#also listen there is something so nice about 2000s movies

[chimchiri]

Okay listen. The first Final Destination movie still holds up after all these years. I love it.

[headlessjest]

How about some romantic stuff!! Some of y'all need your romance.

Hanging out HCs

Ft: Hank, Deimos, Sanford, Jedediah, Tricky, Sheriff, 2BDamned, Phobos, and Auditor.

Hank:

・I think y'all would probably just stay home.

・You both just had a very stressful mission, so why not relax back at the apartment.

・They'll probably watch TV with you with the few tv stations Nevada can have.

・Cuddling is something he can do with you too. Just on bed or on the couch and just cuddle.

・There will be a couple times where he just lays on the ground with you and wonder what the hell happened to this place.

・"(Name)... Thank you.."

Deimos:

・Going out and eating Burger Gil's!

・Deimos just wants to enjoy his favorite food place with you.

・This can also be an excuse to to eat at Gil's in general, but it's nice to do it with you.

・When y'all are done at eating at Gil's, maybe a quick trip to the bakery.

・He threw up the Burger Gil's on the way there so you had to carry him back home.

・"That burger was sure good, but you're just as good."

Sanford:

・Alright, endless stary night, blanket, and you two. That's how it's gonna go.

・Just you two hanging out on a hill and looking up on the stary night, relaxing.

・There will be a few times bandits will try and get you two, but that's why y'all brought guns to this evening.

・Other than getting interrupted by bandits and a couple of zeds, this hangout is wonderful for the both of you.

・You accidentally fell asleep during this, but Sanford didn't mind carrying you back.

・"Thank you for this time, sweetie.."

Jedediah:

・Going scavenger hunting.

・Jedediah surprisingly enjoys collecting stuff. It calms him down, and doing it with you makes him extra calm.

・You'll probably find a old coin or a rock with a cool texture and look to it and dash back to Jeb to show him.

・He also sometimes finds cool looking rocks and gives them to you. Like penguins.

・After going around and finding some cool stuff, you and Jeb head back home and organize all the stuff you both found.

・"These are beautiful, darling.. Just like you."

Tricky:

・Y'all go partying.

・I think y'all would also listen to your both favorite songs when partying. (His being all ICP songs and the chicken dance remix.)

・I think after the partying stuff is over with, y'all kinds just head back home and relax after the long night.

・If you get overwhelmed at the party, Tricky will notice and try to find a way to calm you down.

・Other than that y'all actually have a great time.

・"CL0WN L0V3S Y0U!!!1!1!"

Sheriff:

・I think y'all would hang out at a nice bar. (If possible that is..)

・I think he took you to the bar in the first place because it was the easiest place to go without him freaking the fuck out and being horrified.

・Also, because he's been busy lately and wanted to spend time with you.

・He might also get a little drunk from drinking too much.

・You also had to drag him back home.

・"Darlin'... When do you get so beautiful/handsome?"

2BDamned:

・Y'all also stay home.

・He just wants to relax with you and just hang out in bed. Nothing much really.

・He also is just a little stressed with everything, so relaxing with you seems like a perfect thing for the time being.

・I think y'all would also watch a quick movie for fun. Like a older movie from the later 90s and early 2000s.

・Other than that, relaxing with you makes his day better, no matter what.

・"This means a lot to me, (Name).. Thank you.."

Phobos:

・I think he would dance with in his office.

・The red lighten room and the slow jazz playing in the background, just you two slow dancing for the joy of it.

・Phobos made sure that no one would bother you both during this. I mean, quite literally.

・I think during this, you might doze off a bit from the slow atmosphere.

・Phobos does notice this and y'all get ready for bed.

・"Tonight was lovely.. We should do this again.."

Auditor:

・I think y'all just hang out and watch cat videos all night long.

・Most romantic thing I've ever heard.

・I think you both would also hold eachothers hand during too. Auditors love language is physical touch. (Somehow..)

・Another thing is that whenever you both see a cat that reminded of you both, you would point it out.

・This also made you both question about getting a cat.

・"Hm, a fur baby seems nice."

I'm absolutely shaking rn. Ate an entire tub of coffee icecream, also mixed with the excitement of watching the fnaf movie tomorrow!!!!

-Jester

[cockdestroyer32]

all mine

tangerine x fem!reader

word count: 2304

summary: after the events in the bullet train in tokyo, you and ladybug have a new job in a new place, unfortunately, you're not alone.

a/n: okay so in this reader's codename is sarin. and you're besties w ladybug bc I lov him. title is from brent faiyaz's 'all mine' which has nothing to do with this fic but I didn't know what to name this and I rlly love that song so. also no smut in this.

When I grow up, I wanna be famous I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies, when I grow up I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have groupies.

The song blew out of the car’s speakers, and both you and Ladybug sang each word perfectly (and very obnoxiously, you were practically yelling out the lyrics.) He drove and you sat in the passenger seat, you both swinging your arms around dancing tirelessly as the citizens of Greece who were able to spy inside the moving car judged your shameless partying. You hadn’t seen Ladybug in months, so when you found out you were finally going to be assigned to a mission together again, you both beamed, and got together to plan your entire trip from the cities of New York to the city of Larissa. You went from cackling a little too loudly at comedy movies on the plane, to endless chatter at the airport, to listening to your iconic super duper awesome 2000s hits playlist on a rented Jeep (the playlist title was Ladybug’s decision.) There’s no one you’d rather work with. Except…you weren’t working alone tonight. 

This hit wasn’t just any hit, it was a stakeout. So, Lemon and Tangerine were called. 

You had walked into Tangerine a few times before; New Zealand, Cuba, Romania, and Tokyo, of course. You’d been the longest with him while in Tokyo, when you had to team up because of a lost briefcase. He was incredibly irritating and the different ways you both did your job clashed immensely, but by the end of the night you two had worked frustratingly well together. 

You’d never met Lemon before though, you hoped to God he wasn’t just a Tangerine 2. 

“Oh, boo!” Ladybug starts and you join him when you look up.

“Booo!” You yell out at the warehouse as if it’s just told some awful joke at a stand-up show.

The building has the same architectural creativity as a cardboard box. Except that instead of brown, it’s grey and dirty, and instead of holding a gift you just spent the last days waiting anxiously to arrive at your home, it just holds the next gruesome hours you’ll spend planning your hit.

You and Ladybug allow The Pussycat Dolls to finish the last few seconds of their song and turn off BlueTooth before you can be sad about not singing Britney.

You sigh and say, “It’s gonna be a long night.”

“Yep, but the sooner we do it sooner we’re done. Come on, let’s meet the fruit duet.” You chuckle.

The warehouse acted as a lighthouse, the nighttime a sea of nothingness. You can spot the remnants of the trucks that passed by in this area marked in the muddy ground. Tonight smells of wet grass and fancy dinner parties, the ones you should be in right now.

You enter the warehouse, the night’s cold air vanishes and it shifts to a warm, still atmosphere. You take off your coat. Tangerine and two other men are already in the room. Even at such a dead spot in town, Tangerine is still dressed elegantly, sporting a blue striped suit that fitted him perfectly, and smelling of rich men’s perfume. You often wondered if he could fight in those suits. Although you loved a good luxurious suit—God knows your blood money could buy one, your closet was full of Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Dolce & Gabbana and Burberry—you preferred to wear more tactical outfits for the job, you know, in case someone fucked something up and everything went to shit.

“That’s Lemon, by the way.” Ladybug whispers to you, while pointing his head to the man standing in front of Tangerine.

“What? I thought they were supposed to be twins,” Ladybug shrugs.

“Um, I hope we’re not late…you’re Lemon I suppose?” You pretend like Ladybug didn’t just tell you and offer a handshake. He takes it.

“That’s right, and you’re...”

“Sarin.”

You look over to his brother.

“Tangerine.” A nod, no handshake.

“Sarin.”

“You’ve met Ladybug.” You say to the two brothers.

“Yes, we had the pleasure.” The taller man doesn’t hide the sarcasm.

“Accommodating as always, Tangerine.”

“So, shall we?” Says the other man in the room, the one who was managing this whole thing, and you all follow him.

He takes you to a desk where there lie multiple files on different workers and a big map layout of the warehouse. The man shows all of you the place, discussing what approach the team should take for the mission, at what time each one should arrive at the building, the shift times of each warehouse worker, the spots each one should be in…and so on and so forth. Time passes relatively quickly, demanding you and Ladybug a secret high-five, and you all turn to look at the man who’d organized this.

“Yeah. That’s it.” The man repeats.

“Yeah.” You agree, still looking at him.

“You can go home now.” He practically demands.

“Uhh, I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to get paid now,” Lemon adds.

“You’ll get paid after you get the job done.”

“Did you not get the memo lad? We get first half now and second half after the job is done.” Tangerine said.

“Yeah, we’re supposed to get paid now, didn’t our handler message you?” You asked honestly.

“Well I didn’t bring the money, so what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know, but we’re getting paid.” Tangerine insisted.

“There are lots of ATMs in Larissa…” Ladybug spoke. The man mutters some curse word under his breath,

“Fine. I’ll get you your fucking money, but you’re gonna have to wait.” He disappears from sight, making his way up the stairs in the corner of the building.

“Damn, what a Gordon.” Lemon remarks.

“Thomas the Tank Engine?” You ask.

“Yeah.”

“Nah, I think he’s more of a James, just super cocky.”

“Oh my God, there’s two of them.” Tangerine sighs.

“I’m gonna go get some air.” You say.

With your coat in hand, you make your way to a backdoor on the side of the warehouse. Slipping the garment on as soon as you open it, the chilly air cutting through your skin. You slide your hand into one of the coat pockets, finding a small rectangular box and a smooth metallic item. You fish one of the cigarettes out of the box and light it, inhaling the nicotine, warming your body while letting yourself freeze in the moment. You were so far out of town that you couldn’t hear any of the cars, any of the people in Larissa, your team also seemed to be particularly quiet inside the building. Here, it was silent, save for crickets chirping in the vast nothingness that was the field at nighttime. Tomorrow it’d be full of people, receiving and delivering new packages, trucks coming and going and workers arguing amongst each other, all their chatter overlapping, sounds of life, until you all arrive and the sounds of an active workplace morph into that of an action movie, slashing and yelling (no guns, this was supposed to be a somewhat subtle and more practical job) and then, nothing. The building once again ghost quiet, but this time painted red. 

