#also the director???!!! IS SO??!!! the captain of the ship for real...

[extraordinarilyextreme]

[jmdbjk]

No hurricanes.

We have 4 days left in August but it looks like there will be no hurricanes for us. We are typically waiting for one to arrive about this time every August. Definitely a welcome calm because there was already too much shit packed into this past month as it was so thank you to Mother Nature for not adding that extra layer of a shit show.

That being said, there is always next week for a hurricane. We wait. In the meantime, Episode 5 of Are You Sure? drops after I go to sleep tomorrow night.

Namjoon has been active on his IG account, he just tweaked his bio, changing the title "right place, wrong person" to all lowercase. We are holding the ship on a steady course, Captain. Seas are rough but we see the signals.

In case you didn't know, Miss Karma came back from her vacation. As of today, Min Hee Jin has been terminated as CEO of Ador.

She is being given the choice of remaining as director/producer for NewJeans but all of her stock options and whatever went poof. Good luck bitch, fighting your sexual harassment lawsuits without your CEO salary or perks. On your way out, please fumigate your office and leave the keys with the security team.

In other news, Billboard executives meeting this week to discuss major changes to Billboard Hot 100 and minor changes to Billboard 200. Can't wait to hear what this new round of fresh hell will be.

Also, Billboard having an event in Seoul to fiNd ThE nExT BTS!

Ya know... after all this time... how has no one ever realized its not the NEXT BTS anyone needs to be searching for? Yes, to the part about finding an authentic artist who can craft their own (really good) songs with lyrics that resonate. But the real key they need to find is...

... the next FANDOM that is like Army. Globally diverse from different walks of life including young, old and in-between. Loyal, loving, smart, organized, even if at times we seem to struggle to come together.

If an artist can cultivate a relationship with their fandom which consists of mutual respect and trust between them only THEN can the artist do anything, be anything, even untouchable. Hasn't anyone been listening at all? BTS has been saying for years they couldn't do anything... wouldn't be where they are... would have no reason to exist WITHOUT ARMY.

Seriously shaking my damn head. No one listens. No one.

Some other random things that are constantly doing a hit n'run inside my head...

I hope Jimin’s time with Dior menswear is finished because good lawd that shit is fugly. No. Just no:

It looks like an outfit they would be forced to wear as a penalty for losing a Run BTS game. Isn't that the same way Koreans tie up what they call a "lamb head" towel around their head to go in the public baths?

I haven’t talked about Jin at all this month. Shame on me.

He's been very very busy endearing himself not only to Army but to middle-aged men, women, kids, moms, future spouses, actors, idols, foodies, gamers, fishermen, grandmas, grandpas, the world.

Hobi will be coming home in 49(?) days!

Jimin and Jungkook are sending off their fellow soldiers with autographs as they are discharged. I guess it is somewhat comforting to read these simple messages they write to their departing comrades. It's all we have for now. I hope they are doing ok way out there in the boonies. 9 months and 15 days left.

[herejusttosufferalong]

Ok so this might be a long rant, I just came across this account, after a lovely woman i follow on TT. She said in her live that a blog she likes one tumblr account, so I had a wee nosy. Well after watching Tifs live (our captain) the other night, my gut feeling about this whole situation with L, N and A:

I only started to ship L&N late April this year. I just was excited to see polin for their season after reading the book. Then I seen N and L interviews and saw their chemistry & connection I was hooked. I don’t ship people irl but I did always like Tom and Zendaya, I thought they would be cute together but nothing hardcore. Then L& N came into my life and now I can’t function properly without thinking about these two. I like the whole world has seen this two people that have captured our hearts, with their crazy chemistry. Which made a lot fans go crazy thinking they were a real couple and still want them to be.

As I said I newly lukola fan but after watching Tifs live and reading the info she had, also looking at other content and speaking to other fans. I believe my gut feeling is right, ( just my opinion) don’t come from me lol. 1: I believe L fell for N that first day they met at the dance rehearsal. I mean for someone who doesn’t have good memory, he remember everything that day. Like you said I believe he pushed those feelings down as he was in newly relationship. Also N was in a relationship, it wasn’t their time. They were great friends, laughed, joked and even flirted irl or SM but never crossed that boundary.

2: I believe the chemistry we were seeing in season 1 and 2 was them giving each other subtle hits, that they will have to finally give into repressed feelings once they become leads. L was still in a longtime relationship with his gf but N wasn’t in hers anymore, so she was having single girl era. Then bang they are told they are the leads the next season. Both gear up for it by L getting fit, healthy and trim down. N also got fit, healthy and went to the gym. They both threw everything into making this the best season(which I believe they did). Then started to film season3 when they can’t hide their feelings anymore. The gf caught on to this and that when things started to turn sour for L and gf, she got jealous and insecure about his feelings. She started getting hate from fans. Once she started doing shady things like copy N style and comment (WFT on camera) when the episode 2 season 2, when Colin’s comes back from his trip and sees Pen for the first time. Then J and L unliked N posts and didn’t interact with her as much. Also around that time N came out to defend J and stop the hate. (If I couldn’t love this woman anymore than I do. She is a incredible, kind and loyal friend to have in your life). Around this time L was on down low liking posts N friends posted about her, knowing that J wasn’t following them on SM to see. 3: As I said when season3 began all those feelings they both had came out and they couldn’t hide it anymore. You can see it by the reactions of the cast and crew saw, they slowly were letting us know that it was real what we saw and felt. I mean the fact that he wasn’t able to see her in certain dresses until the last minute to get his real reaction or that the director took all the dancers off the set, to only have N&S dance in front of L to get that pure jealousy and anger from him. (BTW that nearly broke that man) haha which I love, I know am evil 😏. Or the fact that N had a fake hen party with cast and crew. Do not get me started on the ‘sound proof’ carriage or the broken furniture. Around those scenes were being filmed the shit was hitting the fan with L&J, they believed to be broken up around the time of the mirror scene. We all know how relaxed they were with each other in those days, as N said “we were so relaxed, we spent the day under the covers naked not wanting to get up”. I mean come you two 🙈 So L was coming home after doing those intimate scenes and couldn’t detached from it. So it is believed around this time J cheated on L with a co star, of course this is all rumoured but Ls mum, aunt and grandma liked a lot of lukolas posts. That scene when he finds out about pen being LW, he was really crying and even catch’s on his words, it also makes N say his name because she can’t see him hurting. So that’s why she help him to heal after the break up, she wanted him not in pain anymore. That’s when everything changed.

