#dog toys in Los Angeles

[allaboutyourpets]

dog toys in los angeles | megasellshop.com

Dog toys in Los Angeles from Megasellshop. See more here https://megasellshop.com/dog-toys/

[wileys-russo]

dog whisperer (before the void blurb) II a.putellas, j.hermoso

part of the filling the void universe dog whisperer II a.putellas, j.hermoso

"mami he is too bouncy, he will knock her over!" alexia argued in a hushed tone, glancing to the door to make sure there wasn't a set of little ears listening in.

"she has met him a dozen times ale, your hermanita will be fine." eli reminded, not even looking up from the book she was reading as her eldest daughter scoffed.

"sí when he has been tied up or there are a million other people around for him to play with. mami she's too little he will hurt her!" alexia continued to disagree, crossing her arms and scowling.

"alexia, hija it is for a week and it is for family. angel will be here tomorrow, que es definitivo." eli warned firmly. "but mami-" a sharp look had alexia's words dying in her mouth as she signed, the pitter patter of small feet entering the room.

"i want angel to come! he's my friend!" you demanded, shooting through your sisters legs and skidding to a halt at the end of the bed. "lo sé fresita, and he will be here tomorrow." eli smiled while alexia rolled her eyes.

"hermana, ven aquí." your sister squatted down and pointed to the floor in front of her as you made your way over, her hands resting on your shoulders.

"now fresa, angel can be...too friendly sometimes. he can jump and bounce and bark and play rough-" alexia warned, glancing over your head as eli cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow, snapping her book shut.

"so he is going to stay outside, and you are only allowed to go and see angel if someone bigger is with you. like me, or alba, or mami, or-" alexia was cut off as you stomped your foot.

"no. angel is my friend, he's not staying outside what if it rains? he would get wet, thats mean!" you protested with a scowl, trying to wriggle away as your sisters hands tightened on your shoulders.

"nena angel will be fine outside. he has a comfortable bed and lots of toys and a water bowl and-" again she was cut off as you grunted trying to pull away. "no! no, no, no-" you chanted over and over, alexia letting you go at eli's warning.

"angel is not staying outside. mami, you tell her!" you ordered, turning toward eli who smiled. "we will see where angel wants to stay, he should get to choose hija no?" you settled at that, hesitating before nodding in agreement, alexia throwing her hands up in annoyance.

"angel isn't gonna like you if you're mean to him hermana." you warned your sister with a glare, smacking her leg and stomping your way out of the room in the most dramatic way a five year old could.

"watch the attitude pequeña!" alexia called after you as you turned and poked your tongue out, racing quickly away as she stepped menacingly toward you. "what?" the girl looked to eli with a frown who chuckled.

"she is exactly like you." eli smiled fondly causing her eldest to roll her eyes. "me? no thats all alba." alexia scoffed, shaking her head in disagreement.

"good! i don't wanna be like you anyway ale, you're mean to dogs!" you sang out from the living room, clearly still eavesdropping though out of sight.

"fresa." alexia groaned throwing her head back and coming to find you. "i thought we were going to the park?" your sister reminded as you scowled at her from the lounge, staying silent.

"you know, jenni will be there." alexia added on, watching your eyes widen slightly.

"really?" "really."

"lets go!" you changed your mind, smile plastered on your face as you jumped down and raced for the door, stopped in your tracks as your sister snagged the collar of your top.

"ale!" you whined trying to pry her hand off. "you need shoes tonto." alexia chuckled, spinning you around and gently pushing you in the direction of your bedroom as you sprinted away.

"and you have to wear socks with them fresa!"

~

angel sure enough arrived that next day though you weren't home when he did, out at a play date with a friend. you'd started to have quite the active social life now you were in your first year of school.

angel himself wouldn't hurt a fly on purpose, but the dopey chocolate labrador belonging to your tio was not aware of his own size, forever knocking things over and smacking into walls as he ran about too fast to stop himself.

he'd failed puppy school twice, and though he'd sit for a treat that was about all the lab would do, when it came to anything else he was seemingly as deaf as a plank of wood.

when you got home you were disappointed to see angel wasn't there, your sisters having taken him out for a walk in hopes to wear him out for the evening.

waving goodbye to your friend and her papi at the front door and ignoring elis' open arms for a hug you raced past her inside as your mami chuckled and grabbed the backpack you'd abandoned at her feet.

"mami where's angel?" you frowned sadly after searching everywhere you thought a dog could be in the house but coming up empty handed.

"your hermana's took him for a walk, they will be back soon. now how was your afternoon nena?" eli lifted you up and onto the counter, disappointment gone as you perked up and busied yourself rambling on and on about every single little detail of your day.

your sisters meanwhile were not having a good time.

to any onlooker who passed it would be hard to tell who was walking who, angel practically dragging alba who stumbled not to fall over as alexia repeated the commands given to her by his owner over and over with no luck.

"angel, stop. sit. slow down!" the footballer repeated, almost jogging to try and keep up as alba's hand started to go red from the lead tugging against it.

"and we have to do this for a week!?" the younger girl groaned, turning onto their street and breathing a sigh of relief as finally angel stopped pulling, eagerly sniffing around in the grass.

though when he began to turn in circles both putellas sisters eyes widened, wincing as the dog squatted and sure enough nature took its course as both girls spun to look at one another and spoke in unison.

"you're cleaning it up!"

you were midway through a very thorough recount of what you had for lunch when you heard the front door, head swiveling toward the source of the noise.

"angel sit! angel sit! sit!" alexia ordered, remembering her tio's instructions to get the lab to do so before his harness was removed, however all he did was pull and fight against her hold on the lead.

"estúpido perro de mierda!" the girl swore, giving up and just unclipping the leash as the dog raced off still with his harness on, nails clacking against the floorboards. "you said a bad word!" you yelled from the kitchen, alexia wincing as alba snickered.

"angel!" you cheered happily, laughing as he tried to jump up to reach you on the counter, alexia quickly scooping you up and pushing him away with her foot as he continued to jump and ignore everyones instructions to calm down.

"put me down." you grunted trying to wriggle out of your sisters tight grip as alba tried to wrestle angel into a sitting position with her hand on his collar. "he needs to calm down hermana, he might hurt you." alexia warned ignoring your request.

"no he won't he's friendly!" you defended the lab who barked loudly as eli shushed him. "he's too excited, mami i'm putting him outside until he calms down." alba grunted, struggling to pull the dog toward the back door.

"no! leave him alone." you huffed as alba too ignored you, throwing open the back door and pushing angel out, breathing a sigh of relief as he raced off to explore the garden and she pulled it close again.

"don't you kick me." alexia warned sternly as you dug your foot into her side, eli telling her to put you down as she did so with an eye roll.

"fresa no don't you open that-" eli's words fell on deaf ears as you reached up and flung open the back door, three pairs of eyes widening as angel turned and came sprinting over.

"angel sit!" you yelled with a hand up, silence falling as the dopey lab did exactly that, skidding to a stop right in front of you and sitting back on his hind legs. "did he just-" alba started in disbelief.

"lay down." you tapped your foot against the floor, alexia's jaw dropping as angel did exactly that, flopping down onto his stomach as his tail thumped excitedly against the deck.

"buen chico." you clapped happily, throwing your arms around his neck and giggling as he licked all over you, still remaining laying down as he rolled onto his back and you hugged him tightly.

"is he...listening to her?" alba questioned again, both her and alexia watching on gobsmacked as you ran off and clicked your tongue, angel racing after you as the two of you raced about the backyard in circles.

"sí, i told you both not to worry so much. it would seem your hermanita is a dog whisperer." eli laughed, resuming her dinner prep as you and angel started a lively game of fetch.

"do you think she knows that is not how fetch works?" alba couldn't help but chuckle watching as you'd throw a toy and angel would chase it, sitting by it happily and waiting for you to run over and throw it again instead of bringing it back to you.

"why does he listen to her? he would not do one thing alba and i asked him to on the walk!" alexia scoffed, eli calling both of them over to help her as they took turn washing hands and watching angel be uncharacteristically well behaved for you.

"i told you nena's, it would seem la pequeña is a dog whisperer."

"fres don't feed him. he has had his dinner!" alba warned later that night watching you grab a piece of steak and try to sneak it to the dog laid down at your feet, giving up with a frown and putting it into your own mouth instead.

"what if he's still hungry?" you questioned once you'd swallowed your mouthful.

"dogs are always hungry but if you overfeed them hija they get sick." eli warned as you seemed to accept that, nodding and launching into a very animated recount once again of what you did with your friend earlier, alexia listening along attentively as alba pretended to.

later that night it would seem your dog whispering ways had their benefits, the chocolate lab who refused to leave you alone dead asleep in the corner of the bathroom as you were struggling to keep your eyes open in the bath.

you jerked back awake as water rushed over your head, eli massaging the conditioner out of your hair and chuckling at your exhaustion, both you and angel having well and truly tired one another out.

the next part of your routine would normally be arguing with whoever was tasked to put you to bed about not wanting to go, forcing them to read you a story or watch something for as long as you could con them into letting you stay up.

but again barely able to keep your eyes open as you were changed into pyjamas you made no move to argue as eli lifted back the covers on your bed and slipped you in, blinking sleepily and exhaling.

the woman stepping out for two seconds to grab you a glass of water she couldn't help but smile as she returned to your room, angel curled up on the end of your bed as you'd wiggled your way out of the covers, head on his body as you lay almost upside down in bed together.

with a quiet chuckle eli grabbed a spare blanket from your wardrobe, laying it over the two of you and kissing your forehead as you stirred but didn't awaken, your mami backing carefully out of the room and closing your door, leaving it open just a crack so angel could get out if needed.

"mami we can't find-" alexia appeared in the hallway, eli putting a finger to her lips and nodding behind her at your door. "he's decided where he is sleeping." the woman smiled in amusement, alexia frowning curiously and pushing your door open a crack, peering in.

