#fun fact I colored this at first to look like he was from the 70s

[starfiresky]

Did a little redesign of Riku and his oversized car key ✨

[morlock-holmes]

I recently found this article about Robin DiAngelo and it's really stuck in my head now. This woman is so instructive about the underlying psychological processes animating us in the early 20s, and it's totally unintentional, which makes her fascinating to me.

Partway through her presentation, DiAngelo asked us, “What are some of the ways your race has shaped your life?” She told us to give our answers to each other and added that if we were white and happened to be sitting beside someone of color, we were forbidden to ask the person of color to speak first. It might be good policy, mostly, for white people to do more listening than talking, but, she said with knowing humor, it could also be a subtle way to avoid blunders, maintain a mask of sensitivity and stay comfortable. She wanted the white audience members to feel as uncomfortable as possible.

In our group of three, Southern, who is white, went first. Like Woods, she was already steeped in DiAngelo’s ideas; Southern had led two church book groups in discussing “White Fragility.” She was fully persuaded that, as she said to me afterward, “we’re all racist in that we’re swimming in a culture that is racist,” and that “we don’t think, as white people, of white as a race that comes with all kinds of conditioning.” Yet, in the moment, in response to DiAngelo’s question, she struggled. She couldn’t articulate much of anything about how she’d been shaped by being white.

I went next. I, too, was ready for everything I heard from DiAngelo. In fact, I knew this very question was coming. Just the day before, I’d been to a session she ran for a fractious city department that agreed to let me watch as long as I didn’t describe the event; the department’s equity team had brought her in to spur white self-awareness. But I had failed to speak about my whiteness as formative. That is, I noted that my color gave me infinite advantages, but the words, while sincere, were passionless. I emphasized instead that three of my five nonfiction books were about race, that I thought about race constantly, that back in junior high my best friend was one of the few Black students in my school, part of an experimental busing program in the early ’70s, and that the way our friendship ended still haunted me, that I’d betrayed him badly.

At some point after our answers, DiAngelo poked fun at the myriad ways that white people “credential” themselves as not-racist. I winced. I hadn’t meant to imply that I was anywhere close to free of racism, yet was I “credentialing”? And today, after a quick disclaimer acknowledging the problem with what I was about to do, I heard myself offering up, again, these same nonracist bona fides and neglecting to speak about the effects of having been soaked, all my life, by racist rain. I was, DiAngelo would have said, slipping into the pattern she first termed “white fragility” in an academic article in 2011: the propensity of white people to fend off suggestions of racism, whether by absurd denials (“I don’t see color”) or by overly emotional displays of defensiveness or solidarity (DiAngelo’s book has a chapter titled “White Women’s Tears” and subtitled “But you are my sister, and I share your pain!”) or by varieties of the personal history I’d provided.

This is like some fucking 70s EST or scientology brainwashing shit.

Like, look at the list of responses to this question:

If you deny that being white shaped your life, that's White Fragility;

If you are too eager to show solidarity, that's White Fragility;

If you share personal history, that's White Fragility

If you talk about times when you were made aware of racism, that's White Fragility;

It seems like pretty much every single thing a white person could possibly say in response to that question is "White Fragility".

DiAngelo is clear that we're all inherently racist, but I want you to attend to the emotions that the author, Daniel Bergner expresses. He and his white colleague are eager to participate, and they know, and have heard, that their participation will be racist, but their primary emotions are anxiety and shame.

They are convinced that they have somehow shamefully failed at a very important task, despite the fact that DiAngelo is very, very clear that there is no way to succeed.

More than that, they feel shame at their desire to succeed, and anxiety at the idea of not trying to succeed.

Honestly as you keep track of the article watch how good DiAngelo is at subordinating people:

The surge of attention, DiAngelo told me, made her at once leery and hopeful. She worried that the posts were “performative,” the book “just a badge.” Yet, she said, “there’s a sense of scales falling from people’s eyes,” mostly because of the killings of Floyd and, before that, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, but also, she believed, because of the work she and her antiracism colleagues have been doing. She felt a similar mix about the ASAP emails from corporations. “The very urgency itself says you don’t have a very deep understanding of how hard this work is, and how long it takes and how ongoing it needs to be,” she said. “Racism is not going to go away by August, so how about we do it in August?”

