#and just constantly thinking about work and what its going to be like in september

[kiras-monkey-bum-face]

besties who work in primary education how do you switch off because we are in the 3rd week of summer and I am still getting stress dreams

[storm-angel989]

Idea: Val's Teenage Daughter is at school and she is crushing some boy from her class (or something like that) and HE LIKES HER TOO and gives her a flower, and later on Val (or her uncle's, I don't know) found the flower hidden in her backpack, because she was embarrassed of telling them (or scared of their reaction, whatever your think is best)

Hi friend, 

Sure thing! Take a peek below! This was super cute to write!

<3 Mandy

Ninth grade dances were going to be the bane of my existence. 

As I looked around at the kids I had known most of my life, I tried to imagine dancing with any of them. I couldn’t really- I had known the others way too long, and had way too many memories stemming back to kindergarten for me to see any of them as anything other than a sibling like friendship. 

Except for one. 

He had moved to our school from the greed ring at the start of the school year. Quiet, handsome with dark hair and brown eyes. The first time I looked at him I felt a feeling in my belly I had never felt before. 

“Oh, someone has a crush,” my best friend teased me when I told her as we got ready for afterschool practice. 

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied as I pulled on my swimsuit. “But it doesn’t matter. Did you see the other girls in class? He literally can pick anyone and they’d swoon.”

My best friend rolled her eyes. “Yeah, not anyone. But come on, we’re going to be late and I don’t want to swim extra laps because you’re crushing, hard.”

As the weeks passed, I found myself seated next to him in more than one class. We exchanged a few words, passing remarks about assignments. At lunch he sat with the rest of the boys, and during study hall, he sat in the front row, his pencil constantly moving across blank paper. By mid September, curiosity finally got the better of me and I asked him what he was so busy working on.

Sketching was the answer. Pages and pages of drawings, detailed outlines of objects and characters from his favorite shows. 

“These are really good,” I praised him. 

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right, you’re just saying that.”

“No, really, I would know. My Aunt Velvette is an artist,” I told him. “She designs clothes, and she draws on literally everything. One time, she left her sketchbook in the office and she made my Uncle Vox turn around and go back to get it. We missed our flight. My dad was super pissed.”

That elicited a laugh. From that point on, he made it a point to sit by me, to share his sketches in between classes. And the more we talked, the bigger my crush grew. As the halloween dance grew closer, I imagined that there was one way I was going- and that was as his date. 

Two weeks before the dance, he presented me with a red rose. Standing next to my locker at the end of the day, I flushed bright red. Was this really happening? 

“I get it if you think dances are lame, but you didn’t say you had a date, so I was wondering if you’d be mine?” He asked. “Or if you do think its lame, we can go get pizza or something instead?”

“How about the dance and then pizza?” I suggested as I took the rose from him. 

“It’s a date,” he agreed. 

Joy overflowed from my chest. The bell rang and we both took off towards our respective rides- him to his bus, and mine to the limo. I slid into the seat, staring at the ruby red petals. I had a date. Not only a date, but the date! 

“Did you have a good day?” The driver asked.

My stomach dropped as realization flooded through me. I had a date. That meant I needed to tell my Dad. And my mom. And my Aunt Velvette and Uncle Vox. The notorious V’s. Hastily, I shoved the rose in my backpack and pulled out a book. 

“It was fine, thanks for asking,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. 

As soon as I got inside, I hurried up to my Uncle Vox’s office. As carefully as I could, I took out my homework, being sure to keep the rose hidden. Thankfully, my Uncle Vox was too busy working on his computer to say more than hello and I busied myself in my homework. As soon as I finished, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and rushed back downstairs. I knew I couldn’t risk them finding the flower. It would have to stay in my backpack until I could put it in my locker the next day at school. 

The more I thought about it, the more I cheered up. In fact, I wouldn’t even tell them I had a date to the dance! I would just say I was going with friends. This way, I could avoid all the questions I knew my family would have. In relief, I hung my backpack on the door. 

“So, did anything exciting happen today in school?” My Aunt Velvette asked over dinner.

I felt the color rise in my cheeks. Quickly, I shook my head and shoved a bite of chicken into my mouth. 

“Really?” my Dad asked.

I quickly lifted up my water glass and took a sip. I shook my head again.

“Oh, well. I got a note from your teacher today saying you have a test that needs to be signed? You’re not doing so well in math?” My father asked with his eyebrow raised. “Did you have Uncle Vox sign it?”

“I didn’t sign anything,” Uncle Vox said as he took a sip of water.

“Oh, I, uh, yeah, I forgot about that,” I said quickly. “I’m sorry, I just…it’s really hard this year.” Or the head that I stared at was super cute. 

Valentino exchanged a glance with Vox and Velvette. 

“I’ll take a look at it,” Vox said. “Not a problem, math gets a little more complex in high school, nothing I can’t walk you through.” He stood up and dropped his empty plate in the sink. 

I watched as he walked over towards where my backpack hung. 

“No, wait, Uncle Vox! I can get it out,” I said quickly as I jumped up. 

“Why? Something in here you don’t want me to see?” He teased as he dug around in my bag, “I promise you a few bad grades won’t kill your GPA. What color is your math book again? Yellow?” He paused, “now where did this come from?” 

I felt my heart sink and my cheeks flush as he pulled out the crumpled rose. Vox looked to Valentino and Velvette. 

“Okay, fine. I sort of got asked to the dance, I wasn’t gonna tell you, but I..” I blurted out. I turned to run and hide in my bedroom but Uncle Vox stepped in front of me.

“You have a date? To a dance? And you wern’t going to tell us?” Aunt Velvette exclaimed. “Reader!”

I buried my face in my hands as embarrassment rushed through me. 

“Why not?” My fathers calm voice broke through the silence. 

“Because, I didn’t want him to be interrogated and I really like him!” I exclaimed in frustration. “You three are the most powerful overlords in hell, it isn’t like he can just come to the door and pick me up like my friend’s dates do. You’re gonna want to meet him, and that alone is intimidating and I…it isn’t fair!” 

“You are taking this way too far,” my Aunt Velvette said. “And being super dramatic. Take a breath.”

“Yeah, we won’t threaten to kill him more than once,” my Uncle Vox said lightly.

“Don’t tease Vox,” Aunt Velvette retorted. “Babygirl, come sit next to me.” 

Slowly, with my gaze down, I sank into the chair next to Aunt Velvette. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder. 

“Hey, you can always come to me. We might be the overlords of hell, but I promise you I’ll keep the boys in line,” she told me with a sharp look to Valentino. “And I promise when he comes and picks you up, we’ll be on our best behavior. Right, boys? You don’t ever need to keep secrets from us. Got it?”

Slowly, I nodded. She released me and planted a kiss on the top of my head. 

“Good. Now, let’s talk about that math test…”

[windydrawallday]

You know what? I'll announce what I was meant to say for almost a week! I'll write this on the go so, it will probably be long:

Do you see all of that in those two pics? Those are ALL TF WIPs I hoarded between other dozens since 2022 (plus some almost finished and/or on the pipeline of being finished).

Well, having them constantly lingering in my present 2024 folder made it easy to grab and work on them on an almost daily-weekly basis...

... but it pushed aside my other personal projects that ended up in a secondary WIP folder that I barely touched since I fell into this robot hell.

Not a bad thing! This was fun, but after this year's mixture of creative exhaustion I'm facing, I want to slow down a bit my focus on TF art.

I will still work on the WIPs related to my pals @sug4r-melon , @goobygnarp, and @lovestruckmousey 's designs for our shared TF AUs.

(And probably some low-key simple projects like doing tiny vehicle mode icons of the TFA cast like how I did with the RB cast for a zine. I was thinking too about making plush-toy icons of my favs because I can).

(I already set up a sideblog to save a great part of my TF art, especially the Lockdown/Prowl ones but for now, I'll leave it all private. I won't purge my fanart but I prefer to be safe).

But the rest? If it's not in the final stage and/or scheduled already (I have one dated since the past year to be posted in September so, that still stands) the WIP/artwork will be canned on a folder apart until I can have the motivation to work again on them.

The other reason for this slowdown is... I'm currently in two Zines. One for TFs (that I feel super honored to be part of) and another with OCs.

I had quite a bumpy ride at the beginning of this year, trying to postulate to zines not centered around TFs because I really want to branch my art and expose my original stuff so...

Nailing that OC zine feels like a big VICTORY! And I hope to expand more because gosh darn: no one but ME can draw my OCs!

And I miss my critters... I didn't participate in Artfight because of zero updated refs. I really want to change that next year!

Yup... a long read. But I hope my point is understandable and I'm not sounding like a quitter or something sjfhdkjshfsdjfh

Thanks for the patience and know if any of ya still enjoy my TF work: there's quite a bulk on the #ifellinrobothellagain tag x) Many didn't get as much traction on its day so, they will always be there to poke and revisit 💖

And is not like you'll never see certain faces again: for me, nothing is lost... just transforms and takes new shapes and names.