"dios m��o she really is a dog whisperer."

though there were also some downsides to your bond with angel.

"ale. ale. ale. alexia!" the brunette jolted awake at the light slap against her cheek, sitting up so quickly she almost sent you flying off where you were sat on top of her. "pequeña? estás bien?" the midfielder asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"angel wants to go for a walk." you notified pointing down to the chocolate lab who sat eagerly on the floor with his lead in his mouth, your sister groaning tiredly and flopping down into bed, jenni stirring beside her but making no move to get up.

"come back in a couple of hours fresa, it is too early." your sister grumbled, covering her face with her arms as you huffed.

"he likes going early! theres birds to chase, its not as hot, theres more dogs around for him to play with, the beach is not busy, the sun is not too bright-" you ticked off the reasonings with your fingers.

"vale, vale, bien!" alexia's hand shot to cover your mouth, knowing full well once you set your mind to something there wasn't much anyone could do to change it.

"go get your shoes." alexia sighed in defeat as you wrenched her hand off and leapt off of her, hitting the floor with a thump and racing off as angel chased after you.

"jenni, levántate." alexia shook her girlfriend beside her who pushed her hand off. "she asked you to go for a walk amor, not me. but have fun!" jenni smiled, eyes still closed as alexia's jaw hardened, though before she could open her mouth to say anything you beat her to it.

"jenni has to come too!"

though the real downside of your bond with angel, was not understanding why you had to say goodbye once his week with you all was over, your tio due to come and pick him up tomorrow morning before you left for school.

"but why can't he stay? i'm his best friend!" you whined, arms locked tightly around the labradors neck. "because nena, angel belongs to tio danny. do you want to make tio danny sad if we tell him he can't come get angel? he has had him since angel was a puppy!" your mami explained gently as you sighed deeply.

"we will still see angel whenever we see tio danny, maybe we can ask him if he can come and take you to walk angel once a week after school. would you like that?" eli offered as you nodded, pout still permanently etched into your face as you pressed a kiss against angels neck.

"hey pequeña, how about we go to the pet store and you can pick out a special toy for angel to take home with him. that way he always has a reminder of you!" alexia tried next, heart breaking a little at the obvious sadness in your face.

"i think angel would like that hija." eli added on as you nodded in agreement, letting go of the dog and patting him on the head, giggling as he licked you and everyone else cringed, jenni and alexia getting up to take you.

~

"fres i think we have looked at every toy in the store at least five times." alexia sighed, jenni giving her a look where she was crouched down beside you. "i can't pick! can we get more than one?" you asked hopefully, your sister firmly shaking her head as you deflated.

"what about this one? it makes a funny noise!" jenni tried to help, honking the small burger as you shrugged, the girl changing tactics.

"you know chiqui, if you hurry we can get ice cream on the way home before the shop closes." jenni bribed as you perked up, frowning for a moment before grabbing a plush dinosaur and holding it up.

"this one!"

"you couldn't have said that a half hour ago?" alexia mumbled to her girlfriend as they followed after you, jenni pinching her with a grin making the brunette roll her eyes, grabbing out her wallet.

"woah." you exhaled, pressing your face to the glass of the rabbit enclosure, smiling at the little bunnies hopping around inside.

"ale can we-" you turned to your sister after she paid, taking both her and jenni's hands. "no." alexia answered before you could even finish the question.

"what about a-" "no." "or maybe a-" "nope." "but what if i-" "no."

"you didn't even let me finish asking!" you protested unhappily as jenni chuckled. "no pets hermanita." alexia smiled down knowingly at you as you huffed, letting go of her hand but still clinging tightly onto jenni's.

"but i looked after angel! why can't we get a dog?" you whined. "because owning a dog is a lot of responsibility, and you're still a baby." your sister's foot kicked at your behind sending you stumbling forward, jenni quick to help you catch your footing.

"i am not!" you glared up at alexia who grinned. "are too." she teased, hand shooting forward to press against your forehead as you let go of jenni's hand and launched at her.

"oh i am so scared." alexia mocked, easily holding off your swinging fists with her hand against your forehead as you grew tired and gave up with an annoyed grunt, dragging your feet as you walked inbetween the two older girls.

"can we get a dog?" "no." "a cat?" "no." "a bunny?" "no." "a turtle?" "no." "a lizard?" "no." "a bird?" "no." "a frog?" "no." "a chinchilla?" "sí!" "really?!" "...no."

"alexia!" you ran out of animals at that stage, deflating and dragging your feet even slower in protest, shaking your head at jenni's offer of a piggyback.

"you can have a pet rock?" your sister offered as you glared up at her. "a rock is not alive." you warned, jenni gasping from your other side. "fresita! that is not nice, you will hurt his feelings." she pouted holding up a rock she'd swiped from the ground as you merely gave her a silent deadpan stare.

"yeah alexia rocks aren't alive! idiota." jenni scoffed, throwing the rock over her shoulder and grabbing you, tossing you up into the air earning herself a giggle before placing you back down as you arrived to the ice cream shop.

"what flavor chiqui? chocolate? mint? rainbow?" jenni pondered sarcastically, both her and alexia already knowing all too well what you wanted.

"no! strawberry, duh." you rolled your eyes as jenni gasped and smacked her palm against her forehead making your sister smile.

"of course, estúpida!" she tutted, ordering for the three of you as you smacked away alexia's hand which tugged on your hair, the taller girl darting back as you swung at her time and time again.

"hey, ale!" you protested as she took a bite of your ice cream before handing it to you. "i had to poison test it!" the brunette defended as you scowled unhappily, snatching the cone off of her and stomping out of the shop.

"leave her alone, such a bully!" jenni shook her head, alexia knocking her shoulder into her girlfriends as they followed after you, the three of you taking a different route home.

"what if i find a pet? can i keep it then?" you asked hopefully as you arrived home and walked up the driveway, ice creams long finished as your sister paused and gave you a suspicious look.

"vale pequeña, spread em!" your sister gestured as you sighed but held your arms up and moved your feet apart, jenni watching on in amusement as your sister patted you down to make sure you hadn't snuck home a new friend.

"ew fres!" alexia winced, pulling out a soggy ice cream soaked tissue from your pocket as you shrugged, jenni collecting it from her and running it over to the trash bin. "alright, you're clean." your sister sighed once she was content you didn't have any sort of animal hidden on your person.

"i just want a pet." you pouted, kicking your feet and huffing unhappily, alexia frowning at the sad look on your face and kneeling down to your height.

"i know hermana, but like i said pets are a lot of responsibility." alexia reminded softly as you nodded, turning the pout to her and making her chuckle.

"that is not gonna work this time, we're not getting a dog." she pinched your cheeks and stood as you groaned, waiting for her to unlock the front door as jenni returned.

"how about a fish nena? we could start with getting you a fish?" "you can't walk a fish!"

[lttl3babybug]

a request of you can go nuts and write whatever you wanna about this drawing of mine, have fun

This is such a cute drawing!! I love your stuff so much \(^ヮ^)/ plus you draw bedtime bear so cute :3

Cg!Logan and Regressor!Wade Headcanons

🐾⚔️Wade isn’t much different when regressed in all honesty

🐾⚔️He’s still as childish and immature as ever

🐾⚔️He’s not got a set regression age he just does it

🐾⚔️Just because he’s small don’t think he won’t still swear like a sailor

🐾⚔️Most of the time a telltale sign will be a swear replaced with ‘flip’ or ‘frick’ which will always earn a laugh from Logan

🐾⚔️He LOVES a onesie, the moment he’s out his suit he’s got a fluffy onesie on and is situated in front of the tv

🐾⚔️Logan tries to get Wade to leave the house while small but he just simply refuses

🐾⚔️The only time Wade will go outside is if they’re walking Mary Puppins

🐾⚔️All little Wade wants to do is watch tv and colour

🐾⚔️Wade has so much colouring supplies it’s unreal, crayons, pencils, gel pens, glittery gel pens, markers, chalk. You name it

🐾⚔️There has been so many times Logan has had to take away scented colouring utensils because Wade just sits sniffing them

🐾⚔️He puts them in a box at the back of the closet but they somehow find their way back to Wade every time

🐾⚔️Logan isn’t terrible at being a cg, but he’s not great

🐾⚔️He’ll have a drink while Wade is small then give Wade a sip- watching his face scrunch up at the ‘yucky’ taste and bursting out laughing

🐾⚔️Logan does love Wade, cuddling with his little while he explains the mlp lore to him

🐾⚔️Wade definitely made Logan get them matching onesies of Pinkie Pie and Apple Jack

🐾⚔️Logan would not be caught dead in it outside of making Wade smile

🐾⚔️Logan would do anything to make Wade smile

🐾⚔️They’re so grumpy dad and sunshine daughter coded

🐾⚔️Yes Wade is Logan’s little princess

🐾⚔️So many dress up sessions and fashion shows

🐾⚔️Wade taught Logan how to play Roblox so they could play games together

🐾⚔️Wade in general is childish so naturally he owns toys, his favourite when regressed seem to be the Sylvanian families

🐾⚔️He loves the goat family and Persian cat family, the kitties remind him of his papa

🐾⚔️Logan is his papa!! Wade is such a sucker for using nicknames and having nicknames used on him

🐾⚔️Logan is either called Papa or Lo

🐾⚔️Wade enjoys most pet names! Very fond of ones like, Princess, Bubs, little one, Angel, baby etc

🐾⚔️Logan likes to call little Wade his cub or pup :((

🐾⚔️Wade is a very fussy and tantrum prone regressor, Logan has none of it.