4: N and L friendship grows stronger and stronger around part two they both were single and they give into their feelings. So when you watch the ally scene when he finds her out on the night before their wedding and they argue he push’s her up against the door. L uses his left hand to lift up her skirt, Colin is right handed but L is left handed. Also if you listen to that scene without the music, you can hear him saying N name. The last scene they filmed together was their last intimate scene and she slips the tongue in while he sucks on it. He also came to her last day of filming to support her AKA the pic of him seating on the floor while she hugging him 🫠So I believe that they both hooked up around this time and even went on secret dates. He was all in and was ready to go into the relationship with her. This is when it hits her, he needs to be single, she was going to be busy, he starting his new play… they had to put the breaks on it for awhile. That’s why she always says “what is meant for you, won’t pass you by”, something my mum says to me every day. N knows she be called to other women, that she is older, that her image would be damaged if they came out as a couple around that time. Because he loves her so much he couldn’t do that to her, so he agrees even though it is killing him. That’s when A appears. 5: He goes on to have his HBS with the lads and the rat 🐀 (Rory) I said what I said. He has fun and then meets A, she fun and exciting, just someone to have fun with, who also fits in his friends group. They date have fun, go on double dates, parties and events. They never put a label on it but she his gf in not so many words. Then they begin their six month press tour and all that pent up feelings come back out again. They were unhinged, flirty and their chemistry was through the roof. They couldn’t stop it if they tried. They have understanding like last year they couldn’t go public if they wanted to because of the image wouldn’t be right. That’s when A jealous streak came out, by slowly letting the fans know she was about and don’t get any ideas. She post videos of her of dancing in hotels were L was staying. That’s when she started to troll the fans and N too. I think the final nail that hit the coffin was the Ireland trip. We got the famous fixing the hair in middle of an interview(let’s be real L went to another world, he lean in and closed his eyes never wanting to open them up again). We also got him meeting her mum and went out with her family. A could see he was pulling back from her that’s why she invited herself to the NY premier were we got the awkward hug from A&N. So that’s why she called the paps and messed up the situation with L&N. I like a lot of people felt that pap walk was a slap to all our faces. I believe like you said she went rogue. All she had to do was wait a week and it wouldn’t have been as bad. The fandom would have been mad but would got over it. However she stole that limelight and you could see he annoyed by the pics. So HBS 2 happens, N starts working on her her new film. L has events, parties and holidays with A and the friend group. However he found ways to mention N in every interview or posts and she tells him in some ways that he is always with her by the pics she posts too. Like he said on JF they are on a break. Now they waiting for things to calm down and distance himself from A. But she doesn’t like and has now joined together with rat boy and his gf. They are trolling fans, N, leaking pics and videos of L when he just wants to be private. I also believe he has totally checked out with this relationship. You can see it in her eyes and body language, it doesn’t lie, he’s not happy. I also think his losing work opportunities with this bad pr at the minute. Unlike N who is booked and busy.

So to conclude this rant sorry btw I just had to get this all out of my head 🙈 it was doing my head in. I believe once season 4 begins and L&N have to be a married couple. They go back to their funny, flirty and unhinged. I then believe A bags will be packed because he will do all he can to protect N and her image. He also try to get new jobs as well. Were A might be on the next season of love island. I really hope not because I seen enough of that drama queen and I like to enjoy the show. I think next year we might get the confirmation of them both being an official couple. That’s when I be cracking up the Prosecco and champagne 🍾 😊🚢

No matter how many times I read things like this I always act surprised at every turn lmao

Love this anon, thx for sharing

[rodlaveraryna]

graf cup brainworms

we! deserve! a wta! laver! cup!

i mean, just look at the wta rankings. a wta laver cup would be a lot more competitive and balanced and fun than the atp version and it would also be grounds for a bunch of great player interactions that we deserve, so i'll be going over teams :)

graf cup is named after legend steffi graf, one of three singles players in the open era to win a calendar year grand slam. the other two are rod laver, who the laver cup is named for, and margaret court, a bigot. it will be held in berlin at uber arena, same location as the atp version. yk, if this was real.

also, i have no clue how teams are made for the actual laver cup. i just made these teams because i can. i'm the tournament director of this nonexistent tournament. what are you gonna do?

team europe

edit 4/23: i had no idea navratilova was such a piece of shit lord… alternative captain suggestions are much appreciated

team roster: ― iga swiatek ― aryna sabalenka ― daria kasatkina ― jasmine paolini ― mirra andreeva ― paula badosa

notes team europe:

― i NEED daria and natalia to give us some bomb ass graf cup vlogs. i just know they would give us the best interviews and behind the scenes look at how it all goes.

― aryna and jasmine are both great in singles and doubles so that's def something they can use to their advantage

― honestly seeing players i like interact with each other was like. a major part in selecting these teams. idk i just feel like everyone here is so lovely and amazing and that's only going to be heightened because of the not super competitive atmosphere

― i have a massive soft spot for mirra. i think everyone who knows her does. i would love to see the whole team just absolutely adoring her

― iga and aryna becoming friends??? maybe??? i like my rivalries sweet off court and fiery on court so it'll be nice seeing them interact

― can't forget the best friendship in tennis aka sabadosa!!! lowkey i don't ship them because they just remind me of me with my best friends but i think a really close platonic relationship like that is SO important and valuable and i'm really glad they have each other like that.

team world

team roster: ― coco gauff ― elena rybakina ― ons jabeur ― zheng qinwen ― emma navarro ― leylah fernandez

team world notes:

― emma and coco feel like they would be a great pair. they're both close with ben it seems so i feel like they would be friends. also they're professional american tennis players. to use some terminology from @fritzes, american idiot solidarity

― the difference in vibe between coco and elena will be absolutely hilarious. i think they'd get along don't get me wrong it's just funny they seem so opposite to me. would love to see them play some doubles together that would be so fun...

― honestly i feel like all doubles permutations in this team would be so funny. if any of these people actually played doubles together (besides coco/emma/leylah with each other) i would be like "what the fuck is she playing doubles with her????" and i think that's beautiful.

― not to make too many comparisons with the laver cup but team world here isn't just america ft. canada. that shouldn't be a super tall order because this is team WORLD but we've all seen the trends for teams in the mens version.

― everyone loves ons yall. including team europe. we all just love ons so much.

― i'm ngl i don't have too many ultra specific notes for this team i just think it'll be good vibes and good tennis. it'll also be very appealing for me personally because i love all of these players and i know most of tennisblr loves them too :)

[aer-in-wanderland]

PSYCHO-PASS: Providence - According to Japanese Twitter

After a long wait (or maybe it just felt long to me), PSYCHO-PASS: Providence finally hits North American theaters this week (14 July 2023), before becoming more widely internationally available in early August.

Unfortunately, as I'm not currently in Japan, I've not yet seen it. Fortunately, I speak Japanese, so I've read pretty much everything I could find about what happens. If you're like me and can't wait to see it in cinemas/don't mind major spoilers, this post is for you.

What follows is a compilation of everything my sister and I know about PPP -- drawing from fan talk on Twitter, director and writer interviews and tweets, and other official promotional materials only available in Japanese -- without actually having seen it.

We also explain some of the major plot points and go into detail on the real-life works referenced in the film, so if you watched it but feel like you could still use some clarification (as many Japanese fans did), this post might be for you too.

Once again, this post is nothing but spoilers (to be taken with several grains of salt as there is a certain amount of guesswork involved), so read on at your own risk.

*Note: "SN" denotes tweets/quotes by director Shiotani Naoyoshi.

We open on a snowy, stormy night, January 2118 (2 months post-SS Case.3).

A team of armed mercenaries board a transport ship off the coast of Kanagawa, Japan and set about killing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Suppressing Action Department (SAD) agents on board. 

Among them is Kai Mikhaylov, a Russian agent with a large burn scar on the left half of his face.

Kai Mikhaylov (VA: Kase Yasuyuki): A member of the “Peacebreakers.” In order to obtain the Stronskaya Document, he launches an attack on the ship Milcia is on. 

Leading the mercenaries is fellow mercenary Bokamoso Murray, who sports distinctive red dreadlocks.

Bokamoso Murray (VA: Shirokuma Hiroshi): A combatant affiliated with the “Peacebreakers.” He operates in tandem with Kai Mikhaylov; beginning with the assault on the Grootslang, he works to seize the Stronskaya Document. 

For the record, the Grootslang (the ship’s name) is a mythical giant snake rumoured to dwell deep in a cave in the Richtersveld, South Africa. It’s said that anyone who encounters it will meet with misfortune. Well then.

Indoors on the same ship, we find Dr Milicia Stronskaya, who has been invited to Tokyo from Russia to participate in an important political conference. 

Milcia Stronskaya (VA: Tsuda Shōko): A researcher and global authority on behavioural economics and statistics. She establishes the basic theory simulation referred to as the “Stronskaya Document.”

Realising the ship is under attack, she hurriedly sends a communication to someone, apologising under her breath as she does so.

She pulls out a gun just as a helmeted mercenary bursts into the room, and she shoots him dead. You can tell from how she handles it that she’s competent.

Kai charges in next, dodging her shots and pinning her down.

