#even if some of the actors didn't physically look like the guys they played. their inherent personalities matched.

[pastlivesandpurplepuppets]

~ Bill Guarnere

[vanillcfairy]

Lovesick

pairing: tom glynn carney x reader

summary: after a couple of interactions in carpet interviews the chemistry between you too was painfully obvious as for the public eye as for yourselves and your teams saw it as an opportunity to get something out of it. but what if there was something more there than just a public fake recorded date?

(inspired by the andrew garfield and amelia dimoldenberg ship)

warnings: not today satan, i'm in a certain mood in which i don't wanna know anything about angst or smut, i just need pure and comforting fluff

word count: 1.2k+

1/?

First Meeting

22th August, 2022

Just an hour ago while you were getting ready on your hotel room everything was absolutely perfect. You were feeling confident and enthusiastic, the adrenaline in your system making you see starts pacing and jumping around not being able to stop think about this opportunity but ever since you set foot on the carpet the situation just went downhill. Suddenly you were awkwardly aware of every single detail that felt wrong about it. The dress your sister choose for you wasn't your colour, your heels were too tight, the staff manager aligned you as the second interviewer and your palms were sweating like there was no tomorrow.

As a content creator that started making poorly produced thrifting and baking and fangirling videos on youtube to cope with your lonely life three years ago you never expected to get this far. To be invited to be an interviewer at the premiere of house of the dragon, the show adaptation of one of your favorite books of all time.

It probably had helped to the nerves the fact that you didn't know very well much of the actors in the cast but the few ones you did recognized were enough to have your heart pounding in your ears. Rhys Ifans, that man practically raised you through his movies since Notting Hill. Olivia Cooke… the gods knew she had been your sapphic awakening eight years ago in that one Ouija movie and you had been following every single one of her works ever since.

Thankfully you weren't too deep into your daydreaming state because you did noticed when staff started to move faster abruptly. The photographers behind you started shouting and that was enough to make it so hard for you to hold your pink fluffy mic still and every single question in your brain disappeared. This couldn't be, you had studied every actors background since you got the call to give each one of them worthy and respectful questions. Come on! You have to remember!

The only way to drag yourself back to reality was to squeeze you eyes shut for a moment and blink a couple of times knowing you couldn't slap yourself in front of all this people you wanted to take you seriously. By the time the first actors reached you the questions were forming in your brain again and even though you didn't sounded as confident as you had wanted you were able to do the job with at least a couple of actors for the moment.

“Hey!” it was the turn of a blonde boy. You recognized him as Tom Glynn Carney, the one who would play the adult version of your beloved Aegon.

“Oh hey!” you scratched your brain looking for the question you had prepared for him.

“Im Tom” he said in a funny tone as if he wasn't expecting you to know who he was after your awkward silence but he was at peace with it just trying to be funny and for some reason that made you giggle.

“I know!”

“Of course you do” he chuckled hearing how offended you sounded at his assumption “you know that's kinda cruel cause i do know you”

“No, you don't!” he didn't, right?

He looked at you with a mischievous smile on his face, one of those expressions guys used to let you know they had you figured out “I’ve wanted to try your pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls for a while maybe one day you can invite me to your channel to bake some…”

“Oh my god…” you couldn't help but physically react to his statement in front of the camera, you really didn't expect him to know who you were “Whenever, really whenever. Well not whenever but when we can both do it”

He chuckled and stared up and down at you “You know it just keeps getting sadder and sadder that you don't know me”

“I do!” your cheeks were starting to dangerously turn reddish and you tried to compose yourself. He was charming but you weren't willing to let that ruin your interview and let people think you had no idea were you were and what were you doing “So, Tom. Of all the songs your band has recorded so far. Which one would you use to describe Aegon's moral journey this season? Or maybe… do you have an unreleased one in mind…”

“Shit. That's a good ass question” you flipped your hair and showed him a cocky smile that he responded within a second never breaking eye contact and just then was when you realized how handsome he really was. You find it strange how that didn't intimidated you as it usually would in any other scenario “I definitely have an unreleased one in mind but if i say more i would be spoiling both my band's and the show's future and i don't want to get double fired thank you”

“You’re right i guess we'll have to wait and guess” you pout mockingly “Told you i knew who you were!”

“I can see that now!” he scratched his neck and shoot you a shinny smile “I just didn't thought you would know about my bad and this stuff. Do you fancy me or something?

“Yeah sure, you wish” your pulse started to raise when you realized the tension building and how you were unconsciously flirting with a complete stranger and all was being caught on camera for the show's tiktok account.

“Yeah i do”

He seemed as surprised as you were with his answer as soon as it left his lips but before anything else could be said one of the members of the staff told him it was time to move to the next interviewer. You had to go through the rest of his walk on the red carpet feeling his blue eyes glancing your way every now and then until he spoke to everyone in the line and was guided through some contains and you had to get your mind back to your work too.

What the hell were you going to do if you didn't even had a solid answer to the one question you get to ask? They were so not hiring you again.

𔘓

“Oh my god wake up girl wake up you have to see this!” your sister woke you up jumping on your chest and hitting you with your own pillows and you didn't regret it one bit when you pushed her off of your bed and she fell on her ass.

“What the hell is wrong with you? It's 11am!”

She didn't answer, at least not with words but she stood from the floor and threw herself on you bed again tapping at the screen of her phone with her nails right in front of your eyes dramatically. At first you didn't understand until you took it from her hands and stare at it in shock now witnessing what had caused such reaction.

It was the clip of your interview with Tom Glynn Carney going viral on tiktok, the same interview you thought it was going to get you banned from carpets for life. The original already had millions of views and a bunch of other accounts of celebrity gossip had reposted it, there was even a couple of online articles about it. You would lie if you said you didn't felt anything last night during your short conversation but it had been just that at the moment. Now… people were going feral about the chemistry between you two and that left you with a deep unsettling feeling.

[vintagetvstars]

Diana Rigg Vs. Nichelle Nichols

Propaganda

Diana Rigg - (The Avengers, Diana) - Honestly? Just check her out as Emma Peel in any episode of The Avengers. The character herself was a legend - an exceptional spy, wonderful fighter, certified genius, a true feminist role model - not to mention a renowned sex symbol (that leather catsuit... heavens help me...) and fashion icon. As for Diana personally, she was once described by Michael Parkinson as "the most desirable woman he ever met, who radiated a lustrous beauty". She could pivot from funny quips and endearing jokes to stone-cold badassery like it was nothing, and she looked stunning either way. Whenever I look at a pic of her, I have this feeling she's planning some fun mischief and I get the strongest urge to ask her to take me along. Need anything more? Here, have some pics: (pics below the cut)

Nichelle Nichols - (Star Trek) - She speaks for herself. Legendary, iconic, at the forefront of feminism and civil rights in the 60s, she is a triple threat who did so much more. She volunteered from 1977 to promote recruitment diversity within NASA, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts. Martin Luther King Jr. compared her work on Star Trek as a 'vital role model' to the civil rights marches. She refused to be dismissed, fought for visibility and shone whilst doing so. As a woman in stem, and simply a woman she means the world and stars above to me.

Master Poll List of the Hot Vintage TV Ladies Bracket

Additional propaganda below the cut

Diana Rigg:

When people think of The Avengers, they think Steed and Peel (or they think the marvel property but that’s neither here nor there). I know people who thought Mrs. Peel was the ONLY woman Steed worked with, Diana Rigg was Just That Good (she was only on two seasons!). She was one of those actors that could so perfectly play comedy in any form, her dry, sardonic wit was marvelous, but so was her physical and slapstick comedy, and she could do drama too! If you’ve seen her in interviews you’d also know how fabulously humble and kind she was. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more attracted to a TV woman than I’ve been to Diana Rigg. Some photos of her:

the SMILE!!!!

I like a woman that could kill me in one shot

tell me she's not endearing I DARE you

Gorgeous, sexy, competent, superior, so much leather. Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the Avengers was foundational to my sexuality and personality. She's classy, she's cute, she's cocky, in one episode she whips a bunch of guys while wearing a corset and a spiked collar...

excuse me I'm overcome with sinful thoughts

 hello 911 I think I'm having a heart attack

Here's an interview I fell for her in:

Diana Rigg | Interview | The Avengers | Good Afternoon | 1974 | Part one

Her first appearance in The Avengers (In series 4, if you can believe it):

The Avengers: Emma Peel First Appearance HD

Nichelle Nichols:

She is the original badass babe. She was a black woman in a leading role on TV in the 60s, a trailblazer for black actresses for years to come. She is so beautiful and so awesome.

she's fantastic. have you seen her? paved the way for black actresses on TV even while her lines and scenes were being cut and improvised the most iconic uhura line in the series. (sulu: "I'll save you, fair maiden!" uhura, pushing him away: "sorry, neither!") she's incredibly talented and it's a crime the show didn't give her more screen time (or make her sing more often because she also has a beautiful voice!)

“Sorry, neither” in response to “fair maiden” was ad libbed by her. There’s a lot more I could say but what else do you need??

A sci-fi icon!