It didn’t bother you. You’d been in this business for way too long to be perturbed by the sounds of the dead now. You knew what you were getting yourself into from the beginning, this is no bombshell. Although the still of a city that’s beginning to fall asleep is much better than one that had its commotion ripped away from it. So you took these quiet moments you had to yourself and held them tightly in your hand, like some old trinket gifted to you by someone special. And for a few moments, as you exhaled the smoke out of your body, you felt outside of space and time, frozen in the moment, your feet planted on the ground, scared that if you move even an inch, you’ll fall off the face of the earth. You melt off the moment when you feel a pair of eyes on you.

Tangerine stands by the back door on your right, looking at you. You’re not sure how long he’s been there, but he has a calm look on his face, a smile on his eyes but not on his lips, by far much different than all of the ticked-off facial expressions you’d seen on him before.

“The fuck are you looking at?” You tease.

“Geez. I’ve just come to get some air.” He walks in your direction. You offer him your cigarette, he takes it. You two breathe together for a while before you ask,

“Do you like this?”

“What? Jobs in the middle of nowhere handled by some fucking dickhead who can’t even pay us right?”

“No. This.” You look around, motioning slightly to your surroundings, “The quiet. We don’t get a lot of it in our job.”

“I suppose we don’t,” He passes the cigarette back to you. “It is kinda nice, I can hear my thoughts for once, don’t have to listen to Lemon yapping about.”

You snort. “He’s nice. I was scared he was gonna be like you.”

“What? I’m nice.”

You stare at him.

“How am I not nice?” He continues.

“How are you not nice? Okay let’s see, you’re impatient, you’re always irritated, you look like you’re constantly on the edge of throwing a fit, you’re always cursing people out and you always got that look on your face of a teen girl who just got her phone taken away by her parents.”

He takes this in for a second, surprised at the speed of your answer, as if you’d been waiting for this moment for a while, and maybe you were.

“Hm…still think I’m nice.” He adds, you smile to yourself, nodding your head in fake disbelief.

You can feel his eyes on you, even as you take another puff on your cigarette and stare at the darkness. You don’t look back, refusing to give him the satisfaction.

“S, Fruit, guy’s back.” Ladybug pops out of the door, and you follow him back into the building, followed then by Tangerine. 

The man now holds bags of money, one for you and Ladybug, and one for Lemon and Tangerine. You finally leave the warehouse, each of you making your way to your hotel rooms. And you would’ve been able to wash the night off your body and rest on the hotel’s comfy bed, if it wasn’t for the misplaced amounts of money. See, your bag and Ladybug’s held only his share, not yours. Thankfully, it wasn’t some scam, your money was placed along with Lemon and Tangerine’s. So, now you’re going up an elevator to Tangerine’s room to get your share. You knock on 215 and he opens the door.

“Hey.”

“Hey, come in.” You walk into the room, but only close the door slightly, not shutting it, and you stand next to it, ready to just get your money and leave, not expecting to stay here any longer than you have to. He goes to the back of the room and brings back a bag, “Here.”

“Thanks,” You spy inside the room, the place is quiet, most of the lights are off and it holds only one bed. “Is Lemon not here?”

“No, different hotel, leave no trail and such.”

“Oh.” You’re genuinely surprised. Shit, that’s smart, perhaps you and Ladybug aren’t as great professionals as you thought you were—even if the bar when you two worked together was already pretty low.

“What? Is me delivering your money instead that bad?”

You snort. “No, no, that I don’t mind.”

You look at each other for a second, perhaps you should be on your way-

“Are you staying in Greece after the job?”

“Uh, no. Me and Ladybug are going back to New York right after.”

“Oh.” He looks down, the expression on his face something you can’t quite read. “Are you and Ladybug…”

“No! God, no!” You almost yell. “No, he’s my best friend.”

“Oh, right.”

“Why?”

“Just…curious.”

Hm. Curious. 

You stare at each other again, a smile on your eyes but not on your lips.

“Okay, I should get going.” You start opening the door to leave.

“Wait,” He says, grabbing your arm. “I think…you should stay here the night.” 

The smile reaches your lips, amused. “Why?”

“You know, you could just stay here the night, if you want…”

“Okay but, why?” You tease. He furrows his brows. “I’m sorry Tangerine, I just don’t know what you’re telling me.” Your words are of someone genuinely confused, but your face and tone tell a different story. He catches on and sighs.

“I’m just saying…you could spend the night here, with me.”

You click your tongue, “Tangerine…you have to speak clearly.”

He squeezes your arm, and approaches his face to yours, changing his tone, “Sarin. I want you to stay. I want you.”

You let your lips fully curve up this time, pleased.

You put both your hands on his face, and close the space between you, only placing a light kiss on his lips, then pulling away to see his reaction. He keeps his eyes shut for a moment, as if still in the moment. Then, he opens his eyes, staring at you for a second, and pulls you in for a stronger kiss. His hands at first cupping your face, then one makes his way towards you back, pulling you in closer, even though you were already as close as you could possibly be right now. You shut the door with your foot behind you, not letting each other go for even one second. Tonight your own bed’s gonna have to wait for you.

[samcarpentersgirlfriend]

Can you write some fluffy amber headcannons

|| AMBER FREEMAN X READER HEADCANONS 𖤐₊˚.

warnings: brief mentions of possessiveness, reader wears makeup, kissing, drinking

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

- loves horror movies, obviously. her perfect idea of a date night is watching one of her favourites cuddled up with you on the couch

- gets super excited and will info dump facts or details regarding them whilst she lays with her head in your lap as you play with her hair - you can’t help but love how passionate she gets

- speaking of movies, her comfort movie is something completely cheesy, like high school musical or some bad mid 2000s rom com. she tries to play it off and calls it stupid, but you don’t miss the way her eyes brighten at every joke and the way she almost subconsciously mouths the words as they’re said on screen

- also likes to draw. sometimes you’ll glance over to her and she’ll be sketching a little book, her features etched with concentration as she tries to get the little details right

- she’s definitely drawn you a fair few times, although you had to peek when she wasn’t looking because she wouldn’t outright show you

- she’s one of those people that seems to be good at everything - it’s infuriating and incredibly attractive all at once

- amber feels as if she has to protect you, so if anybody tries to flirt with you and makes you uncomfortable, she’ll come up and be all over you and tell them - not so nicely - that you were very much taken, thanks

- on a related note, she’s definitely into pda, whether it’s handholding, kissing, or anything else. you’re her partner, and the more people then know that, the better

- definitely pushed you against a wall before and kissed you

- if the two of you are out and you’re drinking, amber makes sure to stay purposefully sober enough so that she can make sure that you’re okay and not too bad. if you do anything stupid whilst drunk she’ll tease the hell out of you, but nobody else is allowed to make you feel even remotely bad about your actions

- tells you that she loves you very often. it doesn’t matter if you’re walking down a crowded street or if it’s just the two of you together, she needs you to know how much you mean to her

- she loves doing your makeup, and you love feeling pampered and seeing her happy - it’s a total win - win situation <3

- strangely great at comforting you when you’re sad. she has your favourite food on standby, your favourite tv show cued up and is ready to listen as you vent. she knows when you need space though, and won’t overstay if she can tell that you need to be on your own

- is very good at reading people, especially you. she can look at you once and practically know what you’re thinking about - it’s honestly kind of scary and hot??

- amber likes to feel like she’s in charge. if cuddling, she likes to be the big spoon, but even apart from that, it’s the little things like you laying on her chest or even her initiating kisses with you. it’s not only with you though, you realise that even with her friends, she seems to gravitate to a leader role - it’s like she can’t help herself

- compliments you constantly. you’re trying on a new outfit? “look at you, you’re breathtaking, baby. I’m so lucky to have you.” you get a new job? “yes, I’m so proud of you! I knew you’d do it - you’re so fucking amazing.”

- never forgets anything. from your favourite artist or the name of the pet you had as a kid, amber remembers it all. she’s so captivated when you speak, so why wouldn’t she?

- drinks so much coffee. it started as a way to help keep her awake so she could cram, but now she practically starts shaking if she hadn’t had at least two cups by 10am. you feel as if you should stage an intervention.

- likes pet names - baby + princess (if you’re fem) are her faves. amber is one of those people that if they call you by your full first name, you know that you’re in trouble - with amber, it’s definitely either a pet name or a nickname

- a morning person?? idk I can see her as both but I think she would just prefer the morning - waking up earlier helps her feel more productive and she can get things done- by the time you wake up, she’s already making breakfast for the two of you and humming along to the radio

- if you come home hurt somehow, amber goes into full nurse mode. she’ll help patch you up and sit with you as she ask what happened and if she finds out somebody hurt you, you’re the one that has to calm her down

- the two of you just work and balance each other out

- after you’ve been together for a while, amber starts planning your future for the two of you. she wants to move in together when your ready, and is already planning on asking you how you feel about a pet dog

- because she loves animals - you can’t help but find it adorable how she melts around them.

- if you’re with her when she’s ghostface, she genuinely tries her hardest to keep you out of it. she still wants to stick to the plan, but there’s no reason to get you involved and for you to get hurt, and she’s determined to get away with it and live happily ever after with you - you’ll watch the new and improved stab movie together

[kishdoodles]

Treebark Week 2024 - A Post-Mortem

Hi! If you haven’t seen, I have released seven (7!) videos for Treebark Week 2024! This wall of text is my behind the scenes and also post-mortem thoughts on the project, which I found worth documenting.

Even if you don’t end up reading the text, I appreciate every comment, tag, and view my videos get. I did it for the fun of it and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do it for the attention. I did, because I think these videos are the funniest things I’ve ever released. Shoutout to @thefluxqueen for being my partner in crime and confidant for these. You saw my vision.

I wanted to do something for Treebark week but admittedly I had noooo idea. So this whole gimmick was a fun set up for me to stretch my creativity in. What started as “I’m just going to do everything in mspaint with a mouse” spiraled to “I think it’s going to get boring if everything’s in the same style, so I’m going to have to do something different everyday.”

The important factor to me throughout all of this is earnesty.

Even if its life started as a joke, this project is a love letter in every respect. This is what I grew up on, this is the YouTube that is precious to me. Capturing this era of time in 7 videos is all at once easy, yet surprisingly laborious.

First I planned the songs. Fitting the songs with the prompts was a brain scratcher, but once we (me and Spain) had a few in the rest slotted in pretty easily. Common thread was, of course, any popular song from the mid-late 2000s.

The first confirmed song was Sugar, Sugar for Sweet (Day 2) courtesy of Spain, given the Eddsworld video. We had a few songs for Burn (Day 3) or Infernal (Day 4) which we threw out (Elli Goulding’s Burn, 2NE1’s Fire, Steam Powered Giraffe’s Fire Fire, etc.) I ended up digging through my old playlist and listened to 20% Cooler, which after a realization I immediately slotted it for Frost (Day 1). Spain brought up the Heat Waves parody (Cold Spells) for Frost too, to which I realized I could just do regular Heat Waves, so that became what I did for Burn.

