#bald guys altogether

[paintedxangels]

Ooh well of course gotta ask about her relationship with Mr White, 🌟

- @charlies-crushes

WALTER,,,, oh she hates that mf

this is a long one I’ve been dying to talk about. strap in

(entire series + movie spoilers btw in case that wasn’t obvious)

he’s on a permanent blacklist from her punk bar, she’s ordered her bodyguards/security team to escort him away (with force if necessary) on sight, and if she EVER runs into him it’d be with a gun in her hand. she knows his name, his previous occupation, his diagnosis, and where he lives, through Jesse.

she typically stays away from the crystal trade altogether though because of a deal she’d made with Gustavo to stay in their own trade’s lane at all times, but Walter is her exception. she’s heard from Jesse how Walter treats him and she despises it (even more so when she learns he was blackmailed into partnering with Walter and he doesn’t even get treated like a partner). she’s a lot like Gustavo in the way that she absolutely hates working around unpredictable people she has a hard time controlling, and Walter’s recklessness and overall idiocy when it comes to how the business works gets to her. she doesn’t feel like Jesse, nor any of Walter’s other associates, are safe in his presence. she’s highly supportive of Jesse’s little field trips with Mike & Gus because of this, as well as Jesse’s sobriety, because she believes a clear head means less leverage for Walter (and just because sobriety is a good thing for Jesse in general).

she likely wouldn’t meet him in the main story save for a couple passing glances (& probably a scene where he tries to show up at her bar to get Jesse & gets absolutely BODIED by her guards while she watches), or maybe a scene where Walter calls her just another ‘distraction’ for Jesse (which Jesse vehemently denies and says they’re ‘just friends’— which is only a partial lie), or hell maybe she tracks him down and kicks his ass for some reason when Gustavo dies. but she would absolutely NEVER work with him. ever. unless it came to saving Jesse (which could be interesting to explore at some point,,,,).

if Walter didn’t die the way he did in the finale, however, she 1000% would’ve murked him in El Camino on her & Jesse’s little revenge tour. probably in order to see if he’s got any leftover cash they can use for the vacuum guy, but that’s really just a thinly veiled excuse for her to finally kill him with her own hands. luckily that car gun of his got to him first.

but then again, where she draws the line, though, is family. she would never touch any of Walter’s family because that’s definitely against her own moral code, and would go as far as to provide for them financially in secret if she ever did actually kill off Walter. heavy on the punk rock morals— fuck the system, help those in need. especially those who have been kicked down and hurt before.

so yeah!! fuck that bald bitch fr

🌟 ask game here <3

[dollarbin]

Shakey Sundays #26:

Tuscaloosa

My buddy Greg has a screw loose. He opined in a recent email stream that he preferred Eddie Vedder's vocals to Kurt Cobain's. This was part of a longer Nerd Club level discussion involving my famous brother focused in on Jackson C. Frank's palpable merits alongside Sandy Denny's transcend ones, as discussed in yesterday's post.

Greg thinks Sandy is too operatic; like I said, he's all jam packed into a Costco sized bin of mixed nuts.

I like my women divine (see Denny, Sandy, Ronstadt, Linda and wife, mine) and my men pedestrian (that's me, in all things). And so I prefer warped but playable records and I prefer Neil Young when he's altered on stage.

And that brings us to Tuscaloosa, Shakey's alternative to Time Fades Away, which came out 5 or so years ago. I picked up my first vinyl copy this weekend while on holybobs for the very Dollar Bin price of just $14.99 because, you guessed it, "LP2 Warped - Plays Fine" was scrawled beside the price tag.

I've had plenty of chances to buy a pristine copy for $30-$40 any day of the week in the past few years but I never even considered it. After all, I've always had the album ready to rock on my trusty Steve-Jobs-was-still-alive-and-grumpy era IPod, and so I held out for an ugly cousin copy instead of every minty record out there.

Why own something normal and new when you could own something compromised and helpless? Well, there's the whole I'm-a-cheapskate angle, sure; I do like my gin generic.

But there's another reason in my back pocket, a reason which is hopefully more interesting. You see, my warped copy of Tuscaloosa was so sad in its bin; it longed for companionship; it longed to spin on the turntable of life. But just like me in every elementary school sports side picking process, it just kept getting passed on by.

David Berman understood this whole gesture and explained it better in song than I ever could here in print. Like poor old Dave, I can't stand handsome grandsons; give me the fat ones, the bald and the goateed.

Eddie Vedder? Yuck. The guy sounds like he once took a singing lesson; plus he looks like the grown up version of every fifth grader who sighed and said, "well, I guess you're on our team; but don't get in the way" when all the side picking was done.

Give me poor old Kurt's tortured pain and voice cracks every day of the week.

And give me Tuscaloosa! Neil is hammered and stumbling throughout, searching for vaguely familiar notes and just barely holding it together.

Just check out After the Gold Rush. Neil dedicates the song to the groundlings in the cheap seats, blows more than a few of the opening chords and then announces that "Drummond's drumming" instead of "drummers drumming". His bass player on the tour was named Tim Drummond so the confusion is reasonable; no, never mind that: his confusion is awesome!

The song's whole performance is wrecked and staggering. Between the second and third verses it sounds like Neil loses the thread altogether. I love this take as much as I love my sad new vinyl copy. Warped: that's what I like.

But perhaps the least slick and most loveable part of the whole show is Neil's attempt at building a musical intro for the band. Take a listen:

They never do get the tempo right... But, like Neil's famous handwriting, perfect has no place on Planet Shakey.

Young was famously disgusted with this whole band and tour. He fired the Chewbacca of all drummers, Kenny Buttrey, soon after this show and replaced him with a guy from The Turtles. He then did his best to write off the whole experience by refusing for a long time to reissue Time Fades Away.

I feel for him. But at the same time, I really don't care: I'm too busy sitting on my rented ocean view porch and grooving to Tuscaloosa.

What's the best part of my view, you ask? Check out all the stunted trees and the uncut wild grasses that are blocking the postcard perfect view...

I'm in a Shakey house and on a Shakey vacation. And it's perfect.

[steddiesucker]

How funny would it have been if Eddie in S4 actually practiced the ‚black magic’ everyone accused him of?

Like, nothing big of course. But giving some guy who cut a chunk of Eddie’s hair off during class turning bald for the rest of his life? All Eddie needed was a strand of that guys own hair - and he went slowly and agonizingly bald, leaving school and Hawkins altogether.

Oh, that one girl who put a letter in his locker to meet him after school on the parking lot, lurking him in to confess her so called ‚feelings‘ for Eddie, only for the boys of the basketball team to pour animals blood all over him, almost just like in the movie ‚Carrie‘?

Eddie seeked out revenge and soon he was sabotaging all their games, purely by hiding little bags, filled with different things, around the boys locker room before every game. Unfortunately, it also was the team Steve was in, which ended up never winning a game and since Eddie couldn’t care less at that time, he was proud of his accomplishment. And the girl? Don’t worry about her. She’s in a better place now.

Huh? Dead? No, why would you think that? She’s living a simple life in a mental facility now after a huge freak-out about ‚monsters’ and ‚heads that open up like a flower but with teeth in it’.

Eddie never hurt people in a deadly way. That just wasn’t him. And in the end he should’ve known better, shouldn’t he?

Never play with fire, right?

At least this time he didn’t run away.

