#andrew's standards are questionable as is

[skyddish]

god bless jean for not frying neil's hair past recognition in the nest. the romance aspect of aftg might not've been the same if neil were bald toward the end :\

[palmettoshenanigans]

HERE'S WHY I LOVE ANDREIL SO MUCH

Their main language - one no one else seems to speak (except maybe Renee and Bee?? which would explain why Neil finds their vibes off putting and why they're the ones able to get close to Andrew like that) - is the language of Technicalities and Semantics. But here's the thing: when you speak Technicalities and Semantics, its all in the subtext and the text. But you don't assume everyone is going to be literate in text and have the wherewithal to also delve into the subtext! You can't! Because people don't really do that, at least not with the level of intention that Andrew and Neil do.

Example: "I should hope so."

Imagine this, pretend Riko is alive. He gets into a car accident, and he survives unscathed. His car takes the brunt of it. Someone during a press conference relays this to Neil and says, "But Riko is okay!"

Neil smiles, exercises the bare minimum of his PR training and says, "I should hope so."

But, notice. He said he should hope so. Not that he would hope so.

"I would hope so" means I'm suppose to hope that this person is okay according to moral standards, and I do

"I should hope so" means I'm suppose to hope this person is okay according to moral standards, but I don't

God forbid someone asks further questions about his feelings on the matter. No one would take "Technically I said-" seriously because people don't normally play that game. The technical differences between 'would' and 'should' lack relevant meaning in this context because that's a meta-level conversation and no one has time for that kind of tit for tat - except Andrew.

Let's do another one: "Did you need something?"

Someone comes up to Neil and he says, full of suspicion, "Did you need something?" They say yes and tell him their needs, then he directs them to someone who can fulfill them. But - they argue - they were asking him for help and he offered!

"No," he says, "I asked if you needed something; never said I'd be the one to do anything about it."

And that's why (in this hypothetical) Neil specifically said "Did you need something?" and not "Can I help you?" because he wasn't going to help you anyway so why offer it, even if you'd never meant to ask? Because just like he can trap someone with his words, someone else can trap him with his own words.

And as a writer whose Special Interest is Language and how it can be manipulated, I LOVE THAT!!!

An aspect of why and how Andrew and Neil fell for each other was because they both speak this language. Technicalities and Semantics. That's why Neil understood more about Tilda than Aaron. It's why Andrew understood the weight of 'Abram'. It's why "Nothing" and "I hate you" spoke more volumes to them than any soft words ever could have. It's why "Stay" was able to bring Neil back from the brink. It's why what they don't say is just as important as what they do because "never said yes" == "no" and "never said no" =/= "yes" are obvious to them but not to others!

And its why they throw their words back at each other from past encounters! Because "we both know what you said and we both know what you meant, and we both know that this applies here too and i'm going to prove it by quoting you directly, check mate now kiss me hypocrite" is their fucking LOVE LANGUAGE FIGHT ME RIGHT NOW

Listen to the actual words coming out of their mouth, pay attention to their technical meanings, and be willing to also parse the subtext, and you will be fluent in Andreil forever.

[padfootagain]

Love in Verses (XX)

Chapter 20 : My heart has made its mind up and I’m afraid it’s you

Hi! Here is a new chapter! Valentine’s day is here… wondering how Andrew is going to cope with it, huh?

I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think!

****

Pairing: Hozier x fem!reader (professor!AU)

Warnings: slow burn, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, tooth-rotting fluff in later chapters, some scenes in later chapters will have heavy sexual themes even if it’s not explicit nsfw description, so minors here

Summary: Your life seems perfect. You're engaged, your career is thriving as you become an assistant professor at Trinity College, and this Andrew Hozier-Byrne you're sharing an office with seems to be a nice guy you hope to call a friend soon. Life seems to be smiling at you... until everything goes sour. When your fiancé breaks up with you, your perfect world shatters. And when your colleague also gets his heart broken soon after, your shared office seems to be a curse rather than a blessing. But Andrew seems determined to mend your broken hearts... Will things finally go according to plan?

Word Count: 2477

Masterlist for the series – Hozier’s masterlist – Main masterlist

Valentine

My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you. Whatever you’ve got lined up, My heart has made its mind up And if you can’t be signed up This year, next year will do. My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you.

Wendy Cope

Andrew had a date tonight.

He hadn’t been on a first date since Sam, obviously, he felt rusty and nervous. He didn’t even know the woman, Alex had set up the date. Christina, that was her name. A year younger than him, working as a nurse at St James’s Hospital. Alex had showed him a picture, she was pretty. Apparently, she was nice and a lot of fun. Why not give her a chance?

Andrew was desperate at that point. Desperate to see if he could ever move on from Sam, desperate to prove himself that he didn’t have a crush on you. That this was nothing serious, just his heart longing for companionship when he felt so lonely these days. Besides, it was Valentine’s Day, he was so painfully lonely, he needed to focus on something else than his love life in shambles. He needed to try to move on. And if he did, he needed to do so with a woman who wasn’t you.

So, he had accepted Alex’s offer, had booked a table at a nice restaurant, had tried to look his best for tonight. Elwood was staying with Jon for the evening, he didn’t have to worry about going home late.

And now, there he was, running five minutes late as he walked inside the restaurant, but for his standard, he called that a win. Five minutes… who would care for five minutes?

Apparently, Christina would.

He had a shy but polite smile on his face when he spotted her across the room. He was polite as he took a seat. Meanwhile, she gave him a tight-lipped smile.

“Was there any traffic tonight?” she asked, and Andrew knew at once what she was talking about.

“Erm… it just… took me longer than I thought it would to drop my dog off at my brother’s. Sorry about that. I hope you didn’t wait for too long.”

“No, it’s okay,” she admitted, and she seemed to relax knowing the reason for his short delay. “It’s a nice place you’ve chosen, by the way.”

“Yeah? Glad you like it. Should we take a look at the menu, then?”

They quickly ordered their food, and then began the usual dance of questions that came with trying to learn the most basic things about a person while they waited for their meal.

“So… Alex told me you’re a professor? At Trinity?”

“I am,” Andrew nodded, before drinking a gulp of water. “Assistant professor, actually.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Erm… the paycheck, definitely,” Andrew joked, making Christina smile. “It’s a different rank at University�� extremely hierarchical organisation. I don’t have a chair. I give classes, I do research, but I don’t have the same prestige and don’t own a chair for my work.”

“Right…”

“Which is normal, I’m not complaining. Chairs are rare, I’ll probably have to wait another decade to get the rank of professor.”

She didn’t seem reassured by that, Andrew wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“For how long have you been working at Saint James?” Andrew asked back.

“A couple of years.”

“Do you like it there?”

“Yeah… I guess,” she shrugged, and Andrew waited for her to say more about the matter, but she didn’t.

“And so… what do you teach at Trinity?” she asked after a short silence.

“Erm… English. Contemporary poetry, mainly, but I cover a lot of modernism as well through novels.”

She blinked a couple of times.

“Right… so… you like books.”

He gave her an amused smile.

“You can say that.”

“The last book I’ve read was a mandatory reading in high school,” she admitted.

“The last time I cleaned up a wound without feeling sick was… never. So, I guess we’re even,” Andrew offered with a smile, and Christina nodded.

And it was alright, of course. People had many interests. And his partner didn’t have to be interested in the same things as he did. Sam was the perfect example of that. Still… he didn’t really know what to talk about next.

They spent the next few minutes making chit chat, but it was laborious at best. Andrew used a moment of silence in the conversation to take a look around. The restaurant was obviously busy on Valentine’s Day. The decoration was simple but aesthetically pleasing; candles and white or red roses added to each table to enhance the theme of the evening. There were only couples around.

Only couples…

“Andy?”

He turned around, recognising the voice in an instant.

He couldn’t help it, his face fell for a second, before he could summon the strength to hide his reaction.