Bring Me To Life was brought to my attention (I forgot how, maybe Youtube recommendations?) and with the lyrics, it became the song for Blood (Day 7). The all time classic, Angel with a Shotgun, fit in nicely with the prompt of Divine (Day 4), so there was no contest. Another classic, Everytime We Touch, was harder to fit but I eventually reasoned through the prompts enough to fit it with Lips (Day 5) (the everytime we kiss part).

At this point, nothing I’ve found fit Day 6 (picnic/garden/strawberry) at ALL. So I decided the only way I knew how. RANDOM CHOICE!

Mad World won but that was a trap, for I have biased myself toward Animal I’ve Become at that point and it almost won, so I went with that instead. This is a lawless land. 

-

The actual video ideas really came to me in piecemeal, so I’ll explain how I got each idea as I cover each day in order of when I completed them. 

20% Cooler (Day 1) was the most straightforward of the days. It was done in 1 hour and 30 minutes and I was purposefully being extremely literal about the lyrics. I already had the vision for what I want, and I didn’t want to care about quality all that much, so it came together really fast. 

For my process, I lined with mspaint brush and then bucket tooled with default colours. I took advantage of the new layer system mspaint added for some scenes, but otherwise it was as simple as just drawing. (Pictured, 3 layers for 2 scenes.)

It was really easy to just quickly edit in Windows Movie Maker 6 too, I just dragged the pictures in, slapped effects, roughly timed everything and it’s done.

Programs used: mspaint, Windows Movie Maker 6

-

Sugar, Sugar (Day 2) was an honest effort at avoiding any complicated animations. I initially thought of doing an animation similar to the original video that inspired the song choice, but eventually scaled back because. I don’t want to animate. 

Thus came the decision of subject matter. I ended up settling on the demon roleplay because I thought it was the campiest thing in the world. And it was a sweet reunion, no? The lyrics just fit the vibe, and in a moment of brilliance (hitting the showers) I thought to make a visual novel. One reflective of old flash games and like the visual novels of cultural zeitgeist at the time.

I’ve known about Ren’py for quite some time now, but I’ve never properly learned how to use it. For this my task was simple. Find out how to change sprites, backgrounds, and move people into the scene.

Sprites and backgrounds were easy, so those were the first things I did. Ren’s sprites were inspired in design by Demon Hunters in the Warcraft world, mostly because I was playing a lot of Hearthstone and liked the idea. Martyn’s sprite style was inspired by early 2000s anime visual novels, like Higurashi (though I’ve personally never consumed it nor do I actually recommend consuming this piece of media (neutral) its ripple throughout the anime community was felt. Notably, parodies of the anime’s opening were very popular.) I toned back the stylizations, but trust me when I say that Martyn’s hands were purposefully big to be yaoi hands. It didn’t end up that big, and I did not give him the dorito chin here so, immense self control on my part (or cowardice?). False and Joel were just my regular style. For all this I used my tablet instead of my mouse.

The programming part was a little troublesome, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t google, so it got done pretty fast. There’s other small bits, like how I mismatched the background sizes, the sprite sizes (with each other)(minorly) but for the most part it came together pretty quick. Once the VN was done, it was just about recording it. So I put on the song, and danced along.

[You can download the VN here]

Programs used: Ren’Py, OBS, mspaint, After Effects (just to move the scene over at the beginning)

-

So I knew I wanted a classic style AMV, so that eventually became Everytime We Touch (Day 5). 

The pictures mostly come from a discord server I’m in (hi [redacted]!!!!) and I thought of it like a nice homage to the insanity we had in there. Bless all of you guys, you guys were the ones I wanted this series to be made for the most.

Not much to say beyond that, besides me just editing it all on movie maker as usual.

Programs used: Windows Movie Maker 6

-

Angel With a Shotgun (Day 4) was the last to be planned for. I predicted it was going to be the easiest to make on the fly (it was) and just kind of winged it. I wanted a unique style still for it though, and the idea of drawing their cubitos came pretty late. 

I was not exempt from this trend in my youth (my art in mspaint, age 11, me and my sister)

The rest was history. Just kidding, I really wanted something to do with the shotgun thing so I literally searched “shotgun” in Curseforge and got MrCrayfish’s gun mod just for the shotgun. I loaded up the 3rd Life world I had from my Broken Lives animatic (it’s a custom made world using the seed) and just got to work with FreeCam and OBS (it’s my first time with FreeCam too!)

A rejected clip I didn’t use because of skin consistency / continuity.

Programs used: Minecraft, mspaint, Windows Movie Maker 6

-

Heat Waves (Day 3) acquired a pixel art style as an homage to its original lyric video. People have said it reminded them of Homestuck, which I honestly don’t mind. It fits the era and I did grow up with it. It kinda looped back in on itself that way.

I blame this frame, here's it as a gif which lies unused.

For the video, the more I rewatched bits of Last Life for it (it’s been a while!) I realized it had a lot more potential than I initially thought. Though I doubt most of it didn’t come through in the final product (I limit these videos to a minute or less, if possible, excepting credits and allowing few more seconds over the minute mark so long as it felt warranted), I tried to cram in what I thought fitting to the prompt the whole time.

The watch tower burning was an easy pick, a classic Treebark moment you might say. For the rest of it, the nuance laid a lot in how Martyn presented the Shadow Alliance. “The Dog, The Shadow, The Roots. We make this place burn.” Under the eyes of the moon, it witnessed this pact form, and its resolution for the server. The moon is included in multiple frames because of this, as a stand-in for the eye of the Watcher(s) I included at the start, watching Martyn through the series.

In a lot of ways, how Lizzie and BigB turned red I also found fascinating. Lava and explosions you could argue are an extension of burning and fire, and an explosion was also how Martyn left the series. Ren, from the start of this alliance, inexplicably committed to and saw through what ultimately rips the people he was loyal to away from him. 

Martyn on the other hand, I drew in the later portions quite aware of the position he’s in, hence only his eye in the frame with the last 4 folks. This to me starts a path for him toward where he goes in the later serieses (notably in Limited Life). This is all very “vibes” and instinctual kind of ���trust me on this” sort of read on c!Martyn honestly.

On missed opportunities, I’m almost upset at how I never brought up the moment Martyn buys a love crystal from Scar (never used, it got blown up) which I (and a lot of other) may have delusionally thought it was for Ren. Besides that, I never had a chance to desaturate the colours in the video leaving only red (which Ren did upon the encounter of the establishment of the Moon Cult)(it really emphasized Martyn’s lips!), I tried just plain desaturating, but ended up ditching it since it never felt like it jived well with the rest of the video.

All that aside, I finished this one really late (for me, which was past midnight on the day it was going to be posted), so I’m glad it was out on time. It’s the one I put in the most effort for, and I’m glad to see people enjoy it.

The eye on its own, which reveals the Watcher symbol I accidentally did in the wrong orientation. Oops!

Programs used: Aseprite, After Effects

-

Animal I Have Become (Day 6) was thought on for a while. Eventually I have my eureka moment and I thought it was a nice shout out to the Bannedstory community who I’ve followed in my early days, where I’d watch animations of people’s custom OCs (original characters) made with Maplestory sprites animated to audio clips that I really wasn’t supposed to be listening to at the time lol. That, and all the online games and the like I grew up with on the early internet. I personally didn’t partake in it, but roleplaying on those was a common sight, and I found it endearing. 

My partner in crime for this day in particular was @thefluxqueen, because I really can’t be bothered with character customization for a lot of these games (I respect the craft but I lack the patience), but I knew who LOVED doing that. He really knocked it out of the park, helping me do the Gachalife, Club Penguin, and the characters for Animal Jam and Ponytown. For the latter, they handed me the account information and we just went to town.

A Treebark stream in a just world.

I can’t tell you exactly how I assigned the lyrics, but I definitely assigned the animal sections during the chorus so it was a surprise (and so it also fit the lyrics). I did have fun recording and we had a fun time in Ponytown. We were shown where other mcyt fans are by a Grian pony (Hermit Hill) and then we hung out there sitting down while we workshopped the Bannedstory segments with both our sonas together. All in all a great time.

It took a few takes.

Programs used: Bannedstory 3 (I would’ve loved to use 4, I grew up with that!), Gachalife, Club Penguin, Animal Jam, Ponytown, Windows Movie Maker 6, OBS

-

For Bring Me to Life (Day 7)... I ended up getting more attached to the thought of it the longer this project went on. 

I wanted it to be the end all be all, go out with a bang and everything. I kept thinking and thinking, how do I end Treebark week? After a week of homages, how do I make the last one?

What’s beyond my childhood? It was just growing up. But it’s not like I had to let anything go. My artistic endeavors are influenced by all of my experiences. I saw good reason to bring it all home, do a callback to the styles of the entire week, it’s my victory lap.

And why not call back every instance of Treebark through the entire series then? This evolved into me learning more about Martyn’s lore because I want to be informed! I want to make this as someone who earnestly loves the narrative of these characters, and the stories they’ve told.

From a story perspective, it felt like Martyn was always doomed to tragedy. Suppose the life series always does end tragically, but Martyn’s Vtuber in relation to all this has its own inherent tragedy to it. In my eyes, this roamer of cyberspace constantly has to live through different lives with familiar people. The people he loved and cared for in one world will always be ripped from him, and he knows that.

Amongst everything the Unguided Hand gets me the most. In the video I drew the Ren he chases as a shadow. He’ll never get the Ren he knew then, back. Even if he meets another Ren in another world, it's never going to be The Red King. To me, Limited Life is the snapping point, a point of selfishness above all else in the comfortable knowledge that he wins, without ever needing to experience the same closeness and loyalty he had in lives past. The realization that this is what the game was about. Winning at all costs. I wanted the progression to reflect that.

Deep down, maybe he yearns to be saved from all that. The song echoes that sentiment. I tried to match the lyrics to how I saw the timeline of events as close as possible for that to hit. In this, Ren is his anchor, someone that he gets drawn to no matter the incarnation. The tragedy is that Ren, even if he knows about what Martyn’s going through, can’t join him in this journey. Martyn will always be alone in this experience, and Ren can only be a short comfort before the cycle starts anew. 