[knifebaby3000]

Your OC Tian looks like he could he my OCs brother and I'm so obsessed with him. The beauty marks and the oblivious glazed over look really fucking do it for me

can u share more about him :0c

Omg thank you so much!!!!! I designed Tian to be so extremely husband-coded To Me so I'm happy some of the boxes he checks 4 me ✅ are checked 4 u also ✅🙏🏼

Tian (and Zhu) is the protagonist of two of my projects, the original and its overgrown AU. The OG is........ A xianxia romcom bildungsroman like....... Swan-maiden myth meets FFIX meets Disney Hercules.......... And the AU is what I usually draw/upload, which is a neo noir like...... FFVIII meets........ Drive (2011)....... Meets........... Disco Elysium which is a connection I'm only making right here, right now, as I type?????? Anyway OG-style Baby T is "tiger", "spring", vs Big T who is "dragon", "winter". Both are True Neutral tho I think Baby T leans Chaotic...

Some quick blips: Cap sun, Aries moon, Taurus rising, bday is 31 Dec; 6'2 188cm, ~190lbs 86kg, benches above his bodyweight; vegetarian, doesn't drink, healthiest guy you know (chainsmoking is healthy); blue MCR-coded tobacco depression wifeguy to Zhu’s red LDR-coded cocaine mania guywife

Charm points: natural curls, beauty marks, underbite

Talents: carpentry, wushu, gymnastics, fixing whatever

Likes: Zhu, tofu, his motorcycle

Dislikes: texting, cardio, doing laundry

Songs: MCR – Drowning Lessons + Fashion Statement + Desert Song (it's bad!!!!!!), The National – Walk Off, Hyukoh – 似是故人來 Like An Old Friend Arrives

Motifs: chrysanthemums, smoke, temples, the moon

Not really a talker, he's all abt acts of service and can be hard to understand if you're looking specifically for words. I like to think of him as the lead in a Western film except the horse is a black motorbike – silhouetted against the horizon, never says more than he has to, does what needs doing. His catchphrase is basically "🆗", "Sure." Also he doesn't use guns but anything else goes 🔨

Some flavor:

More under the cut if this hateful app will let me add one ��

I think he's best understood thru the way other ppl talk abt him – so here are a couple names/epithets!

His maternal grandmother is a distinguished mobster known as The Old Empress, which is why most ppl call Tian "Crown Prince", "the Prince", etc. Their family is more/less popularly-elected local deities (see "city god" on Wikipedia) and he's the last of the bloodline But has been refusing to officially inherit for over a decade, though he performs all the duties anyway. Old, old agreements put them above virtually all modern law, generally thru loopholes that allow them to, for example, literally start a gang war at 23 bc you got a little too annoyed Or take an eye for an eye/publicly execute someone as ritual vengeance. Pls note that Zhu is a criminal defense attorney. Smile

They also sometimes call him "Bodhisattva" bc he, due to Circumstances, grew up in a Buddhist monastery from age 8, along with Jin, his baby brother. He became an ordained monk at 20 but disrobed at 22 so he could help Jin thru university. During that time, he worked three primary jobs: seasonal construction worker/contractor, auto mechanic, and plumber. "why not model" No Vanities Lifestyle. He Is Just Some Guy. He Wishes He Were Still Bald. Fuck Fast Fashion Btw.

With his name specifically, Tian Tian, family name 田 “field” + given name 天 “heaven/day/sky” is his entire character – simple, no frills, unassuming on paper, but also strong, steady, salt of the earth. It's a name that once you see him both does and doesn't do him justice, like surely there's something fancier and yet between those two characters you already have the world. The name is also 9 strokes altogether! Fav number and an auspicious one – 9 heavens + if you've ever seen an imperial dragon robe, it's 9 dragons with scales in multiples of 9, eg 81.

A few bonus reasons I chose 天:

I associate him with swans (symbol of beauty but also violent, aggressive birds), 大天鹅 Big Heaven Goose

Single-character names are so elegant/Tough to me

Canonically seen as a "Fifth Great Beauty", literally a man named Heaven, the H is for Husband TO ME

FACT I decided on the monk thing after I named him and I think it's funny. His Dharma name is 釋恒心 Shi Hengxin btw which means "monk", literally, and "resolution"

Final bonus, literally my man:

[elendsessor]

I am a predictable bitch and I would like to hear your Demifiend and Raidou headcanons if possible

YES

demifiend -

childhood friends with chiaki and isamu and were all a bunch of delinquents. also a city boy at heart.

and yes all three of them used to believe they would be best friends forever :”)

never got into fights on campus nor was the one to instigate any but did fight back.

did have a crush on chiaki for awhile.

seriously heartbroken over everything and everyone he knew and loved dying but after learning about how his besties were turning into pieces of shit he didn’t want to return everything back to the way it was.

rejected every reason and has to live with the consequences but still complains. though lucifer was definitely not happy with hitoshura for it he didn’t off him in hopes that he could get some use out of him one day. this does not stop hitoshura from trying to fistfight him.

despite taking up luci’s offer to become a true demon seeming like the best option he did opt out. he’s scared of losing what little humanity he has left.

hates being called a demon but will only call himself such if it benefits him.

local demon bug eater got so used to it real world insects now look appetizing.

after becoming the demifiend he decided to ditch the name naoki since he felt it didn’t fit. still hates hearing it in most cases.

while demons in nocturne suck ass he’s pretty chill with them. talks with them often and grew popular in the vortex world for a multitude of reasons. he may be doomed to live there but at least he’s got decent word of mouth.

of course pixie’s his favorite. she was the chiaki replacement. seriously she reminds him so much of her hitoshura sometimes accidentally mixes their names up. they gossip a ton too.

raidou -

there’s not a ton of info out there on how the yatagarasu treats their summoners but based on dialogue, remarks, etc. they’re really harsh on them. you gotta be willing to give up your entire life if you want to be in their good books. unfortunately raidou was no different. his entire life was planned out for him, he was homeschooled and sheltered, also never had a proper family to speak of.

only ended up going to school as a cover. he’s older than his peers but got stuck as a first year and keeps getting held there. doing his job takes up so much of his time he barely ever attends class or does homework but he is an intelligent guy.

even after the day he stopped going altogether he kept the hat and the student get up. it was oddly comforting.

yes he wears his hat all the time but not because he’s secretly bald or anything. actually he has the world’s worst hat hair and gave up trying to fix it. very ashamed of it though.

has always had a soft spot for cats so having gouto in his life was a massive plus. gouto’s temporary “death” in dsrk1 hit him hard though so he makes it even more of a point to keep him around. every morning he goes out and feeds/plays with the random cats in tsukudo-cho.

absolute workaholic because that’s all he knows how to do. constantly picks up odd jobs when there’s nothing going on, always willing to help out the capital’s residents.

of course he unfortunately neglects his health a lot, occasionally on purpose as self-discipline. he passes out on the job, comes back injured, forgets to eat, etc. it’s become both gouto and narumi’s job to look after him since he certainly isn’t going to do it himself. this has sparked a few one-sides arguments (because raidou also really doesn’t like fighting with them). all in all they’re an awkward found family.

has a good bond with his demons at least, but it’s the equivalent of looking after a bunch of unruly kids sometimes.

does talk with tae about mythology but that’s as social as he gets with anyone.

yes he’s popular with many ladies but all of it flies over his head, that and the occasional comments about him looking gay. he is gay though but he’s also bad at picking up on it.

bonus raishura hcs because they’re like my comfort ship at this point -

raidou never liked the idea of hurting people and the same goes for anyone under demon influence. hitoshura appeared to just be another case of that sort of thing which is why he never got to complete the task of killing him. ending up vouching for him, too, which steadily evolved into a weird friendship.