Leaning over her, Kai calls her “professor,” at which she startles. He then says to her, “There’s nowhere left to run.”

Kai shoots Dr Stronskaya, killing her. 

Bokamoso shows up then and says to Kai, “You screwed up, huh, Kai,” and “We’re switching to Plan B.”

Meanwhile, Kogami Shinya, one of our two main protagonists, heads to her rescue.

Kōgami Shinya (VA: Seki Tomokazu): Special Investigator, Suppressing Action Department, Overseas Coordination Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Age 33. He was living a nomadic life abroad acting as a mercenary but was recruited by Frederica and returned to Japan; currently, he’s pursuing international incidents. He prides himself on his advanced combat techniques and honed physique.

Kogami makes an insane jump from an aircraft wearing a wingsuit. (I’ve seen him described alternately as Batman, Captain America, and a flying squirrel here lol)

SN: What colour suits a man who flies... Thinking about it.

Kogami proceeds to fight his way through the enemy soldiers with his typical efficiency.

Unfortunately, he arrives too late to save the professor, and the mercenaries have already absconded with her head. The reason for this is explained later.

On deck, Bokamoso and his team board their aircraft and make their escape.

Kogami, who has followed them out, takes aim at the aircraft but is tackled to the deck by a reanimated SAD agent. The man’s mouth doesn’t move but we hear a voice quoting what appears to be a passage from a religious text.

An explosion goes off and Kogami breaks free of his attacker and escapes the conflagration by jumping into the ocean.

Backlit by the flames and treading water, Kogami — vexed but composed as usual — reports on the situation via his device.

<<Opening Credits>>

OP: 「アレキシサイミアスペア」 (alexithymiaspare) ~ 凛として時雨 (Ling tosite sigure)

We cut to the opening credits, set to Ling tosite sigure’s “Alexthymiaspare.” The group also contributed to the soundtracks for PP1, PP2, and PP: The Movie (M1), so this is one of many ways in which the film “returns to its roots.”

The credits are then followed by a brief shot of the Sibyl System accompanied by the following text: 《"The Sibyl System," a vast surveillance network that assigns numeric values to and governs human beings’ mental states. Detectives who carry "Dominators" — guns that measure "crime coefficients" — pursue "latent criminals" before they commit crimes.》

The next morning, our other main protagonist, Tsunemori Akane, now Chief Inspector of the CID, attends a meeting of senior bureaucrats to discuss the proposed abolishment of the Ministry of Justice and the old system of law.

Tsunemori Akane (VA: Hanazawa Kana): Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Public Safety Bureau. Age 25. She commands the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Department. She possesses an incontrovertible sense of justice and a stalwart mentality that makes it difficult for her Hue to cloud; she makes an appeal for maintaining the law under the Sibyl System.  

The official name of the conference, which is being held at Nona Tower (i.e. the Ministry of Welfare’s HQ), is “Review Meeting on the Topic of the Overseas Expansion of Industry RE: the Sibyl System.”

Shindo Atsushi — father to PP3 protagonist Shindo Arata — is also in attendance, alongside officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Shindō Atsushi (VA: Sugō Takayuki): Director-General of the Statistics Department, Minister’s Secretariat,  Ministry of Health and Welfare. One of the elite who started his career as an Inspector [at the CID] and entered the MHW. He’s involved in the exportation of the Sibyl System, immigration policy, etc.

For the record, this is the same conference that Dr Stronskaya was originally scheduled to attend at Atsushi’s invitation.

Akane is the only woman and by far the youngest person present, but she doesn’t hesitate to say her piece. When it’s her turn to speak, she opens by saying, “‘Under the Sibyl System, the law is unnecessary.’ Is that truly the case?”

Akane is basically the sole voice of dissent, while Atsushi assumes a more neutral position. 

During the meeting, Atsushi receives a text message, which he checks covertly before stashing his device in an inner pocket of his suit jacket.

Moments later, Akane receives a red alert on her device and excuses herself.

Atsushi calls a break in the meeting while Akane steps out to take a call from Mika.

Shimotsuki Mika (VA: Sakura Ayane): Inspector, Division 1, Criminal Investigation Department, Public Safety Bureau, Ministry of Health and Welfare. Age 21. The youngest Inspector ever inducted. At the time, she took a negative stance towards Akane’s way of thinking, but the two have a good working relationship now. She’s competitive but possesses both presence of mind and rational judgement.

Director Shiotani tweeted a quote by Rousseau that I saw someone identify as having been in reference to this scene. It’s not clear to me though whether a character quotes it aloud, or if Shiotani just meant it as an overarching theme:

SN: “Keep this truth ever before you—Ignorance never did any one any harm, error alone is fatal, and we do not lose our way through ignorance but through self-confidence.” by.Rousseau

from Rousseau’s Emile (On Education), Book III

SN: “Real knowledge is knowing the extent of one’s ignorance.”〈matcha emoji〉

from Confucius’ Analects II, Political Philosophy

Keep reading here.

[arwenlalaith]

Blinded by the Light

Ship: Emily Prentiss/Rebecca Wilson

Summary: It's not the healthiest coping mechanism in the world, but it's the only one Emily has...

Word Count: 1173

Author's Note: This fills the Anonymity square on my @cmkinkbingo2024 card. It's also dedicated to @blackbird-brewster bc they Captain this ship.

Emily didn’t usually do this...

That’s not to say she hadn’t done it in the past...but she was trying to be good. Trying to quit. But trying and succeeding were two very different things.

The thing was, as much as she may have wanted a real relationship, she wasn’t exactly at a place in life where it was all that feasible – between the hours she worked and her numerous traumas and issues, this was really just easier for everyone.

This being anonymous one night stands with strangers. Not random strangers because she’d seen more than enough one night stands gone wrong to make that mistake. No, all her one night stands were vetted for her through a third party she trusted. They all knew the stakes, knew the deal, so there was never any confusion; just sex and nothing more and, come morning, there was no conversation, no breakfast, no goodbye kiss. Just sex.

On this particular occasion, it had been far far too long since she’d gotten laid – between the pandemic and the promotion to director, she just hadn’t had the time. Fiona, being her best friend and one of her only confidants had endured quite a lot of bitchiness because of it and had therefore taken it upon herself to find Emily’s latest conquest.

...

“Don’t you want to know my name?”

Emily barked out a laugh, as her lips travelled down the other woman’s throat, sucking bruises to the surface as she went. “That isn’t part of the arrangement,” she husked, scraping her teeth across the sensitive flesh of her collarbone.

“I have to call you something...” came the retort.

“You can call me Sir,” Emily instructed, undoing buttons as her lips travelled lower and lower.

With a husky laugh, her conquest replied, “Well, Sir, you can call me Beck.”

Choosing to ignore that, Emily shucked the blouse off Beck’s shoulders, then flicked open the front clasp of her bra before latching her mouth around one of her nipples, teasing it with her teeth and tongue. One hand cupped her other breast while the other slipped past the waistband of her jeans and into her panties in search of her clit.

She spent several minutes teasing Beck, giving her just enough stimulation to keep her on the edge of cumming without ever letting her fall. She alternated between her breasts treating one, then the other, to raking teeth, laving tongue, teasing lips and all the while her gun-calloused finger teased her clit. She made sure to catalogue each and every sound she coaxed past Beck’s lips, enjoying the power trip of having someone at her complete and utter mercy.

Finally, when she could take Emily’s teasing no more, Beck said, “I know you didn’t bring me here just for this...”

With a snort of amusement, Emily pulled her lips off her breast with a wet pop, smirking up at her from her lower vantage point. “What did you have in mind?” she asked, as if she really didn’t know...

Huffing in frustration over having to work so hard to get what she wanted, Beck wound her fingers in Emily’s hair, pulling her up to her lips and stealing a kiss, then lips ghosting over hers, said, “I want you to fuck me into oblivion.”