Being too excited to start being antiracist is evidence of how bad you are at being antiracist!

This woman is a terrifying menace.

What struck me reading both White Fragility and this article is the way that this way of talking and thinking distracts extremely heavily from concrete action. Everything pulls into an increasingly subjective, and religious realm, and the question of what we're actually trying to do recedes back into the fog:

Singleton spoke along similar lines. I asked whether guiding administrators and teachers to put less value, in the classroom, on capacities like written communication and linear thinking might result in leaving Black kids less ready for college and competition in the labor market. “If you hold that white people are always going to be in charge of everything,” he said, “then that makes sense.” He invoked, instead, a journey toward “a new world, a world, first and foremost, where we have elevated the consciousness, where we pay attention to the human being.” The new world, he continued, would be a place where we aren’t “armed to distrust, to be isolated, to hate,” a place where we “actually love.”

Bergner, and basically everybody he interviews, have gotten so excited to tell us whether this is a good idea or a bad one that they have forgotten to explain what "this" actually is.

I want you to do something brave. For a moment, forget that you and I think that it is utterly asinine to devalue "written communication" and let's agree with Singleton, putting emphasis on it is an example of white supremacist thinking.

Let's also pretend that we are teachers. What are we doing differently?

What specific classroom policy are we putting into place?

Are we eliminating all written classroom material?

Are we allowing social studies students to choose whether they prefer to give reports orally or as a finished written document?

Are we doing exactly what we were doing yesterday but trying to keep in mind that we shouldn't assume that a student is stupid just because they struggle with reading?

You'll notice that the range of options goes from "Insane radical thing that the school will never do" to "Something so obvious that basically any sane person will agree that it's a good idea"

You'll also notice that it's like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually put things into concrete terms like that (None of the people interviewed for that article is capable of doing so).

Hell, you know what I didn't notice until just now?

During a training in January 2019 run by [Darnisa] Amante-Jackson , which Chislett recorded, Amante-Jackson...went on to present “some characteristics of whiteness,” prominent among them “an obsession with the written word. If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.”

During a later session a white employee causes a giant stir by... wait for it...

Refusing to write on a poster during a brain-storming session.

This is the powerful hypnosis these people are working; you and I can listen to them talk about "obsession with the written word" and it doesn't occur to them or us to ask why so much of their anti-racist workshop revolves around the written word, revolves around demands to use the written word, and grinds to a halt when people refuse.

[spottheantisemitism]

"what if the X-men were black?" is a racist, antisemitic and anti-intersectional screed that 2013 tumblr fell in love with

Published in 2013 this made rounds of OG tumblr and made Bobby of Pencilscratchins draw all her Jewish X-men characters as brown.

Erik because he has Romani heritage (which is realistic and based and accurate to some comics).

Anon go kick rocks with your colorism! YOU read holocaust testimonies!

Also fun fact Nazi Germany did not understand black and brown the way Americans do so it was based on ethnicity and not color, a brown Jew and a pale white passing Jew were seen as one and the same to the Nazis

Guess which article she linked

It's this one!

But said Kitty was Latine because "the quintessential X-girl of the 70s shouldn't be white"

Kitty already is a queer woman of color because she's Jewish. Jews are POC. Bobby what the hell? Are you implying she's only coded non-white because she's Jewish or Mutant? what the hell?!

(BTW Bobby left Tumblr around Covid but if you send her hate asks because of this essay you'll end up on spot-the-antisemitism blocklist for harrasment)

Where did she get this "Jews are white and should be race lifted?" stuff? Why from Orion!

Top paragraph is fine!

antisemitism is written the gentile way that supports a racist eugenicist, off to a bad start.

