#because i have a slight obsession with various mythologies

[welcometotherpsideblog]

˚.⋆ ✶ 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨 ! ✶₊⊹

⊹ ࣪ ˖ he/him, 17 (bday in jan) ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

.𖥔 closed|OPEN to more RP partners ꩜.ᐟ

ᯓ★ ┆ semi-lit/lit, historical + fandom RP ✮⋆˙

⊹ ࣪ ˖ CARRD ⊹ ࣪ ˖

HAS MOVED TO @writingatthedisco

𝐑𝐏 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐅𝐎𝐑:

- ᴘʀɪᴍᴀʀɪʟʏ ғᴀɴᴅᴏᴍʟᴇss ʜɪsᴛᴏʀɪᴄᴀʟ ʀᴘ: victorian, wild west and regency period the most. medieval eras and greek/slavic/general mythology not so much, but still.

- ғᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ ʀᴘ: night at a museum, bridgerton, red dead redemption 2, percy jackson, frankenstein (only the novel), marauders era

but 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐑𝐏 𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 rn are:

- 𝗥𝗗𝗥𝟮 specific, i have a rough idea for a 18 y.o. golden retriever type cowboy who gets seperated and lost from his usual cowboy group during a cattle round up across America, and decides to stay back so his group can get him on the trail back, in the meanwhile getting accidentally involved with crime and getting sucked into the Van Der Linde gang for means of staying alive and getting money as he waits through the months.

- 𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗜𝗡 specific, currently i am in the process of working out a Victor x Henry plot (with me playing Victor) (either during the era when Victor is nursed back to healthy by Henry, orthe summer before Victor leaves to study and Henry stays with his family at lake Como)—if you are into the book ship (i am not interested in any other Frankenstien fandom) and love the AO3 fandom surrounding it—reach out! i'm obsessed 😭

(currently: i am looking for answers on only these two ideas- sorry, folks!)

...but ofcourse i am very open to plotting together, if you have any of yourown ideas that fit these settings i wanna hear them!! just please try to be as involved with the plotting as i so we can bounce off eachothers ideas <3

- old ADs: (Bridgerton ServantxServant) (Percy Jackson Museum Quest)

𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐱𝐌, 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐂 𝐱 𝐎𝐂

- this is because i don't really enjoy playing preexisting characters, however occasionally i do find the muse for a pre-existing character and ship—mostly then it is only CCxCC and it happens very rarely

- VERY open to making more ocs if you have ideas for settings and plots, i love writing especially when collaborating HHWJSHWHE

- side characters who are canon being played occasionally for scenes and stuff is completely fine by me btw, as long was we both play them from time to time when needed- not just one of us!

𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐒 𝐈 𝐃𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓:

slow burn, friends to lovers, found family, misfit/outsider, mutual pinning (those the MOST like all my rps had at LEAST one (but all were slow burn and misfit) (ill be fr i only do slow burn and misfit...)) enemies to lovers, various academies/schools, past trauma, forbidden love, abusive/no parents, hurt/comfort, i also dont take my rp too seriously- i include a lot of humor!

- i also love my RP to be plot heavyy, not like... JUST romance, yk? and come to me with plot ideas, not just tropes

𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐏:

- semi-lit/lit, i stay around a three to six paragraphs depending on how much needs to be said, my starters are usually longer as in pushing on 6 paragraphs however i don't worry about length, ofc the lengths will depend on the scene, as long as it gives enough to work with and fits whats happening, i just mirror the other person in terms of it all!

- i rp and reply mostly or at least once daily (unless ofcourse i/you notify the other that you cannot that you are busy or sick or anything) this means i at least want to know you are alive once daily, be it in the form of a OOC DM if busy or a RP reply, and you can reply whenever—don't feel pressured to rush replies out quickly, timing is not important to me! i myself mostly reply around once or twice daily in RP (i write slow, lol), while OOC it depends.

- NO smut

- English is my second language, although i've been speaking and writing in it most of my life, i still may make some slight mistakes

- i roleplay in private discord servers using tupperbox, but tupperbox is not must, though!

- we will also most likely exchange writing/RP samples- it's just the easiest way to see if our RP styles click and if we are both looking for the samw thing in RP!

lot of communication and plotting out OOC is required! im autistic and prefer everything to be cleared up like that 😭

𝐢𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐃𝐌 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞/𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚! <𝟑

AND come with whatever specifically caught your eye, your character/an additional idea or whatever, and/or bit about yourself as a roleplayer (lit level/para count, activity, age, whatever you feel is important)! (just gimme smth to work with with the first DM so we can get rolling for the love of god 😭)

[jaxie-the-kat]

Intro thing!

I had one of these before and considered fixing it but thought it'd be better if I just made a new shorter one lol.

My name's Jaxie! I like drawing stuff and listening to music and crocheting! I've also been roleplaying for almost 10 years now.

More under the cut because..reasons lol

I'm currently obsessed with PJO (and the rest of the series) and EPIC the Musical! And just Greek Mythology in general. I also love Gravity Falls, Warrior Cats, Pokemon.. a lot of other things!

I have major ADHD and probably slight autism (have not been officially diagnosed but my mom and everyone else I know IRL thinks so lol). Sometimes I get excited about things and get super annoying, sorry about that lmao-

Uh idk what else to put here so uhh heres my various rp blogs (may put these in their own post if I keep making them lmao)

@silly-rainbow-kid Lyra Moore (PJO) @literally-tinker-bell Karla Parker (PJO) @klepto-hermes-kid Jenny Walker (PJO) @mr-sugar-rush Gavin Stuart (PJO) @bookworm-of-cabin-ten Damien Flynn (PJO) @the-little-islander Kiki (EPIC the Musical)

And here's where you can find more random bits of info on them! @jaxies-oc-info

[the-lightbulb-and-the-octopus]

The Library At Mount Char...

... or the book I was apparently waiting for.

Actually, I hyped myself so much with this book. I bought it like... around Christmas 2020? Maybe even earlier. And I didn’t read it because it seemed like a good book. I’m noticing a pattern here...

Anyway! First thing first, I read the French translation and it was good. Also I think that the French summary is better than the English one, if only because it’s shorter and much more mysterious - which fits the story, trust me.

I think it’s classified as urban fantasy and horror at least? As the notion of horror can greatly differ from people to people, I’ll just say that I didn’t feel it. As for the urban fantasy, there are ‘magical’ (Carolyn would be so against that explanation) elements in a modern world so it ticks the boxes. But there are a lot (really, I stress it. A. Lot.) of potentially triggering things in there so... be ready. It’s not soft, it’s not lighthearted.

As for my feelings... I loved it. I lack the words to express how much fun I had. The year is only beginning, but I doubt that I’ll read anything better before it ends. The plot is dark and twisted, the characters are so morally objectionable and yet so relatable and you’re constantly playing with the story to see if you understand where it wants to take you (don’t worry, at least one character is as lost as you are). Everything is so strange, so different but it all makes sense on its own in the end. For my mind, that’s good writing.

[oliverhqs]

✧ °˖ — ( casey deidrick. cis-male. he/him. ) looks like oliver carmichael just signed back in at the front desk. word around is, that they’re only staying at the northern star because his family took their annual family vacation to their manor and he decided this year he didn’t want to stay amongst his insufferable relatives for the duration of the trip, so he found somewhere much more relaxing to stay instead while he explores ireland by himself. apparently the twenty-seven year old can be a bit apathetic & opinionated. but their open-minded & relaxed personality usually makes up for it. i hear they like to play piano, paint, and read in their free time. it makes me think of them as a quiet mid-afternoon walk on the italian countryside, staying up throughout the entire night in a dimly lit room talking about books, philosophy, love, and the stars, & well loved sheet music sprawled all over the floor and desk.

hello potential, friends !! i’m late the to party as usual but this ball of anxiety goes by the name of rue ( she/her pronouns ) and i’ll be playing Angsty Boi™, oliver carmichael. if you would like to hit me up for plots / scream about connections all night long, please give this a big ole like and i’ll come bouncing like a happy ferret in the snow to your DMs !! under the cut, you’ll find a brief biography and stats about oli’s life. you can find all my connections here though if you want to check those out. can’t wait to start interacting !!

+ disclaimer: slight talks of cancer and mental health are mentioned below. read at your discretion.

layer one: the stats.

NAME. oliver alexander carmichael.

ALIAS. people usually just call him by oliver but sometimes oli makes an appearance.

TITLE. over time, he has proudly deemed himself an obsessive pizza addict, artistic nutcase, or one of the missing dead poets society members.

AGE. twenty-seven years old.

GENDER IDENTITY. cis-male.

PRONOUNS. he/him.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. predominately panromantic demisexual. it isn’t so much so that luca is completely disinterested in sex (he’s got a perfectly good libido, thank you very much), he just doesn’t find himself sexually attracted to people based on physical appearance or initial impressions. instead he finds personality, intellect, and existing emotional attachment considerably more compelling. the idea of intimacy with somebody he’s not close with rather repulses him.

