#and they look largely the same which is perfect for ambiguity

[pencilofawesomeness]

Red, the color of life—in the beginning, the end, and blurred space in-between.

-

for @theguildawards Discord Server Event: Colors of the Sky

I was assigned "red" which was super exciting because of all of the implications I could make with it. (*insert evil sad boi stick loving laughter here*) I had to go with Erza Scarlet and commit to the bit. Also I finished this a month+ ago and I am super hyped to finally post~

[whereserpentswalk]

Choose a slightly diffrent version of our world to escape to

Weather you're transferring yourself to another dimension or you’re retroactively changing our world is a matter of perspective. Either way, only you will remember the change, and all your loved ones will still exist with as minimal a change to everyone's lives as possible. Transplaner security does not allow the finer details of this process to be understood by mortals.

1- ritual magic and deities are scientifically proven to exist. The exact details on it all are still ambiguous but people know for a fact that these things work and are true. Religious conflict is down, and it's a fact that there's something out there to answer your prayers.

2- the earth is flat and infinite. The seven continents we know are lit by the sun (which is small and goes out at night) which rotates over the equator (the north pole is the center of this map projection). But there are other suns beyond Antarctica, and 21st century civilization is working to contact these other continents. We will never be done expanding our trades routes and exploring for better or for worse.

3- dragons exist. They split off from a difftent fish than other land vertebrates hence the six limbs. There are all different kinds of dragons, living throughout the world. There's nothing magical about them, they just exist.

4- the six continents we know of with humans are just six islands in a vast ocean. Most of human history is the same or similar, just much higher density, thought the same cultures and civilizations developed. Because the population is the same human territory is a single massive city, using unquine technology to harvest food. What exists on the rest of the earth is just starting to be known.

5- necromancers exist as a valid field of art and science. Zombies, ghosts, vampires, liches, shades and other such creatures all exist as functioning members of society. Everyone accepts this as good and normal.

6- humans are capable of using willpower to change their physical sex after completing puberty. The process takes about six months to complete, and is mostly painless. Alongside swapping your sex it's also possible to mix and match traits or completely get rid of the traits of either sex. There is stigma around this, but it's slowly gaining more acceptance as time goes on. Body type and eye color can also be changed similarly, and how old you look is somewhat fluid based on your desires.

7- every rocky planet in our solar system and most large moons have sentient life. We are slowly making further and further contact with those civilizations.

8- the world is slightly more progressive on basically every issue. It's far from perfect but our world looks like an exacerbated parody of their world's political and social problems.

9- humans don't make contact when they mate, like fish or scorpians. Nobody has sex or desires sex in any way, and human bodies have a lot less sexual dimorphism. Gender is more fluid, sexual assault and harassment can't happen, and physical affection is way more common.

10- humans live longer (the oldest people are in their 900s) and resist illness much better. They have stronger mote athletic bodies, and have appearances that resemble closer what they individually think is pretty. They also need to sleep a lot less and have higher pain tolerance.

11- gender as a concept doesn't exist. People are biologically the same, they just don't have any social construct of male and female. People generally dress similarly to what we'd consider masculine, and he is the default pronoun, but feminine things aren't rejected, or even categorized as feminine. Relationships also aren't considered platonic romantic or family, people are just close to eachother and there's no special word for certain kind of close relationship that's different from others in a socially enforced way.

12- there's a whole new complex set of social constructs that didn't exist in the world you know. This is bad mabye.

Reblog to begin the transportation. Like to awake one of your freinds to the reality of the changes.

[thoughtlessthinkythoughts]

Look, I would love to believe that Gerry is having a perfect time in an alternate universe, but I can’t. Something is up. Note: I’m using some info from the arg spreadsheet for this.

Cw for unethical psychology experiments and harm to children.

He claims to have been too young to remember, but according to the spreadsheet he is two years older than Sam. Of course they probably weren’t tested at the same time, but his development level indicates he was school-aged.

He says he just remembers filling out forms and answering questions. The spreadsheet indicates that they put the kids through the Milgram experiment (you know, the giving electric shocks to people one)

He is happy to invite strangers in first thing in the morning and offer them anything- food, a large painting, etc. This goes beyond typical hospitality/generosity.

He even thinks the landlord is lovely. And yes I think this is a hint considering TMA’s politics.

Gerry immediately considers strangers old friends.

I may be reading the spreadsheet wrong because it is ambiguous. But if I am correct, when tested Gerry was ranked very prosocial, but also wasn’t compliant with the Milgram test or a test of social conformity (the one where a bunch of people lie about the length of a line to see if the person being tested will agree with something obviously wrong). The Gerry we met seems very compliant.

Gertrude is eager to get rid of Sam and Celia, which is completely understandable, but I think there is more to it. She knows something and wants this away from Gerry.

The little “I like them” “of course you do” exchange. It isn’t much on it’s own, but altogether…I don’t think Gerry has a choice. Not in liking them or being generous. I think Gerry was so close to being what they wanted, but he wouldn’t comply with some things, so they…somehow made him compliant.

According to the spreadsheet, Gerry had the second highest empathy index. The only individual higher was Sam. And I think we can assume Sam’s results are significant, considering he is a main character. Sam’s results were similar to Gerry’s in almost every way…except that Sam was given opposite results in the social conformity and obedience measures. In general, as empathy, moral development, and prosocial behavior increased in the kids, milgram and asch scores were lower, which is why I believe low=not going along with them.

So, the institute was looking for kids who were highly empathetic but also easy to control. Until they found Sam, Gerry was the closest, so they tried to control him. And ended up damaging him badly and messing with his memory of what happened.

[southside-otaku]

Just Too Sweet

Synopsis- You were such an angel, always the good girl, however you had a tendency to hangout with the “bad kids” in school. Your close friends, Emma and Mikey, have always been there for you as is the rest of the gang so it’s only natural you hangout at their house often. No one said you would be falling in love with your friend’s older brother.

Inspired by “Too Sweet” by Hozier, because it plagues my mind daily but I love it!

TW: Age gap, best friend’s brother trope, kinda angst I guess, ambiguous ending, reader wants Shin but he doesn’t wanna corrupt her life, I think that’s it sorry if this is kinda rusty lol x3 proof read but also not lmfao

It was a normal morning after sleeping over your friend Emma’s house, you’ve been around her and her brothers since childhood. You tend to wake up after Emma but she stays to herself in bed before she has to make breakfast so you venture out in hopes to help your friend set up the kitchen.

Shin’s awake and already chilling in the living room when y/n gets there. “You’re quite the early bird today” she says not knowing that in truth he hadn’t slept hardly at all last night.

He replies with a soft smile and small chuckle “yeah, well the guys and I were out late at Wakasas’ apartment.”

Y/n looks at the older boy knowing now that him being out late meant he probably didn’t sleep a wink. She scolds him, explaining how he needs to take better care of himself and try to get some sleep every once in a while.

Shin always appreciates your worry for his health, you take good care of yourself from your hair to your clothes and especially that oh so sweet innocence in your eyes. He prays no one takes that away from you

After breakfast you head to Emma’s room to get your clothes on for the day. Mikey, Emma, and friends call you from outside to see if you’re ready. “Stop flirting with Shin and get your butt out here already!” Senju yells. Y/n blushes, not like they both didn’t realize that there was SOMETHING between them that was a little different from just being the older brother and you being his siblings’ friend.

Y/n rushes out the door waving and shouting a “see ya ‘round! Please make sure to eat and drink water!!” before closing the door behind her. Now Shin is left to his thoughts again, the ones he loves and loathes at the same time.

A couple days later you’re all at Mikey’s again planning to go out to some arcade. Everyone is laughing and chatting. Shinichiro is lounging on the sofa again, staring unabashedly at y/n. Thoughts race through his mind about how stunning she is when she throws her head back in laughter, that sweet smile gracing her tender features. Now Shinichiro has had his eyes on a plethora of women before, which he has had no such luck with at all, but y/n…she was so perfect. So perfect in fact that he even knew her parents thought highly of her, so much so that he knows for a fact that they would certainly not approve of an older man whom also used to run a large biker gang as her lover.

His thoughts are pulled away by loud knocking resonating through the living room. As he strides to the front door he can feel y/n’s eyes on him-even for just a moment-and he’s frozen, hand on the doorknob, as if in a spell.

Shinichiro finally opens the door to allow his friends inside. Benkei and Wakasa giving each other knowing glances once they see Mikey and ALL of his friends, especially the sweet, curly headed girl sat by the glass doors to the backyard; it’s as if the sun’s rays highlighter her innocence.

It’s late by the time y/n comes back with Mikey, Emma, Draken, and Senju. Everyone decides to spend the night again at the Sanos’ and they soon head to their respective rooms.

Shin and his friends are all in the garage talking while smoking or having a drink.

Takeomi blows out a puff of smoke,”I know something’s on your mind man, you only drink that stuff when your mind is in a fog.” All eyes are on the two brunette boys now, waiting to see how they respond to each other. Takeomi is the first to speak again, “so where’s that little bunny you’ve been eyeing?”

Shin closes his eyes before twirling around his glass of whisky, “I let her go.” He looks up at ceiling, “there’s no way I deserve something as sweet as her, no matter how badly I want her.”

Wakasa blows smoke off to the side then looks up at his friend from his seat on the floor, “then why’s she heading this way with your little brother?”

Shinichiro looks out the window to see y/n, bewilderment in his eyes, as she races toward him like a bride to her groom. Are the two willing to take the risk? Surprising himself, he stands, placing his empty whiskey cup down and heads toward the door, swinging it open to let the younger girl into his embrace with open arms. It was just so natural to him. Like it was everything he ever wanted.