[sheinsidemymindvro]

could you explain this entire situation because im only catching bits and pieces of it

im rlly confused :/

hey, so elusin is a woman aged 26. she makes music. at the start of september last year i followed her on ig. i didn't know it yet but she is psychic and by looking at a photo of me she used her ability to connect with my brain and she can see my vision, hear my thoughts and because psychics are in ones consciousness they can also manipulate electrical currents that we use to move around (how we function) they can send pulses to your body's muscles like an electrical massage machine and make the muscles tense. they use this to annoy me and to do things like give me headaches, and constipate me. elusin is a person that acts like she is nice but is a horrible ugly person and im not the first to be the victim of her and her sister and friends psychic attacks. my blog is made to bring awareness to my experience and to out her for what she is. ive decided that i will tell people around me about what ive learnt about psychic abilities. let me know if you wanna know more about other things ive learnt, when i followed her at the time i was a listener of her music and just started to learn how to make music. it has been a year since. for the first six months she kept silent on abusing me through non verbal abilities such as stopping me from sleeping, mimicking my voice to manipulate me into thinking her whispers were my thoughts. making my body tense to try and trick my brain into thinking its anxious. after six months of that she and her companion psychics went into full psychic attack, and i get all the abuse plus i have constant verbal attacks as long as I'm awake. elusin is obsessed with trying to destroy my mental health and has changed her sleep schedule to my own. she is in norway and i am in new zealand. she is a neet who receives money from her parents and lives in one of their spare houses. that is how she is able to do this to me regarding time. my music is what has kept her around for so long. she wants to copy it, but i have made it very difficult for her by raising awareness of what she is doing to me on the internet to leave records, aswell as posting demo versions of songs. I'm only a beginner and she has been making music for ten years. it sucks that my creative journey is starting like this but i have decided to stop making music until she leaves me alone so that she has nothing to gain by remaining in my mind. i have stopped completely for the last two or three months and am just waiting this out. she constantly taunts me with immature mockery and the easiest way to describe her is that she is 26 and is extremely stupid. what has stopped me from having my mental health damaged from this is realising she is an idiot. she revealed to me her identity because she thought i wouldn't talk about it. i deal with a 12 year old in a 26 year olds body is the shortest i could put it. I'm doing ok now, i've learnt to ignore her and the worst she does to me is keep me up night so that I'm tired at work. I'm staying strong and positive and focusing on other areas of my life right now. thank you for asking me about it, i'm here to share my story and what i've learnt about human psychic abilities. it sucks that she decided to use her ability to try and break people and make their lives worse. i know there must be a lot of psychics out there, and they aren't going to be like her. the things i describe are very real and if a psychic would read them they might be interested and check it out. once they connect to your consciousness, they feel your being as if they are you, and when that happens they know your thoughts as you think. which isn't so bad. when that happens they have access to also your memories and can look through them, its like how you are able to think about your own memories and know them. this means other psychics will become aware of what she is and what she has done. I feel like if there are any other idiot psychics going on psychic attack sprees for years, people are going to become aware that psychics exist, i hope to make a place where other people that have gone through similar experiences can talk.

[ekslibris]

i feel so isolated from other people especially people my own age im slowly going insane. my friends and peers are still going to uni or slowly finishing it and starting good jobs and i just.. i have nothing to offer. and i dont want to complain to my friends because its embarrassing and im embarassed but regardless even when i do complain to them they just try to relate and talk about their problems and i get it but at the same time i get so annoyed because well at least you got a degree and a job that may open things to you in the future. and i still have nothing to offer. and i dont even have any desire to go back to uni and im definitely not paying for it because i dont have any money for that but everyone acts like its a done deal that i will go back because well what can you do with only a high school education. well i dont fucking know? kill myself???? and i dont even hate the job that im doing now because its mostly easy but i cant live on min wage anymore and i have to find something else that i know is going to be much much worse. and im constantly thinking about people working 'bad'/difficult/badly paid jobs and im thinking this will be my entire life everyday. also i keep thinking how even if i somehow make it theres just going to be another person in my place. and my mom is asking well what do you care about other people worry about yourself, but i am 'other people' now? and regardless i dont want others to be in this and have bad shitty jobs but i guess theres always going to be someone being a cashier at mcdonalds but i dont want it to be me or anybody else . and also anytime i work 8-10 hours for more than like 4 days in a row it feels like i cant even do anything else because theres just no time and im really trying and im trying to work out more consistently and run more and cook more organized than i did before and stay on top of things as they need to be done and i even signed up for a dance class but its not even worth it because in the end its just another thing that is costing me money but its just whatever. i always feel tired and apathetic. i dont want to say im depressed but really i dont know what else to do at this point. i dont have any desire to keep doing what im doing and i have nothing to look forward to and im just tired. i wish i could go back to that psychiatrist i was forced to see in high school because she tried to push antidepressants onto me several times and i always declined because i was against that and honestly my stance on that hasnt really changed but at this point well why not try antidepressants if i cant get myself out of it like i managed to get myself out of it back then. and at least i dont have somebody constantly screaming at me everyday now that i moved into a new place in september so thats better now and the roommate situation is the best that can be but still. im constantly just thinking money and time money and time how much money i wil have left if i do this or buy that and how much time i will have left after work and after i do this and that and this and that and how theres always another thing that needs to be done. and i dont want to do any of it and i dont even know why im doing any of it. and obviously im too big of a pussy to actually kill myself or do anything drastic but like ? at one point this will stop because it will because i will stop doing it. and as i said i feel alone and seeing my friends makes it better but we dont have that much time to see eachother because we all have such different schedules. and honestly seeing her this summer also pointed out how i dont feel that much attached to my friends and how i miss real connection and being close to somebody but that is a whole other thing for another time. anyway yay life in your twenties am i right???

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

You Should Watch Wiseguy:

The show that changed the face of television while no one was paying attention

If you've ever watched and enjoyed anything that gets tossed around as “prestige television—”  you know what I’m talking about— long form narratives, high stakes, actors with something to prove— shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc.— you have Wiseguy to thank. While largely forgotten by mainstream audiences (for a variety of reasons, including sheer lack of availability), Wiseguy was one of the first non-soap-opera shows with a fully serialized story— one that expected you to see every episode, in order. When it began airing in September of 1987, really the only other thing on TV like it was Michael Mann’s Crime Story (also worth a watch), and Crime Story would be canceled before Wiseguy even hit its second season.

Writers, actors, and industry types of all kinds cite Wiseguy as a major influence— Vince Gilligan and Tom Schnauz credit watching Wiseguy in the 80’s as why they cast Jonathan Banks as Mike— Chris Carter hired writers from Wiseguy when he started the X-Files— actors like Stanley Tucci made their names on the show— and hell, David Chase wrote an angry letter to the New York Times claiming he was absolutely under no circumstances at all influenced by Wiseguy ever, which feels like the kind of thing you don’t need to write a letter about if it’s true. 

Of course, just because something is influential doesn’t mean it’s good. 

Wiseguy is really damn good.

Much like Miami Vice (and some of the later shows that took influence from Wiseguy), Wiseguy takes the position that there’s very little difference between criminals and the police, and that the justice system is wildly ill-equipped to create justice. Mafia movie blood, with all its inherent moral ambiguity, runs through Wiseguy’s veins, and then after episode nine, it asks you to think about how that blood would pump in a different milieu— corporate espionage and the destabilization of the global south by American capitalists, insular rural politics and the easy rise of small-time dictators, congressional politics and Twelve-Angry-Men-worthy courtroom drama, the music industry and the cutthroat disposal of talented young people. Money and power structures are always suspect, and good-hearted tough guy lead Vinnie is constantly torn between doing his job, doing the right thing, and doing the thing that makes sense to him emotionally.

The show is heartfelt, tense, funny, and above all else, incredibly human. The characters behave irrationally— they self-sabotage, they struggle with moral decisions, they lash out at people they care about— because they’re people, not plot devices. Little things will come back to haunt them, often many episodes later, in believable and sometimes gutting—but rarely shocking— ways. Despite this realism, and a deep sense of cynicism about our institutions, Wiseguy never falls into the trap of wallowing in grim bleakness. The writers and the actors clearly believe in people— it’s a show that says— ‘yeah, the world sucks. So how do we keep going, together?’ The characters are lovable not because they’re all good, but because you feel like you could know them, with realistic flaws and foibles and senses of humor. Sometimes it’s a little silly, and sometimes it’s a little melodramatic— but it works, because sometimes that’s how real life is, too.

Wiseguy is four (well. three and a half) seasons [cross out— and a terrible TV movie that disregards canon], and is notably divided into 4-11 episode arcs within those seasons, and occasional “breather” episodes between arcs. It’s actually a brilliant bit of plotting that I wish more shows would do today— it allows for overarching narratives and real stakes without running into DBZ-like “the next threat has to be BIGGER and MORE DANGEROUS” power level bullshittery that’s common to a lot of long running serialized shows. One of my favorite aspects of this design is that the cast partially rotates every few episodes, but the show still expects you to remember what was going on with the characters from the previous arcs— because they often return later in unexpected and narratively satisfying ways.

The three characters that remain more-or-less consistent throughout the show are Vinnie Terranova, an undercover agent for the Organized Crime Bureau, Frank McPike, his handler, and Dan “Lifeguard” Burroughs, the OCB call-center operator who gives Vinnie field instructions. 

Vinnie Terranova is just on the border of thirty when the series begins, a gregarious kid-from-the-neighborhood, just out of a cover-establishing 18-month stint in prison. He is a bundle of contradictions— quick to fall but slow to trust, a practicing Catholic who chose a job in the field of lying and murder, a 50’s hood irritated by bigotry. Vinnie is both far smarter and more sensitive than anyone gives him credit for, which is both his greatest strength and his fatal flaw— empathetic undercover agents burn out fast. He spends a surprising amount of the series trying and failing to quit his job. He has a marshmallow center, a steel-trap mind, and the general affect of your cousin who dropped out of college to marry his pregnant high school sweetheart. He also has no idea that his type is “angry asshole” and keeps being surprised when he falls for them. 

Frank McPike is a curmudgeon's curmudgeon, a career fed with a chip on his shoulder, a fathoms-deep sense of cynicism, and a collapsing marriage. He and Vinnie begin the series at odds, and as you watch the first few episodes, you're going to seriously struggle to believe me when I say that the affection between Frank and Vinnie becomes the absolute thematic and emotional heart of the series. Frank is also a genuine oddball failing to pose as a tough guy; he makes noises, he lurks in strange costumes, and the words he chooses when he’s irritated beggar normal human understanding.

We don’t get to know Dan as quickly or as deeply as we get to know Vinnie and Frank (in fact, he’s introduced as “Mike”), but he’s the man behind the curtain, a guiding moral and emotional star for Vinnie, a talented musician, and a cheerful face with a lot of anger bubbling just below the surface. He offers life advice even as his own home life is in constant meltdown, and loves both Vinnie and Frank with a fierce, sarcastic weariness. Dan is also an amputee, and his disability is portrayed with respect and without pity— a rarity for television even now, but especially in 1988. 