I quite liked the pixel art I did for LimLife!Martyn

From a meta perspective, this video (and by extension, the whole series) is about art and creating. I have been obsessed with art for 14 years now, and as time goes on I’ve grown fond of every way that we, as people, have evolved our storytelling. The multitudes of mediums that we have developed to express ourselves and share narratives will continue to fascinate me endlessly. Cringe be damned, there is a universal desire to create and enjoy stories of all folds. From the smallest story told from painstakingly typing chat boxes for little custom-made characters to say, to the highest production play put on for multiple hours in a game of Minecraft. 

And at the beginning of my journey lay paper and pencil. Bring Me To Life is an elaborate pun on my end, yes, but also a reflection of my roots. I started my journey as an artist endlessly doodling the adventures of tiny magical girls fighting demons, drawing fanart of costumes in MMO games I found cool, and sharing them with my friends at school. I find myself still drawing, still creating, for hundreds, if not thousands of eyes to see. Still I get inspired by the stories others tell, and I create in turn. In appreciation, in love. 

Bring Me To Life as a song, is a slate that, to me, reflected what I saw in the relationship of Treebark. Bring Me To Life is also a demand, of a piece of art that I had a vision for, that I wanted to bring to life. I struggled at how to end it for a while. Closing the book became very straightforward. It’s the end of this video, this saga, and another way that me, as a Watcher myself (as what they’re originally meant to represent) exercises control over stories in my own unique way. Creation is never limited to a select few. I think everyone should keep getting inspired by the things around them, and keep making art in turn.

To the people who’ve made it til the end here, make art, keep creating. Do shitty doodles, write whatever you want, make sounds and crafts and keep living. That’s all I really want, and this was what this whole series was about.

Programs used: mspaint, Aseprite, Blockbench, Bannedstory 3, Pencil and paper, After Effects

[vivelareine]

I’m really sorry that people jump to conclusions about you being a royalist. You seem to be quite nice and your posts are informative.

And it’s true that clergy and aristocracy at large benefitted from the rigged system. Also apparently the economy was already screwed up before, but Frev just had this specific set of precursor circumstances that lit up the powder keg, which was going to blow up eventually.

There is definitely a discussion to be had about all the nuances here, as Frev is a complicated subject.

Thank you! People can be... something, that's for certain.

I love nuanced discussions! I think they're especially fascinating when it comes to this era.

Like I love the fact that we can discuss how Marie Antoinette was personally charitable and kind, but that her personal charity and kindness existed in this almost incomprehensible vacuum of extreme wealth vs poverty.

To use an example I talked about on Twitter, there was an assistant gardener for the hameau de la reine who became ill shortly after being hired, and Marie Antoinette ended up spending almost 2000 livres (a hefty sum--the annual salary of the head gardener was considered a respectable 1500 livres per year, with room and board) on his medical care alone. When it became clear he would not regain his health, she paid for him to return home to England, with a large sum so he could set himself up somewhere.

This assistant gardener's annual salary, had he stayed to work at Versailles? 50 livres, which did include room and board, but still, 50 livres per year.

Now to take an EXTREME example, the infamous bracelets that Marie Antoinette purchased and her mother harassed her over cost 250,000 liveres. It would take 5000 years of this assistant gardener's salary to buy a pair of bracelets that she purchased on a whim. (Now this is an EXTREME example, because everyone considered these bracelets horrendously expensive and extravagant, and it was purchased during her short yet very significant 'wilder' days.)

So it's this fascinating contrast of, her being personally kind and thinking nothing of making sure he had medical care and personally seeing to it that he's not just kicked out of France with nothing and no way to live... and realizing that this personal kindness and compassion existed within this system of massive inequality.

It reminds me of the scene in Ever After (listen I will use any excuse to bring the movie up) where Danielle-in-disguise, after the prince frees the servant from the cart taking them to be indentured servants until they die: "You gave one man back his life, but did you even glance at the others?"

And not in the sense that I think Marie Antoinette would have been like "free this one man!" and ignored everyone else, but the sense that she gave charity, compassion, cared for others, paid for the upkeep of various families and watched over their children's well-being etc etc on a personal level... but she did not comprehend the need for systematic change outside of that very limited scope.

Re; Nuance...

Nuance gets lost a lot, on both sides.

IMO, I don't think people should expect to be taken seriously when talking about history if they are either huffing and puffing about Marie Antoinette being a bitch tyrant who got what she deserved, or if they're wringing their hands and saying Louis was perfect and the revolutionaries were devil worshipers who are burning in hell for daring to revolt.

(And like, I GET... if you just glance at my blog, you might go, oh wow, this person is really Marie Antoinette themed. Must be one of those people who thinks her life was the Sofia Coppola movie. But if you think that and you haven't bothered to read my blog or any of my social media, don't come up at me with some random BS like that and expect to be taken seriously. It's basic common sense and respect.)

[tgmsunmontue]

Saga of Solitude 10/21

Nepo!Baby Bradley and his life at USNA and afterwards. DADT fully in force. IceMav AU. (Begun prior to 'It's not who you know' - the non-angsty version). (Side Hangster, which is ALSO angsty).

PROLOGUE (He remembers)

HANGSTER FIRST MEETING (Lonely Nights - set 2009)

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

ONE (2000) TWO (2001) THREE (2002) FOUR (2003) FIVE (2004) SIX (2005) SEVEN (2006) EIGHT (2007) NINE (2008)

CHAPTER TEN - 2009

                “I think I might be done.”

                Tom almost drops the phone and he sits up straighter, knuckles tight.

                “What?”

                “You heard me. I think I might be done. Not with flying. Just… active duty. Think I might try out for that test pilot program you keep leave lying around. You’re not subtle.”

                “Mav…”

                “Best of both worlds right? I still get to fly, but I’m not on the other side of the world. I feel like I’ve been lucky so far, but I don’t want to…”

                He doesn’t finish whatever it is he’s thinking, but Tom can fill in the blanks with a multitude of endings. There’s Bradley of course, but he’s twenty-five. But Tamsin is only twelve and Petra is ten. He knows Mav doesn’t want to leave any of them. He could add himself in there, if he thought that maybe he was enough for Mav to consider giving up active duty. He’s never been enough before, and he’d never be a fool enough to ask Mav to stop doing something he loves, no matter how much Tom worries.

                The days tick past and he hasn’t felt this settled or optimistic since Mav briefly took a break and simply remained in reserves when Carole got sick. Just the knowledge that he won’t be on active duty in a war zone makes him feel ridiculously pleased, even if at the same time he worries about Bradley. Lord he’s glad that the girls are local and he doesn’t need to worry about them other than standard parenting worries. He hopes they pick nice quiet and safe jobs, because as he gets older, he’s not sure his heart is going to take it if it has the same series of shocks it’s experienced with Maverick.

                His next phone conversation doesn’t happen until a couple of weeks later and he finds out the Maverick has requested all the paperwork necessary and submitted an application. He doesn’t let his shock bleed through, but he definitely feels it, accompanied by the realization that when Mav gets home from this deployment he won’t be leaving American soil for a mission again, not if he gets any say in the matter. And he knows someone will ask. He may love Maverick, but he also isn’t blind to any of his faults and his peers know that at least.

                “I’m 48, they probably think I’ve calmed down enough in my old age to give me a shot right?”

                Ice keeps his mouth shut, because he’s made it a rule to try not to lie and he doesn’t think anyone in the Navy will ever assume Maverick has calmed down.

                “You’re definitely qualified for the position. They’d be lucky to have you,” is what he settles on instead.

…            …            …

                “Can we have a movie night daddy?”

                “Of course. As long as the two of you can both compromise on one movie and not argue over it,” Tom says, because listening to them bicker gets exhausting. He knows he’s giving Melissa and Sarah a break most weekends by having them come and stay with him, and he wouldn’t have it any other way, but he finds himself admiring parents who do it all the time with no break in sight. He is so grateful that he has them, but he’s also certain that they enjoy Bradley’s company over his, with them all sharing equal levels of energy.

                “Kung Fu Panda!”

                Tom looks between them and they’re both nodding vigorously; he feels like he’s been set up, tempted to message Sarah and check in to see whether this particular movie has been vetoed for any particular reason. It seems completely benign and he watches it, entertained by the different characters and enjoying having his daughters curled up on either side of him. Tamsin is drifting off, clearly not quite as engaged with the story as Petra, but he’s not going to rouse her and tell her to go to bed, happy to have her slumped against him. It’s not until later, when he’s carried Tamsin, still asleep, up to her bed and come back down to find Petra chopping at the pillows that he realizes his mistake.

                “Daddy? Can I have kung fu lessons?”

                Of course, the warning was right there in the title of the movie. He should have known. She is such a daredevil and so full of energy and god she reminds him of Pete with every smile. He knows he can never say no to her, the best he can do is delay and hope that either she forget (unlikely), or someone else will tell her no.

                “We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

                “Okay! Love you daddy. Good night!”

                “Love you too peanut. Good night…”

…            …            …

                He swings his bag over his shoulder, feels buoyant as he walks toward the spot where everyone is disembarking. He knows he’s got his family waiting and he’s got four more weeks before Mav finishes his own deployment, has spoken to him about his plans to withdraw from active duty if his application for test pilot training is accepted and Bradley knows they won’t be turning someone with Mav’s experience down. But there are two golden weeks where all seven of them will be together and he cannot wait.

                “Expect your wife is going to make you shave that off before she lets you within five yards of her…” Bradley calls out to Flipper, who just laughs and gives him the finger.

                “Like you can grow a better one!” Fin yells back and Bradley laughs.

                “I can grow a better moustache in my sleep.”

                “Photos, or it didn’t happen!”

                “You’re on!”

…            …            …

                “I’m not a baby Bradley…”

                “You’re not even half my age,” Bradley replies, trying his best to keep his amusement from his tone. Tamsin will be a teenager at the end of the year, something he’s sort of in denial about, can still remember his early days of being a teenager himself and Sarah carefully placing infant Tamsin in his arms.

                “Which makes you ancient.”

                “If I’m ancient, what does that make your dad?”

                “A zombie. Have you seen him?”

                Bradley snorts, because Ice definitely looks half-dead, but he’s putting that down to his worry over Maverick, who is in the Middle East, but he should be home in about a week. Not soon enough judging from the dark circle under Ice’s eyes. Although the fact that Ice is for some reason now letting Petra try out a variety of martial arts may also be part of his worry. But it means he gets one-on-one time with Tamsin, who definitely seems to have something on her mind.

                “Bradley.”

                “Yeah. Sorry. I’ll stop changing the subject. Hit me with the serious question you wanted to ask me.” God he hopes it isn’t about sex.

                “Do you think my parents loved each other?”