Emily gave a pleased hum. “I like the way you think...” A beat. “But I don’t like being told what to do...” She gave Beck a once over, her eyes raking up and down her body, as if sizing her up. Finally, she said, “Bedroom. Now. I want you naked on your hands and knees.”

Beck wasted no time in obeying, assuming the requested position and waiting for Emily to do...something. Only, she found herself waiting and waiting. With a glance over her shoulder, she found that Emily was nowhere to be seen.

“Sir?”

“Patience,” Emily chided, but nonetheless she sauntered into the room to lean against the threshold, hand on her jutted-out hip. In the time she’d left Beck hanging, she’d stripped down to her bra and panties and the strap-on she’d been packing. “See something you like?” she teased.

Beck nodded. Then, remembering her voice, she was quick to add, “Yes, Sir.”

She laughed. “Good answer. However...I still think you need to learn your place.” And, with that, she smacked her ass with a resound clap of skin on skin.

Beck yelped, jerking forward, away from the sting.

“Ah-ah,” Emily tutted, “If you can take ten, I’ll let you cum...” She landed another smack, then another in quick succession. “Can you take it?”

Beck cut off her whine by sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, but nodded all the same. Emily grinned smugly, then landed another slap. By the time she reached ten, Beck was keening, her body trembling, her ass red with imprints of Emily’s hand...but she refused to tap out and Emily had to admit that she was impressed by her resolve.

“You took your punishment so well...” she cooed, gently raking her nails along the curve of her ass, up her spine, to her shoulder where she then dropped an almost tender kiss. “You’ve earned this,” she added, then lined her cock up with Beck’s cunt and guided herself inside.

She was quick to set a relentless pace, gripping Beck’s hips to keep them canted for her thrusts. All Beck could do was turn off her brain and let herself be used...and there was something so incredibly hot and filthy about that.

“That’s right, take it,” Emily growled. Hand flat on her shoulder, Emily pushed Beck down to her elbows to change the angle of her thrusts, going deeper than before, which only served to drive Beck feral with desire.

“Please, please, please,” she chanted without really knowing what she was begging for.

Entirely too cocksure, Emily taunted, “That’s right, beg me. Beg me and maybe I’ll let you cum...”

“Please, Sir,” she pleaded, “I need to cum, please...”

“Well, since you asked so nicely...” Emily said, “But you’re going to watch yourself be a little whore for me.” She grabbed a handful of Beck’s hair, jerking her head up so that she was forced to meet her gaze in the mirror that was Emily’s closet door.

When Beck came, it was with a cry of Emily’s name, her entire body going limp and falling forwards against the mattress, well and truly spent.

...

“Em?” JJ prompted, hand landing on Emily’s shoulder. “Earth to Emily?”

Emily came crashing back to reality as the stinging pain of hot coffee on skin set in, as did the realization that she’d shattered her coffee mug on the ground.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost...” JJ said when it became clear that Emily wasn’t about to speak. She grabbed Emily’s wrist and dragged her over to the sink to run cool water over the reddening skin of her scalded hand.

“Wh-who’s that?” she stammered, gaze never leaving the door leading to the bullpen.

JJ followed her gaze. “Oh, that’s Tara’s girlfriend, Rebecca... Why?”

[burningfudge]

(I saw your earlier post about this and I wanted to share something with the anon.)

Like I've learnt that I don't have to watch the mcu projects that I'm not intreasted in and have no intention of getting into like at all.

As a comic fan though I think we are more than valid to have a pop at people who are blatantly rude/racist/spreading misinformation because they refuse to even read the comics (I feel so freaking horrid for the comic Wanda fans).

Disney exploits and steals from comic creators and hardly pays them a penny for their hard earnt work and the mcu fandom really don't get that and rather be horrible bigoted individuals than acknowledge that.

I think as both an mcu fan and a massive fan of the comics I've kind of realised I can just enjoy the product and be and healthy consumer and still be able to criticise the badness that goes on!

This is very true. I also feel like the type of criticism matters because there’s useless criticism (what I assume that anon was asking) like some people calling Peggy Carter a Nazi because she was the Director of SHIELD and SHIELD was eventually infiltrated by HYDRA, which I think is really dumb. Like come on. Just say you don’t like Peggy because she gets in the way of your ship instead of jumping through hoops for a justification. Also do these people not know that Operation Paperclip was a thing that happened in real life? And the same people also hating Sharon Carter even though she’s the leading woman in Captain America comics.

And also there’s only so much discourse I can take about MCU Peter being Iron Man Jr or not. Like it’s 2024, give it a rest. I’ve been hearing the same recycled arguments since 2017.

However, there’s also very valid criticism like erasing Wanda and Pietro’s background that some MCU fans don’t want to listen to. Or whatever weird decisions are going on with casting RDJ as Doctor Doom.

The misinformation is so crazy. Just right now I’m seeing so much nonsense about Billy Kaplan, like guys just read Young Avengers Vol 1 and Children’s Crusade. It’s not that hard.

[firespirited]

hot take but I think the fantasy Event Horizon director's cut should have less gore and more of the character building moments. Less is more.

The more ambiguity about whether it was a mass hallucination, the more left to the imagination and conveyed by the actors reactions to what they saw off-screen, the better the film.

The set design, the lighting, the incredible acting speak for themselves - I think those things are so strong you could have a PG-13 rated cut with a single f-bomb (Fishburne's "Fuck this ship!" of course) that still leaves you sleepless.

-------------------------------

9/10 film. Would have been 10/10 without the extra gore.

As Anderson himself says, after a certain amount the viewer's imagination is stretched too far and you start to rationalize the rubber props and fake blood. The anatomy is off for PJ's death, the fire's effects are off even for different gravity, the carefully acted distress of the crew isn't present in the shock imagery. That's the one point against it, that and the prevailing belief that it's about a literal hell when that's refuted in the text.

==== I love this film ====

It is breathtakingly beautiful. the sets, the effects, the lighting, the filters, subliminal symbology everywhere. The acting, the way the world is lived in and their relationships are shown to us by the way the actors touch each other and move around their ship.

Within the first five minutes we have everything we need to know: Weir is a self-absorbed "genius" who hesitates over his jugular while shaving, Miller is an efficient and empathetic search and rescue lifeguard captain with full devotion to his crew which is fully returned.

Each member of the crew has their backstory in their mannerisms and design: we have a superstitious pilot with an ankh back tattoo, the sun-starved surgeon has scalpels on a utility vest and encourages you to smoke, the women are "one of the boys" facing the same ol' sexist banter from lovable rogue Cooper, but also respected in their fields. That's show not tell in impeccable detail.

We get a quick meet and greet verbal introduction to the crew at the 10-minute mark. We're introduced to the ship and its gothic, unholy geometries at 25. The design elements invoke a hybrid between the awe of a cathedral and the disgust of an intricate medieval torture device. The technology is robust and, except for an optical drive disk, future-proof.

This ship is a twisted Passion Play in design form with an evil seraphim of eyes within eyes, wheels within wheels as a beating heart engine. You don't have to be told that this thing demands worship and sacrifice, it is in your cultural subconscious.

It is in every jagged tooth and violence invoking shape engraved into the various panels and walls. The designers working on creating future warnings about nuclear waste would be pointing at different elements and yelling "Yes! That's it! Universal, visceral, primal signs of danger! Colours of disease!"

We're in a psychological thriller: the first real violence is a full 50 minutes into a 1h30 runtime and it's a plausible hazard of the job, shown with an unflinching camera with real time tension.

We spend the next ten minutes being gaslit by Weir into believing the ramping violence of the 'haunted house' might just be in our heads until the captain and crew subvert the horror trope and GET OUT. Fantastic story telling, very smart.