You’ll absolutely fall in love with these three, but one of the things that makes Wiseguy so special is its fantastic supporting cast. The world is fleshed out and lived in, and you get the distinct sense that all the recurring characters have their own lives we don’t get to see off screen. There’s Carlotta— Vinnie’s mother, as contradictory and sharp as her son, Pete— Vinnie’s brother, a progressive basketball-playing priest, Roger Lococco— a killer-for-hire who refers to every person on the planet as Buckwheat, Rudy Aiuppo— an elderly don with the heart of a trickster spirit, and a whole host of others who enter and exit the narrative throughout the arcs of the show. There are also a whole host of wonderful arc-based characters played by incredible actors, journeymen and and famous alike— including turns from Tim Curry, Debbie Harry, Jerry Lewis, Stanley Tucci, Patti D’Arbanville, Stephen Bauer, and Billy Dee Williams. You can tell everyone involved in the show had a fantastic time working on it, and nearly every actor who comes aboard really puts their whole Wisegussy into it gives it their all.

You notice that as I’ve been speaking, the lights have dimmed slightly, and the strains of an organetto have started to play quietly in the background. A man in a rumpled suit is smoking nearby, though you are fairly certain smoking indoors hasn’t been legal in a number of years. I pass you a plate of espresso and biscotti. 

Let’s talk arcs.

The first arc of the show, known as the Steelgrave arc, is a lot of fans’ favorite arc of the show, and for good reason. Vinnie infiltrates a New Jersey mob organization, and gets very, very close* to this man:

Sonny Steelgrave, human Knife Cat, is a complicated man, and Vinnie has complicated feelings about him. He’s very nearly a co-protagonist to Vinnie in this arc, and the show artfully toes the line between condemning him and making it clear that he’s not always entirely wrong. Vinnie’s goal is to get Sonny into prison and take down the entire family— how and whether he achieves this goal is best left unspoiled. Sonny may not have been the first complicated, likable villain on television, but his arc is intense, heart-wrenching, and splendidly morally grey. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that the Steelgrave arc is the best nine hour mob movie ever aired on television.  

*I’m really not kidding about the closeness. There’s an episode where Sonny announces he’s getting married and literally all the other mobsters are like ‘oh, now I understand why Vinnie has been in a bad mood all day.’ They are as close to canonically in love as a federal agent and a mobster have ever been portrayed on screen.

Lest you get Kevin-Spacey-jumpscared, the following arc unfortunately has Kevin Spacey in it. Thankfully he plays a slimy sister-kissing coked-up hypercapitalist, so it’s fairly easy to just hate his character in the same way you hate the actor and move on with your life. 

This arc, the Profitt arc— in which Vinnie is tasked with taking down a wealthy business mogul who is suspected of drug-and-gun-running— is, for many fans, a close second to the Steelgrave arc. It’s an interesting change of tone and locale, and introduces Roger Lococco, who is a really stellar supporting character. Personally, I rank a bunch of other arcs above Profitt, because no matter how much I like Roger, Mel and Susan are bananas, and they wear out their welcome before they exit the narrative. Regardless, it’s a stylish arc— one that rather  kicks truth, justice, and the American way in the teeth— and Mel’s machinations have serious reverberations later in the show. The Roger subplot is also genuinely excellent, and good old Corey Matthews’ Dad plays him with aplomb.

Back home, after trying to quit his job and failing, Vinnie has to deal with a threat with much smaller, but far more personal stakes. A white supremacy group has moved into his neighborhood and is attempting to recruit working-class Italians to their cause, pitting an older immigrant group against a newer one, pitting Catholics against Jews, and pitting a previously “ethnic” group’s newly acquired “whiteness” against people of color. I have mixed feelings about the Pilgrims of Promise/White Supremacy arc, because it’s truly quite good, and it pulls no punches about the kind of people fascists are and prey on, but it’s also exceptionally fucking upsetting that nothing has changed at all since 1988. Literally you could remake this arc word for word today and a) it would be exactly as believable, and b) your show would be immediately boycotted and canceled for being too “woke.” Great writing, great stakes, great character motivation; so, so uncomfortable to watch.

And then Ken Wahl breaks his leg in real life, and they have to replace him for a few weeks. 

The Garment Trade arc starts off pretty promising— Vinnie meets with the son of a clothing manufacturer, they have great (borderline meet-cute) chemistry, it’s a wonderfully New-York-in-the-80’s kind of storyline, Jerry Lewis is there, and I think it’s the only time I’ve ever seen Sukkot represented on TV— and then Vinnie has to leave for the next four episodes because of Wahl’s broken leg. They rewrote the arc on the fly, and considering that, it’s pretty good. Jerry Lewis is still there, and he gives the serious, dramatic performance of a lifetime, and Stanley Tucci chews scenery as The World’s Slimiest Businessman. We meet Vinnie’s childhood bestie, “Mooch,” whose actor, delightfully, starred beside Ken Wahl in 1979’s The Wanderers. My beautiful and talented wife Joan Chen even shows up for an episode. However, all of this is undercut by the lack of Vinnie; his replacement, a semi-retired agent named Raglin, is… a bit milquetoast. He’s okay, and he’s given some interesting backstory in his final episode, but he’s no Vinnie.

Once again sporting a functional leg, Vinnie returns, and my favorite arc other than Steelgrave follows. 

In the Dead Dog arc, Vinnie has to pose as a music producer, because the OCB traded an airplane for a music label. It’s the dumbest, most fantastic plot device of all time, and brings me incalculable joy. I literally made Dead Dog t-shirts because I love this stupid fake music label owned by a fictional government agency so much. 

The Dead Dog arc sees Vinnie at his happiest (the poor man really, really just wants to quit undercover work and stop being involved with Murder Organizations), and the crime he’s investigating is… wait for it… bootleg CDs. You would think this would be a ridiculously boring premise for an investigation, but the Dead Dog arc has Tim Curry, Debbie Harry, Glenn Frey, and Patty D’Arbanville playing a cadre of unhinged music industry moguls all attempting to stab each other in the back, and it is exactly as chaotic as you would expect based on that cast. This arc also had a bunch of original music produced for it, which is extremely fucking cool, except that then the studio lost the rights to the music it created and this arc became inaccessible and unwatchable except through circulating the tapes, so to speak, of early 90’s TV rips. (The irony is not lost on me that the arc about the Evils of Piracy is the arc that one must pirate.) Miraculously, in the last year, Wiseguy’s rights have been renegotiated, and the newest sets of the show have Dead Dog restored. Accessibility via streaming is still a bit of a mixed bag— the episodes were streaming on Tubi and Youtube briefly, but now appear to have been taken down again.

After his turn as a surprisingly successful music producer, Vinnie returns to his roots: the mob. In the Mob Wars/Trash Wars arc, Vinnie unintentionally becomes the temporary leader of the local mafia commission (I will not spoil how.) The OCB wants to use this as an opportunity to take down the entire organization from the inside out, and Vinnie must deal with mafia backstabbing, pressure from Frank and the OCB, and surprisingly personal stakes. It’s an unspectacular but solid arc that regrounds the series, and the interpersonal aspects of the story— and its examination of fathers and sons and generational inheritance of social rules and expectations— are excellent. The Mafia Wars storyline won’t blow your pants off, but it’s thoughtful and well-executed and reminds us of who Vinnie is and where he came from.

What follows is another of my favorite arcs, referred to as the DC or Counterfeit Yen arc, but perhaps better described as the Mr. Terranova Goes to Washington arc. Vinnie is summoned by the federal government to investigate counterfeiting, and thus unfolds a multinational conspiracy that ties back to the Profitt arc. Much like the White Supremacy arc, this arc is distressingly current— Vinnie is a patsy for a group of corrupt republican senators who want to destabilize the currency of a perceived East Asian economic rival. It’s Yen here, but all you’d need to do to bring this arc into 2023 is swap out references to Japan for China, because the American government has changed very little from the 80’s and has to be awful about some country somewhere or, I don’t know, a bunch of horrible old racist politicians will shit themselves. Vinnie enters talking like Jimmy Stewart, and leaves with one more thing to be crushed and disillusioned about. We get some riveting and stomach-churning courtroom drama, the bad guy turns out to be capitalism all along, and Frank threatens to shoot a Howard Hughes stand-in on a ski lift.

And then somehow we end up in Twin Peaks. The Lynchboro arc predates Twin Peaks by a whopping two months, indicating a total coincidence of premise similarities, but it does take place in a corrupt rural Pacific Northwest town unduly influenced by one large family/company, wherein an outsider has to investigate a tangled conspiracy and deal with strange townsfolk and some spooky happenings. There’s no way either show could’ve plagiarized the other— they were assuredly written and in production at the same time— but it is deeply bizarre. In the Lynchboro arc, Vinnie goes undercover as a local beat cop, and finds himself faced with both a serial killer and a land-rights and building-contracts espionage plot. He also has to deal with Mark Volchek, the ostensible “owner” of the town, and his eccentricity and decreasing grip on reality. Roger returns, and Vinnie must finally confront the enormity of his trauma. One major character is literally brought back from the edge of death by another character’s crushing love for them, expressed via church bells. It doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, but it doesn’t not, either.

And then Ken Wahl quit.

Season Four begins with a deeply depressed, heavily bearded Frank struggling to find the will to live after Vinnie has disappeared. (I don’t think I’m really at risk of spoiling anything serious by saying that we are “supposed” to think Vinnie is permanently gone, but that there are a huge number of blatantly spotlighted contradictions in that story. Wahl left on decent terms, and I firmly believe the Wiseguy staff was expecting to eventually win him back to the show and have his absence turn out to be a ruse. Unfortunately, Wiseguy got cancelled before this could happen.) Frank spends the first (and only complete) arc of this season investigating his partner’s disappearance, eventually working with the supposedly-corrupt DA who helped establish Vinnie’s cover back before Season One. 