                Fuck. Sex would be easier. Maybe?

                “Uh… Why do you ask?”

                Shit. He is not equipped for this conversation at all.

                “I just… they seem to love each other. I don’t get why they got divorced.”

                Oh. Okay. Maybe he is equipped to answer this after all.

                “Well, you know your mom is a lesbian right?”

                “So getting married and having me and Petra was a mistake?”

                Double shit. Reverse. Undo. Back track. Fuck.

                “No. I’m pretty sure it was anything but a mistake. I think you and Petra are both very wanted and much loved. Uh. Have you talked to any of your parents about this?”

                “No. I don’t want to upset them.”

                He’s trying to remember how old he was when they told him, how old he was when he figured it out. He knows Ice and Sarah won’t be upset, that they’ve probably been prepared for this conversation for years. And yet she’s having it with him.

                “I just wonder sometimes because I look at Petra and she looks so much more like Papa than she does dad. I look like dad. Petra looks at least a little bit like mom.”

                “Uh. Yeah. I noticed that too. That’s very observant of you.”

                Where the fuck is Ice when he needs him?

                “Do you think my mom had an affair?”

                “No. I know she didn’t… shit.”

                “You’re not meant to swear.”

                “Yeah. I know. This is just… I really think you need to talk to your mom and dad about this.”

                “Why? What’s so bad that you can’t tell me?”

                “Fuck…” Bradley breathes out.

                “You’re really not meant to say that word…”

                “Yeah. Okay. I’m going to tell you. But I’m going to be telling your parents, all of them, that I’ve told you. So you can go and talk with them and ask questions, because… I was your age when your parents got married. I do not have all the details.”

                “Okay. So tell me, what happened?”

                He gives the bare bones, explains, as best he can, about DADT. Agrees with her when she calls it stupid. Talks about his own parents and how both Ice and Mav married women, his mom being one of them, Sarah being the other. He ends up getting a picture of his parents from his room to show her and then holding her as she cries, realizing that he’d lost both his parents when he’d been her age.

                He explains how and why Ice and Mav hide their relationship, that he also won’t be bringing a girlfriend home anytime soon. Isn’t planning on having a relationship anytime soon because it’s simply in the too hard basket. Then he brings up the fact that she is very observant, that Petra does indeed look like Mav, and that’s because Mav is her biological dad. Her eyes are wide, mouth open in surprise and he wonders if he’s said too much. Hopes like hell that trusting his gut is going to have been the right thing to do, that Mav and Ice letting him know about his own mom’s wishes and then letting him make his own decisions about his own life. That they’d want Tamsin to also know the truth of the matter, especially as she’s asking questions.

                “Can I swear?”

                “Sure. Go ahead.”

                “Holy shit.”

                Bradley throws back his head and laughs.

…            …            …

                Knowing that this is his last time is bittersweet. He walks over the deck and lets his fingers trail over the railing. He didn’t join to live his life on a carrier, being on a carrier is just a necessity for somewhere for the planes to land and refuel before they can get back into the sky. He misses the sky every time he’s on the ground, needs the wide open spaces which is why he likes going out to the hangar so much, the sheer amount of space around him makes it feel like he’s close to being in the sky. As he disembarks he can see Bradley standing and waiting, Tamsin and Petra beside him and his throat works, because he’s home, and safe, and he won’t have to leave them again wondering if he’ll not make it home.

…            …            …

                “Jesus kid, you look like you dad.”

                “Uh. Sorry. Do you want me to shave it?”

                “No!” Pete says, vehement. “Shit Bradley. You’re allowed to look like your dad. You do that without even trying. Just took me by surprise. He’d be tickled pink and so proud of you. Your mom would be too, scared shitless every time you were out of sight, but she’d still be so proud. We’re proud of you too you know. All of us. Ice, Sarah, Melissa. You’ve turned into this amazing capable man and I’m immensely proud to call you my son…”

                “Uh. Thanks. I think you all had a lot to do with how I’ve turned out…”

                “We tried to help point you in the right direction, but you’re the one who put in the hard work.”

                “And you and Ice taught me all about hard work.”

                “I guess we did.”

                “Can I ask you something?”

                “Of course, you can ask me anything.”

                “When you taught me how to shave… did you feel old?”

                “Old? No. Not old. But… a little sad I guess?”

                “Sad?”

                “Well, that your dad wasn’t the one teaching you. That you weren’t this little kid anymore. I was glad I got to be there for it… You planning on keeping that caterpillar?”

                “No. Just growing it for a dare. Why?”

                “I have something of your dad’s. He was ridiculously proud of his moustache, had this little kit that your mom bought him, little comb and brush, little pair of scissors. Been keeping it safe, if you end up needing it for your own then I guess I better get it out of storage…”

                “I… thanks Mav. I’ll be shaving it off before I report back though. Too annoying to maintain and keep tidy.”

                “Okay. Well, you let me know if you change your mind.”

…            …            …

                “You want to do my hair?”

                “Yeah! Can we but bows in it?”

                “Have at it,” Bradley says, so glad they’re both still willing to be a little silly with him. He knows with the current state of the US military he’s never going to have kids, not unless he figures something out with Natasha and he doesn’t think she’d put her career on hold and he wouldn’t expect her to. So he will make do with what he has and enjoy it as much as he can in the moment, knows Tamsin is very much on the cusp of not doing this again, is simply

                “Why don’t you always let it grow long?”

                “Navy doesn’t allow us to have long hair.”

                “They Navy is dumb,” Tamsin says, pouting as she runs a sparkly purple comb through his curls, and Bradley bites down on his lips to hide a grin. She’s been quite vocal to him about how stupid she thinks the whole institution is, although very careful not to say it within hearing of either Ice or Mav. Although Mav has just appeared in the door, eye bright with mischief as he takes in the scene.

                “You look very pretty Bradley.”

                “Thank you. They worked very hard to make me look this good.”

                “Papa! Come sit!”

                Bradley laughs at the expression on Mav’s face, but then he’s sinking to the floor beside him and Petra is putting bows in his hair as well and he’s pretty sure he’s never seen Mav look happier. The dark circles under Ice’s eyes have also gone so Bradley is pretty sure everything is right with their world.

…            …            …

                Tamsin looks miserable and Bradley isn’t sure what he can do, needs to immediately fix whatever it is that is making her look like this. They’ve grown closer during this leave period, with their conversation making her feel more like an adult, at least with him. Fortunately he’d been commended for how he’d handled the conversation with her, the approval of all his parental figures had hit him hard and unexpected, not aware how much he still wanted and needed it.

                “What’s wrong?”

                “Nothing.”

                “Uh. You look sad though.”

                “I’m allowed to be sad!” Tamsin snaps and Bradley’s eyebrows shoot up.

                “Can you tell me why you’re sad?”

                “I can’t go swimming…”

                Bradley blinks, confused.

                “Um. Why not?”

                “Because I have my period.”

                He rears back, the shock of the fact and the straightforward statement taking him completely by surprise. Sure they were like brother and sister, but this was new.

                “Since when?”

                “Since this morning. It’s not contagious. Stop looking at me like that!”

                “Um. Sorry. Just, uh, I kind of… you’re growing up I guess and that’s just…”

                “Making you feel really old?”

                “Yeah, little bit. Shit.”

                “You think it’s shit for you? You’re not the one that has to have it every month…”

                “I apologize on behalf of my entire gender.”

                “Good. You should be sorry.”

                He bites his lip and nods his head, holy hell she’s going to be a force to be reckoned with and he really should have invited Natasha home with him. Next time.

                “How about we go ice skating instead?”

                “Oh! Yes! But don’t let Petra bully you into playing hockey. She can wait until the season starts again.”

                “Petra is playing hockey?”

                “Duh. She tried field hockey but then complained it wasn’t fast enough. I think mom is a little worried she’s going to steal the car and take it for a ride.”

                “Ha. Hahahaha,” Bradley laughs nervously, because hold shit if he didn’t already know she was Mav’s kid, hearing that she likes things fast and a little dangerous. “How is her skateboarding going?”

                “Good. She’s managing some really cool things now. We should go to the skatepark so she can practice.”

                “You’re a good big sister.”

                “Thanks. I had a good big brother to show me what not to do.”

                “Hey!”

                “Kidding! I love you Bradley.”

                “Love you too Tamsin.”

…            …            …

                With a sense of dejavu he reads the news. Gay marriage has been legalized in Iowa and also Vermont. That’s four different states now. It’s like a domino effect and after decades of hiding.

…            …            …

                “Sir.”

                “Aubrey. What is it.”

                “Sorry sir. Nothing.”

                From experience Tom knows it is definitely not nothing. Aubrey takes her breaks with all the other support staff and has some convoluted but incredibly invaluable way of hearing of things before they become issues which he then finds he has to deal with.

                “Clearly it isn’t nothing. What have you heard this time?”

                He hasn’t told her about his little note-book, but he suspects she has something similar, even if it’s only in her own head.

                “You’ve known Captain Mitchell for a long time sir.”

                Inwardly Tom groans to himself, wonders what the hell he’s done now.

                “Yes. Over twenty years.”

                “A good friend then sir.”

                “Yes. My best friend.”

                She looks torn then and he frowns, wonders what she knows that he potentially hasn’t already heard about from someone else in the Navy. Maverick is not known for being quiet or passing unnoticed, which is why he suspects that their relationship has gone unremarked upon for so many years, many people assuming Maverick could not keep something like that secret.

                “Maverick was seen going into your ex-wife’s house… at nearly midnight.”

                He doesn’t let his surprise show, because while he knows there is gossip he’d never expected to hear it from his assistant. Also this is something he knows about, because Maverick took his car, because the bike would have been far too noisy at midnight.

                “Okay. Just to be clear, you think that Maverick is having an affair with my ex-wife?”

                “Isn’t he meant to be your best friend sir?”

                Oh. Wow. There goes the idea that she had clocked him.

                “Okay. Yes. He is my best friend. In fact his late-wife, Bradley’s mom, introduced me to Sarah. However Sarah and Maverick are grown consenting adults… However, if we’re talking about last week, well Maverick was there because Melissa was working a night shift, Sarah and the girls were sick and I couldn’t risk getting sick and Mav is on leave…”

                “Oh.”

                He swallows nervously, because he’d sort of assumed that she had put everything together, that he and Mav were more than just friends. However the fact that she thinks… well, thought. Until he just cleared that up.               

                “Melissa? The woman Captain Mitchell brought to the dinner last year?”

                “Yes. My ex-wife’s… wife,” Tom provides, and this is potentially where all his well-craft duplicity comes undone, however he’s never been wrong yet with where he’s laid his trust.

