk and do stupid things."

243. "I always know what you're thinking about, babe. You're like an open book!"

244. "Could you sing to me?"

245. "I, uh, could you... could you play with my hair, please?"

246. "Nooooo, don't leave! I'm cold!"

247. "I think you're suffering from a lack of vitamin me."

248. "A mistletoe? Really?"

249. "Will you join me, love?"

250. "I have feelings for you."

251. "You are the reason."

252. "Take my hand, I wanna show you something..."

253. "You have a lovely name."

254. "You're my everything."

255. "You do know a lot about my blushing schedule."

@voilawind​

[lokiondisneyplus]

Natalie Holt's timeline was turned upside down last fall when she landed the highly-coveted composer gig for Marvel Studios' Loki series on Disney+.

"My agent got a general call-out looking for a composer on a Marvel project," she tells SYFY WIRE during a conversation over Zoom. "So, I didn’t know what it was. It was [described as] spacey and quite epic ... I sent in my show reel and then got an interview and got sent the script and then I realized what it was for. I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ It was amazing ... Loki was already one of my favorite characters, so I was really stoked to get to give him a theme and flesh him out in this way."

***WARNING! The following contains certain plot spoilers for the first four episodes of Loki!***

Imbued with glorious purpose, Holt knew the score had to match the show's gonzo premise about the Time Variance Authority, an organization that secretly watches over and manages every single timeline across the Marvel multiverse. The proposition of such an out-there sci-fi concept inspired the composer to bring in uniquely strange sounds, courtesy of synthesizers and a theremin.

"I got my friend, Charlie Draper, to play the theremin on my pitch that I had to do," she recalls. "They gave me a scene to score, which I’m sure they gave to loads of other composers. It was the Time Theater sequence in Episode 1. The bit from where he goes up the elevator and then into the Time Theater ... I just went to town on it and I wanted to impress them and win the job and put as many unusual sounds in there and make it as unique as possible."

The end result was a weird, borderline unnatural sound that wouldn't have felt out of place in a 1950s sci-fi B-movie about big-headed alien invaders. Rather than being turned off by Holt's avant garde ideas, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige embraced them, only giving the composer a single piece of feedback: "Push it further."

Holt admits that she was slightly influenced by Thor: Ragnarok ("I loved the score for it and everything"), which wasn't afraid to lean into the wild, Jack Kirby-created ideas floating around Marvel's cosmic locales. Director Taika Waititi's colorful and bombastic set pieces were perfectly complimented by an '80s-inspired score concocted by Devo co-founder, Mark Mothersbaugh.

"To be honest, I tried not to listen to it on its own," Holt says of the Ragnarok soundtrack. "I didn’t want to be too influenced by it. I watched the film a couple of times a few years ago, so yeah, I don’t think I was heavily referencing it. But I definitely had a memory of it in my mind."

After boarding Loki last September, Holt spent the next six months (mostly in lockdown) crafting a soundtrack that would perfectly reflect the titular god of mischief played by Tom Hiddleston. One of the first things she came up with was the project's main theme — a slightly foreboding cue that pays homage to the temporal nature of the TVA, as well as the main character's flair for the dramatic. "He always does things with a lot of panache and flair, and he’s very classical in his delivery."

She describes it as an "over-the-top grand theme with these ornate flourishes" that plays nicely with Loki's Shakespearean aura. "I wanted those ornaments and grand gestures in what I was doing. Then I also wanted to reflect that slightly analog world of the TVA where everything has lots of knobs and buttons ... [I wanted to] give it that slightly grainy, faded [and] vintage-y sci-fi sound as well."

"I just wanted it to feel like it had this might and weight — like there was something almost like a requiem about it," Holt continues. "These chords that are really powerful and strident and then they’ve got this blinking [sound] over the top. I just came up with that when I was walking down the street and I hummed it into my phone. There’s a video where you can just see up my nose and I’m humming [the theme]. I came home and I played it."

As a classically-trained musician, Holt drew on her love of Mahler, Dvořák, Beethoven, Mozart, and most importantly, Wagner. A rather fitting decision, given that an actual Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) exists within the confines of the MCU.

"I would say those flourishes over the top of the Loki theme are very much Wagner," Holt says. "They’re like 'Ride of the Valkyries.’ I wanted people to kind of recall those big, classical, bombastic pieces and I wanted to give that weight to Loki’s character. That was very much a conscious decision to root it in classical harmony and classical writing ... There’s a touch of the divine to the TVA. It’s in charge of everything, so that’s why those big powerful chords [are there]. I wanted people almost to be knocked off their socks when they heard it."

With the main theme in place, Holt could then play around with it in different styles, depending on the show's different narrative needs. Two prime examples are on display in the very first episode during Miss Minutes' introductory video and the flashback that reveals Loki to be the elusive D.B. Cooper.

"What was really fun was [with] each episode, I got to pull it away and do a samba version of the theme or do a kind of ‘50s sci-fi version of the theme," she explains. "I can’t say other versions of the theme because they’re in Episode 5 and 6…or like when Mobius is pruned, I did this really heartfelt and very emotional [take on the theme] when you see Loki tearing up as he’s going down in slow motion down that corridor. It was cool to have the opportunity to try out so many different styles and genres. And it was big enough to take it all. It was a big enough story."