~wanted to thank @i-literally-cant-with-this for letting me ask for a proof read of the outline for this :) thanks babes!~

[vse-kar-vem]

ok so my pet theory about souvenir pop is that bluza & stephanie are both about bojan's relationship with the same character, just at different points in their relationship-- the first song in a moment of passion, and the second in retrospect, with a much more cynical tone. (essay below..)

both songs tell the story of a whirlwind romance, bojan and 'stephanie' becoming instantly taken with each other in a "lightning strike." obvious narritive similarities aside, bojan's past impulsivity and hopeless romanticism shine through in stephanie, as he reminisces that he knew "right from the start." within literally the first 3 lines of bluza, bojan proclaims his devotion to stephanie as his "muse," declaring dramatically "i think i've fallen in love with you." the depth of his emotion ("a stroke or a racing heart") is similarly elaborated on back in stephanie-- it is entirely possible that both occasions of bojan falling head over heels for someone at a gathering in a short amount of time are, in fact, the SAME event.

HERE IS WHERE THE SPECULATION COMES IN. bluza ends, "if the sun rises, i'll be alone," the exact reason for his abandonment left ambiguous. this question is answered in stephanie, as time finally passes-- "the morning came." despite bojan's relentless desperation to stay with stephanie, he is given a reality check, the blunt statement contrasting his emotive laments of the night before. ("the morning" could also be interpreted as the morning after stephanie's friend threw up.. but that's not fun :(.) on that day, she texts him "a photo of a plane"-- a perfect explanation for her absence and bojan's despair in bluza!!!

i believe what bojan so feared in bluza (the growing distance between) dooms their relationship. when they were in the throes of romance, stephanie and bojan "passed kilometers between (them) in a single heartbeat." these metaphorical kilometers materialise into existance by the time of stephanie (song), the titular character now living "about a thousand miles away." there's a sense of irony in that distance, which before had seemed no obstacle (even, in a way, proof of their love) is now a fundamental, bitter fact about stephanie and bojan, their relationship having withered away at least in part due to it.

stephanie ends as bojan repeatedly laments, "love ain't built for people like me." like him, how? one questions. what about him does he believe is so incompatible with the ideas of "love" and "happiness"? while there are hints in stephanie itself, in my opinion, his percieved problem can largely be deciphered in bluza-- "living in yesterday." in both songs, bojan demonstrates a stubborn refusal to look towards the future, to adapt to problems-- and, by proxy, a stubborn refusal to move on from stephanie (or move on in general). in stephanie (song), he copes by drinking away his sorrows. in bluza, while sober, we are offered a more in depth insight into bojan's thought process-- with stephanie, he lived in denial. he pleads desperately, "don't turn the lights on yet," for "just one more moment," completely refusing to engage with the future and what it hold for him and stephanie's relationship. in bluza, bojan deals with changes by simply ignoring what happens after, stephanie's mere departure seeming like a psychological breakup to him. this defeatist attitude after she leaves (more making shit up now) leads to the tragic collapse of their relationship, eventually culminating in stephanie (song), as he keeps "downing drinks to drown tomorrow, and live in yesterday."

ultimately, bluza and stephanie are used to explore the the cycle of bojan's unhealthy coping mechanisms and inability to adapt to change through two different perspectives, then and now. his persisting love for stephanie between the songs acts a through line as we begin to understand his behaviour and thoughts in relation to her.

[darlingpwease]

Yandere omega Hualian who keep get rejected by they alpha but still made they nest just for them to comfortable

fanciful

it depends enough on how dark the world of omegaverse is, especially at that time, but we will go for now with the most innocent without forced rituals and the like

♡ unhealthy behaviour, animalistic behaviour, dommale elements, mention of forced relationship if you squint

when you reject them, XIE LIAN and HUA CHENG are not very... happy. of course, alphas have the right to decide for themselves who they want and all that, but isn't it obvious that they will be the best options? one of them is the Supreme rank ghost, the other is one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) God — even if it's a little difficult for them to have a baby, it doesn't mean they can't, and your instincts know it. when you have two strong and healthy omegas who are equally obsessive interested in you and are willing to put up with each other's existence as long as you don't forget about them, paying attention to everyone and not behaving with irrational favoritism towards only one.

HUA CHENG has a strong instinct to nest. maybe this is due to an anxious childhood, where the nest was the only place where he felt safe, but for him to nest regularly and create large nests is natural for all three, — especially considering that XIE LIAN has not shown such an active interest in building a nest since childhood, although after he was banned from Heaven the first time, he began actively making them in an attempt to recreate the same feeling as in his parents' nest.

moreover, your smells are mutually attractive, XIE LIAN has a pronounced parental instinct, HUA CHENG knows that even if you consider him unattractive, from a biological point of view, he can easily change his appearance and some shades of smell for greater attractiveness, they have many nests and beautiful things for you, while your personalities are compatible and your temperaments are in harmony — you have no reason to refuse them, but you do it anyway, behaving senselessly and mercilessly.

you deny them but they make a nest for you

... when they build a nests for you, it's more like an olive branch that they hold out to you, the denial of which has ambiguous but definitely very unpleasant consequences for you and for them (as if they care if they can't be your omegas) — a soft, large, fluffy, warm nest with a predominantly neutral smell but with inclusions their fragrances so that you know for sure that it was built by them. you know that they are watching your interaction and research, memorizing your reactions and behavior so that if you deny this nest, they will build a new and more suitable one.

if you deny the nest, making it clear that you did not like it, then next time you will get a more perfect and suitable one for you — and so it will be until you have nothing to complain about, looking at the perfect nest, and, in the end, giving up and settling in it. this will lead to the fact that they will create more such nests, using more and more of their clothes with a smell so that you have suitable associations, until, eventually, you begin to agree to make out with them in the nest.

if you continue to deny all the nests out of stubborn principle, or, even more so, try to break them, then, well, you knew what you were doing, doing this in front of the omegas who adored you, who could spend hours just to do it for you, — and the fact that they are both potentially stronger than you and definitely the two of them are stronger than one of you makes the situation even worse just for you...

you deny them but make a nest for them

XIE LIAN looks on, thinking before nodding. of course, it is — why would you build a nest for them if you don't make it clear that you think they are good enough, but just want more time to get used to them? this is logical and makes sense.

they sit in the nest, surrounded by your scent, and look at you with incomprehensible interest if you stay outside the nest instead of leaving them for a while, doing your business without their participation. your mixed signals are very confusing — do you refuse them, but at the same time build a nest? what's the point of that? — but then they get it while they're curled up.

... they're just courting, aren't they? — HUA CHENG is the first to raise this thought, and XIE LIAN looks at him with interest, finally finding the reason for your behavior. — they're just shy, but they're not really against us, since they build a nest for us and let us be in it. they just need time.

and they don't mind giving you that time — behaving even more gently and affectionately, trying to look like respectful and good omegas as your husbands. they become even more persistent, but in a gentle way, actively taking care of the house and about you, showing that choosing them would not be a bad step and that they are ready to do anything to be your omegas, since they adore you and you are the only one for them.

do you need time? they are ready to give as much as they want! after all, you are in any case already their alpha, who can only be with them and has already chosen them, so nothing else matters; they have been waiting for you for a long time, a couple more days or months do not matter as long as they can be near you...

[justforbooks]

Alain Delon

One of the most popular male stars of French cinema who often played tough guys and calculated killers

The actor Alain Delon, with his finely chiselled features and glacial gaze, was known as the “ice cold angel”. As a young man, his handsome, impassive face was a blank page on which apparently any emotion could be written. This served to cover the passion or perversity beneath, a trait used effectively by such directors as Luchino Visconti, Louis Malle, Joseph Losey, Jean-Pierre Melville and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Delon’s best work was done in the 1960s and 70s, the first two decades of a career spanning half a century. After this exciting initial period, he settled down, with occasional exceptions, to consolidating his tough-guy persona, becoming one of the most popular male stars in French cinema.

In the light of his unpromising background, Delon, who has died aged 88, deserved the success he achieved. Born in Sceaux, a large suburb in the south of Paris, he was the son of Edith (nee Arnold) and Fabien Delon. They divorced when Alain was four, and he was brought up by foster parents until they died in a car accident. He then moved back to live with his mother and her new husband, Paul Boulogne, a butcher, to whom Delon was unhappily apprenticed when he was 14.

This was soon after he completed his sporadic education, having been expelled from several schools for bad behaviour. At 17, he joined the French navy, serving in Indochina as a parachutist during the siege of Dien Bien Phu.

Out of his four years in the military, Delon spent 11 months in prison for being “undisciplined”. In 1956, after being dishonourably discharged, he returned to civilian life, working as a porter, a waiter and a salesman. During this time he became friends with the actors Brigitte Auber and Jean-Claude Brialy, and went with them to the 1957 Cannes film festival.

There, his looks attracted attention, especially from a talent scout for the producer David O Selznick, who offered him a Hollywood contract, provided that he learned English. But after Auber persuaded the director Yves Allégret to cast the young would-be actor in Quand la Femme s’en Mêle (When a Woman Meddles, 1957), Delon decided to start acting in France.

Surrounded by such veterans as Edwige Feuillère, Jean Servais and Bernard Blier, Delon, looking much younger than 22, made an impression as a hitman, the sort of role he perfected in later films. Despite being touted as France’s answer to James Dean, Delon was closer to the young Alan Ladd.

In Sois Belle Et Tais-Toi (Be Beautiful But Shut Up, 1958), directed by Marc Allégret, Yves’s older brother, Delon was cast as a petty crook, partnered by Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was to equal Delon in popularity in the 60s and 70s. They were later to appear together again in Borsalino (1970), Borsalino and Co (1974) and as sexagenarian action heroes in Une Chance sur Deux (Half a Chance, 1998).