🐾⚔️The moment he spots even the slightest pout or attempt at a tantrum Wade is sent straight to corner or into a different room till he’s come to his senses

🐾⚔️Puppy dog eyes do not work on Logan. He sees through them immediately

🐾⚔️At first they did, then Wade began to push his luck

[mrs-stans]

GQ Hype

How Sebastian Stan became Donald Trump in The Apprentice

With an uncanny performance as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice and an even less recognisable turn in A Different Man, the shapeshifting actor is embracing his freaky side

By Ben Allen Photography by Daniel Jack Lyons

Coat by Loewe. Boots by Dolce & Gabbana.Necklace by Cartier.Daniel Jack Lyons

When Sebastian Stan was growing up in Romania in the 1980s, he began to learn English through passive immersion. His mother, a concert pianist, would regularly play English music and language lessons on the family record player while they were going about their day. “I’d be playing with toys and I’d hear, like, ‘frog’ and ‘dog’, or whatever,” Stan says. It meant that by the time the actor moved to Vienna at age eight, where he attended an American international school – and later, when he moved to New York at 12 – he had a decent jumping-off point. “I’m a big believer in putting yourself in a situation where, subconsciously, there’s work being done.”

In the past two years, Stan has put that method to use in a very different way. As he entered preproduction to play Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice – which charts the former President and current Republican candidate’s early rise through the New York property scene – he started spending his waking hours with tapes of the young Trump playing in his ears. He brushed his teeth with Trump, he went grocery shopping with Trump, he spoke to friends with one earphone in, Trump still nattering away in his ear. “I slept with him, by the way,” Stan says, well aware of how strange that sounds. “It just sort of ends up taking over your life.” He’s sitting somewhere in Los Angeles at lunchtime, speaking to me over Zoom, with the afternoon sun reflecting off his chlorine-blue eyes.

Jacket and shirt by Gabriela Hearst. Hat by Gladys Tamez. Ring by Cartier.

The Apprentice, which Stan first signed up for in 2022, explores the question, ‘How did Trump get like this?’ (The answer, it posits, has a lot to do with Roy Cohn, a lawyer and prosecutor who had risen to prominence in the 1950s as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s attack dog in the communist witch-hunts.) The film is the latest in a string of freaky, transformation-heavy roles that have run parallel alongside Stan’s very mainstream 13-year-and-counting stint as Captain America’s pal Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has made him a globally recognised action star. The Apprentice lands this month in the UK, two weeks after A Different Man, an A24 production in which Stan plays an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that has caused the growth of non-cancerous tumours on his face. They’re not your typical actor-in-between-superhero-outings roles – and the fact that Stan is spending so much time in the make-up chair outside of the blockbusters is indicative of a desire to get truly lost in his work.

I started to think a lot about the American dream. What is it? Is it a ghost you keep chasing?

Preparing to play Trump, he says, was like any other time he has portrayed a real-life person – take, say, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, in I, Tonya, or Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy. But this time around it came with an added layer of stress. “There’d be nights when my anxiety levels would be through the roof, because I’d be like, Why did I say yes to this?” he says with a laugh.

But Stan thrives when he leans into fear. He had been terrified of I, Tonya, and even more terrified of Pam & Tommy – which, in its exploration of the couple’s romance and sex tape, involved a scene where Lee converses with a silicone puppet of his penis. (The latter earned him Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.) Trump was a different beast. “I thought, I don’t know if this is doable. I don’t know if I have it in me,” he says. “But it’s not not gonna happen because I’m scared of it.”

Coat, shirt and tie by Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Trousers by Gabriela Hearst. Boots and gloves by Versace. Hat by Gladys Tamez. Daniel Jack Lyons

Jacket and shirt by Gabriela Hearst. Hat by Gladys Tamez. Daniel Jack Lyons

When his mother told him he was going to be leaving Vienna for the United States at 12 years old, Stan felt like the floor had fallen from beneath him. “It was like you were telling me that my life was over,” he says. His mother was a single parent and had met an American man and fallen in love; he wanted to bring them both to live with him in New York. Stan remembers crying in the shower in the days leading up to the move. After departing Romania a few years before, he had worked hard to forge new friendships. Now, he’d have to rebuild from the bottom up again. “That did feed me resilience, because it did allow me to get better at restarting and restarting,” he says. “It fed a lot of who I am.”

Upon arriving in America, he started working on his impersonation of an American teenager. “I was so traumatised by being different,” he says. He refused to speak Romanian, even at home. He didn’t tell anyone he was from a foreign country. “I wanted to change my name to Christopher,” he says. “I wanted to be as normal in America as anybody else.” Having already set the ball rolling with his passive English lessons as a child, he was able to adopt a seamless New York accent, leaving little to betray his otherness. He tried out every personality marker available to him at school, to figure out which one fitted: debate team, forensics, every sport he could muster, and drama, eventually gravitating towards the latter. “I became popular in high school through acting,” he says. “I went on dates. I found my path.”

Still, this otherness was a part of Stan, as much as he initially tried to suppress it. As he came to appreciate life in America – in a middle-class household, with a good education – he began to reappraise his background, and felt a sense of gratitude to his stepfather for bringing them over, and for the drive it seeded within him. “This idea that you’ve been so lucky to have been selected to get this opportunity,” he says. “I was able to seize it and work with it, but on the other hand it’s a never-ending burden because you go, ‘You better not blow it!’” He remembers taking a walk through the city on their arrival, gawping up at the skyscrapers, when his mother impressed upon him that very sentiment: “You see these buildings? This is where you have a chance to become something.” He thought about this conversation quite a lot while he was playing Trump, probably because it feels like a scene ripped right out of a more varnished biography of the former President. “I started to think a lot about the American dream, and sort of like, what is it?” he says. “Is it a ghost you keep chasing?”

That was a way of me understanding that you're just out there, like target practice.

When Stan was doing theatre in high school, he loved getting a chance to transform and become a different person entirely. “You’re 14, 15, and you’re playing parts where you have to be, like, 35 years older than you are, and you have to change your appearance, you have to change everything, and you have to walk a certain way,” he says. “That shit was fun.” He would find himself craving those meatier transformations later, after landing a run of roles in Hollywood playing traditionally hot villains and heroes in Gossip Girl and in the Captain America movies. “Watching Christian Bale do The Fighter and watching him do Batman and Vice and The Machinist… He was a guy that, to me, could have made very conventional choices because he’s very good at any of it. But then he’s trying these things.”

Opportunities like this aren’t necessarily afforded to nascent actors. In a weird way, you kind of have to wait for your face to become recognisable before you’re allowed to start messing with it. The first real taste Stan got of this was in 2017 – after he had been solidly established as a Marvel hero – in the Margot Robbie-led, Oscar-winning I, Tonya, which told the story of the assault on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, orchestrated by her Olympic rival Tonya Harding’s camp. For Harding’s ex-husband – who sets the assault in motion – they were looking for someone very different to Stan. The real Gillooly is slight and short, with narrow features. Stan felt his teen-drama looks would work against him in the audition process. “I’m like, ‘I’m gonna walk into that room and they’re gonna see the taller guy, The CW [the young-people-melodrama US TV network that first aired Gossip Girl] guy.’ I felt like I was going to be immediately judged.”

Coat and pyjamas by Dolce & Gabbana. Daniel Jack Lyons

I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie saw in Stan a capacity to become Gillooly. “I was familiar with Captain America: Civil War and his work there, and I couldn’t quite picture it [at first],” Gillespie tells me. “But he actually turned up [to the audition] in the turtleneck and the moustache, almost in character. And the transformation, and his instincts tonally and comedically… He was actually improvising things in the scene that worked incredibly well.”

Gillespie was impressed not just by how Stan had remoulded himself in the shape of someone else, but by his ability to tap into the character’s humanity, too. “It has to be emotionally resonant,” he says. “You have to be able to connect to the characters… He completely commits, which is an incredibly scary proposition for an actor.” Still, Stan was filled with anxiety heading into I, Tonya. “The amount of fear I had was almost traumatising,” he says. But then he did it. “I worked so hard for that movie, and it worked.”

A DIFFERENT MAN takes things up another notch. The film was written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, a rising indie director whose work has explored how disability has impacted his life (Schimberg was born with a cleft lip and palate). In it, a prosthetics-heavy Stan plays Edward, an actor whose biggest break to date is a small role in a corporate training video about how to treat employees with facial differences in the workplace. Edward’s spirit has been crushed by the world around him, weathered by the relentless gawping of strangers and rejection. Then, he takes part in a clinical trial for a new drug that could remove the tumours from his face. It works. Edward fakes his death and adopts a new identity, looking just like regular old Sebastian Stan. But when Edward’s kind neighbour – played by The Worst Person in the World’s Renate Reinsve – stages a play about him, he finds himself in competition with Oswald (played by Adam Pearson, a British actor with neurofibromatosis) for the part. It is, to put it mildly, a confronting drama, excavating both society’s unwillingness to treat people with disabilities fairly and the fallacy of our terminal dissatisfaction with our looks.

Coat by McQueen. Shirt by Louis Vuitton. Trousers by Louis Vuitton. Tie by Dolce & Gabbana. Boots by Versace. Daniel Jack Lyons

Though the film treads across the noir and comic horror genres, and at points tips into the absurd, it feels most like a parable. “It’s another version of the American dream, right?” Stan says. “Don’t wish for the things you want; you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

During the shoot, Stan often had long stretches between having his facial prosthetics applied and his call time (the film’s make-up designer, Michael Marino, was simultaneously working on The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and would sometimes have to squeeze Stan into make-up in the early hours before running to that job). So Stan would walk around New York, including parts of his own neighbourhood, wearing hyperrealistic prosthetics, getting just a little taste of what his life would be like if he had been dealt a different hand. At one point, he went to his local coffee shop, where a barista he has known for years was working the counter. “She was so busy handling stuff, and suddenly she turned and she didn’t expect to see me,” he says, “and I could see the shock going immediately into overcompensation.” Pearson told him that those are the reactions that he is most often confronted with as a person with a disability: shock verging on repulsion, and guilty, over-the-top kindness.

