#cher's art lore

[ilytra]

Cheshire’s parents :-) idk why they’re shirtless don’t ask 😭😭

they became secret friends, fell in love, and ran away to space together :-3 here’s a bit more of their lore!! ⤵️⤵️⤵️

btw the alien stuff is reserved only for the Superhero au stuff obv 😭😭 in Raspberry Fool these two are human and DEAD 🤣🤣🥲🤣

[webvampzz]

more oc art.. idk their name yet tho

[sunshinies]

꒰ঌ Columbina / Damselette inspired names / prns / titles ! ໒꒱

art by x ! for @ladyth !

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🕊️ names: adelaide , adeline , agnes , alice , arabella , bellatrix , calliope , cecelia* , clara , clarice , cora , cordelia , corinna , dahlia , della , dove , lenore , lilith , lore , lorelei , lorna , magdalene/a , marie , marion , mary , melody , narcissa , nyx , operetta , ophelia , seraphina , valentina , victoria , viola

* cecilia derives from a word meaning “blind”, which can refer to damselette’s eye covering. saint cecilia was the patron saint of musicians and she was said to have sang directly to god ..!

🤍 pronouns: che/cher/cherish , dove/doves/doveself , song/songs/songself , cry/crys/cryself , adore/adores/adoreself , ve/verse/verseself , lure/lures/lureself , sweet/sweets/sweetself , mourn/mourns/mournself , other/others/otherself , hymn/hymns/hymnself , thy/thym/thymself , shy/hyr/hyrself , vae/vaer/vaerself , cir/cirs/cirself

any other variation pronouns of these may be used , of course !

🎵 titles: the maiden , the damsel , she who is off-putting/unusual/mysterious , the lady of seraphs , she who lulls with song , her lady of the seelie's court , the harbinger of lovely death , the merciless

prns and gendered terms may be replaced.

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additional tags: @the-astropaws @eternoelle @hauntingidol @delusielle @puriette @m00nystars

[salamandersorcerer]

I want to get to know you

Aw! Thanks for tagging me @breastosterone u r swag :)

last song: Want You Back by Cher Loyd. I love songs with messed up relationship dynamics they're so chewy ^www^ (<- my fanged creature)

favorite color: orange yessss 🍊🍊🍊🍊it's warm and happy

last book: I just finished Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. Really cool aliens, 2007 period piece lol. Emotional thriller! The twists and turns of the MC's dynamics with the rest of the cast are really good. I love her. I'm about to start On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong I'm so excited

last movie: Aw fuck I fully can't remember. I'm thinking so hard I have no idea

last TV show: literally just finished the most recent episode of Dandadan. Those kids are so stupid <3

sweet/savory/spicy: savoryyyy I'm umami freak 💯

relationship status: in love with my awesome wife (not married but I'll get them.)

last thing i searched: "Liftlands game" my little cousin recommended it to me and I said I'd check it out :3

current obsession: Gunnerkrigg Court! Webcomic by Tom Sidell it's been running for over a decade and he's still going. It just keeps getting better. Great character interaction, really cool art that just keeps improving, intricate lore, robot cults, there's so much going on. AND there's bisexuals 👍

looking forward to: kissing my beautiful wife

favorite drink: WATER🚰 💯💯💯💦 licorice tea is also really good

song playing on a loop in your head 24/7: No One Dies From Love by Tove Lo!!! It's so good and the video is fucking incredible too

Shout out to: @official-shiter @thenoiseyouhear @puffinmaster246 @crowsandfrogs @peachrunes @gengartheghostie @iichthyology @missmonkeymode if u feel like doing one of these! And anyone else, my brains not working but tag me I wanna see :)

[wokrs-of-whimsy]

I vvomit

Hehe hurdur.

What is this, you might ask. Uhh it's the drafts for my Crk oc 🥺👉👈. Character design go brrrr. I hope. I really hope that their silhouette is distinguishable. Or else my art Cher would be VERY disappointed.

They use they/them pronouns, because I can't decide.

Urrr anyways their name is Starry Molasses Cookie and they're a legendary cookie (average Mary Sue/ Gary Sue behaviour 😋).

I mean I haven't thought much. I just conceived their lore today. But basically they're a normal cookie beforehand before they ascended to god hood (via forbidden information ?1?1?1?1?1)

Basically they're the guardian of space. Ehehehehehrhfhfjf.

And like the part they play in the main story is that like, they're abandoning their duties as a guardian (with yk Dark Enchantress Cookie on the rise.) so gingerbrave and gang go to convince Starry Molasses Cookie. But they don't really get to meet them irl, bro is floating around in the vaccum of space so basically they meet in a dream (thankkew Moonlight Cookie)

Urm hurhur. I know it's MY cookie but like, you can say which parts for which design you like the most (try to discern the designs from this blurry ahh pic. Sorry...)

[getitfrenchship]

Meet the S/I: Anne

Time to get started on making posts about my S/I’s and OCs! In these posts, I’m hoping to share basic background & personality info along with character relationship dynamics.

Let’s start with the one that started it all, Anne!

Self Insert or OC? She takes Robin’s place in the story. Definitely more of a self insert.

Appearance: Her hair changes throughout the Awakening story (grows to her shoulders in the 2 year time skip before Valm, then she wears it up in a ponytail in the final arc. She has the older Robin model in that final arc). Could potentially turn white before the final battle if I really want to go anime with this. She also gets an orange robe and wears a ring with a sun engraved on it around her neck after the Valm arc ends.

Basic Info:

Birthday: June 7th

Likes: Adventures similar to the stories she’s read, storytelling, sometimes Henry’s puns, fruit, learning new things, her friends

Dislikes: Gossip, her father, Exce//llus, Ch//rom's romantic advances, not being able to help others

Classes: Tactician, Myrmidon, Mercenary, Strategist

Character relationship dynamics:

Romantic: Pr//iam Crushes: Stah//l & Yen fay Friends: Thar//ja, Henry, Sum//ia, Say ri, Cher che Mentors: Vir//ion, Basil//io, Gregor A bit intimidated by: Frederick

Background, Personality, & Changes I’ve Made from Canon:

CONTENT WARNINGS! Magical manipulation of memories, wanting to commit die, magic parasites, mentions of child having

Background: Anne was born and raised in Ple//gia, but she has her memories in tact unlike Robin. Thar//ja and Henry are also her childhood friends. Val//idar raises her to be a vessel of Gri//ma. With added lore from Echoes, she has a Thanato//phage (scarab that controls the dead) in her hand and she's capable of holding other Thanato//phages in her body. Val//idar has one in his forehead which grants him the ability to manipulate the mind. She ends up at the starting town of Awakening instead. rip.

Personality: She likes to think out of the box strategies to the point of them being very dangerous. She somehow still picks the plan with the least amount of casualties, but they still cause a lot of environmental damage. She gushes a lot about her favorite stories and after getting sword training, she starts to admire physical fighting as well as magical fighting. She's also prone to overthinking a situation to the point of thinking a battle's over before it even started. This thankfully changes over time as she grows more confident in her skills & companions.