The universe itself was set against him at this point…

He got up, forced a smile to greet Sam and Frank.

“It’s so funny finding you here!”

“Yeah… wasn’t expecting to see you!” he forced a smile.

Frank noticed Christina then.

“Oh, honey, we’re disturbing Andrew, I think. Sorry, about that,” he was genuine in his apology as he warmly smiled at Christina.

Sam flinched, but quickly smiled as well.

“Oh, sorry! Have a nice evening you two!”

They moved away quickly, reaching their own table. Just a couple of tables away. Right where Andrew could see them whenever he looked up from his plate.

Nice… grand…

“Erm… what are your hobbies?” he asked out of the blue, trying to get the conversation going again, if only to distract himself from Frank and Sam holding hands across their table.

“Oh… not much. I don’t really have the time for those… I like running.”

“Nice!”

“Do you like jogging?”

“Erm… not that much. But I love swimming.”

“I can’t swim.”

“Right… do you like the sea anyway? Like… the beach? Running on the beach, maybe?”

“Not really, no. I’m not very interested in the sea. It’s a little scary.”

“Oh, okay.”

Andrew focused on his meal, but with every painful question asked and answered, it was more and more obvious that they had nothing in common.

A couple of tables away, Frank and Sam were sharing food, a habit Andrew knew Sam hated. They were holding hands, and giggling, and looking so disgustingly in love, while he was on his own, while he wanted that intimacy back, while he thought of you…

Andrew wasn’t sure at which point of the evening you had popped into his mind, but you were all he could think of, right now. He had mentioned that he was going on a date, but you had not given him any details concerning your plans for the evening. You would call your friend Siobhán, you had mentioned some ice cream… were you reading? Watching crappy tv or a good movie? Had you changed your plans? Were you on a date as well?

Andrew couldn’t refrain the bitter taste of jealousy as he thought of you with someone else… as he imagined you in his shoes, at a nice restaurant, meeting with a stranger, and perhaps you would let him hold your hand across the table and would kiss him at the end of the evening, and even spend the night with him…

A wave of nausea made it impossible for him to finish his plate as he thought of you in another man’s bed.

The couple dining at the table right next to Andrew’s started raising their voices. Not enough to draw attention from the entire restaurant, but enough for Andrew and Christina to overhear everything. An argument was brewing. Jealousy and an unhealthy relationship at its peak.

In a matter of five minutes, the two were almost shouting at each other. Andrew and Christina exchanged an embarrassed look while the guy complained about how often they had sex.

And Sam was still there, every time he looked up. And you were all he could think of. And Christina was nice, sure, but they were absolutely incompatible on every level.

And then the last straw came.

“Are you religious?” she asked, and Andrew shook his head.

“No, not really, no.”

“Oh…”

“What about you?”

“Yes, very.”

“Oh…”

“Is that… like… are you just not going to church, or…”

“I… I don’t know. I’m an agnostic, I would say.”

“A what?”

“Agnostic. I don’t know if there’s a God up there or not. I’m… neutral, I guess you could say it like that. But I wouldn’t go to church even if I did believe in God.”

“Really? Why not?”

“I’m wary of any institution run by men that uses its power to dictate how people should behave, including in the most private parts of their lives.”

She blinked, struggling with this new information.

“So… you would never practice religion…”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Right… Cause it’s a very important part of my life.”

“And I respect that.”

“But you would not start believing.”

“Why would I?”

“For me?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Would you think it was okay if I asked you to give up on your faith to be in a relationship with me?”

“Of course not!”

“Then… how can you ask? We can have different beliefs…”

“But you’re wrong.”

“I can’t be wrong, Christina. It’s faith. And it’s the definition of faith to believe without proof. You can’t say I’m wrong, and I can’t say you are. We just have different faiths.”

She nodded, but had stopped eating.

Next to them the angry couple raised their voices again.

“Can I be brutally honest?” she asked, her voice softer now.

Andrew merely nodded.

“You’re clearly a really nice lad, Andy. And I’m not going to deny that Alex was right when he said that you’re definitely my type. But… it looks like we… don’t match.”

Andrew gave her a kind smile.

“I agree,” he nodded. “I don’t think our lives are very compatible.”

“Not really no.”

“You’re good craic though. And you’re… gorgeous, to be honest.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t think we’d be able to find common things to build a relationship on, though.”

“Me neither. Would you mind if we called it a night?”

“No… no, I don’t mind, I understand.”

“Thanks.”

They paid for their food, left the restaurant while the couple bickered and Frank and Sam were still in love. Andrew waited for Christina to get safely in an uber, before he would walk to his own car.

He heaved a sigh, tried not to cry.

Everywhere he went, Sam’s ghost followed.

Whatever he did, you were always on his mind.

Were you home safe and sound? What were you doing? Was there a man with you?

He reached for his phone, his car still silent in the carpark. He touched your name on his screen, and you answered after three rings.

“Andy?”

“Hi, Y/N! You’re alright ?”

“Sure! Just… about to watch some adorable romcom to remind myself of unattainable standards concerning men and relationships, will most certainly have a good cry over the fact that the man I wanted to marry is probably getting amazing sex with his new fiancée, and I will definitely eat my weight in ice cream. You? How was your date? It’s early still… did everything go well?”

“Argh… don’t mention it. Everything about it was awful.”

He described his evening, and you listened, commented, interjected every now and then.

“You deserve to eat your weight in ice cream too,” you stated.

“I think I do, yeah… although… I think I’ll just go to bed once I’m home.”

“Are you driving?”

“No, no… don’t worry. I just… I felt bad. So, I called you before leaving the parking lot in front of the restaurant. I can see all those disgustingly happy couples walk out of there hand in hand…”

“Outrageous. Don’t they know we’re mourning?!”

“No decency. And God, I hate Valentine’s Day…”

“Me too… I feel… so empty today. Frank and I used to always go to the cinema on Valentine’s Day. He always stole all my popcorn. I found that adorable.”

He heard you sniffing, his heart broke at the sound. He wished he could have been there, hold you tight until the tears would subside, until he could make you smile again.

“What would you have done with Sam?” you asked, your voice hoarse with sorrow.

Andrew shrugged, stared at the night sky, made utterly black by the clouds.

“A restaurant, probably. Flowers. Nothing too fancy, but it would have been nice.”

He struggled to swallow, his throat tightening.

“Frank and Sam were sharing their food.”

“Hmm? Yeah, Frank does that sometimes.”

“Sam hates it. She hates it. She never wanted me to touch her food. Why does she let him do that, then?”

A short silence, your answer in a whisper.

“To make him happy.”

Andrew pondered on your words. You were right, obviously. When he spoke again, his voice was low and soft, barely above a whisper.

“I really wish I didn’t have to do that again to be loved.”

“Do what?”

“Pretend. Change. Stop… being myself sometimes.”

You were quiet, but you were still there. He knew it. He could hear you breathing in the phone. And beyond that reassuring sound, he just knew you were listening. He was never sure with Sam.

“I’d really like that too,” you whispered, and he hummed in response.

A happy couple came out of the restaurant then. Andrew watched them reach their car, laughing, holding hands. He felt so fucking lonely… So utterly alone in this world. No one knew him like that anymore…

“Y/N?”

“Hmm?”

“Can you promise me something?”

“What is it?”

“Promise me you… promise me you’ll never change for me. Promise me you won’t pretend. I want you to…”

He cleared his throat, brushing the tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

“I want you to be yourself when I’m around. Can you do that?”

He heard you sniffing again. You were quiet for a moment, but Andrew knew you were nodding, he could hear the quiet hum that went with it.

“Andy?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. Thank you, Andy.”

You sniffed, struggled through a few words, but Andrew was patient, he was drying his cheeks on his sleeves anyway.

“I don’t want you to pretend either when you’re with me, you know?”

“I know.”

He was lying. He didn’t know. He didn’t know at all. He didn’t know how to be loved, except by not quite being himself.