She was such a trailblazer, and Uhura was such an important character for so many people to be able to see on TV. Apparently Mae Jemison (the first African American woman to go into space) cited her as a reason she wanted to become an astronaut. She was just an absolute legend!

The story of Martin Luther King telling her not to quit Star Trek gives me chills. Representation matters. “Thank you so much, Dr. King. I’m really going to miss my co-stars.” Dr. King's smile, Nichols recalled, vanished from his face. "He said, 'What are you talking about?'" the actress explained. "I told him. He said, 'You cannot,' and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, 'Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. 300 years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.' He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling. I said, 'I…, I…' And he said, 'You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd Century.'"

She shared the first interracial kiss on Star Trek, helped propel real life African American women into space-related careers, and looks divine in a mini skirt.

HOW DID UHURA WALK BACKWARDS SO FAR??? WOW!

[traceytonight]

Tracey rambles about Tron Ares again

Tron Ares fills me with so much dread, each passing day is like a countdown to the death of a franchise I care so much about.

The producer, title & main character, is literally Joker Morbius alleged pedophile since the early 2000s himself Jared Leto. That alone ruins the movie for me, and yet every following bullet point makes everything about and around it so much worse.

-Premise is explicitly "What if the Grid came to the real world".

NO, the interesting part of the series is THE GRID, where all of the deeply meditative commentary about our world and visually interesting splendor is supposed to be! Yes we had the lingering plot thread of Quorra coming to our world, however;

-Nothing directly tied to Tron Legacy is specifically being followed up

So no seeing where Sam Flynn could have taken Encom, no Quorra adjusting to our world, No Edward Dillinger Jr scheming with the resurrected MCP; But most disrespectfully of all, they didn't even bother to get Bruce Boxleitnter back, THE GUY WHO PLAYS TRON (and Alan Bradly & Rinzler). The one guy who actively loved this series and campaigned for a Third Tron film for over a decade, and previously Tron Legacy for even longer. But you know who they are bringing back?

-Kevin Flynn is back

THE GUY WHO FUCKING DIED IN THE LAST MOVIE. Undermining the noble sacrifice that was integral to the core themes of the film.

And just today we got this:

This is so far from an advancement design wise of the Light Cycle from either film. None of the simple shape language of the original. None of the sleek visual melding of human & technology of Legacy. While the light cycle was always cool for being a futuristic video game-ass motorcycle, its was just one of the multitude of visual elements that served the thematic purposes of Tron flawlessly.

Meanwhile, this not only physically separates the driver from the cycle, they further emphasize it through all the little gaps where there were none on either prior design. They so easily could've had the red line on Ares connect into the obviously aligned part of the bike.

Even if this is meant to show the separation of the programs from the grid for some thematic element we're unaware of at the moment, we're already going to be getting a lot of that considering the movie takes place in an average ass city.

Also, to be truly nitpicky, it looks really uncomfortable to sit in & I don't like all the added greebles.

To circle back around, what I really hate about the cast, besides the obvious one, is that there are a lot of actors who I think will work extremely well in the world of Tron. Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters? Inspired casting choices.

Meanwhile production wise we're literally taking David Fincher's collaborator trifecta. Jeff Cronenweth (Cinematographer), Tyler Nelson (Editor), and Trent Reznor (Composer, backed up by Nine Inch Nails) all worked on The Social Network, another one of my favorite films. Jeff is literally the son of Blade Runner's cinematographer, Nelson was co-editor on The Batman, a film with incredible pacing thanks to their hardwork, and while I'm not the most familiar with Reznor's full body of work, I've sincerely liked everything I've heard and think in conjunction with Jeff & Tyler he will make something fantastic and fitting for the tone of this film.

However, the screenplay is done by the writer of Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, and is being handled by the director of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Choices that feel at odds with the prestige praise I was just handing out a paragraph ago.

Theres so many good elements that are eclipsed by its central glaring protagonist, seeming lack of the interesting setting/designs or integral thematic elements that I look for in Tron, and lack of expectation regarding the choice of director & writers.

Because my two greatest fears are not about if the movie is awful and destroys the franchise as I'm expecting it could, it's either:

What if the movie is genuinely good? Well acted and performed, somehow actually has the same level of philosophical inquiry that Legacy & Identity have? How am I gonna face that reality with the enormous horrific issue starring in it?

What if the movie is bad in everyway that I think it will be, but does financially and/or critically better than the first two? The franchise is not killed again, but revives and bases everything going forward around this awful outlier in the series?

Unless this movie fails so horrifically that Disney wants to scrub it from existence, as they tend to do, the future of any Tron media will undeniably be forced to cohere itself to the existence of Ares.

If you want something that actually expands on the musings and universe of Tron, play Tron Identity. A game so lovingly crafted for fans of those elements of Tron as a connected series. And I know this factually, as the writer of the game itself (who also created Thomas Was Alone) watched my twitch stream of it and confirmed my ramblings about the deep seeded lore and intent of design of the TREES that appear in the game. Only one example of the incredible attention to detail the game delivers on. Plus its also getting a sequel that unlike Ares, I'm awaiting with bated breath.

[bluecatwriter]

I watched the Wildhorn/Black/Hampton Dracula rock opera!

Okay, okay, okay. As some of you know, one of the guys in my theater troupe got me comp tickets to see him in Dracula: The Musical. You guys. It was an EGREGIOUS adaptation that didn't even make narrative sense on its own terms. I also had a TOTAL BLAST. 

If you like the musical, no shade to you— please just keep scrolling and like what you like! However, I had so many thoughts about this that I had to word-vomit about it, and thought some of you might have fun reading my thoughts on the good, the bad, and ugly for 3,000 words.

TL:DR: Very fun experience, so glad I went, the play's narrative choices make me want to throw hands in a Denny's parking lot, much dunking/adaptation-hate ahead, my friends are amazing, I'm writing my own play now.

(CW discussion of rape, ableism, drug use, suicide)

-First of all, everyone take a moment to appreciate my eyeliner. I do not usually draw eyeliner that well so I was very proud of myself.

-I went with my sister, since we both knew people in the cast. (I thought we knew three, but we actually knew four: the actors who played Dracula, Mina, Lucy, and Quincey.) My sister didn't know anything about Dracula except what she'd picked up from my incoherent ramblings (which I generally keep to a minimum around her). 

-It was a black-box theater, which I didn't expect: six or so rows of chairs on each side of the theater, facing each other across the relatively small room, with the stage in the middle and a live orchestra (!!!) on one end. The set was a minimalist Gothic castle design, with windows, a freestanding moving wall, and a large platform that, throughout the play, served as Dracula's coffin, a table, Lucy's bed, Lucy's coffin, and just a general place to stand and sing in a badass way. I absolutely LOVE black box shows because they're so intimate: you can almost reach out and touch the actors, and you can see every minute facial expression and gesture, the light glittering in their eyes, and so on. (Acting in a black box theater is much more like movie acting because the audience can see what you're doing with your eyes in a way that regular theater doesn't allow, meaning that things like eye contact between characters is much more electric and effective.)

-The sound design and lighting effects were doing a lot of heavy lifting in this show, and they nailed it. Very spooky!

-The play began with the weird sisters, and they were consistently my favorite part of the play— the actresses killed it (ha), bringing an intense, spooky energy to the story, often serving as narrators, background singers, extras, special effects handlers (such as portraying the wreck of the Demeter), and the physical manifestation of Dracula's will/presence. They were AWESOME.

-I had decided in advance that this play was a fanfiction written by Dracula about himself, and nothing about the show dissuaded me from this idea. The guy who played Dracula served major cunt from the moment he stepped onstage, wearing leather pants with laces up the side and a big sweeping coat and a huge amount of eyeliner that really brought out his unnervingly blue eyes. ("All guys should wear eyeliner and leather pants," I joked to my sister after the show, and she responded, with the most haunted look I've ever seen, "I agree about the eyeliner, but not the pants. I lived in San Francisco for three years, and you know not what you speak of. There are things I cannot unsee.")

-Actually, to be honest I liked Dracula's characterization (until the end; see below); whether because of the director or the actor or both, this version really did not downplay what a bastard he is. He was incredibly ruthless, in all senses of the word: focused on a single goal and not caring who got mowed down in the process. Anytime his sung lines talked about him being lonely or sad or whatever, the actor played it off as him trying to garner sympathy from his listener, rather than expressing his true feelings, which was a directing/acting choice I really appreciated.

-When Jonathan came on stage (from the door just a few feet away) I nearly squealed with delight! He just RADIATED "biggest sweetheart you've ever met" energy: tall and lanky and with a scruffy lil beard and clothes that didn't quite fit. I was in love with him from the beginning. Also he got to mention his Kodak camera, and I remembered that I could not actually cheer at moments like that because that would be weird.