Sexism is not covered? OH explain Storm's arcs of misogynoir or Jean's and Maddy's arc of going insane because she has the power of a god but is forced to be housewife and marry her sweetheart and have kids

Ableism is not explored? I'm sorry what about XAVIER'S ENTIRE ARC OF ABLIEST SELF HATRED AND OVERCOMING IT IN THE PREQUELS? The first class all being rich talented codedly disabled kids going to a prep school for the gifted. Disabled people really liking non human passing characters like Nightcrawler (and hating Xavier since he's too assimilationist to many). I'm sorry why do people fall for such blatant lies? the mentor of the X-men is literally canonically disabled and Orion has the GALL to claim ableism is not explored.

_ Genosha is half fall of south Africa Apartheid and half the establishment of the state of Israel hence why the metaphor is so messy and problematic

_ Yes that number is deliberately "like the holocaust but worse" because Morrison likes their holocaust appopriation

_ Why didn't you mention it's an allegory for Gay conversion therapy torture because Bryan Singer is gay?

_ Yes Legacy Virus is Mutant Aids good job on your media literacy finally kicking in Orion

It's racism AND antisemitism but your "antisemtism doesn't exist in america" ass doesn't get that

I do hate "mutie" as slur and the way Kitty thinks it's comparable to antisemtic and anti-black slurs and USES them to make a point, so yeah something Orion and I agree on.

The sequence used is of Stevie Hunter the human ally character who like Xavier started teaching after she became disabled. She IS used as prop here to say Kitty is right in calling her the n-word (Claremont is racist sometimes).

But Orion can't tell her apart from Storm. Buddy if you can't tell the ONLY two black women in this comic apart, you're the racist.

OK they're both props but it proves you never actually read the comics or you can't tell fictional black women apart neither of which is a good look

(Cole also points out the Kitty and Magneto are not White but Jewish he is dogpiled and called a fake fan for this (see below))

Keep Shyminksy out of your mouth you racist fake fan

OH NO! I hate this!

So you decided to go with the colorist idea that the man is darker and the innocent girl in need of protecting is lighter. Gross colorism worthy of a Hollywood action movie where the black guy dies

"Local black man can't related to white disabled teens facing ableism and makes it about racism so he can relate to it" is giving gamergate chud energy to me

If you can't see why a Russian man is almost killed by a mob of xenophobic red blooded Americans and HAVE to make this about anti-black racism that's on you and your misunderstanding of the way Russians were hated during the cold war.

Oh you are race swapping x-men while shitting on Psylocke who the result of basically the same idea? How hypocritical

Dwayne McDuffe does have a point but your quote does not utilize his point in any way.

Then DON'T raceswap Wolverine if he becomes the angry black man. Think before you can X-men racism and tokenism WORSE with your race-swapping

NO THEY DON'T strawman rejected

Ah yes! Magneto, famously a very white man whose childhood was full of white privilege/ Sarcasm

One of the co-authors of the website has the gall to double down on calling Magneto white:

"as a REAL fan you're fake fan, antisemitism doesn't exist and Holocaust survivor Jews are white" - this racist defending his token black friend's racist screed because some guy called Cole DARED call Orion on his bullshit

*"I didn't like that the X-men were about white passing and invislbe disability so I made about anti black racism" also "judiasm is just a religion" canard

**Again leave Shyminksy and Morrison's good takes alone

***Yeah you get Luke Cage, that's how you get the racism of bad Luke Cage comics. You ain't inventing the racist wheel here

Orion I hate your take, I hate your misunderstanding of antisemitism and ableism that makes the two main factions tick, I hate your self centerness, I hate your racist and antisemitic co-writer making excuses for you and I REALLY hate that this did to the 2013 X-fandom what Lily Orchard did to the 2019 Steven Universe fandom and we can still see people using your bullshit arguments today

Oh and Cole? thank you for your service you're the real hero of this story, hated and feared for daring to call out the establishment

[marsmarauders]

As I work on my Marauders Era screenplay, I often visualize my face claims (let me know if you’d like to see them!) and spend a lot of time imagining their outfits and hairstyles. Since I have some (very little) experience in costume design for theatre, I thought it would be fun to share my ideas.

(I’m aware they spend most of their time in uniform, but I’m envisioning outfits for trips to Hogsmeade, vacations, and their other downtime).