Christine (1958), a love story set in Vienna at the turn of the century, gave Delon his first major role as a romantic lead, opposite Romy Schneider. During the shooting of the film – a remake of Max Ophüls’ Liebelei (1932) – the couple fell in love and became engaged soon afterwards. The romance lasted four years, and Delon and Schneider remained close until her death in 1982. They appeared together on stage in 1961 in a Parisian production of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, directed by Visconti, as well as in the films La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1969) and Losey’s The Assassination of Trotsky (1972).

It was in 1960 that Delon became an international star with his portrayal of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley in René Clément’s Plein Soleil (Purple Noon). With his pretty-boy looks, Delon perfectly reflected the calculated charm, indolence and coldness of the ambiguous character, who schemes to take his friend’s clothes, yacht, girlfriend and life.

In contrast, in the same year, Visconti cast him as a “wise fool” in Rocco and His Brothers, an epic three-hour neorealist drama. To save his poverty-stricken family, who have immigrated to Milan from southern Italy, Rocco (Delon) takes up boxing, a sport he detests. Dubbed into Italian, Delon does his best to convince as a saintly character, though it is doubtful whether any boxer could be so gentle and yet so successful.

Dubbed again into Italian, Delon was superb as an arrogant and materialistic stockbroker who has an affair with a translator (Monica Vitti) in L’Eclisse (Eclipse, 1962), the third in Antonioni’s trilogy of alienation. Delon’s third notable Italian film was Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), in which he played the dashing and cynical young revolutionary Tancredi. As a hotheaded opportunist who represents the future of Italy, Delon’s performance is in sharp contrast to Burt Lancaster’s contemplative one as his aristocratic uncle, who represents the past.

Back in France, Delon began to take on less challenging roles, mostly in swashbucklers and thrillers. The main interest of the conventional heist movie, Mélodie en Sous-Sol (Any Number Can Win, 1963), was the coming together of the biggest French star of the 30s, Jean Gabin, and the rising star of the 60s. As interesting was his pairing with Simone Signoret, 14 years his senior, in The Widow Couderc (1971).

Delon also appeared in several English-language films at the time, including The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), in which he was an Italian photographer cum gigolo making a play for a gangster’s moll (Shirley MacLaine), and a Spanish aristocrat in the comedy-western Texas Across the River (1966). At the time, Delon could claim to be an equal in fame to any movie star in large-budget films such as Once a Thief (1965), opposite Ann-Margret and Jack Palance; Lost Command (1966), a war film with Anthony Quinn and George Segal; and Red Sun (1971) with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune, cashing in on Delon’s huge popularity in Japan.

In the artily erotic The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968), directed and photographed by Jack Cardiff, Delon played Marianne Faithfull’s lover, unzipping her leather gear with his teeth and murmuring: “Your toes are like tombstones.”

In 1964 Delon married Nathalie Barthélémy, who made her screen acting debut opposite him in Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967), the first of three ritualistic and atmospheric crime thrillers directed by Melville and starring Delon. In Le Samouraï, he was an expressionless hired killer; in Le Cercle Rouge (1970), he was a cool ex-con; and in Un Flic (Dirty Money, 1972), Melville’s final film, he was equally effective as a bitter cop.

Delon’s standing as a screen tough guy was enhanced when, in 1968, he and his wife, whom he was about to divorce, were implicated in a sensational political scandal. The discovery of the corpse of his bodyguard Stevan Marković in a rubbish dump – he had been shot in the head – led to revelations of drug and sex orgies involving a host of personalities from the world of politics and show business, including the wife of the president, Georges Pompidou.

Delon’s friend, the Corsican gangster François Marcantoni, was charged as an accessory to murder but was later released due to lack of evidence. Both Alain and Nathalie were held for questioning, but were not accused. What had alerted police was a letter Marković sent to his brother in which he wrote: “If I get killed, it’s 100% the fault of Alain Delon and his godfather François Marcantoni.”

In the same year, Delon began a 15-year relationship with the actor Mireille Darc, with whom he co-starred in Jeff (1969), the first film made by his own company, Adel, and a few other pictures.

During the same period, under Malle’s direction, he portrayed William Wilson, an Austrian officer and gambler, who murders his doppelganger, in one of three segments based on Edgar Allan Poe stories in Spirits of the Dead (1968).

Another of his outstanding performances was the title role of Losey’s Mr Klein (1976), as a French-Catholic art dealer who is mistaken for a Jew of the same name during the occupation in 1942. Unable to convince the Gestapo of the mistaken identity, he is deported.

Many years later, Delon claimed to be a supporter of the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. “He is dangerous for the political set because he’s the only one who’s sincere,” Delon declared. “He says out loud what many people think, and what the politicians refrain from saying because they are either too demagogic or too chicken. Le Pen, with all his faults and qualities, is probably the only one who thinks about the interests of France before his own.”

In the 80s, Delon, already a producer of a dozen movies, tried his hand at directing. His two films, Pour la Peau d’un Flic (For a Cop’s Hide, 1981) and Le Battant (The Fighter, 1983), were pale imitations of Melville. But, in 1984, Delon was given two of his last chances to display his acting talents. In Bertrand Blier’s Notre Histoire (Our Story), he was a morose alcoholic, and, in one of the most surprising casting decisions, he played the decadent gay dandy Baron de Charlus in Volker Schlöndorff’s Swann in Love, based on the first volume of Marcel Proust’s novel.

Following his dual role in Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague (1990), and a number of poorly received films, Delon announced his decision to retire from acting in 1997, although he did star in a television cop series, Frank Riva (2003-04), and made an unexpected appearance as Julius Caesar in Asterix at the Olympic Games (2008). A final TV role came in the drama Une Journée Ordinaire (2011), and he appeared as himself in S Novym Godom, Mamy! (2012), the story of a Russian New Year’s Eve, and Disclaimer (2019), as a talkshow guest.

An honorary Palme d’Or in 2019 provoked complaints against Delon’s history of misogynistic comments and support for the far right. The Cannes festival responded that its concern lay with achievement in cinema: “We’re not going to give (him) the Nobel peace prize.” Also that year came the video release of the song, Paroles, Paroles, that had given the singer Dalida and him a hit in 1973.

Delon, who became a Swiss citizen after many years’ residence in Geneva, with a second home in Douchy, south of Paris, spent most of his later years as president of a company that produced a variety of products such as perfume, wristwatches, clothing and sunglasses, all with the label AD.

The Velvet Underground singer Nico said that Delon was the father of her son Ari, though he denied it – the boy was adopted by Delon’s mother and stepfather, and took their surname, Boulogne; he died in 2023. Delon is survived by his son, Anthony, from his first marriage, and his children, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, from his second marriage, to Rosalie van Breemen, which ended in divorce in 2002.

🔔 Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon, actor and producer, born 8 November 1935; died 18 August 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[iknowyuu]

cupcakes

kdrama!sieun x baker!reader

// reader and sieun frost cupcakes together.

tags: ambiguous relationship, fluff

♡

“woah, you’re a quick learner.” you mumbled in surprise at the way sieun frosted the cupcake, making a perfect swirl that could easily rival yours. leaning over his shoulder, you watched him as he stared intently at the cupcake, eyes darting from yours to his, before he turned his head, eyes meeting yours as if to ask, "did i do good?"

you giggled at his action, looking back at his cupcake. sieun did the same. "yahhh, you're better than me." you exclaimed exasperatedly, hands crossing over your chest. sieun's lips twitched, the corners tilting upwards as he placed the frosting bag down, wrapping you in his arms for less than a second then stepping back, "it was just luck."

you smiled at him, his actions warming your heart. you'd known the boy for years now, and your heart warmed everytime he showed affection, which was becoming more often. from when you first met him, he'd slowly (but surely) opened up and became more comfortable around you. you were happy to say that he was only like this around you.

"stop lying to make me feel better," you shook your shoulders jokingly before stepping closer to the counter once more, looking at the cupcakes with squinted eyes. sieun turned to find the cupboard, opening it and taking out the sprinkles before turning back to you. "how come we've never done this before?" you turned back to him and admired the way his apron highlighted his figure, his small waist emphasized. "you look so good in that," you added before reaching your hand out as he handed you the sprinkles and you attempted to open the bottle. sieun placed his hands around his waist, feeling flustered at your compliment. "thank you," he quietly mumbled, keeping his eyes on you as you finally got the bottle open. "okay, now watch closely. this part is insanely important. it's all about presentation, sieun!" you turned at him before placing your eyes back on the cupcakes, carefully explaining how to make them look effortlessly placed.

sieun couldn't help but tune you out as his eyes wandered to your side profile. he'd never felt this way about anything or anyone before, his heart swelled anytime you said anything about him (they were always compliments) and he couldn't help but want to be with you always. you did a double take after turning to face him, catching him staring at you instead of the goods in front of you. "yah. are you paying attention?" you cocked your head at him as the tips of his ears slowly turned red, watching as he nodded, letting out an affirmatory "mm." you smiled before going back to your explanation.

time went by and the two of you were finished with all the cupcakes and decided to watch a movie while eating them. insisting that it wouldn't be complete without popcorn, you ended up making a large bowl for the both of you to share before starting.

the two of you sat on the floor in front of the couch, extremities touching and a large blanket covering your bodies. all the lights in the apartment turned off 'to set the theatre mood'. you took a bite into your second cupcake as sieun was finishing his first, placing the wrapper on the table. "good, right?" you glanced at him. he nodded, reaching his hand into the popcorn bowl and grabbing a few. you laid your head on his shoulder before opening your mouth to speak. "this is kind of random," you closed you eyes, "but i love being with you like this. you're my favourite person and i hope we can stay like this for a long time."

a moment or two passed before he responded with a soft, "me too,", his mannerisms as the shy person he once was around you momentarily returning. you didn't seem to mind, only giggling at his response and wrapping an arm around his. yeah, this was all he wanted.