-The Dracula-Mina "romance" was introduced very early, which I appreciated; from a storytelling perspective, it was good to have that continuous thread. Dracula looks at a picture of Mina, mentions how young she is, asks Jonathan if she is "pure," and then decides that they're soulmates. It was SO PERVY. Once again, I loved the Dracula characterization. If only it had stayed one-sided…

-I was fortunately warned that in this version Jonathan takes the crucifix off so the weird sisters can continue attacking him, but I still had to suppress a "BOOOOO!" (I did whisper "NOT CANON!" to my sister, and later she said that when that happened in the play she was like, "Oh, okay, I don't care what happens to this guy now.") But I guess it did have the effect of making him less sympathetic, which served the story the play was trying to tell.

-I was pleased that there was a Drac-drinking-from-Jonathan scene, and consistent with the storytelling, Drac had a whole song about how he needs Jonathan's blood so he can be young and hot and go seduce Mina (which, again, fits with the story they were telling). They decided not to have any sexual tension between Dracula and Jonathan, so the blood-drinking scene was pretty brutal (complimentary)— Jonathan laid out on the platform with Drac just. gnawing on his neck while Jonathan writhed and convulsed. It was still kinda hot though not gonna lie

-Lucy's characterization at first was pretty interesting, because her song about the three suitors (and the directing/acting) made it seem like she was just kinda stuck with three mediocre choices, and chose the least offensive one (Arthur, who she describes as boring and can't even think of one nice thing to say about him) and tried to convince herself that she would be happy. This was honestly the biggest moment where I had to just squirm in my seat to keep from actively booing. Don't be so mean 2 my boy! From a storytelling perspective, it wasn't clear at all why she chose Arthur, because Quincey was the only one of the suitors who had any personality at all (even Jack was bland. JACK. WAS BLAND. YOU COULDN'T HAVE HIM SIT ON HIS HAT OR AT LEAST FIDDLE WITH HIS LANCET? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???). Anyway, Arthur was actually totally fine after that song (and had some nice lines in the group songs).

-Meanwhile, Drac is creeping on Mina by entering her thoughts without her consent and being like, "We're soulmates," and she just…. goes along with it???? With literally no rhyme or reason to her decision???? I know some of this is that I hate the whole concept of soulmates, but I expected at least SOME justification for why she was interested in him. There was no indication she was unhappy with Jonathan; there was no hint of any emotional connection; there wasn't even some weird "reincarnated lover" story to try to soften how incredibly strange it felt that Mina was randomly in love with this guy's voice in her head. His baritone is sexy BUT IT IS NOT THAT SEXY. GIRL PLEASE.

-In this version Dracula bites Lucy because he's trying to call Mina to him and Lucy comes by accident and he's like, "Well, nothin' I can do about that. CHOMP." Which, again, I honestly liked this characterization because he's not apologetic about who he is; he is just destroying everyone in his way and not caring about them as people. He just has a goal and he'll do anything to reach it.

-Then of course Lucy's like, "Oooh that was actually so sexy and I never want to wake up from that dream of him chomping on my throat." The directly seemed to imply that being bitten by a vampire just. instantly turns you into something that's not yourself, so I could kinda excuse it if I squinted, but it was still pretty icky.

-Renfield got to stab Jack! My sister felt sorry for Jack (because all his unethical science got shaved off in this adaptation) and I was just like, "YESSS RENFIELD YOU GO!" 

-Jonathan shows up again, in a wheelchair (a really cool old-fashioned one), and Mina goes to marry him, and their marriage is paralleled with Lucy and Arthur's while Drac looms in the background. The double wedding was a nice staging choice, although the optics of Mina somewhat reluctantly marrying disabled Jonathan while abled Dracula is standing by being All Sexy was… uh, it was not great. But on the plus side, maybe it emphasizes the ableism that a lot of people have toward Jonathan's disabilities in the story, bringing them out into the open? (I am grasping at straws here.)

-Van Helsing was perfect! The actor had wild gray hair and forehead bumps and a tenor voice that could shatter your heart into a million pieces. He did a great job of having the "weird professor" vibes even though his lines were more coherent and to-the-point than they are in the book. 

-No blood transfusions, sadly, but I see why they cut that part.

-Lucy turning vamp was very well done. I think I should mention at this point that the actors who played Dracula and Lucy are actually married to each other in real life, and they had really crackling chemistry and it was clear in every scene they were together that they were having just the best time. "Life After Life" was my second-favorite song in the play because it's just Dracula sending Lucy out to eat people— and again, both actors were clearly having SO MUCH FUN performing this song together. At the end of the scene I was all pumped up, like, "Yeah Lucy! Go eat some people!!!"

-Intermission. I told my sister this was like the part in Rashomon where the rapist tells the court his point of view and is like, "Oh, she totally wanted it." My sister shook her head at me and chuckled.

-The graveyard/Bloofer Lady scene was genuinely horrifying; Lucy's actress did an AMAZING job of amping up the horror, beginning the scene by cradling a baby and singing it a lullaby, then just CHOMPING down on it, and throwing it down and hissing like an animal when the Crew of Light approached her. Mina and Jonathan were in that scene, too, and even though Mina didn't have any lines, seeing her reacting to it (rushing to grab the child, dodging out of Bloofer!Lucy's snapping jaws) gave the scene a lot of emotional intensity. 

-Both Bloofer!Lucy's death and Renfield's death were directed beautifully; they were both somewhat quiet, almost slow motion, focused not on the violence but on the emotional weight of both their lives ending.

-Jonathan and Arthur, while both being incredibly bland characters, have I think more dialogue in this play than they do in the book. Every time they spoke I was like, :D :D :D! My blorbos!!!

-Throughout Mina's whole song "Please Don't Make Me Love You" (sung, of course, to Dracula) I focused VERY HARD on my friend's amazing acting, her beautiful voice, the way she was playing this with absolute conviction, while in the back of my head I was screaming. Just a primal, Nazgul-like shriek. GIRL WHY (I think my sister was amused by how much I was squirming)

-Van Helsing has a nice little song about his dead wife, saying that it was a vampire that killed her and that's why he's a vampire hunter now. He was also shooting up with a comically large syringe during this song, but sure, yeah, that's fine. Like I said, his voice was SO BEAUTIFUL, so I was entranced. If only he had gotten a chance to find connection and family ties in order to continue that character arc HINT HINT

-Ah, then we get the Blood Baptism scene. Mina sings a song about how she doesn't want to run away (because of that sexy baritone voice I guess) so she invites Dracula into her room, he knocks out Jonathan, and then they make out over Jonathan's body. Le sigh. The funniest part of this scene is that they had her drink from his chest but they didn't use any fake blood, so he just unbuttons his shirt and she buries her face in his boobs, no context. I asked my sister afterward, "What did you think was going on in that scene?" and she said, "I figured she was drinking from his vampire-milk titties."

-Van Helsing and Dracula got an "I will take you down!"-style song that was actually really cool.

-Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, BOOK-CANON MINA SHOWS UP! She was in a wheelchair now (a great directing choice, I thought), and demanded that Van Helsing hypnotize her, insisted on them keeping the information from her so that Dracula can't get to it, makes them all vow to kill her, and figures out where Dracula is going based on the maps. I was like THERE SHE IS! THERE'S MY GIRL! …But unfortunately this characterization makes no sense in the story the musical is actually telling. Why is Mina leading them to him? Why is she taking such pains to make sure Dracula is not warned of their coming? It didn't fit with any of her characterization in the rest of the play (and especially not with the ending), so it felt really cobbled-together and odd.

-Also Jonathan vows to kill her and there's a whole song about how sad he is that he will have to do that. I was gritting my teeth the whole song being like It's a storytelling choice it's a storytelling choice it's a storytelling choice it's a storytelling choice it's a

-Okay. YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS. The song "Deep in the Darkest Night" WAS AMAZING. It's a song by the Crew of Light (and in this version, sung by all six of them, including Mina) about their quest, and how they must be points of light in the darkness. It was SO BEAUTIFUL and SO THEMATICALLY ON POINT and it was EVERYTHING I WANTED from a Dracula musical and it is a CRIME that the whole play was not built around these themes and motifs!! *chewing on the scenery* Also, holy cow, everyone in the cast could sing like nothing else. Full-body chills. Stunning, incredible, showstopping, no notes.

-In one of the hypnotic sessions, Dracula came to stand behind Mina and they sang a duet, a reprise of "Life After Life" (the song for Bloofer!Lucy), and that was an incredibly effective storytelling choice (also their voices just blended so. well. together that even in the songs I hated, I still got chills because their voices were SO DANG BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER). Again, I am haunted by what this play could've been if the Drac/Mina thing was one-sided.

-In this version, Quincey gives Mina his Bowie knife for protection, which I thought was sweet.

-Drac has a big sad-boy song about how he's actually in love with Mina now. BOOHOO MOTHERFUCKER. NO ONE CARES.

-Quincey got killed by trying to stake Dracula and Drac grabbing the stake and shoving it into his stomach. (My sister gasped and squeaked, "No!" when this happened.)

-Meanwhile, Van Helsing and Mina get separated, and Mina has a whole song about how she's made her final decision: she's gonna become a vampire and live with Dracula forever. At this point in the play I was like, Okay, girl, whatever, you do you…

-But then. BUT THEN. *frothing at the mouth*

-(Don Black and Christopher Hampton meet me in the Denny's parking lot I just want to talk)

-Drac's like, "Ooooh no actually I don't want you to be a vampire so you need to kill me now."