Changes I've Made from Canon: She sees Bas/illio as a Pirate King because of how similar he is to a storybook character from her youth. Unofficially adopted moment. 3 years prior to this happening in Fates, Anne goes berserk when Emm//eryn sacrifices herself. She honors Must//afa's sacrifice by not attacking anyone as they traverse back home. She has Gang//rel thrown in a heavily guarded asylum rather than killed. She eventually does make it to Chon'sin during the timeskip. In my original fic, she romanced Yen fay during this time and ended up pregnant with Morgan. There's more relevancy with the Five Gemstones & what they do specifically. The Shepherds recruit Pr//iam to fight Walh//art and she immediately thinks Pri//am's like a storybook hero. The two hit it off even when Morgan's born, with Anne getting training advice from Pr//iam and Pri//am finding a new fan of his stories. (Morgan is born with the Wings of Gr//ima, meaning he can easily fly when he wants). Miiiight get rid of this part because it’s mainly for drama. When Yen fay dies, she goes berserk once more. This time, with a heavy amount of guilt eating at her, she turns herself into Wal//hart so that she can try to perform a similar sacrifice as Emm//eryn. wellllllll turns out with intense negative emotion & nothing to withhold him, this would be a way to revive gri//ma without the fire embul. Pri//am knows this and ends up killing Wal//hart in a really cool duel surrounded by fire. After this, Anne laments that she should die, and after a while, goes soul searching to understand Gri//ma's powers. Pri//am never saw Anne as Gri//ma and admired her for being herself. When she's gone on a couple year journey, she finds Pri//am working as a blacksmith in Valm and decides to stay with him. The two end up having twins: Cassandra and Helena. They both have the Eyes of Gri//ma, with Cassie being able to have dreams of the future and Helena being able to see spirits of the dead like Anne did during her soul searching journey. After a cool fight with Val//idar and Gri//ma, Anne suggests the family visit Pri//am's home in Tell//ius

Soul searching journey included helping Gang//rel reflect on his actions, realizing her mother's still around after she fled even if she has amnesia, understanding how Gri//ma's powers works and learning about his origins, facing her fears, and letting Yen fay's soul rest. She truly learns how to use her thunder magic this way, and with help from the Five Gemstones, is able to unlock the Apoth//eosis map in order to gain sacred weapons to put Gri//ma down for good without sacrificing herself or putting him to sleep for 1,000 years.

I've made Awakening's story go over the course of 10 years rather than the assumed 2.5 in the main game.

[andthekitchensinkao3]

First impressions on Dragon Age: Veilguard?

These are my first, basic, entirely subjective impressions after playing through the introduction and literally nothing else. Purely personal opinions: you don’t agree, that’s fine by me. Just move on.

But, a question for the friendly neighbourhood Veilguard fans out there: who should I romance first? :3

I really don’t like the character creator. It feels both too clunky and too nitpicky, and while I did like some of the character builds, most of them just made me go ‘...oh okay’ - here’s looking at you, Qunari avatars. I’d heard they were bad, but wooow. Somebody at EA Bioware really don’t love the Qunari.

In the end I picked the starter elf, changed his colouring a bit, upped the ear game because I find big-eared elves charming AF. Picked the ONLY hairstyle that didn’t look like my pale ass queen was engaging in some heavy duty cultural appropriation, or dragging it up Cher style. Which, you know. Valid. But not what I was going for.

Went through the motions of sex and gender - IMHO Larian and BG3 did this SO MUCH BETTER, although admittedly what didn’t they knock out of the park?

Went through the motions of changing my Inquisitor into a pale imitation of my lovely Qunari mage who spent half the game picking flowers, and the other half flirting up a storm with Dorian.

On the plus side, my Mournwatch He/Him non-binary Rook turned into the sassy queen I wanted him to be, but I didn’t think he’d end up as in-game, because I was so underwhelmed by the weirdly lit character creator. And glitter makeup? Really? We’re going as far away from the nitty gritty of DA: Origins as we can, huh?

But, again, let’s not even talk about trying to create a character in an acid green lighting. (Hello, Inquisitor. You’re looking jaundiced today.)

I like that they kept what I’ll lovingly refer to as the “Card Art”. I also love the backstory art, which reminded me a lot of DA:I. Coincidentally, the lore art etc was about the only design choice I loved in DA:I except for the architecture, clothing/armour and interior designs. I felt rather like everyone in DA:I suffered overly long philtrums, and as such looked like stiff upper lippers even when smiling. But. Alas.

I still want my stiff upper lipped DA:I Solas back. Who is this pretty boy Solas, and where can I get him exchanged for the original? Anyone? No?

Also, Varric, my dude. Where’s your himbo blonde tresses? What happened to you baby gurl?

I LOVED the dwarf default avatars. They looked cute and sexy and all kinds of gorgeous and fun. I found that sadly lacking in pretty much all the other default builds. Although Human Rook #1? Hot damn. Beautiful.

The Qunari, though? I want DA:2’s Qunari back, but like… if I have to pick between Veilguard and Inquisition, I’ll pick Inquisition any day. Heck, I’ll even pick Sten and his nonexistent horns over this! (I love Sten, I’m just feeling some kinda way right now)

Anyhoo.

So far, I’m having a lot of fun. No, I don’t agree with a lot of the design choices, but I felt the same way about DA:I to be fair, and I love that game.

I’m ready to send my sassy pretty boy Rook into all kinds of adventures and sticky situations, and hope the story and gameplay isn’t as horrendously cartoony as some of the trailers and reviewers have suggested.

[taegularities]

riddd it suddenly came into my mind but what inspired u to write cmi? like how it all started.. *super excited anime eyes*

YAY FIC LORE, I SHALL HAPPILY PROVIDE !!! the background story is less spectacular than c&f's, but it still means a lot to me !!

so, i first got the idea for artist!jk when i saw this lovely picture again

my first thought was to make it a smut drabble-ish series. i had this super specific scene in mind in which they'd try body painting and tease each other (which is today... our beloved cmi5/the canvas smut).

then i came up with a plot and prepared the main points (rich girl vs middle class boy, business vs art student. fake dating/fwb) – the series was gonna be a lot shorter back then. i had most of the first 4 chapters written by summer 2021 (and cmi4 was just 5k back then! and 25k now 😭).

then, i came up with the name in 2021, too. the title's anniversary is on the 20th of july 🥺 and that started it all officially !!

i spoke about it here back in october 2021 !! oh god, the post really says 12/13 chapters LOOOL

i couldn't post it before june 2022 bc i was still working on ruin you and lots of other fics. when i finally dropped the first chapter, i was beyond excited and happy 🥺 and now we're here 💕

bonus fun fact: cmi was gonna be called 'love won't let me leave' (a friend suggested that name, hi kae if you're around n seeing this !!), but i thought it might be easier to choose a shorter name, and after discussing things with another friend (hi cher !!!), i eventually had the idea of colour me in and loved it 🤍

[dashboarddiaries]

Dashboard Diaries is a production of Atypical Artists, hosted by Lauren Shippen (@thelaurenshippen) and Cher McAnelly (@overchers). Our theme was composed by Lauren Shippen and mixed by Brandon Grugle. Art by Shae McMullin. Transcription by Laudable.

For bonus clips, ad-free episodes, and more, become a patron at patreon.com/dashboarddiaries

Transcript under the cut!

[intro music]

Cher: Hello, Antler Queens. I’m Cher McAnelly, Head of Entertainment at Tumblr. And the wilderness speaks to me. 

Lauren: And I’m Lauren Shippen, Professional Writer, who is never eaten another human being.

Cher: And this is Dashboard Diaries, a podcast for you – the folks who are in this internet bunker with us. We talk about what’s going on in our favorite hell site, get into what we like to call “tumbl-lore,” do fandom deep dives, and share the times when we’ve gone feral over a new ship.

So, Lauren, what has your last week on Tumblr been like?