♡

taglist: @brxght-world @karyuliee @kkaesslovr @qtaisuu

[adobe-outdesign]

Shelmet/karrablast lines review?

I'm going to preface this review by stating that I HATE trade-only evolutions. I'll spare you all from an extensive ramble, but the tl;dr is that they're obnoxious, counter-productive, and ultimately only serve to make it harder to get certain Pokemon.

HOWEVER, with that said, these two lines are the only time the idea of a trade-evo actually seems justified due to the way the two interact with each other. It's still not my favorite thing in the world (I feel like they could just evolve by being placed next to each other in one's party), but at least there's a rationale behind it instead of just abritrary decisions on the part of GameFreak.

Anyway, all that aside, I really like Shelmet here, and it's probably my favorite out of these four. The snail combined with a knight theme is super simple but reads really clearly, and the droopy eye and silly mouth give it a lot of personality. The colors are also nice, with the pinks and greens popping nicely against the neutral gray shell.

My only nitpick is related to the typing—this should've been bug/steel, for reasons we'll get into later.

Accelgor has a completely different, more ninja-esc theme, but this makes sense due to the loss of its shell, which was where all the knight theming came from in the first place.

This design is also good—the lines on the head accent the swirled shape nicely, which is also fairly accurate to how a shell-less snail looks. The pinks and greens once again draw attention to the head, and the brooding expression is great.

I'll admit though, something about the lower body throws me a bit. The body being bandaged to make up for the lack of a shell is great, but the actual shape of the body is so... flat and rigid compared to the nice curves of its head. Maybe if it curled a bit at the bottom too it would have a better flow. The bandages are also a bit too dark in color, loosing some of the contrast Shelmet's lighter gray had. Still, it's decent and gets the idea across well enough.

Gotta admit, I'm not a big fan of Karrablast. The idea of a beetle Pokemon makes perfect sense because it's based off of various kinds of beetles that eat snails and/or pupate in their shells, but Karrablast is just so amorphous and generic that you'd be hard pressed to even recognize it as a beetle, which really makes the theme fall apart a bit. Maybe it's just a me thing, as I'm not big on Pokemon with more "ambiguous" body shapes like this.

I also think it should've had more to do with Accelgor thematically. Escavalier "steals" Shelmet's knight theme, so I feel like Karrablast should've also had a ninja-ish theme to match Accelgor.

All that aside, it's okay. The expression is at least a lot of fun with its little fangs, and the colors contrast nicely compared to the Shelmet line's, but the light blue triangle on the head feels out of place and I'm not a big fan of the weird head-pincers. At the end of the day, it's not terrible, but it does feel like the weak link in this line.

Escavalier, however, is pretty fun. Expanding on Shelmet's knight theme, it now has a pair of lances and a large area on top of the helmet somewhat evocative of a feathered headpiece. The shape of this headpiece also helps match with the bottom half of the shell with its curved shape. Overall, a fun execution.

I do think it could've been a bit stronger conceptually though. For one, Shelmet mostly keeps the same palette as it evolves, so it feels like the red accents on Escavalier should've been blue to match its pre-evo; it would also simplify the palette, seeing as it already has Karrablast's blues and yellows on its body.

And secondly, the typing. It definitely feels like the steel-type comes out of nowhere when Shelmet is only bug-type. I think it would've been much better if Shelmet was bug/steel and Karrablast was bug/dark; then when they evolve, it flips, so Accelgor would've been bug/dark and Escavalier's bug/steel now fits with the concept. Minor thing obviously, but it's always bugged me (no pun intended). I still enjoy Escavalier overall regardless though.

As a whole, it's nice to see a line (or lines, in this case) that finally puts the trade evo idea to good use. I think the concept could've been stronger in a few spots, but it's still a fun theme and obvious enough to figure out through the visuals alone.

[itsclydebitches]

Young girls and women who had the Maiden powers cannonball into their souls WITHOUT CONSENT or KNOWLEDGE and were then told by a stranger that the only way to get rid of them is for them to be killed AND that there are people out there who want to do that AND that they have to leave whatever life and family they had behind and never see them again, watching Ruby complain about her "burden": 😐🙄🙁😒🤨🙃

You know, that adds an interesting spin to the age-old Pyrrha debate that I'd never considered. Fans have long dragged Ozpin for (supposedly) manipulating her into taking the powers, citing everything from someone her age being unable to make an informed choice (despite everyone else her age being an adult capable of leading this war), to the lack of information negating any true ability to judge the decision (but information isn't necessary for other characters, like Ironwood). As my asides showcase, I've always felt that this is hypocritical nonsense and does a huge disservice to Pyrrha, both in terms of acknowledging what a hard choice that was and taking into account her own, fatal flaw of feeling like she has to be the hero. (If anything, Pyrrha should have gotten a "Being a leader is so hard and I'm crumbling under the pressure" arc, not Ruby.)

But all that aside, you raise a good point about how terrifyingly passive most Maidens are in this process, with the exception of those who steal the powers (Raven) or are in a highly coincidental position to willingly accept the powers right when a Maiden is dying (Penny). The fandom tried to paint Ironwood as "forcing" the powers on Winter, manipulating her into becoming a tool, but no one wants to acknowledge that Penny would have then done the same thing? At least Ironwood asked Winter, whereas Penny decided on her own who could safely wield the power, giving that to Winter whether she still wanted it or not. The fact that the story frames this as the correct decision by having Winter currently need the power to save herself from Ironwood doesn't erase the fact that she still wasn't given a choice during the actual transfer. Hope you're happy being responsible for the entirety of your Kingdom now, Winter, because you're literally the only one with the power to protect them from the grimm army your friends dropped them into.

Based on the historical implications, most Maidens have not chosen this, have been forced to grapple with all the horrors you've laid out, which puts things like the otherwise morally ambiguous aura machine into a new light. Yes, it still goes against the "natural" state of things according to Remnant culture and yes, Pyrrha was not given a perfect segue into this choice (for various reasons), but at least it was a choice. Regardless of what you think of how Ozpin went about it, that's MORE of a choice than most other Maidens get. Do you want to be somewhat prepped beforehand, given time to decide, have a support system in place to help guide and protect you... or do you want to have these powers slam into you one day with no context? Hell, if we go by what we know about the Maidens as a whole, Pyrrha was the best candidate according to the Inner Circle and the magic itself. It things had gone differently with Amber and Cinder's bug theft, the power might well have gone to Pyrrha anyway, simply by virtue of her being a young, powerful, heroic woman with a Fall-like aesthetic.

Then yeeeeaaah. Look, Ruby has been through it. I'm not denying that. But the show really failed imo to both highlight the appropriate tragedies and allow her to navigate that grief in a way that didn't come across as incredibly selfish. Her actively striving for authority since Volume 4, becoming arrogant in her abilities, losing things and people due in large part to her own stupid mistakes (you kept the Lamp out, Ruby, you lied to Ironwood, you had the bright idea to turn Penny human and therefore vulnerable), the fact that she's surrounded by cursed Maidens and cursed immortals and cursed hosts and cursed aged-up allies and an entire dead village... and then the breakdown is, 'Woe is me, cheering people up is so hard'? Not that the story would ever go there, but I WISH Oscar had been in that scene, just so he could side-eye the hell out of her. "I'm sorry, which of us has been forced to participate in this war and burdened with the responsibility of leadership? Who is slowly losing themselves in the process, to the point where they're no longer recognizable from who they once were? You? Are you sure, Ruby?"

The writers really aren't aware of how that comes across in a story with so much horror going on, or they do and they just didn't bother to acknowledge and grapple with that limited, child-like perspective. We could have simply gotten an arc where Ruby is grieving Penny and, as a result, thinking on all the other people she's lost/how she might have failed those of Atlas and Mantle. Introducing these failures through the lens of her leadership really muddled things though. You chose this. You've supposedly been making decisions as a group. There's too many inconsistencies and retcons attached to Ruby's leadership - and too many other characters going through Objectively Horrific Things - to write the breakdown that way without Ruby coming across as completely oblivious to anyone else around her. And yes, I say that for a character who has been ignored by her team all Volume. She's also ignoring Jaune understandably grieving a whole village of people! All of them are awful nowadays! I miss when the group was actually kind and considerate and fun to watch lol

[doctorstrangereview]

Strange Tales #123

Cover Date: August 1964 On-Sale Date: May 12, 1964

Doc once again interacts with the Marvel Universe at-large. He faces a new-to-him, but not new foe. The Mighty Thor's sparring partner, Loki, visits our master sorcerer with evil intentions. Doc shares half the cover this round! His popularity must be growing. He's also got something weird going on with his hands that may be the colorist's bad decision. Doc's hands are flesh colored but his wrists are orange like his gloves. It's almost like the gloves are in multiple parts and Doc chose to wear only the gauntlet parts. However, no line creates a clear delineation between hands and possible gauntlets. The masterworks recoloring respects this odd choice. The Pocket Books reprints from 1978 did not and made them appear as regular gloves. The bottom of the splash page promises Thor putting in an appearance "drawn in the somewhat different Ditko style." Ditko is better at Kirby characters than Kirby is with Ditko characters.

Doc, enjoying a casual day (sans big cloak,) floats in his study attempting to master the art of levitation, while he is being spied on by Loki, Asgardian god of evil. At this point, Loki is pure evil and not the ambiguous, non-binary imp of today. As we've seen multiple times before, Doc isn't so hot on the security thing, mystic or physical so any magic user can peek on what's going on inside the Sanctum Sanctorum. Doc may be in the same study we've seen before, but the Sanctum's depiction has always been really inconsistent so who knows?