-Mina's like, "Nooooo this makes me so sad I have chosen to be a vampire and it is what I truly want!"

-Drac's like "Nobody cares what you want because the authors couldn't care less about your agency as a person"

-Mina's like "nooooooooo i'm so saaaaaad!"

-(Me: *still frothing at the mouth*)

-Finally, weeping, she takes Quincey's knife and places it over his heart.

-And then SHE DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING KILL HIM HE JUST GRABS HER HAND WITH THE KNIFE IN IT AND KILLS HIMSELF

-Like, I am just so mad that Mina doesn't even get the tiniest bit of agency here at the end. She is just blown about by the whims of the men, and at the end none of her narrative choices are respected in any way. A lot of this is, I'm sure, the directing for this particular performance: if I were trying to make this ending a bit more narratively satisfying, I would give Mina a moment where you can see her agreeing with him and deciding to kill him herself. This ending just felt… cheap. It didn't even form a satisfying closing even based on the rules of its own storytelling. It was so ridiculous that I actually had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. 

-After the show we got to talk to all our friends who were in it and it was easy to sincerely compliment them because they all did an AMAZING job. I feel so honored to be friends with such amazingly talented people!

-We drove home in a lightning storm while blasting Blondie's song "One Way or Another" (my sister said she was thinking of this song all through the Drac/Mina story arc) and singing loudly along. "ONE WAY OR ANOTHER/I'M GONNA FIND YA/I'M GONNA GETCHA GETCHA GETCHA GETCHA!"

-I asked her which two characters she thought I shipped the most and she guessed Jonathan/Quincey. Not a bad guess.

-Got home, rambled to my very tired spouse, curled up in bed, turned to him and said, "I promise to never leave you for some random dude who speaks in my head and says we're soulmates," and he replied, "And I promise to never leave you for three sexy vampire ladies," and if that's not a wedding vow renewal I don't know what is.

-Laid awake for nearly two hours brainstorming a Dracula play (not a musical, I'm not that talented). And, uh… yeah. A script is gonna happen. I've written plenty of plays (and co-directed/co-produced a few times), so it's definitely in my wheelhouse, and my brain will not shut up with ideas. So! *tosses it onto list of creative projects*

----

(P.S. If you reblog, please don't tag this as the Dracula musical because I don't want any fans to be exposed to the hate. Thanks!)

[swisccfinds]

Kiss-n-Grind Mod by UTOPYA_cc

This is a good ineractable romance mod! I like that is gives more physical interactions with your sim's partner.

Creator's Notes-

Hey guys, hope you all are doing well. Quiet excited about this one,

The main idea was to make a mod that will focus on adding more romantic interactions to the game. to add more realistic moments between couples. I wanted to add what I feel is missing from the game.

So After some searching and looking at what should I make first, I have decided to start with a passionate grinding/dancing interactions, There is too much stuff to cover in the club life. that the game didn't manage to add, other than some silly dances. Your Sims couple can't even dance together.

Therefore I ended up turning These new animations into their own mod, It will be a great foundation for all the ideas that I want to add!!

The mod For now will introduces two new interactions with their animations and emotions/buffs

The new pie menu will appear in the Romance category under the name Kiss and Grind, all the new interactions will appear on it:

The interaction won't appear if your sim hasn't had their first kiss yet, or the level of romance is too low

Features Of the Mods:

New highly detailed animation with their own sounds

New pie menu for the new interaction

New icons for each Interaction/animation that will suit their own animation

A new dynamic buff system which increases with the romance bar

These interactions will give you a buff for both the actor and target sim.

There is a chance to get some notifications/comments from your partner

The animations were made to have a more romantic feel to them. to give the player the freedom to use them in any game style they want. All the icons used are custom-made by me, I did put extra time into them to be more visually pleasing and match their original content

Possible outcomes:

I have implemented in this mod a new buff system that will depend on the relationship between the Sims and some other factors:

First of all The outcomes will be highly randomized for both the actor and the target to keep the game more exciting.

The higher the romance level between your sims the higher chance of getting more intimates outcomes with stronger emotions:

Obviously, this is a club-based mod, you take your sim there to meet up with new Sims, So Even with a low romance, The outcomes may be higher and unique If your sim has high charisma.

When the romance bar is higher the 90% there is a small chance to get a notification/comment from your partner.

The mod will be enhanced further in the future, with New animations, New mechanics, and features.

I still love the original idea. So once I have decided all the interactions for it, I will start making them into their own mod, and leave this one just for the club-related animations.

The interactions shouldn't be played autonomously,

Better to wait until the animation is finished and the queue is clear before playing another one.

Requirement : This mod needs the XML injector by Scumbumbo. You can download it here : https://scumbumbomods.com/xml-injector

How to install :

Just put both my mod and the XML injector script into your Sims 4 Mods folder.

Please visit UTOPYA_cc and show some love and support for this amazing mod!

download

[someinstant]

So I turned my ankle taking out my trash this evening and it's swelling up beautifully-- I did a number on that ankle back in college and it regularly betrays me because of the Dumb Things I did without seeking medical attention when I was twenty-- so I've decided to prop it up on the couch and ice the hell out of it and watch the special features on my ANDOR Blu-Ray.

Here's a short list of Cool Things I've learned:

Diego says that it was important to show Cassian being nice to B2EMO in the first bit of episode one, because you needed to see Cassian show care and kindness for someone-- because he's not a particularly awesome guy at the beginning.

The set designer for the Andor house on Ferix made macrame door curtains out of metal scrap and bolts because they wanted a 1970s feel with an industrial twist. Also, the set designer pronounces "macrame" with the accent on the second syllable, and I've never heard it that way before? British folks, is that standard on your fair isle? Because hereabouts it's MAC-rah-may, or maybe mac-rah-MAY if you're fancy. But it sure as hell isn't mah-CRAHM-eh.

Just so many gorgeous shots of Ferix, man. And all the costumes and details-- it looks SO GOOD, even when it's clearly just a set and not the finished version. The actors all clearly adored working in the physical space.

During the Aldhani arc, the Aldhani rebel cell actors worked extensively together with the director to train, rehearse, and develop chemistry-- and they deliberately didn't bring Diego Luna in until they were ready to shoot for real. So the Aldhani squad had this rapport and inside jokes and relationships, and THEN they dropped Luna in so he would feel properly like an outsider.

And they did the SAME THING on the Narkina 5 arc. All the prisoners rehearsed together well before they brought in Luna, so he wouldn't have the same understanding of the space or tools or way the actors related to each other. Love it. Really smart decision, and it paid off.

The visual reference for what the Eye would look like when you were flying through it was a close-up of a human iris, and actually-- yeah. They did that really, really well.

They made the prison on Narkina 5 the same shape as the planetary shield generator on Scarif, and I have no idea how I didn't notice that before.

Stellan Skarsgard was clearly DELIGHTED by Luthen's big speech in "Nobody's Listening." He talks about how when he read it, he was like, "Absolutely, this is the dilemma, isn't it? How far can you go in the name of change?," followed immediately by, "Now, how in the world do I SAY that?!"

The musicians in "Rix Road" are really playing on set-- they did ADR over top for sound quality but in order to give the actors the right feel, the musicians are really playing and the instruments all are fully functional. The musicians are a mix of studio musicians who are on the final recording and some talented amateurs who also work as background actors, so you get the imperfect, community-band style tuning, which is what they wanted.

And there's a bunch of other cool stuff, but my ankle is throbbing, so I'm going to go take a painkiller and go to bed I think.

[rubyglasses]

Fancasting The Secret History

sharing my vision of who could play these classics students

i tried to be as realistic as possible, considering their book descriptions and casting actors close in age to each other and their characters. after seeing so many of the same names in these fancasts, i wanted to throw some new ones in the mix!

henry's a big guy, dark-haired, square-jawed, bespectacled — he basically looks like clark kent/superman. so my thought process went to henry cavill look-alike, jamie flatters (b. 2000). coincidentally, my old fancast was david corenswet, so i guess it all checks out. i only know jamie from avatar: the way of water, but based on his music videos, i think he's got the acting chops to capture henry's more unhinged side that he lets slip idk

to me, bunny is the most american out of the group because of his family background, it's even described as "an upbringing vitally present in Bunny in every respect, from the way he shook your hand to the way he told a joke." saw this rudy pankow (b. 1998) casting suggestion on mycast and it just made total sense to me. having watched him as jj maybank in outer banks, i know he can capture how obnoxious bunny can be, and he'll do well trying to annoy every character and pushing their buttons.

admittedly, this was a hard one because i originally had tom glynn-carney in mind but i wanted someone younger, so i didn't go too far and went with ty tennant (b. 2002) who's played the younger version of his characters twice now. i mean if you think about it, aegon ii targaryen and charles have a couple things in common: both are alcoholics and have an incestuous relationship with their sister 😭 since charles and camilla look androgynous and described as angels, i figured ty looks the part. i also believe in ty's acting skills to portray charles' complexity as the story goes on.