You both remained silent for a while, but it was still reassuring to know that you were there, on the other end of the line. Andrew should have hung up then. He should have let you watch your cheesy movie, and eat your ice cream. Instead, he spoke again.

“I’ve finished Dante, by the way.”

He spent the next forty-five minutes talking about Inferno with you. And after the call had ended, and he was finally driving home, it was harder than ever to deny that he wanted you.

[aledethanlast]

I want to clarify something about my Lawyer!Andrew post:

Andrew is not doing this to impress people. In fact he actively doesn't want to impress people. He is done being a superman who holds everyone's lives in his hands. It's not good for his mental health when he's doing it and it's not good for anyone when that he fails, because the law is too big and some of these fuckers are just legitimately dumber and more guilty than his literal murderous mafia husband.

Anyways. Andrew wakes up in the morning, goes to his closet and shoves aside the 15k dollar Armani suits so he can put on the two piece he got at Macy's (then tailored to fit, cause he still has standards), and a matching tie.

He goes to the office. Brad asks him if he heard about the latest draft picks. Andrew stares him down until Brad goes to Andrew's desk and drops a quarter in the "Asking Andrew about Exy" jar. Andrew's coworkers seem to think that he's gonna buy the office a Foosball table with the jar money. They are wrong. It is for a new cat tower. Also, no Andrew hasn't seen it, but he got the rundown from Neil and Kevin, so he knows enough to tell Brad not to bother with a season pass for the Sealions this year.

He has two cases to deal with today. The first is a vehicular manslaughter charge. The client is pleading self defense, and that the victim was a stalker. Andrew likes her because, despite bursting into tears every time they have a trial prep session, she actually listens to instructions and knows when to shut the fuck up. He's confident.

The second is grand larceny. The guy is so super incredibly guilty but Brad gave him this case because he knows Andrew loves police misconduct cases and this one is just so full of protocol breaches that Andrew only had to show Neil the file for him to burst out laughing.

Janet says he has a call waiting. Janet is the highest paid paralegal in the county, because she also filters his celebrity mail. Technically Neil's pr firm still represents him, but Janet knows to turn down the DA's gala invitations without needing to argue with him.

He picks up the phone. It's the DA. The man invites him to the police gala because he knows Andrew ignored the emails. Andrew assumes the man was banking on Andrew giving a polite refusal he can wheedle or harangue into compliance. The man is new to the job, so Andrew will forgive this embarrassing miscalculation.

They spend the next hour discussing court dates for a certain case. Andrew's client for that one is disabled and only has partial aid, and he won't let them set court dates that they know she won't be able to attend. The DA, despite his embarrassing naivate, seems to be on the same page in this regard, so hopefully this will go well when they bring the matter to the judge.

In the span of this phone call, two of Brad's clients come into the office, and within five minutes of walking in are made to contribute to the jar. They don't get their questions answered, because he's on the phone, and they're not Brad.

He has court tomorrow. Court is annoying, because it's a room full of strangers who hear his name and forget why he's there, and he's not allowed to bring the jar. Court is a chore, because he has to walk people through their own idiocy, and then occasionally convince the room of just how stupid or brilliant it actually was.

Court is also, maybe, just a teensy bit fun, because whatever the stereotype of a lawyer is, Andrew really isn't it, and that makes people take him a lot less seriously until he starts quoting their words back to them faster than the stenographer.

(Janet also filters job offers. They tend to crop up every few months.)

(It used to be more fun, back in the early days when Neil would sit in sometimes, until he remembered just how horrifically boring the whole thing is. But that's fine. Andrew is happy having his own thing.)

But really, court is easy. It's a place where your word has weight, where promises are binding, and when everything is going to shit, nobody looks at Andrew like he's the freak for keeping his head.

[zsakuva]

hello, crumpet king! glad to see you're feeling better after your break <33

had a question for ya. some people in the fandom are NOT a fan of the nickname "pickle" for isaac's listener. for context from some of the main complaints i've seen, some people say it sounds out-of-character for isaac, or they imagine him calling the listener "honey". personally, i saw it as isaac's love language including banter. what do you think about this, big bro?

I have also seen these comments, and their opinions are valid!

The standard petnames are fine, but I think Isaac would gravitate towards something that only him and that person understand. It's likely that he preferred those kind of nicknames because of his mother (who used to call him her little sapling). No one would understand the reference except him and his immediate family.

It's very likely that he had one for Andrew too—a nickname only they would understand because their memories with each other birthed it.

With a complete lack of connection with anyone for about five years, you have an isolated man with a yearning for something he can call his. The pickle incident may be a core memory for him; it was one of the first truly domestic things he'd ever done with someone who wasn't family in a long while. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd constantly tease them about it.

[art-tnt]

It's may be an odd question but do you think you could maybe post a couple tips of anatomy and/or proportion that helped you sometime? I notice I have a hard time learning from videos or guides, but sometimes when I learn on my own or hear someone else's personal experience it just clicks and it's nice.

I know this may sound strange, but for me it was a class I took with Matt Faulkner, who had a very refreshing approach to mark making and drawing from life. We did have a live model, and drawing people from life teaches you two important things that books cannot: textbook anatomy is idealized, not everybody will look like that and foreshortening and perspective are things that are easier to see in person (at least, for me they were).

As you draw things like that over and over, you will build a mental library that will help you draw those tougher perspectives from imagination. I still use a reference, because the human body can bend and distort in a lot of ways and I am nowhere near having all of that memorized, and WE DON’T HAVE TO! If it gets committed to memory, great! But artists should never feel shame from using a reference because that is how we learn and that is how we improve. Even professionals use a reference.

The mark making that Matt taught us was a little different than some of the other classes I had been through in the past. I typically would draw a human with basic shapes and a “wire-frame” skeleton for my foundational rough sketch, but Matt would have us start drawing our figures with different lines. Contour lines, is just drawing the outside of what you’re observing, while periodically flashing your eyes at the paper. Blind contour would have us looking only at our subject and drawing what we were seeing without ever picking up the pencil (some of these actually turn out pretty cool).

Volumetric drawing was the one that I had never come across before. Matt uses a lot of crosshatching and volume lines in his work. See the below example:

The way this applies to anatomy is that his way of volumetric drawing is helpful in finding the space that your figure takes up. Sometimes Matt would have us draw our figure with ONLY volumetric lines. It would look like a tornado person, but this practice wasn’t to make something visually appealing, it was to help us train our brain and our eyes to see the volume. In that volumetric study we would be wrapping lines in a width and curvature that followed the subject. Here is a visual example of a volumetric drawing by Monika Zagrobelna that shows what I mean:

The volumetric drawing helps to grasp how much space something takes up, whereas the wire-frame doesn’t really convey that kind of information. A lot of people reference the Andrew Loomis books and Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth [ISBN: 978-0857680983] is a good resource to learn from. But Loomis does idealize the standard figures in his works and books. I am not saying don’t draw like him! There is nothing wrong with his style! Just don’t fall into the assumption that every body type will align exactly with the proportions and measurements that he covers. For example, he usually has a standard height that male and female figures are drawn at and certain points where knees are expected to reach and other body part milestones:

It is a guideline, and it is useful, but I found that the best exercise that you can do is to do a study on separate pages. No one taught me this, I just did it out of curiosity to see how it would go. Set one aside for male and one for female. First, draw your standard Loomis figure, then get five other male/female reference photos (or drawn from life if you can) of people with different body types. Try drawing them from observation and see how much of the Loomis concept applies to them. You’ll find that you can bend a lot of the Loomis ideas to fit, but you have to throw out some things entirely in order to accurately portray your subject (like the number of heads tall something has to be, or posture, for example).

Hopefully, despite that being a little long-winded of me, you found this experience helpful? Everyone learns differently, so I feel your struggle. I am a big visual learner and need to see what is happening with something to understand it. I also learn best by struggling. So what were the “aha” moments for me, may not necessarily work for another, but it is here if you can find any value or use in it.