It’s not an uncommon opinion to say, ‘hey, just skip S4’— and honestly, if you chose to watch S1-3, you’d have consumed a wonderful story with a reasonably coherent ending. But I don’t actually hate Season Four. The “new Vinnie—” Michael Santana, played by pretty-boy Scarface alum Stephen Bauer— is exceptionally likeable, and he brings with him a new set of characters who are also quite compelling. Furthermore, if you’re a Frank fan, he really gets the spotlight in this season, and if you’re a Frank/Vinnie fan, Vinnie may not be around, but Frank’s despair is really fucking something else. It’s almost worth it just to see him lie to the FBI and tell them he “never crossed the line” of professionalism with Vinnie.

Unfortunately, the next arc sets up something really compelling and unique, but it’s only 3 (unaired on TV) episodes, and ends on a complete cliffhanger, because the show was unceremoniously cancelled. After his niece is shot in the midst of teenage gang violence, Michael teams up with Billy Dee Lando Calrissian Fucking Williams to investigate red-lining and racist underfunding of schools. Oliver Stone shows up in the last like, ten minutes of the last episode?? I would be all over this storyline if it wasn’t just dropped like a moldy tomato, but I guess that’s what fanfiction is for. It’s not how Wiseguy deserved to go out, but hey, it was really aiming for the stars even as the plug got pulled.

Oh, and if anyone tells you there’s a 1996 TV movie, no, there isn’t.* 

(*The movie is so deeply mediocre that it’s worse than any of the controversy surrounding Season Four. It essentially retcons all of S4 and, frankly, really the last few episodes of S3, and presents a bland, uninspired “getting the gang back together” story that retreads thematic materials from the show without saying anything new. Vinnie has apparently been doing wiretapping for 6 years, which is completely at odds with everything we know about his character, and he and Frank are treated as “dinosaurs” that the OCB doesn’t know what to do with, and yet they are also simultaneously the only ones who can take care of a nearly-kidnapped child. It’s rushed, it’s emotionally hollow, the actors are phoning it in, and it ignores all of the character development from the series in a way that renders its plot nearly nonsensical. Furthermore, Ken Wahl had been in a seriously disabling motorcycle accident a few years before, so his apparent discomfort and stiffness throughout the film is because he’s genuinely in significant pain. Don’t watch the movie. You can always write fix-it fic for how Vinnie manages to come back after Season Four. It’s much harder to write fix-it fic for boring character assassination written by the 'due-process-is-for-pussies-and-torture-works' 24 guy.)

One of the other delightful things about Wiseguy is that Vinnie is both a big softie and yet is also saddled with a bizarre sort of erotic smolder, and therefore he has ridiculous chemistry with basically half the cast of the show. Vinnie very much seems a guy like you could say some blandly nice things to and buy him dinner, and you’d wake up, exhausted and satisfied, the next morning to him cooking breakfast. You’d think, wow, this guy is so thoughtful, he must be the one— and then you’d turn your head and he’d have immediately been seduced by the next schmuck down the line. He’s a good boy, but his “acceptable romantic target” sensors are so wildly mistuned as to render him, affectionately, a tragic slut. Will he end up with a mobster? One of a number of widows? His boss? No one knows but god.

Vinnie is also heavily bi-coded— his relationship with Sonny is almost explicitly romantic, he calls out Roger for homophobia (in 1989), one of his old friend asks if the reason he’s not married is because he ‘likes boys,’ and he doesn’t say no, and he has a borderline I-love-you moment with Frank. The boy just wants someone to love him, goddammit. 

I’m also really not kidding about Vinnie and Frank developing into the emotional core of the series. They live together for a period of time. They both imply they can’t live without the other. They go shopping for Dan’s birthday together. They pick up Frank’s ailing father from the nursing home together. Frank picks out Vinnie’s tie.

You pick at the plate of spaghetti that appeared in front of you, unsure of either its provenance or why it came after dessert. It’s the best spaghetti you’ve ever had, and that frightens you, somehow. 

I lean in close to whisper to you about crime. You note that at some point I changed into a pinstriped suit. You don’t remember me changing, or even getting up— you console yourself with the notion that maybe I’d been wearing it from the start, even though you know that isn’t true.

So, the thing about Wiseguy is— well— it’s more available than it used to be. The whole series was recently released on blu-ray, and both that set and the most recent DVD sets actually have every episode, a change from the previous releases. As of August 2023, all of the series except Dead Dog is available, legally, on Youtube. This is a vast improvement from even two or three years ago, when multiple episodes weren’t available through any means but blurry, VHS-tracking-laden downloads of TV rips. 

Unfortunately, the most recent renegotiation of the series home video and streaming rights still failed on the music rights front. Dead Dog has been spared the hammer, but there are still places where the series has gaps. Notably, there’s an episode (Stairway to Heaven) where Frank murders a jukebox, and looks completely fucking insane, because the original (thematically meaningful) music the jukebox was playing was replaced with generic elevator music. Worse, the final episode of the Steelgrave arc (No One Gets Out of Here Alive) is missing two musical cues: in one instance, Sonny himself is singing, in a fit of mania, and the footage has straight up been cut from the episode because they couldn’t get the rights to The Young Rascals’ Good Lovin’.  Equally egregious, The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin, which originally played over nearly a minute of sustained, silent eye contact between Sonny and Vinnie— has been replaced with the Wiseguy opening theme. It renders a scene which should be quite clearly devastating and unsubtly romantic instead utterly awkward and bizarre. It’s hard to demonstrate just how jarring the change is unless you’ve seen the scene, but suffice to say that everyone I know who has seen both versions— in either order— has expressed horror and bafflement at the substitution. 

Which is to say: there’s a couple of episodes of Wiseguy you’re probably going to want to locate those shitty old TV rips of. It’s worth it, even if it seems like it wouldn’t be.

I place my hand over yours. You jump a little. I have a number of large, dark-stoned signet rings, and my hand is strangely cold. 

I make you an offer you can’t refuse.

You’re going to watch Wiseguy. 

[rock-swag-tournament]

i just found this blog but sadly its now the quarterfinals. hyped af for this!!

(im also a rising geo major (freshmen) and was wondering if you had any words of wisdom?)

It is the quarterfinals, but I do still plan to have a rock tournament (no minerals) and another funny rock/mineral/etc tournament which you can submit things to here!

As for words of wisdom...I've had this sitting in my inbox for a couple days and the best I can do is someone else's words. One of my favorite professors has a saying. And this man, I think, is legally considered a dinosaur. That is to say, he got his degree before plate tectonics became the widely accepted theory. Anyway, he would constantly tell us "You're only as good a geologist as the amount of geology you've seen."

Rocks are WEIRD. But the more weird shit you've seen, the better you are at identifying (or at least coming up with a hypothesis about) weird shit in the future.

And I used to be like "I can never be a good geologist because I have not seen that much geology. I can't afford to travel the world, or even the country, to see more geology!"

The good news is, you don't have to travel the world to see more geology. Chances are, there are some weird and cool rocks where you are. Or at least pretty close by. Museums, parks, outcrops on the side of the road, stream beds, field trips, university hand samples, etc are all ways to see more geology.

This professor had a couple other mantras and things, some of which were his and some he borrowed. "All models are wrong but some are useful" (George Box) and "No rock is accidental" (which may be original) but I wont get into those unless anyone is dying to hear more geology philosophy.

My own advice would be 1) Have fun. It's so dumb and cliché, but it's true. In particular, field trips were some of the most fun I've ever had. Even when I was wet and/or cold and/or miserable and/or exhausted (and/or a bit hungover), they're a good time. You get to see real rocks (that sometimes aren't accessible to the general public)! Stand on the edge of highways (and sometimes people stop and ask what you're doing)! Go inside caves or ford streams to see rocks if you're extra lucky!

Also, I haven't met a geology major who stayed with the major who didn't like it. I mean there were times that I was in the basement of the geology building at midnight like, "I have to memorize the names of 155+ rocks for a test tomorrow and I am going to fail why did I ever do this?" but I passed those tests, and there was always at least one other girl in my class who would show up and put on Studio Ghibli lo-fi and we'd study together.

It isn't all fun field/lab work and licking rocks. There is a lot more math and chemistry and physics (and even biology) than most people might anticipate. But it's all more than manageable. And it's COOL to see those fields interacting. So if you hate every second of it, something ain't right!

Which leads me to 2) It's okay if the plans change. When I showed up to campus as a freshman, I was CERTAIN that being an archaeologist was my calling.

I changed my major before the end of September.

Now, I was taking both geology and archaeology classes that first semester. I intended to get a minor in geology or maybe even double major. But I switched to a geology major with an anthropology minor (and a few other minors thrown in for fun). And the best part was, I was able to do both! My capstone project was using geophysics for archaeological investigation!

So, words of wisdom: See all the rocks you can. Love the rocks. Have fun with it! I don't know any other majors at my school that had field trips! I went to museums, outcrops in the middle of nowhere, and National Parks (and Greece for my research) for FREE. I got to play with rocks and acid and big machines and draw pictures and color stuff (the stuff I was coloring was a completely incorrect cross section of the local geology, but still).

And if all that ends up NOT being what you wanted, change your mind, but try and keep your love of rocks. You can always get a minor!

Obviously I hope it is what you want and it stays what you want! I want every person I meet to LOVE geology. So even when you are confused and there's too much shit to memorize and you want to change your major, see if you can't find some of the really fun shit about this amazing field.

Also, if you get the chance to use a rock saw, fucking take it.

[hershelchocolate]

How about one OC for each month of the year 😏 If that's too many, just the months with major holidays!

Oh I'm doing all of em babey

January:

(Art+design by hotchocolategalaxy on toyhouse)

Glace! The prince of the Winter Kingdom, constantly using the kingdom's resources to search for his parents, who had been lost in a blizzard. He keeps his head up though, and is a beacon for others who are also grieving the loss of their rulers

February:

(Art+designs by @arcaneyouth !)

Cabriel (blue) and Darciel (pink)! You get two for this one because You Cannot Separate Them. Not only were they from a valentine's themed adoptable set but they are also the gods of love who gained the title through how pure and wonderful their love for each other is. They would literally tear apart the universe to protect each other

March:

March makes me think of plants, and plants make me think of Raven! The leader of the mind control monsters, who uses vines/seeds/plants as their method of control. Very stoic and hardly ever shows emotion, but actions speak louder than words and sometimes they fuck with people for fun and it's awesome. In some sort of genderqueer toxic relationship that's lasted centuries that even I don't know all the details of and will refuse any knowledge of it if asked

April:

(Art+design by minuhime on toyhouse!)