We now switch genres. again. to an ultra violent possession and slasher movie with a switch in tone for the ending: rewritten to be just open-ended enough to wonder if it was a shared psychotic frenzy, something supernatural or something natural but beyond humanity's understanding. A nice bookend to that almost campy over the top blood fest of a last half hour where Fishburne is the grounding force to Sam Neill's insane monster.

The CGI is in service to the practical effects and near seamless despite the age, it's mostly composite work on miniature sets and for zero gravity liquids. I honestly don't know how Mortal Kombat guy managed to get this kind of acting and photography talent to work on a space horror.

It feels a lot like the glitch that was Hannibal the TV show, art that wouldn't get made if the money men had known exactly what was involved and art that is bordering on schlocky but toeing a line that makes it brilliant. A kind of art that is achieved with a lot of talent and dedication but also the enforced limitation of The Edit.

I really think that the multiple test screenings and edits made this film better: it's like Robocop vs Showgirls*, Event Horizon vs Resident Evil*: the edits saved us from a movie that went too far and came out silly.

It's a film that feels rare.

*you already know I like both.

[titanic-officers]

MEET THE TITANIC CREW

Captain Edward Smith:

-> Captain of the Titanic. Has a lot of authority, but also a forgiving nature... which is a good thing, considering the many antics of his crew. Gets tired of them sometimes.

Chief officer Henry Wilde:

-> Chief officer of the Titanic. The most mature and sane one of the group. The other officers can really get on his nerves, especially second officer Charles Lightoller and sixth officer James Moody. Always keeps an eye on them and tries to keep them in check, but fails every time.

First officer William Murdoch:

-> First officer of the Titanic. Nicknamed "Will". Best friends with second officer Charles Lightoller, despite the many pranks and antics of the latter. Secretly has a good sense of humour, but also doubts himself sometimes and can have an existential crisis.

Second officer Charles Lightoller:

-> Second officer of the Titanic. Nicknamed "Lights". The prankster of the group who always gets involved in some kind of trouble (which, in most cases, he accidentally caused himself). Tends to give the captain and chief officer Henry Wilde a headache with his mischievous and cheeky behaviour. Best friend of first officer William Murdoch.

Third officer Herbert Pitman:

-> Third officer of the Titanic. Quietest of the group. Is often a witness to all the antics that happen on board of the ship. Quite innocent, doesn't swear and never really gets involved in any trouble.

Fourth officer Joseph Boxhall:

-> Fourth officer of the Titanic. Good-hearted, basically everyone's friend. Always laughs about the pranks of second officer Charles Lightoller, and sometimes gets dragged along in them as well. Would love to have a girlfriend.

Fifth officer Harold Lowe:

-> Fifth officer of the Titanic. A bit of a lone wolf and "no-bullshit" person. Can come across as stoic, but cares a lot about the people he loves. Good friends with sixth officer James Moody, whom he likes to tease a lot and is also fiercely protective about. Swears a lot and has a fiery temper. Dislikes Bruce Ismay.

Sixth officer James Moody:

-> Sixth officer of the Titanic. The youngest and smallest one of the group. Often joins second officer Charles Lightoller in his many antics. Often creates some kind of trouble, even though he doesn't mean to. He just can be a bit of an airhead and doesn't always think everything through, resulting in him saying or doing something dumb. Likes to stay positive. Good friends with fifth officer Harold Lowe.

First wireless operator Jack Phillips:

-> First wireless operator of the Titanic. An extravert with a good sense of humour. Is secretly in love with his coworker, second wireless operator Harold Bride. Is mainly the one who does te flirting, both knowingly and unknowingly. His real name is actually "John", but everyone always calls him "Jack".

Second wireless operator Harold Bride:

-> Second wireless operator of the Titanic. An introvert who likes to stay in the background. Is secretly in love with his coworker, first wireless operator Jack Phillips, but is often too insecure to make any advances or does so quite clumsily.

Lookout Frederick Fleet:

-> One of the lookouts of the Titanic. Not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Often clumsy.

Lookout Reginald Lee:

-> One of the lookouts of the Titanic. Tends to get annoyed by Frederick Fleet's behaviour, but still considers him a good friend and always keeps an eye on him.

Quartermaster George Rowe:

-> One of the quartermasters of the Titanic. A kind man who befriended the not so popular quartermaster Robert Hichens. Ships Jack Phillips and Harold Lowe and often tries to get them together.

Quartermaster Robert Hichens:

-> One of the quartermasters of the Titanic. Always seems grumpy and extremely negative about life in general. Not very well liked by most of the crew, but is secretly protective over his friend and coworker George Rowe. Has a dark sense of humour.

J. Bruce Ismay:

-> Chairman and managing director of the White Star Line. Likes nothing more than talking about the Titanic and his successful career. Can come across as arrogant, but he doesn't seem to notice it. Not as brave as he often wants others to believe.

Thomas Andrews:

-> Master shipbuilder of the Titanic. A sweet, kind and hardworking man who's always willing to help others. Is often seen as the father of the group. Loves working on his blueprints, but often loses track of time while doing so and accidentally works 'till late in the night, causing him to have a lack of sleep.

Others who might be mentioned:

-> Ada Murdoch: wife of first officer William Murdoch

-> Sylvia Lightoller: wife of second officer Charles Lightoller

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

*DISCLAIMER*

I don't mean any harm or offence to the real Titanic officers, passengers or other people who were on the ship during that fateful maiden voyage. My interpretation of the officers, wireless operators and other crew is completely fictional and not based on real life. If you want historical information about them, then this isn't the place to be. This page is meant for fun and the hopes of making you laugh about the many antics of the Titanic crew. My inspiration for this came from the many (funny) Titanic officers fanfictions I always used to read in the past.

Be respectful, and together we must make sure that we never forget the victims of the Titanic. Thank you ❤

[quodekash]

im already about to cry and the episode hasn't even started yet, so that's a nice sign that'll probably foreshadow how tonight is gonna go

PLS I LOVE HER SO MUCH

SHE ACTUALLY LISTENS AND TALKS TO KANGHAN

SHE IS MY GODDESS

MY QUEEN

MY MILF

9GO3U4ERHDSGN9P8IO4EURBDGN980OEUVDS

I KNEW SHE WAS CAPTAINING THE SHIP BUT HOLY FRICK NUGGETS

GUEOJRKBGNUOERJDFBGEUOR

IM SOBBING SO HARD RN

lmao nice joke

based on this scene being right at the start here, this episode is definitely gonna be the one where he properly realises his feelings for sailom (if he hasn't realised them already, which I dont think he has. he hasn't accepted it, at least)

AND BASED ON THAT LOGIC, generally the way these writers and directors etc base these ones, they fully lean into the fell first / fell harder dynamic, and almost immediately after the second person realises, they kiss

SO im very much hoping for a kiss at the end of this episode (but it also might not be til next episode)

WE'RE WHAT, ONE MINUTE INTO THE EPISODE?? AND WE'RE ALREADY GETTING TO THE INTIMATE STARES????

OH BOY IM SCARED FOR THE REST OF THE EPISODE

I THINK MY GAY LITTLE HEART MIGHT ACTUALLY EXPLODE

oh yup, oh yup, we've got the heartbeat sound in the background. kang's feelings are coming to lightttt (PLEASE LET THEM KISS TODAY)

AAA

IM SO EXCITED FOR WHATS GONNA HAPPEN BC OF THIS

my theory that they're gonna run away during school hours is still going strong

NOOOOO THE SCENE WAS SO NICE AND HAPPY AND FLUFFY WHY ARE YOU HERE TO RUIN IT YOU BASTARD???

yup okay so that theory is definitely right

(the theory that saifah's gonna like steal from kang's house, and his dad is gonna get shot in the process. not my own theory, it's from @ respectthepetty and it's such a good theory, I love it so much)

OML THIS IS SO FUNNY

I CANT WAIT FOR MORE BATHROOM SHENANIGANS, THIS IS GONNA BE WONDERFUL

awh is he lonely?

he needs a hug

from kang

all through the night

it'll be insane if they do tho, its literally night one, there's no way

I TAKE IT BACK, APPARENTLY IM WRONG????