i thought of young actresses who resembled ty and went with thomasin mckenzie (b. 2000), who i loved in jojo rabbit and last night in soho. i know thomasin would look good as a blonde, but more importantly, she's got the face for period dramas. camilla is enigmatic, but i think richard just saw her as like an ingénue, so i figured thomasin can do that layered performance.

thought and long hard for who to cast as francis because i'm so tired of seeing the same redhead actors or some random redhead model 😭 thank goodness luther ford (b. 1999/2000) has been discovered. his portrayal in the crown sold me because it was very francis of him to just sit around drinking booze and smoking while dressed in modern princely clothing.

another inspired casting suggestion i saw on mycast — physically, i think dominic sessa (b. 2002) truly fits the bill; i like that he's not your conventionally good-looking guy too. acting-wise, he was incredible in the holdovers. and i believe he could put so much more personality to richard papen's character.

might make a part 2 for other characters like julian morrow and judy poovey :> thanks for checking this out and let me know if you see the vision!

p.s. it's never gonna happen but it'd be interesting to just see this set of actors get together because they seem like a bunch of introverts 😭 they might bond over taking film photos of each other though so that's cool

[alicesmindpalace]

The Sticks trailer for Smosh just dropped 🫡

Ian and Anthony's story feels like a movie script so a lot of us were sure that Sticks would be tempted to turn it into one of their videos sooner or later 😀

All in all, I think it was nice, though of course as a fan I can't help but obsess over the details they got wrong.

I think the sets were all really good, and at first glance you can almost be tricked into thinking that they shot it in the real locations.

I agree with some of the comments saying that the actors were good and got their mannerisms down, even though they don't really physically look like Ian and Anthony much. (Having a hairstylist on set to help them style their hair in their signature bowl cut and emo hair or making the guy who played Ian wear blue eye contacts would have helped at least a little bit with that problem imo, but maybe they were running out of time). I was impressed with their acting performance too though!

The editing was nice and clean and the pace was good.

What's a bit sad to me though is that that even if Sticks did their best with what little they knew, they didn't know enough about them.

Hey it's impossible to learn all of the lore in days though so I get it, but their story is full of great irl events and scenes that they could have used if they only knew they existed. (Think about the "eagle has landed" moment of the BIG reveal to the cast for example).

Their story is so much more cinematic irl than even the trailer shows and much more emotional. (The scene where Anthony tells Ian he is going to leave feels so weird 😂. Them casually playing video games and Ian just being like "Ok, I'm staying" is just funny to me).

But I love that we got this trailer, don't get me wrong it was a nice treat, and probably if I wasn't this big of a fan I would be able to enjoy it even more.

Still nice, go watch it and support Sticks their content is more original than a lot of stuff out there!

[according2thelore]

it always bothered me that in the show, when dean learns that sam kept the amulet at the end of s11, he didn’t immediately put it back on—esp since from what i heard, that was an actor preference, not a storytelling one!!! (the samulet chipped his teeth ☹️)

anyway i wanna imagine that in your time travel au it doesn’t happen like that 🥹 it takes es dean five days to notice that his older self isn’t wearing it (in his defense, he’s not used to looking at himself from the outside!), and when he does it makes him so mad. and that’s what drives ls dean to - out loud - say that yeah, he wishes like hell he had it, but he doesn’t, okay? what do you want me to do here, kid??….. cue older sam like uh well i mean hmm. do you mean that.

although now i’m thinking of es SAM being the one to notice, and he notices right away, but he doesn’t use at as a barb until all the little upsets boil over. oh man. that kills me too. poor kiddo. you don’t get to go to law school AND your loml brother threw away his wedding ring amulet.

anyway you don’t have to do anything with any of this!! just thank you for letting me play in your sandbox!!!!

hello!!!

YESYESYES!!!!

this ask made me start BARKING. let's discuss!

for those who didn't know--yes, the samulet leaving the show was a choice made by jensen because it split his lips a lot and eventually cracked his tooth. i can understand his choice to have it taken off of the character (as much as i simultaneously hate it) especially since it seems that it was chosen as a prop during preproduction of the show at random. they lost a lot of jewelry from S2-4 (i'm looking at you skull bracelet, ring, and jelly bracelet), but the amulet got an emotional backstory so it had a longer life on the show.

but as for ES/LS verse YOU ARE SO RIGHT!!!

ES!Dean is so distracted by how fucking huge these guys are (LS!Sam cough cough bouncy tits cough), and how discombobulating everything suddenly is (1 lb laptops? cellphones that are a flat screen? TVs thinner than a DVD player? IPADS???) to notice immediately. and you're so right! he's used to the amulet being a mostly physical thing--a weight around his neck so familiar that he hardly notices it until it moves--so not seeing it visually doesn't register.

but when he does, he's mostly confused at first. where is it? do we not wear it every day now? why not? we didn't fucking lose it, did we? did it get destroyed? i would know immediately if it fell off, so it didn't do that. hell, i don't even take it off in the shower, where the fuck is it? seriously, dude, look at me, what the fuck did you do to it?

LS!Sam gets more and more uncomfortable, because he's probably the only one at the table that knows it's not buried deep in a landfill in some random state. but he's not sure how dean will react to the fact that sam's kept it all these years, that he got on his hands and knees in a motel room and dug it out of the trash, wiped cold, damp coffee grounds off the pendant, and put it in his pocket with fingers that shook.

then, as you wrote so in character it made my teeth hurt (!!!!), LS!Dean snaps. i don't fucking have it. i threw it away, and i wish like hell i didn't, but it's gone. what do you want me to do here, kid?

and AHHHH!!! you are so right!!! LS!Sam goes fucking rigid like uhhhhhhhhhh...on a scale of 1 to 10 how much did you mean that be so serious rn 🥺 like hmm. well. hmm. let's say for argument's sake...🥺 👉 👈 ...

ES!Sam notices IMMEDIATELY that LS!Dean isn't wearing it, and it's one of the main reasons he's positive the LS!Boys are some kind of demon/shifter/ghoul/trick. because if this was actually dean, he'd have the amulet.

LS!Dean notices ES!Sam glaring daggers at his sternum, the spot where it used to be, as LS!Sam does all the usual tests and tries to calmly explain what's going on. he feels even more guilty as hell, whether or not he knows LS!Sam still has it yet. he crosses his arms over his chest and stares back, not quite able to muster the heat of a proper glare.

it breaks his fucking heart a little, because yeah, it is a betrayal, isn't it? even if his body is copy-able, or mutable, or not able to be trusted, sam should be able to trust a landmark that dean disposed.

but when ES!Sam finds out what exactly happened to the amulet?? oh lord. complete and total meltdown to be frank. "you don’t get to go to law school AND your loml brother threw away his wedding ring amulet." KNOCKED ME OUTTTTTT

because literally!! not only does sam not get a normal life or a nice job or an apartment that's not a windowless bomb shelter but he and his brotherwife got DIVORCED????? he's all but shaking LS!Sam back and forth like WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU???? HOW DID YOU FUCK IT UP THIS BAD??

no one tell ES!Sam that he and dean found out they were soulmates and dean threw his wedding ring necklace out on the same day. he will knock a hole into the bunker wall just so he can jump out of it.

on a more serious note, it is very much "not only are we still on dad's insane revenge mission," *points furiously at LS!Dean* "we're apparently not even a goddamn team anymore!" his voice cracks "can we even stand each other? are we still brothers?"

your characterizations for them were so spot on!!!!! canon to me!!!! this ask is a beautiful painting--babygirl (gender neutral) this is OUR sandbox!

thank you for this lovely & insightful & incredibly written ask anon!

-lizzy

[piedoesnotequalpi]

My unsolicited thoughts on the production of Newsies that I just saw

I overall enjoyed the show, but it was a mixed bag in some regards so. yeah!

Act 1

Crutchie and Jack were not nearly close enough (physically or emotionally) in the opening scene. Also, Crutchie's crutch was on the wrong side even though the actor playing him apparently has mobility issues?

Some newsies were dropped/sent off by their parents during Carrying the Banner! Amazing! Very neat to see this explicitly acknowledged! 100/10!

Jack was shorter than Katherine <3

Race was implied to be younger than Albert based on their pants styles???

Also, Albert paid for his papes, which was disappointing

This production's Les played the "I'm ten...almost" line very differently from Livesies Les (more a reluctant acknowledgement than aggressive), which I liked (I really liked this production's Les)

The way Pulitzer said "I don't look pretty" absolutely killed me. Also, he was incredibly fidgety during the office scene and Nunzio was visibly irritated by this. The Pulitzer and co scenes were generally really well blocked and acted.

Jack walked into the scene where Snyder shows up with a flower girl that he's implied to be flirting with, which I thought was an interesting addition. She spent most of the scene waiting and looking like she really wanted Jack to pay more attention to her (he was focused on Davey and Les) but did at least stick around long enough to distract Snyder.

"But I can see her - [embarrassed pause] - her legs."