Loki spends several panels in long-winded exposition for the audience's sake which boils down to "I will trick Doctor Strange into stealing Thor's hammer for me!" He conjures a cool looking insect type sigil above his cauldron (which is really just a hole in the ground) and pops into Doc's Sanctum delivering Doc quite a surprise! He even dressed in odd chains for the occasion and blaming the "evil" Thor for his predicament!

Now, the Avengers have been around nearly as long as Doc has at this point and Loki has been annoying Thor for longer than that. Doc is also a highly skilled and well informed magic user. It seems to be stretching suspension of disbelief to think Doc is completely unaware of who Loki is. Yet, he seems to have never heard of Loki here. I guess no one had answered that Village Voice ad for continuity coordinator yet.

Doc's All-Purpose Amulet probes Loki's chains not suspecting that the evil he senses is Loki, not the fake Thor chains. "Dude! Only Thor's gnarly hammer can free me!" "Okay dude, but I need a piece of the hammer to cast the proper spell!" "What a coincidence! I have this little sliver of leather from the handle that I've been carrying around since the beginning of time!" "Perfect! Let's go!"

Doc throws the sliver into his own cauldron, mumbles some mumbo-jumbo and viola, a metal hand rises from the cauldron, flies off and grabs Thor's hammer. He's in mid-flight so he's got no where to go but down. Loki is able to see this and then imagines a giant version of himself standing on the earth with a giant version of the hammer, apparently unaware of the massive gravity disruption giant Loki with giant Mjolnir would cause.

Doc, using his own investigative skills and the All-Purpose Amulet sees there is no evil in that little, tiny bit of leather and realizes "It was Loki all along!" He might have been smart enough to deduce this, but not smart enough to not say it out loud. Loki's sharp ears (even though covered by his costume) catch this and he attacks Doc. Doc threatens to stop the spell which has stolen the hammer, which is probably something he should have done at that moment.

What follows is a visually spectacular battle between the two. Doc is severely outmatched by Loki, but soldiers on. There's some back and forth where Doc imprisons Loki who shrugs it off and Loki imprisons Doc who has a much more difficult time escaping. Using illusion images of himself, Doc hides in the next room, changes to his spirit form, sneaks up on Loki and cancels his "steal Thor's hammer spell."

The hand disappears and the caption reads that "time spins back, back... until, before Thor's fall finished..." Does this mean that Thor went splat? Did the spell rewind the world, like Superman in the first Christopher Reeve movie? The world may never know.

"Oh, hell!" thinks Loki, "I really need to hurry things along." Doc attempts to entrap Loki in the Purple Dimension, but that doesn't work. Doc uses the All-Purpose Amulet to throw up a shield as a last resort. Loki crouches like a monkey and uses what looks like a floppy lightning bolt to pummel Doc. It's quite a ridiculous panel! I love it!

Thor flies toward the Sanctum as Loki prepares to administer the coup-de-grace. "Damn it! Gotta go, Doc!" Loki's spirit form returns to Asgard as Thor flies by the Sanctum. We get a close-up look at Ditko's Thor. It's definitely different from the Kirby rendition, but it certainly isn't bad. In fact it's slightly more realistic.

Just wait until Kirby draws Doc again in a couple of months!

Thor's hammer stops tingling so he doesn't visit Doc but flies by the big, round Vishanti window as Doc looks out. Doc says some platitudes on how good must always triumph over evil out loud to himself and our story ends.

Well that was exciting! We get a truly one-sided battle where Doc is really overwhelmed by his foe. As a bonus, we get an Avenger guest starring. But that's really a cock-tease since he's more plot device than character. I really wish I could ask Lee and Ditko if Thor actually died in this story and was magically un-splatted. Visually, the battle between Loki and Doc is great. Ditko is getting more and more imaginative depicting magic. He is also getting lazier when it comes to backgrounds and they're mostly negative space. I suppose it helps when the funky chairs don't distract from the bolts of bedevilment. Overall, it was nice to have Doc interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe again, especially in his own series.

[the-epic-hiram-lows]

i would LOVE director's commentary on your favorite moodboard(s)

OMG, you just gave me license to be so pretentious, anon. Thank you. I will try to make this DVD commentary as entertaining and insightful as possible.

These will be very long, so I will do one per post. Let's go in chronological order.

Penelope Blossom

For clarity, I will go L-R from each row, starting at the top.

I had about 5-6 glove options, but they all came off too garish. I mostly settled on this one because of the unsettling normalcy of the backdrop. While Penelope is a gothic heroine, her type of evil lurks in the most mundane of places.

I swear I have a clear image of Penelope playing a piano. If not canon, it feels right. That was the cherry on top of this sundae. I searched far and wide for the right traumacore image with this theme. Lots of options were too specific. I am so happy I found this one, which is nearly the exact quote I searched for, and had a red theme.

I hate that I chose this, and keep kicking myself for doing two wardrobe-based pictures in the same row, though a good 45% of me thinks that their existing on the same row evokes a story, and makes it look intentional. Also, this is Dolce.

This one came up while searching for an entirely different Penelope-related picture. I think it is the first one I found. It felt like such a happy coincidence I didn't bother searching for anything similar. The shoe was already red, which really makes it seem fated that it showed up in a completely unrelated search. I love that it feels distinctly 80s. Not only is that the era of Penelope's origin story, but it shows Penelope's range. Who else can effortlessly flow from 80s pulp to gothic Victorian?

I spent at least a full hour trying to find the perfect photo of old Hollywood hair to crop. It didn't even have to be red. Nothing worked. I must have searched 10 terms. I even resorted to Google. Finally, I just searched 'hair extension' in hopes of an extreme close up. I ended up falling in love with the simplicity of this image. It really enhanced the 'fox in the snow' color palette I wanted- more on that later. I'm not thrilled with the color job (it was a warm blonde originally. I just enhanced the reds to the nth degree) but it'll do. I had to put red hair in the center because it defined her entire path. Had her genes been slightly different, the Blossoms would not have adopted her with nefarious intent.

This is as literal as it is metaphorical. On a metaphorical level, the keys reflect that she is a captor (and, within that, another metaphor- most of the captivity she causes is psychological.) The keys also serve as a literal encapsulation of the aesthetic she curated. Of course, that aesthetic also largely informs the genres of her story lines. The aesthetic also shows a deep attachment to the past. She chooses nostalgia over convenience (keys over doors that lock themselves,) but not because she enjoys reminiscing. Speaking of the past, though she is a captor now, she was a captive in the past she clings to.

Probably too on-the-nose. I debated this, then told myself any other representation of her poison plants would either be too ambiguous or not aesthetically cohesive.

I love this next to the previous picture. A two frame story. What really made me go 'JACKPOT' was the layers upon layers of Penelope's story it applies to. Firstly, it's a goblet. This is an obvious nod to G&G- the blue juice, the aesthetics of her campaign and the game as a whole, and the scene with Alice in the bathroom. It also echoes of the poison challenge she made Veronica and Betty complete. That brings me to the next element- the fact the photo is a representation of being poisoned. Due to cropping, I'm not 100% sure it comes through, but the photo is someone collapsed on the floor with a spilling goblet. It's a trope we've seen a million times. We know that poison is one of Penelope's signature weapons of choice. Through which medium? Gardening. And what is spilling out of that goblet? Rose petals. Specifically, red roses. It is as if Penelope left a kiss of death for someone as a calling card (fitting, given her former profession.) The flowers are as delicate as they are unassuming, like any good femme fatale. It also serves as a stealthy nod to The Flowers in the Attic.

This is what she wants most, is it not? In some ways, she reminds me of one scene in The Killing of a Sacred Deer (if you haven't seen it, please do,) where the antagonist tells his ambiguously deserving victim "I don't know if what is happening is fair, but it's the only thing I can think of that's close to justice." Penelope, pathologically stuck on the past, can only focus on vengeance. It is not fair that she suffered, so she must make others suffer. There is no changing the past, so the people who caused her suffering must pay for it. However, Penelope is lawful evil. She does not act out of apathy or a pure love for depravity. She has a code. See: the challenges she forced the core four to do. If Penelope wanted to, she had ample opportunity to simply murder them. She didn't need to provide an antidote for the poison at the end of the game, either, but Penelope has a love for the game. While you could (and maybe should) argue this is also plot armor in action, I think it shows that Penelope has some sort of internal moral code that informs her villainous logic. Sure, Hal died, but that's because someone had to pay... and Hal committed the worse sin of all: failing to deliver what Penelope needed of him. So, yes, there is some 'honor' in her evil... but, more importantly, honor is what she hopes to achieve through the vengeance. Who will give a little orphan girl the honor she deserved? Nobody did, so she must retroactively honor that girl's suffering with revenge.

Miscellaneous/broad notes now! The second I was tasked with doing a Penelope mood board, I had an immediate color scheme in mind. I wanted a pale, fiery, striking palette that still had a dark gothic feel. Looking back, I wish I toyed with it more, but I stayed true to the image of greys, whites and reds cloaked in darkness.

I also immediately knew at least 4 of the 9 image concepts I wanted. All of the mood boards were difficult for their own reasons- for Penelope, it was narrowing down options, which is a good problem, all things considered.

I decided very early on that I wanted my mood boards to be a psychological study. They must treat every delusion as reality, because they are firmly grounded in the subjects' mind set and self image. For instance, I would not put something like 'shut up you smarmy bastard' on a Bret board. That is exterior perception. I would love to do more broad mood boards later on, where I tackle the character design, including fan reception and/or in-universe reception to the character, but I nixed that for my first round of mood boards. Instead, I told myself I need to tap into every ounce of empathy in my body and tell the story Penelope tells herself. Some things, like the set of keys, do double as an Easter egg of sorts. They apply to Penelope as both a victim and a perpetrator, but I don't think that is something Penelope is exceptionally ignorant to (see: Alice Cooper.)