CURRENT RESIDENCE. he currently lives in east village in new york but he travels quite often for his job, so residency usually fluctuates depending on how long he stays there. 

BIRTHPLACE. new york city, new york.

NATIONALITY. american.

RELIGION. he was raised roman catholic but converted to spiritual agnosticism when he was eighteen. he views that universal ethics and love are far more important than claims about any deity and trivialize the arguments supporting or rejecting such claims. to oliver, it doesn’t matter which religion someone might follow, nor does it matter whether or not someone believes in God. what matters is what someone does, not what they believe. he has his parents’ full support in his switch even though the rest of his family practices catholism.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES. english (fluent/main), french (fluent/2nd main), italian (still learning but can understand it quite well).

EDUCATION. graduated with a bachelors in music therapy and minor in visual arts at brown university.

PROFESSION. works as a freelancing artist in his spare time as he work full time as a music therapist.

layer two: about.

When someone hears the name Carmichael, they automatically think of words like prestigious, wealthy, and perfect. And who wouldn’t? With the father being a State’s Attorney and mother owning her own real estate business, you had to think like that. In the public eye the Carmichael family was flawless. Lilian was the always supporting wife who thrived in raising money for fundraisers and showing off her cooking skills and David was being a husband who brought home piles of money and was devoted to his family. Everyone wanted what they had. Oliver Carmichael was born into a world where perfection was of the utmost importance. The Carmichael family are one of those prestigious families that has always been full of wealthy and high-class snobs, and Oliver’s parents were no exception. He grew up learning how to be charming and handsome, and aware of his superiority over those of inferior to him. Oliver’s childhood years consisted of him sitting restless at various fancy parties and dinners, while his father kept him from all the treats so that he would grow up to be fit and strong. Oliver’s father was always cold and emotionally isolated from him; only after a perfect son to show off to the world.

He has a brother, who is three years younger than him, named Nathaniel. His relationship with his brother, however, is a bit estranged just like with their father. As much as he loves his brother and wishes they could see eye-to-eye, sometimes they tend to butt heads often. Whether that might mean your typical sibling arguments or full-on blown out fights, they just can’t seem to see get along.

As a young, restless little child, Oliver sought escape from his shallow, chilly life in the form of a friend. His friend taught him that there was such thing as warmth and friendliness, told him lots of stories of Greek mythology, and he learned that his father had been lying about “tactless individuals” being horrible people. However, when his father found out about his associations with his friend, within a week, the boy mysteriously disappeared. Since then, Oliver kept all his unapproved-of friends to himself. Unfortunately, as time went on, Oliver grew up to become a lot colder and more isolated like his father—leaving the feeling of pure joy of meeting that friend he met long ago, had vanished. With his family situation being completely dysfunctional and rottenly horrible, he never experienced what being happy was all about.

Sometimes calling someone selfish is a gross exaggeration, but in Oliver’s case its right on-point. Eventually in his early teens he became distracted, always preoccupied with his own affairs and matters of interest. Whether it was schoolwork, his multiple and usually explosive relationships, or his many existential crises, Oliver was one for waving people away and turning the conversation back on himself. This wasn’t necessary out of narcissism or some hidden agenda: Oliver genuinely doesn’t know who he is. Perpetually fidgeting and restless, it’s not uncommon to see him rapidly flicking a cigarette lighter, or playing with his hair, or bouncing on the balls of his feet. In high school he’s brilliant: it’s that simple. He is the golden boy. Prone to spilling into intellectual spiels - and labelled a know-it-all - he internalized everything, memorizing tiny details, eyes skipping here and there. His intelligence is among his most useful traits and is by far the thing he values most about himself. Much of his ego is built around the confidence that he is effortlessly smarter than almost anybody he encounters. Knowledge is power, and he weaponizes his superior intellect, using his brains more than brawn to protect himself and intimidate the people he doesn’t care for.

Although his parents were the bane of his experience 100% of the time, his mother wasn’t all that insufferable when she had her moments away from his father and not trying to be this pristine ‘perfect’ woman beside her husband. In fact, throughout his childhood she often encouraged Oliver’s belief in extraordinary things and hoped he had carried it throughout his life growing up. His mother had always made him promise to have courage and be kind to others, for—as she explained to him—kindness has power, and that she would see him through all the trials that life could offer, in life and death. Cancer/mental illness TW—when he was thirteen, his mother had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Upon hearing the news, Oliver’s whole world clasped.

Not only was he at a pivotal stage in his life where everything was changing and becoming more stressful ( becoming a teenager, starting high school, going through puberty ), the only important person who had actually showed him any kind of love in his life had be claimed by the deadly disease altogether. So many thoughts and feelings were going through his mind at the time, that he ran himself physically sick and had experienced his first panic attack. He has since been medically diagnosed with panic disorder. Thankfully the cells on his mother’s cervix were diagnosed at precancerous stage and the doctors were able to treat it because it developed and spread. However, that didn’t and doesn’t stop Oliver from being in a constantly state of panic every time his mother so much as feels pain or coughs due to irrelevant reasons. The entire year had changed him and his family for a while.

Despite issues with his own family, Oliver has a lot of personal of his own he deals with. He is capable of enduing tremendous hardship. Though he may not handle difficulty in the healthiest or best way, often repressing emotion, he mostly like emerges on the other side. He doesn’t know how to express his emotions in a diplomatic way, but rather fumbles it all up and starts to ramble. Rarely opens up because of this. He usually distracts himself from his insufferable emotions with hobbies such as playing the piano, painting, and reading some of his favorite classics. After he moved out the house at eighteen to pursue college and became more independent, he started to come into his own style with his wardrobe. To put it simple, he’s like a hippie dippy child of the universe. No joke. No seriously, his place at home is full of sensual shit and art. It’s getting out of hand and somebody needs stop him soon. He strongly believes that art is an umbrella term that relates to expressing of oneself—not just through photography and painting—and that everyone has the freedom to express themselves however they please. Because of his beliefs, he chooses to break gender roles like bread and wears whatever the fuck he wants because yolo. His appearance pretty much represents his hippie dippy lifestyle with him wearing all sorts of hipster shit. His clothes can be very flowy like, but don’t let that fool you. He doesn’t miss the opportunity to represent his upper class within his style, so he does dress to impress, let me tell you. His hair color changes sometimes too depending on his mood but it’s generally never too eccentric.

After he graduated high school, he furthered his education at Brown University where he majored in Music Therapy and minored in Visual Arts. At the age of twenty-one he graduated and about 6 months later started working as a freelanced artist while working at children’s hospital as a music therapist.

[thenightling]

My Fictional Character obsessions as depicted in gifs

My obsessions from age ten onward as depicted in gifs.  Some of these characters have alternated in cycles over the years.  The ones with the * next to them are ones that have stood the test of time or are particularly strong obsessions. I am not posting them in a particular order, that would take too long to sort out and may change depending on my mood, however the current strongest obsession is at the bottom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my fictional character obsessions through the years...  Or as Tumblr calls them... My “Garbage children.”

Note: I know only some of them count as “garbage children.”   So please don’t be offended that I may have called your favorite character a garbage child.

Rumplestiltskin as depicted in the show Once Upon a Time, particularly seasons 1 through 3.  

*Loki from Norse mythology and Marvel comics.  Tom Hiddleston is a great actor but I felt I should note that the MCU version is slightly disappointing, I wish they wouldn’t downplay the magick and try to pass them off as “alien.”

*Dracula.  There are many depictions of Dracula that I am fond of / obsessed with.   Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula books for example, The Frank Wildhorn Dracula musical, and a few movie and TV versions.  

I love the 90s Dracula TV series even though he’s blond in that (not to be confused with the awful NBC show version from the twenty teens) but I have no Gifs of the 90s one.  Nor do I have any gifs of Rudolf Martin as Dracula in Buffy or Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula though I love that one.  But here’s the most recent version to feed my obsession.  Dracula of Castlevania (The Netflix series).   Look at that Adorkable vampire!

*Jack Skellington of Nightmare before Christmas was one of my first truly all-consuming obsessions.  I played the cassette of the soundtrack to death.  I had a shelf of the toys (which were actually rare in the early 90s).  I became fixated on Danny Elfman’s singing voice as well as the gorgeous and haunting visuals.  

Sally, who helped kindle my first Frankenstein obsession because until then I had never seen an intelligent Frankenstein monster.  I hadn’t yet learned that in the original novel he was articulate (once he learned how to speak) and intelligent, and did not have a flat head or neck bolts. Sally and later The Bride (1985 movie) eventually got me to read the novel and pointed me in the right direction.

The ORIGINAL Peter Vincent from Fright Night, as played by Roddy McDowell.   I loved his character growth.  I loved watching him go from cowardly pretender to being the hero he always pretended to be and still having that B movie cheese to him.   Peter Vincent is my favorite vampire hunter.  Named after two of my favorite horror movie actors.  Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. 

Lestat.  Yes, I went through an Anne Rice obsession in my teens.  What 90s teenager didn’t?