Lauren: I feel like it has been finale central over the last ... especially the last four or five days. We’re recording this on Wednesday, it will come out on Friday. And between Succession, Barry, and Ted Lasso we’re really actually not even in season finale realm but in series finale realm. Because obviously the finale of Yellowjackets which we’re talking about today was last Friday. But then both Barry and Succession ended on Sunday and my dash has basically just been reactions to Succession and Barry for the past two days straight.

Now today I’m starting to get the Ted Lasso finale reactions. So, it’s been a lot of very, very complicated feelings that I think a lot of people I follow share and a lot of people on Tumblr share which the general consensus and the feeling that I have is that the Succession and the Barry finales were perfect. And they were also so hard to watch. I’m not going to spoil anything for anybody who is not caught up, but it was just ... both of those shows are dark comedy tragedies, right? That’s what they are. And they ended the way that they only could ever end. And it was so well executed and also after that double whammy on Sunday night I was like, I need to stare at the wall for a while.

Cher: Yeah. It’s hard to put into words ... that was ... what a finale. That was a lot. It was, oh my gosh. I kept checking the time to make sure ... I just didn’t want it to end. I kept being like, “How much longer is this episode?” It’s so ... UH ... just every scene was so intense and just so good. I mean, I would put this finale up there with the Sopranos finale, honestly.

Lauren: Yeah, I’d totally do that.

Cher: And please take this with a grain of salt because I will admit in this moment I have never watched Sopranos. 

Lauren: (laughs)

Cher: I’ve just heard so much about the finale!

Lauren: I’ll believe you, because I’ve never watched The Sopranos either!

(laughter) 

Cher: Yeah, look ... people have in depth explained the finale to me, and then it all goes dark and you don’t even know. So, I feel like I was there. And I’ve watched three episodes of Sopranos, so I get the overall vibe. 

Lauren: It’s in your consciousness for sure. 

Cher: Yeah. So, I can judge, I can compare The Sopranos finale to the Succession finale.

Lauren: Absolutely.

Cher: I’m an expert now. I was going to ask you how you felt about the Barry finale? Because I actually stopped watching Barry a few episodes ago because when they did the flash forward it just got so painfully bleak for me that I was like I need to take a step back. And I haven’t finished it. I’m going to finish it. I’ve watched every episode of Barry. I’m going to finish the show. I’m not a quitter. I don’t think ... but it’s so intense! 

Lauren: Yeah. It’s so intense. And I had a long conversation with my partner about this season in particular after the finale. And just the fact that for the most part the last few episodes or at least there is a scene in sort of the back half of the season in each season of Barry that has a big sort of action set piece, whether it’s the chase in season three, or Barry going through the gang hideout in season one and killing everybody. There’s always sort of a big thing. 

And this season doesn’t really have that in the same way. And I thought that was really, really interesting. And yet the finale felt like that. It evoked the same emotion of like watching a tense action sequence, but the action actually was all very quick. There was action but it happened very quickly. Everything in the episode happened very quickly. And it was unbelievably bleak. But also not bleak in like a we are sort of indulging in misery. I think some bleak content can kind of indulge in misery in a not productive way. But I think what’s so great about Barry is that it’s still always saying something.

And I will say this without spoiling anything ... and I mean this as the highest compliment I can give, but the second to last shot in the Barry finale I literally said out loud, “Are you fucking kidding me!?” 

(laughter)

Because they do something that’s just like so outlandish and so ... it makes perfect sense. It’s at the perfect conclusion to the story that we’ve watched, but it was also just like oh my god, I can’t believe we’re here. So, once you watch the last season, if you do watch the rest of the season, I’m very excited to hear what you think. And I think the other thing too that was really interesting about the Barry finale, especially comparing it to Succession and Lasso’s finales is that both Succession and Ted Lasso were an hour and fifteen. And those shows are usually around an hour anyway. But like Barry was like 33 minutes. It always is. It was just like we’re in, we’re out, you’re going to see ... we’re going to conclude 900 character stories really quick. There’s an economy to that show that I just find astounding.

So, Bill Hader, I am worshipping at your feet. But anyway ... how was your last week on Tumblr?

Cher: I mean, I think we were having a very similar week on Tumblr, very enmeshed in the Succession discourse. I was really enjoying watching along as that kind of unfolded post finale. I didn’t watch it Sunday night, so it was great to kind of watch it Sunday morning, or Monday morning and then kind of scroll. 

I saw a post that, gosh, what is it ... Roman wears a shirt in one of the scenes of the Succession finale when he’s like at his mom’s Bahamas house or wherever they are. And it’s like just a children’s stripey shirt from Wal-Mart. And people found it and it’s like $13 at Wal-Mart. It has been sold out. (laughs) 

Lauren: Oh my god. That’s amazing!

Cher: Yeah. So, I love that Tumblr teaches me a new thing every day. And so yeah ... and also just Yellowjackets, man. Which I know we’re going to dive into that this episode, but ... wow, wow, wow, wow. WOW. Yeah. 

Lauren: I mean, should we just go right into Yellowjackets and do the rest of our stuff after?

Cher: Yes.

Lauren: Switch things up?

Cher: Yeah, let’s. 

Lauren: Should we do that?

Cher: Yeah. We’re diving in. Okay. Let’s crash right into the forest of Yellowjackets, you know what I mean?

[game show trill]

So, Lauren, as you watched Yellowjackets, but you’re not caught up, right? Or you have not seen it at all?

Lauren: No, I’m now fully caught up. 

Cher: Oh, you’re fully caught up. 

Lauren: Yes.

Cher: Incredible!

Lauren: I’ve seen it all. Yeah.

Cher: Oh my gosh. Okay. So ...

Lauren: Yes. So, this is a spoiler zone. If you haven’t watched Yellowjackets and you want to ... 

Cher: We have entered ... oh ... the spoiler Thunder Dome here. I’m excited. All right. 

Lauren: (laughs) Yes. 

Cher: First question – what were your thoughts on the finale? 

Lauren: Yeah. I thought it felt like the natural conclusion to everything that they’ve been doing this season. We knew that it was going to end in a major character’s death. And I don’t know that I saw Natalie being the person who dies. I don’t know if I saw that coming. I thought maybe it would be Lottie. I wasn’t totally sure. But the thing that truly shocked me was Coach Ben. 

Cher: Okay.

Lauren: Like ... Cher, tell me what you think about that whole thing?

Cher: I was typing up the other questions I was thinking of as you were talking and I was literally just typing in all caps, “COACH BEN IN HIS VIILAIN ERA.” (laughs) 

Lauren: (laughs) 

Cher: Oh my gosh.

Lauren: So, yeah, tell me everything. Do you think that he lit the cabin on fire, first of all?

Cher: I’m conflicted about it. I think the overall consensus in the fandom, at least from what I have seen is – yes, he lit the cabin on fire. I have seen some people thinking, “Oh no, he didn’t light the cabin on fire. That’s what they want you to think.” The wilderness set the cabin on fire. 

Lauren: Oh? 

Cher: And people were asking ... You know, I saw one comment that said, “Ben was just trying to go to the cabin to get rope to create a rope ladder and matches to start a fire and now you are all accusing him of arson.” But that moment when he looked through the window and he saw everyone kind of doing that ritual with Natalie as the antler queen where Natalie was the one person who he thought still had some shred of humanity. I think he just broke. I think he did.

Lauren: Yeah.

Cher: I think he did. I think you make irrational decisions when you are starving and your soccer team that you once coached are now cannibalistic. I don’t know what I would have done, you know what I mean? What do you think?

Lauren: I mean, I think he did it. I’m also speaking an unpopular opinion. I don’t think he’s totally crazy for doing that. I think it’s awful. Right? It’s terrible, they are children and he is the one adult in the room, and he I think generally has not been stepping up as the adult in the room. 