I originally wanted an extreme close-up of baroque applique detailing as homage to her fashion sense (baroque, Victorian, the occasional military and circus reference.) I have no real reason for nixing this, but it was one of the first images I knew I wanted.

The reason I went with Penelope for my first mood board was: I got an ask requesting a mood board, but didn't want to decide who its subject would be. I went into the Riverdale chat and said "name a character." The first response was @serialkillerbettycooper saying Penelope. One of the intriguing early replies was Caramel the Cat, which I am high key considering.

The end! I will come back with Jughead commentary next time. If you've made it this far, I am seriously impressed and love you very much. Also, I didn't proofread this, so if you see errors/repetition... no you don't, actually!

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Bittersweet anon here, i hope this doesn't annoy you or is too long or anything and you don't have to post it if you don't want to but i just wanted to share my favorite bits of the threat with you because some parts of it made me think about our conversation about this whole thing:

"It is clear to everyone that this relationship is open to interpretations ranging from poly, to open with a +1, to platonic soul mates, etc right? And that this is left ambiguous due to the nature of the self-insert medium?" (this was a poll question he posted, where 98% of people answered yes and only 2% said no)

"I got a bunch of hate during Chapter 3 because I didn't explicitly state exactly what the relationship was, despite openly stating that any interpretation be it romantic, platonic, etc. was valid and welcome! No one was ever told no, or that they were wrong."

"These seemed to be people who were relatively new to my work, and(...) weren't there for the panic that swept through when Seth appeared and people thought Alphonse was going to break up with (listener), or that the relationship would change in a radical way."

"But damn, there were a few really loud folks during Chapter 3 that stole a lot of the joy from me during that time. Imagine telling a queer creator that they're baiting because they didn't pat your head and tell you you're the one true correct interpretation. Yikes!"

"It got to the point where I was questioning myself, wondering if I had drastically misjudged my audience and understanding of expectations. But...no, I think it was just a few people whose expectations from other creators didn't translate to how I do things."

"Which is fine, I don't want to appeal to everyone, and I create for me first and foremost. My art is for my joy, my story, my heart. But if you want to be a jerk about it, I will probably tell you to go fuck yourself moving forward."

"For those of you who have been supportive, voiced additional support in the face of the most bad faith shitty takes the fandom has ever seen, or just vibed in your own lane and enjoy my boys in peace...bless you. You keep me going. <3"

"It means a lot to me that interpretations like this exist and are valid. There's so many stories about jealousy and bitterness and miscommunication that would blow up a relationship like that. Sometimes it's nice that people can grow together and just be family!"

"I cross posted this on YouTube and got such a lovely response from the community there as well. Thank you all for the validation, I was really miserable after Chapter 3 wrapped but this comforts the hell outta me."

it doesnt annoy me at all!! to tell the truth i was worried about the author when you told me about the hate they got for choosing to keep it open. it's extremely frustrating to me that soany people target queer creators or queer media in general for not being what they personally consider Perfect, as if not fitting one specific mold makes it irredeemable fsr??

like ive seen ppl accuse media with a roch cast of queer characters where a few happened to die as "bury your gays trope" like no!! thats not how it works!! gay characters can die the problem is when you kill off your only rep!!

an auhor can leave something open to interpretation, especially smth like this where like the listener is a character and you're trying to make a large group comfortable, that's not baiting. the characters are even canonically gay and open to polyamory, like, someone's personal interpretation of the relationship status doesnt change that??

im happy to hear the author is feeling better now nd that they got support too! thanks for sharing these w me since i couldnt look at the thread on my phone, i appreciate it!! i might not be in the fandom but i do like when people tell me aboit the stuff they like so im always happy to listen when you send messages about bittersweet! (same goes for any other ask ive gotten that just wanted to talk about their beloveds!!)

[camgirlsurvivalguide]

Too Little, and perhaps Too Late: The short-comings of MFC as a platform

I know how sick and fucking tired I am of hearing this exact phrase but I will reiterate because it’s important: we’re living through rough times. The pandemic coincided with a massive shift for digital SW, from a realm that was largely live stream (which in a lot of ways was very much booming then) to a content creation platform that by and large took the entire world - SW and vanilla - by storm.

MFC is not a household name. It never has been. The average person doesn’t know what MFC is, and even the average porn consumer likely just thinks of it as one of the sites that pop up as an ad here and there while browsing other sites. Even in the “hayday” (which I’d argue was probably between 2014 and 2018), the pool of people in the know was small, especially in comparison to how prolific OnlyFans has become in broader (vanilla) society.

When established camgirls moved to OnlyFans in the wake of declining traffic and declining mental capacity for live streaming, especially those of us who were five or more years into constantly grinding, we created the foundation for the platform that quickly attracted non-SW to the site as soon as the pandemic occurred. The timing was the perfect storm. With an interface identical to Instagram, it was familiar even to the most vanilla or casual of audiences. With the concurrent rise of subscription-based payment modalities, people felt as comfortable clicking “subscribe” to a $5 a month page as they did with signing up for Netflix.

MFC has not had the same luck. Yes, strategic interface choices and payment structures were conscious decisions on OnlyFans’ part, but I cannot stress enough how heavily luck played into the explosion of OnlyFans as a platform. As much as what I’m about to say (eventually, after I’m finished my characteristic long winded ramble*) may be counter to this point, OnlyFans also inevitably did draw a significant portion of MFC users away from the platform and toward OnlyFans instead. Cheaper (sometimes), faster, easier to use, more transparent. The “tokens” thing was and still is an interesting concept** (again, I’ll get into this in a second), but seeing an obvious dollar amount to subscribe with and clearly defined dollar amounts to spend on individual creators pages themselves cleared any ambiguity about spending for the consumer. For better or for worse, OnlyFans is a SW-consumer platform for consumer dummies. It simplified everything a casual user was looking for out of a digital SWer, and then grew from there.

This is not to say live streaming is dead. Live streaming is bigger than it EVER has been before - but this also means MFC has even more competition now than it ever had in the past. We were the first live streamers the internet had, and for a while, the only live streamers the internet had. We were here before Instagram live, YouTube live, TikTok live, hell we were here when Twitch was justin.tv and even then, the average person had no idea justin.tv even existed.  reference notes for internet history nerds: MFC was founded in 2004, justin.tv (which later became Twitch) was founded in 2007. By 2010, MFC was considered the largest adult live streaming platform on the internet (which also means on the internet itself, since ... others didn’t ... exist yet). Justin.tv was initially a free for all live streaming platform, but after developing a successful gaming section, it moved its gaming component to a site called Twitch in June of 2011 - later dissolving justin.tv and solely becoming Twitch in 2014, which was then quickly acquired by Amazon that same year. Tl;dr - MFC was first, and it was king. 

*re: users migrating to OnlyFans: many of my biggest contributors on MFC did not move to OnlyFans strictly because their interest is live streaming, not content creation. Over the past year that I’ve been on Twitch, I’ve seen the return of many old names that remember me from MFC but simply haven’t seen me since, because they don’t like OnlyFans. Live stream consumers are still live stream consumers - it’s not as cut and dry as “OF stole all our people!”.

**re: tokens instead of dollar amount: Twitch uses this in the form of bits. It is still a strategy that works on other live streaming platforms - so I’m not necessarily saying that MFC using the token modality is a poor choice, but I am stressing that during a time where people are keeping their wallets closer to their chests, precise understanding of how much something costs may be more important to users now than it was before.

Alright kids, history lesson concluded. Now you know. Back to the topic at hand.

MFC consumers are unique - but in their uniqueness, I personally feel that the user base that was once largely exclusive to MFC now have options to have both of their primary needs met on other competing sites. Consumers on MFC are looking for two things: personal connection and sexual gratification. For some, having both needs met simultaneously is necessary - but for many others, dividing and conquering is likely a cheaper and higher quality strategy. A user who wants to get off will go to places that are cheaper or have more immediate access (aka OnlyFans), and that same user who wants to feel a sense of community or comfort from a live streamer can go to Twitch to have those needs met over there. 

Even for the most dedicated MFC users, the history of site culture, for better or for worse, has likely impacted overall satisfaction for using MFC itself. There is massive pressure on dedicated MFC users - those with recognized usernames, at least - to provide their performer with tokens often on an hourly basis, and sometimes, depending on their reputation, the expectation is to spend a lot an hour. There is little in the way of anonymity for a user. The second they enter a room, their name pops up in the viewer list, and model expectations immediately kick in. Some of us even lurk other models rooms from separate member accounts or as guests to see members we consider “our tippers” (for better or for worse) and feel a massive sense of loss or disappointment if other camgirls are being tipped by “our tippers” more than they tip us. 

In so many ways, expectation is the thief of joy, and this is playing a role on both sides of the MFC experience: for camgirls and their audiences. We need expectations about tipping because for many of us, it’s our sole or primary form of livelihood. When our goals aren’t met, our morale sinks. When our morale is low, we have less in our cup to pour from, impacting not only our own enjoyment of our jobs, but the experience of our viewers as well. Thus, the downward spiral.

Aside from literally forcing ourselves to keep on smiling and shaking ass, much of the issues experienced are in the hands of the MFC platform itself. Since the same team had no problem copying Instagram for their interface, having MFC improve their homepage in a Twitch-esque way even if only slightly could help new users (particularly those familiar with Twitch) feel more familiar on MFC. Main page integration of MFC Share visibility would work wonders for our video stores. The bare minimum would be consulting models themselves about site functionality and interface - an open forum of any sort for MFC developers to receive feedback is a pipe dream of course, but at this point, the state of things does call for drastic measures.