The Dresden Files TV series, particularly Bob The Ghost AKA Hrothbert of Bainbridge as played by Broadway great, Terrence Mann.  Though short lived I loved that snarky ghost and this introduced me to the book series.  It was also the first TV series I enjoyed after my mother passed away so it has a special bittersweet place in my heart.

Another ghost character I love but I have no picture for him is Captain Gregg from the novel, movie, and TV show The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.   And Patrick Stewart as The Canterville Ghost from 1995 (as well as the original Oscar Wilde Story).  

Jareth from Labyrinth (and David Bowie).  Does he need an explanation?

Morbius from Marvel comics.  Because I just loved that emo SOB.

Nick on Forever Knight.  I went through an emo vampire phase in the 90s, okay...

The Doctor on Doctor Who

Methos from Highlander the series.  Highlander the series was a LOT better than people give it credit for.  And Methos was the first fictional character with a truly dark past I had ever seen, who mostly became a decent person after years of penance and self analysis.  It was through Highlander that I finally saw fiction and characters with shades of grey and realized things aren’t always black and white.   When they revealed Methos’ dark past I was so worried it was an excuse to kill him off and show that he was secretly evil all along but no. They didn’t do that.   Highlander taught me just how much people CAN change.   And it also taught me a lot about history and inspired me to be curious about our world and its past.   (It also often helped me with Social Studies tests.)  

Frank Langella as Dracula.

Faust from Goethe’s Faust.  (The 1926 silent film is the most faithful adaptation and actually covers Faust and Faust Part 2.  Most adaptations leave out Part 2).

Thomas Jerome Newton from The Man who fell to Earth.  Movie and novel by Walter Tevis.  Yes, depicted in the movie by David Bowie...  You’re lucky Bowie doesn’t turn up more in this list than he already does. 

Maleficent.  This one is kind of a guilty pleasure...  

As a long time book lover (One the first books I remember reading and loving was In a Dark Dark Room by Alvin Shwartz at age four...)  Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney Princess I truly related to.  

Elisa and “Charlie” from The Shape of Water.

The Beast / Prince and Belle in Le Belle et la Bete original 1740 novel and the 2014 French film (even though that film isn’t all that faithful and Belle is a little cold, I love the visuals).

*Luke Goss as the Frankenstein Monster from the 2004 Hallmark mini-series of Frankenstein.  The most faithful adaptation of the novel to date.  Woefully under-rated.  Note, this spot is for the literary character too.

*Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream AND Disney’s Gargoyles.  I love that little bastard.

Mina and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992 film)   

Emily The Corpse Bride. Also pretty much anything scored by Danny Elfman gets a slight nod here.  I love that man’s music.   It just catches me.   And I always can tell when it’s one of his scores (And no, I don’t think they all sound the same).   They’re just so beautiful and haunting.  

The Frankenstein Monster in Penny Dreadful.  The second most accurate to the novel. They even go the eyes right.

The Real Ghostbusters animated series.  Egon is what inspired me to want to study parapsychology.  I loved the nerd characters in shows like this.

Barnabas Collins in the original Dark Shadows. And 1990s version.   And Doctor Julia Hoffman, a surprisingly empowered character for a 1960s TV show, which is why it annoys me that more “modern” versions always make her sexually obsessed with Barnabas or a villain or both whereas in the original show she was Barnabas’ closest confidant and even the one Barnabas cried out for whenever he was in trouble.  (Admittedly it took hundreds of episodes for them to develop that dynamic but they got there).

Lucifer.  TV show incarnation and Sandman comics incarnation.

Cain and The House of Mystery (The House of Mystery counts as a character)

*Morpheus from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.  My current biggest obsession.  I’m making up for lost time.  This is something I SHOULD have been obsessed with in my teens.  I’m thirty-six-years-old and was thirty-five-years-old when I read it for the first time.  Why the Hell did no one describe this thing well to me back in the 90s!? Yes, Sandman started when I was only seven-years-old but it was most popular in the mid-90s and I would have probably loved it if I only really knew what it was all about.  Instead it was always “He’s like a Goth Jareth” (which almost worked) and “You’ll love Death!  She’s so cute!” (which totally didn’t work at all...)   Don’t protect me from spoilers, damn it!  Tell me about his character growth, the gorgeous artwork, the horror hosts residing in The Dreaming, tell me about the mythology and Shakespeare references, the lore, tell me about the ambiance, the atmosphere, the humor and pathos.  For God’s sake, I SHOULD have loved this thing a LONG time ago!     

You’d be amazed how hard it is to find a gif of Morpheus- he’s never had a film or TV adaptation but there are fan films! (The gif is from The Sandman fan film, 24 Hour Diner).

________________________________  

Honorable mentions:

Lydia from the Beetlejuice animated series (My mother’s best friend often compared me to her but I think I had a crush on the character...) 

Xena: Warrior Princess (when I figured out I’m not entirely straight).  Though I think I liked Gabrielle a little more than Xena, herself. 

The mermaid in She-Creature (2001 film, not the black and white film of the same name)

The Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt. 

Carmilla (vampire novella and Hammer horror film The Vampire Lovers)

Duncan Macleod from Highlander the series.

Various characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer (TV series) including Buffy herself, Giles and Spike.

Doctor Strange (And in relation to that, Doctor Craven from the Vincent Price movie The Raven from 1963.)

Bruce “David” Banner in The Incredible Hulk, particularly as depicted by Bill Bixby.  Though that was more of a role model personality type that I saw as a truly good man in a bad situation.  

Dorian Gray from the Picture of Dorian Gray 

Elisa in Disney’s Gargoyles but I idolized her more than obsessed about her. There is a difference.    

The reason those aren’t properly on the list is because those aren’t precisely obsessions but just characters I happened to really like a lot.

[sophygurl]

I love the question memes and my fave kind is the kind @pixiedane​ just tagged me in (thank you!). [Also sidenote: ILU @theawkwardterrier​ for always tagging me in the tagging memes but JSYK I won’t be doing the latest one because I’m just not really a picture person so I don’t really have a lot of pictures saved and the idea of trying to use whatever weird random stuff I might have saved to describe myself would just not work. But you’re the best and I’ll catch ya on the next one!]

The rules:

Post the rules

Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

Write 11 questions of your own

And tag 11 people

1. What’s the meaning of your name? Does it suit you?

Rosemary doesn’t seem to have a specific meaning, although of course it’s an herb, and Rosemary is for remembrance, which is hilarious given my memory problems. Mary means bitter, so some name meaning sites say the meaning of my name is “bitter rose” which I guess is a nice combo of sweet and sad, which I would not really classify myself as. So, no, the various meanings of my name do not suit me.

The name itself? Does. I love my name, and while most people can’t be bothered with a 3 syllable name in casual conversation, my preference is to be called Rosemary and not Rose. Rose does not feel like me.

2. What’s a movie you never get tired of?

A lot of movies fit under this category, but the movie I have probably seen the most amount of times and can still watch either in full or in chunks and still enjoy every single second of no matter what is Dirty Dancing. 

3. Your favourite movie soundtrack?

Are we talking soundtrack as in collection of songs used in the movie and put into an album, or as in score for the movie, or?

Because nothing but nothing beats the Star Wars scores for me. Well, original and prequels and TFA anyway - the last two have diverged quite a bit which has felt odd to me but whatever. [Second place would be the scores for the 70/s80s Superman movies - also John Williams of course]

If collection of songs - then we’re back to Dirty Dancing.

Although if we’re considering soundtracks of musicals, then I’m gonna be reduced to flailing and just naming half a dozen or so, so we’ll just pretend that’s not part of the question. 

4. How would you describe your personal style?

Accidental? I pretty much just buy things that I find interesting, and then put things together that seem interesting to me, and then end up with some pretty ... interesting outfits. One of my roommates actually described my look yesterday as “crazy” if that tells you anything.

Think colors that don’t quite match, conflicting patterns, stripey socks, chunky jewelry, and then at times like now at the end of winter when I haven’t shaved my head in awhile - short floppy hair that is sticking up in all directions that I swear I tried to tame but it just doesn’t take. 

5. Name a fictional crush.

Spike from Buffy. Also Buffy from Buffy. And put them together? Double crush. 

6. What’s your motto?

I don’t really have a motto, per se, but I do have a mantra, which is: love, peace, joy, hope. Those are the qualities I try to embody, embrace, spread, whatever. All four are of equal importance to me. 

7. Are you a gamer?

If by gamer, you mean obsessively playing the Sims, then yes. But most people who consider themselves gamers would probably say no.

8. Would you rather spend time on a secluded beach or at a fancy cocktail party?

How about a fancy cocktail party on a secluded beach? Too much sand in the drinks, never mind.

Ah, these are both problematic for me. I don’t do so well with being completely alone, especially without some kind of distraction or diversion. I guess if I had a book with me on the beach, I’d be okay for a little while, but I’d also get uncomfortable super fast if there wasn’t, like, a comfy sofa or something to recline on. 