I’m aiming to stay true to the era, but obviously, not everyone wore peak 70s trends every single day. I want to include some everyday casual wear like sweatpants, sweatshirts, t-shirts, jeans, and other things, so I’m also trying to include those as well!

Oh and shout-out to @idkjustlemmedrownlikerab and @taleofapart-timepoet for the feedback and assistance!

~

Some unnecessary disclaimers!

1: I’m pretty sure I fact-checked that everything mentioned was around in the seventies. If something is wrong, feel free to let me know!

2: These are my headcanons, and if you disagree with them, that is fine! I would love to hear your thoughts, but please be kind about it!

3: All characters are beautiful, no matter how they are depicted.

With that out of the way- let’s get started, shall we?

~

JAMES POTTER

Regarding casual wear, I think James opted for t-shirts, specifically graphic, bootcut jeans (or denim shorts, yes, you heard me), and a denim jacket. That denim jacket was his muggle item. Whenever Remus or Lily brought him to muggle cities, he always wore his denim jacket. If it was hotter, he'd wear a button-up shirt open over his t-shirt. He wore red Converse (with socks), red Crocs (with socks), and on a rare occasion, leather platform shoes. He’d also wear his Quidditch jersey everywhere. (He is number 18. What's 18 backwards? Oh-) His color palette mainly consisted of reds, blues, whites, and yellows.

His dark hair was always a mess. It was wavey and swoopy, and it’s what had half the girls (and Regulus) falling for him. He had bronze round glasses, and he was quite literally blind without them (he was nearsighted). He also loved bracelets. Marlene and Pandora made them together all the time, and he’d always ask for another one to add to his collection. He had his ears pierced at some point after Marlene and Sirius got a hold of a muggle piercer, but he let them close up not long after. When he got older, he grew a mustache and he was proud of it. I don’t think he had facial hair anywhere else on his face, as both he and Lily preferred how he looked without it.

SIRIUS BLACK

We know Sirius rocked the leather jacket whenever he could. Lily got him the jacket for Christmas, which is why it meant so much to him. It was authentically muggle. He also loved band t-shirts and had a huge collection of them. His favorite was a Queen shirt Lily got for him when she saw them live. (Lily loves buying clothes for people, okay?) He usually wore pretty classy muggle clothing under his jacket, like solid black slacks and a white button-up. (It wasn’t until after he got disowned that he started truly experimenting with his fashion. He started wearing more t-shirts, jeans, and just overall looser-fitting clothing). His first pair of Doc Martens from Fleamont and Euphemia in 76. He nearly cried. (And by nearly, I mean he did). His color palette mainly consisted of blacks, greys, whites, and reds.

He had long, curly black hair that his mom would force him to cut every time he went home. He never got to grow it out until he started living with James properly. It was usually down to his collarbone. He loved having his hair styled. He pierced his ears with Marlene and pierced his septum for his 21st birthday. (It closed up when he was in Azkaban). He paints his nails sometimes. He loved necklaces, bracelets, and rings. He preferred silver over gold. I don’t think he got too much into makeup, but he’d let Dorcas or Pandora do his eyeshadow occasionally. He had stubble (and a lighter mustache!), but never let it get too long. Oh, and he obviously had a ton of tattoos.

REMUS LUPIN

I’ve already written a whole essay about Remus and his relationship with all of his sweaters, so you can read that here if you’d like! As for hotter days, he’d usually wear a t-shirt (usually a band tee), with a lighter long-sleeved shirt underneath or a cardigan. On a very rare occasion, he’d wear the t-shirt without the long-sleeved top underneath, but only if it was boiling outside. He was very insecure about his scars. For bottoms, he wore corduroy pants or jeans and for shoes, it was either derby shoes or old-school vans. Sirius always described him as looking cozy. His color palette mainly consisted of browns, tans, whites, greens, and reds.

His hair was wavy. People always debate whether his hair was brunette or blonde, and I think it was more on the brunette side. It wasn’t very long, never reaching the bottom of his neck. He’d wear a necklace occasionally, but he wasn’t a big jewelry person. He was clean-shaven for most of his life, as he never really liked how he looked with facial hair.