Very little of this is actively helpful for you as an MFC streamer right now, during a time crisis more or less, so I’ll hop off the lecture podium and begin the workshop component. Thank you for your patience. I will never, ever stop being wordy, so if you’ve made it this far, congratulations - you’re just as big of a nerd as I am.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

- Forget everything you knew about what you used to earn on MFC; focus on the future, not the past. Re-frame your tokens per hour goals, or throw them out the window entirely, because they’re not likely to serve you well right now if you’re already struggling. Create a stream schedule and stick to it. Focus on hours streamed, not tokens made. Hope for the best.

- Up your quality as well as your content production. Lean on familiarity marketing, and increase your visibility. Twitch is huge right now and a lot of MFC viewers, particularly die-hards, are splitting their time and money between platforms. Learn how to use OBS, create “stream starting soon” screens, “BRB” screens, “Bath show starting soon” screens - stuff like that. Jack up the quality of what your set-up looks like as much as you can so that you appear attractive physically but also in terms of digital (and professional) set up style.

- Do more. More streams. More videos for MFC Share. More content for OnlyFans, more advertising on Reels, more advertising on Twitter, more hours more content more hours more content more hours more content --

...yeah. I know. That’s where it’s come to, in a lot of ways. It’s either relentless patience (which a lot of us don’t have the financial freedom for), or aggressive and constant ‘more more more’ which most of us just don’t possess the capability for anymore. 

I’d strongly recommend revisiting whether or not you want to continue on MFC, particularly if its your (perhaps failing) primary form of income. Obviously there is and always will be money to be made on MFC. Diehard users will likely stick around until the platform literally falls into ruin, and there is always the potential for new users to fall in love with the experience and become dedicated supporters. 

The question here is ... do you want to ride this out? Are you over it? Are the emotional, financial and time costs outweighing the pay? Do you feel as though you want to continue streaming on the platform while it’s experiencing the issues it’s currently experiencing? What if the issues never get resolved?

We’re in recession, “post”-pandemic, during a time of massive inflation. We, as creators, are under more pressure now than ever to be making the type of income we used to make, while relying on supporters who have less to spend than they used to. I hate to sound doom and gloom here, but this is a very, very challenging time, particularly for MFC camgirls for all of the reasons listed above (and more, I’m sure). 

My only strategic advice is to diversify income and go where the money is most likely to be. Reels for advertisement (and the potential for virality, which isn’t a word but you get what I mean) are a more sure fire way to draw traffic to OnlyFans than using MFC. 

This is a heavy post. I don’t want to deflate anyone, but I’m being realistic when I say the vast majority of us right now are likely struggling. You’re not alone, this isn’t the end and there will be another time in the sun - but now we’ve got to work three times as hard for half the pay, and if that’s what it means to make ends meet, we simply have to rise to the occasion.

[applin-bottom-jeans]

trying to reorganize my life for new years

through the power of agile brainrot i'm doing a new thing for time tracking and i kind of want to share it here (especially since i don't have a real update for pigeon-splice like i wanted)

so last year i tried to figure out organizational methods for the stuff i had in my life because my current system - writing down weekly todos and then breaking those into daily tasks - wasn't really working, both in the short term (large tasks that need to be done during the day get kicked, forever) and long term (no tracking for long term projects with deadlines)

but then two things happened

i read up on agile stuff

i got put on a better release type of my meds and holy shit i am less wiaefrjueiwahjfdeioswAFHeouihf (and then got put back on the old version because of a miscommunication between docs and then put back on the new version, more on that later)

I'm not a big fan of kanban because i feel like in card form seeing all of the cards you have in your queue gets extremely overwhelming, especially if you dont have a good way of organizing them by tag (so really, i just hate trello).

but scrum. im in a deep love-hate relationship with scrum. Here's my understanding of scrum, which may not be entirely accurate, with commentary -

Sprint - a length of time where work is measured, usually 2 weeks - no comment, perfect length of time, love that

scrum points - how much work you think a task will take, which will help determine the amount of work you have planned for a sprint - this can get ambiguous depending on the work you do. What happens if something goes wrong? What happens if you need more information and need more time? I understand that there are many tasks that you can learn to estimate well, but at what point is a bad estimation due to your performance or outside factors?

burndown chart - how many scrum points you estimated vs how many you've actually done - this helps with the issue with points and i think its good in theory but also i really don't want a chart of how poorly im doing thats easily accessible by someone higher up in the food chain who might want to decide who to lay off

Sprint planning - a meeting where you plan what will be in a sprint - great. no commentary.

standup - a meeting with your team every day to discuss what you're working on - introspection is good but why do i have to tell my entire team this information every single day. i have an anxiety disorder

sprint review - discussing how the sprint went and how much you got done - good, great

sprint retrospective - basically the same as the review but with vibes - not sure why this is a different meeting but ok

Basically i like the idea of scrum and i really like the philosophy of its work tracking but i feel like the implementation of it in a team turns it into glorified micromanagement. But this is for personal use? Seems good, lets try it out

This still doesn't really help solve the long term project problem but for that i organized the year into financial quarters, like a completely normal person.

So for every quarter this year, i'm planning on having a set of quarter wide goals (duration measured in a month or more), a sprint level goal (duration of days - weekish), and a daily goal (should be as simple as possible).

My general goals for the year is get better at art to the point where i'm finally happy with it, get through all the craft supplies i've accumulated through the years, do big stupid projects, and get healthier i guess. This quarter I'm working on a big BD2 project, a couple of sweaters, a few art challenges, and cleaning my apartment. In the end, my breakdown for this looks like this:

Q1:

Quarter-wide

* BD2 Project

* Two sweaters

* 3 art challenges

* Deep Clean apartment

* Ramp up back to exercising regularly

* Get 6 pages into the pokemon cross stitch project

* Get 2 haircuts (usually i get 1.5 every 3 months...)

Every sprint

* Run 4 times

* Make 1 good painting

* Make 1 practice painting (Q1 emphasis on portraits)

* Make 1 jewelry set (necklace, or earrings, or whatever)

* Buy food

* Clean out previously cleaned parts of the apartment

Every day

* Draw a bird (practice painting)

For this sprint I'm about to start, Bidoof (I named my sprints after dinky pokemon), I have the following specific goals which may intersect with the list above:

Ooblets Painting

Carpenters Close To You Practice Painting

Ahmed Aldoori's 100 head challenge

Clear out my closets

Make a fish pendant and lil anchor earrings

Page 2 of the pokemon cross stitch

Make squares for the current sweater i'm making

"Wtf is LSDJ" and beg people to listen to what i come up with

Get the music plan into LSDJ

And for any tasks that I didn't finish, they either

get kicked to the next sprint, in this case Carbink

get obliterated to hell

so i have the flexibility sometimes to push things off if they're not working out. i have already kicked out a lot of the LSDJ stuff because last week i had to go back on my old meds so i had to transition to old antidepressants and then transition back again to the new antipressants and my brain didn't like that. but its fine, we're fine. help

I then have a todo list i make for the day in the morning and i try to grab whatever i can from the goals list.

and yeah. i hope this helps getting my stuff together for this year. i already feel more on top of things but that might just be the antidepressants so

[chirpsythismorning]

Hi. How do you think Byler will happen in s5? I mean with Mike and Eleven and then Mike and Will?

I agree with a lot of bylers that Mike and El are probably going to break up at the start of s5.

Some fans even speculate they already broke up off-screen during the 2 day time-skip at the end of s4, which is definitely possible.

Either way, I think it's likely they’ll settle things right off the bat because that’s just how the Duffers roll.

Think about how when it came to the whole Nancy/Jonathan/Steve Love triangle, they made sure to always have Nancy be (at the very least ambiguously) separated from Steve before her and Jonathan teamed up?

In s1 it was a little more gradual and subtle, but by s2 they jumped right into the nitty gritty, having Nancy and Steve’s conflict at the very beginning, which then in turn allowed viewers to focus on Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship for the rest of the season.

And so, Mike and El ambiguously breaking up at the start s4? Only for Will and Mike to go on a road trip in the desert for the rest of the season?

That, in and of itself, is proof enough that they want us to consider looking at Mike and Will as being a possibility, as this is literally a technique they use for introducing new romantic pairings.

Although s4 byler operates throughout like s2 jancy, it ends like s1 jancy. At the end of s4, Mike’s monologue tries to make us believe things are perfect in paradise, which parallels quite nicely with the way Nancy and Steve being thrown back together in the s1 epilogue tries to make us believe things are perfect in paradise for them as well, only for us to find out at the start of s2 that this wasn't at all the case.

Which is why I believe that s5 byler has to essentially follow the same formula as s2 jancy again.

Because at the end of s4, we’re left in a spot where we’ve had all this build-up for Mike and Will, and so if they are ending up together, and are even perhaps going to be spending a good portion of time on screen together during the last season, it wouldn’t make sense to have all their tension be riddled with the audience feeling icky because Mike and El are still technically together, for the same reason it never would have worked with Nancy/Jonathan/Steve.

What I think is interesting about byler though, is that technically Mike and El’s break up was so ambiguous, that we don’t even know if they actually got back together?

Like we keep talking about them breaking up in s5, but I honestly wouldn’t even be surprised if the writers frame their confrontation in a way that acknowledges them as having been broken up since Lenora and having stayed that way. 

The only way I could see them dragging out the ambiguity of Mike and El's romance, is if the audience knows they're not together anymore at the beginning, but we're seeing Will assume the opposite until near the end. That's the only way I feel like it would work though, because otherwise all of their scenes wouldn't feel right. And it definitely needs to feel right.