initially hitoshura went through the labyrinth of amala for curiosity’s sake, only entering the fifth because dante/raidou were down there and he didn’t want them to go any deeper in. for raidou in particular he does feel especially guilty having indirectly landing him in that situation. literally the only sane human being somehow existing in the vortex world of course he’s gonna care. (yeah as long as you don’t fully complete the fifth kalpa you can get any of the other endings i tested this so this hc does work.)

hitoshura made it a point to not get attached to people ever again. his alliance with raidou was one he wanted to be temporary but he did start genuinely caring for him.

both of them are bad at being social and dealing with feelings so their interactions are super awkward. they do like being close to one another and cuddling though. it started as odd coping mechanisms and curiosity but they started giving themselves little to no space without noticing.

eventually hitoshura found it too hard to be separated from him despite keeping in touch so he ended up doing enough convincing to live with raidou. it benefitted both of them and was really supposed to be a continuation of their initial partnership/friendship but they started getting more and more intimate.

they acknowledge one another as boyfriends but don’t openly say it. a lot of their relationship is kept behind closed doors.

again a lot of their overall relationship is awkward as hell they’re really bad at being in love.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

if you're up for it out of the ones you know how would the other non-comics Edwards rank? (Unburied, HQ Show and whichever else you've seen?)

this is going to be considerably more hinged because I just straight up haven't seen a lot of the cartoons that Riddleboy has popped up on and generally have less feelings about them; the comics are where I really get crazy get stupid about him. but let's talk about a couple highlights! no ratings, they're all good little bastards.

John Glover (Batman: The Animated Series)

he's not my FAVORITE favorite but like. come on. he's a good little Riddler! he riddles like crazy! and I like BTAS rogues on principle, I love that they can definitely murder people but stay classy about it.

I usually prefer Riddlers who are driven to riddle by a desire to fuck (with) Batman, but I actually REALLY respect that this guy originally just wanted to murder his shitty former boss. that guy sucked and he did deserve to get disemboweled by a mechanical minotaur in an enormous labyrinth that Eddie apparently spent a year building on his own dime!

I'm also kind of indebted to his existence because Eddie in BTAS spinoff comics is just. my favorite little guy. him!

Dave Franco (Young Justice)

I'm gonna keep this quick because there isn't a lot to say: this Riddler kind of sucks but is also pretty much spot-on. like he's irritating but the whole narrative knows he's irritating; sweet baby Dick Grayson seems fucking exhausted the second he shows up and all the other villains at Belle Reve bully him like a bunch of cunty middle schoolers. I'm a simple man; I love when even the other villains want to kill this man on sight. his design also kind of sucks; like there are so many elements here that sort of work but just aren't that remarkable altogether? he looks like he does other bad guys' taxes.

having said all of that I do genuinely adore that in his first episode he's the only guy who manages to break out of Belle Reve during what was planned to be a mass breakout, especially given that the aforementioned bullying would strongly suggest nobody even told him that was going to happen. I love when he's the slippiest boy! escaping things is sort of a riddle; let him have that.

also, hey, I have to say this: it's just. so weird that he's Dave Franco. he's not bad in the role at all but. why.

Jim Rash (Harley Quinn: The Animated Series)

speaking of animated shows that know he's annoying and just roll with it!!

I like the Harley Quinn series quite a lot for a lot of reasons, mainly because it's not precious about the DC mythos and will frequently just do some buckwild shit with very established characters with absolutely zero hesitations. the Riddler is the opposite of that; this show knows exactly why and in what ways he's supposed to be an insufferable little freak and they go for it full throttle. don't love the bald + question mark tattoo look but he's gay so it balances out.

Hasan Minhaj (Batman Unburied)

yeah there's no normal way to explain this one, this version of the Riddler crawled deep inside one of my brain wrinkles and is still sitting there chirping like a cricket. I can't even explain why but if I think about him too long I begin frothing at the mouth. I think about him a profoundly abnormal amount and I feel great about it. he's only in four episodes and managed to rot a hole in my psyche in significantly less than that. I just think he's neat. he's awful. he's pathetic. he's my little meow meow. I don't want anyone to fix him. I'll cry if he gets worse. I want to see him implode. I've said it before and I'll say it again, whatever happens in season 2 of Unburied is going to make me truly unbearable as a human being.

[onionstree]

I've been trying to process everything happening with what's come out from McPig and Pizza Tower. I'm still really frustrated and hurt to hear the things he's said (even if they're almost 5 years old, it's never easy to hear). I'm a trans gay guy with a shit brain, so seeing his own comments and how he moderates his server was just. Appalling.

I know he's acknowledged those comments and that he doesn't agree with them. I totally want to trust people can grow, and we should support people who grow!

HOWEVER, I also know one or two enemy designs are still in the game that are really bad stereotypical and harmful depictions of marginalized groups (the tribal cheese slime is particularly egregious, I can see how an enemy meant to resemble scrooge could slip by but the SLIME?? my god).

So. I've heard rumors they'll be altering these designs eventually, and I really hope that's true! It's crazy they slipped in in the first place but I think that would be a great place to start. Like a nice gesture of "Yeah, no, we don't stand for that bullshit."

I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be upset over this, and while I've seen a lot of people in my circle say they'll still continue enjoying the game with a critical eye, I totally understand why others don't feel comfortable engaging in ANY pizza tower content anymore (especially if you're POC or Jewish).

I just want to put out there to the few people who follow my page, if Pizza Tower content makes you uncomfortable you can 100% block that tag or me altogether. I want to still find comfort in the silly pizza game. I think the community I've found here is a real gem (and to my knowledge everyone else involved in Pizza Tower's creation are pretty good people!), and Peppino as a trans guy weirdly did a lot for my confidence. I just havent seen a lot of older trans guys who also get to be sillay fat balding men (who are also beloved!!) As long as things are moving towards getting better (and especially as long as they don't get worse and McPig doesn't suddenly buckle down on his actions) I'm probably going to fall back into making PT art and PT reblogs. I think with what's actually presented in-game, especially if it's patched out, you can enjoy the game without supporting the dev. It seems like that's the route a lot of blogs are taking, and I think after a brief break that's how I'll proceed too.

This is really long but I guess TLDR: comments from discord are really fucking bad but I think there's enough of a time gap to trust he may have grown out of that mentality/"sense of humor" (sometimes people start falling into right-wing pipelines or circles that think offensive=funny and are then able to grow out of it or educate themselves and be like. Good people.) However I do fully believe those enemy designs need to be changed. Like a lot of blogs, Pizza Tower content will still be eventually coming from me alongside sillay reblogs so please don't hesitate to block that tag on my blog OR ME ENTIRELY as i totally understand people who want to distance themselves from it.

That TLDR was still really long. Other people have said it way better than me, but I hope that makes sense? I don't know what I'm doing, I just hope things can get better for everyone.