PETER PETTIGREW

Peter sticks to sweaters, sweater vests, and t-shirts. (He gets cold very easily, which is why he tends to wear longer sleeves or heavier clothing). He has a lot of houndstooth in his closet. He usually wears jeans or jean shorts (depending on the weather). He loves wacky, goofy, socks. His favorite pair of socks have frogs on them. He wears loafers or sneakers, but he also has a pair of rat slippers that James got him as a gag gift. I think he probably rocked a flat cap every once in a while. Oh, and Peter loved overalls! He had at least five different pairs of them. His color palette mainly consisted of tans, blues, greens, and browns.

You know the Beatles members’ haircuts? Yeah, that’s the haircut Peter had when he was younger. He was a dirty blonde, 110%. I don't think Peter wore much jewelry, except for maybe a tag necklace now and then. When he started growing facial hair, he shaved it all the time, as he did not like how he looked with it at first. But, as he got older, he started growing it out a little bit and had light stubble.

LILY EVANS

Lily loved bell bottoms and flared jeans, but she would also wear skirts occasionally. She mainly wore button-up shirts, with sweaters or cardigans, or just a regular T-shirt. She also really liked those tie tops, you know the ones I’m talking about. She loved patterns and prints on her clothes, like floral, stripes, etc. I think Lily had a more conservative/modest style, and by that I mean she didn’t show her stomach or above her knees. If she did wear a shorter skirt or a dress, she’d wear tights underneath it. She loved Mary Jane shoes, but she also had a pair of Converse in basically every color. And obviously, she wore the hat. Her color palette mainly consisted of browns, oranges, greens, reds, and blues.

From the first year to around the fifth year, she had shoulder-length hair, and then after Severus and her fell out, she had one of those cliche quarter-life crisis moments where she decided she needed to grow her hair out and cut bangs. She liked to wear her hair in braids or a bun, but her favorite look was leaving it down and wearing a headband. She had a ton of flower earrings, some were made by Pandora, and she loved rings. She didn’t wear much makeup, other than mascara and like chapstick.

MARY MACDONALD

Mary loved anything flowy, poofy, and pretty. She loved tie-cardigans, cute tops with poofy sleeves, long flowy skirts and dresses, and anything knitted! (By Marlene of course). She wore Mary Janes almost exclusively (with frilly socks!) but would wear her Converse if she needed to walk a lot. She’s basically what any four-year-old girl who wanted to be a princess would dream of. If it was chilly out, she’d wear jeans and a fuzzy jacket. She loved flowers, bows, strawberries, Hello Kitty, anything that’s adorable! (I fact-checked! Hello Kitty was invented in 74!) Her color palette mainly consisted of pinks, whites, blues, greens, and some black accents here and there.

She loved to style her hair. Since it was afro-textured and long, it took a little longer for her to intricately style it, so she usually changed it every few weeks. She loved putting bows and clips in her hair! She painted her nails every week. She loved pearl necklaces and earrings. She was decently light on her makeup (mascara, blush, and lip gloss) but would go full out for events like Halloween or Quidditch matches. She had a multi-step skincare routine and had a special pink strawberry headband she used to keep her hair up. (I’m not sure if the housebound headband was a thing in the 70s, I couldn’t find any information on it, but if it wasn’t, then she made it herself!)

MARLENE MCKINNON

A lot of people will call Sirius punk, but I think that title belonged to Marlene. She wore graphic tees and tanks, ripped jeans and distressed shorts, and usually rocked Converse or Doc Martens. (She had one of Dorcas’s green Converse and vice versa). She loved fishnets. She had a ton of belts. She had a few leather jackets that she painted on the back of. (She has one with a lion on the back!) She also knitted a lot and would have fun mixing the knitted pieces with her more alternative style. Her color palette mainly consisted of blacks, whites, reds, and blues.