The other side of the story speaks to the old world grandeur of Loki's royal upbringing on Asgard, a city amongst the stars that eventually found its way into Norse mythology.

"I went to a concert in London three years ago and I heard these Norwegian musicians playing in this group called the Lodestar Trio," Holt recalls. "They do a take on Bach, where they’re kind of giving it a folk-y twist … [They use] a nyckelharpa and a Hardanger fiddle — they’re two historic Norwegian folk instruments. I just remembered that sound and I was like, ‘Oh, I have to use those guys in our score.’ It seemed like the perfect thing. I was like, ‘Yes, the North/Norwegian folk instruments.’ It just felt like it was the perfect thing for his mother and Asgard and his origins."

That folk-inspired sound also helped shape the music for Sylvie (played by Sophia Di Martino), a female variant of Loki with a rather tragic past. "Obviously, we’ve seen in Episode 4 what happened to her as a child," Holt says. "I just feel like she’s so dark. She’s basically grown up living in apocalypses, so she has that Norwegian folk violin sound, but her theme is incredibly dark and menacing and also, you don’t see her. She’s just this dark figure who’s murdering people for a while."

And then there were all the core members of the TVA to contend with. As Holt mentioned above, fans recently lost Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), may he rest in prune. We mean peace. What? Too soon? During a recent interview with SYFY WIRE, Loki head writer Michael Waldron said that he based Mobius off of Tom Hanks's dogged FBI agent Carl Hanratty in 2002's Catch Me If You Can.

"There’s this thing that he loves jet ski magazines," Holt says. "I had this character in my head and then when I saw Owen Wilson’s performance, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s actually a lot lighter and he plays it in a different way from how I’d imagined.’ But I was listening to Bon Jovi and those slightly rock-y anthemic things. ‘90s rock music for some reason was my Mobius sound palette."

Mobius is pruned on the orders of his longtime friend, Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), after learning that everyone who works for the TVA is a variant who was unceremoniously plucked out of their original timelines. A high-ranking member of the quantum-based agency, Renslayer has a theme that "is quite tied in with Mobius and it’s like a high organ," Holt adds. "It doesn’t quite know where it’s going yet. But yeah, we’ll have to see what happens with that one."

Wilson's character isn't the only person fed up with the TVA's lies. Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) also became disillusioned with the place and allowed Sylvie to escape in the most recent episode

"Hunter B-15 has this moment in Episode 4 where Sylvie shows her her past, her memories. I thought that was a really powerful moment for her," Holt says. I feel like she’s such a fighter and when she comes into the Time-Keepers and she makes that decision, like, ‘I’m switching sides,’ so her theme is more like a drum rhythm. I actually kind of sampled my voice and you can hear that with the drums. I did loads of layers of it, just like this horrible sliding sound with this driving rhythm underneath it. So, that was B-15 and then her softer side when she has her memory given back to her."

Speaking of the Time-Keepers, we finally got to meet the creators of the Sacred Timeline...or at least we thought we did. Loki and Sylvie are shocked to learn that the red-eyed guardians of reality are nothing but a trio of high-end animatronics (ones that could probably be taken out by a raging Nicolas Cage). Even before Sylvie manages to behead one of them, something definitely feels off with the Time-Keepers, which meant Holt could underscore the uncanny valley feeling in the score.

"When they walked in for their audience with the Time-Keepers, it was like this huge gravitas," she says. "But you look up and there’s something a bit wrong about them. I don’t know if you felt that or if you just totally believed. You were like, ‘Oh, this is so strange.’ I just felt like there was something a little bit off and musically, it was fun to play around with that."

Holt is only the second solo female composer to work on an MCU project, following in the footsteps of Captain Marvel's Pinar Toprak. Her involvement with Loki represents the studio's growing commitment to diversity, both in front of and behind the camera. This Friday will see the wide release of Black Widow, the first Marvel film to be helmed solely by a woman (Cate Shortland). Four months after that, Chloé Zhao's Eternals will introduce the MCU's first openly gay character into the MCU.

"I just feel like it’s an honor and a privilege to have had that chance to be the second woman to score a thing in the MCU and to be in the same league as those incredible composers like Mothersbaugh and Alan Silvestri. They're just legends," Holt says. "Another distinctive thing about [the show] is that all the heads of department are pretty much women. Marvel are showing themselves to be really progressive and supportive and encouraging. I applaud [them]. Whatever they’re doing seems to be working and people seem to be liking it as well, so that’s awesome."

Holt's score for Vol. 1 of Loki (aka Episodes 1-3) are now streaming on every music-based platform you could think of. Episodes 1-4 are available to watch on Disney+ for subscribers. Episode 5 (the show's penultimate installment) debuts on the platform this coming Wednesday, July 7.

Natalie isn't able to give up any plot spoilers for the next two episodes (no surprise there), but does tease "the use of a big choir" in one of them. "Episode 6, I’m excited for people to hear it," she concludes. "That’s all I can say."