[transmascore]

is hair loss on t specifically in any way reversible or avoidable altogether? im not on t yet ( probably won't be for A While and im 18 rn ) but i always experience pretty bad hair loss and im worried that it'll get very very worse post-t. now of course there's the option to not go on t in that case but 1. in my country, you can't get your gender marker changed ( not even to just "transgender" let alone "male" ) unless you medically transition and 2. i DO want the other changes like body and facial hair and bottom growth deep voice all that. and of course being bald is fine and beauty standards are fucking stupid but at the same time i guess i have always kind of wanted to pull off the long haired guy thing but going on t might just get in the way of doing that and i won't do that without t because Dysphoria. and i think all of this is making the dysphoria worse because 1. im experiencing hair loss and not even male pattern ( altho this one i can turn into a joke sometimes like "the baldness isn't even male pattern 😔" ) and that's a silly thing but it's still sort of there. 2. because again. i have wanted to have long hair for A Long Time. so i couldn't live my childhood and teenage years as A Guy and once i get to do that i can't do this other thing which yeah minor problem but hhhh and 3. when i do complain about this sort of thing online i get a stock response of like??? either being told to just join the rest of the male population ( understandable ) or that i can't let go of "the beauty standards of my agab" ( help as if cis men don't worry about going bald you don't see them being told they are women for it ). and like. transitioning is supposed to be a euphoric thing and i was so so excited about the prospect of it all before this one singular thing kicked in. it's all very hhhhhh all over the place

I totally get you, anon. Especially as a Long Haired Man myself. My long hair is really important to my gender identity and I would also be pretty upset if I went bald, even though there's nothing objectively wrong with hairloss.

So, the good news is that you have a couple of options here.

You could do what I did, which is to go on T for a few years and then stop once you have the changes you want. Most changes on T are permanent changes (voice, facial hair, adam's apple, bottom growth, body hair.) Stopping T DOES have changes, though, both good and bad: menstrual cycle returning, fat redistribution, clearer skin, reversal of vaginal atrophy, and... sometimes... cessation or reversal of hair loss. Now, T and E affect everyone differently - and it's important to have realistic expectations. Even though I have long hair, my hairline DID recede, and it's remained there even after stopping T. So stopping T isn't going to resolve everything for every person.

What most guys do, however, is take finasteride and minoxidil (Rogaine) in addition to their T in order to keep their hair healthy. Some guys start it after they begin hair loss, and other guys take it as a preventative. However, like all medications, it's important to read up on side effects and interactions to make sure that this is the right choice for you. Some people can't take finasteride.

Something else to keep in mind is proper hair care in general. Like, if you have curly hair, are you using the proper products for it to keep your strands strong? I have wavy hair, so I have a specific wash routine I follow in order to keep my hair healthy (it's not an ideal routine, but it IS a routine.) Making sure that you minimize shedding and breakage will keep your hair healthier for longer. As much as I hate to say it, Reddit is a great resource for this. Just look up your hair type ("curly hair", "wavy hair", "straight hair") plus "Reddit" and you should be able to find guides, recommended products, and communities where you can ask questions about hair care.

Making sure that you get haircuts frequently will also help, even if it seems counterproductive to growing long hair. Just have the hairdresser or barber cut off as little as possible. It's important to get rid of split ends for healthy growth.

Now, I don't have a ton of advice re: finasteride and minoxidil because I've never used them myself, but if any followers have any insight: please feel free to add on to this post!

[swampgallows]

,

they fucking killed dead my favorite yam guy and like i know i had my period of mourning about it and was very self-conscious for being in my thirties and that invested in a fictional character but the secondary blow of the lawsuit made things even more devastating and there really is just a giant crater of inspiration yawning in my soul now that is almost impossible to scab over. like they are literally never going to make content about him again. there will be crumbs in hearthstone if they dont soft-replace the warrior hero altogether with a more popular alt skin (rokara, varian [!!!], magni, etc.), and maybe in some far-flung return to yrel and the lightforged they might revisit “exarch hellscream”, but that wont be him. it’ll be his au half-brother at best. the character as i know him is dead, double dead, triple dead, permanently dead. defeated in siege, killed in wod, shattered into soul ash in sanctum. 

it would be easier if i had something to move on to, but like everything else in my life i have been fossilized in this same corroded rut for almost a fucking decade, spinning my bald wheels in nothing. in fact i thought i’d moved on from wow back in 2009 but went back to it in 2014 because i was backsliding even then, searching for something to lift me out of the rut. it feels like my entire life ive been a stalagmite in some forgotten fissure, a comedone marring the face of an earth, an aberration. a foreign body that should be removed. i am always between things, never enough or always too much. i was not supposed to make it this far. i am not supposed to be here. but i do not know where i am supposed to go, where i fit, where i’m free, where i belong. im a calcification of runoff, a byproduct, a thing of no inherent meaning beyond being a sedentary deposit from something that serves a purpose. not the moss on the stone but the brittle stone held in pieces by the moss, scaffolding for something more important. i am not even the kind of mineral that appreciates over time, no crusty exterior hiding a geode. even i am taken aback just now, about to describe myself as the buildup of filth at the edges of a tub; perhaps a bit too wallowing to outright say i am soap scum.

because of this, i am not sure how i am meant to move on aside from being wiped away when i am not even a thing that gathers dust but the gathered dust itself. as the years go on so does the layer of dead cells, hair, and bug droppings accumulate, crumpled flies in my eyes and cobwebs ropy with dust. “dust to dust”, but it is already here. it is already me.

i envy people who can hyperfixate on things, or even fall a little bit in love when they find something new. the anhedonia has overpowered me for much of my life. i used to interpret this as me having higher standards, which weaves directly into my stellar reputation for being “judgmental”, but i think said standards are so high because, like adhd, it has been a lifetime struggle to eke even the smallest enjoyment out of anything. so this one thing i had, i tore out the pages of his books and gnawed on the pulp, absorbed it into myself, gripped it with white knuckles and harpy talons and boa’s embrace to satiate me, wringing the tiniest drip of nourishment on my sandpaper tongue, only to now find ashes. a starving stupid husk moldering on a windowsill, baking in a shaft of sunlight in hopes of feeling warmth. burnt brittle dust in a haunted house, waiting to be swept away.

[dougielombax]

I fucking HATE these kind of clickbait ads!

Especially if they’re like the one pictured above.

(Okay I hate clickbait in general but still)

Looks like a photoshop job.

Anyway.

I clicked on it to see what all the fuss was about. Morbid curiosity and all that.

What happens?

I end up having to go through a 15 to 50 (I don’t remember the exact number) page slideshow detailing the events in question.

Tedious as fuck! Took way longer than it ought to have done.

So! What did they find inside the horse?

It was an illegal chip of some kind. Like a tracking device I think. Something like that. Weird stuff.

I can’t recall if they elaborated on what happened afterwards.

I did a little digging with help from Snopes. Turns out the events of this clickbait article didn’t even happen!

It was just a weird fiction written by some guy trying to pass it off as a real event. Which it wasn’t. He just made it up!

Weird, baffling stuff altogether.

Tbf I didn’t know what to expect.

Just that it wasn’t…THAT!

What, we’re they smuggling cocaine in the horse? A stash of illegal weapons (including a box of machine guns, dozens of crates of ammunition, a dozen SAM launchers, hundreds of RPGs and improvised explosives)?

I don’t know.

What else were they gonna find inside the horse? A lost Faberge egg?

The Zodiac killer?!

For fuckness’ sake!

That would be crazy! I’m imagining it now.

“You’re telling me that the Zodiac Killer is inside that horse?!”

“Yeah…”

“Get him out!”

*THE HORSE IS FINE! THE HORSE IS OKAY!*

Then a whole fucking SWAT team heads inside the horse and PULLS him out. Shrieking, balding, naked, withered, blind, pallid and covered in horse body fluids. Shrieking and roaring like a frightened old woman, cowering in the light with a cloudy eye, a broken hand and a withered arm. He yells “HOW DID YOU FIND MEEEEEEEEEEEE??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!”.

They put a shroud over him and take him away in the back of a van, shrieking, whimpering and cursing up a storm, unleashing a torrent of curses and bitterness upon everyone in earshot.