[moreespressoformydepresso]

So I was thinking (shocker I know) about Gaul's theory about humanity. That people, when cornered, lose their humanity and become monsters. More specifically, I've been having thoughts about the moment that "confirmed" this theory in Snow's head for a while now and decided to put them into words. Which might be a terrible idea, but I never claimed to be smart.

According to Gaul, people who are cornered will do anything to survive and lose all sense of humanity to do so. The Games are supposed to be a constant reminder of this, which already raises a few questions that I was going to pose before getting to my actual thoughts here until it evolved into a whole separate train of thoughts. I'll make it a separate post instead but long story short: If it was supposed to be a reminder of this "truth" it was a sloppy, embarrasing failure at best (and also that's not how science works). Regardless of that though, the moment that solidified this delusion is his brutally murdering Bobbin while escaping the arena with Sejanus. There's a problem though. Or rather, there's several problems. Firstly, Snow chose to bash Bobbin's head in until he was unrecognizable. Chose, because he didn't have to do it. If you want my more interesting/unique(?) thoughts skip the next paragraph.

Most people would have knocked Bobbin out at most and then kept running, Snow chose to keep hitting with the wooden plank. He did this not because he lost all his humanity, but because he is a deeply disturbed individual. His formative years were filled with war and propaganda, and his family's proud name being dragged into the mud by his living situation understandably gave him a complex about power and wealth. He needed to feel above other people to cope, and the Capitol provided. Now, that does not in any way excuse his actions (and if anyone's interested I have several essays worth of thoughts on that and all the ways in which it makes me adore Collins and hate extremes in fandom), but it does explain them. Moreover, that complex and stubborn pride in his family's former high status likely fed into his belief in Gaul's theory. If it's true for someone of his status, it must be true for everyone.

Now, the actual reason for this post

Gaul's theory is that people lose their humanity when they're cornered. Emphasis on cornered here. When people are put under pressure, they will act in depraved ways. From Snow's perspective of reality, this is true because when he was cornered he brutally beat a child to death. But was he cornered though? No. Sure, he was in a scary situation, but he was not cornered. There was one child with a knife chasing after him. A starved, dying one. Snow and Sejanus could've easily outran him with some adrenaline boosting them (that shit makes moms lift whole cars to save their kids, come on now), nevermind the millions of other solutions that aren't "beat a child to death with a wooden plank until they're unrecognizable". More importantly though, they're not stuck in the arena. The peacekeepers didn't actively protect them, but they opened the fence for them. Snow could leave the arena. He could've dodged Bobbin and ran, and he'd have been able to leave the arena without murdering a kid. He was pressed, but he was not cornered. Not only does this theory have the most pathetic "proof" of any scientific theory since Andrew Wakefield's vaccine scam, the incident that confirmed it in Snow's mind isn't even a situation where the theory is applicable in the first place. It doesn't prove that people who are cornered lose their humanity. You know what it does prove, though?

People who have power lose their sense of humanity

Snow was not entirely cornered, but he did have power. As mentioned before, Bobbin is a starving child with nothing but a large knife. Snow might not be well-fed by Capitol standards, but he was certainly doing amazing by district standards. He had a wooden plank and a child at his mercy. What did he do? He maimed and murdered the kid. And throughout the entire book, stuff like this happens. Gaul showed him how the snakes work because he's her favorite prodigy. What did he do? He used it to cheat and help Lucy Gray win. When he had that recording of Sejanus admitting to rebellion, he had power over Sejanus' life. What did he do? He got the guy executed. When he had a gun and Mayfair became a possible problem, he shot her. When he became president, he kept the games going and poisoned anyone in his way because he had the power to do so. Mayfair has the power to influence who gets reaped, and uses it to try and get Lucy Gray killed. It happens on a larger scale too. It's the whole point of the series. The Capitol has all the power, and they use it by abusing and murdering the people from the districts, either to keep them in line or just because they want to. For entertainment. Because they can, and there's nothing the districts can do about it. Coin has power, and what does she do with it? She gets Prim killed to break Katniss into her pawn and suggests to put more innocent children through the Hunger Games because she can. Just like the Capitol did, 75 years before that. They can, so they do it. Who's gonna stop them? It's all over the series. And they all try to justify their actions by blaming it on people. Mayfair’s excuse is getting rid of “competition”, the Capitol claims the districts are getting what’s coming to them for the rebellion, Coin claims this new version of the games is what the rebellion wants. Snow has all his mental gymnastics.

It's not desperation that turns people into monsters, it's power.

And those with power will always convince themselves it's not the power, it's the people.

[creepycrawliesanonymous]

To All The Boys I've Written About Before - Beige Flags

In my never-ending quest to make things that appeal only to me, here's a little exercise for all the boys in my arsenal.

Angel Torres will always help you out around the house, no question about that, but boy will he act like he's a hero for simply loading the dishwasher. I'm talking wiping his brow every time you walk into the kitchen, grunting when he puts a plate on the drying rack. You offer to help but he flat out refuses, and will probably say some shit like "My hands look like this [soapy] so yours can look like that [slightly dirty from repotting your plants]."

Jesse Pinkman will call you "dude" until the end of time. It doesn't matter what stage of your relationship you are currently in, you will always and forever be "dude" to him. "Yo dude, do you want to grab Wendy's on the way home?""Dude, you look pretty today." You could be at the alter and it would be a "Dude, I do." He also 100% buys in to the "glasses make you smarter" myth.

Lemon bought himself a label-maker, and that man LOVES makin' labels. All the drawers in your flat are labeled, so are the spices (even if they already have labels), he labels which food belongs to who, all the wires/cables have a label for what kind of wire/cable they are and what they're for. You told him that you could probably remember which clear jar holds the salt and which holds the ginger-snaps, so he made the label "fuck off" and stuck it to your forehead.

Tangerine refuses to call menu items by their proper names, especially if they're stupid. A matcha latte is "green foamy shit, you know." If the dish is named after someone, this chicken shop you frequent has an Ike's Famous Wings Bowl, he will call it "that bloke's chicken thing, the one with all the spices and shit on it." The worst was when he wanted to order the Foxx on the Roxx Boxx from TGI Fridays (yes that's the spelling, I looked it up), he straight up would not say its name, he just kept pointing at the menu and saying "fucking- this one."

Harvey SDV, sweet man that he is, will always sign off his text messages. It doesn't matter how long or short the message is. There's the standard "darling, I'm running a little bit late, would you like me to pick up something for dinner? Dr H" but there's also the "okay honey (: Dr H" or the "[insert picture of flower] Dr H". You've tried to explain to him that you know that it's him, that he doesn't need to sign off every time he messages you, but it's no use.

Andrew Neiman loves to collect random bits of niche trivia, but will straight up forget incredibly basic things. You two were out at a live music venue, sipping on your tasty little beverages, and he'll just bust out something about the similarities between jazz and Indian music, and while he's expanding on the influence of Ravi Shankar on Coltrane, he'll flip through the menu in front of him and ask you what margarine is.

Carmen Berzatto, common knowledge at this point, always keeps a book on him, which on its own is a very good thing. It keeps him from getting bored, you think it makes him look smart, it's a win by all accounts. But, save for when he's at work, he will whip that book out whenever there's any sort of lull in a conversation or if he's not physically doing something. You were talking to him about weekend plans, and he'll be listening intently because he's a good boyfriend who cares about your thoughts, but as soon as you go quiet to turn around to grab something he's flipping open his copy of The Reivers to quickly read a sentence.

Randal Graves loves to fake propose at restaurants for free shit. He makes a big thing out of it, will pull you aside before you enter Olive Garden and show you the tiny plastic ring he's used about three times already and whisper about the ruse he's about to pull, and all you can do is nod along with him. He's gotten more elaborate each time, from the basic garden-variety proposal, to putting it in your water, to asking to have it put in your Chipotle burrito (you had nearly swallowed it that time), managing to score a few free desserts and, at one point, a bottle of cheapo champagne that he got so incredibly slurshed on at home.