Cher: Not at all.

Lauren: Obviously he is down a leg, he experienced a great physical trauma compared to some of the other folks, but yeah, he’s just sort of generally been fairly passive and a situation in which he should be stepping up. But at the same time I think moving from we’re eating people who have died, which ... there’s a podcast called “You’re Wrong About” that does some great sort of arcs of episodes about the Donner party and the boys rugby team that crashed in the Ande’s in the ‘70s that Yellowjackets is kind of inspired by. And where they talk about the cannibalism that happened in those situations. I think the broad understanding is that, yeah, if you’re in that situation with Jackie who died of exposure, eating that person is not some sort of unforgivable sin. Right? It doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s like that person is already dead. It might be unsafe, because I mean, prion disease exists and if you eat the wrong part of your own species you can get mad cow disease basically. 

Cher: Yeah.

Lauren: But when you move from that to we are now actively hunting our fellow people and putting them to death? I don’t know, I think Ben maybe has some rights in this regard. (laughs)

Cher: Yeah. I mean, I feel like he must have thought it’s us or them. Me or them at this point.

Lauren: Right.

Cher: Because he has now escaped. He’s found his little hidey hole. But he kind of hinted to Natalie that it’s somewhere. She doesn’t know but Javi led her part of the way there. And they’re hunters, they could eventually find him. They’re a big group. So, I’m sure that’s what was going through his head. And him thinking, well, they’re going to find me and eat me. I guess ... or, I burn the cabin down. (laughs)

Lauren: I guess I should say I don’t think that what Ben did was necessarily justified or good but I don’t think it’s any different from what the girls are doing, right? In some ways I think it’s slightly less sadistic. The way in which they ... I mean, I also love that ... I’m very curious what you think about the ritual that they did to pick the person to hunt. Because I actually love that we didn’t get to see that process. That we just jumped into them doing it and we don’t get to see how they come to this conclusion. What did you think about that?

Cher: Yeah. I liked it. I think it was very much this is the way that they’ve been deciding things already, right? Their chores are decided with the card. And I also think it’s really interesting that Javi was the one who brought the queen card back. 

Lauren: Oh, I don’t know that I connected that.

Cher: Earlier when he is ... Yeah. It’s like a throwaway line. I have closed captions on so I don’t even know how loud it actually was. But there’s a line in the episode after Javi is found in season two where Ty asks him, “Where did you find this queen card?” And so he found it. 

Lauren: Interesting.

Cher: He found the card that ultimately led to his demise. But also the way that they’ve picked the cards ... Yeah, I found really interesting and kind of just, “Oh yeah, this is how we’ve been doing chores, this is how we’ll pick the person we cannibalize.” Yeah, duh, that’s how you do it. I also think it’s interesting that they were willing to kill Nat, which she’s the one person who can track and hunt. But I guess from their POV she hadn’t been succeeding in hunting, but it’s also the depths of winter and she had gotten them game before. So, you know? It is wild to think that they just went from Lottie needs to eat to we’re going to eat someone. 

Lauren: Yeah.

Cher: And also Coach Ben was gone for like, what, two hours, three hours? 

Lauren: Yeah!

Cher: He goes on a little field trip and he comes back and they’ve killed Javi. They’ve hunted and killed Javi. 

Lauren: It’s complete anarchy. (laughs)

Cher: Right? And the thing is he probably came back ... okay, what’s your POV? He came back to just tell Nat, “Hey, let’s get the hell out of there.” Or he came back to say, “I’ve saved us all?” 

Lauren: I think he came back to neither. I think he came back to get supplies. Right? He found this place and he was like, “I can’t just survive, I need stuff. I need matches. I need stuff to survive.” 

Cher: Yeah.

Lauren: And then I think he saw Nat and was like, you know what, she’s had a level head this whole time. If there’s one person I’m going to save it should be her. And so he gave her that chance. And if that had happened, if somehow Javi hadn’t died by that point who knows what Nat would have chosen to do. Maybe she would have left. Because I think that she was up until she let Javi die. I think that she was very much everyone else has lost their god damn minds. (laughs) And I’m the one sane person here.

Cher: Yeah. Well, and I also think it really frustrated me the way that she framed Javi’s death to Coach Ben when he said, “You’re not like these girls.” And she said, “No, I’m worse. I was supposed to die and I let him die in my place.” What she should have said was, “They were hunting me. Javi fell through the ice and I let Javi die in my place because he fell through the ice.” And also the thing is, if you fall through the ice you probably get ... the amount of time he was in there he probably would have died anyway. 

Lauren: Yeah, almost certainly. Yeah. 

Cher: So ... 

Lauren: I totally agree. Yeah.

Cher: I feel like if she had said that to him Coach Ben would have been like, “Well, that’s fucked up, but that’s not your fault.” (laughs)

Lauren: Yeah. But I think it makes so much sense for Nat’s character, right? And I think that’s why she also was the one to die at the end of all of it, right? It’s like she’s been carrying around this guilt like she felt everything was her responsibility. And she didn’t want to be responsible for someone dying because of her own passivity. Right? Which I think is very, very tragic. And I have seen some fan reactions on Tumblr that people are pretty disappointed with Natalie’s death and the fact that she was going on this healing journey. And then sort of got that healing journey taken away from her by dying. And that it was not what that character deserved. 

I have a slightly different perspective on her healing journey. I’m curious to hear what you think. 

Cher: Okay. 

Lauren: Because when she went to Lottie’s, no ... when she was kidnapped and ended up at Lottie’s and spending time there and everything, the change of heart that she had and sort of the change in mood and perspective happened so quickly that I was like this woman is not healing. She is actively repressing stuff. She has decided to detach herself from reality. Not to say that she deserved to die or anything. None of them deserved to die. But I don’t think that actually she was on her way to healing. I think that she was falling into Lottie’s delusion in the same way that she did in the past. And we see her do that in the past. And so I don’t know what your perspective on that is. 

Cher: I mean, honestly, my perspective was kind of she changed so much, so dramatically – even in her demeanor and her body language that I thought she was being drugged. 

Lauren: Yes. Yeah!

Cher: Lottie is drugging her, because what the hell?

Lauren: What is going on!?

Cher: (laughter) So, I do kind of ... it is interesting that maybe ... and I did see some commentary say this is a space that Nat has been in before. Right? She has been to rehab. She has been in retreat spaces where you do introspection. And you kind of work through things, so she just snapped right back into that routine and that place mentally. 

Lauren: Which is a good point.

Cher: Interesting perspective I’ve seen. It does bum me out that her death was ruled as a drug overdose and she was sober. And her struggle had been drug addiction. I really wish she’d died in a different way or it hadn’t been ruled a drug overdose, because I just felt like that was kind of a slap in the face to her character. 

Lauren: Totally. Yeah, I completely ... I think that it makes sense from a dramatic irony standpoint but it still sucks right? Yeah. Because she had gotten sober and ...

Cher: I know that Yellowjackets isn’t the most realistic show in the world, so maybe I’m being nitpicky here. But once Misty realized who she was accidentally stabbing, which I think she did kind of instantaneously. Why would she press down on the syringe? Because you need to do that to do a full dose. And even if she’d started pressing, why didn’t she stop? You know? I’ve used a syringe before. 

Lauren: That’s a good point.

Cher: There’s a little give there.

Lauren: Yeah, that’s a really good point.

Cher: Yeah. Right? 

Lauren: Huh. Yeah. 

Cher: Just questions, questions for the show runners.