The guy Medda addressed in That's Rich ("hey, baby, I was just talking about you") collapsed in his chair after the acknowledgement even though it's not a particularly positive interaction

During the pre-WWK scene, the ensemble was weirdly quiet the whole time.

Albert had to be held back after the "aw, just let 'em try!" bit

Now that I've seen the UKsies staging/delivery of "I say we save any interviews for a real reporter" I cannot go back to watching Davey deliver the line as directly as he did in this production.

Les tried to volunteer to visit Brooklyn but Davey pulled his hand down, which was hilarious

During the WWK reprise, they did a sort of chair assembly line to get the chairs offstage, which I thought was a good way to incorporate the set change into the choreography.

I wish Jack would've given Katherine more personal space in the post-Jacobi's scene, but it was at least better than Livesies

Also, this Jack overall did not have good pacing in his line delivery

Katherine absolutely crushed WWH and I loved the way she did the "it's a girl" section

I wish Crutchie had been better incorporated into the dances. Maybe it was something to do with the actor's disability, but there has to be a better solution than Crutchie sitting to the side/being offstage half the time during WWK and Seize the Day

After the line about skull-busting Albert stood up to fight the Delanceys and Mush had to pull him back down.

Davey didn't address people individually during the Seize the Day intro :(

Another UKsies related thought is that their choice to have the scabs explicitly be from the main group was a good one and I wish this production had done it too

Jack was really in the thick of it during the fight

As Jack was climbing to the rooftop before Santa Fe, he was audibly sobbing and he kept crying during Santa Fe, which almost made me cry.

A general thought is that the existence of Livesies seems to make directors afraid to do their own thing with the show.

Act 2

Jacobi was running the deli with his...wife? and she was helping patch up some of the newsies pre-KoNY

In this scene, but also in general, Race did not commit to the bit nearly hard enough - "wouldya lookit, that's me! I'm famous!" didn't really feel like a distraction tactic

The ensemble was divided into tap dancers and spoon players (they even had a "spoon captain" listed in the program) and the spoon players at one point played their spoons on the tap dancers' shoes

The Katherine interlude in KoNY was very oddly done and I am not sure what they were trying to accomplish (and she didn't even have tap shoes, which, what?)

The person I knew who was in the show had a dance highlight in the pre-Letter from the Refuge dance break! Yay!

Les was SO funny during the WWHR lead-up and as soon as the date exchange started Jack backed away slowly since he was standing between Davey and Les before.

The Bottom Line (reprise) lead-up was REALLY well-staged

When Katherine was revealed to be Pulitzer's daughter, Katherine was visibly upset at being used as a pawn and Hannah ended up trying to comfort her, with mixed success.

When Pulitzer mentioned Davey, Jack had already been knocked to the floor but he tried to get up and lunge at Pulitzer.

Katherine ran offstage when Pulitzer said "too bad you've no family, but you can't have mine"

The person with the Bronx sign kept the sign turned around until his line

Les was fully not at the rally, which, what?

Jack also didn't get into any physical altercations at the rally, which, again, what? Weird choices were made there!

Much like the pre-WWK scene, the ensemble was weirdly quiet.

This is probably an unoriginal thought about STBI, but I think a potential way to make the "or is it because I'm a girl?" line less weird is to have Katherine deliver it in a more resigned/frustrated than accusatory tone ("I'm dealing with this again? Really?") - her concern of being dismissed is not invalid, but I think it's less to do with Jack specifically and more to do with the world she lives in.

The way Jack said "if you weren't an heiress" killed me

There were fog machines during OAFA and the scene leading up to it, and that plus the lighting during the scene looked SO COOL

Davey and Jack had their arms around each other during the beginning of OAFA and Katherine just kinda stood next to them (close by, but still) which was. a choice.

During the lines "ready to fight us a war" and "talk about seizing the day" there were choreography callbacks to "either they gives us our rights or we gives them a war" and a section of the Seize the Day choreography.

Katherine kissed Jack on the cheek before she left, which was very cute

Davey and Jack stood face-to-face very close together with their hands on each other's shoulders at the end of OAFA and it was, again, certainly a (very gay) choice

Pulitzer terrified Bunsen out of the room during the phone call bit, which led into Bunsen presumably encountering Jack and co. and then escorting them in

Jack turned to Katherine instead of Davey after the Roosevelt handshake, which I disliked not for Javid reasons but just because Davey has context for the interaction and Katherine doesn't.

During the line "New York's got us, and we're family" Pulitzer stuck his head over Katherine's shoulder. Katherine was not particularly happy with this development, but I thought it was funny.

Katherine and Les hugged in the final scene!!!

Snyder being sent to jail in Broadway!Newsies always makes me miss 92sies!Crutchy's "make friends with the rats" line

Jack and Crutchie didn't hug until the very end (right after Jack and Davey hugged), which I thought was a weird choice to make. No one hugged Crutchie when he first entered either, which was sad and honestly made Crutchie feel less like part of the group :( (which is a staging choice I disagree with)

There was no curtain call, just slower-paced bows that extended from the curtain call music through the bow music. Also, someone juggled during the bows?? I need to figure out if I've met that person given how small the juggling community is in my neck of the woods.

...This kind of just turned into a stream of consciousness infodump. Bone apple teeth!

[blacclotusss]

Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before Light

I mainly want to talk about three main things that I gravitated towards in this episode: Claudia & Madeleine, Armand & the Coven, and The Trial. 

Claudia & Madeleine

I didn't expect to be all for this companionship the way that I am, but this relationship is so sweet and as pure as it can get between a human and a vampire turned immortal love. I think their connection and their relationship represent what all these immortal relationships could be. They seem to understand one another and learned how to work with what the other was offering and I think that's the sweetest thing. I knew they would get along and probably form some sort of bond from their first interaction (absolutely loved Claudia in this scene and how she moved). I'm glad Claudia found someone who is all for her without their being any weird animosity, like with the coven, or feeling as if the most important person in her life is choosing everyone else but her. The description of the little scene of Claudia in daylight with her beautiful yellow dress being from Madeleine's mind was so, so beautiful and nearly moved me to tears. Finally, even if it was just a vision, we see Claudia happy and cheerful as she deserves to have been all her life. This woman has been through enough and it stinks that things end for her the way the way they do, at least in other versions of this story. I'm glad she was able to find a companion, even if it were just for a short period of time. Oh how I wish they would have stayed traveling the world...

Armand & The Coven

Let's start with Armand by himself and everything he has going on. Armand is a powerful, yet insecure guy that needs some structure in his life and will fall apart if he doesn't have it. My personal belief is that's the reason why he doesn't let that coven go not does he really get too physical with them, I mean he's got the whole mind thing going on so he doesn't really have to. But, as much as he is insecure and powerful, he's also manipulative. Manipulation is literally this man's day job and it was hilarious when he said "Are you asking me, Maitre?" when he and Louis was like "...okay girl we ain't doing this today." But, he knows how to work a crowd and a room, which we've seen with the dinner and in San Francisco and even in Dubai with the whole "you asked for it" thing. He likes to spin things like he's a DJ playing a set and even I had to come to the realization of just how bad he is. Again, he is a beautifully tragic individual (the third tragic beauty I have attached myself to) but that's a sneaky little thing. 

Now, in regards to him and the coven, Armand was never going to fight that coven on matters regarding Claudia. Louis? Probably. But he has the same goal of getting Claudia out of the way that Louis' previous man did. Not only does he feels she's in the way of their relationship, but she is the living embodiment of a broken immortal law. I think he probably wanted her out from the moment he figured them out, which was day one. I was also trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there was absolutely no way he didn't hear them plotting. Maybe that's why he told Louis they should leave...O don't know! My question is if he will actually interfere with them, and I'm assuming, trying to kill Louis? Like, that's supposed to be his love, I'm hoping he does something. And, I need to know what Louis' reasoning was for staying with him after that, unless it's some more memory stuff. Did he know Lestat would be there? Also, cannot wait to see how Daniel will aid in unfolding all of this. 

The Trial

This whole thing is really a damn headache and I hope every coven member gets burned down to a crisp, especially that bleach blonde heifer parading around like he's the best actor to walk the earth. I'm glad Armand AND Louis yoked him up! Buffoon! I always knew there was something with that man, he gave too many mysterious looks for me as if he was trying to pick them apart from the inside. He even goes on to try and get close to Claudia just to put her on trial for killing her abuser. Guillotine! Go meet you maker, thesp! And speaking of abuser...it's so funny how they bring Lestat into this whole thing when he's definitely a part of the problem. Aside from all of the nonsense and abuse he's put Louis and Claudia through, he also broke one of the rules by turning Claudia at 14 years old all because his miserable self couldn't bear to be alone or without Louis. Are they going to try and kill him, too? Or is he their God just like Armand once was? This is sarcasm if you didn't catch it. It's just...very questionable that they overlook everyone else's faults to get rid of her. And why is Madeleine on trial? That girl ain't do a thing to them people. Will they torture Armand as well by making him watch? I'm just rambling my thoughts at this moment, but I can't help but notice...something about the way these people move. 