                “Oh. Oh. Sir.”

                “Was there a question in there Aubrey?”

                “No sir. Not at all. You have a very lovely family.”

                “Yes. I consider myself very lucky to have them all in my life.”

                “Just so sir.”

…            …            …           

(LONELY NIGHTS FITS HERE - Bradley and Jake hook up the weekend before they both report to Corpus Christi.)

…            …            …

                He’s known in the pit of his stomach that he and Jake were reporting to the same base, however he hadn’t realized that Jake was also a naval aviator and that means their circles of interactions are overlapping too much for his own liking. He doesn’t speak with Jake directly, doesn’t let any sign of recognition show on his face as they’re introduced. Jake is fresh from USNA, bright and eager and smart and also so fucking talented that Bradley can see why he’s here. Without even being aware of it he finds himself tracking Jake’s movements and god, he needs to get it under control and figure out a way to be more subtle otherwise he’s going to bring them both down.

                He wonders if he’d still have slept with him if he’d known.

                He needs to talk to Ice and Mav and figure out how they keep it hidden, because he’s worked too hard to get where he is to let it all crumble apart now.

…            …            …

                “Sir. Captain Mitchell is here to see you.”

                “Of course. Thank you Aubrey. Captain Mitchell, nice to see you again.”

                “And you Admiral.”

                He doesn’t miss the fact that she makes Maverick a cup of coffee.

…            …            …

                Bradley’s normal Saturday afternoon phone call is usually with Mav, and he’s just about to offer to go and get him when it becomes apparent that Bradley maybe wants to talk to him first, words exploding out of him.

                “How do you do it? Have your relationship with Mav and settle for… this weird half-life?”

                God he hopes Bradley is somewhere he can’t be overheard.

                “When it’s that, or the option of not having him in my life at all? It’s an easy decision.”

                On the other end of the line Bradley sucks in a breath, Tom isn’t sure how to take it. Wonders what the hell Bradley has gotten up to when he’s not even been gone two weeks.

                “He’s a rank below me.” It’s Tom’s turn to suck in a sharp breath, but a single rank isn’t unsurmountable. Not when it’s low and there isn’t a large differential of power. “I didn’t even know he was Navy when we hooked up the first time.”

                “The first time?”

                “Well, the first time rolled into the second and then… a couple of days and nights together.”

                “Jesus Bradley. Are you sure he’s not going to make a complaint against you?”

                “I’m not completely sure, but I don’t think he would. He might not like me very much right now, but I don’t think he hates me and would want to implode my career.”

                “Shit Bradley. Look. It’s going to be hard either way. Being with him, not being able to tell anyone, spending months apart, having to pretend you don’t care about him anymore than any other of your shipmates… But that type of hard can be worth it when you come home to each other. Or you make a hard decision now and cut your losses, walk away from it and then always wonder what might have happened…”

                “Yeah. I’ve already cut my losses.”

                “Okay kid. Okay.”

…            …            …

                “Hey Mav.”

                “Bradley. You okay?”

                “Yeah. I’m fine. Just… you know that moustache kit of my dads?”

                “Yes.”

                “Could you send it to me?”

                “Of course buddy. Everything okay?”

                “Yeah. I just… figured I’d try keeping it for a bit. Someone told me I suited it.”

                “Well, they weren’t wrong.”

…            …            …

                On Monday when Tom gets to work he asks Aubrey to collate a list of all current personnel going through flight school at Corpus Christi. Knows one of them is going to be Bradley’s maybe unwise hook-up.

                He also asks her to get him a new note book.

CHAPTER ELEVEN (2010)

[sstardustt3]

-akira kurusu (joker) headcannons-

First of all, THEATER KID. 

You simply can not tell me that he is not an overdramatic theater kid who does the most at all times, especially when he was a kid.

But this led him to be seen as “odd” and outcasted by the people around him in the which made him extremely lonely, he wasn’t bullied but he didn’t have any friends 

Because of this he kinda closed himself off to fit more into the societal norms and not be seen as strange which is why he’s so quiet and keeps to himself all the time 

Which made him partially excited to go to shibuya because despite it being a pretty shitty situation, being on probation and arrested for something that wasn’t even his fault, he thought that maybe in the big city he’ll find some people that won’t think he’s weird and can open up to which he ended up getting with the thieves  but his hope was only temporarily diminished with his record being leaked

Holy fuck that was long but, moving on, I think he has a very poor relationship with his parents, especially after being convicted of assault.

I don’t think his parents hate him by any means but they’re definitely neglectful based on the fact joker doesn’t get a single call, text, or a letter from them

What i personally think is that his parents are the type of parents to do the bare minimum and do nothing else for him

In a sense his parents sort of gave up on him because of his “eccentric”  behavior and him getting arrested might have solififed that for that for them and even if not they’re definitely not on his side when it comes to the whole assault thing which could be why they never contact him

Okay the last two were pretty angsty but moving on,

He has like, zero experience with girls and he’s the most oblivious mf ever

And because he wasn’t really popular at his old school (for the aforementioned reasons) he got ZERO bitches, none, cero.

 This is actually another headcanon that i really don’t have an explanation for but when he moved way more girls started liking him because of people thinking he was this bad boy and he had NO idea how to deal with that

Like for a while he just thought people were just being weirdly nice to him

Like he is the type of guy who unintentionally flirty like just natural charisma with looks

Like you have to be insanely obvious for him to even take a hint

Adding onto the headcanon that you have to be insanely obvious to get him to notice that you like him, once he does realize  that you like him like one of two things is going to happen:

One, if your not that close than he has no idea what to do about that and he’s just slightly more awkward than usual

But two, if you are that close, he is BOLD. despite he is not knowing how to flirt for shit he is still charming enough that his horrible attempts at flirting and teasing somehow work

Because he has no cannon birthday other than the year he is born (2000) my personal thought is that he’s born on valentines day, there’s no elaboration for this one just a gut feeling

I feel like he has a vivid imagination of scenarios 

Like for example he can imagine an entire plot for a musical at three am and exactly how it would go

Morgana and sojiro have frequently told him to shut up and go to bed

Also he has insomnia. I just felt like I should throw that into there.

Him, sojiro, and futaba have movie nights once a weekend and ninety percent of the time it’ll be a horror, old movies, or a studio ghibli movie

Texas chainsaw massacre, kill bill, sadako vs kayako, jacobs ladder, don’t look up, my neighbor totoro, spirted away, sailor moon r, ponyo, etc

60 precent of the time futaba picks the movie

I have no explanation for this one but him in the metaverse is very much christian borle coded in a way i can’t explain i swear (please i beg of you listen to hard to be a bard from something rotten its so good)

.

[wwouldvecouldveshouldve]

KEYSSS my dear mutual congratulations on 1K likes aaaah you deserve all of them! May I henceforth ask for a platonic BSD matchup? I go by she/her and I don't have a preference for which gender I want to be matched up with :3

Personality: I personally don't know what my mbti is, so I'll just give a short description of my personality. I find myself to be more of a listener, but with the right type of person (really quiet or someone chaotic) I can talk for hours. People say that I'm nice and smart, but I doubt myself sometimes. I am physically affectionate with my friends, and often flirt with them only if they're not in a relationship. My friends like to banter with me and I like to tease them/make them laugh, but if they like to sit in silence then I'm perfectly fine with that as well. Sometimes I am too sacrificial and am bit too much of a people pleaser, but I am working on setting down boundaries and saying 'no'

Hobbies: I like to read books more than I like gaming and watching videos. I also like to learn new things, no matter how hard they are, because I am quite curious about a lot of matters. I can speak English and Mandarin, and I am partially fluent in French. I also love to play the piano because I find it calming <3

Topics I like to discuss: Honestly I can talk about anything as long as it's not something that I'm uncomfortable with (which I only have a few). I normally like to discuss history, books, travelling, and any funny things that happened recently in life

Things I hate: I don't hate a lot of things because I am a firm believer of the quote that love transcends all animosity, but what I really do hate are people who willingly do bad things and do not feel sorry for it. I normally am quite forgiving, but once somebody crosses that line too many times without genuinely trying to improve, then they've lost their chance

Something that makes me unique: I'm actually more of a classics person than a contemporary person. What that means is that I prefer classic books, classical music, classic movies, and old history etc. I do like watching a modern film every now and then, but I find that nothing captivates me more than the antique things. I'm probably one of the few girls my age who is more caught up with the 1700-1900s than the 2000s ahaha. I also am more of a jewellery girl than a clothing girl, and my favourite jewellery is silver jewellery :)

Preference: I'm okay with being matched by a character that commits crime, but as long as they aren't too crazy about it

What I value in others: I value loyalty, respect, and communication in others, as I believe that those are the three key points of any relationship. Bonus points if I find them fun to hang around with, and that they won't twist my morals and lead me down a darker path

Something I can't stand in others: Honestly anything that makes a toxic relationship; dishonesty, disrespect, and not listening to what I have to say

Remember to take your time my dear, and once again congratulations on 1K likes! Let's get that to 1K followers >:D

SILVER I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!! I was almost done with it and then it was literally all lost, but I still got it done. thank you so much, darling, and I hope you don't mind the wait.

I match you up with Tetcho! he's a silly little man, please take care of him.