After years of dancing around Mike and Will as a romantic pairing, they need to make it clear that they want us to be rooting for them. Which is why they're likely to continue following the formula they've always followed.

But the thing is, Mike and El's break-up in early s4 is equally as ambiguous as Nancy and Steve's break-up was in early s2. They didn't outright say it, but one of them couldn't say I love you to the other, followed by that same person going on a trip with someone who has feelings for them... This means that s5 can't get any more ambiguous than that (especially considering Mike and El's own history with breaking up as it is). There isn't much in between in there, and so that's very likely how it will go down from what I've gathered.

TBH, it all largely depends on how they address Mike’s monologue, I guess. Technically El didn’t seem too happy about what he had to say, and so why would would they even be back together because of that?

That might also explain both Mike and El’s behavior once they returned to Hawkins. It’s not that his monologue didn’t work even, it’s that the monologue in and of itself wasn’t Mike saying, “Hey I know you broke up with me, but please take me back,”. And even if it was, El was the one who was implied to end things between them in the first place, just like in s3. Which is why in s3, it required her confronting him to address things in order for them to get back together. Which means we would need her confronting him and verbally confirming that she wants to be back together (again). But we didn’t get that at the end of s4...

If anything El is in the exact same position Mike was at the end of s3. He told her how he felt, but she didn’t get to say how she felt and now things are kind of left in the unknown. I think luckily it's very likely El knows Mike doesn't feel about her the way he's trying to convince her and everyone (and himself) he does, and so she has no reason to play along in getting back together the way Mike felt obligated to between s3-4. That’s also why I think she is going to be the main catalyst for them ending things, because the ball is still in her court and I highly doubt she's going to say i love you too (too)... If anything, she's going to dump his ass (again).

Regardless of how it plays out, I see that happening fairly early on, most likely between 5x01-5x02.

I do hope we'll also get to see El actually acknowledging byler in a way that is substantial, before it’s out in the open and obvious to everyone else in the story.

Something I only realized recently, and what I find very interesting, is that we don’t really ever have El acknowledging Will and Mike’s friendship... like, at all.

Besides that one mention in her letter at the start of s4, that’s the most we’ve got since s1 of El actually acknowledging their relationship (and in those few cases, she wasn’t really acknowledging it). It’s as if her perspective of her relationship with Mike is worlds apart from whatever she views Mike and Will's relationship as being.

And so, how convenient that the first time El is really going to be looking at them, she’ll finally be seeing them for what they truly are: not platonic whatsoever.

When it comes to byler and how that will play out throughout the final season, my take on things might be a teensy bit controversial...

I think that something is going to happen at the end of 5x02 (bc of some foreshadowing/just a feeling), a huge cliffhanger, possibly related to Mike and his presumed death (he will resurrect don’t fret).

I’m leaning less towards him dying and more towards him sacrificing himself in some way related to the upside down. I don’t see why they would foreshadow him going there so much if he isn’t going to end up there, but also it seems weird to even emphasize him going in the upside down if it’s already presumed to be leaking into Hawkins, like it doesn’t even seem that scary for Mike to be stuck there in that scenario? So maybe it’s a gates being closed at the last second situation, with him then him being stuck there? 

I do think Will is likely to join him, though this is where the controversy comes in. 

I think Mike is going to be out on his own, most likely between 5x03-5x04, with the cliffhanger at the end 5x04 (vol 1) being Will finding him/joining him somehow. This means 1-2 episodes of Mike and Will being completely separate-- GASP

Because of the foreshadowing placing Mike in the upside down, notably, and yet still shortly BEFORE Will, is why I see it happening this way. Though, none of this rules out Will confronting Vecna, as I think a lot of evidence points to the fact that s5 will start off in a way that will place Will's connection with Vecna at the center of it all. This is also why I think they have been heavily implying s5 will focus on will a great deal whenever they talk about s5, bc it's a lot less spoilery for them to give us crumbs for what early s5 entails vs what late s5 will entail.

And so I do believe 5x01-5x02 will largely involve them planning and executing their plan within the first official phase of the now impending apocalypse. And this phase will no doubt impact Will in a tremendous way, arguably the most. The Duffer's have referred to the first few hours of s5 in a way that almost made it sound seperate from the rest, which is kind of why I'm intrigued to place Mike's presumed death/sacrifice at this point that seperates the first few hours from the rest. Where near the end of Will's sort of confrontation with Vecna in early s5, Mike is going to be the one taking the brunt of the effects of that.

This could also parallel nicely with the ending of 1x03 when they find Will's body. Considering how much they've talked about going full circle back to s1, it would be interesting to see a cliffhanger that resembles that one from The Body in particular, because it's honestly so painfully beautiful that I think a future scene paralleling it might be the end of me.

Regardless of my wants and dreams about how exactly this could all play out, I think that the cliffhanger for 5x04 is likely going to involve byler ending up together in the upside down, reunited after being apart for some time.

I should also say that I do indeed think S5 could be split into two volumes again (most of my theory is based on that assumption, so if that ends up not being the case, lets just pretend this never happened).

I think this because just in terms of promotion, it’s easier to get consumers to buy things when the hype is still there. They have numerous collaborations they do with businesses with like Doritos, Sour Patch Kids, JanSport, and dozens of others. And I am willing to bet the sales were a lot better for products with ST slapped on them during s4 than previous seasons, solely bc of the fact that the hype lasted for months as opposed to maybe a month at most. 

Not only that, but with it being the final season, the show is going to be gone forever after this. It's over (minus the enigmatic spin-off). So it would make sense for them to stretch out the very last run for as long as they can. The split also gives the Duffers more time to edit episodes in vol 2, all while vol 1 is premiering, just like they did for s4. 

And also just like s4, I think this approach creates a necessity for a cliffhanger to create hype in between. And I think that’s the perfect opportunity to hype of a reunion for Mike and Will after them being apart.

We’ve seen that separating them allows us to see more clearly how they feel about each other, especially Mike in s1 (and then how that impacted their relationship in s2).

And so if we were to get Mike, in canon, on our screens, everyone and their moms watching, acknowledging his feelings for Will, I do think it would make sense for him to be alone and thinking through some things, and with us sitting along for the ride.

And so them being apart for at least one episode is a given, because that will give us the excitement that comes with seeing them having those realizations while they are apart, followed by the excitement and anticipation that comes with them being face to face again. 

This would also allow the second half of s5 to scream s2 byler... just let that sink in.

Considering all of the foreshadowing singling out Mike and Will in particular in regards to the ud, we could be seeing them alone together for at least 1-2 episodes, though I still think during this time there will be some tension and denial going on. Maybe they fought before they initially got separated and things are still awkward despite them being relieved to be reunited. Or maybe during this time is when their final boss fight happens (paralleling their 3x03/4x02 fights). I do think that the denial is likely to be on Will's side mostly though post reunion, as we haven't seen their relationship from the perspective of Mike being in the know and Will being clueless, and so we're due for at least some of that before they get together.

But in all fairness, the likelihood that they’ll be surrounded by danger in the apocalypse, means a lot of their time together alone will most likely be spent in survival mode. I do think this would then be what the Duffers foreshadowed happening in s4, with byler in Jonathan's room in front of the upside down tapestry and then on the upside down couch in the cabin. (Not to mention, the Duffers saying s5 being inspired by LOTR: The Return of the King feels like pretty obvious hinting at Mike and Will in the upside down, with them being paralleled to Sam and Frodo already. So, there is indeed a lot to go off of here, all pointing to them being isolated, on a dangerous journey).

By 5x07 I would hope they’d finally be reunited with the others, but I think it’s still possible they could either be by themselves or at least hopefully interacting with a few other people at this point (Murray is going to pull up on them at some point, it is inevitable). I do think that this will be the episode that gets more serious in terms of leading to the inevitable...

Yes. I am a Mike and Will are going to officially be canon at the end of 5x07 truther (the grid the st writers posted on twitter agrees w me). I could definitely see their first kiss happening at this moment, seeing as the kiss in and of itself would be what's telling us they're together now basically.

For people that think 5x07 is too late, i'm sorry, this is just how slow-burn works. Their first kiss happening in vol 1 of s5 would be too soon, but it would also be too anticlimactic for them to wait for a first kiss until the very very end when they're happy and together in the epilogue. And so it’s most likely we'll get an almost or multiple (between 5x01-5x06), then a first kiss(es) in 5x07, and then maybe if we're lucky again during endgame goodbyes in the finale (5x08).

We know that the Duffers have said they have the last 30 minutes or so very clear in their heads, with them planning a bunch of endings for different characters, along with David saying for years that the ending is really beautiful, and so I have a good feeling that at least 1/3 of the series finale will be fluff, with a dash of bittersweet mourning, assuming at least one major character doesn't make it out alive. That thirty minutes or so will likely be used to just close off all those storylines nicely in a way that feels as satisfying as it can possibly be considering.

If there's anything I do feel confident about, it's that I think byler will end the series being framed in a way that’s quite similar to the ending of s1, where it acknowledges them as being connected to the party/dnd in a substantial way again, along with their other friends/family, but also with the two of them having their own little world separate from the others within that.

And El will also of course be a part of their life, with her family (as a sister/daughter) and friend, and yet with her too finally having her own world separate from everyone and being content with that. For so long she's been running away from people hurting her and as a result she's had to depend on others just to survive. I think she's always believed this was the only way for her and that because of this, being alone was a bad thing. When in reality I think she's going to come to realize being alone doesn't have to mean she's running away from someone or running towards someone else. On her own she's still worthy and she's more than enough. She is her own superhero. And she shouldn't have to feel less than just because she doesn't have to depend on others to dictate her worth for her anymore. She dictates that herself.

I hope (fully believe) they'll all find happiness!