April! Yes yes it's her name but she's also a cute bunny! She went with all her friends on a school field trip and had such a wonderful time until monsters started attacking and she was one of the first to be transformed into a creature representing her deepest fears. She was simply too sweet and soft and absolutely refused to believe she was in a horrored game

May:

(Art+design by @arcaneyouth !)

SURPRISEEE ITS EYUMIE AGAIN! She makes me think of May because that was one of the months where I was making my Junior Film starring her! Springtime always makes me think of her because of this tbh alshfgskg

June:

Daniel and Jade Hillston! Daniel is the main character of the murder mystery story that doesn't have a name yet, working hard to find the killer so he can free Jade, his daughter, who has been arrested for the crime. He knows she wouldn't do it. She would never. It HAD to be someone else. But he's always worried that person might be himself. I did a lot of the development for this story in summer and that's the time of year it takes place in so it always makes me think of it c:

July:

(Art+design by @arcaneyouth !)

Jubilee! They teleport using fireworks and are a minor deity in the Locked Love universe! Not sure what they do yet but they're definitely besties with Mirri and Ulrick. Treats checking in with them like a trip to their grandparents house

August:

(Art+design by @arcaneyouth !)

Aurelius! The final boss of a metroidvania-type game I started developing after playing Hollow Knight in the summer. They have taken on the role of antagonist simply because they didn't think the previous main antagonist was doing a good enough job to earn the role. They are dedicated to the theatrics, but always holds back when actually fighting. What kind of story would it be if the hero dies?

September:

This guy needs a name if anyone has any suggestions! One of the few humans in The Hallowed who is dedicating his time to trying to figure out what the FUCK is going on in this town. Makes me think of early fall where things are cold and chilly and just a little rainy but the trees still have leaves and there's a mist in the air. Thats his gender tbh

I'm gonna continue this in a reblog in hopes of being able to add the last two images give me just a moment

[yutopia-eleftheria]

Shehroz Peony Rose & Ewan Draggoun Headcanons

I decided to do some sketches, and at the same time headcanons for them, since it was Shehroz's birthday on September 26th in my AU. Also Ewan is my cousin and it is his Pokémon Sword OC (and his birthday is on September 25th), and when the game came out, we created some scenarios with his OC and the chairman.7 (and we had so much fun doing it !)♥

Almost 5 years after the game's release, I finally decided to draw some of the moments and talk about the story we created, in the form of headcanons.

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

Some sketches :

From painful and sad to funny sketches ! (Yeah we had all kinds of stories and emotions in this)

Sketch 1 :

When Ethernatos (Eternatus) broke out from his shell, it actually created some sort of slight explosions of its "needles", and Shehroz was actually hit by 3 of them, but he didn't notice as it doesn't hurt instantly.

He turned himself in after the whole incident, and he got to jail literally for a day, as he was charged for doing works for Galar, just like Liv Oleana.

3 days after the incident, when he was heading back to Rose Tower alongside the young man to see about the infamous battle tower led by Tarak Landon (Leon), Shehroz felt dizzy and suddenly collapsed.

That's where they noticed the poisonous needles on his body. They had to act quickly otherwise that would led him to his demise.

Ewan managed to take them all out with the help of Tarak and Sonya, but it was more and more painful as each was taken away. Which is why he was bleeding a little from his mouth and nose.

Sketch 2 :

He stayed unconscious for a few days and was constantly checked by everyone. Ewan eventually told Liv about what happened (and Shehroz was like : "Why did you tell her ?..." when he was awake.)

Oh ! And also : he doesn't remember anything about what happened as a side effect.

Even though his "coma state" only lasted a few days, he was still too weak to do anything, so he had to stay in bed for around 2 more weeks before fully healing.

Such a thing happening all of a sudden made Ewan realized that he needs to live his life to its fullest, because you never know when you could possibly leave this World...

Shehroz is so thankful to Ewan that he is like giving him everything he can, and helps him out with everything.

Sketch 3 :

Their relationship is getting better and better as time goes by. And Ewan is actually protective over Shehroz as well.

Ewan became a member of Macro Cosmos. He is considered the third biggest figure of the brand.

Sometimes it's Ewan that accompanies Shehroz around, so someone could stay at the tower to work. He and Liv exchanged their places from time to time.

Ewan is not afraid to be rude if someone insults Shehroz (as you can see above).

Sketch 4 :

As much as Ewan cares about Shehroz and is usually gentle to him, he also LOVES to tease him.

He likes to tell jokes to him, teasing, as well as trying to scare him from behind.

Yeah he is dressed all classy and all (he followed Shehroz's dress code I guess), but he is a prankster to his boss.

Sketch 5 :

Ewan knows very well that Shehroz and Liv love each other.

He fully supports them and even wants them to confess already ! (as they already lost enough time and moments together in his opinion).

His mission ends up being a success as they will become official.

Ewan actually has a huge crush on Sonya, but is too afraid to confess.

Shehroz tries his best to convince Ewan to just go ahead as she is very close to Tarak.

Unfortunately for him, Ewan took too much time and lost her, as she is now officially with Tarak.

He is still very happy for his boss nonetheless, but still very bitter that Sonya is with Tarak.

He tries to comfort himself by looking at pictures of her (see above), but Shehroz doesn't think that it's a good idea to cope.

Eternal Rose :

At some point, Ethernatos' power suddenly triggered out of nowhere and Shehroz lost control and became agressive. The first sign was his eyes turning bright pink.

Ewan had to fight for his life that time. Quickly realizing that, he took out his coat and fought back.

Shehroz managed to take him down and was about to finish him off (as seen above), but Liv had to act otherwise Ewan would have been dead, and Liv didn't wanted Shehroz to have blood on his hands on top of that (although he would not remember it).

This act allows Ewan to subdue Shehroz and calm down Ethernatos's fury until the transformation was off.

Thanks to that, Shehroz will not transform randomly for no reason, however, when he is VERY angry, it's gonna take over.

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

BONUS !

Old Sketches I did before having my tablet (2020) :

Back when I was still able to use pens and markers well ...

Sketch 1 :

As mentioned before, Ewan LOVES to tease his boss. When he asks if he was over 40, he answered no (he's 37 in my Headcanon).

Despite this fact being true, Ewan calls him an "old 40 years old man".

Shehroz doesn't like that at all, and he keeps telling him how he would then call older people like Kabu, Sally Opal or Mustar.

Sketch 2 :

If Shehroz is angry, Ethernatos will start to appear slowly, starting with the eyes.

He will also grow sharp teeth as well.

After what happened the first time, Ewan is very cautious.

If he sees Shehroz starting to turn, he will calm down because otherwise, this could end badly for the young man.

If Ewan tease Shehroz, Shehroz will tease him back.

The best example was Sonya, and boy does he love seeing him angry.

He founds it funny (unlike Liv who is terrifying).

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

So yeah ; those 2 can be REALLY silly and we had a lot of fun creating these stories back then. Love you cousin ♥ (How are you 16 already ?!...)

[alln64games]

Body Harvest

PAL release: 30th September 1998

NA release: 20th October 1998

JP release: N/A

Developer: DMA Design

Publisher: Gremlin (PAL), Midway (NA)

N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Body Harvest was originally going to be a large collaboration between DMA Design and Nintendo, but Nintendo ended up pulling out, leaving DMA to work it all out on their own. Despite this, DMA turned out something impressive in size and scope.

This game was the birth of the current open world modern-day open world games – many people associate it with GTA 3 on PS2, but many aspects of that can be found in Body Harvest. Of course, both were made by DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North), but it’s amazing how much of what they did started on the N64.

Alien bugs keep harvesting humans and, as humanity are on their last legs, the hero Adam and his assistants (a woman in a skimpy outfit and a robot) are sent back in time to stop multiple invasions to save humanity.

Roaming out of your time ship, the game feels like a 3rd person shooter – the controls are pretty good for the time, with a big help from autoaim. However, before you encounter your first enemies, you’ll come across a car, that you can hop in.

The vehicles are very odd to control by today’s standards, but you can get used to them. There are a massive amount of vehicles in the game – and not just cars, but tanks, planes, boats, helicopters and more. Some have their own weapons and special abilities, while all essentially act as armour for you – you don’t lose your health while in a vehicle, becoming vulnerable once they blow up.

The vehicles aren’t just for getting to places, ether, they’re all part of the “puzzle” of each area. The open world isn’t just a backdrop for the game, but is integral to the design of the game. You’ll encounter many roadblock and will need to figure out how to get past. It’s something that I feel a lot of open world games lack and you’re constantly thinking about how to get about the landscape.

The first area itself is impressive in size and scope, and that’s just one of the maps. There are four main areas – Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991 – that have unique looks and vehicles, all with its own puzzle to figure out. There’s also a final mission that takes place on the alien comet, but it’s a more straightforward combat mission.

I did find some parts of Java and America a bit too difficult to navigate, and sometimes a harvest will happen in an inconvenient location – as humans are eaten by the large harvester bugs (one of many different types of bug aliens), a bar will go up and losing too many humans will result in failure -and every so often a mutant will be created to hunt you down.

The difficulty of the game is very unfair, especially due to how the game saves. Each location has 3 or 4 alien processors and you can only save at beacons placed after these have been destroyed. This means that there can be a very long time between saves and messing up a fight can cost you hours of time.

On top of that, the game unfortunately has technical issues. Vehicles can sometimes get stuck, and some are required for progressing. Making a wrong turn when exploring can also lead you to a place where you can’t return, meaning you have to reset. These issues make it a pain to play the original version of it, so I highly encourage playing in a way that utilises save states.

While it certainly shows its age, Body Harvest is a phenomenal game. It’s simple, yet expansive at the same time, and the open world is designed around the gameplay. This game gets overlooked a lot, yet it was definitely an important step in the evolution of video games.