She had a mullet, (It might’ve been more of a wolf-cut). Her hair was super frizzy, probably from the fact that she bleached it all the time. (Yes, Marlene was a natural brunette!) In fifth year, she let her roots grow, in 6th year she had money pieces that she changed the color of all the time, and in 7th year, she dyed the bottom black. (During the war, she let it grow out properly and stopped bleaching her hair). She did her nails weekly with Mary. She pierced her ears, nose, and lip with Sirius and James. (She quickly realized that she did not enjoy the feeling of a lip ring. #sensoryissues).

DORCAS MEADOWES

Dorcas usually wore a turtle neck or a sweater, but she’d wear a halter top if it were hot. I like to think she usually stuck to skirts, and if it got cold, she’d wear tights with them. Dorcas rarely wore pants. (If it were freezing outside, she’d wear jeans). She loved combat boots and Converse. She wore vests over her turtlenecks. She had maybe fifty different pairs of sunglasses. Her color palette mainly consisted of greens, browns, blacks, and the occasional purple.

Dorcas had locs, 100%. Her favorite hairstyle was to put some of her hair in space buns, and then leave some of it down. She loved earrings. She had peace symbol earrings, cat earrings, and big circle earrings (no not hoops, I’m talking about those obnoxiously huge circle earrings). She had two ear piercings! She loved makeup. She’d wear really pretty eyeshadow, long-winged eyeliner, dark lipstick, and she always looked super cool. She had about 100 different rings that she would alternate between (her jewelry box was very organized and if you dared to mess with it, you would pay for it).

REGULUS BLACK

I don’t think his dressy style manifested solely because of the way he was raised, but I think Regulus just felt better when he looked nicer. He wore button-up shirts, dress pants, sweater vests (long or short-sleeved), and black oxford shoes. His more “casual” wear was the same thing but with sneakers. The most laid-back he was with his fashion was the occasional sweatshirt when it got cold, and if he felt really out there, he’d wear his quidditch jersey. (Sometimes, he’d even wear his uniform without the tie). His color palette mainly consisted of whites, greys, blacks, and sometimes green.

He had short, wavy hair. He never grew it out, partially because of his parents, and partially because he hated how it felt on his neck. He always kept it well-combed. He never wore makeup in public (Pandora would sometimes do it for him), pierced his ears, anything that could be deemed “feminine” by his family. (I do not think makeup or piercings are solely feminine things). He had a few rings (his first was from Sirius), and that was the only jewelry he ever wore. (In fact, the first necklace he ever wore was the fake Horcrux locket).

BARTY CROUCH JR

Barty lived the double life let me tell you. He could be the most classy, formal guy at a meeting but simultaneously be the most party-rocking individual at school ever. I like to call it the raccoon aesthetic. Cute and trashy. He wore button-ups but also tanks and hoodies. He wore holey pants but also holy pants. (Hah). He usually wore boots, no matter the outfit, but he had a pair of magenta Converse on standby if he ever needed them. His color palette mainly consisted of blacks, blues, reds, some whites, and some magentas. (Can you guess his favorite color?

His hair was wild and frizzy. He was a brunette, teetering on the edge of brown and black. He had piercings that he did himself with a needle and an ice cube. Pandora taught him how to do eyeliner, and he’d wear it whenever he was feeling particularly fancy. He was always clean-shaven and despised facial hair. He wore chains, bracelets, and rings, and none of them ever went together. He was, to put it simply, a hot mess.

EVAN ROSIER

Evan is a bit of a wildcard because I see him portrayed in so many different ways that I adore, so it took me a while to figure out how exactly I perceive him. I think I can narrow it down to one word for you guys. Comfort. He prioritizes comfort over anything. Hoodies, t-shirts, denim, sweats, vans, he just loves being comfortable. He always has a spare sweatshirt that he’ll throw on over his button-ups. (He and Pandora are always cold, so I like to joke that they run cold-blooded). He also loved beanies. He doesn’t care about being put together. His color palette mainly consists of blues, greys, whites, greens, and some tans.