[bobcatmoran]

So, I went to see Back to the Future: The Musical today. The special effects (including an Actual Delorean) were top-tier, with very good use of multiple layers of projection to look like the Delorean was going up to 88 mph and then traveling through time. I cracked up at the pre-show "Please turn off your cell phones, they did not exist in 1985" projected messages.

The choreography for the dance numbers was also very good, and I have zero complaints about any of the actors except the guy who played Doc Brown with so much Comedic Mugging and Funny Voice that I wouldn't have been able to understand even half of what he said if so much of the dialogue wasn't ripped direct from the movie. The actor for George McFly excelled at physical comedy, the actor for Lorraine (Marty's mom) played her character as EXTREMELY horny while the Marty actor dug into the "aghghghgh nononono" response. And there was some very funny bits with diagetic chorus suddenly becoming non-diagetic (i.e. what seemed like the extras just doing a song and dance number because this is a musical being noticed by the main cast).

They also replaced the Libyan Terrorists storyline with Doc Brown having a failure in his antique radiation suit while handling plutonium and dying of acute radiation poisoning while Marty drives the Delorean over 88 mph in an attempt to get help (the alternate final timeline has him surviving it because he gets a Very Modern Radiation Suit vs the OG movie storyline where he buys a bulletproof vest to counteract the Libyan Terrorists shooting him). They also skipped over the "Hey, Chuck Berry, listen to this white boy inspire you to create an early classic Rock 'n' Roll song" nonsense.

But. The script. It was just the thinnest of scaffolds to go from moment to moment of, "Hey, do you remember this famous line from the OG movie? Here's another line that you probably remember! Oh, remember this moment? We're recreating it on stage, yay!"

Overall, aside from a few peak special effects moments, it all came off as a theme park show, and not a particularly good one. I salute all the actors for their efforts (except the guy who played Doc Brown, good grief, he ruined every scene he was in, including the post-intermission song which I literally couldn't understand because he insisted on doing a Humorous Voice), but I stand by my decision to be one of the few people in the theater who didn't give it a standing ovation.

[shrekgogurt]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thank you for the tags! @artsyunderstudy @roomwithanopenfire @youarenevertooold @emeryhall @monbons @larkral I'm eating up reading your answers because we're all so DIFFERENT.

How many works do you have on AO3? 9 (technically 10 but we orphaned one of them out of shame)

What’s your total AO3 word count? 99,978 (mine) + 7,531 (shared) + 9,991 (someone else's) = 117, 500 (total)

What fandoms do you write for? presently, Carry On but back during my high school ff.net days I did some Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus (Percabeth and some separate OCs), Alex Rider (OCs), The 100 (as an elaborate prank), Harry Potter (literally just a My Immortal parody), and Divergent (OCs) and if they weren't oneshots they were never finished.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? YES! I'm currently behind on my replies, but it's so fun! It's like a book club but for stuff I created!!???? Shit rocks. I fully didn't expect anyone to read IKABIKAM (my first fic on ao3) when I first published it and so every comment still feels like a miracle.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I love collaborating because it gives me something to bounce off of. A scene partner. A ticking timer. It's like lifting a heavy object by yourself versus getting someone else to bear some of the weight with you. It's easier. I also find myself constantly seeking collaboration with other people even with my solo fics. I'm all up in those DMs pestering people both as motivation and as external processing. And by GOD, do you fuckers have some good ideas. Y'all make me exponentially better.

What’s your all-time favorite ship? SnowBaz but also in a very real sense...Percabeth. (You never forget your first.)

What are your writing strengths? I got my start with rping, so dialogue is really comfortable for me. I also think my training in other art forms (dance, music, theatre, film, academia) positively influence my approach. When writing action, I often mentally frame it as 'blocking' the scene or 'choreographing' the movement. When crafting sentences, I'm constantly evaluating the rhythm and rhyme and repetition (not to mention alliteration) as if it's a song, always searching for the perfect word or metaphor. I also listen to actual songs and pull the emotion from them, using them as character studies or a musical soliloquy. I imagine shots and then write what I see from the perspective of a director explaining the actor’s motivating thoughts. I constantly revisit my thesis, grounding the narrative in callbacks and a cohesive structure like it's an academic paper. And all those things combined create this kinetic cause and effect style I'm really proud of and tangibly improves every time I write something new.

What are your writing weaknesses? I do not have a firm grasp on proper grammar. I'm also really slow and inconsistent with my output because my process is so physically disorganized and meticulous which often frustrates me. I'm also impatient. I don't do wholesale messy drafts; I edit as I go and when I'm done I want it published immediately. I also fall victim to the white room syndrome with physical descriptions. Establishing shots? Don't know them. What a guy looks like? What they're wearing? Sorry, I haven't told you because it felt weird to jam in there. Outside of fanfiction, I also struggle with creating something from nothing. I'm a theologian rather than a god. I much prefer playing in a sandbox and exegeting meaning from someone else's grunt work rather than conjuring the wood and the sand myself. My writing is also incredibly referential to pop culture which I'm not sure would translate outside of fanfic, but I guess I'll cross that bridge if I ever get to it.

First fandom you wrote for? Divergent (big cringe)

Now tagging! @onepintobean @cutestkilla @theearlgreymage @thewholelemon @mooncello @brilla-brilla-estrellita @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @bookish-bogwitch @facewithoutheart @fatalfangirl @urban-sith @prettygoododds @valeffelees @ileadacharmedlife TELL ME HOW YOU WRITE YOU GENIUSES

[tangyangie]

— 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐌 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

let's be honest. he's still gonna be a jerk to you.

but at first, he'll treat you with the same (fake) kindness as he does everyone else.

even with the personality he puts up in front of everyone, he felt some sort of attraction to you. he doesn't ever really like anyone—so this is definitely new to him. give him a second.

he'd probably still try to put up his front, but the awkwardness would seep through. he's a good enough actor that you can't tell... though, he'd probably try to get away from you as fast as he can so that you don't realize. you notice something, but can't tell what.

as you spend more and more time together, he tries hinting you about him. but, you're so oblivious to them that he gives up on that front.

eventually, you like him, and he can tell. he wants to tell you, but he's worried that you'd leave and never speak to him again—let alone like him.

he wouldn't let you confess to him before he told you, though. he has some dignity, and wouldn't want to make you feel dirty toilet water.

so, he told you very bluntly. if he eases into it, it'd probably be harder for you to believe.

"y/n, i've been faking my personality this entire time."

"sorry, what?"

"sorry, let me say it better for you. i'm a phony. a fake."

"...wait, what?!"

"i give up."

once you acclimate to this information, david probably goes away to give you some time. he doesn't want you to get too overwhelmed before he can tell you he likes you, too. however that happened.

soon enough, you tell him you don't hate him.

you do want to spend some more time together before you can officially say that you like him, but it goes faster than you'd expect.

even with his doggy poopie personality, you end up liking him more than you'd think.

you are hesitant to confess to him, though. with the way he's acting—if you were wrong about him liking you, you'd never see him again. as easy as that would be.

he catches on, and decides to risk his feeling of superiority and be the one in the vulnerable spot. he confesses es very similarly to how he told you about his personality. extremely flatly.

once you guys are officially together, he's very possessive. i'm talking death stares at everyone that gets too close that he doesn't approve of, hand on you at all times, constantly pulling you towards him... he's clingy. doesn't want to admit it.

love language is definitely physical touch. you think he can use his words to tell you?? no. physical touch and quality time.

he lets you play with his hair. it's like turning a shark on its back—he goes completely silent. he doesn't normally fall asleep, but you wouldn't be surprised if he did.

one time, you tied his hair into a small ponytail. he looked really cute, and you made sure to let him know!! he cursed you under his breath, but didn't take it out.

i feel like he'd be a really good cook. i can vividly imagine in in an apron making cookies or cake!! but he makes good food other than baking—but those are like heaven in a single bite.

(lovingly) calls you mean names. and tells you to kys. you know he's joking, but sometimes... it's hard to tell.

plays games with you. he cheats.

"how'd you get the extra thousand monopoly dollars??"

"wow. i really don't know. that's... that's a real head-scratcher, there."

"david, i will stuff the bills down your throat."

"sure, you will. just like you got the boardwalk."

"you stole the boardwalk!!"

"can't steal it if it's not yours, stupid."

"i'm still getting park place."