I also do wonder how different Rockstar would have been if Nintendo properly supported this project – would GTA3 had become a GameCube exclusive?

Body Harvest is magnificent. In many ways, it’s the ultimate 3D shoot-’em-up: packed-to-bursting with aliens, peppered with explosions, awash with blood and innards and rollicking good fun. Get it in.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

Body Harvest is perfect for a remake. there are four amazing levels to recreate in higher detail, sort out the issues with saving, add some bonus challenges (perhaps let people return to previous levels to explore fully), better driving mechanics. The game’s world is wonderful, it just needs updating.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Body Harvest

[canarydarity]

Sooooo, what's your super specific jimmy au based on a historical figure about? 👀

oh you mean the one I am desperately trying to get my brain not to think about because I already HAVE a super niche jimmy au based on a historical figure? I'm so glad you asked <3

Grace Darling was the 22 year old daughter of a lighthouse keeper on the Farne Islands in the UK.

Early in the morning on September 7th 1838, she saw what she believed to be a shipwreck snagged on the rocks of one of the nearby islands. She convinced her father—who thought the idea much too dangerous—to accompany her to the wreck where they managed to save the lives of nine people.

This kind of thing made her INSTANTLY FAMOUS. like she was renowned worldwide for her bravery and empathy for others and for having done this etc. Artists traveled from ALL over to be able to draw portraits of her (people would pay so much money to have one to stick in their wallet. she was THAT famous), she was CONSTANTLY being interviewed by news outlets, Queen Victoria sent her £50!! they wrote each other letters!!!! She received a medal etc.

but grace hated the attention, and she was always saying she'd only done what any person would've and that was all!! she did not deserve nor want a pedestal!!! she asked kindly for it to stop!!! and it :')) did not :')).......

she could not leave her house without being swarmed by people and she was constantly being made to sit for portraits or strangers would beg her for a lock of her hair and it was a LOT! but she felt OBLIGATED to entertain it because it was SUPPOSEDLY well-intentioned!!! she was pressured to go on a tour around the country to speak about that day and her experience and she was SO worn down by the years of attention at this point that on this tour she....contracted tuberculosis and....died. at 26. and this just of course. pushed her even further into the spotlight and now in her death she is this. martyr. further memorialized in the media against her wishes as this hero. and I just. am so so sad for her. and wish she got some peace. she saved the lives of 9 people and she was in a way harassed for it until she,,,,,,,,,,,,

AND I JUST THINK THAT I CAN CANARY CURSE THAT. IN A WAY. MAYBE. I DONT KNOWWW I DONT KNOW. I CAN JIMMY THIS..........

tell me that the idea of Jimmy as a victorian era lighthouse keeper doesnt fucking SLAP. LIKE, im already picturing his wardrobe. UGH! hes so tortured. to me.

its not really an au yet....but it...but my brain is....its trying to make it so....something where i can talk about grace darling and how horribly upset I am about the way she was treated while also fitting jimmy into a victorian lighthouse setting.........................

Dont ask why my first instinct whenever I become obsessed and empathize with a new niche historical figure is to go "can I jimmy them?"

also pay no attention to the way both niche historical figures Ive done this to's stories have revolved around being the center of media storms outside of their control.

if you couldn't tell working at a museum is bad. for me personally. /silly

[choicesficwriterscreations]

September MC & OCs of the Month - Special Edition: Harper Gale

Help us in welcoming September's MCs and OCs of the month! That's right, plural! Most months, CFWC highlights one randomly selected MC or OC from our Meet My MC / OC List. (More info here.) But this month, we're doing something different.

In August, @lilyoffandoms hosted a Writers Appreciation Month, and we announced the September Writer of the Month would be selected from its participants. But all participants agreed - Lily deserved the honor! Still, we wanted to do something nice for the eleven writers who elected to participate to help uplift other writers in the fandom. So, this month, each of the eleven participants will have one of their MCs or OCs highlighted.

We will introduce each MC / OC individually, and once all eleven have been highlighted, a masterlist for the month will be created. We hope you enjoy getting to know all about them!

The tenth MC of the Month is @karahalloway 's OC Harper Gale for a reprise!

Learn more about Harper below....

In your words, tell us what you like most about your MC. 

Probably the fact that she knows what she wants and doesn’t hesitate to go after it.

For instance, Harper has had a dream of going travelling around the world for several years, and at the start of (Un)Common Attraction (my somewhat modified rewrite of TRR1), she jumps at the opportunity to go to Cordonia, figuring that this is her chance to kickstart her around-the-world adventure. And even though things don’t exactly go to plan, Harper still tries to make the most of the opportunity at every turn.

She also realises relatively early on that she is much more interested in and feels like herself with Drake, and even though Drake tries to push her away — out of loyalty to Christian (my version of Liam) and in a bid to avoid a scandal — Harper refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer, knowing that Drake has feelings for her too, and eventually convinces him to come around. Obviously, the press scandal on the night of the Coronation Ball throws a massive wrench in the works, but Harper refuses to throw in the towel, despite a lot of proverbial sh*t hitting the fan.

Other things I like about Harper are that she has a very strong moral compass and will fight for what she thinks is right, even in the face of resistance from those she loves and cares about. And she has a big heart — she is always trying to find ways to surprise Drake, be moral support for Max, Hana and Christian, and is always the first to offer help, even if she doesn’t really like the other person.

Do you feel your MC is like you at all? How are you alike or different?

As is the case for many authors and their OC, Harper and I share some similarities. We’re both curious, pragmatic, and down to earth, love to travel and have new experiences. We’re also both quite outdoorsy, love animals, as well as OTT action movies 😆 

However, Harper is a lot braver and a helluva lot more resilient than I am — I would never have taken Maxwell up on his offer to go to Cordonia for the social season, and I am not sure I would’ve coped with all the things she goes through in Cordonia the same way she did.

Also, while we both tend to say it like it is (and this gets us into awkward moments sometimes), Harper is a lot more outspoken than I am and will call out BS then and there, while I just do the silent eye-brow raise, akin to Drake 😅

What is most important to your MC? What is their motivation in life?

One of the most important things for Harper is being able to be herself. 

This was a big reason why she turned down Christian, because she couldn’t see herself living a ‘fake’ life whereby she had to constantly present an ‘idealised’ image of herself to the public, always having to watch what she said and did, and no longer being able to live a ‘free’ life (in my rewrite, for various reasons, I moved the timeline of this conversation up, so it takes place during the social season, rather than at the end of the engagement tour). 

This is also the reason why she gravitated towards Drake very early on — because Drake has always taken her at face value and never expected anything more from her other than exactly what she already was (whereas both the Beaumonts and Christian focus on, and try to use Harper’s status as a lady — and subsequently a duchess — to further their own ends, whether overtly, or covertly).

In terms of where I am with Harper’s story at the moment, her main motivations are clearing her name after the press scandal that broke during the Coronation Ball — in part to set the record straight and restore her reputation, and in part because she doesn’t want to have to keep hiding her relationship with Drake. Because this is kind of an all-consuming thing at the moment, she doesn’t really have mental space to think about more generic motivations 😅

What are their biggest pet peeves/dislikes?

Harper’s biggest pet peeves are being made to feel like an idiot (which is the main reason why she has a hard time getting along with Bertrand, who is a perfectionist taskmaster when it comes to etiquette), and being woken up at stupid-o’clock in the morning for a stupid reason (she very much wants/needs her beauty sleep).

She also takes issue with the two-faced nature of the nobility — outwardly presenting perfection, while inwardly falling prey to infighting, lies, manipulation and entitlement. This is another reason why she gravitated towards Drake almost from the very start because both of them can see the rot of the aristocracy through the superficial glitz and glamour.

If your MC could change one thing - anything - what would it be? 

I’m not sure Harper would want to change anything — she believes that things happen for a reason and every cloud has a silver lining, even if you can’t see it at the time.

So even in the midst of her worst experiences, Harper is able to find some kind of light on the horizon (even if it feels intractably out of reach) and focuses on that to get her through whatever hardship she is facing.

What is your MC’s favorite quote or song? Harper has a lot of songs she likes to listen to, depending on her mood, but one of her favourites is Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts. It very much captures her attitude of freedom, adventure, and curiosity, and the belief that great things are waiting for you if you’re willing to step outside of your comfort zone:

Life's like a road that you travel on

When there's one day here, and the next day gone

Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand

Sometimes you turn your back to the wind

There's a world outside every darkened door

Where blues won't haunt you anymore

Where the brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your MC:

I have had a ton of fun getting to know Harper over the 3 or so years that I’ve been exploring her view of the world. But like with any relationship️, you are always learning new things about each other, so I’m sure that as I continue fleshing out Harper and Drake’s story, I’ll learn new things about both of them ❤️ 

Because unlike some other characters I’ve written — who arrived fully formed — Harper actually developed somewhat slowly as an OC. For instance, when I started my TRR1 rewrite, I didn’t even know what she looked like, and it took me about a year to find an FC for her! 😅 

But from the very start, Harper has always had a very clear and distinct voice, which is part of the reason why I ended up writing her story from first-person POV. And the more I write her, the more I love her — almost like a sister — because she feels ‘real’. She has good qualities, yes, but she also has flaws — she can be too trusting, she isn’t always completely honest, she tends to overthink things, she gets heated and emotional and will rip into people (usually legitimately, but that doesn’t make the confrontation any less intense).

And I love her dynamic with Drake 😍 Nine times out of ten, their interactions just write themselves because even though in the big scheme of things, they haven’t known each other for that long, they are very in tune with each other and in many ways they are two sides of the same coin, which means that their interplay is always a perfect storm of snark, sexual tension, and humour.

To learn more about Harper, please see her character bio.