Schimberg helped Stan to draw a neat line between Edward’s life and his own experience of fame. The one thing they had in common is how they’re observed in public spaces. “He said, ‘You have to think about what it’s like to be recognised. And the sense that you’re fair game out there.’ That I could understand,” Stan says. “I’ll go to lunch with my mom and somebody will be filming me the entire time, pretending they’re not. Or I’ll see somebody look at me strangely and then they’ll whisper to their friends. Or I’ve had someone come and tap me and run away. The invasiveness of that… And I can’t do anything but just receive it.”

Stan is quick to clarify that his experience as a famous person is not really comparable, that it comes with all sorts of upsides. But this point of similarity helped him to fully embody the character. “That was a way of me understanding this thing – that you’re just out there, like target practice.”

Coat and pyjamas by Dolce & Gabbana. Daniel Jack Lyons

Production on The Apprentice was hazardously stop-start. Several times over, Stan began his Trump immersion routine – which also involved pounding Coca-Colas and peanut butter and jam sandwiches, among other things, to put on some very un-superhero bulk – only to find out that production had been suspended. At one point, the project came so close to overlapping with his next Marvel outing, next May’s Thunderbolts, that he had to start shredding instead – only for Thunderbolts to be postponed because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Straight back to the PB&Js. All that work wasted. “I’m fuckin’ 41; I just worked pretty hard to get in shape here!” he says.

Stan’s Trump is admirably nuanced, particularly for a person who has been so widely imitated – on SNL, on late-night talk shows, every second of every day by comedians trying to make a name for themselves on TikTok – as to be reduced to a caricature in the public consciousness. Initially, it feels quite removed, but then you spot the shape his mouth curves into while enunciating words like “deal” and “loser”, a subtle pursing of the lips when he’s being spoken to, a hand gesture. As the movie progresses, the man with whom we’re all exhaustingly familiar comes closer and closer to the fore.

Suit and boots by Versace. Vest top by Schiesser. Hat by Gladys Tamez. Watch by Cartier. Daniel Jack Lyons

The challenge, in Stan’s eyes, was to tread the very fine line between interpretation and imitation. “It’s a balance between having the familiarity without it becoming sort of a schtick,” he says. “There is a small window of time where you are going through the impersonation phase, because you’ve got to get through that in order to come out the other end,” he says. “There is a mechanical, technical piece to it, and that comes from actually studying a person.” According to Stan’s mother, he spent much of his childhood relentlessly impersonating people he came in to contact with. “I’ve always been good at watching people,” he says.

I'm going to commit the fuck out of it and surrender myself to the story.

Once he got comfortable enough, he would take the show on the road – trying versions of the character out in restaurants to see if anyone would pick up on it. “Because there’s a thing getting born,” he says, “and you want to test it out in the world, but you don’t want to overdo it too quickly – then it gets frozen.” No one seemed to notice in the moment, which was at least some indication that he hadn’t tipped over into parody, but some friends who have seen the movie realised retrospectively: “They’ve come up to me after and said, ‘Now I see this fuckin’ weird thing you were doing!’”

When we meet Trump in The Apprentice, he is a footsoldier in his father’s company and significantly less self-assured, though he’s got the trademark wispy hair and the ill-fitting suits. The wheels begin to turn when he meets Cohn – portrayed here in typically committed fashion by Succession’s Jeremy Strong, with whom Stan only had the chance to interact in character on set – who begins to sculpt Trump in his own image, laying out his rules for success, which will be very familiar to anyone who has paid attention to Trump’s political career: 1) attack, attack, attack; 2) admit nothing and deny everything; and 3) always claim victory and never admit defeat.

Coat, trousers and shoes by McQueen. Vest top by Ami. Sunglasses by Jacques Marie Mages. Pin by Cartier. Daniel Jack Lyons

Stan seems reticent to get into the politics of The Apprentice, which depicts Trump as, among other things, a rapist, in a scene referencing allegations made in a deposition by his first wife Ivana during their divorce proceedings. (Trump has previously denied the rape allegation; Ivana later issued a statement clarifying that she had felt violated, but was not raped in a “literal or criminal sense”.) But the movie speaks for itself. And Trump’s camp is already speaking back: after the film premiered at Cannes in May, the presidential campaign’s chief spokesperson Steven Cheung called the movie “garbage”, “pure fiction” and “election interference by Hollywood elites”, while also threatening a lawsuit. In a press conference at the film festival, Abbasi suggested that an ideal release date would be in mid-September, to align with the second presidential debate (but the film, as it happens, is now due out on 11 October in the USA, and 18 October in the UK). It wouldn’t take Alan Turing to decipher the message being transmitted. But I try and press for a direct answer: does Stan feel an added sense of responsibility playing Trump in an election year? “You can’t not think about it,” he says. “But I had tremendous trust in Ali Abbasi and his vision for the movie. And it is an important story – I think the movie makes a great attempt at exploring: how did we get here? But I approached it with the same responsibility as I approached anything I ever got involved with, which is, I’m going to give this my all. I’m going to research the fuck out of it; I’m going to commit the fuck out of it and surrender myself to the story.”

Does he have any concerns about backlash from Trump or from MAGA supporters? “I mean, is there anything out there now that doesn’t get backlash? You can’t worry about what people think,” Stan says. “But I’m fully aware that I’m doing things that are not going to be for everybody.”

He’s not far off the mark. Even Marvel, the world’s highest-grossing movie franchise of all time, has faced quite a bit of criticism in recent years – in part for the way in which they’ve handled the transition to a new set of heroes and storylines since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Stan doesn’t have any time for it. “I’ve never been part of a company that puts so much heart and thought into anything,” he says. “I think if Marvel was gone, it’d be such a big hole to try and fill up. Don’t just go out there and shit on something without offering something better.”

Coat by Loewe. Boots by Dolce & Gabbana. Necklace by Cartier. Daniel Jack Lyons

He’s certainly not done with the MCU yet. Thunderbolts, which he’ll headline alongside Florence Pugh, will arrive in May next year. And he’s already looking beyond that, to a potential reunion with Robert Downey Jr, who has been announced to return in the next Avengers movie – not as Iron Man, but as the villain Doctor Doom. “I hope I’m in a scene with him,” Stan says. “Is there any other guy that could pull that off? I don’t know, probably not. After Tropic Thunder, is there anything that guy can’t do?” he says, laughing. It is perhaps the movie that I least expect Stan – or anyone, to be honest – to reference in 2024, but I should know better. Downey Jr is a transformation master, too. Game recognises game.

Trump doesn’t exist in the Marvel universe – or at least not yet – but if you spot a hint of him in Thunderbolts, you’ll know why. “I went off to Marvel after [The Apprentice],” Stan says. “And we were doing scenes, and I would do something, a thing or two, and be like, ‘Fuck! This is still living somewhere.’”

Styled by Sean Knight Hair by Erica Adams Grooming by Kc Fee using iS Clinical at Redefine Representation Set Design by Daniel Horowitz Production by May Kielany

[psalacanthea]

I would like to tell you all about Lachlan.

Father Lachlan Patrick Typasius Doyle, is a if not THE major antagonist of our longstanding Vampire the Requiem campaign, and the vessel wherein I pour all my hatred for Catholicism.  He is my nightmare made flesh.  He’s a tattooed ginger megalomaniac with a maniacal need for holy purpose and a charmingly devious streak a mile wild.  He’s a misogynistic, racist, homophobic, narcissistic liar who gets his giggles fucking over everyone in his path.  He’s the devil.

He’s my coterie’s chew toy.

The first time the players met him, he was an ally.  They’d been kidnapped by a local Lancea and forced to suffer through a gauntlet of their sins, fighting their way free until they faced down the vampire cultists themselves in the local Methodist church.  Lachlan and his cadre of Catholic Lancea showed up to handle the fight, bringing guns to a church fight and ending things quickly.

He quickly endeared himself to them, by being his charmingly blustering, lying self, pretending to be nothing more than a suffering weapon forced to fight the Church's battles.  So, when he inevitably betrayed them, it was great.  And ever since he did, they’ve made it their life’s goal to defang this poor, poor man.

When he finally managed to execute his really annoying daughter, they reversed time.

One of them charmed him, and now they have a violent, twisted love affair that is very distracting when he’s trying to take over America (and Canada to a lesser degree).

They stopped him from destroying Los Angeles at least once, and Portland, and New York.

The one time they torpored him they didn’t even let him stay dead long enough for it to ‘count’ and he got very angry about it.

He’d been wounded by a Dhampir and thus was an empty pit of hunger for lost adoration, a restless seeker of glory, but they fixed him with the power of love (gross) and now he gets a lot less done.

They made him lose his faith at least three separate times and that’s his coping mechanism.

They never appreciate his longwinded fire and brimstone speeches any more.

Bound him in a geas to his mother.

Made a version of him that is gay.

Stole his favorite henchman and gave him to WEREWOLVES (why?!).

Used him as an attack dog at least once.

Killed his ex best friend and longstanding arch-nemesis instead of letting him do it (unforgivable).

They’ve finally left him free to build a soulless vampire megachurch in the South, but even from afar they’re still screwing him over by uncovering his local spies and then sending him mixtapes to prove they know.

I cannot tell you how sad I will be on the day he inevitably has to die.

This is healing my inner child.

[cameronprincess]

The One Where They’re Quarantined Together

June 2020

Gabriella’s been living with Luke since Los Angeles issued a shelter in place order for the entire state so he suggested instead of her commuting from Orange County from her apartment to his house everyday, just move her stuff in.

101 Dalmatians was playing as background noise for Petunia and her new cocker spaniel she adopted through a friend of Crystal. She named her Rowan. The two dogs immediately getting along the minute she brought her home.