"i will murder you."

mmmm makeouts.

he loves to make out with you. he's very handsy.

another hair grabber, i think. he's kinda lazy about things, so pulling you in closer in such an intimate but low-effort way makes it really easy for him!!

teases you with his looks, probably. i can imagine him leaning in to kiss you and just looking you right in the eyes with a grin on his face.

and then he grabs you and buries you in a kiss.

he steals blankets on the bed, couch—wherever you are, you'll end up freezing to death. he'll be warm and comfy, dead asleep.

he doesn't apologize verbally, but will try and refrain from taking the warm covers. if that doesn't work, he'll just bring more.

you guys will probably have separate blankets now to prevent him from taking your warmth.

definitely not a morning person. i can see him sleeping till 1 in the afternoon if you'd let him. probably tries to hold you in the bed with him to prevent your escape.

he's pretty muscular, i think. probably lifts you up randomly to mess with you. tosses you onto the couch.

big hands.

you can't help but notice them. if they were an idol, they'd have the best stage presence ever—they just draw your attention so easily.

like i said earlier, he's handsy. drags out his touches to annoy you.

you guys end up watching each other's shows.—i can see the two of you curled up and binging criminal minds, or something.

it was kind of a side effect of getting together... your interests kind of merged.

notes. there's absolutely no new content for david and i'm going crazy... so here's this for my drdt fans!! and if you're a danganronpa lover and you haven't watched it please do it's so good!! (esp for the nagito stans you're gonna love david)

and the doggy poopie was a while you were sleeping reference because they said that line while i was writing what i was originally going to use, and i decided it was perfect !!

sorry for all the notes, but i'm kind of delusional when it comes to david !! so this is probably a bit ooc...

and finally... i'm so so so so sorry for how long it's been 💔💔 i've had no motivation to write ☹️

[nxposure]

On my last blog, I wrote about my eating disorder at great length. I think it's time to do it again. If you don't like long text posts, feel free to skip this, but don't skim read it and reply because that's not nice.

TW if you need it, eating disorders, self harm, body dysmorphia.

----

People seem to think that eating disorders don't really apply to men. I spent my entire childhood listening to just about everyone passing judgement on other people's weight. As a boy, my apparent role models were all athletes, thin or muscular actors, skinny popstars and guys in music, and any husky person was either funny or tragic.

As I got older, I noticed these attitudes getting worse. Muscular men between acting jobs would stop cutting and starving their bodies, but would still look like peak physical condition but would be referred to as having a 'dad bod'.

Older still, I'd see people waggling their little fingers making jokes about small dicks, or laughing about people who cum to quick. People were too tall or not tall enough. Then they'd be too skinny if they were too fat. Then, laughs about baldness or their bodies being too hairy. It went on and on.

It melted my brain. I wanted to be whatever this idea shape was and deep down, I knew it wasn't possible, and I developed an immovable self loathing that I suspect I'll carry with me through my whole life.

I'd hear women getting similar criticisms, and the criticisms came equally from women and men, gay and straight, and of all races and creeds, and I think somewhere in my thoughts, I gave up trying to find a peaceful way of navigating this and began to purge every time I ate. I was playing a lot of team sports and would vomit before every game. I'd then go home, eat, and repeat. I became dangerously thin and people would tell me my body looked great.

I would pass out a lot through exhaustion and my eyes became dark. At some point I collapsed and hit my face on a shelf, then a radiator, and pretended to everyone that I'd just been in a fight.

After a short time thinking I'd fixed myself after scaring myself when I'd collapsed, it started again. I switched out bulimia for anorexia. I was now not eating at all. I remember hitting my hand with a spoon over and over when someone brought me some food to work, anxiety in overdrive as I hoped they wouldn't notice me not touching any of the food they gave me. That happened a lot and the back my hand was frequently purple with bruises.

I've kept a photo of a more recent period so I have something to check, in case I've dropped too much weight. This was me not that long ago, irresponsibly thin and I'd made myself very poorly. The skirt is cute though.

It was around this time that I'd collapsed again, this time in public. I was rushed to hospital with malnutrition and it was in the middle of lockdown so hospitals were swamped and everything was weird.

I was given a COVID test and while the nurses went to do my test, I sneaked out of the hospital because I didn't want them to tell me anything about how thin I was, even though they'd already clocked me. I walked home and collapsed three more times in the street, and twice more at home. I managed to get myself back to hospital eventually and spent the night under observation and was fed sugary gels and put on a drip to try and replace some of what my body had been missing for months.

I again discharged myself and ran away from the problem.

I was disgusted with myself. I was being irresponsible. I thought I looked enormous. I then made myself more depressed because I shouldn't talk about people's bodies like that. I loved people of all shapes and sizes and here I was, judging someone for being fat. I didn't eat or drink a single thing for two weeks after being in hospital. I was going mad. It was time to tell my friends what was going on, and it turned out a number of them had already worked it out.

One of the things I needed to fix was some of the people I sought advice from. I'd found people in secret who also had eating disorders and people who self harmed. It sounded like we were helping each other from the outside in, but the reality was that we were all enabling each other. Some call it trauma bonding. I call it unwell people egging each other on and even being competitive about it.

One girl said to me that my eating disorder wasn't as bad as hers. She gave me tips on how to act like I was getting better to other people. Saying you're trying is as good as actually trying, she added. It's all part of the performance.

I didn't want to be ill. I just wanted to not feel violently sick when I thought about my own body existing. I wanted to not be perceived at all, and to be left in darkened rooms, wasting away. While I spent all those nights, just lying there, I realised that this illness wasn't like other illnesses. Cancer wants to devour you. Broken bones want to heal. This eating disorder wanted me to stay alive but maximise the suffering in a prolonged bout of self harm. Me being dead was no use to my dysmorphia. I did just enough to stay alive, so I could maximise the suffering. It was like an endurance sport with no medal.

At some point, my name was put forward to appear on a news programme on national television. One of my supposed support network worked in TV and was asked if they knew anyone who had what had been rebranded as 'manorexia'. It's funny - even when showing concern, people still do stupid things like giving an illness that applies to anyone a ridiculous name. We don't call it blokeaemia do we?

After speaking to the genuinely respected and very nice journalist who I'd seen on television a lot, she was heavy handed in her questions. Things like "is it just vanity then?" is one that sticks in my memory. After 3 days of back and forth, the news story was dropped because a panda had given birth in a zoo somewhere. My sense of the absurd and gallows humour kicked in, mercifully. Men's eating disorders, relegated beneath a captive animal having a baby.

Another friend who was genuinely being well-meaning told me how brave I was, "going around telling everyone you have a woman's disease". I wasn't angry because I knew what they meant, but to someone more fragile, it could have gone horribly wrong. Another friend simply said "I don't want to ever talk about this - it's too upsetting."

I became aware of famous men talking about their eating disorders. A politician called John Prescott spoke of his and everyone laughed at it and made jokes on panel shows, based entirely on the fact that he wasn't thin enough. Everyone laughed at Hugh Jackman on talkshows when he spoke of the starvation and duress he put his body under to look a certain way for movies. Thin women were pointed at when they put an ounce of weight on. I heard women sniggering about other women saying "what does she look like in that dress?"

More recently, people would berate the 45th president of the United States for being "fat", rather than going after more pertinent things like his whole personality and terrible views. Fat, in this instance, was the ultimate sin, not being pro-fascist. I noticed how many larger men were clowning around at their own expense, and women would coo about them online. People like Jack Black - talented, good looking, charismatic - would be met with "I don't care that he's fat".

So where am I now? Mentally, the damage is done and I don't think I'll ever lose the will to harm myself. However, since my last collapse, I swore I'd never go there again. I rigidly eat three times a day. I've actively learned to enjoy the cooking process. It's been incredibly difficult, perhaps in part because I stubbornly refuse any professional help. I looked around for a psychiatrist who would help at one point, but every single one told me that they weren't taking men on.

Way back when, I started sharing photos of my body on Tumblr in a state of undress because I wanted to normalise how I looked. If I sandwiched myself between everyone else's nudes which I thought were beautiful, then I gave myself a chance to think the same of my own. It certainly helped. There's something about the kind of people this site attracts that celebrates a variety of people and I can be flooded with dopamine when my photos get complimented. They're compliments from people that sometimes get it, and that matters. Some people just think I'm being thirsty, and sometimes, they're absolutely correct.

My stomach has grown. There's fat bits on my back which I've never seen before. My neck got chunky where my jawline used to be razor sharp. At long last, I'm learning to love this. I love the softness of people's bodies, and it's taken me decades to realise that I'm just people too. I wear soft clothes that feel nice against my skin. I've collaborated on photos with wonderful people. While my dysmorphia is so bad that I doubt I'll ever find it easy to sexually pleasure myself, I've been shocked to find that people on here have actually had me feeling like a viable and sexy person! It's a completely new feeling to me and I'm trying to get better at taking compliments instead of pushing them away.

I've written about this before and at some length, but I feel it's important to do it again so it doesn't get lost. It might help someone. It might help people understand me better. It might help someone understand what their friend is going through. It might just be enough to offer an interesting perspective and nothing more.

I'm doing better than I've done in memory and it's weird and makes me feel vulnerable. I don't want to get complacent and writing this reminds me of how far I've come and not to let this terrible illness sneak up on me again. I've been through some horrendous emotional stress recently, and that's exactly the kind of time where a thing like this can reintroduce itself into my brain.

I'm doing okay though, genuinely. I can only write about these things when I'm in a good place. I hope you are too. If anyone ever needs to speak to me about anything like this, I can't promise I can fix you, but I can definitely empathise and I will root for you.

(please forgive any typos or garbled language in this - I wrote it in one take, off the cuff, without editing)