OKAY NVM APPARENTLY I WASNT WRONG

im half convinced kang is gonna walk in or smth tho

YALL IM SCREAMING, HE FULL-ASS JUST HEEHEED

THEY ARE FRIENDS

AAAA THE LYRICS

I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH

THEYRE SO PLAYFUL WITH EACH OTHER

WHAT THE HELL

what I wouldn't give to be that driver rn

THE ARM OVER THE SHOULDER???????

THEYRE LITERALLY SO IN LOVE?????????

OMG

PIMFAH

MY WIFE

I rly wish that screenshot was better but the wifi is being stupid for no reason (which isn't surprising since this is Australia and we have the shittest wifi there is)

anyway IM SO SURE JUNE IS GONNA SHOW UP TODAY

GIVE👏US👏LESBIANS👏

DID I NOT SAY IT?

I WAS RIGHT YALL

AAAAAAAAAAA

LITERALLY IMMEDIATE

AS SOON AS THE OTHER MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTER WAS INTRODUCED, B O O M, LESBIANS

I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE THIS

although I wasn't expecting it to be teacher/student

she is just a trainee teacher, but its still a bit ick

idk tho

I guess we'll see what they do with it

gay panic in real time

ooh yes ive been waiting for the familial need for an heir thing to crop up, yesyesyes

making me think of drarry now

OKAY SO MAYBE I WAS WRONG

MAYBE HE DOES LIKE HER

but the things I said are still true

the evidence we've gotten before just now havent really felt solid enough to argue that kang likes pimfah

but now... I guess I have to agree

pimfah knows/suspects/ships it and no one can convince me otherwise

IM WHEEZE-LAUGHING THIS IS HILARIOUS

THE MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND?????

I CANT RN

SO THIS IS DEFINITELY A DREAM SEQUENCE, RIGHT?

I wasn't expecting imaginary scenes from this series but I deeply appreciate it

I CANT STOP LAUGHING

THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING, SAILOM

YOU SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED

BUT ITS ALSO SUCH A MOOD

also I like kang's shoes

Y E S

I WAS HOPING FOR OPEN HOUSE VIEWJUNE

again, I wasn't expecting it to be teacher/student, but anyway

OH YOU LESBIANN

G3I4ORENHGKLS

I would do the same tho

June is so pretty

and so is view

and so is chimon

and so is Perth

(and so is satang)

(no I will not shut up about my satang and perth siblings agenda, its too good to keep to myself)

NO IM OUT OF IMAGES

on the bright side, it took a lot longer to run out today than it did last week

[multidimensional-trashcan]

No don't apologize for the Stucky stuff! I only watched Endgame once in the cinema because it pissed me off so much.

And I just did it again expecting to maybe be a little more forgiving. But NO I am still pissed off mainly because of this part...

same for me! watched endgame once and it pissed me off sooo much. im not sure whether i watched it ever again but im sure that in the future i definitely wont! and y'know for me its not even about shipping them (tho i do somewhat in the sense of i love their dynamic and want to see more of it no matter whether platonic, queerplatonic (or romantic)). but in the movies it is shown that there is no one more important to steve than bucky (man didnt want to fight against him although he was brainwashed and ready to kill him) and bucky literally broke 70 years of mind control for steve (and you dont just establish such a beautiful line as 'til the end of the line' in one movie and then betray that sentiment). they literally love each other! but for some reason people cant fathom platonic love (which it is in canon) greater than romantic love so they think if given the choice steve would go back to peggy. which is the direct opposite of what the three captain america movies showed us! he moves on! he learns she had a happy life, he goes to her funeral for fs sake! he kisses her niece (also dumb ass move of the directors guess they thought it would make people stop shipping stucky or whatever, hate that they basically just included sharon for love interest reasons). and in endgame hes been in the present for about 11 years! thats double the time he knew peggy in the 40s. and he. moves. on. (sorry it annoys me that they just ignored the whole character development). also the same goes for peggy. while she still was pretty one-dimensional love interest like in the movies, the series about her finally did something with her besides being the woman captain america likes. and she also. moved. on! and then they just erased all that, booted the series out of canon and just made her a cardboard-cut love interest again! ugh. also someone please tell me how it makes sense that Steve Rogers, the man that searched 2 years for Bucky without knowing whether hed find him and who fought out a civil war (at least partially) for him, would just sit around in the 50s while knowing that bucky was being tortured by hydra right now. he just wouldnt. thats so completely out of character i wanna scream! oh god this is long. anyway once again:

STEVE AND BUCKY'S LOVE FOR EACH OTHER IS CANON! AND JUST BECAUSE STEVE LOVED (yes ill say loved see 'he moved on') PEGGY ROMANTICALLY THAT DOESNT MEAN ITS MORE IMPORTANT OR GREATER THAN HIS LOVE FOR BUCKY. SAME GOES FOR IF HE STILL LOVED HER! THIS IS TRUE IN REAL LIFE TOO! PLATONIC LOVE IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY LESSER THAN ROMANTIC LOVE! THIS ALSO MEANS THAT 'THERES NO OTHER EXPLANATION THAN ROMANCE FOR STUCKY IS ALSO WRONG'. YES YOU CAN HEADCANON THEM AS ROMANTIC BUT IT IS NOT THE ONLY EXPLANATION.

and yes im aware that even with steve staying in the present, steve and bucky's relationship would still have been sidelined in favour of a romantic, straight (its marvel what are we expecting) one. i guess thats what i mean when i say im shipping them. they are made for each other ('its difficult to find someone with shared life experience' -> bucky shows up, god i love this) and their relationship is one of the most important in their lifes (if not the most) and relationships with other people (romantic, platonic, queerplatonic or other) would not change anything about that. but marvel (and lets be real the people watching) dont see this. so i have something to rant about for days :)

[mrbensonmum]

TV Show - The Fall of the House of Usher IV

Once again, we learn more about Roderick and Madeline's turbulent past. However, it quickly becomes clear that Roderick wasn’t always as strong as his older self. His early days at Fortunato were full of difficulties, and his sister advised him to submit to the system, even if it meant getting involved in illegal activities.

But this episode focuses mainly on Leo. He has moved in with his boyfriend, Julius, but we already know that Leo wasn’t ready to take him to the family gathering. It seems like, in a drug-induced state, Leo killed Julius’ black cat. So, he tries to find a replacement, and along the way, he too encounters Verna.

After a lot of drugs, broken drywall, and several seemingly dead small animals, Leo also ends up dead. That sounds simplistic, but Leo endures some serious psychological torment. It’s almost as if he’s driven mad, and he ultimately takes his own life, obsessed with the black cat on the balcony.

By now, it’s clear through the flashbacks and Verna’s repeated appearances before each child’s death that everything is connected. Something Madeline and Roderick did on New Year’s Eve in 1979 has had lasting consequences for the entire family.

What stands out to me is that Perry is the only one who doesn’t die from a hallucination or vision caused by Verna. While all the other children encounter Verna before their deaths, Perry dies as a result of the acid in the sprinkler system. Camille dies from a vision of Verna, who actually turns out to be the chimpanzee, and Leo dies chasing a vision of the black cat on the balcony railing.

These visions are obviously caused by Verna, and maybe I’m overthinking it, but I find this detail fascinating.

Roderick, plagued by unnecessary jump-scare-style shocks, increasingly sees his dead children. Sometimes it’s during the retelling of events, but often it happens while he’s talking to Auguste. And we keep seeing that open door, wondering what’s happening down in the basement.