Shrieking and roaring like a deranged harridan as the cops take him away.

Idk.

Who the hell even writes this shit anyway?!

It’s crazy!

[goronska]

Follow the Shadow (choice #2)

(my own vote doesn't count to the overall total, hence we have a tie between choice 1 and 4)

However handsome the guy in your room is, you don't care. You just put your head under the pillow and toss a moan of irritation together with a plead: "Can I have 5 more minuuuuutes?"

This is met with a short burst of laughter. "No, you can't! The priestesses are waiting for us already, I bet! Get moving!" "Priestesses?" you mumble, almost falling back to sleep. "Wasn't it why you signed up?" "Signed up for what? Where am I?" "For apprenticeship with me, like the others, in the Main Temple of Ubisi?"

It all comes back to you slowly. You were in the Temple as the rituals were performed last time. You thought about those huge guys serving their purpose along to the charismatic priestesses and young acolytes and you immidiately decided that yes, having power over others, like this, is the path you want to pursue. They told you the 1-on-1 mentorships with the slaves of the Temple start soon. Being a slave yourself, this was the most powerful role you could assume. But today, after a speedy shower and putting on your clothes, much more normal than your new flatmate, and mentor apparently, but all in red, you went with him to the corridor and noticed a file of almost identical pairs - big guy in dark colors and a smaller one all dressed in red. All of them wearing collars similar to yours. Altogether 16 men.

Straight backs, emotionless faces with eyes fixed on nothingness in the distance, hands behind their backs, statues. You didn't get the memo, but you quickly do the same. You mentor nudges you playfully with his elbow. "Psst, here she comes!"

"Welcome newcomers, to your first day with us!" she says with a smile. And she is unlike all the others you have seen so far. The ones dancing in the Temple all had short hair - she is basically bald. They wore no jewelry - she has long, ornate earrings and… a nose stud? "Our welcoming speech will be given by High Priestess Agat, follow me"

[sins-of-the-sea]

Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

Uncommon Questions for OCs and their creators:

Oh, I had to edit how they look MANY TIMES throughout the years.

The only one who retained the same physical appearance from Day 1 is Abena as a tall, voluptuous, dark-skinned booba lady with a teeny weeny afro, hypnotic smile, and big alluring eyes. The only change I think I did since her original design was define her jawline and cheekbones, and even then that was just me being a better artist and not just drawing her as a generic anime girl with toned in skin. I guess updating her outfit and changing how she covers her hair counts.

The men, on the other hand:

Josep was initially significantly young, leaner, and had a different hairstyle (rounded hairline with bangs and a ponytail). His face was also smoother. As my art improved, he'd eventually gain the sharp cheekbones, defined jaw, and unique eyes, as well as a bulkier physique to compliment his spooky theme. It's actually fairly recently (the past few years) his hair was most defined: slicked back with a few stray strands and a widow's peak hairline with trepanning scars on his skull. The braided queue slung over the shoulder like an anime mom's side plait is perhaps the most recent change (because I'm sick of trying to decide how his hair falls over his flipped cloak collar), as well as self-flagellation scars on his back because Catholicism, yo.

Rashid also had a major change. Like Josep, he was initially younger, almost identical to Amir but with the stereotypical genie look (so a shaved head with a ponytail, smaller beard, etc). That was why Rashid's original name was "Jinni"! Then later one he was made middle-aged and thoroughly bald, with a fuller beard and body hair everywhere, and a hooded cloak. Later still changed his physique to be "strong fat" to contrast the Adonises that fill up the Devil's Eye roster lmao (others also fattened up like Robert and Isaac). His hooded cloak is also changed to a general assymetrical cloak styled after Cassim from Aladdin and the Forty Thieves. Most of the recent changes onto Rashid nowadays is just defining and redefining how I draw his face and his beard. God, his beard is hard.

Ruixiong's physical design is mostly on just his hair and face. In one of his earliest drafts, Ruixiong was originally a very disabled beggar with a shitton of congenital deformities who was approached by the Master to be made abled and beautiful… only to have half of his face burned and an eye gouged out by Sing-Lung (hence the strap of cloth under his hair in some of his icons). But this is absolutely gross writing so VERY THANKFULLY it is dropped; however, Ruixiong was without a justification as to why he often covers half of his face with his hair for a long time until recently--he just has a birthmark on his face he thinks is hideous lmao. Which I eventually adjusted too--his attitude about that birthmark evolved to something he finds ugly but also prideful over, thus his reluctance to keep it covered dropped and his full face shown more often altogether. So the peek-a-boo bangs is just stylization nowadays.

Also, the top knot. Ruixiong previously didn't have the Ming-dynasty styled top-knot. That's also a recent change to his physical appearance. Ruixiong feels weird whenever I draw him without it now.

Phoebus and Guy are a special case, and I'm lumping them together as identical twins. Initially they WEREN'T twins: Phoebus was originally 23 and Guy 21 before I decided upon making them twins and moving them to 22. They also had different hairstyles; Guy was thoroughly white with weird stylized shapes while Phoebus had the symmetrical auburn Sephiroth bangs. Upon deciding to make them identical (barring Guy's white hair at the time), I altered Guy's hair to have Phoebus' shape and Phoebus' face to be just like Guy's (Phoebus' face was originally much more significantly "generic anime bishonen").

Originally the only way you could tell them apart, besides their personalities, was their color scheme--otherwise, left uncolored, you weren't supposed to be able to tell who is who at all. But this also changed over time. Guy nowadays has muscle, and he dresses more formally or "sexily", whereas Phoebus is a skinny twig and dresses like a lazy slob. There is also Phoebus with the birthmark on his elbow as the congenital trait that distinguishes him from Guy.

Special mention goes to Guy's hair, which has gone all over the place from full white to auburn to the current auburn with a single white streak. I am contemplating one more physical change to Guy, but I am still deciding if it's a good change or not first.

Giovanni's radical design changes is mostly on his hair. He had a really stupid looking ponytail with the Idiot Hair string plus sideburns and… all over the place. Later it became a slicked back wavy shoulder-length hair but still with the Idiot Hair strand sticking out on top of his head. Then that Idiot Hair relaxed and covered his right eye for a time as I changed the hair once again to have assyemtrical parted long bangs wherein his right eyebrow tends to be covered. Finally, that Idiot Hair was dropped altogether as I gave Giovanni his trademark sideburns instead, a decision I'm glad to have because I'm so sick of his cutesy face being so bland otherwise (the sideburns make him appear more masculine without changing his face).

Giovanni's heterochromia was entirely by accident--he was originally just blue eyed. But before I boarded the plane to go to the Philippines for college, I had an unfinished drawing of Josep smacking Gio on the head for stupids, and only one eye (blue) was colored. The other (green) was colored on the plane, but it was dark and I picked up the wrong Sharpie. When the lights brightened and I saw my mistake, I decided to keep it. And that is why Gio has two differently colored eyes!

The last major change to his physical design is probably a couple years ago, regarding the massive number of scars on his body due to self-harm during psychotic episodes in the cellar.

[stratamuzak]

Bad Pony Release "21"

“Do you remember me behind the bar?”

Photo by Richard Clifford @rcstills

SOUNDCLOUD LINKSPOTIFY LINK

We (Bad Pony, that is) are growing up. I don’t know how it happened and I sure as hell don’t know when it happened, but all of a sudden there’s babies and weight gain and acid reflux. In many ways it’s a real drag - the tours that were once brought to you by fast food, booze and bad decisions are now brought to you by balanced meals, early nights and male pattern baldness.