[morgenlich]

ig i should write out a more complete feliks timeline from the partitions until the 1990s lol, um. spoilers for last light and its planned sequel tho, also i'm writing this off the top of my head and not looking up specific dates so [gestures]

so, while in my hcs tolys got stuck w ivan full time (though he ran off more than a few times lol he was never successful in escape endeavors for very long), feliks was after the partitions initially shunted between gil and rod (ivan imo just. absolutely hates his guts and wanted nothing to do with him lmao and besides he had new full time prizes like tolys he didn't need to split custody of another one); he managed to run off for good shortly before the napoleonic wars started and met up with francis (this is also when i have him changing his name from mieczyslaw to feliks), fought alongside him for a bit, established the republic of warsaw, then basically sent himself into exile after its collapse because he felt that staying in his own land would be too risky; he didn't want to go back to being a hostage after all

(he does return for some later rebellions of course)

he's not really in the mood to deal with francis for a bit after that, he just strikes out on his own, not really paying much attention to where he goes. he ends up all over because of this, like he'll literally stow away on a ship he has no idea of the destination of so he sees not only a good bit of europe but also ends up in asia and i think also probably in the us, somewhat briefly, and he wants to avoid the attention of other nation reps so he doesn't actually meet up with any of them intentionally. he works a bunch of odd jobs during this time because he basically only owns the clothes on his back (and his wedding ring. he manages to keep hanging onto that), inlcuding some sw which he hates (i hc him as very firmly demisexual)

eventually in the 1870s-ish, he winds up in france again. he's living on the street and ends up with tuberculosis, which gets bad enough it actually kills him. when he revives from this, he realizes he's still ill and is going to need to like. properly recover, so he swallows his pride and goes to look for francis, who takes him in for a while; they end up staying in the south for a bit, i wrote a little fic about this a couple years ago lol. eventually though they get fed up with each other and feliks dips again, resumes wandering around but now he has fucked up lungs :) also it's around this time that he discovers opium which also becomes a lasting problem for him. but it helps his lungs not feel like they're constantly being stabbed so wcyd

he ends up in france again around the start of w/w1 and initially fights w the french but eventually makes his way east, finally back on his own land. the war ends, he's independent again, etc etc. 1918 is also the first time since the partitions that he's able to meet up with tolys again, imo--even in shared rebellions the two just never quite managed to be in the same place at the same time--though ofc this just ends up with tolys wanting nothing to do with him for a couple decades (i go. back and forth on what feliks himself actually thought about the war between them tbh)

ok here's where we get into last light + sequel spoilers

w/w2 starts, feliks initially fights in warsaw and is captured in late september. spends like a week or two in prison before gil arrives in warsaw and is put in charge of him, at which point he's put under house arrest. manages to keep his Connections to the resistance (how? idk it's not important and no it will not be explained in LL lmao), stays there until the spring of 1944 when [massive spoilers that otherwise don't involve feliks] and he's forced to go into hiding for a few months (along with my human oc irena kowalczykowa), until the AK fighting starts and then ofc he (and irena) is involved in that until he's captured again; the ak is able to get him back for a few minutes before some russian spies attack them and feliks and irena end up with them

at this point feliks is too exhausted and weak to really put up any resistance to this fact, and he just stays in russian custody, hiding in the mountains with some partisans until the spring of 45 when they make their way to krakow where ivan has temporarily set up camp; feliks continues to stay in russian custody from this point though like he's not officially a prisoner and they make him agree to cooperate so he does end up with like his own apartment and stuff. but he doesn't stay there very long because in 1948 ivan finally is allowed to return home and he's been told to bring all the other ussr and satellite reps with him so feliks gets dragged to moscow to live in an extremely overcrowded house until 1952.

after stalin dies policy toward the reps changes and the satellites are going to be allowed to return to their own land; feliks is the first to do so because as mentioned all the way at the beginning ivan just hates him and doesn't want to live with him at all lol so he ends up back in warsaw where he stays, remaining more or less cooperative (by his standards at least) until the ussr collapses.

he spent some time in the 90s trying to participate somewhat actively in his new government but realized that 1. he'd kind of gotten used to just doing his own thing 2. he's too vocally queer, etc, to get along with them, so nowadays he does the absolute bare minimum in this regard (mostly interacting w other reps for them) and spends his free time doing whatever he wants instead. also he lives in krakow, not warsaw, bc he likes krakow more (aside from like. in my heart feeling like he's a krakowiak, i think he just associates warsaw with war and the comm. regime and really wants very little to do with it) and hey he's not got v many gov't responsibilities so it doesn't matter lol

[barclaysangel]

Jake in Mourning (Chucky season 2 rewrite fic, drabble 1/4)

Ok, I got too hyped to post these drabbles that have been hidden for various months, starting way back to September! I will be posting all 4 drabbles this weekend, one right now, one in a few hours, one on Saturday and the final on Sunday. I'd also prefer it if you read them in this order. PLEASE leave notes and comment what you think because comments help fuel our motivation since @streets-in-paradise and I worked on this AU together and one day, the fic will finally be written!

Thank you and enjoy! :)

Word count: 1.9K

It didn’t feel normal to walk into the house. 

It was cold and empty. Well, it always felt cold and empty in that house, despite the people that lived there. But now with Jake’s aunt, uncle, and cousin gone, the chills and emptiness were enough to freeze him alive and swallow him whole. 

Lexy and Devon already went to Junior’s house the day before, going into his room and taking some things to remember him by. Devon wanted Jake to come with them, but he couldn’t. It was something that he felt that he had to do on his own, without the comfort of the people who knew and cared about him. 

So for the first time since he tried to run away a few days ago, Jake went back to the house. The walk up the stairs, toward Junior’s room, felt like he was walking into the lion’s den. He never would’ve gone to his cousin’s room, not even if you paid him. But his cousin is gone now. His asshole cousin, who always looked like he was in pain if you stared at him hard enough, was dead. 

There was no one stopping him from going inside now. 

Jake turned the knob on the door and opened it. For the first time in about five years, he saw Junior’s room. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Maybe posters, books, LED lights, something that would bring more life to the room. But there was nothing. Only boring gray walls that resembled a prison cell and trophies and medals on display from his cross-country tournaments. 

For a brief moment, Jake wondered if the room was that empty because of all the things Lexy and Devon took. But he talked with them earlier, they only took some of Junior’s favorite books and clothes. This…this was just how Junior’s room used to look like. Vacant and devoid of all life and happiness, a complete contrast to his own room. 

Somehow, that thought seemed to make his heart clench. 

Jake looked at the trophies and gold medals, noticing how they were untouched. No one wanted to take those home, he supposed. He didn’t want to either. He’d be lying if he said that he never noticed how Junior never looked happy to talk about the sport that his father threw him into years ago. 

Even as he looked closer, he noticed the dust that gathered on those trophies. Junior never bothered to touch them after placing them there on that shelf. 

Did his cousin even want to win? Or did he do it just to please his father? 

Something began prickling the back of Jake’s eyes the more he thought about it, so he forced himself to look away and go over to Junior’s dresser. He wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. Maybe some shirts, something that belonged to Junior. He was sure that the hoodies were all taken by Lexy, so he would take what he could get. 

Jake opened one drawer, spotting a few shirts that he never saw Junior wear, probably because they were hidden under all the hoodies he would wear constantly. Some were Marvel t-shirts but others had designs of skulls or full moons on them. It was a style he never expected his cousin to ever wear, let alone like, so he grabbed them and put them into the bag he brought with him. 

But when he reached further back into the drawer, his fingers met something soft. He paused before gripping onto it and slowly pulling it out, his eyes widening slightly. 

It was a light brown teddy bear with a red ribbon around its neck, tied in a bow. Jake felt like he got slapped in the face with nostalgia, remembering how attached Junior was to the stuffed animal—Theo. His cousin got him when he was four and he’d be damned if he let anyone else play with it, even Jake wasn’t allowed to touch it. 

Except, the one time his cousin did let him hold it. 

“If I show you something, do you promise not to tell anyone?” When the cousins were both eight years old, that was a question that Junior asked him. 

They were in Junior’s bedroom, the room looking so much different compared to now. There was a sense of vibrancy and light, something that was completely lacking now. 

Jake was sitting on his cousin’s bed, desperately trying not to cry. He had just lost his mother in a car accident a few weeks ago and was still spiraling. Every day, he cried. He cried himself to sleep and then cried in the morning when he woke up, knowing that he’d have to go another day without seeing his mom for the rest of his life. 

Junior was in front of Jake, standing almost awkwardly after he asked his question. He fidgeted with the sleeves of his sweater, a nervous habit of his that he developed not long ago. After a few moments, Jake nodded and swallowed down the urge to cry. “O-okay…” 

His cousin’s eyes hardened for a moment. “Do you promise?” 

“Yes,” Jake said quickly and nodded again, “I won’t tell anyone, I swear on Styx.” 

Junior had started reading the Percy Jackson books over a year ago and became addicted so quickly. He convinced Jake to read it, and it was safe to assume that they were both big fans now. And whenever they made a promise, they always swore on the River Styx, just like the demigods did. 

Well, maybe just Styx. Jake accidentally said ‘Styx’ instead of ‘The River Styx’ one time, and Junior thought it was hilarious and refused to let it go. Eventually, the phrase stuck. 

Junior stared at him for a moment before spinning on his heel and opening his drawer. He rummaged around before pulling out Theo the Teddy Bear, presenting it to his cousin. 

Jake gasped quietly. “Theo!” He exclaimed before quieting down when Junior shushed him. “But…I thought you said that Uncle Logan made you throw him away?” 

He remembered how Junior sadly told him that his father decided that he was too old to have stuffed animals just a few months ago. He had to throw them all in the garbage. Junior had a few, but Theo was his favorite, and he really didn’t want to throw him away too. 

“He did…” Junior admitted, “but when he left for work, I dug him back out of the trash. I couldn’t let him go like that, not yet. So I kept Theo, hidden in a place where my daddy won’t find him.” 

He held the teddy bear for a few more seconds, almost hugging Theo before holding it out to his cousin. “Here. He’ll help you feel better.” 

Jake tilted his head slightly in confusion. “Are-are you giving him to me?” 

“No.” Junior was quick to respond, his eyebrows scrunching together in one of his infamous scowls-a look he would be used to seeing for years to come. “But you can hold him. Just for today. I always feel better when I hold Theo, so…maybe he can help you feel better too, Jakie.” 