His hair was ashy blonde, much like his sister’s. It was frizzy, wavy, thick, and extremely hard to maintain, and he just didn’t have the time for that. He 100% needed glasses (he was farsighted), but he hated wearing them, so he didn’t unless he was alone in his dorm and doing homework. (Being blind as a bat can kill you. Literally.). He painted his nails black and wore like two rings and one necklace max. He did have facial hair, but it was barely visible because he was blonde. He and Pandora had matching bracelets, and they wore them every single day until Evan ripped his apart when he and Pandora fell out after Regulus’s death.

PANDORA ROSIER

Pandore quite literally wore whatever the heck she wanted to. Overalls, flowy skirts, distressed shorts, patterned trousers, anything. For shirts, she’d wear anything from poofy sleeves to graphic tees. She always had a jacket or cardigan on hand, because she was always cold. She loved to wear socks, tights, leg warmers, anything to keep her cozy. She usually wore Mary Janes or sneakers, but when Uggs were invented in 78, those were her go-to's. Her color palette mainly consisted of every color that our retinas have ever seen.

Every single day, she had a different hairstyle. And she loved to accessorize with headbands, clips, hats, bandanas, flowers, she probably wore twigs in her hair at one point, just anything this girl could make work, she wore. She made all of her jewelry by hand, and most of her other accessories were altered by her in one way or another. She didn’t paint her nails, in fact, they were an utter mess. She loved makeup and would wear pretty pastel eyeshadow and thick eyeliner. I’m almost certain people would’ve mistaken her as a fairy.

~

That’s it! If you would like to see more character studies like this (about their music taste, room decor (I would love love love to do one on their room decor), etc), leave me some suggestions! Or, if you want a part two for some other characters like Severus, Alice, Frank, Emmeline, Sybill, etc, feel free to tell me! I would love to hear your thoughts!

[henrysglock]

Does Brenner really asks Henry "what changed your mind? Is there someone else"? Are you serious? Is that actual dialogue?? I'm just shocked, how is no one talking about how weird Brenner is with Henry? does it just flies over most peoples heads?? What the hell

That is straight out of the plays I saw. Both of them. Verbatim.

Henry decides to leave HNL because Patty asked him to come back to do the school play. He tells Brenner he wants to leave, and the scene more or less goes like this:

"I'm leaving." "I'm sorry to hear that. Can I ask why?" "I've decided I don't want to do this (read: make contact with the Shadow) anymore." "What changed your mind? Is there someone else?" "...No." "What, you think you can be normal? Go to prom with some stupid girl?" (Taking pages out of byler's playbook, I see)

And if I recall correctly, that's when Henry starts trying the theater doors to get out. Brenner goes on to tell Henry that he's all Henry will every have, etc. Brenner also, at one point, refers to Henry as "my boy", to which Henry whirls around and storms back towards the stage while growl-yelling "I'M NOT YOUR BOY". (And god it's so fucking good in person.)

Brenner very much treats Henry like a misbehaving/unfaithful wife. It had me gasping even the second time I saw the show and knew it was coming. I expected their dynamic to be clear, but I didn't expect it to be this blatant.

(Right down to love triangle blocking and shared color palettes! Slay. I hate it.)

More "fun" freak facts: Brenner kisses Henry on the head twice during his first stay in the lab:

When he's trying to trauma-bond Henry to himself by forcing him to lose control and kill a rat, only to present himself as a sole possible source of comfort for Henry. After Brenner cups Henry's face in his hands to take readings of his pupil sizes (1.9 and 5.9 respective to left and right eyes...1959...), Henry turns to sob into Brenner's shoulder about it, and Brenner hugs him/kisses his hair and tells him that what he did was "very good". (All of this while Henry's displaying, and I quote, "traumatic mydriasis", which is consistent with strokes and major head injuries. No medical treatment for Henry, just kisses and petting from Brenner.)

When Henry's having his grand mal seizure after displaying images of Dimension X. Brenner doesn't give him proper seizure care, he just cradles him, pets him, and kisses the top of his head. While Henry's half-aware post-seizure, Brenner asks him if he'd like to make contact with the Shadow. Henry agrees, but then as soon as he's slightly more aware he looks to a doctor behind him and literally asks for help. He looks back and says "Help..." Brenner also massages Henry's shoulders while he's ball-gagged in the '70s, and tells him he's been "such a good boy these past few years", which means he's fit to meet the children, which are referred to both as his and Brenner's children, but also as his siblings.