Gabriella got up from their bed and slipped her feet in her fuzzy slippers, her feet muffling any sound as she made her way down the kitchen and making a pineapple açaí bowl she's been craving for the past 2 hours. She heard four sets of paws running towards her as she hit her leg and gave her best puppy eyes.

"You want some pineapple girlies?" She baby talked them. Their tails wagging back and forth.

Gabriella threw three individual slices of the fruit on the floor as Petunia and Rowan ate it and Petunia waddled to the couch while Rowan played with her turtle chew toy.

She heard the noise of a guitar and faint singing coming from the basement. Figuring she hasn't seen Luke in a while, she made him a glass of iced water. Whenever he’s writing music time isn’t a thing to him.

She trotted downstairs trying to muffle the sound her steps as she reached the dimly lit room, The Mac book being the only source of light in the space.

She knew about his life on the road from such a young age. He was constantly on the go and this is the first time in 5 years he's had a chance to sit back and relax. Except that's the farthest thing he was doing. Standing in the doorway he doesn’t even acknowledge her presence, way too focused on the guitar sitting on his lap and the voice memo he’s recording.

Gabriella likes to sit in the room with him sometimes whenever he's been writing and to give him some ideas or just company. It makes her feel peaceful and relaxed listening to his voice. He’s so creative and that’s something she admired about him.

She walked up to him and placed her chin on his broad shoulder. "Hey."

He turned around and looked at her, already smiling at her. "Hi."

"I got you some water." She stated as she put the glass down.

He rubbed his eyes and silently thanked her with a kiss on the lips and gesturing for her to take a seat next him.

She took a seat on the couch in the corner of the room being careful to not trip on any stray wires to sit next to him. Laying her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her back, fingertips brushing against her exposed spine.

“You okay baby? That sounds a little too sad? Even for you.” She asked concerned.

He smiles somberly and almost looked amused. “It’s not meant to sound that sad to be completely honest with you. It’s more of a look into how seventeen year old me felt as a teenager at the time y’know thick into the music industry. I have most of the lyrics but now I needed a guitar riff for it.” He explained.

“Can I hear the full song or whatever you have?” Bianca asked softly looking at him with pleading eyes.

“Course you can baby.” He smiled at her, picking up the blue guitar.

"All this running in motion time slips by till you’re lost in your mind,” He starts until he gets to the end of what he has. Looking up from his guitar he sees faint tears in his girlfriend’s eyes, making him concerned.

“What’s wrong?? Do you not like it.” He quickly asked.

"It's so beautifully sad Lu." She laughed through a sob.

"So these are happy tears right??" He questioned unsurely.

She nodded and threw her head back in laughter.

"But 3 days from now is CALM release day! Aren’t you so excited! " She shook his shoulders excitedly.

“I’m gonna be severely underwhelmed.” He joked making Gabriella slap his chest.

“You little shit.”

——————

Gabriella took the album release very seriously around the house as she bought a cake from Publix and noise makers in the color scheme of the album. She also delivered the noise makers to the other boys front porch’s and a little care package for them since they definitely all won’t be able to hang out as a group for a while.

She decided to be a good girlfriend and make celebratory waffles for all of the bands hard work that finally paid off. On her mind was also a celebratory blowjob for Luke, but he didn't need to know all her plans

Luke smelled waffles and groaned slightly as he pushed Petunia off his leg as she looked at him with a face that read 'I wanna murder you'

He slid on a t shirt and walked downstairs to see Gabriella listening to 'Vapor' as she cleaned the kitchen up in nothing but an oversized sweatshirt and some purple lace panties.

"I want to breathe you in like a vapor I want to be the one you remember." She sung to Rowan in her arms.

"Really? You couldn't have picked something from Youngblood to sing to her. At least thats two years instead of 5.” He laughed at her swaying the puppy who yipped at Luke to get his attention.

"Sounds Good Feels Good was the reason I became a fan so this album is special to me. Plus I went to Sounds Live Feels Live in LA with my best friend and that’s when I fell in love with you so don’t even." She defended.

“Whatever makes you happy.”

“Your voice is a blessing her puppy ears to the pop punk goodness that is Sounds Good Feels Good. I don’t think you should be treating me like this whenever I woke up extra early and made you waffles.” She pushed the plate towards him and a cup of coffee.

———

The band took shifts over their instagram live later that evening. First it was Ash by himself on an iPad, might add. Then Micheal and Calum, yet Micheal’s phone died before he could talk about Best Years. Now it was Luke’s turn.

Gabriella sat curled in a fluffy blanket on their shared bed rewatching Vampire Diaries while Luke attempted to join Calum on his livestream. He finally got it to work after 2 minutes of Calum struggling.

“How old are you Cal? 90?” Gabriella joked as soon as Luke joined Calum, the two yelling in excitement of seeing each other.

“Did Ella just call me old?” Calum’s laughter rang through the phone.

“Sure did dude.”

Luke shook his head slightly, reading the comments of people calling his girlfriend funny and asking where she is.

“Lemme give the children what they want.” He sighed in fake annoyance turning the phone to Gabriella who waved her hand with a smile. “Hi you guys!”

“What are you drinking, wait lemme guess.” Calum asked as he saw Luke’s tequila cup when he turned the phone back around.

“Ahhh tewqulia.”

“We ran outta beer so second best option here.”

“Bit of naughty water.” Luke said in a weird english accent that made Gabriella chuckle slightly.

At some point during their segment they started talking about cake flavors instead of the album tracks.

“How do you not like red velvet cake??” Calum asked in pure confusion.

“Well, it’s not the fact I don’t like it. I mean- you don’t go to a birthday party and they sing happy birthday and then they cut the cake, you’re like ‘eh red velvet cant wait to eat this one.’

Sometime during that conversation Gabriella ended up falling asleep. Luke gathered Petunia and Rowan so they could go potty before they slept anywhere near their room or in Rowan’s case on the bed since she always finds some way to sleep on Gabriella.

“Ella.” He whispered shaking her shoulder slightly. “How did you fall asleep that fast?”

“The sound of your annoying voice lulled me to sleep.” She laughed slightly.

The two laid together later cuddled up watching some random rom com but it was mostly background noise as they were heavily making out. Gabriella pulled on his lap as he took in her appearance. Black ribbed tank top and some blue silk shorts she got in some sale at La Perla a couple years ago.

Luke pulled back slightly and leaned his forehead on hers. “I think I heard something about a blowjob earlier this morning. I think I deserve one now that the album’s officially out.”

“Hm maybe you do for all your late nights and hard work.”

She quietly tied her hair up before moving down and kissing his waistband of his shorts, inflecting a groan from him. She pulled his dick from his basketball shorts as her eyes widened in excitement. Nothing compared when she got to suck him off.

“Shit.” He cursed when he felt her tongue kitten lick his tip.

She spit in her hand and slowly jerked him off. She slipped him as far as she could go and jerked the rest she couldn’t in her freshly manicured hands.

“Your mouth is so good.” He groaned as she made a choking noise.

She knew he was close by the way he was basically whining for her mouth as she widened her green eyes more making her look innocent as ever as spit covered her chin.

“Fuck, open your mouth.” He quickly said.

She obeyed as she stuck out her tongue waiting for his release, she felt it coat her mouth and some on her chest. Gabriella stuck out her tounge proudly displaying nothing.

“Good girl.”

He pulled his shorts back up his legs and grabbed a tissue, cleaning his release up off her chest.

Her hair clung to her sweaty neck due to the heat of the room as she had a dazed out look in her eyes.

“You okay??” Luke questioned noticing her dazed and confused look.

She nodded and climbed on top of him and laid her head on his chest.

“Happy album release,” She smirked grabbing a yellow noise maker from the bedside table and blowing it into his ear making him flinch.

“Jesus Christ.”

[no-quit-lucy]

Lucy and Tim are hanging out as friends and end up in a heated make out but Lucy stops him because she doesn't want to lose his friendship

read on ao3

The Toronto Raptors were playing The Los Angeles Lakers and Tim had invited Lucy over to watch the game with him and Kojo after giving his season tickets to Nell. She often asked for his tickets since they were friends like how Lucy and Tim were now friends. It was a new development since she wasn't his rookie anymore.

It was a step Tim felt slightly uncomfortable making, but willing to nonetheless because Lucy was too precious to keep at arm's length. He enjoyed her company too much to shut her out completely, unresigned to only interact with her rarely on the clock.

When she mentioned her interest in the basketball game, Tim didn't hesitate to offer up his giant TV, case of beers, and dog for company to watch together as an offering of friendship.

And to his surprise, she didn't hesitate to accept his offer.

Arriving well before the start of the game, Lucy brought along her own case of beers, touting a local brewery that donated a portion of its profits to various community support groups in LA. The label had a picture of a dog that looked eerily similar to Kojo and Tim teased that was the real reason she bought the beer.

“You’re rooting Raptors? You wound me,” Tim feigned, slapping his hand over his chest when he opened the door.

“If…Kojo destroys this by halftime, pizza’s on me, how's that?” Lucy pushed her way inside, showing off the Raptors chew toy she got for their dog.

Tim pursed his lips, contemplating her offer. “Deal, but no olives, ” he stipulated, knowing he might have to suffer through a veggie pizza or bribe her to get a meat lovers too.

“Deal,” She reached her hand out to shake on it.

“You have to try one,” Lucy pushed a bottle his way, they were past the first quarter of the game already and Lucy was working on her second beer.

There was a couch cushion and a dog between them. Well, the dog was on the couch cushion and he was technically resting on them both; head on Lucy’s lap and tail flopping on Tim’s thigh. But the distance between them kept getting shorter as with each passing basket, they scooted closer in anticipation of the game.

“Let me try yours, I don't want a whole one,” Tim reached for the open one in her other hand, trying to grab it from her.

“Fine,” Lucy rolled her eyes and handed it over, “but my offer still stands if you like it and want a whole one of your own.”