With that being said, it’s not all bad. Hell, it’s actually kind of awesome. As we are getting older we are (unbelievably) growing wiser. One fortunate side effect of this is that Jarred Young, our fearless singer, has developed an uncanny capacity for reflection and introspection with a clarity that I find simply astounding.

This is where his latest contribution, 21, finds us…

21 tells us the complicated story of an old flame. This was a relationship that came to Jarred at a vulnerable time. I know, I was there, and he was a little bit of a mess afterwards. In many ways the trajectory of this relationship mirrored an experience that I think most (if not all) young men go through (those that don’t go through it tend to become dangerous narcissists and usually end up in real estate, but that’s another story altogether). 

There is this strange period of transition between the blind and unfounded confidence of your late teens/early twenties to a mindset that is more sane, less selfish and generally tethered to reality. In Bad Pony we playfully refer to this period as the time where you are “humbled by the world”. 

Jarred was sprung on this person, and in his typical fashion he launched himself fully into the relationship - trying to connect, be cool and impress this person. Whilst they most certainly had some kind of romantic relationship, time would tell that this was perhaps more one-sided than Jarred had hoped. When the relationship unceremoniously ended, he found himself humbled by the world. I don’t mean to trivialise the situation, the guy was heartbroken.

15 years and a not insignificant amount of therapy later, Jarred turns his gaze back on that period of time with a sense of closure and resolution, and a degree of compassion for his past self.

Perhaps it wasn’t so much that she was way too cool and he was a big dork. Perhaps she didn’t know everything because she was a few years older. 

Perhaps the red flags were, in fact, red flags.

Words by Mark Webber

[healthandmedicalblog]

Things You Should Understand Before Having a Hair Transplant

Losing hair can be unpleasant, and many look for an answer to recapture the completion of their hair and certainty. A hair transplant is normally tried to reestablish hair in bald and diminishing guys.

Be that as it may, before you choose to go through this procedure, it's fundamental to have an intensive comprehension of what's included. This article will direct you through all that you want to be aware of prior to getting a hair transplant in Singapore.

Research the treatment

Hair transplants have a triumph pace of more than 90%. Notwithstanding, prior to settling on the procedure, you should lead intensive exploration to go with an educated choice. Here are a few critical viewpoints to think about regarding the treatment.

Grasp the reasons for hair loss

Hereditary qualities, hormonal changes, stress, and clinical problems can all cause hair loss. Understanding the basic justification behind your hair loss will assist you with concluding whether a hair transplant is the most ideal choice.

Reasonable assumptions

While hair transplants can altogether work on your hair's appearance, having sensible expectations is fundamental. You might accomplish an alternate thickness and hairline than your childhood, so understanding the procedure's constraints is indispensable.

Figure out the procedure, advantages, and dangers

Prior to settling on a hair transplant, it's vital to handle the intricate details of the procedure, as well as the possible advantages and dangers implied.

The hair transplant procedure

A hair transplant includes the movement of hair follicles from a contributor region to the bare or diminishing regions. Giver locales are generally hair at the back or sides of the head. Because of its negligibly obtrusive nature, neighborhood sedation will be controlled to guarantee insignificant uneasiness.

Advantages of a hair transplant

Normal appearance: Hair transplants bring about regular looking hair that develops and acts like your current hair.

Extremely durable arrangement: Transplanted hair is long-lasting and won't drop out after some time.

Worked on fearlessness: Reestablishing your hair can support your confidence and certainty.

Dangers and contemplations

Scarring: While an expert can limit how much scarring, there could in any case be a touch of scarring that goes with the procedure.

Disease and dying: However these are normally interesting, contamination and draining are gambles, similarly as with any surgery.

Lopsided outcomes: The progress of a hair transplant generally relies upon the specialist's expertise, and conflicting outcomes can happen on the off chance that not performed by an accomplished proficient.

Counsel an expert

To guarantee you are a reasonable possibility for a hair transplant and to examine your particular necessities, it's fundamental to talk with a certified proficient. You ought to think about this

Pick a trustworthy facility and specialist

Choosing the right center and specialist is basic. Search for offices with a solid standing and experienced specialists having some expertise in hair transplants.

Interview

A specialist will look at your scalp, survey the degree of hair loss, and examine your objectives and assumptions. They will assist with deciding the most appropriate procedure for your exceptional circumstance.

Seek clarification on some pressing issues

Pose inquiries to thoroughly comprehend the procedure, the center's prosperity rate, and the specialist's insight.

Examine the expenses

Hair transplant expenses can shift essentially founded on a few elements:

Number of grafts

The seriousness of your hair loss and wanted result will be considered to decide the quantity of unions required for the treatment, affecting the expense.

Post-medical procedure care

Figure any post-medical procedure meds and follow-up arrangements that might be required.

Plan for a medical procedure and post-medical procedure recuperation

When you choose to continue with a hair transplant, legitimate readiness is fundamental for an effective result and smooth recuperation.

Keep pre-medical procedure rules

Your specialist will furnish you with guidelines on the best way to plan for the procedure. These rules incorporate keeping away from specific prescriptions, not smoking, and avoiding liquor utilization.

Plan for recuperation

Recuperation time can last eight to ten weeks, contingent upon the individual and the picked procedure. Make game plans for time off work during the underlying recuperation stage.

Post-medical procedure care

Stick to your specialist's post-usable consideration guidelines constantly, including keeping the transplanted region clean, staying away from sun openness, and taking any endorsed drugs.

Hair transplant by Alaxis Medical & Aesthetic Surgery

A hair transplant can improve things greatly for men with hair loss. Be that as it may, it's fundamental to take care of business, research, and weigh in different elements prior to settling on the treatment.

Alaxis Aesthetics gives hair rebuilding answers to assist you with recovering your hair and certainty. Our specialists are knowledgeable about hair transplantation methods, incorporating FUE hair transplant in Singapore, and are focused on presenting to you the most ideal outcomes.

[kamreadsandrecs]

By Noreen Malone

Bumblebee, left, and Optimus Prime stand outside a townhouse in the Washington neighborhood of Georgetown.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

The thing about putting a pair of 10-foot metal Transformers statues outside your townhouse in the most picturesque district of the nation’s capital is that the neighbors are going to have opinions.

And on Prospect Street in Georgetown, they were not pleased.

The statues — Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, two of the good guys from the long-running “Transformers” movie franchise — appeared in January 2021 outside the white-brick home of Newton Howard, a cognitive scientist and machine-learning expert with ties to the intelligence community.

He had ordered them from a factory in Taiwan to the tune of more than $25,000 each. Where large brick planters had once blended in with the local aesthetic, there was now something akin to outsider art by way of an anonymous welder and Hollywood’s reinterpretation of 1980s toys.

Plenty of people love the statues, which resemble invaders from the future, in a neighborhood that does its best to hang on to its cobblestone past. Students at nearby Georgetown University can’t get enough. Neither can tourists: The Transformers statues have their own entry on Google Maps as a place of interest, with 4.9 stars. “The best part of visiting Georgetown,” one reviewer declared.

“People are at my door every day,” Dr. Howard, 53, said at his home on a recent afternoon. “It doesn’t bother me. I find it to be beautiful that actually people are appreciating things.”

But some of his neighbors are less enthusiastic, and the critics of his notion of a Georgetown-appropriate sidewalk display have been trying to get rid of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime for more than two years.

Dr. Howard, a bald man with an unplaceable accent, wears dark round eyeglasses that come equipped with a camera and a microprocessor that allows him to translate languages on the spot, he said.