And I also don’t do well with fancy, or come to think of it with cocktails since I can’t drink any more with the meds I have to take. 

But, if I had to choose, I’d probably pick the party. I’d be dressed inappropriately (probably something with loud colors and polka dots?), and sitting in the corner mostly people watching, and I’d get overwhelmed and head home early, but still. 

9. Recommend a television series.

oohhhoooomygods just ONE?

I’ve rec’d this one many times, but since it just came back for season two last night (I haven’t watched the ep yet - it’s next on my list), I’m gonna recommend Imposters to you all again.

Imposters is a lil show with a small but dedicated fandom on Bravo. 

It stars Inbar Lavi (Prison Break, The Last Ship) as a con woman and Rob Heaps (Home Fires, And Then There Were None), Parker Young (Arrow, Suburgatory), and  Marianne Rendón (Mapplethorpe) as three of the people who she has swindled. Additionally, Brian Benben (Private Practice, Dream On), Stephen Bishop (Being Mary Jane), Chastity Dotson (Pitch, Veronica Mars), and Denise Dowd (Secrets and Lies, Beverly Hills 90210) star. 

The story of season one is that these three scorned exes find one another and begin a quest to find the woman they all alternately view as their loving spouse and the cruel con who stole everything from them. Along the way, they learn some cons of their own, gain back some of their confidence, and of course discover the power of friendship. 

There are many twists and turns along the way which I won’t spoil for anyone who wants to watch season 1 for themselves, but it involves cons within cons within cons and unlikely teammates. 

Also - Uma Thurman as a hitwoman.

As the finale of season one had our three scorned exes riding off together into the sunset, I am very excited to see where season two leads us. Seriously, you have to watch this show. 

[But if I may very quickly rec some of my other underwatched faves: 12 Monkeys, Colony, Counterpart, Ghosted, Insecure, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Madam Secretary, People of Earth, Scream, Speechless, Timeless, UnREAL,You’re the Worst - ask me about my underwatched faves plz.]

10. Do you have any phobias?

Boy howdy, do I! I have OCD, which often comes with phobias as part of the anxiety which leads to some of the obsessive compulsions. [FELLOW PHOBES MIGHT WANNA SKIP THIS PART - PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.]

I have a slight germ phobia which I mostly don’t go deep into because I don’t have the energy to do what I’d need to do to feel better about it so I just make myself not-think about it really hard, but the underlying anxiety is Still There. 

This is especially true of what I call “poop germs” - which is anything that has ever been inside of a bathroom ever. This makes, you know, having to use bathrooms very upsetting and problematic for me, so again, I deploy my aggressive pretending it’s not there as much as I can, but poop germs can cause me to break down into tears on a bad day. Fun times!

I’m also an emetophobe, which means I’m terrified of throwing up - a fun little phobia to have when you have constant low-grade nausea which occasionally flares up to higher-grade, lemme tell ya.

Another biggie is infestation of any kind - so any kind of insect or small animal that comes into my home. Like, I am absolutely fine seeing these critters outside where they belong - I might even oooh and aaah. But the second I see one INSIDE - I’m screaming bloody murder and waking up the entire apartment complex. 

I’ve worked real hard at being less scared of the harmless single bugs that enter a home, especially the kind that EAT other bugs - so for example I am perfectly fine with spiders (being obsessed with Charlotte’s Web as a kid helps), and even centipedes after the initial screaming over how creepy they look is done. And I’ve gotten where I look insects up on websites that identify bugs and talk about them in positive/scientific ways and have stopped panicking about certain bugs and their larvae now as I can tell which ones are and aren’t actually harmful or prone to infestation. BUT. I’m still prolly gonna scream when I initially see them because eaauughhss. 

Those are the main ones, but the fun thing about OCD is that new ones develop all the time if you don’t stay vigilant about letting those obsessive thoughts do their thang, so I try real hard to ignore those news segments and articles about bringing black lights into hotel rooms and about all of the horrible ways people are committing violent crimes these days and other terrifying and/or gross things that might creep their ways into my fear center. 

11. What’s your rarest rarepair?

Oh, good question. I don’t tend to have rarepairs because the way I fandom is deep immersion into canon and not necessarily delving into fanon/fanfic. So even my non-canon ships tend to be ones that the canon itself at least played with a little bit or that the fandom-at-large has talked about enough that I start to see it. lol

I’m having trouble even thinking about a ship I have that could be classified as rare? It would probably be something involving Spike because I ship that fool with pretty much everyone he’s ever shared screentime with because he is just so yummy, and because Marsters was just really good about getting his character to bring interesting things out of whatever characters he was interacting with, and because he’s clearly so omnisexual that he just oozes chemistry with everyone he meets, but like. I’m also definitely not the only one who sees all that about him and also is shipping him left right and center. So. I’ll just toss out Spike/Harmony because I’ve never heard of anyone else who actually liked them together ha!

Phew! That was fun. I hope all of you all who I end up tagging have as much fun with my questions (and if not, feel free to use some of pixie’s).

My questions:

What is your #mood rn?

Tell me the sweetest childhood memory you can think of.

Favorite mythological/fantastical animal/creature.

What is your favorite mode of storytelling - for example, books, movies, TV shows, graphic novels, video games, etc. - and why do you think that’s your fave form?

Star Trek, Star Wars, or Starlord? (this is not a serious question and you may feel free to expound upon all three if you wish)

Favorite type of geographical location to visit, and is it different from where you prefer to live?

Name a character that you love, but who you would probably hate in real life.

Reboots, renewals, and revivals. Are they ruining your childhood or do you love ‘em?

Tell me about your favorite cookie (or other sweet if you don’t care for cookies).

If there is one thing people could just atomatically know about you upon meeting you that would make socializing with you better or easier, what would it be?

A lot of stories based on comics posit the theory that eventually humanity will evolve into at least some humans developing super powers. Suppose this started happening today - what would the results be, do you think?

Tagging:

(and of course, please consider yourself tagged if you wanna do this - I’d tag all of you if I could but I try and just pick folks I think enjoy doing these. if I’m ever wrong - please feel free and ignore the tag. additionally - please remember to tag ME so I can see your responses! also, feel free to re-tag me in this one since the questions differ and you all know how much I love to talk about myself.)

@absolutelyiris, @dianebluegreen, @c-l-ford, @theawkwardterrier, @the-invisible-queer, @brokenyellowcrayons, @knitmeapony, @fatherjerusalem, @swordsandparasols, @dmphelps, @nightlocktime

[john-laurens-the-turtle]