Warren Rojas has this game he likes to play whenever you two go to bars or nightclubs where he will pretend like you two don't know each other just so he can hit on you in the most cheesy ways known to man. Asking to buy you a drink, dumb pick-up lines, saying shit like "My name is Warren, but you can call me anytime." It's so incredibly dumb and he gets the biggest kick out of it. One time when you and Eddie were having a conversation at a party he totally pulled out the "Is this guy bothering you, babe?" He thinks he's so funny.

Jimmy Bartlett, whenever you two are cuddling, will set a timer so he knows when to switch from big spoon to little spoon. He'll bring up the egg timer from the kitchen and set it to 20 minutes before he joins you on his bed. You'll be half asleep after a long shift from work with his head buried in the back of your neck, and the next thing you know he's shuffling around while tiny beeps are sounding and he's somehow got your arms around him before you even realize what's happening, before drifting off again. He says it's only fair.

Miguel O'Hara is like a big dog with the temperament of a house cat; thinks he takes up less space than he does and always at least slightly grumpy. He'll get confused when he goes to put on a sweater that was originally yours (the communal wardrobe holds no prisoners) and finds it tight around his biceps. He knocks his forehead on low doorways constantly, you've taken to shouting 'duck' whenever you see him about to go through one. Watching movies on the couch with him, during a rare moment of peace, can be an ordeal because he always wants to lie down on top of you and you don't have the heart to tell him that he's crushing your lungs.

[literary-motif]

The Morning Light

Andrew Marston x Reader

Andrew struggles with mental health. You are there for him.

Warnings: references to burnout and depression

You stirred in bed, limbs still heavy from sleep as you reached out towards Andrew. The side of the bed next to you was empty and you grunted in displeasure, listening half-deliriously for any sound coming from the small apartment that would indicate he was on his way back to you. It was eerily silent. Blinking yourself awake properly, you turned to look at the clock on your bedside table. It was 4.48 AM. 

“Andrew?” you called out into the early morning. There was no reply, so you set up and squinted through the darkness, slowly making your way through the apartment. “Dear?” you called again, receiving no answer.

It was beginning to worry you, but as you were about to turn on the light and look for any notes he might have left explaining where he had gone, you spotted him on the small balcony.

He was leaning against the top rail, looking out across the city. The sun had not yet fully risen, and you could barely make out his solemn expression as his eyes roamed tiredly over the scenery.

The opening of the balcony door startled Andrew out of his thoughts, making him jump. Upon realizing it was you, he gave you a small smile and settled back against the rail, sighing deeply as the soft morning breeze ruffled through his hair. 

“You’re beautiful in the morning light,” you said quietly as you joined him, making Andrew chuckle fondly. You reach out to take his hand in yours and squeeze it reassuringly. “Are you alright?” 

The simple question made him squeeze his eyes shut and bite his lip to keep from breaking down in tears. 

In truth, he hadn’t been doing so well lately. 

He wasn’t even sure what brought about this new wave of feeling utterly wretched. It just happened sometimes. He would wake up one day and the world would be slightly off. There would be a gaping hole in his chest, draining him of all his energy and motivation until there was nothing left to do but go through the motions of the responsibilities he had to meet that day, week, month — because he would rather die than be a disappointment — even though the exhaustion weighing him down made him want to curl into a ball and sob his heart out. 

The heaviness clinging to him made it hard to concentrate sometimes, which was especially fatal in academia. How was he supposed to teach a class when he couldn’t think clearly, his perception muddied by the fog hiding his thoughts from him? How could he be expected to sit at his desk for hours and grade papers, prepare his lessons, and do the necessary research when the sight of his desk alone made him sick to his stomach?

It was a curse. He couldn’t even break up the workload into fragments because his perfectionism would not let him rest until all of it was done and perfect to some inhuman standard he could not help but set for himself. It hurt all the more when he failed his expectations, his precarious state of mind slipping further until there was nothing but utter disgust for himself and his shortcomings.

“I get by,” he answered hoarsely, swallowing the lump in his throat. He did not dare turn towards you, fearing that the concerned look in your eyes would be the last straw to make him break down in tears.

You squeezed his hand again, moving your thumb over his knuckles, and Andrew choked, thinking bitterly he would come undone in a moment if you were to hug him now. He would break down sobbing in your arms because the suffocating feeling in his chest was drowning him, stealing all the beauty from the morning light illuminating the city beneath him and turning it into nothing but a hollow gray scenery of despair, turning him into an apathetic shell who would stare out the window for hours and wonder if he’s even real anymore.

“I love sunrises, you know,” you said, trying to sound light even though you could feel Andrew shaking beside you. “And I love them even more when I can watch them with you. I adore you” — you raised your entwined hands to your lips — “and you mean the world to me, Andrew.”

The gentle brush of your lips made the first tear roll down his cheek, finally breaking the damn that hid his sorrows. Andrew buried his face in his hands, shying away from your touch. “Oh God,” he gasped, his shoulders shaking from the force of his sobs, “I’m pathetic. I shouldn’t—”

“Hey,” you said, slowly turning him to face you and wrapping your arms around him. It made Andrew cry harder, but he melted into your embrace regardless. You began running your fingers through his hair soothingly, guiding his head to rest against your shoulder. “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re brilliant. You're kind, caring, helpful, loving— I could go on all day.”

“I can’t— I can’t stay well. I was doing alright, but— but it always comes back, I can’t escape it! I—” he cried, feeling a part of himself break at the admission of his struggles. “I’m stuck in this endless cycle where no matter what I do it— it’s just never enough!”

He had never been candid with anyone, and he was hesitant to open up to you, lest you see too much broken behind the composed facade he liked to put up and decide he was too much work — too hard to love amidst his highs and lows. 

When he woke up this morning at an ungodly hour and was too restless to fall back asleep despite his suffocating exhaustion, he had decided to get up and watch the sunrise. He had hoped the colors spreading out across the sky as the city began stirring in front of him would be enough to make him feel something again, break him out of the numb stupor enveloping him when you were not around to distract him from the inky blackness creeping back into his life. ‘Morning light can make the most vulgar things tolerable,’ he reasoned, but the feeling of heaviness and hollowness and hopelessness did not lessen as the sun slowly began to rise. 

“I’m so sorry,” he choked, raising his head and wiping at his eyes harshly, “You shouldn’t have to deal with this. It’s my problem. I— I apologize. It won’t—”

“Don’t push me away. I understand this,” you said, cupping his cheeks and brushing the tears away gently, “And don’t ever apologize for it. This is not your fault, and I’ll be right here for as long as you’ll let me, to support you through every day, no matter what. Unconditionally.”

Andrew smiled despite the sorrows still clinging to him, feeling warmth spread out across his chest at your words. “I love you, darling” he whispered, moving his head to place tender kisses against your palms. 

His struggles were not over, but he knew he was not alone in fighting them. 