There’s one more thing I want to highlight because it’s important to me, and this show sets a great example. Victorine and Leo both have same-sex partners, and Camille has sex with her two assistants. What I really love about the way the show handles this is that it doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Let me explain! The show doesn’t force it in your face, nor does it make any special mention or focus on it. It’s treated as completely normal, just like everything else, and I love that. I wish we could see much more of this in other series.

In my first post, I mentioned that not every episode centers on one of the Usher children, but now I realize that’s not entirely accurate. There’s a constant mix with the past of the Usher siblings and the rise of Fortunato, but we’re also getting more of the present. As the story refers back to the past, we can see that something terrible must have happened back then.

It’s clearer in the flashbacks, but even in the present, we’re constantly reminded that maybe Roderick is just a figurehead, and the real captain of the Usher/Fortunato ship is Madeline.

I also feel a growing urge to learn more about Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. I think I’ll need to visit some bookstores in the coming days and see what I can find. The show continues to entertain and remains consistently thrilling! It was created by Mike Flanagan, and I think I’ve seen something from him before—The Haunting of Hill House, if I’m not mistaken. I liked that too, but after The Fall of the House of Usher, I’ll definitely check out more of his work. He also wrote and directed Gerald’s Game, and interestingly enough, the lead actors from that movie, Bruce Greenwood (Roderick) and Carla Gugino (Verna), are also in this series. I love it when directors and actors form a team, work well together, and then reappear in other productions.

[liloinkoink]

hey if you need an excuse to talk more about the movie 6 treebark au, consider this that. i'd love to hear more >:D

of course of course thank you for enabling me. hey guys here’s the fucking directors cut of this fic i posted two hours ago

this is going to be long and all over the place we’re just going to have to live with that. i just thought about this so much

here’s some details abt the fic vs the actual movie (and movie stuff i couldn’t include), details from alternate plot for this au, and some little details i want to call attention to with actual content and word/formatting choices

so, first of all, this is based off my favorite One Piece movie. the villain is a former pirate captain who lost his entire crew in a shipwreck 20 years prior, and now sustains plantlike doubles/fakes through luring other pirate crews to his island and feeding the crews to the Lily Carnation. the movie’s ambiguous on a lot of stuff, such as how exactly she works, or if the crew is aware they’re not real or if they know of what their captain is doing (though it seems no). the captain, known simply as the Baron, takes a special glee in leaving only the captain of each crew alive, so that they too can understand the despair of being “completely alone in the vast [ocean]” before asking them if they’d like to die. every single captain, apparently, says yes

i obviously didn’t go with that route, tho i do have an outline for if i went for the true movie plot. if i did, i’d have approached this differently, though there are pieces of that version in this one—the tall crown to hide the sprout on Ren’s head and Martyn’s magic flowers in his hair were meant to mislead anyone who might know the movie to assume the Baron’s stand-in is Ren, as Ren is the leader/‘captain,’ rather than Martyn

i picked Martyn for the Baron instead of Ren because, honestly, i wasn’t sure if Ren would have the stomach for killing so many innocents to bring his kingdom back. Ren has bloodlust, sure, especially on red, but he tends to have a strong moral backing about it. especially in third life. Martyn is… not always so ethically rigid

all the actual movie plot aside, for this i went more for the days after ‘revival,’ from the pov of one of the ‘revived’—which reminds me, actually!

my personal favorite fact abt this fic is Ren isn’t actually in it. the only third life character actually in this is martyn. ren is dead. the character called Ren in this is a double. he’s not real. he doesn’t know that, but he’s literally just a plant. like, legit—once the baron is beat in the movie, his entire crew turns into human-height saplings. they’re fake. ship of theseus’d rendog.

…my dumbest/funniest minor detail i used to imply the fact this isn’t ren: the lilies in Martyn’s hair don’t bother Ren despite the fact he mentions them being toxic to dogs / he’s “allergic” to lilies bc he’s not a dog anymore. he’s a plant

anyway/related, we don’t know much about the Baron’s OG crew, but the fakes seem to be pretty accurate. they help the Baron play games that separate visiting crews, and while they can be tricky or underhanded, they’re not outright evil the way the Baron is. they’re pirates, so they’re not kind, but i don’t get the impression they’re, like, supernaturally evil under the Lily’s influence. they also have a genuine love for the Baron, which he returns, however twisted it’s become. they go with whatever scheme the Baron concocts to defeat the pirates who arrive here bc they’re deeply loyal to him, but there’s none of his sadism. they’re also not involved in the direct killing/feeding, and i sort of get the impression the Baron doesn’t tell them about it, but that’s a bit headcanon territory

all this to say: while this isn’t Ren, the Lily hasn’t changed him. he’s preserved exactly as the original was.

this is, relatedly, the reason Martyn’s little magical mood flowers never change from the white lilies—it’s got nothing to do with the Lily at all. he’s grieving, his king/partner is dead, and he’s not addressing it. he’s constantly looking at ‘Ren’ and seeing what he knows he’s lost. this whole fic Martyn is refusing to address or process or heal from his grief, and thus, the funerary flowers stay

speaking of Martyn’s lilies, i want everyone to know the Lily Carnation looks like this:

she’s not even a lily. she’s adorable. she’s got a little bib for eating people. i love her

(she also has two other forms which i will lightly call ‘kind of uncanny’ and ‘deeply disgusting’ but we won’t worry about those, esp bc there was no way to easily fit either in this fic) (more on that in a minute tho)

related, if you noticed, i did specify that Martyn, in the Ren ‘revival’ scene, had not only white lilies, but yellow and red lilies as well to match her! also bc yellow and red lilies mean loyalty/new beginnings and love/passion, respectively (if i remember right), which was fun.

there’s also a few more little details that you might notice if you know the movie which i had a lot of fun including but couldn’t bring up.

the simplest is the big “life after life after life” paragraph is a loose reference to the really repetitive first line of the movie, the Baron’s call for “if you are a pirate among pirates among pirates amount pirates…” as a way to ask for the best of the best to come take on his island challenges (and be torn apart).

it also visually mimics (and, i hope, emotionally evokes) one of my favroite visuals of the movie, the reveal of the Dozens of graves hidden on the island. which is a fact i didn’t even notice till Haunted pointed it out lmfao. couldn’t find an image of that online, but here’s two screenshots of a scene taking place in and showing a very small section of the graveyard

(we don’t get to know if these graves are for the crew or the baron’s victims, though considering how large it spans in every direction from this point, i would imagine the latter. which is… as fascinating as it is horrifying. who is making them? the baron? why? i love this graveyard)

another example: the fakes can’t directly think about the fact they’re dead or else they start to wither rapidly. like, within seconds they dry out and collapse if made to think about their death by an outside force (and can only be brought back to full health by the Lily being fed). i couldn’t have Ren do this on screen in a scene in his own POV, so i compromised by having him start feeling sick if he poked at that particular mental wound too much. Martyn can tell he’s dwelling on it bc he starts literally wilting and steers him away

(the crew members don’t have death wounds in the movie but i think they’re cool so. now they have them)

it didn’t get to come up at all, but the Lily on Martyn’s shoulder isn’t her main body, and the actual thing is this… massive black tube with a flat face. (gonna include some images, so and i’m gonna say maybe? trypo warning for the second image)

here’s the Actual Lily from far away and an image of a few people stuck in her… mouth? people drop on the face and are absorbed alive. just so you can get a sense of how big she is and what she does

or, here’s the Lily form i called “kind of uncanny”

unauthorized fucking thing.

didn’t have any way to include that in Ren pov tho, uh, this is what happens to everyone Martyn leads away. i was going to have something about Martyn disappearing to some barren hill off to the side of the island on occasion, to go to the Lily’s true body, but i thought it would be too confusing to add this without explaining why it was there. sometimes you have to cut accuracy for coherency, it happens. besides, it’s not like the Lily can’t eat from her little body… but for that, i’ll just. say that the little bits of body horror i included were on par for the movie

hmm. one last thing i want known if my favorite line of the fic was this:

this was originally written to go in the first scene, but i moved it to the last one to delay immediate blame on Martyn (lingering desire from the ‘full movie’ plan). the Hand severed from his heart was threefold—Martyn loses the person he loves most, yes, but a literal hand cannot function or exist if the heart of its body is destroyed. also, Martyn loses his heart in that he loses the part of him that would care what he’s doing is wrong

also, the second to last paragraph:

the ‘terrible terrible thing’ is a Ren quote from the execution, in which he tells Martyn he’s going to ask him to do ‘a terrible terrible thing.’ so obviously i had to twist his words here for something he would never ask of Martyn

my final note about this fic is The Real Actual Person Martyn keeps up with One Piece, and he’s tweeted abt watching other One Piece movies, which means there’s a nonzero chance this man could read this and understand it, which horrifies me

[isagrimorie]

Watched NCIS Hawai’i 2x09 and really enjoyed it!