Novel Draft...So Far

Introduction Dear reader, unfortunately we humans, have a tendency to forget. I know, we think we’re good at recalling the stories of those who lived before us. The cold hard truth is that we are not. Many honest heroes have become nothing but dust in the expanse of our memories. My job is to commemorate the fable of one specific unacknowledged  martyr. A man, who truly understood the meaning of freedom in a time when the meaning was so easily misunderstood. An unlikely hero of an unlikely cause with an unlikely backstory. A truly under appreciated man who we have lost at the hands of the enemy. He once stood proudly as the son of a successful merchant and the trusted aide of our nation’s first leader. Now he has been confined  to nothing more than pieces of paper in our  forever neglectful  collective knowledge. But from those little bits of knowledge over his very existence. We can tell various aspects of who he was. For example we can tell that he was a passionate abolitionist, and a former aide-de-camp to none other than, General George Washington himself. However perhaps the most important and crucial pice of information we still contain about him, something we consider essential to ones character. We have his name, John Laurens, born and raised on a plantation just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. A slave trader’s eldest son. I did not write this book merely to tell you what this man accomplished. I have written this book to paint the portrait of his life. John Laurens was far more than just a name on a letter. John Laurens was far more than just Henry Laurens’ eldest. John Laurens was an abolitionist, a patriot and above all else a hero. He somehow managed to befriend a man who had little liking towards others. He managed to take a stand for what he believed in against his father. But most importantly he gave his life for a cause he so strongly believed in. It was his duty to die for it and  it  is my duty to honor it. I am done with the useless hatred flung at his death. Historians minimize it to nothing more than a meaningless skirmish in the Carolina low country. What they are forgetting is why he was in the skirmish in the first place. Who he was leading. The army he led them in, and the state he died in. John Laurens did not die for nothing, John Laurens did not die to be forgotten. He died for the hope of the death of slavery and the birth of true freedom. It has become rather clear to me that since most refuse to I must be the one tasked with this meaningful responsibility. I will not allow anyone to forget his name. By the end of this book his name will be etched in your brain never to be forgotten again. John Laurens will become more than just a meaningless name. John Laurens will become your hero as he is mine. His name will no longer only be seen when accompanying another’s. This man has left me with more questions than answers. Why was he so obsessed with dying in battle? What got him into the abolishment of slavery in the first place? What drew him to Hamilton?  Why did he attract Hamilton so fervently? Who was he? This man has managed to stir up aspiration deep inside of e that I never knew I had. Never have I felt more determined to write something than now. Never have I felt more disgraced, than now. How could I have let him slip under my nose? When did I become so clueless? I must fight for the honor of his legacy, as he did for the brith of our nation. The very fact that I live happy and free from the reign of a king is because of him and so many others like him. John Laurens’ story has made me so aware of how much I take for granted. John Laurens taught me the story of not just a soldier but of a man truly fighting for his ambitions. John Laurens was more than just a patriot. He was more than just an abolitionist. John Laurens is my hero. Chapter I       Mepkin Plantation, South Carolina, 1764 A slight breeze tickled my skin as it swept across the land. It rustled the leaves in ancient oaks and blew the grass surrounding me in all sorts of directions. The overwhelming sound of cicadas flooded my mind. I giggled as a new sound joined the chorus of nature, t’was a bird . By the sound of the tune I could make out that it was a  beautiful bluebird, with feathers as blue as the Ashlee River, that ran by our home. I had taught myself the different sounds of the birds on my free time, when I was not studying. I often loved to imagine what it would be like to be a bird to be able to fly away whenever trouble arose. To have such a beautiful voice that no one ignores. The birds at Mepkin, our plantation, were the most beautiful of all. They had gorgeous feathers and songs, oh how I loved them. Alas I loved all of it, the beauty of nature, the peace and simplicity of it all. I longed greatly for time to freeze  and capture this moment of serenity. “Ah, Jack That’s where you wandered off to!” My attention was drawn away as my mother was overcome with laughter. She seemed a bit bewildered at the sight of me, laying in the grass. Although she didn’t seem too surprised by the sight. Of course I, John her eldest child, would be found laying here in the grass with no particular purpose other than to enjoy myself. “Sorry mama, tis just so gorgeous out today! Don't you think?” I carefully chose my words to explain the situation to my dear mother. In truth, I had run off from my studies and escaped to the outdoors. If I didn’t elaborate then I wouldn’t be lying. “Indeed…” She looked me up and down with a raised eyebrow. “But so are those books, Jack. Make haste indoors, my dear boy. Then after Mr.Brown leaves you may play out here.” 
 “Yes, mother.” I bowed my head with a smile as I stood up, to dash into the big wooden house that I called home.  My tutor William Brown, was sitting in the library just where I’d left him patiently waiting with the books  for me to continue. At this point, Mr.Brown was used to my little adventures. When I had run outside the fifth time he began to realize a bit of time outside helped me focus later on. “You know John, you’re getting too old for these escapes, pretty soon you will have to stay in here with me for the entire day. And not long after that you’ll find yourself in a fine college.” Mr.Brown had a habit of maintaining a neutral expression, so you could never truly tell whether he was or not. His lips remained a straight line and his dark brown eyes tore through me. This was my life, constantly being forced into a future I did not wish to pursue. My father Henry  Laurens, was one of the most wealthy men in all the colonies.  Although he owned many plantations the one we lived at was called Mepkin, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Mepkin was beautiful in the Spring when everything was blooming. Particularly now in April, the fresh magnolia blossoms brought with them an amazing scent that gave me a sense of hope. If  it were up to me I would stay outside all day inhaling nature, exhaling stress. When my father realized I was inseparable from nature, he decided that he would gift me with a fine sketch book at  my next birthday assuming I completed my studies. When life got dull and my studies bored me, I would imagine the many possibilities of things I would sketch. I would sketch nature. The various birds I heard daily, the trees that surrounding me, perhaps even some of the fish in the nearby Ashlee. But most importantly, I would sketch the magnolia trees. Their beautiful flowers would be the focus of my art, white petals like silk upon a fine gown. The scent filled the stuffy Carolina air like sweet perfume. Sweet Carolinian perfume that only the finest ladies of Charleston would wear. My mother says when my mind gets stuck on something it never lets go. Like when I would “accidentally” get molasses on my fingers and couldn’t wash it off. That was always the way my mind was when it came to nature. When I was outdoors I never could seem to leave. My mind  could be one  place but my body, another. Whenever  it would be that I did leave Mepkin , I would always be able to take this part of it with me. The beauty on our plantations grounds brought reality to its brink. If only the world could stay this perfect. “I understand sir.” I nodded and sat down at the table, resisting the temptation to stare at the window. “Good. I believe we had just been going over ancient Greece. Specifically the tale of Achilles. Tell me, who was Achilles?” Mr.Brown raised an eyebrow, somewhat challenging me to real our previous studies. I could accept the challenge. 
 “Achilles was a Greek mythological hero, featured in  Homer’s Iliad.  He is described as the hero of the Trojan war and a man of good morals. He was part man, part god, a demigod. He had a friend…Patroclus-“ “And  he matters not! What I mean, child, is that his story is unimportant to that of Achilles. You must understand that not everyone’s story matters. But yours, young Laurens, will matter. It must for your father’s sake. Am I clear?” “Yes teacher,” I nodded, I understood it al perfectly well. It was all clear as glass to me. The purpose is for me to form a legacy, a story that matters. For I surely cannot be forgotten. My father is one of the most wealthy men of the colonies. Not only that, but he is also a veteran of the French and Indian War. How am I to live up to the name he has left me to fulfill? Although I love my father much, he has made my ability to be who I wish unfathomable.   Three long hours later, my mother stood at the door to the study. Young HenryJr., her arms at her hip. Henry had been born last year and what a that marvel to my parents t’was he. Now, not only did they have one son, but two. I had been the fourth child of my dear parents, but I was the first to live. Until the age of five when it was clear that I indeed would live on without constant concern, of course there was always smallpox, but that matters not, I was informed that I must live. I am the surviver and I must succeed at all aspects life. For I am my father’s son, I am John Laurens.

“Mother, must I have to stay home on the ‘morrow, can’t I join father when he goes into Charles Town?” “Dear boy, your father needs you to stay here to ensure that we stay safe and  so that your father can give the proper attention to the building of our new home.

[captainswaglord500]

Page 10: Henry’s Journal

Henry’s journal

Date: January 9th, 2056.

Well, I just bought a new journal for myself while I’m here so I can document what’s happening. And, as it turns out, we did land in Xenogaea after all. According to Mark, he, Vincent, and Nahuoi were out at sea themselves when they found our sinking boat. They managed to save us from the boat, but we were already unconscious and they thought we were dead because they couldn’t feel our hearts beating. So, they took us to the morgue and were waiting for the staff to confirm whether or not we were dead when we woke up. Frankly, though, I’m not sure how the three get along. I mean, it seems like Mark and Vincent are constantly getting on her nerves. Frankly, the two of seem like smart and capable individuals but just like mischief a little bit too much. Apparently, Mark and Vincent are related, as Mark is Vincent’s nephew and was adopted by Mark due to his biological parents disowning him for having been born with deformed arms. As a result, Mark created a set of robotic arms for himself. I still haven’t figured out why he talks with that ever-so slight British accent, though. Personally, I think he’s faking it. But who knows? Vincent, when he’s not being a smartass, is actually kind-of pleasant. He’s a nerd like me, and he likes to quote poetry every now and then. Nahuoi is… interesting? I don’t know how to describe her. Ever since I first met her, she’s seemed to have developed a thing for me. She keeps referring to me as “babuko” (which is apparently Xenogaean for “sweetie” when referring to a male). Sometimes, it feels like she’s constantly breathing down my neck. Could you please give me some space?! Sorry. I guess I wrote that down as I said it. But seriously. I wouldn’t care that much if all I caught her doing was staring at me. But it seems like she has a straight-up obsession with me: she collects all the napkins I’ve thrown out and just stores them in her bag. Ugh. Sends a shiver down my spine just thinking about it. I think she’s making some sort-of shrine of me. Don’t get me wrong: by no stretch of the imagination do I find her unattractive. She’s just too creepy for me. I asked Mark and Vincent about it and they said that she was diagnosed with psychosis at a young age and was later found out to be a high-functioning psychopath. On top of that, there’s a history of various other mental illnesses within her family. So, I guess that’s the logical reason for this? I don’t know. She still freaks me out. But anyways, after we left the morgue, we went across the street to the motel and got a little bit to eat. That’s when I started saying over-and-over again like a possessed person in a film: “Shanaya is coming. The end is near.” After that weird episode stopped, I asked what the heck Shanaya was. They took me and the others to a public library within the motel (I didn’t motels here had libraries) and pulled a massive book about mythology. Vincent proceeded read off two pages, one about Tradle and one about Shanaya. I must say, though, that the artist’s depiction of Shanaya was pretty-terrifying. In fact, you could almost feel the cold, malevolent stare of the entity through its eye in the drawing. After that, I told them that me and Cletus needed to go track down the team we were sent here to find. However, Mark said that the three of them should come with. I protested but he said that we would need help navigating through the forest and fighting off any potential threats. Finally, I agreed and he said we shall stay at the motel and leave the next morning. I said that we needed to leave now, but Mark said that we’d need time to adjust to the timezone and to get rest. So, tomorrow morning, we’ll start on our way.

[c00kie28]

3, but I'd like to amend it. Tell us how your writing has changed since you started. 16.