Jake stared at his cousin and then the teddy bear for a moment before finally taking him from Junior’s hands. Feeling the soft and fluffy fur between his fingers made tears well up in his eyes, and he clutched Theo to his chest as he began crying silently. 

Junior didn’t say anything but sat down on the floor in front of him, reaching out to place his hand over one of Jake’s. Sometimes, his cousin didn’t need to say anything to make him feel better. Just a small action, like letting him hold his favorite teddy bear, and his comforting silence with sympathetic eyes was more than enough. 

At that moment, Jake felt safe with his cousin. 

That was the last good moment between them before Junior slowly began to change. 

Jake held the teddy bear and this time, he couldn’t hold it back anymore. He dropped to his knees as he began openly sobbing, hugging Theo to his chest as tightly as he could, as if there was a possibility that he could disappear just like his cousin did. 

He knew that their relationship was strained. He knew that Junior bullied him. He knew that his cousin killed his own father because of Chucky’s tricks. 

But did that mean he deserved to die? For all his faults, his sins…was he destined to die because of it? 

That was his cousin, his blood family. They used to be so close, like they were twins, growing up before Junior began pulling away and Uncle Logan put more pressure on him about performing well in cross-country. 

And then the what-if’s filled Jake’s mind. 

What if he told Junior right away about Chucky? Would he have believed Jake? 

Probably not. But he could’ve at least been warned, possibly preventing him from falling under Chucky’s influence. 

What if he, Lexy, and Devon were actually there for Junior after Aunt Bree died? 

Junior witnessed his mother die right in front of him. It broke him apart. And it pained Jake to admit that something in Junior died that day. He could see it in his eyes. His cousin lost someone he loved and it couldn’t take it…and he was all alone in his agony. 

Had they been there for him…would everything have turned out differently? 

Would Chucky not have been able to get to Junior because they wouldn’t have left him alone? Would Uncle Logan have lived? Would Junior Wheeler have survived? 

Jake didn’t know the answer, but the word “yes” was screaming in his head anyway. 

Had he done something differently, he wouldn’t be on the floor crying, all alone, without someone’s comforting gaze and supportive hand on his. The guilt was eating him alive and there was nothing he could do about it. 

Jake wasn’t sure how long he sat there, clutching the teddy bear like a lifeline, closing his eyes and pretending that it was his cousin. Eventually, he opened his eyes once the tears slowed to a stop, looking down at Theo the Teddy Bear. 

“I miss you, you asshole.” He said to the bear but knew deep down that it wasn’t directed to Theo. It was directed to Junior, buried six feet down below, in between both of his parents. 

Jake was the last Wheeler standing. His entire family was dead because of Chucky. But he knew that if he never bought that stupid doll, that they would still be alive today. 

Their blood was on his hands too. 

But it still didn’t feel right. Junior was gone now but to Jake, it felt like there was something missing. It just didn’t feel like Junior was dead, not like how it felt with the others. 

Maybe this was what it’s like to be in denial. 

It took another few minutes for him to pull himself together enough to stand up. He hugged the teddy bear one last time, sending a silent apology to his dead cousin along with the hug, before carefully placing Theo in the bag. Junior loved that bear, so Jake would take good care of it from now on. 

He wiped the tears away with the back of his hand, walking away before pausing and looking back at the room that was filled with nothing but melancholy and angst. 

What he wouldn’t do to go back in time and do everything differently. Push Junior into opening up about why he changed, tell him the truth, be his support system when he was left isolated and all alone. 

He would give up everything just to have one last chance. 

Finally, Jake left the Junior’s bedroom and closed the door behind him.

[thekelceswiftera]

NFL Marketing Exec On Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Viral Phenomenon: “People Think We May Have Had Something To Do With It - Absolutely Not, We Knew Nothing”

A senior marketing executive at the NFL maintained that the league had nothing to do with helping to engineer Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce's ultra-viral courtship of pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Marissa Solis, SVP of global brand and consumer marketing for the NFL, addressed the phenomenon during a panel at Advertising Week on the topic of how sports leagues are trying to reach elusive Gen Z audiences. Once the romance became public in September, she said, the league could only do its best to react and make the most of it.

Communicating with fans about the relationship offered "a perfect example" of the challenge of connecting with Gen Z fans, who are "fast paced and ever-changing," Solis said. "It's really, really tough to actually get them and to be ahead of them." The league "learned from the best, Ms. Taylor Swift," she said with a smile, leaning into the off-field development, which also boosted TV ratings at a time when Swift was also getting set for the wide release of her Eras Tour concert film.

"This thing happened like this," Solis marveled, snapping her fingers. "People think that we may have had something to do with it. Absolutely not. We knew nothing. We knew what you guys knew and followed on social media. Travis went to her concert, asked her to maybe come to a game. We had no idea that she was going to show up. And once it happened, she showed up to a game and in an instant, literally in a second, it's viral. Luckily, we have an incredible team" of specialists working to promote it across league social channels.

"All you can do is be there and be ready for the moment," Solis said. "When it happened, we were ready to roll with content like 'Football 101 for Swifties,' making sure that Swifties who had never watched a football game, didn't understand what football was, knew at least the rules of the game. But here's what's more important: I bet you didn't know, there are thousands - thousands - of core NFL fans who actually don't know who Taylor Swift is." As her fellow panelists laughed, she continued, "It was also an opportunity for us to educate our core NFL fan on who she is. You guys may have seen some of the video content and social content around the Chiefs dancing their victory laps to Taylor Swift songs. That's a way to bring our core audience to it."

The league aimed to "be a student of culture and be ready when the moment hits," Solis concluded. "You can't be ahead of it, but you can be just right there so you can be sure to take advantage and fully grow your audience."

The panel, moderated by Matt Fasano, SVP of Next Gen at Wasserman, also featured Melissa Brenner, EVP, Digital Media for the NBA, and Anne Marie Giansutsos, CMO of the Drone Racing League. The central theme was addressing an audience of largely cord-nevers, who take in sports content primarily through social media. "There's no way they're going to sit and watch a 4-hour game," Solis said of Gen Z. "We have to create snackable content that they enjoy."

Lifestyle content, a way to help younger fans more fully connect with players, has been described within the NFL as the league's "helmets off" strategy, the exec added, noting that the NBA long ago blazed a trail in that area.

Brenner said each social platform has its own algorithm and sensibility and also evolves constantly, so customizing to each one "in a bespoke, targeted fashion" is crucial. The NBA has a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery to operate NBA.com and create official digital content, she noted.

The global nature of the NBA helps boost its social reach, Brenner said, with about 25% of players and two-thirds of players coming from outside the U.S. The league also takes a more "democratic approach to fan-generated content" than do other pro sports operations, she said. "We've put pretty narrow restrictions on it. It's influencers. There's a virality, it works." Getting "written about and posted about" is the main goal.

[thedawningofthehour]

I really don't want chapter 33 to come, thanks to a certain birthday present, I can more or less get an idea of what will happen and ARRGG!!! no fair!!!! Why the heck are you giving us hope if you're going to close the door on us at the last minute and break our noses in the process!!!!

I'm still firm in my opinion that Doth is more painful than lemonade leak, because you really don't know what's going on until the middle of the fic and when you finally realize it there are only like ten chapters left for the pain to end, here you know perfectly well what's going on and you have to wait until DOUBLE the angst to get to the comfort part, and I know for others it's not like that but I really can't enjoy the galois parts because of all that's behind the curtain.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that there is a happy ending and that donnie will be reunited with his siblings, but sometimes they are hard.

So much so that I've been tempted to ask you for a look at the outline just to ease my worries, but I haven't gotten to that point yet, and I emphasize yet.

Seriously, if the author wasn't so fucking charismatic I would have paused and waited for book three to be complete. But no~ my desire to hear this person talk about her bird is beyond me.

Fuck, now I want a birdie too!

I was actually thinking of posting today, but then I remembered that school is back in session. I want to try to post on the weekend so you high school fucks don't read in class. Also September 20th is kind of a bad day for me. I dunno, it just felt like bad luck to post a big deal chapter on that day.

I have redone a lot of what I sent you, so it doesn't really sound like that anymore? It's slightly more comical now, but that was never the angsty part lol.

My outline would be incomprehensible to anyone other than myself-hell, it's incomprehensible to me half the time. The siblings will be reunited, they'll heal, and the world doesn't end. I'm not pulling a Game of Thrones here. I believe in happy endings.

DO NOOOOOT GET A BIRD. Especially just because you see something cute online! They are extremely loud, messy, and require a ton of work and attention. Many of them are ridiculously smart too, and will get bored as such. They need to be out of their cages most of the day-Angel spends probably 8-10 hours out with me, and he actually spends more time in his sleeping cage now because he's old. They need to be constantly entertained and are always in your face, especially if you're doing anything with food. Like, half the time I have to imprison Angel in the bathroom while I eat, because despite giving him his own portion he will climb onto my plate and eat off it. Or sit on my shoulder and steal bites as I bring it to my mouth. It's like having a flighted toddler with a can opener on its face. They're incredibly destructive-I made a joke earlier about him eating my mom's plants but we seriously have tons of furniture with little beak marks in them.

And Angel is a cockatiel. They're fairly small, considered relatively low-maintenance birds. Sun conures are the loudest things you'll ever hear. A cockatoo is smart enough to open their own cage and speak using human words. A macaw once reached over a plucked a button from my mother's sweater, snapping in clean in half in a flat second. That was over forty years ago and that macaw is probably still alive, many big birds have lifespans that rival or even exceed a human's. If you get one of those birds you are putting that bird in your will.

I say all this because neglect and abuse is a huge issue with pet birds. People get them thinking they're a pretty decoration and many end up shoved in a room somewhere not getting what they need, and many of them start doing stuff like plucking their own feathers out of boredom. (had one feather-plucker myself, it's absolutely heart-breaking) If anyone here is thinking about getting a bird, do your research. Hang out at a bird rescue, talk to birb owners about what you can expect. There's tons and tons of birds who have been surrendered because they were more work than their owners thought they'd be. (and they can't be released back into the wild because they're all bred in captivity) I love birds and I think they can make great companions-for some people. They are not for everyone.