[transmutationisms]

hi! any reading you'd rec on bio politics\necro politics? i've recently gotten curious about the concepts so forgive if this is vague or not specific lol. tyy in advance ! hope ur day is good

so, the standard recs you will usually see for getting a theoretical foundation here are:

Foucault's 1978–9 lecture series at the Collège de France, "The Birth of biopolitics", and his 1975–6 series, "Society must be defended" (there are print series of his lectures) (<-these are honestly overrated as sources imho b/c foucault never fully developed these concepts. i would read lecture 11 from the 75–6 series if you absolutely feel you need some foucault, and then skip to whatever else seems interesting)

Achille Mbembe's Necropolitics (2019)

Jasbir Puar's The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017)

there are also lots and lots and lots of books that use concepts of bio/necropolitics in their historical and/or political arguments. some i've enjoyed include:

Joshua Cole, The Power of Large Numbers: Population, Politics, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century France (2018: Cornell University Press)

Daniel Nemser, Infrastructures of Race: Concentration and Biopolitics in Colonial Mexico (2017: University of Texas Press)

Andrew Aisenberg, Contagion: Disease, Government, and the "Social Question" in Nineteenth-Century France (1999)

Mie Nakachi, Replacing the Dead: The Politics of Reproduction in the Postwar Soviet Union (2021: Oxford University Press)

Banu Subramaniam, Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (2019: University of Washington Press)

Kyla Schuller, The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century (2017: Duke University Press)

Michela Marcatelli, Naturalizing Inequality: Water, Race, and Biopolitics in South Africa (2021: University of Arizona Press)

Ellen Amster, Medicine and the saints: science, Islam, and the colonial encounter in Morocco, 1877-1956 (2013: University of Texas Press)

Ron Broglio, Beasts of Burden: Biopolitics, Labor, and Animal Life in British Romanticism (2017: SUNY Press) (<-doubles as an introduction into why the 'animal turn' has been such a hot topic historiographically in the past 5 or 6 years)

James Duncan, In the Shadows of the Tropics: Climate, Race and Biopower in Nineteenth Century Ceylon (2007: Ashgate)

René Dietrich & Kerstin Knopf (Eds.), Biopolitics, geopolitics, life: settler states and indigenous presence (2023) (<-haven't read this yet! some of these essays look very promising)

[don-dake]

R I P L E Y (2024)

***Contains SPOILERS***

A review (of sorts, but more a rambling opinion piece that veers off the main subject occasionally).

So I've watched R I P L E Y (2024), all eight episodes of it. One word: Bravissimo!

As someone who loves the Ripliad series of novels by Patricia Highsmith immensely, and having watched all the Ripley film adaptations there are thus far — Plein Soleil aka Purple Noon (1960), The American Friend aka Der Amerikanische Freund (1977), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Ripley's Game (2002), and Ripley Under Ground (2005) — I went into this new series (released on Netflix on April 4th) with expectations…

Not high, for I've learned it's never good to have high expectations or you'll more than likely just be setting yourself up for disappointment…but with expectations all the same!

Thus far, my favourite Ripley film adaptation had been 2002's Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich as an older Ripley. Had been. Until this series that is! I still love Ripley's Game a lot of course! (heh!) And there really should be no comparison given it's two different mediums and the two Ripleys are portrayed from different times of the character's life.

So saying, this new series definitely sets a new standard for a Ripley adaptation! And as someone who love the books a lot, I'm glad this series is very closely adapted from the first book!

The decision to go for a black and white cinematography, I was skeptical about that at first but after looking at the trailers and reading on the director's reasoning for going B & W with this, I can understand why, and generally agree with his decision.

Though at times, especially when looking at the wonderful interior sets, I'll be wishing I could see it in all its colour glory and thinking what a waste it was not to have it in colour, but that is but a minor hitch, for the B & W cinematography is done with superb mastery and skill, and it's hard to find fault with going this route. And it does contribute to getting into the film noir feel from films of yesteryear.

On the actors, I was skeptical on Andrew Scott as Ripley at first, but I'm happy to say he has proven me wrong and his Ripley, while not as young as Ripley should be at the start of the novel series, is one that is characterised the closest, and if Showtime/Netflix has any plans to adapt the rest of the novels, Scott will be perfect as an older Ripley, I think!

Maybe that was/is the plan…that's why Scott was chosen even though age wise, he doesn't quite fit in the beginning…one can hope! (heh!)

Moving on, just a brief rambling on the other main actors/characters because I'm getting tired:

Love Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, she was exactly how I imagined Marge to be as I read the (first) book. A superb performance by Fanning I'd say!

Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf was underwhelming for me partly because in my eyes, Jude Law was/is the perfect Dickie (even if his — Law's — American accent was/is questionable), but partly also because I find Flynn is lacking charisma (sorry, Flynn fans!), I didn't get the sense of what was so fascinating about this Dickie that Ripley would be so enamoured with him or his lifestyle, enough to kill for it.

Perhaps the fault lies partly with the script too for I felt we the audience didn't get to see more of what drew Ripley to Dickie, besides his obvious wealth and status.

Eliot Sumner as Freddie Miles. Now this was the character that underwent the most drastic change as compared to the book and the 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley film adaptation. In both the book and the 1999 film, Freddie was described (and portrayed to perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman in my opinion) as an American with carrot-red hair, stocky, loud and all round obnoxious from miles away sort.

2024 Freddie is slim-built, androgynous looking, with a cherub face and British…he's practically a whole different character except in name.

As such, it's unfair to compare I guess, but having envisioned Freddie as described in the book for so long, helped along by PSH's award-worthy performance, I'll just say this is not the Freddie for me.

But, that doesn't mean Sumner's Freddie was bad. In terms of being almost a foil to Ripley, Sumner's Freddie is still quite effectively annoying.

Special mentions to Maurizio Lombardi and Margherita Buy as Inspector Ravini and Signor(in)a Buffi (Ripley's landlady) respectively! I enjoyed watching these two characters.

Also a special mention to Lucio (Signor(in)a Buffi's cat), who, had it been able to speak, Ripley would certainly have silenced! (heh!)

Last but not least, a special mention to John Malkovich as Reeves Minot.

I was so excited when I first saw Malkovich in the trailer because not only is his casting a nice tribute to his turn as Tom Ripley in Ripley's Game (2002), I thought he would be playing Herbert Greenleaf at first, but he turned out to be playing Reeves Minot! Even better! Gives more hope that new seasons of R I P L E Y (2024) may happen!

Those who have read the books will know that Reeves Minot is a recurring character in the later books — I can't really remember how many exactly, it's been some time since I last read them (and I should again!).

To sum up, I did enjoy this series tremendously and will definitely rewatch many times to come, and I hope we'll get further adaptations of the other books with the same standards as set for this one!

P.S.: I've seen a few people mention “this (R I P L E Y) is like Saltburn!”. I never heard of the film Saltburn before looking at some opinion pieces, but after looking it up, dare I say, Saltburn ripped off the Ripliad stories and its characters (the Ripliad books first came out in the 1950s) and I think it's more appropriate to say “Saltburn is like Ripley”!

[yukidragon]

The Phantom of Sunny Day Jack Trailer Transcript

Please forgive me for taking a while to post the transcript for the Phantom of Sunny Day Jack trailer for those who need it.

For those of you who have questions/concerns about the twist at the end of the trailer, please check to see if they're addressed in this post. Thank you.

Transcript

[Warning Screen]

WARNING

This video contains violent and sexual content.

It is intended for mature audiences.

ADULTS 18 AND OLDER ONLY!

Viewer discretion is advised.

This is a fan-made project inspired by Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack and the various iterations of the Phantom of the Opera.

Original characters, concept, and music were created by Snacpop Studios, Gaston Leroux, and Andrew Lloyd Webber respectively.

PLEASE DO NOT REUPLOAD.

[Trailer]

Jack: Won't you sing for me, sunshine?

Inside the most famous opera house in Paris…

Ian: [worried, yet relieved] O-oh thank goodness you're alright. When I came in and saw you lying on the floor like that… I just… I-I didn't know. I don't know what I'd do if something bad happened to you.

Shaun: [excited and giddy] Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Can you believe it? They say a ghost is haunting the opera house! [excited squeal] How cool is that? Come on, let's go find him!

Nick: Oh, really? You get a little praise for your performance and now you think your vocals are a match for mine? Heh. Well, we'll just have to see about that, now won't we?

Jack: You can always rely on me to support you whenever you need me. I’ll always be here to take good care of you, don’t worry.

A secret has been buried...

Shaun: [playful fake regal accent] So, what's the verdict, princess? Does this fine repast meet my highness’ royal standards?

[Moonpie meows her approval through a mouthful of food.]