Lauren: I don’t know. Food for thought. 

(laughter)

Well, and speaking of I guess realism, I think one of the things that Yellowjackets has been toying with for its two seasons is the idea of the supernatural, right? And I think I’ve seen a lot of reactions from fans specifically in re-blogs of the gif set of Shauna and Lottie as adults at the end when Shauna is like, “There was no wilderness, it was always us.” And Lottie saying, “Isn’t that the same thing?” And that sort of being the thesis of the show. And I do think that it’s the thesis of the show.

However, do you think that there’s still something supernatural going on? Or is it just like all mass delusion kind of thing? 

Cher: I mean, I’ll say I just love shows that have a supernatural element of some sort. I want there to be something supernatural to be going on. I don’t think there is. I do think it’s a shared delusion. And that it’s just a lot of coincidence. But the fact that a bear just walked into their camp is wild to me. Things like that happening are wild to me, but again could that be part of a shard delusion of some sort because we’ve seen moments where you’re convinced it’s reality – like Akilah’s mouse. And then you find out the mouse was never alive and hadn’t been alive since like probably the ‘80s. It was completely mummified. 

Lauren: Yes. Yeah. 

Cher: So, all these themes where you think Akilah completely has it together. No, she’s been ... So, maybe they found a dead bear. Maybe something else happened. You know?

Lauren: Yeah.

Cher: Maybe it didn’t just stroll into camp and walk right up to Lottie. Maybe that’s what they all decided happened. 

Lauren: Yeah. Completely. I think you’re right. I do think that probably there’s nothing supernatural going on. I think most things can be explained. I think even Taissa’s sort of dream self and stuff ... that can just be explained through an untreated mental illness. Right? However-

Cher: Exactly.

Lauren: ... the symbol, right? What’s the deal with the cymbal? (laughs)

Cher: The symbol! Oh my gosh. I mean ... 

Lauren: That’s the one loose thread that I’m like, “When is this going to be explained?” (laughs) 

Cher: A really ... and the symbol is on the tree that has the moss-

Lauren: Yes!

Cher: ... that Coach Ben goes into. And the symbol is there right at the crash site, right where they land, and I do think the symbol is a map. That’s the symbolism map of the land that they’re in. 

Lauren: Yes.

Cher: Some people say that the symbol is because the symbol is on all of those points throughout and it is a map, it isn’t a map but a ritual and it’s trapped the darkness within that space. 

Lauren: Hmmmm.

Cher: And that’s what the symbol is. I don’t know. What do you think? What’s your POV on the symbol? And on the kind of what we might see happen next in the next season?

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, I think the symbol being a map makes a lot of sense. I think the idea of it being some sort of pentagram capturing the demon is nonsense, too. I think even Taissa finding the symbols in her sleep, obviously that could just be explained by our brains attached to patterns and also noticing subconsciously that we don’t notice consciously. But also I would not be surprised if we got a reveal in the next season that Taissa is actually carving the symbols. Right? That would make sense to me. 

The thing that I’m like what is the origin point about, is the fact that the symbols have been there from the beginning. And they were at the crash site and they are in all of these places. And so it’s like I want to know is it that the guy who lived in the cabin before was like carving them? Has this happened before with another group of people? And that’s something that I am actually not sure this show is ever going to answer. Because I don’t think narratively they have to. But I still want to know. (laughs)

Cher: Yeah. I really am so interested in what the symbol is, and I do want more of what it is. I do wish they were a little faster with dropping kind of bread crumbs about it. Because I think we knew it was a map by the end of the first season. Right? So, what new kind information have we found? But I do think, yeah, especially Tai’s kind of dark or second shadow self or whatever you might call it – the fact that this man with no eyes who her grandmother saw, she now sees. And leads her to the symbol quite far from where they are, but also we know that they go to that ledge already. 

So, if she’s near that she could have carved the symbol. She could have seen it that one place that one time, maybe it’s in a tree and then she carves it. But also the fact the symbol, the places that the symbol are also build and create the symbol. 

Lauren: Yes.

Cher: I think it was cabin daddy or his crew.

Lauren: Yeah, it must have been. Yeah.

Cher: There’s got to be some kind of underground tunnels, right, because Lottie keeps hallucinating those or seeing them in her dreams. 

Lauren: Oh, you’re right.

Cher: When she was electrocuted at the beginning of the first episode. She sees herself walking in that tunnel by candlelight. 

Lauren: Candles, yeah. That’s right! Huh. So, we already know that Yellowjackets is getting a season three. What are some hopes, wishes, predictions that you have for season three?

Cher: I predict that we will have another wilderness survivor show up. I don’t know who it is, but a lot of people think it’s Mari, because ... someone did some frame by frame analysis of season two episode one when you see the survivors getting on the plane. And there is a teammate ... there’s one of the girls who has her hood down and she’s looking down and they compared the bottom of her face to Mari’s face and it looks like it could be Mari. I’ve also seen speculation though that Mari is pit girl. Pit girl could also be Jen, who is another kind of JV character. I think Mari is varsity. So, it would be interesting.

I also think Coach Ben survives. I am split between the theory that Coach Ben is going to be the big bad in the past and the present. 

Lauren: Oh! 

Cher: Or ... that Coach Ben didn’t get rescued with them and he’s still out there in the wilderness. And so these are some of my little predictions. And at some point they have to break up, right, into the warring clans, right? So, I wonder how they’re going to, if they’re all going to live together under the same roof, potentially in the plain but still be at war because where else is there to live? 

Lauren: Right.

Cher: It’s interesting. And I do think Antler Queen is a rotating role. There is going to be-

Lauren: Yes. Yeah.

Cher: ... multiple Antler Queens. What are your kind of thoughts and predictions and hopes for season three and beyond?

Lauren: I love that. I love the idea of Ben still being out there because of course if he hides from them the whole time then yeah he would know that they were rescued necessarily. Yeah, I mean, I wonder, too if we might eventually see the present day, the adult girls go back to the same spot. You know? Somehow charter a plane and get back there and sort of return to where it all happened.

Cher: I really think that is a natural next step.

Lauren: Yeah. 

Cher: Especially because I would say Lottie’s kind of cult wilderness retreat. First off, the symbolism is there when you get an aerial view. So that was the first step. Season one, they reconnect. Second they do the hunt in a wilderness at some kind of space. And I do think, yeah, season three they’re going to go back. I think in season three they’re going to back late in the season I think season four is when they are going to still be back there and season five when they will return to humanity and resolution.

Lauren: Yes. That makes perfect sense to me. Because also we have so much ... there’s so much story to explore in the past, right, especially now that the cabin has burned down. We have to see [crosstalk 00:27:35] we have to see the hunt, we have to find out who pit girl is, we have to see them find new shelter, deal with Ben in whatever way that needs to be dealt with. 

But I don’t know what the present day plot is, right? Because it’s like Adam’s murder has been resolved. Travis’ death has been resolved. Obviously there’s going to be the emotional fallout of Natalie’s death. And they’re still Taissa’s whole deal to deal with. But they don’t ... what is going to be the next thing sort of for them as a group to confront? And I’m really curious ... is it going to be that Ben somehow shows up? It feels like there’s going to be, yeah, another wilderness survivor, but it’s going to be something that they ... maybe someone they thought was dead or something. 

Cher: Yeah, I think there’s got to be that trigger that brings them back to the wilderness. And so yeah it’s going to be interesting to see what that is. I think season three will definitely open with them in the future reeling from Natalie’s death. I think Van is going to find out that she’s in remission from cancer. 

Lauren: Ooh. Yes.