He paid $3.75 million for the townhouse and moved in during the pandemic. In 2021, he snapped up the one next door for $4.8 million. The homes lie close to his job at Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he is a research professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology. (He added to his real estate holdings in 2022, when he bought a $3.6 million home in Potomac, Md. It has 14 bathrooms and a bocce court.)

Dr. Howard greeting tourists who stopped by to see his Transformers sculptures.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

Putting up the Transformers wasn’t the only thing Dr. Howard did to irritate his Georgetown neighbors, who learned shortly after his arrival that he wasn’t some sort of shabby, retiring professor. He had flashy taste and he liked to show it off, parking a number of expensive cars on Prospect Street: a yellow McClaren 720S (new ones start at $310,000), a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT (which goes for $1.4 million and up), a Porsche 918 (fewer than 1000 were made, and they go for well over $1 million). Not to mention an MRAP truck and a small airplane from his collection that he once parked in front of his home. The car show came to a stop only after he received complaints.

A rich guy with loud cars is one thing, a known story. The Transformers were something else altogether. They quickly became a flashpoint in Georgetown, and on the internet, after the local news site DCist reported on the efforts of Dr. Howard’s neighbors to get the statues removed.

Sally Quinn, the author and longtime Georgetown resident, said she was firmly in the anti-Transformers camp. “I think they’re really ugly,” she said. “Some people may like them. You know, everybody’s taste in art is different. But that’s not the point.”

The point, she continued, was historical preservation: “People come toGeorgetown because it’s Georgetown. It’s a beautiful, quaint village.”

But the author Kitty Kelley, who said she has lived in the neighborhood for “two husbands,” or since 1977, sent Dr. Howard a handwritten card in support of his sidewalk flair.

“All you have to do is take a walk through Georgetown, and you’re going to see gnomes and wrought-iron benches,” said Ms. Kelley, who is known for her dishy biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (“Jackie Oh!”), Oprah and Nancy Reagan. “You’ll see cement lions of all sizes. So why should this man be deprived of using the space right outside his front door?”

“Maybe it isn’t Picasso,” she continued. “It isn’t a sculpture by Degas, but I think he’s entitled.”

Ms. Kelley noted that her own outdoor decorations have included topiary monkeys, a seven-foot bird feeder and “an angel who’s shooting something across the yard.”

So: Was Dr. Howard a champion of free expression who found himself on a crusade against exclusionary zoning and “snooty neighbors,” as Slate cast him? Or was he an attention-seeking scofflaw with questionable taste?

Or maybe this was simply a case of an eccentric and mysteriously rich guy being eccentric and mysteriously rich.

Optimus Prime, a Transformers statue in front of Dr. Howard’s home, with flowers in its hand.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

Neighbors Weigh In

Georgetown is not the most futuristic place. Some of the streets still have cobblestone and the remains of streetcar tracks. The neighborhood is filled with pastel rowhouses from the 18th and 19th centuries and with newer homes meant to recall the older structures.

The area also has its share of stately brick mansions that make you wonder who lives there, or used to. Often, it’s someone well-off, but occasionally it’s a someone someone. Power players in media, politics and entertainment — like Madeleine Albright, Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Elizabeth Taylor — have called Georgetown home. But it wasn’t always Washington’s glamour spot.

“Georgetown was kind of a dump in the early 20th century,” said George Derek Musgrove, the co-author of the 2017 study “Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital.”

The old houses had largely fallen into disrepair, and the neighborhood was home to working-class Irish and African Americans. Then, with the explosion of government hiring during the New Deal, Ivy League graduates moved in. They fixed up their homes in an array of styles until the national craze for historical preservation took hold. In 1950, “Old Georgetown” was designated a federal historic district, with all the restrictions on home modification that entailed.

“By thetime you get to 1960, and John Kennedy leaves his Georgetown mansion on N Street for the White House, you just couldn’t afford to get in if you wanted to,” Mr. Musgrove said.

A lot of the residents support efforts to keep things more or less the same. Catherine Emmerson, whose family lives close to Dr. Howard, helped start the Prospect Street Citizens’ Association a few years ago to stop a condo conversion that would have blocked local residents’ views of the Potomac River.

When the Transformers arrived, the group had a new target.

It’s not that the association was against celebrating film history. In fact, its members argued that the condo conversion would have threatened something that ought to be a landmark (and now is): a set of steep steps on Prospect Street, built in 1895, that appeared in “The Exorcist.” (Think: tumbling priest.)

But that was “The Exorcist.” A film. (Maybe?) An old movie, at least. The “Transformers” franchise, which has grossed more than $5 billion across six films, was more like … I.P. (Michael Bay, the “Transformers” producer, declined to comment on Dr. Howard’s decorating choices or the neighbors’ reaction.)

And the Citizens’ Association had clear recourse. Before putting up the statues, Dr. Howard did not apply for any kind of permit, despite Georgetown’s historic status and the fact that the sidewalk is public space.

There is a process, a local official emphasized when he appeared in front of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission via video in March 2021, three months after Bumblebee and Optimus Prime had become part of the neighborhood. And he had bypassed it entirely.

The commission went on to inform him that, before gaining approval, he would have to apply to something else: the Old Georgetown Board, a federal body of three architects that ruled on any changes to the exteriors of properties.

Ms. Emmerson and another neighbor, the author and former television journalist Luke Russert, also weighed in. Ms. Emmerson argued that the statues represented a safety hazard and drew crowds of disruptive gawkers. (Dr. Howard later had his Transformers bolted in place.)

An Optimus Prime statue watches over the neighborhood from Dr. Howard’s rooftop.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

Mr. Russert was more blunt. “What’s to stop someone from putting up a statue of Joseph Stalin and saying, well, this is provocative, it’s art, it speaks to me?” he argued. “They are a nuisance, they are an eyesore, and they detract from the spirit of the neighborhood.”

As tensions continued, Dr. Howard said he started hearing two terms that he had never heard before — NIMBY and YIMBY. (“Not in my backyard” vs. “Yes in my backyard.”) The pro-development crowd wanted to claim him as a hero. He declined to ally himself, exactly. Instead, Dr. Howard argued, his statues were all about “the American idea,” because they welcomed visitors to a cloistered part of the city.

“You don’t want to just come up with ways to shut down your neighborhood so nobody comes into it,” he said.

His critics disputed the notion that he was motivated by an idea of civic good. “His repeated disregard for the law and procedure tells a story of someone who is not operating in good faith for the collective community,” Ms. Emmerson wrote in an email to The New York Times.

‘The Real Tony Stark’

There was no horde outside Dr. Howard’s townhouse on a recent Sunday afternoon. A young man paused to snap a photo of his 2-year-old son standing with the statues. The toddler’s blue and yellow shoes matched Optimus Prime’s color scheme.

From the rooftop, a six-foot Optimus Prime statue peeked down at the street. It had once stood at the front door, but after the initial controversy Dr. Howard commissioned a taller version for the sidewalk. (The colors on the new one aren’t quite true to the franchise’s rendering of Optimus Prime, but Dr. Howard insists it’s him.) Then he moved the original, perched as if part of some SWAT team on the lookout for any Decepticons.

The interior of Dr. Howard’s home, which he said he decorated himself, resembled a lair. The glassy back of the townhouse overlooks the Potomac, where the buzz of jets headed into and out of Reagan National Airport adds to the techno-paradise vibe. Motorcycles were parked in the living areas as objets, and five more Transformer statues stood guard. There was also a giant model of Iron Man, a Marvel superhero dear to Dr. Howard.