“Or I'll just keep drinking yours,” Tim tipped the bottle toward her before taking a swig. His face twisted in a mix of reactions as he spun the bottle to read the label.

“You like it,” Lucy boasted, taking the bottle back but not putting it out of his reach in case he wanted more.

“So it's not a bad beer, big deal.” Tim shrugged his shoulder, pulling his foot higher over his knee.

Throughout the next quarter, they shared both of their beers, each switching off taking sips of the others and cracking open new ones.

“I’m surprised you aren't having a fit about swapping spit,” Lucy commented after Tim finished off the last of her beer. The dregs were mostly their combined washback. It felt more intimate than a lot of things they'd previously shared.

“I don't have a problem with swapping spit with friends,” Tim shrugged nonchalantly.

“Good to know,” Lucy pulled out her phone and called in the order for the pizza, screw her lactose intolerance, she had pills in her bag that would get her through the day.

By the third quarter, they'd finished more than half the pizza and a case of beers. It was more than either one realized, having shared each other’s bottles for most of the game. The Lakers were winning, so Tim was being obnoxious and boastful, jumping off the couch and crowing her space every time his team controlled the ball.

“Angela and I drunkenly kissed a few years ago, Isabel was there and instigated the whole thing.” Tim wasn't sure how they got on the topic, but something about that chapstick commercial had prompted him to mention how much he enjoyed a nice set of lips.

“If there's one thing the people we work with have— it's lips,” Lucy said in agreement. “Angela, Jackson, Nyla, Sergeant Grey, even Nolan’s aren't bad.”

“Yeah? What about me?” Tim said boldly, leaning further into her space, Kojo no longer between them and resigned to lying on his dog bed in the corner of the room.

“I haven’t given it much thought,” Lucy lied.

“I have,” Tim said, finishing off yet another one of her beers and noting the Lakers were so far ahead in score there was a fat chance the Raptors would be able to catch up.

Lucy gave Tim a curious and deadpanned look.

“What?” Tim responded, “You drink a ton of water and you use the good chapstick. I can’t help it if a thought pops up now and again that your lips might be soft. You said it best– the people we work with have nice lips. You’re the people I work with too.”

“Wanna test that theory?” Lucy asked, shifting her body on the couch to face him.

“Are you offering to kiss me?” Tim clarified.

“I think you were asking to kiss me,” Lucy turned it around on him, making him take responsibility for his half-drunken admissions.

She knew he was comfortable swapping saliva with friends, she knew he had kissed his co-workers before. Just because they were alone and drinking, doesn’t mean things would automatically get out of hand. They could kiss. To see how nice each other’s lips were.

“Lucy,” Tim cleared his throat and deepened his voice, “as a friend, may I kiss you?” He asked.

“Tim,” Lucy responded with equal theatrics, “as a friend, you may kiss me,” she put her beer down on the table and tried to remind herself it was just a kiss. Just a single kiss between two friends.

But that was before he leaned in and she was hit with his scent. That was before he gripped tight on her ponytail and pulled. That was before he deepened the kiss and swiped his tongue against her lip.

Her lip that was plump and pliant, willing and giving. Tim worried her bottom lip between his lips, pulling on it and sucking on it. He paid the same attention to her top lip, assessing the differences and enjoying how while he paid mind to her upper lip, she took her turn sucking and biting on his bottom lip. They pressed together, moving in tandem in an unspoken exploration of each other’s mouths.

His lips pulled off of hers for a split second then he dove right back in for more. Her lips were fucking softer than soft, her mouth slanted at the perfect angle, he barely noticed how his nose pressed into her rosy cheek and his teeth bumped against hers. He kissed her harder, sucking hard on her lip and pulling her closer to press his body against her. Her mouth was wet, and hot, and somehow the mixture of pizza and beer was turning him on more as he moaned into her mouth and knocked foreheads against her.

Lucy was panting when she finally engaged her brain and pushed back on his shoulders. He chased her anyway, only stopping and gathering his own bearings when he realized her leaning back was not an invitation for him to lean forward.

“Okay, okay,” Lucy said, still catching her breath, laughing a bit, and savoring his taste still lingering on her tongue. “I bet you never kissed a friend like that,” she joked, watching Tim wipe his mouth, adjust his pants, and blink away the fog that had clearly clouded his mind.

“Uh, yeah, no. Definitely not,” Tim confirmed, shifting his eyes around the room to land on her, the TV, the dog, back to her, the door, the TV again, before settling on a speck of lint that was suddenly bothering him on his shirt.

“I just–” Lucy started, “We’re friends, Tim. We can’t be anything more than friends. I need you to just be my friend.” She hated how saying the word over and over again made it feel dirty, or how it had somehow lost its meaning. Being friends was important, and confusing him on what that meant was not conducive to a healthy friendship. She needed him to get that even though that was quite possibly the hottest kiss of her life, he was still just a friend.

“No, no, I know. We’re friends. I got a little carried away. You’ve got nice lips.” Tim sipped his beer, and when he pulled the bottle from his mouth, it foamed over and dripped beer all down his chin and chest.

It successfully broke the uncomfortable pause as they both broke out in laughter.

“You’ve got nice lips too,” Lucy said, clinking her beer bottle against his as the Raptors caught up and were one free throw away from winning the game.

[unseriousmamba]

Ranking Universal Studios Hollywood Rides!!

I just got back from a trip to Los Angeles, and had the chance to revisit this park as well as Six Flags Magic Mountain and Disneyland. Here are my impressions of the rides at Universal Studios Hollywood. At the end I will give my overall review for the park as a whole.

Attractions I did not ride:

Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (uninterested, rode in Orlando many times before)

Fast & the Furious Roller coaster (looks cool but was still under construction)

Jurassic World - The Ride (closed for refurbishment 😢 )

8. Kung Fu Panda Adventure

This was ok. The DreamWorks theatre is essentially just a sit down short 4D experience that plays with interesting visual effects. The animation was fun but all over the place and it was hard to for me to focus on any one thing to look at. I also don't care that much for Kung Fu Panda, so I wasn't invested in the characters or story either. It was nice to sit down for awhile, but I wouldn't wait for this attraction ever.

7. The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash

Secret Life is a very cute ride that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The riders are seen by the characters as dogs who are going to be adopted by a family. It's not particularly entertaining, and is clearly made for small children.

6. Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge

This ride could be great. It could be really fun, but it is so overwhelming, and that left me disappointed. Being one of the new attractions here, it had the longest wait time (we picked a slow day and waited an hour). I think it would benefit from being easily re-rideable to learn how the game works. You know... like a video game! But here's what I gathered in my short ride: You shoot shells at the enemy koopa karts (Roy, Wendy, Lemmy? etc.) and don't shoot your friends on Team Mario (Mario, Peach, Luigi, Yoshi, etc.) which means you have to have pay close attention to the video screens on the way in or have the foreknowledge of who these characters are in order to know what you are doing. The instructions are also just visual, with hardly any words and even less auditory verbal instruction. It's way too complicated for oversimplified instructions, but I suppose that won't matter so much if you aren't playing to get a high score. But it's clearly a game. If I had to compare it to another ride, I'd say it's most like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin or the Toy Story Midway Mania shoot out ride, just with more modern, dysfunctional gimmicks. On the positive side, the queue was really fun, and I got my picture taken in front of the Bowser statue in his castle entrance. Besides the Simpson's Ride, this attraction had the best theming by far!

5. Studio Tour

This was the arguably the best, most unique feature of the park. You get on a tram and it takes you on a tour of the studio lot. It's interesting to see where tv shows are currently being filmed. The elements from Fast and Furious Supercharged and King Kong 360 3D (Skull Island) were also present on their rides at the Orlando park, but at least here they aren't mid standalone attractions. Seeing the sets of previous Universal sets was very cool! I especially liked seeing the Psycho house and the weather simulations. Our tour guide was excellent and full of energy. Low point would have to be the F&F Supercharged section, because the 'plot' doesn't make any sense at all. The King Kong part was very fun though!

4. Transformers: the Ride 3D

This is an exact replica of the same ride at Universal Studios Orlando. And you know what, it's still great! I'm not the biggest fan of live action Transformers, but the effects and simulated experience are just as fun as my favorite Islands of Adventure ride; Spider-Man.

It's just a shame that so many of the best rides here are also available in Orlando, and even worse, these duplicates are the best this park has to offer.

3. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

This is exactly the same as the Orlando attraction. Even the layout of Hogsmeade is the same, which, while it makes sense, was kind of freaky. I could easily imagine the doors opening to Hagrid's Motorbike adventure on my way in. Unfortunately, we aren't in Orlando and there is nothing new to see here. Overall, this ride is great fun! It's a simulation ride on a track, but has more practical effects (animatronics) than Transformers. The stand out feature of this ride, like the Mario Kart ride, is the queue! It's always a delight to go on a small tour through Hogwarts castle, provided you don't have to listen to Dumbledore cycle through the same presentation over and over again on a particularly busy day.

2. The Simpsons Ride

I think this is my second favorite simulated ride ever (behind Spider-Man). The theming is the best I have seen for just about any ride ever. Watching the Simpsons while you wait in line is literally the best queue line a person could ask for! It's very entertaining and even pays homage to the Back to the Future ride that it replaced. There aren't really any practical effects to speak of, aside from some water spray and the baby powder smell 😅. 10/10 always a good time.

1. Revenge of the Mummy

It's not really a contest here, lol. At the moment, the only other roller coaster is Flight of the Hippogriff while the Fast and Furious ride is still under construction. The theme is fantastic and just about as exciting as the Orlando version. Yeah, another duplicate ride. Unfortunately, I like the elements of the Orlando version better. Brendan Fraser is nowhere to be seen here. The queue is simplified and there is no 'fake ending'. The roller coaster elements were still very fun. My husband described it as the diet coke version. Nevertheless, still a fantastic ride! We rode it three times. 🥰

Conclusion:

Overall, I'd say this park is probably the least worthwhile visit of any of the three parks I have been to in California. It has the fewest attractions by far, and ALL of the best attractions are available to ride in Orlando, Florida too. If you have been to Universal Studios Orlando before and you are looking for new experiences, I would not recommend this park when there are so many other wonderful places you could visit instead.