Cher: And I think that is what the, because the wilderness got what it wanted. I do think that’s why she was so all in on doing the ritual again. And I think yeah in the past we’re going to see them kind of figuring out how to get shelter. I think it’s definitely going to be the plane, because we see-

Lauren: It has to be, yeah.

Cher: ... in the first episode when they’re walking away from ... in the morning after their nighttime cannibal feast around the fire they’re walking away and when they pan up you can see the wreckage of the plane. So, it’s nearby where they’re doing their little canniballing. 

Lauren: That makes sense.

Cher: I’ve re-watched this show a lot. 

Lauren: I was going to say, you’re picking up on details that I have not picked up on. I love it. (laughs) 

Cher: Having a lot of fun watching it. Do you have any personal favorite Tumblr takes or Tumblr posts that you saw? Because there have just been some real excellent content coming out of the season finale. 

Lauren: I mean ... I have loved all of the Ben memes and we’ll be sure to re-blog a bunch of those to www.DashboardDiaries.Tumblr.com. But beyond the Ben memes, I haven’t seen any of the sort of big predictions that you just made. So, I’m curious what your favorite Tumblr takes have been.

Cher: Oh, my favorite Tumblr takes have been less predictions and more, yeah, like memes and posts. No real in depth things like what I have really been latching onto, as much as I definitely have been reading all of that and thank you all for your insights. My favorite post that I think I saw was the fact that the cast threw an actual funeral for Javi. Did you see this? 

Lauren: No. 

Cher: Wait, I’ll drop the link now.

Lauren: Oh my gosh. 

Cher: And we will re-blog it to Dashboard Diaries. 

Lauren: Oh my god. This is so cute. 

Cher: Right? Isn’t it?

Lauren: They’re actually dressed in black around one of those memorial photos of Javi.

Cher: Beside the memorial photo. 

Lauren: That is so cute.

Cher: Oh my gosh. 

Lauren: Oh my god. Well, ‘cause also of course, I mean, when somebody dies on the show you lose that cast member and that’s always sad, right? So, you don’t get to hang out with your pal anymore. 

Cher: Exactly. I love that they did a little special funeral and send off. And I also just sent you another one of my favorites which is an image ... it’s like in the format of the live slug reaction meme, but it’s live Coach Ben reaction and it’s Coach Ben outside of the window watching Nat become Antler Queen. (laughs) 

Lauren: (laughs) That’s so good. Oh my god, I love it. Yes, I will be liking and re-blogging this. 

Cher: And then this is one of my just favorite Yellowjackets posts over all, it’s from season one, but always relevant. So, this post is from Neon Envy and it says, “Diversity win. The woman crouched outside your window eating dirt is a lesbian.” 

(laughter) 

Lauren: So applicable. That’s so great.

Cher: So, really living for all of the Yellowjackets memes and content. What a show. 

Lauren: What a show.

Cher: Please quadruple all writer’s salaries so that we can get all our shows back. Thank you very much.

Lauren: Yes, please. So, before we move onto our ad break and then the rest of our stuff, I do have a tiny little quiz for you because one of the episodes this season was titled Two Truths and a Lie, which is a classic game. And one that was played in the episode. And so I have a Two Truths and a Lie for you about the insect, yellow jackets. 

Cher: Ooooh. 

Lauren: I’m going to say three statements to you and you’re going to tell me which one is a lie.

Yellow jackets die when they sting.

Some yellow jackets build nests underground.

Yellow jackets eat other insects. 

So, which of those is NOT true?

Cher: Yellow jackets do not die when they sting. 

[game show chime]

Lauren: You are correct!

Cher: They can sting you as many times as you want, as they want. If they want to sting you three times on one finger when you’re five years old, they can do that! Not that that has happened to me.

Lauren: I think maybe we’re unlocking some more Cher back-story, injury back-story.

(laughter)

But yeah, I think thematically yellow jackets are a great insect to choose for this team because they will sting you multiple times. They eat other human beings in the way that yellow jackets eat other insects. So, I’m curious if they try to build a shelter underground. Who knows? Because some yellow jackets do that.

Cher: Coach Ben does kind of have the underground situation. Yeah, and they did have their pit but I guess that’s not fully underground. Them losing the cabin is going to just accelerate their descent into-

Lauren: Completely.

Cher: ... complete ridiculousness. I don’t even ... just chaos. Absolute lawless chaos.

[synth]

Cher: Speaking of things underground ... digging into our archives, should we go on into our Dashboard Confessionals?

Lauren: Let’s do it. 

[guitar riff]

So, this week I have a post that I re-blogged on May 30, 2016. So, almost exactly six years ago. Nope, sorry, seven years ago. It’s 2023. I knew that. And it is one of my favorite videos on Tumblr. It begins with a guy on a skateboard who then jumps onto a railing that then goes into a body of water, which is extreme vine energy. Right? That was something that was very common at the time. But then he bursts up from the water and has a massive fish in his hands. And it’s just absurd, it’s hilarious, it’s a great example of the structure of storytelling. You know, you set up a premise – man skating on a railing, then you introduce a conflict – he’s about to go into a body of water, and then you have a twist – he comes out of the body of water holding a live fish. So, just a masterpiece through and through. Cher, what do you have from your archives?

Cher: I have a really special posts, some nice nostalgia here. I posted this, or re-blogged this on May 30th, 2015. So, eight years ago. Yes. And it’s from Keep My Whiskey Neat and it is a photo of, if you are over 20 you may remember, 3D Doritos. A classic excellent snack. One of my favorite childhood snacks. And the caption says, “I can’t stop thinking about the one that got away, even though I haven’t seen you in years. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for you. I love you and miss you and hope that wherever you are you are genuinely happy.” (laughs) We miss you, 3D Doritos!

Lauren: A) I love this post. And B) I genuinely forgot all about 3D Doritos. What a time. That time in the late ‘90s, early 2000s where they were just doing crazy stuff with food. The purpose ketchup. It was all wild.

Cher: I was just about to say, yeah, the colorful ketchup and the colorful butter. 

Lauren: Yes.

Cher: When Cheetos used to turn your tongue green. Remember that? (laughs)

Lauren: Yeah, what was going on? What happened?

Cher: I’m convinced for that one that they made a batch of Cheetos and they turned the tester’s tongues green and they were like, you know what, we can use this to our advantage. (laughs)

Lauren: We can market this to weird kids! (laughs)

Cher: Oh my gosh. What a time. 

[game show sounds]

Lauren: So, we have a mail bag today. We have a listener email from a German listener, Pia, who wanted to share their perspective on Eurovision as a German viewer. And there were lots of great insights in this email. Basically Pia explains that Germany is so used to coming last or second to last that it’s just become this perpetual joke amongst German Eurovision fans. And that they thought maybe this year they might have a chance, given that Lord of the Lost, the band that was representing Germany, felt like a little bit more Eurovision-y but sadly they still came in last apparently. 

But the thing that I really enjoyed about this email especially was that Pia shared some ideas that German fans on Tumblr have been having around how Germany can improve their chances in the future. So, I’m just going to read through some of these examples. 

So, when Germany came in last again there were hilarious Tumblr posts going around suggesting Germany should just go rogue next year. Like letting a random security guard sing, off key yodeling, etc. The funniest one in my opinion is one in German that suggested a very elaborate plan for next year. And Pia sent through this post which we’ll re-blog but it is all in German, so Pia thankfully sort or shortened and explained it to me. I will shorten it a bit here but it included letting the long time German ESC commentator, Peter Urban, choose a group of toddlers at random who will proceed to compose a song. This song will be given to a random marching band, not toddlers, from a small town. But only a few minutes before the performance. 