If applicable, do you think your writing has improved a lot or a little since you first started writing?

Oh I love that you amended this question since the answer to the original is oh I fucking hope so. 

Although to answer your question the answer is it’s changed because it’s improved. But while that’s an accurate answer, it’s a cheap one. 

So how has my writing changed since I started? Well I think in a lot ways it’s always changing but in some ways, it’s been pretty consistent. I’ve had the same interests since I was a kid. I’ve always been obsessed with sex and death and monsters and fairy tales and mythology and love and all that and everything I write reflects at least one or more of those interests. 

The thing that’s always changing is the delivery system. In high school I wrote a lot of poetry about sex, death, etc. and in college I switched to writing historical essays about well, mythology and death and sex, and now... well, we know what I write now. 

And there have been times where I’ve tried to hide from it, because I fear judgement but then I remember the only person I owe anything to is myself and fuck it. (Though it does help when other people like what I write too because obviously) 

16: Are there any ideas you are currently playing around with that you would like to write sooner or later?

Oh good god. 

So these are just a few of the thoughts I have circling around right now. And by circling I mean causing me slight anxiety because it’s a lot and they’re like children screaming at me. It’s fun. 

I need to finish The Mixtape. I don’t know why I haven’t. 

I need to write the next chapter of the harry potter au and possibly all other chapters. I should just write it all at once. It would make things easier. 

I’m at the point in the here and verse where I need to decide what I’m going to do with it.  As you know, while Things We Said Between Here and There is good, there are parts of it (the ending) that I hate and want a redo of, which is why I’ve been writing the shorter fics in an attempt to really write the fic I wanted to in the first place, but didn’t for reasons. 

And of course, I need to finish various other projects or at least write more of them. 

But wait, there’s more! 

There’s Ash’s super late, secret birthday fic. 

The twin fic. 

Speaking about fics about sex and magic, I am really hoping the images i have circling around my head like tiny but super annoying birds will stop pecking at me and actually become a story so I can write it. 

And much, much more! 

[booksteaopera]

Gretel & Hansel by Osgood Perkins, 2020

I just finished watching this movie and I am so in love with the aesthetics, the architecture, the coloured lighting that appears from time to time, and the not so traditional costumes, that I can’t quite move on to something else just yet (although I really must get back to my translation of Lascia ch’io pianga, due tomorrow morning). But it’s too late to start writing a proper review, so I’ll just let you know what I thought about it, and get back to my actual review later.

If you know me well, you know that I’m a former art history major with a slight obsession for folklore, the history of fashion, and matching colour palettes (among other weird / random obsessions). I guess that after studying art for so many years, literally every day, for hours on end, before, during and after school, I ended up seeing “art” in the littlest things IRL. Thus, I am even more sensitive to it when it is "done on purpose”, so to speak, namely for cinematic purposes (but not just: it’s what makes me especially attracted to certain opera stagings and contemporary art performances). 

Everything about this movie looks and sounds like something I’d have wanted to write or film, if I had to make an adaptation of a folk tale. Even more troubling, parts of this film look exactly like a very disturbing nightmare I had just two days ago. My nightmare’s setting was 1900′s Romania, granted, and this is 1800-something Ireland, but the reason why the two are so similar, and why this speaks to me on a personal level isn’t because I’m so vain I see my life in other people’s more talented works, or because this style is so overdone that I even dream about it. It’s because Osgood Perkins is extremely well-read on the source material of Hansel and Gretel, the history of witchcraft in Western Europe, and masters the aesthetics of Romantic painting and Gothic literature. 

The artistic direction of this film is simply stunning. It is set in Fall, with the beautiful contrast of red leaves against ash-coloured fog. The costumes are reminiscent of Norwegian and Swedish folk costumes, with some German and Welsh hats here and there that make you wonder: where does this take place, really? There are no traditional headdresses or intricate embroideries that might give an additional hint, in fact, the costumes are very, very plain but made in a way that tells you “once upon a time, in a faraway land...” This doesn’t have to be precise, as it is a fairy tale, but it is still precise enough to hint at real places, real cultures, and all kinds of stories. Likewise, it is difficult to pin point an actual era during which this took place; the lord of the local manor seems to be dressed in late 18th century knee breeches and certainly wears the makeup of the nobility of the time, but later, we see a huntsman with a late 14th century German houppelande. Meanwhile, most of the people in the witch’s backstory flashbacks, as well as the two children, seem to wear folk clothing of the 18th-20th centuries, which keeps things even more vague.  The architecture is very reminiscent of what can be seen in Midsommar. On the one hand, there is traditional, local 18th century architecture you’d see in Ireland, Brittany and possibly elsewhere in the British Isles or beyond, but on the other hand, there is angular, geometric, wooden architecture reminiscent of the “temple” in Midsomar. Are we in Scandinavia or the British Isles? Who knows. There’s an interesting play on windows, especially their colour and the shape of the glass; you might notice that contrarily to the architecture, they almost never have angles, there are no triangles or rectangles, only rounded shapes. Most of them are coloured too, which adds different kinds of atmospheres to different scenes, of course. 

There’s a play on coloured lights too, as mentioned above, whether it’s moonlight during the nighttime scenes, or just plain coloured light emanating from an ominious place. Coloured smoke also comes into play at different times, especially during one specific flashback. The main colour palettes are cold, neutral colours: grey, blue, white, black for scenes meant to reflect a character’s depression, nighttime or a rainy day- perhaps the cold and loneliness of the abandoned children in the forest. Other times, the colours are red, orange, and mustard yellow against the grey of the fog and leafless trees. This is most of the time, and is highlighted by the children: they are wearing grey-blue clothing with some burgundy highlights, and Gretel’s short red hair is mirrored by Hansel’s red cap. The only striking exception of these very neutral, cold colour palettes is the “child with the pink cap”: she is wearing a pink and yellow ensemble, which looks completely out of place and almost painful in this scenery and among the people wearing colours that blend into the setting. But this, of course, is symbolic.  Likewise, the choice of lighting is key: many of the characters are shot in back-light, while many of the scenes that take place in nature have a low, white-coloured light-source at the horizon, respecting the 1/3 - 2/3 proportions rule. And as mentioned previously, the lighting of interior scenes is usually coloured, so as to reflect a specific character’s mood or influence on the scene taking place. 

The scenes’ composition were so carefully crafted that almost every shot could have been a 19th century painting. This is particularly true when it comes to the witch’s flashbacks, which seem to follow mostly what we call “bas-relief” composition in art history: when most of the characters and important elements (plants, objects, architecture) of the painting are lined up in a single vertical line composed of different grounds (the most important elements being in the foreground, and the least important elements being in the background). A variation of this is several horizontal lines. But when we look at Gretel, the protagonist, as a single character, the composition of the shot is often “pyramidal”, with Gretel being in the middle, and various elements (usually furniture, frescoes on the walls, stairs, etc) either above or beside her, on both sides, to frame her as the important character she is. In French, we call this trick a repoussoir: you are creating a setting that might seem insignificant, but that highlights the scene or character in the foreground, by “pushing” against them from the sides of the picture. This visual “trick” was very popular in 18th century painting, especially “historical” paintings with a historical, heroic and/or mythological setting.  The whole movie is sprinkled with references to art history: the witch’s flashbacks refer to Courbet’s Realist movement (long, horizontal paintings depicting peasants’ daily lives in very neutral colour palettes), many of the forest scenes seem straight out of a 17th century landscape painting or a 19th century Romantic painting, the windows have some Art Nouveau elements to them, and the coloured lights, folk costumes and eerie atmosphere are evocative of Norwegian Romantic painter Hans Dahl, whose works have been featured on several Black Metal album covers. Funnily enough, some reviewers actually noticed this resemblance and stated that the movie was “too long” and “should have just been a Heavy Metal music video”- which I strongly disagree with, but that’s beside the point. 

Talking about music: I will definitely have to re-watch this movie or listen to its score, because as someone mentioned elsewhere, the music isn’t, interestingly, your average Hollywoodian / Second Viennese School creepy strings and dissonances. Rather, it’s all smooth synthesizer, 80′s styled background melodies. I can’t really say more about the music, it didn’t catch my attention and I’d rather listen to it again before commenting on it. What really grabbed my attention was the visual aesthetics, of course, and the way the story was developed with some interesting interpretations of the myth and additional side-plots that eventually change the ending. 

Now many, many people disliked this film because they thought that it was “boring” and “too slow”. Let me set things straight: this movie is slow in the way that Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” was slow. So was Lorcan Finnegan’s “Vivarium”, and so was Night Shyamalan’s “The Visit”. But I loved it because it is a contemplative work of art that requires time to truly enjoy every side plot, every reference, and the sheer beauty of the shots. It would be just as absurd to dash through a museum exhibition without stopping to take in and enjoy every piece put on display, or to rush through a Byronic poem. That said, it is still well paced, in my opinion, and definitely not as slow as films like David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story”, for instance. It’s not an action-packed blockbuster, but it’s not slow either. It’s a beautiful indie movie with a powerful plot twist in the end, the best coming of age movie I’ve seen for a while, and definitely the best movie adaptation of “Hansel and Gretel” I’ve ever seen.  In other words: go watch it!