Compared to other parks I have visited, however, this is a very clean and immersive park. The bathrooms are nice, There's great dining options available on the City Walk (I personally went to both the NBC Sports Grill & Brew, as well as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., but I'm not a foodie so I'm not going to rate that.). The sheer amount of wonderful Universal merchandise is probably the best and most dangerous part of going to this park; there are so many cute and wonderful things to shop for both in the park and on City Walk. It's a very fun shopping experience!

[starsweepers]

                LITTLE ARMS CLUTCHED THE STUFFED ANIMAL.

          wet cheeks, shaking limbs. but her face was buried into the soft, welcoming sensation of the item. her sobs drowned into the white fur that slowly dampened. the day lingered on her mind, a stretching void of dark shapes that grabbed and shouted, their voices like screams grating against her mind. overwhelmed. she had been overwhelmed.

      brown depths had widened, CHOKED breaths, jerky movements. she couldn't get away she couldn't run. only her walker, and that wasn't enough to help her get going. four years old was not an age for fleeing. running was reserved for play and joy and games... and even those were out of h e r reach. because legs didn't move right, body didn't move right. dawn knew this already, understood she was never going to have those opportunities and experiences. she was okay with that, she was okay with herself, but that didn't mean everything was fine.

              how her father had had to grab her up. hold her close, trying to give her only one sound; the beating of his heart in his chest. pressing her against the soft folds of his shirt, other hand about her head, attempting to dim to cacophony, attempting to protect her from the fervent crowd that demanded his attention. his fame, his status. they didn't pay mind to the child, to the little girl, to the wailing that she relented as panic gripped her. stiffened, frozen, there was n o t h i n g she could do but be consumed in the chaos. until her father had swept her away, he freed her from it all, and then just held her in a silence far away. rocked her. waited for her to come back from everything. grounded her. her hero.

      but little dawn. oh. bravery was what she tried now. struggle. because she was already a lot of work, right? she was already ( unable... disabled... the people said that a lot around her. she couldn't she couldn't she couldn't ). don't be another burden on her family, her parents, she couldn't she couldn't she couldn't. be tough like her sister, like her mother. like her father; pushing away the crowds, she could push away the fear, the hauntings, the shadows. MEMORIES. played on repeat. too much.

                but her little heard was known too well. night light spun stars on her ceiling, a little tinkering song lulled an attempt for her to sleep, but she squirmed and squirmed and clutched that little toy. until the door cracked and there he was, gentle for a giant. her father swept her back into his arms, those arms, and he lay with her on the bed. her and the stuffed dog - frufru. he kept them both near, he hummed, he rubbed her back, large hand barely having to shift. she hiccuped.

       breath slowed, heart stopped its dance. little girl curled, half clutching him, half chewing her fingers. hiccup. a little sob, releasing the weight still lingering on her chest. but it was okay, it was okay, and her father assured her. over and over and over.

            there was no need for bravery, there was no need for fear. not there, at least. all she needed, all she held... was love. and dawn CLUNG to it. to him. the monsters of her fear, of being overwhelmed, of being incapable... they were small in comparison to him, to the love that bound. for the first time all day, though the moon hung high as one of the only visible lights in a los angeles sky... she felt the sun.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Source: TIME

'Dog-first' airline Bark Air takes off for maiden flight across the US

25 May 2024

BARK Air took off for its maiden dogs-fly-first flight from New York to Los Angeles.

The new airline transports dogs and their people in luxury, including a sunlit waiting lounge filled with treats and toys, speedy check-ins, and an on-board spa for pups.

The aircraft can accommodate up to 14 people, but BARK Air doesn't sell more than ten tickets to make room for ten dogs.

[jiyascepter]

For the asks... :)

💚 - What’s your favourite colour?

🥀 - Favourite animated movie?

🐷 - What’s your favourite animal?

🛩 - If travelling was free, where’s the first place you’d go?

thank you so much for asking!! I greatly appreciate it ♡

💚 - i think its purple and all shades of blue

🥀- probably toy story 3 and finding nemo are my go to animation movies. wby??

🐷- i love all of them so its really hard to pick one, i love kittens, hamsters, bunnies and dogs as pets..and from wild animals probably wolves, panthers, red pandas and foxes *i love fluffies* What are yours?

🛩- hm..probably los angeles or somewhere which has a lots and lots of summery vibes, beaches, etc!

[allaboutyourpets]

dog toys in Los Angeles | megasellshop.com

dog toys in Los Angeles from Megasellshop. See more here https://megasellshop.com/dog-toys/

[neuroticphysiologist]

what we know about paw patrol the mighty movie

(will always update, so if you want to reblog, it's best to do it after september 29)

hi everyone, finally, i made an ICYMI article for this film! i also made a playlist of all the trailers, promos, featurettes, etc., it's all right here.

and as always, no major spoilers.

- it was announced in october 2021 that there would be a second film

- the premiere date in the us moved from october 13 to september 29. it's also the premiere date for canada

- the movie will focus on skye

- first cast member anounced - taraji p. henson

- kim k revealed that she'll return as delores

- january 27: voice cast announced!

we have eight ryders! finn lee-epp will be ryder in the film

i predicted that justin paul kelly will be voicing chase in the film TWICE, but it never happened. i was wishing for him to shine as chase. well anyway, i'm sure christian convery will do great

christian corrao did well in all paws on deck, so yeah, confirmed that he's marshall

crying because it's not lilly bartlam as skye. clues are showing that it's mckenna grace. at first i was worried because i've heard her normal voice before. but because of spirit untamed, i'm sure she'll do great

callum shoniker returns as rocky

i knew luxton handspiker will be voicing rubble. he did well in rubble and crew

nylan parthipan as zuma? interesting...

- liberty with superpowers 😮 some sources say she has the power of elasticity, kinda like elastigirl from the incredibles. but we'll see

- chris rock is voicing one of mayor humdinger's cats

- for the other celebrity cast, we have kristen bell and james marsden as janet and hank who work in a junk yard, and serena williams as yoga yvette

- according to an article from the toy book magazine, the movie will explore chase and skye's "unique relationship". i'm a bit curious about this one... probably about their friendship? shippers, please don't

- the work-in-progress trailer was shown at cinemacon last april

- a giant mayor humdinger but better

- official promotions started with an ad on an airplane. let's take to the sky!

- their new hq is called aircraft carrier since the adventure city hq got destroyed by the meteor (source: trailer)

- the trailer was released june 12

- they have the junior patrollers: tot, nano, and mini, three little pomeranians that become part of the paw patrol, and they were trained by liberty

- the movie is rated pg due to mild action and peril. i have no problem with it. superhero films today are rated pg. it's surprising for some fans tho

- the main six pups have the same powers from the tv movie and subseries, but there are a few upgrades: marshall can create fireballs, rocky can be a magnet, zuma can turn into a puddle of water, and skye has super strength

- the detail on pups' power paws OMG? kinda looks like they leave some.fairy dust or smth

- we have 3 new songs for the movie!

down like that by bryson tiller was released september 8

bark to the beat by mckenna grace ft. blackbear was released september 15

learning to fly by christina aguilera was released september 22. the lyric video had some spoilers from the movie, the director warned us about this one.

- yes, we have a song for the movie by mckenna grace. will skye sing in the movie tho

- unboxing movie merch! so far, only nylan (zuma) posted about this one.

- last september 23, team canada cast went on an advance private screening of the movie

- last september 24, paramount pictures had set a guinness world record of "most dogs attending a film screening" in los angeles. 219 dogs came to watch the film

- so far, only finn lee-epp (ryder) had several interviews about the movie. the team us cast appeared only on featurettes and interviews that were recorded a few months ago

- the official soundtrack with original score by pinar toprak was released on september 29

- there will be a third theatrical film set to release in 2026!

- the movie is on digital on october 31!

- the dvd for the mighty movie will release in the us on december 12.

more to come!

[hauntnowpod]

Hey ghouls,

It's Monday again, which means it's time for our 4th and final cast announcement for season three.

May we present... 

The inimitable Marnie Warner, who is back as Eulalie's sister, Parker. What would this haunting even be without the sibling drama?!! Marnie Warner is a Chicago based theater and voice actor. You can hear her in podcasts across all genres, including Hit the Bricks, H.G. Wells Has His Regrets, Morland P.I, Where the Stars Fell, and Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemanson. When not doing theater-type things, she’s probably reading, going out for breakfast, or looking at cats on the internet. For more information, visit her website at marniewarner.carrd.co/

Mihai Matei joins us this season as Cemetery Ghost and Poltergeist 4. Mihai is a London based VA whose hobbies include DnD, games and cycling. Find Mihai on Twitter @MihaiMateiVA

Natalie Hunter, returns as one of the voices of The Apartment! Natalie Hunter is a voice actor, singer, and screenwriter, and works as a research administrator by day. She is passionate about storytelling, the ocean, her cat Luna, and coffee. Find Natalie online at nataliehunter.carrd.co

Nick Mercer joins the haunting as FF House Ghost 1 and FF House. Nick Mercer is a voice actor and audiobook narrator with an incredibly versatile narration style, ranging from “friendly, positive guy next door” and “intelligent, articulate professional.” His background prior to voiceover includes Theatrical Performance, Music Production, Sales, and Education. Nick lives in North DFW with his beautiful – and genius – wife Corrie , their daughter Zoey, and their two dogs, Maisie and Loki. When he’s not firefighting or performing voiceovers, Nick loves watching anime, playing D&D, and platinuming FromSoft titles.  Find Nick online at NickMercerVO.com

Paul H. Rollins is back as Nick, the gruff brute-squad member of You Haint Seen Nothin' Yet. Paul is a musician, aerosol artist, and cat caretaker with a M.S. in Microbiology.