During the performance rules from an elected German allotment garden club (love the specificity there) will be recited by the small town’s local [inaudible 00:38:07]. Something like King of the Marksmen in English and someone who wins a marksmen competition at a traditional German festival held annually by a lot of German towns. 

So, there’s lots of love about that summary of this German Tumblr post. (laughs) 

Cher: Look, I’m in for that show. (laughs)

Lauren: Right? I would happily watch a marching band play a piece they just learned that was composed by toddlers and I really like these details that German allotment garden club, I guess is a thing. And they have rules enough that this would be something that makes sense to fellow German citizens. And the fact that they have marksmen competitions in small German towns and that they have a name for the winner of those marksmen competitions is just really delightful. Germany, what a wonderful country. Thank you, Pia, for sharing your perspective on Eurovision. We love to see it. 

Cher, I think you have some Eurovision updates generally for our listeners?

Cher: I absolutely do. So, in the month of May there were a little over one million notes on posts tagged Eurovision. And so again these metrics that I have right now are only on content tagged with Eurovision. But a lot of the time people will post things and not tag them. So, I will say that this is likely significantly larger. But one million notes on Eurovision content. And 333,000 searches for Eurovision on Tumblr in the month of May.

Lauren: Jeez Louise. 

Cher: The vast, vast majority of that over 90% of those numbers were the weekend of Eurovision. So, that was pretty much what was going on on Tumblr in those 48 hours which we love. (laughs)

Lauren: I love it. That’s amazing.

Cher: I thought Lord of the Lost performance was great. And they did not deserve to Lord of the Lose Eurovision. 

(laughter) 

Lauren: Tee hee.

Cher: Tee hee. (laughs) 

Lauren: That was a good one. 

Cher: Intense ridiculous fun, heavy metal performance. It was out there. It was energetic. I thought it deserved top five. Because it did have Eurovision vibe.

Lauren: Yeah, show some love to Germany. 

Cher: Yeah. 

Lauren: Well, Germany, I hope next year you fare a little bit better. 

Cher: Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing your toddler composed small town marching band performed marksman singer show. It’ll be great.

(laughter)

Lauren: That’ll be great.

[gentle music]

Cher: What’s got you in your feels this week, Lauren?

Lauren: Well, I have a resurgence of an old and long held fandom of mine, which is always such a fun thing. And which happens in the way that it often does which is semi spontaneously. So, I live in Seattle and a local theater that is in the neighborhood that I live in was doing, or is currently doing a PG Wodehouse play. They’ve put on Jeeves Takes a Bow and I have been a huge Jeeves and Wooster fan for my entire life. And so I was like, you know what, I’m going to go and support this local theater and I’m going to go see this play. 

And I did. And it was delightful. And it’s gotten me back into my Jeeves and Wooster feelings. So, for those who maybe have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m not entirely sure how niche this fandom is but if you remember a time where there was a website called “Ask Jeeves,” this is usually how I explain Jeeves and Wooster to people. So, Ask Jeeves was a search engine back when there were more than just two search engines. And the character of Jeeves, of this butler who was very helpful, comes from a series or short stories and books by British author, PG Wodehouse. That sort of encompasses the Jeeves and Wooster adventures. 

Jeeves is this butler, he’s a valet which is a little different than a butler I think, I don’t know, it’s English aristocracy stuff from the early 20th century, who knows. And Bertie Wooster is his charge, essentially. Technically his employer, but he mostly just takes care of Bertie. HE’s sort of the one in charge. And they just get into hijinx it’s all 1920s ‘30s, London and England and New York. And my grandfather was a big PG Wodehouse fan and introduced me to the books when I was a child. And then for Christmas one year I received the DVD box set of the entire Jeeves and Wooster BBC series from the early ‘90s which stars real life best friends Hugh Laurie and Stephen Frye. And it is delightful. You can see some of it on YouTube. But is otherwise not on streaming anywhere.

And so I have just been re-reading, or actually I’ve been reading some of the books of PG Wodehouse that I haven’t read before. And I’ve just been getting really in my feelings about the fact that it can be 20 years since you first got into a fandom and you can not think about it for several years and then something happens and it pops back into your life and brings you joy again. So, that’s what’s gotten me in my feels. How about you, Cher?

Cher: I love that. I also did not know that Hugh Laurie and Stephen Frye are best friends and I love that little tidbit of information. 

Lauren: Oh yeah. They have a sketch show called A Bit of Frye and Laurie. Which used to be on Netflix, like years and years ago. I don’t think it’s anywhere now. But if you can find it, it is not always good. (laughs) But it’s really fun because it’s like ... it’s them, they met I think in college and became best friends, and then started writing and doing sketch together and this was their first sketch show. And it’s just delightful and ... but yeah, Jeeves and Wooster is really their, the pinnacle of their output, in my opinion, as a pair, not as individual actors. They both have done many phenomenal things.

Cher: Love that. I’ll have to find it. For my feels this week, I mean, Yellowjackets, which I feel like I just talked about for perhaps an hour, so ... we’ll skip that one. And Succession, which again we touched on. Definitely have a lot of feelings about that show ending. So, I have two things.

One is I have been watching this show called From. Have you heard of it?

Lauren: No. 

Cher: It’s an Epics show, an NGM Plus show. And I found it because I was looking for things to fill the void in my life left by Yellowjackets. And this was one of the things that came up as related and so the plot of the show is essentially this family is driving on a road trip and they drive into this town and they keep driving and they can’t seem to leave the town. They keep just coming back around to the town. There’s just not escape from it. 

Lauren: Oooh.

Cher: So, they have to stay in this town and it turns out this town is comprised entirely of people who are in the same exact situation all over the country. All over the United States. So, we don’t know where this town is and if it’s a pocket universe, what is it? And at night evil monsters come out. So, you have to be in your home at night. And so it’s kind of interesting.

Lauren: That sounds awesome!

Cher: It’s this very interesting kind of horror, it’s kind of like that show The Society, if you’ve ever watched it, which is on Netflix, it was only just one season. It was really good. One of those shows that we lost due to ... season two was supposed to be filmed during COVID. So, it just ended up not happening because the cast all did great things. 

But I’ve really been enjoying From. It is very, a lot scarier than I can ... usually my threshold, Yellowjackets is scary but From just is like full on horror. Like it really ... I’ve had to ... if it’s too scary I leave the room, but keep it playing so I can know what’s happening. 

(laughter)

But I’ve been enjoying it. 

Lauren: That’s a good system. 

Cher: Yeah. Right? And then the other thing that has me in my feels is a show called Feel Good. Have I ever talked about this? I can’t remember. 

Lauren: Oh, yeah. 

Cher: Because we’ve been doing the show for a while. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time. It’s lovely. If you haven’t watched it, it’s a Netflix, kind of like dramedy, I would say. There are two seasons on Netflix. And it’s kind of the story of a comedian who is living in London and kind of navigating their sexuality, their gender, their sobriety, love and relationships, their relationship with their parents, and it’s just such a really sweet, tender show. The lead and the person who created the show is named Mae Martin. They’re a great comedian. And they also just had a really great special that just came out on Netflix that I absolutely loved and if you haven’t watched it, please do. It had me in my feels because it’s a funny special but also it really just kind of ... they talk a lot about gender exploration and just kind of figuring yourself out. And so it’s just a really beautiful cute special as well.

And Mae Martin is on the current season of Taskmasters, season 15. So, I’ve been really enjoying watching one of my favorite comedians on Taskmaster as well. 