Shaun: [chuckles affectionately, tone softening] Glad to hear it little baby.

Shaun: [Regal accent] So how about you? Does my humble fare satisfy the glorious new rising star of the opera house?

Nick: So how's progress with your part?

Nick: I know you want to study your greatest rival closely, but if you keep staring at me like that, I'm going to start to feel embarrassed. What's on your mind?

Ian: You’ve been so busy performing all day today. I figured you haven’t had anything to eat yet, so I brought something for you.

Ian: Tada~! There's nothing like some hot fresh pizza after a long day of work. Just like the old days, remember?

Jack: You did great out there today. I'm so proud of you. You worked so hard... but remember that resting up and eating well is just as important.

And refuses to be forgotten

Jack: There's nothing to be scared of, sunshine. You can trust me. I only want to help you. Let me show you just how special and amazing you truly are.

YOU decide their fates

What do you see in the mirror?

Hairstyle [number changes]

Eye [number changes]

Mouth [number changes]

No Mark [changes to] Mark [number changes]

Finished!

Sing!

Press SpaceBar to sing!

[Successful chime.]

You did great, Sunshine!

Sing!

Press SpaceBar to sing!

[Error sounds.]

How are you even here?

Try Again

Will love be enough to create a happy ending?

Your Childhood Sweetheart

Ian: [happy sigh] This feels like a dream come true!

Ian Duff

Voiced by Ben Sinning

Ian: [emotional] You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear you tell me that you... I... I can barely believe that you really feel the same way about me that I do for you.

The Stage Director

Shaun: Hey, hey... I know things are a going crazy right now and getting pretty scary, but I'm not going anywhere.

Shaun Durand-Cofer

Voiced by LewdZaxk

Shaun: I'll always be by your side, forever... I promise.

The Star Of The Show

Nick: My, my... look who's taking taking the lead for a change~ [chuckle]

Nicolas "Nick" Herraras

Voiced by MidnightBlu

Nick: [seductive] So tell me, mi pájaro cantor... what do you have planned for us tonight?

The Forgotten Phantom

Jack: My mask? You want to see what's under...

Jack: [nervous] I-I'm sorry, sunshine... I don't think I'm ready for that yet...

Sunny Day Jack

Voiced by NaughtyMaus

Jack: [suggestive] But I could take off everything else if you want me to~

OR WILL OBSESSION LEAD TO TRAGEDY?

Nick: [hopeless] The opera house is gone… The music is gone… Everything is just… gone. We're the only ones left. What's there to look forward to now?

Ian: [low and breathy] Don't worry... no one will ever find you here, not even him.

Ian: It's just going to be you and me... [unhinged chuckle] [pleasured sigh] forever. Just like it was always meant to be. [disturbing giggle]

Shaun: [choking on tears] It... it's fine. It's really fine. Things might look bad right now, but... but it'll get better as long as we stick together. ...It's going to be fine.

Jack?: [menacing] You promised to sing my music for me, remember? You promised to never leave me or forget me... You promised to always love me just as much as I love you... and those promises can never be broken.

Will you give in to the phantom's temptations?

Jack: If I am the phantom, it's because I was buried and forgotten.

Jack: If I am to be saved… it's because your love redeems me.

Or is it better to leave him forgotten?

Jack: [shouting, unhinged] This is the point of no return!

Jack: [ragged breathing, swallows hard] [whispered, desperate] Please... P-please. Don't leave me like this...

The Phantom of

Sunny Day

Jack

Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack Fangame Project

Coming Soon I

[April Fool's Skit]

Leaf: Hmm… What day is it today again?

Yuki: Today is [redacted], I think.

Yuki: Although… I feel like we're missing something too.

EC: IT'S APRIL FOOLS, BITCHES!!!11!1!111

Kristella: You didn't actually think this was real did you?

Potato: Gosh, how embarrassing~

Lonsii: Looks like all that hard work paid off.

Prima: Even if it's just a prank, you all enjoyed it, right?~

Sauce: Zoo-wee-mama.

Everyone: HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!!!!111!!1!!11

[Click, the tape is stopped.]

Barry: No, no, no. [tisk] Cut the music.

Barry: This is all wrong.

Barry: Scrap it all and start over from the beginning. And make sure it's actually good this time!

Barry: [exasperated sigh] [mutters] Amateurs.

[Click of tape playing.]

[Credits]

BASED ON THE CONCEPT CREATED BY

SgtSemiSauce (@VoltagiumXO)

PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY

EC (@ThisisEClmao)

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Potato (@enthusted_ubi)

FEATURING THE VOICES OF

Maus (@NaughtyMaus)

as

Sunny Day Jack

LewdZaxk (@LewdZaxk)

as

Shaun Durand-Cofer

Ben Sinning

as

Ian Duff

LewdZaxk (@LewdZaxk)

as

Shaun Durand-Cofer

Midnight Blu (@MidnightBlu11)

as

Nicolas "Nick" Herraras

Reece Bridger (@Reece_Bridger)

as

Barry

WRITTEN BY

Yuki Dragon (@theyukidragon)

VOICE DIRECTOR

Yuki Dragon

EC

SOUND EDITOR

Yuki Dragon

EC

STORYBOARDED BY

EC

Potato

COSTUME DESIGN BY

Lonsii (@Alonsy_Nah)

EC

ILLUSTRATOR

CG's lineworks by

EC and Potato

CG'S coloring by

POTATO

Potato

SgtSemiSauce

Leaf (@luckycloverNB)

EC

ASSETS & LAYOUT DESIGNER

EC

VIDEO EDITOR

Ting (@ting4114)

EC

VISUAL CONSULTANT

Prima (@primarvelous)

Leaf

Prima (@primarvelous)

Kristella-lav (@kristella_lav)

SgtSemiSauce

Leaf

BASED ON

Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack

AND

The Phantom of the Opera

SPECIAL THANKS TO

The Snaccpop Studios Team (@SnaccPop)

AND ESPECIALLY

All the fans of Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack who encouraged this project. The game might have been a prank, but we made this video with love for all of you. We hope you enjoyed it.

[captain-danwilds]

WIP Wednesday: October 16

I was pleasantly surprised by the interest in Sam, the Exy RA last week. Thank you so much.

I am once again open for asks related to my current projects:

NAGAB Neil (Raven!Neil)

NAGAB Noah (Vixens, Palmetto State Shenanigans and Hatfords)

The foxes RA

If you have a specific character or aspect you're interested in, feel free to include that in your ask. I can't guarantee I'll be able to include it, but I'll try. Also, work was a lot today, so my apologies if I don't get to your ask right away.

NAGAB Noah and Andrew confrontation below the cut

Noah merely raised an eyebrow at Andrew's glare. He was used to being pushed around. He had been told what to do by much scarier people.  As frightening as Andrew's reputation was, he'd only hurt four men, in a fit of rage. Maybe not even that if the school newspaper wasn’t above making shit up.  The man was on parole.  Getting into a fight like that would violate it and then bye bye bodyguard. 

Besides, Noah didn't know how many men he'd hurt by this point.  As much as his mother wanted him kept out of the family business, that wasn't always a possibility.   It didn't help that Andrew was barely above five feet even in his mammoth platform boots.   He didn't look peaceful by any means with his armbands full of knifes (standard assortment, quick draw possible on the four and six inch, none well-balanced enough for efficient throwing), but there was a difference between a threat Noah could handle and one he couldn't.    

"Are you referring to Kevin or your cousin?" Their earlier confrontations had made it clear that Andrew thought Noah played a larger threat to Kevin than he did to anyone else but considering this was after Nicky had decided to help him, things were definitely in flux.  

“I protect what's mine."   Andrew clenched one of his fists at his sides as if resisting the urge to draw a knife in broad daylight in a very public parking lot. 

Noah had been startled for sure, but there were also limits to how far Andrew could get when anyone could walk by.  The fact he was currently violating parole could only make that worse.  