He loves listening to you. There is nothing he would rather do than listen to you talk about the things that you are interested in, and he is not affected by what other people have to say about your interests. He would be ticked off at anyone that judged someone for their preferences in media and entertainment. He would not force you to try his food, but if you do like any of the combinations he would be glowing with happiness for the rest of the week. He is always a little sunshine, though, and is nothing but supportive. He loves what makes you strange, and he loves that you love what makes him unique, too. He would not let harm befall you. He would rather be stabbed a thousand times than for you to get a paper cut, and would be even more devoted to justice after meeting you because he would want to make sure that no filthy criminals can hurt you. He would not let Jouno make fun of you or your friendship. He would probably stab his ass again, and would start doing it more if you found it funny. Either way, Jouno will eventually make peace with you. He would love to listen to you play the piano, and might even pick it up himself if he has the time. He could also learn another instrument solely so he could teach it to you. He would be a non-judgemental teacher but he would definitely be a little strict. Secretly, he is a little scared that he is too overbearing when teaching you things. Overall, he would value similar things to you in a relationship. He is an honest man who communicates well, if not sometimes too bluntly, but he would do his best to always respect you. If someone else is to disrespect you, however, all hell breaks loose. Jouno and the Huntings Dogs will obviously get lighter punishments, though, and I don't expect them to cross any lines. He would, without a doubt, try to keep you as far away from his occupation as possible. Your safety is his priority, and he could not live with himself knowing that he was the reason why you were targeted by a criminal group. He gets anxious about how you are doing, so he will send a variety of texts about how you are doing throughout the day. It's a little heartwarming knowing that you're always on his mind. Because of his constant worrying about your safety, he absolutely loves to hold you in his arms so he knows that nobody can hurt you. Sometimes, though, he just wants you to hold him instead because he is always dealing with things for other people and he just wants someone to do the same for him.

that's all for today, I hoped you liked it darling! <33 have a wonderful day or night :)

[mondstadtlover6000]

ik u already talked ab general pjo hcs but i was wondering if u had any connor hcs that weren't already mentioned in that

yesss ofc! connor is my all time fav so obviously i do!! as always warning for connalia.

he's biromantic bisexual

connor, malcolm, will, drew, travis friend group ftw! he'd consider (not including travis) drew to be his best friend.

he's really overprotective over members of the hermes cabin and unclaimed/previously unclaimed that had a long stay there

connor and travis are founding members of 'the council of prophetic prophecy predictors'

scent wise i imagine he'd smell woodsy, cottonwood mostly

while he mainly listens to arctic monkeys & ariana grande i also imagine he likes similar artists! some fontaines dc, sleep token, white stripes, car seat headrest, but also tate mcrae and dua lipa

he also loves 2000s/2010s pop songs

he's really good at weaving/braiding: braiding hair, but he makes a lot of woven bracelets! he's always got a few bracelets on each wrist and he gifts them to people too

connor and travis's mom died when they were young so they were on the street until a satyr picked them up and brought them to camp

he's the mastermind for most of his and travis's pranks, travis is the executor. connor prefers absurdist pranks i.e. putting bouillon in showerheads and bedazzling the ares cabin's weapons. though this is definitely due to trauma (or a wake up call lmao) from annabeth and the spider incident

obviously im a connalia truther but connor is a hopeless romantic and has had fleeting crushes on like half of camp: percy ofc; annabeth for like 2 minutes; drew; silena; malcolm (this is the only connor ship other than connalia i like lmao); will.

along with that i imagine he's a bit of a camp heartthrob (both of the stolls but everyone knows travis is down bad for katie so they shoot their shot with connor instead). still i imagine him not getting into many relationships (because of thalia? yes) but he's really nice when rejecting you anyway (and then afterwards drew goes up to them and is all 'yk hes down bad for a tree' and ruins it)

the majority of his trauma is ofc abandonment issues and the guy suffers from attachment anxiety. he's really clingy (both emotionally and physically), this has a lot to do with his dad of course!

he's a really, really good cook, he's just too lazy to do it most of the time

i imagine he'd major in some form of marketing or business and would want to be a lawyer as a pipe dream but end up being a killer salesman for something somewhere or the head of a marketing team (following my tratie b&b hc he could do their business for them lol)

he's a cinephile and extremely, extremely dramatic about movies: lighting, script, acting, etc. he's a whole nerd. he's definitely on letterboxd too and swings wildly between stupid one liner reviews and extremely in depth ones

power wise he doesn't have much: agility, really good reflexes, lock picking, he's good with money. he's also a really good smooth talker and only later realizes this has a bit to do with his hermes powers! okay thats all for now!!

[hashtag-girlblogger]

how to live like it's 2014 again

If you're anything like me, you're nostalgic for everything. I am constantly wishing to be somewhere else or in some time else. I'm nostalgic for the 60's (I was born in 2001), nostalgic for the early 2000's (pop is just not the same), and most of all–I am nostalgic for 2012 to 2016. I think it is widely agreed that these years, especially on Tumblr, were the last best years many of us have ever had. I was a baby, still in middle school and just 15 years old in 2016. But wow, what a time to be alive. Music, movies, TV, pop culture, fashion, the internet–the world was a better place.

I have been toying with the idea of exiting mainstream society (as best I can) for sometime now. I've been thinking, "Is it possible to live in another era while stuck in the constantly evolving 2024?" Can I abandon social norms or things of "the time" and just live like it's 2014 again?

I've thought about what this would mean, what it would look like. Only listening to Halsey, Calvin Harris and Marina. Splurging at Victoria's Secret and wearing the iconic Tease perfume at all times. What's TikTok? You don't use Valencia on your Instagram posts? I'm obsessed with WeHeartIt. Look at my new Penny board!

Alternatively, I could take the Arctic Monkeys, soft grunge, American Apparel and Marlboro cigarettes route. All black, watching AHS Coven and wondering if I have secret witchy powers too.

I think where all these feelings come from is that the current state of the world is just not feeling so good (to put it nicely). The world is accelerating at a speed I do not want to keep up with. Social media and technology are great but it has literally become this crushing weight. "Just delete social media then." Yeah fair. I guess I just feel so disconnected from my life. From my real life. Like I spend so much of my time venturing into other worlds I've made up in my head. Like 2014 Tumblr. It's not here anymore, it's gone, but I live there. A part of me is still there.

I'm like 12 or 13 years old. Was still a competitive cheerleader, which I regrettably quit when I got to high school. I spent everyday after school with my friends, making video stars or doing gymnastics in the field. We would walk around our neighbourhood, talking about god knows what and enjoying every minute of it. I looked at the future and it could be anything. I could be anyone and do anything I wanted. I feel like that's what I really want. Maybe I miss the music and clothes and vibes of that era buy what I'm really craving is how purely simple and free I felt, how connected I felt to my own life.

Now I'm 22, soon to be 23. Graduating college soon, heading into my big girl job, big girl career. Totally terrified and also excited. But I spend my time alone, so much time alone. My social battery is always empty, I rarely catch up with friends. When I do, we always have to be doing something. Dinner, drinks, movies, parties, dancing, classes. It's never, just come over let's hangout. And I get it, we're young adults, we are supposed to be doing stuff, we are meant to be out and about living our best lives. I guess I just want it to feel different. I want it to feel like it used to.

Okay sooooo.

This is how to live like it's 2014.

Talk to your friends, often and without any agenda. Create the ultimate playlist, this one's pretty good:

Binge CW shows and trashy reality TV. Totally freak out when someone says you look like Violet from AHS (this actually happened to me at work the other day and I couldn't stop smiling). Say screw the trends and wear some skinny jeans and those Alexander McQueen ankle boots, Alexa Chung approved. Get off your phone and be alive now. It's 2014, you don't have a worry in the world.

[roniarose]

Guardians 3 thought dump

Aaaah i actually liked an MCU movie for once

The Guardians were kind of the perfect team to go up against that type of villain, a team thats taken two movies to learn and are still in some ways learning that their differences and flaws are what makes them a family, up against someone who sees those flaws as a failure to be discarded. All of the Guardians spend a lot of time across all three films trying to escape how others view them, so this antagonist really feels like the perfect choice to culminate the trilogy

Also man the russos took a fat wet shit all over gamoras arc and james gunn still managed to salvage it and make it work, I was fucking terrified the whole movie that they were gonna end up together when thats literally impossible with this gamora, But gamora calls out quill immediately in this, and tells him thats shes not that person he so desperately wants. Peter still at least has the arc that he was meant to have regardless of gamoras fridging, where he needed to realize that hes projecting what he needs from other people onto those people, especially gamora. The movie still hints that they COULD end up being together, they just both need to spend time becoming more actualized versions of themselves. And peter needs to resolve more of his emotional baggage and sexism.

Its funny because from the way 2 ended its really obvious that gunn had planned for them to be together in 3 but that basically got ruined when she got tossed into the infinity stone pit. :/ i’m glad gunn was smart enough to realize that trying to redo 2 movies worth of relationship buildup across one movie was a bad idea

Lets see what else

Oh, hey Nathan fillion, long time no see! I’m glad you finally got to be in a story about a ragtag found family in space that didn’t end up getting canned, and i think the fight you did in the building that looked like a middle school science textbook illustration rocked, 10/10 keep rocking the Michelin man fit

I like that Adam Warlock is a big dumb idiot man that carries a pet around and listens to king crimson because its super obvious gunn had no clue what to do with him but had to have him there because the mcu continues to be an ever expanding nightmare mess. 10/10 no notes

Obviously the i am groot reveal was cute, and also a kind of cycle break that didn’t feel forced or like it had extra gravitas added to it, the reveal that the audience is part of the family now just gets to be a simple little moment

I love that nebula gets to be relatively more relaxed in this movie on the whole, she honestly deserves it, let her sip her lil sodie pop.

I loved Draxs lil dad moment in the third act as well, and how it ends up forcing nebula to learn that emotional intelligence is just as vital to have a practical intelligence. Up until that point she really underestimated him and a lot of the rest of the team because she had been taught by thanos a lot of the same things our villain believed, that theres only one kind of way to be, and that only perfection and results matter. She ends up learning through the guardians and drax that we each of our own individual strengths and perceived flaws, and that real perfection is in the culmination of those forces in our lives. I thought it was nice :)

The last thing i can think of is that I liked how a series defined musically by track from the 70’s and 80’s ends off with a track from the 2000’s. A way of communicating subtly our characters aren’t trapped in their past anymore. Great stuff

Anyways thats what i got atm, if you stumbled on this and are wanting more mcu stuff, sorry to disappoint, this is prolly the last mcu thing i’m checking in for unless something reveals itself to be more interesting in the future. I wanna try and talk more about other things tho, so maybe you will like those posts!

Testing this out

[kikuism]

hi mariam!!! oc pairs ask: 8 & 16 for kikou, 10 for naomi and noriko, and 20 for kiku and noriko <3 <3

hi sam!! ty for sending <333

kikou:

8. how do they communicate with each other? are there any reoccurring phrases or gestures unique to their relationship?

kikou: kou leads and kiku follows. kou is the yapper and kiku is the enraptured listener <3 esp at the beginning of their relationship kou always dropped him little lines he could grab to keep the conversation going. kou’s skill is that he can spin anything you throw at him into a colorful tapestry, so every conversation feels rich and well lived in, it's impossible to make small talk with him. being with kou also teaches kiku how to describe things without visual cues. it's a nice exercise. so if the view is nice from the train window, he won't say 'the sky is so blue and clear', but something like 'the sky is like a fresh batch of laundry', and kou will imagine the clean scent of sheets, light and airy after a new wash, a new day, and get the same sentiment.

they sparingly text, since kou has the text-to-speech feature set to the super fast speed, and he doesn't like conversing with people like that ('i can't hear You through it'), so they mostly do either video calls or voice messages. they will text if it's for trivial matters (do you need anything from the store, have you reached home, etc) but that's about it.