Lauren: That’s right!

Cher: So, that’s ... Mae Martin just overall has me in my feels. Love them. (laughs)

Lauren: I love that. That’s amazing.

Cher: And with that ... Cher McAnelly and you can find me at OverChers.Tumblr.com. 

Lauren: And I’m Lauren Shippen, and you can find me at TheLaurenShippen.Tumblr.com.

Cher: This has been Dashboard Diaries. And ... 

[outtro music]

Lauren: May your anons always be loving.

Cher: Your dash always refreshed.

Lauren: Your gifs always be loading.

Cher: And your ships always canon.

Lauren: May the fics you’re reading always be finished.

Cher: And the answers you seek always in the re-blogs.Lauren: Thanks for scrolling with us!

Dark rituals, wild hunts, cannibalism, and bone alters - it's just girly stuff! This week, we discuss the second season of Yellowjackets, reminisce about 3D Doritos and give a few Eurovision updates.

Credits and transcript in our reblog. You can find transcripts for this, and every other episode, here.

Find the posts discussed in this episode in this tag!

[kingvoiddd]

ALSO ALSO

A fresh bust art of Cher my beloved.

I plan on casually drawing all my one piece ocs again, (+ finally designing two of them...)

Because I literally have like *checks palm

11 of these motherfuckers. But only four of them are designed/named/and filled w/ lore (Cher, Rosette, C.C., and Ame)

Two of them have lore, yet no names or designs. (Working on it)

Three have names/designs and little to no lore, sadge. (Azel, Dolly, Gallan)

And two have designs, but no names and little to no lore, double sadge. (Also, working on it)

[ilytra]

some side villains for the Superhero AU 🗣️🗣️🗣️

except these guys actually have really intricate lore because they’re actually my edgy oc’s i’ve been cooking for years…BUT IN THIS AU THEY’RE JUST IN THE BG

Lore ⤵️⤵️

why did i make them all gorgeous….why are they all mogging me rn.

[theladygazingatemptiness]

now time for a less serious post: so looking through my old fmns art I notice that I drew a lot of like.. more surreal-ish stuff/settings? things like these as just a few examples:

Why Exactly I couldn’t really tell you but. yeah that was a thing for a while 

[dammarchy211]

THREE CHEERS FOR WOMEN

The blank template of the psychonauts ID I used is by chekrss on Instagram ! :-)

Edit: their tumblr is @ruby-the-kat btw!

[artnerd1123]

homework’s done for now, but!!! i still wanna be productive. so i’m gonna try n compile my au stuff into smth coherent instead of lil snatches of info :V

[onebizarrekai]

hi hello i have no idea what dream smp is about AT ALL, but i just have to tell you that your art has been incredible lately and i love to see it regardless of whether i understand the lore

YEEEAAAAAH thank you cher!! 🌟

[urmomsstuntdouble]

Ok so I may be doing a thing so... which songs do you think have the general vibes of "we're semi-immortal nations who have lived longer than any human"? Sorry if this is kind of hard but I like your concepts of nation lore and I'm wondering if you were ever inspired by any songs

i love this ask anon! and thank you! i do want to mention that there will be a heavy bias towards english speaking and american artists on this list, and getting other perspectives on this is probably also a good idea. but anyway! list! (which since its kind of long i shall also put on an spotify link)

Hand in My Pocket- Alanis Morissette

this song feels like acceptance to me, and i think it’s important to put on this list because imagine you’re born and you know there’s something different about you, and then when you’re like 8 years old someone’s like oh by the way. you’re the human representation of the country we’re currently living in, or smth like that. i would cry. i think it’d take a while to accept, and that a lot of them don’t really like themselves, but this just feels hopeful and ok and i think its very good. 

Into the West- Annie Lennox

my lotr brainrot is showing again lmao. this is half bc of elves also being semi immortal beings who live for thousands of years in tolkein’s work, and also because the nature of the song is that we’re saying goodbye to all these characters and especially goodbye to frodo and bilbo. i think that goodbyes are something that’s sort of central to life as an immortal, at least in a place where immortals are rare. 

Vienna- Billy Joel

it’s always been my interpretation of this song that vienna was supposed to represent heaven and a peaceful death. a piece of nation lore that i like is that they can be killed, but they’ll come back as long as there’s a nation still existing, and that a lot of them might want to die but they can’t, and are therefore dreaming of a ‘vienna’ of their own. 

Lost- Amanda Palmer

this song fits into the theme of death again, cause the message is that you never really lose anyone as long as they’re still with you emotionally. i like that vibe and i think it fits again with being an immortal in a world of humans. 

Wild Heart- Bleachers

this feels very much young and free, which is how i think the nations must look from the outside. 

Strangers Like Me- Phil Collins

once again it’s all about that ostracisation! wanting to know what it’s like to be a person, when you’re representing people, and it’s just..yea

Like Real People Do- Hozier

dont u ever wish u were a real boy 

What’s Up?- 4 Non Blondes

this is sense8 propaganda. i really like the way this song is used to emphasize the way the sensates are both lonely but also that literally always they have each other, and i think the bonds between nations are sort of similar. 

God’s Away On Business- Tom Waits

this is mostly bc of the title tbh. i like the vibe of them being abominations too though, like 

Don’t Let This Feeling Fade- Lindsey Stirling, Rivers Cuomo

this song is super inspirational to me, and i think it’s because of this bit: 

“What really matters in life? Is it a sprint or a marathon? And what if finish lines make us happy? Or are we glad we can run at all? I never do it to lose, but losing occurs And when I do it for the love, lose never hurts Loose, loose grip on what I can't hold Who you fooling with a handful of fool's gold? Lose, lose, when you do it for the wins only Love gave you meaning, it never was a trophy It never was a trophy Yeah, enjoy the race, homie”

i think the idea of life being a marathon is especially aplicable to the nations, bc they have no idea when their marathon is going to end. at least you and i know we’re going to die someday, and some of the probable causes. the being glad to run at is also a bit strengthening to me because yeah life is such a wonderful thing, even if you’re cursed with so much of it. finally, the line about love giving you meaning, rather than a trophy, is something that’s just so. good line. but it also has another layer of meaning where the nations are concerned, because love for the nation literally gives them existence (imo) so. yeah. and then trying to enjoy it, because that’s all you really can do. idk its powerful to me

Where Do We Go- Lindsey Stirling, Carah Faye

i really like this song, specifically bc of the idea of where do we go from here, and just. the desolation. chef’s kiss. 

Those Days- Lindsey Stirling, Dan + Shay

nostalgia!

I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow- The Soggy Bottom Boys (from O Brother Where Art Thou)

idk this is more about the instrumentals. i think its a good vibe though

I’ll Fly Away- Gillian Welch (from O Brother Where Art Thou)

i want to break free! but make it country and old fashioned. it also puts an emphasis on weariness i think and thats something that i think the nations also struggle with

Sleep Now In The Fire- Rage Against The Machine

this song is a bit anti colonialism

The Chain- Fleetwood Mac

i think this fits into like. lost chances and opportunities and the struggle to go on

Left Alone- Fiona Apple

i like the idea that the nations beg to be left alone and while they’re loveable in some senses, their people find it hard to love them on a personal level. like everybody loved american but alfred is just some dude and most people don’t really care about him

Relay- Fiona Apple

i love the imagery in this song, about evil and hatred and all that. its very song

If I Could Turn Back Time- Cher

turning back time while also having a positive outlook! 

that's all I have off the top of my head, but if you'd like more music or for a more specific vibe, feel free to send an ask! i hope this is helpful for your project :P