"It does matter,"  Noah walked past Andrew. "Kevin isn't going to be an issue, but I need Nicky." 

That comment made Andrew narrow his eyes slightly.  "You need to be at the banquet." 

It was another statement of fact.  Andrew didn't seem the type to bother with questions.  On one level Noah appreciated it, no questions meant giving up no secrets, no lying to a man who seemed like his own lie detector.   But it also made him want to grind his teeth together.  

"I do."  Noah wasn't about to answer more than he had to.  

Andrew peered at his face.  "I don't deal in half-truths especially from the likes of you, an opportunistic nobody who can do some fancy flips. Especially when your timing is interesting." 

"Timing?"

"You showed up as they're preparing to move south."

"You think I'm working for Edgar Allen?"  

"And the little birdie gets it."

[peppymintdreams]

Feeding the Saku-babies

your favorite boys have turned back into babies and are under your care, and they are really hungry,

"Hey “….” Are you hungry, little one? Guess what? I’ve got your favorite flavor! Yum, yum!" (Insert dramatic pause) "Peas! Or… is it apples today?"

Luca

Luca watches you with wide, trusting eyes, opening his mouth eagerly for each spoonful, but if you pause too long, he whines softly, reaching out with chubby hands as if to say, "More, please."

Isaac

you gently bring the spoon of baby food to his mouth, he stares at you with wide, curious eyes, taking each bite with a quiet intensity, as if even this simple act is something he’s analyzing and memorizing. "mama?" he questioned holding your hand, the spoon still in his mouth

Andrew

stares at you with an intense, almost unsettling focus for a baby, as if evaluating your technique, his tiny brows furrowed in concentration. After what feels like a silent judgment, he lets out a reluctant sigh—because even at this age, he clearly has standards—before opening his mouth just enough for you to slide the spoon in. He tastes the food with cautious skepticism, eyes still fixed on you, and gives a slow, thoughtful swallow, as if deciding whether your effort meets his exacting expectations.

Elias

Elias locks eyes with you, bouncing excitedly his tiny fists gripping the high chair, and just as you think he’ll take the next spoonful peacefully, he smirks—and spits it right back, laughing as if it’s the funniest thing in the world.

Xanthus

Human Baby Lawrence

You hold the spoon to his lips, and though his tiny face scrunches in clear disapproval, he reluctantly accepts the mush, eyes wide with a mixture of curiosity and betrayal as if wondering how you could subject him to such indignity.

Vampire Baby Xanthus

You try coaxing the crimson-hued blood mixture past his fangs, but he glares with a fiery intensity far beyond his years, lips pressed firmly shut until hunger wins, and he bites the spoon with a tiny growl of defiance. Before swallowing it, a grumpy expression turned into joy as he held his little baby cheeks, grabbing the jar and bringing it to his mouth devouring all of its contents.

[burningtheroots]

💜🤍💚 Introduction Post & Guide/Masterpost 💜🤍💚

IMPORTANT

After three months, I think it‘s time to introduce myself and clear this mess of a blog a bit ��

So, I‘m 20 years old and have been learning about radical feminism for quite a while before joining in myself, and I‘m really grateful to be part of this community and even be mutuals with some of my favorite women on here. <3

I joined Tumblr (and Instagram) to share information, my own opinions and to connect with like-minded women. Before discovering radical feminism, I always felt left out from the discussions and didn’t know that there would be anyone who‘d understand me and accept me. I tried to fit in somewhere where I didn’t belong, and whilst it‘s not always easy to be here, I‘m happy that this community exists. :‘)

DMs & anons are always open, and I‘m always interested in having discussions and meeting new people.

I‘m rather shy and struggle a bit with my social skills, but it gets better eventually.

The only people who aren’t welcome on my blog are p0rn obsessed men and generally anyone who only wants to harass me or spread misogyny. I‘m all for respectful discussions and willing to share my viewpoints, but I‘m not a punching bag.

As there‘s a lot going on here, I collected the most important posts and reblogs (quite many, to be honest) and decided to link them here. Some are simply informative, some are very subjective and some are a mixture of both. The list will be updated over time.

Here you go:

(I‘d also heavily recommend to check out @/radfemfox5, @/woman-for-women, @/butch-reidentified, @/radsplain, @/meanevilandcruel … and many more — not actually tagging them because this post is long & I don’t want to annoy them) 💜🤍💚

if a link doesn’t work, please let me know

Sex-based violence 🔗 links

‼️ Self-protection in emergency situations

Pornography 🔗 links

Prostitution 🔗 links

Gender Critical 🔗 links

Surrogacy 🔗 links

Sexual assault 🔗 links

LGB & Pride 🔗 links

Women‘s health 🔗 links

Pro-choice 🔗 links

Questionable men 🔗 links

Women‘s rights movement // General stuff continued 🔗 links

Women‘s movement // General stuff

Donation Megathread

Stop the infighting

"Not like other girls"

"Not All Men" is a war propaganda tactic

Age and attraction

Key elements

Andrea Dworkin works

Why feminism should center women and women only

Statement

How men see us

Prioritize women

Radical feminism is intersectional

Radical feminism definition

Double standards in terms of "unconditional love"

Favorite quote

We‘re not Nazis

We don’t support Nazis & vice versa

Misogyny vs. misandry

Why I‘m a radfem

Actual radfeminism

No good men

Feminist book list

Libfem hypocrisy

Andrew Tate fans

"Withholding sex" is a misconception

Sexism against women in sports

Choice feminism

Men ☕️

Sex-based violence

Radfeminism is superior

On motherhood

On motherhood 2

Workplace sexism

Motivation

Men‘s mental health month

eXtRiMiSm

Women are not protected 1

Women are not protected 2

Oversexualization

Oppressor classes

Men who want children

Bodyshaming

Misandry

Men‘s sexual entitlement

Beauty Myth

A man‘s world

It‘s all men

Double standards

Women in fiction

No conservatism

Lies about emotions

The system isn’t broken

Resist, don‘t comply

Male hypocrisy

Woman arrested in Saudi Arabia

"Unconditional love"

Beauty ideals

Again, men ☕️

Parental alienation ‼️

Men & gossip

Men dislike their own daughters

Women aren’t objects

On religion

Sexism at school

Women‘s labor

Men‘s victim mentality

Arranged marriage

Women are an afterthought

Oppression in the US

Purity culture

American women & maternity leave

Body neutrality

Dangerous men are around us

Anti-natalism

Men don‘t actually "love" women

Socialization

Stereotyping men

Neha Wadekar in Baringo county, Kenya

Tomiekia Johnson

Child marriage in the US

Workplace sexism

UN report (alarming)

"You are a man-hater"

People with disabilities matter

Disability Pride Month

Girls‘ clothing

So you‘re partnered with a male

[strictstandards]

Own a Stance Car? 🅿️arking Rules Don't Apply ☝🏻

Toyota Corolla Widebody on GMR VX-3 Directional Wheels & Airtekk Engineering Air Struts

Strict Standards Streetwear returns with an enthusiast who defines doing their thing— regardless of the type of vehicle thathe has unfolded as a custom car project. While the consistent questioning of baffled petrolheads, negative remarks, and mind-hurting questions come into play— many cannot get past themotivesof Andrew James McCarter for a project of this caliber to such a vehicle. 

Secondly, it comes without hesitancy alongside the natural attention Andrew and his Toyota Corolla orchestrate— but regardless of being in the spotlight, he knows how to have fun with his vehicle, starting with bold statements about parking his car anywhere. Through many past collaborations, Andrew has taken on unique parking places of various kinds.

While consistently taming petrolhead opinion and dodging the remorseless parking security, Andrew James McCarter continues his passion for the Finest of Streetstyle acquired through his Widebody Toyota Corolla Sedan on GMR VX-3 Wheels.

🔑 @dat_bagged_rolla

#STRICTSTANDARDS 🇺🇸