16. is one of them keeping secrets from the other? why? how would they act if the secret was revealed?

kou isn't the type to keep secrets. if there's something he needs to say he'll say it ... he will adjust his method of communication based on the situation of course, whether to ease into it gently or say it upfront, but he doesn't keep secrets. kiku on the other hand....he doesn't keep secrets per se, but he is a terrible, conflict-avoidant communicator, so he might....delay in saying certain things (he's working on it, it's hard shaking off your upbringing). the only actual secrets they would keep are probably certain carnal preferences, which they would eventually reveal to each other....with a mutual mixture of flustered teasing and enthusiasm.

naomi and noriko:

10. what is one major difference between them?

naomi has an almost pathological obsession with saving face while noriko just barely remembers to cling to the notion. for naomi this of course stemmed from her upper class upbringing rife with competition and false pleasantries where appearances were of the utmost importance, your clothes your house your grades your vacations, and to slip up was tacky and uncouth. can't let anyone see anything other than cool, level-headedness. she will actively avoid situations she knows are not her forte, and every conversation is like a chess game, conceding and withholding information according to the front she wants to maintain. since her input is vastly larger than her output, she is rather forgettable as a person.

noriko had quite a lax upbringing on the other hand, hers was quite a receptive, open-minded family, not so 'stuffy', owing to many relatives overseas who would come to visit and who they would visit; she's been exposed to other cultures and ways of life. she's resourceful and accommodating, which explains her immediate friendship with kou when they were kids. she didn't see his blindness as something to poke and prod at, something strange, it was just a part of him, something to fit into their games. noriko’s like an elastic band (flexible, multipurpose) while naomi’s a switchblade (excels in its limited range of motion).

kiku and noriko:

20. what is their best memory together?

aww okay so i can't think of a 'best' memory but one they're fond of is the movie nights they have with kou. once a month they'll each choose a movie and watch them in a marathon at kou’s apartment. noriko puts on western classics from the early 2000s in the original language so they can practice their english, much to kou’s chagrin (“can you spell gabbana?”). they don't really spend that much time together, just the two of them, kou is always with them (kiku doesn't think he's good enough company for noriko, he feels he's too boring hgjsgfh so he always tries to rope kou into it to even out the playing field), but i think eventually they do have a life changing field trip atla style.

[brightbeautifulthings]

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

"What came first--the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music?"

Year Read: 2024

Rating: 3/5

My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order.

Matt S.

Nate G.

Matt G.

Carson M.

Tiff G.

--

First of all, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, this is obviously a piece of media written by a man for other men. That's not in itself a bad thing, and it's actually a little refreshing to have it so up front (instead of the sneaky way most classics and literary fiction are written by men for men and still foisted upon us as the universal, inviolable canon by which all other pieces of literature should be measured, while genre fiction and YA--more typically written by women--are sneered at as lesser.) It lets me acknowledge that I was never the target audience for this book and that it's no moral failing that I can't relate to it and, this being accepted from the get go, I can still go on to find things to appreciate about it-- because being relatable, while nice when it happens, is obviously not the only reason to read or appreciate a novel. I do find it fascinating that so many men Identify so strongly with this novel, so clearly it speaks to something very real in adult male British/American culture. Still, if a woman (character or writer) spent 300 pages whinging about why her boyfriend had good reason to dump her, it would be slapped as self-indulgent and disregarded as a whiny rom-com rather than a work of literature.

--

All-time top five favorite recording artists:

The Gaslight Anthem

Taylor Swift

Fall Out Boy

Lady Gaga

The Weepies 

--

Rob is, by his own estimation, about the most average guy on the planet, and it's hard to argue with him on that point. He's not a bad person or a particularly good one; he's just a guy who likes music a lot and can't quite figure out why he's never happy with his adult life or in a relationship. You know, like a lot of people. I like that it fully acknowledges what I've known since fifth grade (Matt S.), which is that men are just as invested in romantic relationships, if not more, than women are, and they're just as obsessed with the romance of a perfect partner and a happily ever after. Fairy tales are, after all, primarily written by men. Probably everyone has known a Rob at some point in their lives, but I can't say definitively that I'd want to date him. He sounds like a lot of work.

--

All-time top five favorite books:

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

--

I'll confess I really like this movie adaptation and I've watched it a lot with my dad, which is more or less what landed this book on my shelf. It's one of those films that's so well-written you almost don't even need to read the book, and so many of the best lines are pulled verbatim from Hornby's prose. (And there are many, many good lines.) It's a lot like reading and watching The Princess Bride: you can do it because you love it, but there's almost no point. All the "best parts" are in the film, and what's left in the novel feels fairly unnecessary, if not outright detrimental to overall enjoyment. (I've also had a crush on John Cusack since Say Anything (1989), so do with that what you will. Rob is no Lloyd Dobler, however.)

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All-time top five favorite films:

You've Got Mail (1998)

Almost Famous (2000)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Stand By Me (1986)

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There's something entertaining about watching Rob work through his list of most memorable breakups, which is essentially the plot of this novel, with obvious emphasis on the one he's currently experiencing with Laura. Exploring his breakups seems like a first real attempt at figuring out what his problem is, and I think it's pretty successful. Sure, the character development is slow and a bit dubious. There's not so much change by the end as the idea of change. I had the sense that he could go either way. Either he really is starting to see the problem in the way he approaches relationships and life as a whole, and he's finally learning how to pull his head out of his own ass and see Laura as a real person. Or not. He falls right back into his old habits. I kind of like that I'm not sure which it is because that's life, right? Change is hard.

[letsgethaunted]

Hauntie of the Week!

@hamhamclubhouse

Name: Tyson

From: Washington

Started listening to LGH? 2021

What is your favorite episode of the pod? Hmmm... I love the Ningen episode and any episode where Nat talks about treasure

Tell us something haunted! Personal haunting, favorite haunted story, etc. One time I saw a UFO at church camp. I was also featured in the Hat Man episode talking about my family's experience with the entity.

What hobbies do you have? I grow carnivorous plants, specifically nepenthes! I'm a big physical media dork, I have a collection of J horror movies from the early 2000s.

What's a personal positive haunting that's happened to you? It can be something small! The other day an owl tried to steal my hat. I was mad at first but then I was like "you know what, that was actually fuckin cool"

What's a fun fact about you? I used to work for Nintendo but it was actually too haunted to even talk about. My name is in the credits for a Zelda game tho!

Favourite Music: I get really annoying with my musical taste. You can tell I'm a weird pop gay. Eartheater, Björk, Joanna Newsom, Donormaal and Cocorosie are some of my faves, but I won't bore you with the rest!

Is there a charity, non-profit, or cause you'd like to shout out?

Ceasefire now!

American Resources | Canadian Resources

Usually I would link to a nice and easy charity to donate to for the citizens of Gaza, but since Israel is blocking aid, the best thing we can do is put pressure on local politicians and join in on protests.

Are you a content creator? I'm on IG @hauntedbeanbagchair69

Anything else you'd like to share? I started listening to LGH when I was very sick in and out of the hospital. I eventually had to get surgery to remove an apple-sized schwannoma from behind my heart. Nat and Aly gave me a good laugh through the whole experience, so I'm a hauntie for life 🤘

Do you want to be the next Hauntie of the Week?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Portrait of my mother, taken by my son :: 2000]

* * * * *

Always a day late [and a dollar short] :: remembering the anniversary of my mother's death.

Here is Ruth again. The anniversary of her death is here. The beginning of this blog was the end of her life so this is also an anniversary for this blog.

What to say about my mother 20+ years after her death? I'm getting closer to the age she was when she died which is disconcerting. A part of my experience of time is frozen with her death. Still. As I remember her I appreciate her more and know her less.

I had a lot of long [all night long] conversations with my mother in the several years before she died.If you've ever had a searching conversation with a schizophrenic it's a fascinating experience. We jumped from reality to reality in a way that is very hard to describe.  As a matter of fact I can't recall any of the content of these intense conversations.  They had the quality of meditation or prayer.  Of listening.  Both of us intensely listened.

I think those conversations were to prepare me for the conversations that we have now, now that she has died.  They may die but they don't really go away.  In those conversations we were memorizing each other.  We were recording the whorls of the fingerprints of one another so that we wouldn't ever be lost to each other.I guess that's just my fantasy or how I explain things to myself.

I'm watching our home movies that show our trip on "The Flying Cloud." There's a lot of film of people's backs. We see them going but not coming.  I just want a good long look at their/ our faces. One of the things I do is look at people's posture so I'm analyzing my family's posture on the film. We are people who are very bad liars and even worse at hiding how we feel. My mother loved that trip. I guess my father was already planning to leave us, so this would have been a "fuck you" trip. 

It's always bugged me that our mother loved it so much, as if it represented a new beginning. She had always wanted our father to do something nice for her. So she got a "goodbye cruise."

My mother had a hell of a temper. She could swear using words I still don't know the meaning of. She was swearing in tongues - divine words of frustration and condemnation. After our father left I heard her say many times that now her life was over. But it wasn't. Not by a long shot. Then in the year before she died, she said that it had occurred to her that she might live to be 100 so she should maybe make some plans.*

Now I'm at the place in the home movies where the super-8 movie camera mostly shakes and whites out.  It provides just a tiny peek and the tiny tykes my brothers and I were - appearing and disappearing with a quick dash of my mother then my father.  I think it was 1949 or 1950.  Can't we just have a sustained look at someone?  Can't we just look and look at them? It is just out of the corner of an eye before it's gone.

That was my mother.  We didn't really get to see her.  Just glimpses of her and then her back as she was cooking or walking away or working on one of her projects.  Projects made out of clay or ripping the sofa apart to put on new upholstery, where the incomplete project lay on the living room floor for weeks.  

There was more a flavor to her - or a spell.  

I look at photos of young teenage me and think - she had no idea that she had the power to cast a spell.  

My mother didn't know her powers, her magical self.  That's the real shame of her and her life trajectory. She possessed so much magic and never really knew.  Because there wasn't anyone who could or would tell her.*

*

“(and I think silently: love is a bow-string pulled back to the point of breaking)”

— Marina Tsvetaeva, trans. by Elaine Feinstein, from Bride of Ice: “Poem of the End”

*

And death shall have no dominion

Dylan Thomas - 1914-1953 And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. No more may gulls cry at their ears Or waves break loud on the seashores; Where blew a flower may a flower no more Lift its head to the blows of the rain; Though they be mad and dead as nails, Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, And death shall have no dominion.

[from a post on “Alive On All Channels”]