Ray O'Hare joins us this season as Bill, McMansion, and Longfellow's ghost. (Oooh, there's that morbid Victorian poetry, huh?) Ray has over 20 years of professional stage experience, and as a voice actor has appeared in video games, animation and audio drama. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and daughter, and past jobs include toy demonstrator for FAO Schwarz, historical reenactor, and graveyard tour guide.

Roanna Cruz joins us this season as Poltergeist 5! Roanna is a bilingual Filipino American voice actor based in Los Angeles. Whether it's a commercial, animation, game, or audio drama, she just loves collaborating on productions and having fun in the recording booth! To learn more about her, visit RCruzVO.com.

Sian Luxford joins us this season as Professor 1! Sian Luxford is an actor based in Sydney, Australia. After working in screen acting for over two decades, Sian decided to take the leap into voice acting in 2023, and quickly fell in love with it. Sian is thrilled to be joining the amazing cast of The Way We Haunt Now. Find Sian online at sianluxford.com

Sneha Kumar joins us as E. Drawing Ghost 3 and the Airport Gate Attendant. Sneha Kumar is a voice actor who has been in the field since 2018. She mostly focuses on character work, but is always interested in diving into other areas of voiceover work. Along with being a voice actor, she is also a singer, self-taught dancer, a cosplayer, and currently attends Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for sound design. She is very excited to be a part of the cast and deliver a wonderful performance! Find Sneha online at https://skumarvoice30.wixsite.com/sneha-kumar

We're so delighted Tal Minear is returning as Myrtle, who's GOING to make the rest of You Haint Seen Nothin' Yet think about the consequences of their actions, dammit! Tal is a SoCal based voice actor, sound designer, and fiction podcast producer. They're the creator of Re: Dracula, Sidequesting, What Will Be Here?, and several other productions that can be found hiding under rugs and around corners. Tal can be heard in audio fiction shows such as Tales of the Echowood, Mayfair Watcher's Society, Deconstructive Criticism, and more. Find them online at talminear.com

Tarek Esaw joins the haunting this season as Poltergeist 3! Tarek Esaw is an Arkansas-based voice actor with a background in theatre. When they are not drowning in schoolwork or struggling at their 9-5, you can catch them at a D&D session or binging horror movies. Their voice can now be heard in the audiodramas Among the Stars and Bones as Hudson Desha, Tales From the Fringes of Reality as Sparrow, and the upcoming animated pilot Myths in Manhattan as both Julius and Pour. Find them on Twitter: @TarekEsawVO

Tim Lowe is back as our weird and wonderful radio host, Jon Harker, who, hmmm.... no.... spoilers. You'll just have to listen to find out. Tim is a podcaster and voice actor who has appeared in numerous shows. He regularly hosts Minds at Yeerk and has made several guest appearances on shows such as Judging Book Covers and Panelology. He has appeared in a variety of shows such as The Lafresian Chronicles, Tunnels, and Haunted Hell House of Horrors. He can be found on Twitter @Remobware which he will be more than happy to explain if you tweet at him.

Trenton Butt joins us this season as E. Drawing Ghost 1. Trenton Butt is a twenty-one year old voice actor, finishing their final year of college while also pursuing voiceover at the same time. They have been featured in various award-winning video games, indie animations, and trending podcasts, as well as being a published author. When not in the booth, they can be found either bothering their dog Letty, or playing video games. Find Trenton online at trentonbuttvoices.com

And that's it, folks. That's our slate of ghosts, ghouls, haunted humans, and show-within-a-show characters for season three.

I'm pretty sure this cast is the best one there is to be found in the void, and I can't wait to show you what we've created... sometime this month. 

Yours ghoulishly,

Courtney

[ear-worthy]

Josie's Lonely Hearts Club: A Semi-improvised Audio Drama You'll Love

Have you ever seen a Russian nesting doll? Remove one and there is another underneath. That's how the new audio-drama podcast Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club unfolds for listeners. It's a captivating drama with layers upon layers -- all of which will fascinate and enthrall. Here's the premise. Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is a semi-improvised audio drama set in the studio of New Mexico’s third-best romantic advice call-in show. On-air, listeners eavesdrop as Josie (Rachel Music of How Do They Bone?) squares off against top improvisers and her engineer Frank (Maximilian Clark of Superhuman Public Radio). In reality, Josie, the romance advice DJ, is melancholy Joanne Holtzinger. Each episode has off-air vignettes that chart Joanne's journey to nationally syndicated sensation Josie Heller, and then back again when the mics are off.

I listened to the first episode and was fascinated and wildly entertained. The episode begins with Josie discussing first impressions on dates with her listeners, and then encouraging callers to discuss that topic. Josie's voice is faintly Southern - Western and has a breathless quality to it.

For those who know radio, Josie's voice and demeanor reminds me of Delilah, who is a well-known American radio personality. Her show -- on the air since 1996 -- perfected the format for call-in romantic advice radio shows and has an estimated eight million listeners.

Then the call-ins to the radio station begin. These calls are improvised by professionals, and Josie (Rachel Music) has to respond. The callers include a bouncer for the nu metal band Korn, who doesn't know how to talk to women and a man who recounts a tender slow dance with a woman, who abruptly walks out, leaving a shoe behind a la Cinderella. 

Then, on a commercial break, we meet "Joanne," who is the real person behind Josie. We discover that unlike Josie, who dispenses advice on life and romance, Joanne needs support and guidance about her seemingly despairing life.

The calls are fascinating, funny, odd, weird, yet strangely touching.  "What results is an often hilarious and surprisingly human show exploring the risks we idiots take every time we fall in or out of love."

The character Josie Heller was born in 2021 while Rachel Music drove from New York to LA with all of her possessions, her boyfriend, and her dog -- hopefully no in that order. 

"The week-long road trip was full of colorful characters and long stints of AM radio on old Route 66. The germ of a great idea took root...and like most great ideas, the first iteration was crap, and it sat on her desktop." Around this time, Rachel Music was picked to help write and voice season two of Superhuman Public Radio by its showrunner, Maximilian Clark, and the two clicked like Lois and Clark or Cagney And Lacey. A few months later, when Rachel co-founded Good Story Guild, a puzzle emerged: a show as nimble to produce as an unscripted podcast, but with arcs that deepen an audience’s connection to a flawed, vulnerable character. Together, puzzlers Maximilian and Rachel developed an ingenious hybrid– half-improv Olympics, half writers room. An ongoing experiment in creativity, Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is designed to surprise:a living, breathing show with a narrative spine. Rachel Music (co-creator, Josie) is a full-time artist and road-tested in New York's cabaret and cirque scene. She hosted and produced burlesque and circus revues as airborne, opera-singing Mistress of Ceremonies Kittyhawk Boone before stepping into a production role. Her work spans theater, music and new media, including GUNS, A CABARET, the award-winning short WENDY/GIGI, and the TikTok series EAVESDROPPERS. Now in Los Angeles, Rachel is the co-founder of the Good Story Guild and executive director of the company's audio drama and podcast slate. According to Rachel, she has lent her voice to children’s toys, rodeo commercials, and a lot of alien-on-human erotica. Maximilian Clark (co-creator/showrunner, Frank) has written and/or directed festival winning films, web series, and audio dramas that provide insightful commentary on the human experience interspersed with slapstick and fart jokes. He’s largely responsible for the Starz digital series Llama Cop, and the audio drama Superhuman Public Radio on the Fable & Folly network. He’s been invited to the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal three times, and has been temporarily banned from the Podcast Movement festival in Denver for six months. When he’s not being a creative menace in the world of fiction, he spends his time going undercover at Qanon rallies, producing content with Walter Masterson that exposes far right extremism through comedy and trolling. You can hear about their experiences on their politics podcast We Are Not Journalis.

Good Story Guild apparently birthed Jose's Lonely Hearts Club and when I googled the company this is what came up: "It is a time of crisis in the realm of storytelling: the barriers to entry are getting smaller, new technology continues to disrupt business models and power has consolidated into the hands of a few empires. Storytelling needs a new wave of heroes to usher in the next era. Instead, they got us - a guild of industry veterans, rogues and outsiders alike, brought together through a little serendipity and a passion for great story hooks. GSG is on a journey to bring back a little risk and danger to our beloved art form. Will you join us?"

I really have no idea what all that meant, but their manifesto is weird, intriguing, and I think we need a new true-crime podcast to investigate these people.  

That said, this show is a rule breaker, a genre mash up of epic proportions, a half-scripted, half-improv Jekyll Hyde creation, and 30 minutes of all-out fun, genius, humanity exposed, and as outrageous as detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out and Glass Onion.

Check out Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club. Even if you don't love it (which you will), you can get some romantic advice or insights on alien on human erotica.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

The Search of Santa Paws (2010, Robert Vince)

04/01/2024

The Search of Santa Paws is a 2010 film, directed by director Robert Vince. It is part of the series of films that began with Air Bud in 1997, and is a prequel to the ninth chapter Santa Buddies. The film marked the debut of Kaitlyn Maher.

At the North Pole, while celebrating his birthday, Santa Claus receives a letter and a gift from New York City, informing him of the passing of old friend and toy store owner Mr. Hucklebuckle, who was Santa's helper, ambassador for "The Santa Cause", an organization delegates who embrace and encourage the Christmas spirit around the world. To cheer up Santa Claus, his elf leader Eli uses the power of the great Christmas icicle to bring the gift, a stuffed dog, to life.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hucklebuckle's nephew, James, a CPA from Los Angeles, and his wife Kate arrive at his toy store and are informed by their case worker, Mr. Stewart, that they must operate the store profitably for a period Christmas to acquire ownership.