[mrmichaelchadler]

Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: October 25, 2018

9 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Ant-Man and the Wasp"

Quick, what's the most recent Marvel movie? It feels like a lot of people would say "Avengers: Infinity War" or maybe even "Black Panther," forgetting that there was a sequel to "Ant-Man" released this Summer. Marvel has become so dominant that even one of their successful, well-liked tentpole movies can be considered relatively minor. Having said that, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" mostly works. It's under two hours (unlike a lot of MCU movies) and provides a fun diversion. In fact, it's got an element that I wish more Marvel would copy in that it's practically a one-off, tied into the rest of the MCU for sure but also working with its own mythology and characters to satisfy viewers THIS TIME instead of merely planting seeds for the future. It also has one of the best ensembles in the standalone MCU, all the way down to scene-stealers like Michael Pena and David Dastmalchian. 

Buy it here

Special Features Director's Intro by Peyton Reed  Making-of Featurettes: Back in the Ant Suit: Scott Lang A Suit of Her Own: The Wasp  Subatomic Super Heroes: Hank & Janet  Quantum Perspective: The VFX and Production Design of "Ant-Man and The Wasp"  Gag Reel and Outtakes  Deleted Scenes 

"Creepshow"

It's that wonderful time of year when Shout Factory's genre banner known as Scream Factory releases special editions of horror classics, complete with new transfers and special features. There are three such releases in this edition of the HECG, and, believe it or not, two of them are anthologies. One of the most famous such films of all time is this George A. Romero and Stephen King classic, which comes in a gorgeous box set with a booklet and a quote from Roger's review on the back. It's also LOADED with special features, including a new audio commentary, interviews, and a round table discussion, along with all of the imported archival features. "Creepshow" is an inconsistent but really fun movie. It's nice to see it get such a lavish treatment.

Buy it here 

Special Features BRAND NEW 4K REMASTER SOURCED FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE, with color correction supervised and approved by director of photography Michael Gornick NEW Audio Commentary with director of photography Michael Gornick NEW Audio Commentary with composer/first assistant director John Harrison and construction co-ordinator Ed Fountain NEW Terror and the Three Rivers – a round table discussion on the making of CREEPSHOW with John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini and Marty Schiff NEW The Comic Book Look – an interview with costume designer Barbara Anderson NEW Ripped From The Pages – an interview with animator Rick Catizone NEW The Colors of Creepshow – a look at the restoration of CREEPSHOW with director of photography Michael Gornick NEW Into The Mix – an interview with sound re-recordist Chris Jenkins NEW Mondo Macabre – A look at Mondo's various CREEPSHOW posters with Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones and Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry NEW Collecting Creepshow – a look at some of the original props and collectibles from the film with collector Dave Burian Audio Commentary with Director George A. Romero and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini Audio Interviews with director of photography Michael Gornick, actor John Amplas, property master Bruce Alan Miller, and make-up effects assistant Darryl Ferrucci Tom Savini's Behind-the-Scenes Footage Horror's Hallowed Grounds – a look at the original film locations hosted by Sean Clark Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailers TV Spot Radio Spots Still Galleries – Posters, Lobby Cards and Movie Stills Still Galleries – Behind the Scenes photos Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

"Eighth Grade"

Bo Burnham's directorial debut is one of the most quietly beloved films of 2018, often appearing on lists of films from this year that you really should see before you do any year-end consideration. It really is something special, capturing what it's like to be an 8th grader in the '10s better than any film to date. Not only is Burnham's writing and directing surprisingly sensitive, he found something incredibly special in Elsie Fisher, who gives what is quite simply one of the best performances of the year. So many young actresses in movies "about teenage life" feel like they're making a statement instead of embodying a character but Fisher is always real, and inevitably heartbreaking. This is a wonderful movie. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Audio Commentary with Director Bo Burnham and Actress Elsie Fisher "You're Not Alone: Life in Eighth Grade" Featurette Music Video Deleted Scenes

"Hotel Transylvania 3"

I'm including this one for my kids and because the market is kind of dry right now for family films. Could you do worse than the latest Adam Sandler riff on the Universal monsters? Sure, but these movies started on low ground in terms of quality and have only sunk into the muck. Trust me, I've seen this one a bunch as my boys are somehow obsessed enough with this franchise for repeat viewing. Kudos, I guess, to Sony for timing this release for Halloween marathons for the little ones who can't quite do actual horror movies yet and before the superior "Teen Titans" and "Incredibles 2" hit the home market. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Three All New Scary-Oke Sing Alongs: Sing along to three Hotel Transylvania 3 inspired songs with your favorite characters! "Dennis Had a Giant Dog" – Sung by Dennis & Winnie "Monsters Like to Party Down" – Sung by Johnny "Oh These Wolf Pups" – Sung by Wanda Werewolf Plan Your Own Spook-tacular Sleepover: This feature will give you all details on how to make your own sleepover spook-tacular! From snacks to crafts to games and more, follow these steps to create a Hotel T sleep-over with your friends and family, the perfect setting to binge watch all 3 Hotel Transylvania movies. Vampire Make Over: Mavis and Drac Tutorial: Learn how to turn yourself into your favorite Hotel Transylvania 3 characters. Behind the Screams – The Voices of Hotel Transylvania 3: Step behind the "screams" with the returning stars and hilarious new cast to see how these characters are brought to life in the recording booth. Johnny's Home Movies (Franchise Recap): Johnny brings viewers up to speed on what's happened in the Hotel Transylvania franchise so far. "I See Love" Monster Dance Party Dance Along: Get up and get moving to this haunting monster mash. Drac's Zing-tastic Read Along: It's storytime with your favorite characters have a silly tale about Drac's search for a Zing! Read along or sit back and enjoy! Two Mini Movies (rated G): Two mini-features that will have you howling. Puppy Goodnight Mr. Foot

"House on Haunted Hill"

William Malone's remake of the Vincent Price classic is a mixed bag, to be kind. The 1999 launching pad for Joel Silver's Dark Castle production banner, this gory flick has some great moments, including a brilliant set-up that allows Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen to wonderfully chew some scenery. For about an hour, this twisted tale actually kind of works. They just forgot to write a coherent ending. Just fall asleep or turn it off before that point and you'll be happier.

Buy it here 

Special Features BRAND NEW 2K REMASTER from the original film elements NEW interview with director William Malone NEW interview with composer Don Davis NEW Interview with visual effects supervisor Robert Skotak Never-Before-Seen storyboards, concept art and behind-the-scenes photos courtesy of visual effects producer Paul Taglianetti Audio Commentary with director William Malone A Tale of Two Houses – vintage featurette Behind the Visual FX – vintage featurette Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer TV Spots Movie Stills and Poster Gallery Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

"Shampoo" (Criterion)

The best Criterion release of the month is this classic that always crosses my mind when I think about films that caught performers at their most charismatic. You know what I mean. Some movies find stars at exactly the moment it needed to find them. There's an element of this in the current success of "A Star is Born," which wouldn't work the same without Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga being exactly where they are in their careers in 2018. Same goes for Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn in 1975's "Shampoo" (along with Julie Christie and Lee Grant, for that matter.) One of Hal Ashby's best films comes with a great 4K transfer but a relatively, for Criterion, slight collection of special features. The new conversation between Mark Harris and Frank Rich is excellent, however.

Buy it here 

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray New conversation between critics Mark Harris and Frank Rich Excerpt from a 1998 appearance by producer, cowriter, and actor Warren Beatty on The South Bank Show PLUS: An essay by Rich

"Skyscraper"

Did we get a bit too much of The Rock in too short a period of time? For a period of time there, it looked like Dwayne Johnson may be the biggest star in the world. (And he may still be). With the success of the "Furious" movies and the phenomenon that was "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," he entered 2018 on a high, but both of his films this year, "Rampage" and "Skyscraper," were domestic disappointments. (Both did much better overseas.) Perhaps worse than their box office fates, they just weren't very good. This one is particularly dispiriting, coming off like the bland "Die Hard" retreads we got so often in the '90s. Come on, Dwayne. If you're gonna be our #1 star than we need you to pass on junk like this.