“A lot of people used to call me the real Tony Stark,” he said, referring to Iron Man’s alter ego.

The interior of Dr. Howard’s Georgetown home includes motorcycles and more Transformers sculptures.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

The memorabilia on display included his concealed carry permit, as well as framed photographs of him with Bill Clinton and Tim Tebow, the former N.F.L. quarterback who became known for kneeling in prayer on the field. Dr. Howard, who said he is a follower of Messianic Judaism, a religion sometimes referred to colloquially as Jews for Jesus, said that he and Mr. Tebow belong to the same fellowship group. (Mr. Tebow couldn’t be reached for comment.)

His home was fastidious, except for a half-built child’s toy in the living room. Dr. Howard has four children, ranging in age from 5 to 26, he said. (The older children are from a previous marriage.) He and his wife, Rebecca, are also fostering five Afghan refugees, he added.

Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, became friends with Dr. Howard through a shared interest in Afghanistan.“I call him Tony Stark," he said. “I would have called him that without the statue.” (Senator Mullin made a splash in 2021 for personally trying to escort Americans out of Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban, against the explicit wishes of the State and Defense Departments. Dr. Howard was “very involved” in similar efforts, Senator Mullin said.)

The professor — who is, duh, a fan of the “Transformers” movies — said the sculptures had a deeper meaning for him. Not only did they represent machines and humans coexisting in harmony, he said, but the word “transform” had a great deal of personal significance.

“I like changing things when you’re in a status quo and they’re wrong,” he said. “When one looks at themselves and feels self-pity and falls into dwellings of darkness, you should transform.”

Dr. Howard has gone through several transformations himself. He was born in the Sinai Peninsula when Israel controlled it. His family — Egyptian Jews who ended up living in France, he said — moved to the United States when he was 11.

He said he joined the Army at 18, then worked as a linguist in Michigan “across various agencies,” specializing in Arabic, Farsi and Dari. He changed his name around that time because, he said, “it was offered by an agency.” He declined to provide more detail.

“There’s a lot of things during that phase of my career that should be kept secret,” he said.

Dr. Howard — whose doctorates include concentrations in mathematics and neuroscience, and who holds an appointment at the University of Oxford alongside the one at Georgetown — is a curious mix of limelight-seeking and discreet. After college, he said, he worked in military intelligence. He later did work for InQTel, which is functionally the C.I.A.’s venture capital fund.

What precisely he did to get rich is unclear. He said his wealth resulted from selling various businesses, some of which he could not talk about. The walls of his townhouse are filled with commemorative plaques of his patents, many of which have defense industry applications, including “Wireless Network for Routing a Signal Without Using a Tower” and “System and Method for Automated Detection of Situational Awareness.”

A tabletop Transformer in Dr. Howard’s townhouse beside a couple upright books.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

He said he suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2000 while delivering medical supplies, though he declined to offer more detail. After his recovery, he decided to focus on applying the principles of machine learning to the human brain, and turned to neuroscience. “I figured instead of sitting and getting my brain worked on, I would work on it myself by studying it,” he said.

His ventures include Aiberry, a start-up that tries to use A.I. analysis to improve on mental health screening. He said he hoped to help solve the problem of degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s with a cloud-connected deviceimplanted in the brain, using A.I. to optimize the levels of deep brain stimulation.

In other words, he would like to help human beings preserve their humanity by becoming a little more machine.

The Ruling

The Old Georgetown Board seems to rule with an iron fist — just try putting up a neon sign in the neighborhood — but its power is advisory. The city of Washington, D.C., has the real authority to enforce decisions, but the influence of neighbors complaining in unison cannot be discounted.

Topher Mathews, a commissioner for Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission, said that the Transformers mess wouldn’t even make his top five neighborhood dramas of the past 10 years. Easily outstripping it, for instance, was the agita caused over the opening on O Street of Call Your Mother Deli, which attracts long lines.

And locals love to bring up the Tree Incident of 2018, which involved a new homeowner’s decision to prune and cut down magnolia trees on his property, which happened to be the former home of Ms. Onassis. In response, a neighbor created a Halloween display with a mock tombstone reading, “Beloved magnolia 1840-2018 destroyed R.I.P.,” and a grim reaper that announced “Tree Killer Lives There.”

Dr. Howard has argued that his statues constitute meaningful public art. The “Transformers” movies follow a classic good-versus-evil struggle in which the Autobots (the good guys) work to save humanity from the Decepticons (the bad guys). Reviewing the first installment of the franchise in 2007, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that it was “part car commercial, part military recruitment ad, a bumper-to-bumper pileup of big cars, big guns and, as befits its recently weaned target demographic, big breasts.”

The Old Georgetown Board took up the matter of Dr. Howard’s statues in spring 2021, and the city gave him a six-month permit to keep them up. But well after the six months was up, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime were still in place.

Dr. Newton Howard shows off a device that he says will use A.I. to optimize and adjust the levels of deep brain stimulation.Credit...Zak Arctander for The New York Times

By the time the board met again, in April 2023, Dr. Howard claimed that he had spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting to keep his statues up, an amount that included legal and architect advisory fees and city fines.

This time, the board ordered him to take the statues down. Instead of complying, Dr. Howard appealed to the D.C. Public Space Committee. He also rebuffed offers from the Advisory Neighborhood Commission to help him find another place in the neighborhood to display his statues.

Dr. Howard seems to enjoy the attention that has come with the ongoing case. He has talked extensively with the press about his crusade. He was flattered that Paramount, the studio behind the Transformers movie, had invited him to the Washington premiere of the next installment, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which comes out June 9.

As DCist and The Washington Post chronicled the twists and turns of the neighborhood drama, sentiment online seemed to swing his way. A student at Georgetown University started a Change.org petition, signed by more than 900 people, to keep the statues up. “This is so dumb,” Hayden Gise, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission vice chair who lives in a neighborhood close to Georgetown, wrote on Twitter. “Let him live oh my god. Everyone loves property rights until some guy does something cool.”

On May 25, the statues’ fate went before the Public Space Committee. Dr. Howard had hired Paul Strauss, D.C.’s shadow senator, to represent him. Or, as Mr. Strauss put it, he was acting as counsel for Optimus Prime, while a colleague represented Bumblebee.

“People have misunderstood the issue,” Mr. Strauss said. “You talk about compatibility with a historic district? Technically, these guys are millennia old. I mean, they’re prehistoric.”

Mr. Strauss and Dr. Howard also persuaded Peter Cullen and Dan Gilvezan, actors who voiced Optimus Prime and Bumblebee on the 1980s cartoon series based on the toys, to attest at the hearing about the history and significance of the nearly 40-year franchise.

The entreaties didn’t work. The D.C. Public Space Committee denied Dr. Howard a permit, meaning that he would have to take the statues down himself, or the city would. It wasn’t a question of art; it was a question of following the rules.

Dr. Howard didn’t seem inclined to stand down. Before the meeting, he suggested that he would appeal a ruling against him on First Amendment grounds. His lawyer clarified that they saw the issue as one of equal protection: Plenty of people fill their sidewalk planters in Georgetown and never get dinged for it. Why is his client required to seek a permit for what is in his planter?

After the meeting, Dr. Howard said he thought he would apply for a new permit. But he seemed deflated.

“I’m sad,” he said in a text to a reporter, adding,“What do you think I should do?”

The victory that Dr. Howard said he was seeking was a moral one.

“I know what these Transformers mean to me,” he said. “What does it mean to them?”

As of June 1, the statues were still standing.

[jeffstincotingz]

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