One of the consequences I discovered without Lucy in the office the main NCIS team becomes a boys club.

Lucy brings in Whistler’s presence, otherwise we only see Whistler in an official FBI capacity, and Commander Chase is only around when there’s a body.

Also, Jane has to be on the field more, she’s my favorite character in NCIS Hawai’i but it also always bring in the problem that the Captain of the ship shouldn’t leave the ship on missions. Jane Tennant is the Special Agent in Charge of Hawai’i and the entire Pacific Rim.

She is the Leon Vance of her area!

She is kinda like Sisko of Deep Space Nine.

(In fact, I would love, LOVE a day in the life of Tennant’s life as SAC, kind of a mix of West Wing with some procedural stuff. Seeing Tennant do stuff other than the criminal investigation stuff. I know this would be a story specific only to me, and might never happen.

Although, from what I’ve seen Pride in NOLA got investigated a lot and butted heads with Deputy Directors. Not that I want Tennant to be investigated, I would just love to see what Tennant does aside from the criminal investigation stuff).

Anyway, back to episode 2x09, I really enjoyed this episode. I loved the focus on Commander Chase and how competent she is, and very kind.

The way she was a doctor in the front lines and became a medical examiner instead.

It’s honestly such a kind thing to watch them treat an addict with care after they realized he was being set up.

It’s a change from other procedurals (and tbh IRL).

But also I love Ernie and Chase’s friendship. It’s so genuine and warm, and he really was concerned for her. Probably because the actors are married in real life.

I love how warm the Hawai’i team is.

I love seeing different iterations of the team dynamic.

[byneddiedingo]

Lillian Gish in The White Sister (Henry King, 1923)

Cast: Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman, Gail Kane, J. Barney Sherry, Charles Lane, Juliette La Violette, Gustavo Serena. Screenplay: George V. Hobart, Charles E. Whittaker; titles: Will M. Ritchey, Don Bartlett; based on a novel by Frances Marion Crawford and a play by Crawford and Walter C. Hackett. Cinematography: Roy F. Overbaugh. Art direction: Robert M. Haas. Film editing: Duncan Mansfield.

Henry King was a director of solid competence whose career extended from 1915 to 1962, amassing credits on IMDb for directing 116 films. Even so, his movies are not particularly memorable. Who, today, seeks out The Song of Bernadette (1943) or Wilson (1944), two of the "prestige" films he directed for 20th Century-Fox? In his great auteurist survey The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968, the best Andrew Sarris has to say about the movies directed by King is that they display a "plodding intensity." King was, in Sarris's words, "turgid and rhetorical in his narrative style," and that certainly holds true for The White Sister. Lillian Gish had a great rapport with the camera, able to suggest an entire range of emotions with her eyes alone -- hence the many close-ups she is given in her films. But King, filming on location in Italy and Algeria, is more interested in the settings than in the people inhabiting them. (Roy Overbaugh's cinematography is one of the film's virtues.) Nor does he seem interested in moving the story along, dragging it out to a wearisome 143 minutes. When Prince Chiaromonte (Charles Lane), the father of Angela (Gish) and her wicked half-sister, the Marchesa di Mola (Gail Kane), goes out fox-hunting, we're pretty sure that disaster is about to happen. But King stretches out the hunt so long that when Chiaromonte is killed the accident has no great emotional impact. And when Angela takes her vows as a nun, effectively preventing her from marrying Captain Severini (Ronald Colman), the man she loves but thinks is dead, King gives us every moment of the ceremony, trying to generate suspense by occasional cuts to Severini's ship steaming homeward. There's also an erupting volcano at the picture's end, but King fails to stage or cut it for real suspense. Gish is fine as always, though she's not called on to do much but look pious and to go cataleptic when Angela receives the news of Severini's supposed death. Colman is handsome but not much else, and Kane's villainy seems to be signaled by her talking out of the side of her mouth, as if channeling Dick Cheney many years in advance.

[mariacallous]

so Tesla's stock has been going down and down and down some more and we may see under 100 dollars a share by New Years

I just have to wonder a few things, 1) Tesla is a publicly traded company and Musk owns not a very big share of it (13.4% after his sell offs) when (if ever) will other stockholders coup him out of of the CEO chair? I mean from my outsider view it seems very clear to me any ways that the only hope to save the ship is to throw out the captain (idk if it can be saved given how tied to his image it is, but..)

2) with so much of the twitter debt backed by Tesla stock, and that stock having dropped dramatically and trending down with it's CEO clearly having no answers, blaming everything other than himself, and spends all his time making it worse by damaging his own image and brand, so like what happens to the debt backed up on that stock?

I mean, if the board continues to just go along or not question Musk, the shareholders can either pressure the board or replace the board and replace the CEO (the CEO is hired by and answers to the board of directors, who are chosen by and answerable to the shareholders). And with prominent Tesla shareholders like Leo KoGuan starting to get more vocal about their displeasure and with Musk selling more of his shares, it could get to that point real fast. Cue the retired janitors of idaho.

The $6billion or so Tesla-secured margin loan (meaning that he pledged $6billion of Tesla securities - either equity such as stock, or debt like a bond or CD - that he already owned as part of his investments or issued by the company) that was part of the Twitter financing (account for something like 13% of the overall amount) only really becomes an issue if the lender or whomever is holding that $6billion either gets worried that the value will drop or is dropping and that there's not enough to match or maintain that amount and therefore either Musk or Tesla or whomever has to put more money in to prevent a loss or the lender sells/liquidates those securities/that loan. The lender can do a margin/maintenance call at any time without warning and can sell those securities at any time without warning. And there's the potential for tax liabilities on Musk or Tesla's part as well as further financial instability for Twitter. However that would really only be an issue if the value of those securities falls below $6billion and/or if Musk/Tesla can't inject enough cash or equity to maintain that $6billion, and since Tesla is still in the hundreds of billions value-wise, barring some serious and drastic change, it probably won't be an issue. What *would* be an issue is Musk and/or Tesla having to continue to maintain that margin loan, which would suck more money/finances away from them. And wherever that margin loan is located, Musk/Tesla are stuck with that broker or investment firm unless and until they pay off that loan. The real issue is the $13billion in loans/debt that Musk took out to buy Twitter - that's what doubled the debt obligations of the company to $1billion a year and $3billion of which is unsecured (meaning there's nothing backing it or committed to it in value). At one point earlier this month the banks holding that $13billion were thinking of replacing that unsecured portion with more Tesla-secured margin loans (which would lower the debt payments Twitter has to make, and also puts more equity and value into the loans and financing). Adding more Tesla-backed securities as loan collateral increases the risks I mentioned earlier, and the value of the Twitter loans are both volatile but decreasing, which means that there's both potentially pressure on the banks to sell those loans in a market with lowered investor interest in buying them (because similar kinds of loans for similar companies resulted in serious losses for investors and banks earlier this year) or face more losses with holding onto those loans and that debt.