Buy it here

Special Features Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Rawson Marshall Thurber – Go behind the scenes with Dwayne Johnson and the rest of the cast of Skyscraper. Extended Scenes with Commentary by Director Rawson Marshall Thurber Dwayne Johnson: Embodying a Hero – Go behind the scenes to see what it took for Dwayne Johnson to bring the intense character of Will Sawyer to life. Inspiration – Meet real life amputee and motivational speaker Jeff Glasbrenner, the inspiration for Dwayne Johnson's role of Will Sawyer. See how Jeff's consultations helped inform Dwayne's character from day one. Opposing Forces – There's no holding back as the women of Skyscraper get in on the action. Now, see first-hand what it took for Neve Campbell and Hannah Quinlivan to be fight ready. Friends No More – When Dwayne Johnson and Pablo Schreiber met face to face, they immediately knew what they were up against. Witness first-hand the making of the intense apartment fight between two former on-screen friends, Will and Ben. Kids in Action – In Skyscraper everyone gets in on the action, even the Sawyer children. Go on set with Noah Cottrell and McKenna Roberts to discover the moves behind their stunts. Pineapple Pitch – Hear first-hand from Dwayne Johnson how writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber pitched him the idea of Skyscraper. It may be a little fruitier than you think. Feature Commentary by Director Rawson Marshall Thurber

"Sorry to Bother You"

The closer we get to the end of the year, the more I think Boots Riley's debut is one of its best films. It's certainly one of its most unforgettable. I've already written about the film twice (Sundance and theatrical) so I don't have much more to say, but let me throw in with my other Gotham Awards committee members who nominated Lakeith Stanfield for his fantastic work here, giving an incredibly physical and committed performance. So much of "Sorry to Bother You" feels like "Boots Movie" but it wouldn't work at all without someone so completely on the same page as the film's creator as Stanfield, who has quietly become one of the most interesting actors of his generation. I hope he continues to do challenging, fascinating work such as what he delivers here. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Beautiful Clutter with Director Boots Riley Audio Commentary with Director Boots Riley Gallery The Cast of Sorry to Bother You The Art of the White Voice

"Trick 'r Treat"

Horror is still the only genre that can truly produce word-of-mouth, home market hits, such as this anthology flick that never even played in movie theaters. Anywhere. And yet it became an instant hit when it was released on DVD in late 2009. So much so that Scream Factory has given it one of their most lavish Halloween season Collector's Edition treatments. It's a fantastic release for what's a really solid flick, a clear child of "Creepshow" with smart writing and direction. Hopefully it will spur enough interest to get the long-delayed sequel finally off the ground. 

Buy it here 

Special Features BRAND NEW 2K REMASTER OF THE FILM supervised and approved by director Michael Dougherty NEW Tales of Folklore & Fright: Creating Trick 'r Treat – including interviews with writer/director Michael Dougherty, conceptual artist Breehn Burns, and storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins. NEW Tales of Mischief & Mayhem: Filming Trick 'r Treat – in-depth interview with Michael Dougherty on the making of the film NEW Sounds of Shock & Superstition: Scoring Trick 'r Treat – including interviews with Michael Dougherty and composer Douglas Pipes NEW Tales of Dread and Despair: Releasing Trick 'r Treat – a look at the release and fandom with Michael Dougherty and writer Rob Galluzzo Season's Greetings – NEW 2K scan of the original 16mm elements – a short film by Michael Dougherty with optional commentary by Dougherty NEW Storyboard and Conceptual Artwork Gallery NEW Behind the Scenes Still Gallery NEW Monster Mash – a story from the TRICK 'R TREAT graphic novel NEW FEARnet.com Shorts Audio Commentary with director Michael Dougherty Trick 'R Treat: The Lore and Legends of Halloween featurette Deleted and Alternate Scenes with optional commentary by director Michael Dougherty School Bus FX Comparison Theatrical Trailer Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

from All Content https://ift.tt/2OPLihp

[anotherdoor]

Within Amalfi Town square, there’s a rather impressive statue:

This is none other than Saint Andrew the Apostle, the First Called.

Look at this enigmatic figure, a charismatic scholar of the Correspondence Discordance!

In all sincerity though, travelling through a region with a history far longer than our own has re-contextualised the role of culture within society for me. Just as pop culture causes its own obsessions within the niche roles of various fandoms (Marvel superhero stories, D&D characters, Dark Souls mythology, Game of Thrones, etc.), I’m realising the roles that these religious icons had within European life. They weren’t just abstract figures - they were legends, and ones that you could tell stories about, reason and obsess over, just as we have today.

Unfortunately for you, dear Reader, I am not versed in history or culture. So, instead of being able to interpret these statues and religious relics correctly for you, I instead invent wholesale a ludicrous interpretation born from my own ignorance.

Why? Well, because speculation is fun. And furthermore, it was ridiculously inspiring on a creative level. Having centuries of artwork retelling and reinterpreting a single apostle within the larger context of Christianities story essentially creates this large volume of ‘canon’ or ‘lore’. Much like how Dark Souls doesn’t really give you a narrative and more ill-defined points along a series of events that happened long ago, these artworks felt mysterious but self-consistent. That put me within the mindset of designing for mechanical systems - things that are internally consistent and interact together to produce novel outputs.

With that in mind, what I hope to share with this post is how my misinterpretations of historical art caused me to be inspired with my own ongoing projects.

To begin, recall the singular point of import contained within the walls of the Vatican City:

A dove. Is shooting Holy Light. Into a Saints forehead. And he gets crazy mad blessed. A halo! All around him is bowing and deferential and whaaaaaaaaat is going ooooonnnnnnnnnnnnn...

This mystery would compel me to look further into this matter. And thus I have invented wholesale an explanation that has been driving gullible scholars insane ever since. This theory was only made possible via the artefacts contained within the Cathedral of Saint Andrew and the Umbria National Gallery.

Upon entry to the antechamber of the Cathedral, I notice an individual with a halo/corona in a faded fresco within the halls of St Andrews. I idly muse to myself, I wonder if this presupposes the existence of a Dove...

Dove with halo DOVE WITH HALO

Incidentally, Kate and I stumbled across the legitimate Sacred Heart. You know, just chilling out. It was in a GLASS CASE KATIE, OK, don’t break my heart ;_;

it’s totally legitimate T_T (homing tears now pew pew ahem)

Anyway where was I oh damn look at this Dark Souls-esque staff:

Now, these next three pictures contain several points of interest, but I compel you to examine the halos within each:

Something of interest to me is how different periods and artists represent the halo - although more interesting is how consistent the various representations are across different bodies of work. The dove, coupled with the different states of halos/coronas, made me very interested in how they worked.

For example, within the first picture you have a representation of all the apostles with the simple banded halo, whereas Jesus has a solid corona of light. This implies to me a continuum on which the halos rest. Keep in mind that these objects are typically invisible to mortals, like angels or cherubs. Their presence signifies a certain degree or capacity for holiness. Absent a halo, a single golden ring, then the interior filling up until you have a solid golden corona. This idea is something that I’ll continually return to, as it leads me down some interesting design choices for interactive systems.

For now though, let’s examine this dove statue:

Love it, the statue being damaged and lacking a head just adds to the deliciously creepy factor for me. A creature, unseen by most, who confers blessings to those who earn Sainthood by suffering. A far more interesting a premise than any H.R Geiger monster. So, the whole point of the dove is to represent the Holy Spirit, as shown by this fresco within the Umbria Gallery:

What I like about this idea is this recurrent and strong use of internally consistent logic applied to a medium or story. The dove represents something, it’s a strong visual metaphor, so whenever we see a dove we know what that means: 

Better, from my perspective, is for interactive storytelling - it’s a way to distil complex motifs into a clear visual, something easily programmed and then robust to player actions. The picture just before the above one is also really useful for demonstrating the spectrum of halos I was discussing earlier - the huddled masses don’t have them, the nuns and monks have a slight distortion around their heads, those blessed are with a corona and we can see those divine figures have even more detail within their halos. Look at the corona on the Dove itself:

I like to think of this as a way of approaching secrets in a really well defined manner. The nature of the dove is mysterious - you are lead down a path you do not fully understand. As your comprehension grows, you can develop a distortion around your head - this feeds into your own understanding. Progression systems are abundant in interactive systems - I prefer it when they are visual and interesting, as opposed to meters or abstractions (XP, etc).

Plus it means finding a ‘dark halo’ is suddenly very interesting:

But enough musings on halos, what about Saint Andrew?

I’ve picked the two pictures above because they show a lot about his ‘character’ progression. Andrew was a scholar, always present with his book. The first statue is very cleverly done - Andrew doesn’t have a halo yet, but see how the fresco has a negative space that clearly implies one?

The second picture was taken above Saint Andrew’s Crypt - at the end of his journey (mad adventures with the holy spirit dove), he’d been crucified crux decussata (X-shaped cross), developed a corona, sometimes shown to wield his tome as a weapon and all around just comes across as a character straight out of a fantasy novel. Deification, huh. 

See how this statue, the halo is represented by the hollow ring, yet in the Andrew statues they are filled in and detailed? This sort of thing makes me believe that they knew what they were doing with the halos and their hierarchy.

Really appreciate the way simple visual stand-ins for concepts are used to communicate meaning.

Saint Andrews cathedral made me examine a lot about how we create characters and build legends out of them, how we tell stories that we get excited about and want to believe in, and how we’ve been doing that for thousands of years.

It’s made me realise that the game I’m working on will definitely have some kind of headless dove in it, and that if we follow it, we’re going to start seeing things no else has seen.

I’m feeling very inspired.