This means he kisses/caresses Henry more than Patty does. Period. Point blank.

Brenner also has some choice lines about Henry and killing. Henry's being forced into killing this whole time, but Brenner turns it around on him and says, verbatim, "You liked it more than you thought you would". It's 10000% giving "You actually wanted it/You were asking for it" irt being, uh, forced into doing something that you didn't want to do. (Especially irt the Shadow and all of its rape coding...Yikes!)

Brenner also massages Henry's shoulders while Henry's ball-gagged and belted to a chair in the '70s, all while telling Henry he's "been such a good boy these past years", which means Brenner has deemed him fit to meet the children...the children which are referred to both as Henry/Brenner's children, but also as Henry's siblings.

Yeah. They're considered Brenner and Henry's children ("You're as much a father to these children as I am"), but they're also Henry's "brothers and sisters". You do the math on that one.

Lots of freak vibes all around.

[singlesablog]

The Closet, Part 1.

“Everything She Wants” (1984) Wham! Columbia Records (Written by George Michael) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1

Not since Warhol painted his silkscreens of Mao Zedong in the early 70s had a project as blatantly propagandistic as Wham!, and their second album, Make it Big, appear on US shores.  It was a record with its intentions splashed across the LP cover in large, unironic text above the image it was selling: the nubile duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, hairdos perfectly coiffed, all done up like doe-eyed fashion models in high-end sportswear.  Even the colors of the album were strategic: red, white, and blue.  Wham! was clearly setting their ambitions straight for the Reagan 80s, and toward US domination.

Andy Warhol, "Mao", 1972, Silkscreen.

Like the Reagan 80s, the ideas behind the first single, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, were as fun, retro and catchy as his signature jelly beans.  I wasn’t terribly impressed with the song (first heard over the piped-in radio at the Chick-Fil-A I worked in at in the mall) until I saw the video.  There he was: George Michael, costumed in short shorts, wearing a white sweatshirt that screamed Choose Life, hugging himself as he ponied and swam about in a sea of neon colors.  It was then that the song really took off for me: George, Andrew, Pepsi and Shirlie, all having a romp, signaling that the New wave was over, and that something much bigger was ahead of us: pure, unadulterated fun.  Of course I zeroed in on George, his Greek curls laboriously blown out into a perfectly feathered mane and dyed into the colors of artificial sunshine, and in the pivotal video moment, hugging himself tightly with fingerless cotton gloves, two gold-hooped earrings glittering for the camera.  I am telling you, those earrings on George Michael were the gayest thing I had ever seen (not the straight “one” earring, but two), and thereby an annunciation: looking at him, right there on regular TV, I felt reborn.

Make it Big would spawn five top ten singles in the United States (if you count “Last Christmas”, a one-off that would appear as a double A side with “Everything She Wants” in England) and included three US number ones.  “Everything She Wants”, which followed “Wake Me”, “Careless Whisper”, and “Freedom”, would be the last to be released from the album, and it was unique in that it did not seem to be cut from the same cloth as the other singles, which were in essence modeled after Motown.  It was a song that also did not depend on a video to sell itself (not that they didn’t make one).  I was in the bathroom blow-drying a crest into my swing bang when I first heard it on the radio, and I know I must have frozen mid-bang.  Something was very different with this track.  First and most importantly it was entirely built on a synthesizer, from the Linn drum bongos that open it (George’s rough demo sample was kept for the final product) to the beautiful synth notes; in fact, like “Last Christmas”, the entire song was written and performed on one instrument, a Roland Juno-60, and both songs would be performed solely by George without any other musicians to sweeten it. He wrote and arranged it overnight, with no thought of it being a single until everyone responded to it so well. According to engineer Chris Porter: 

"I think this was when George started to realize that if he wanted to, he could do everything himself. He could [just] cut out all these other people and their ideas."

Back in my bathroom, frozen in place, I wouldn’t have perceived any of this.  What I was perceiving was something even gayer than George hugging himself in “Wake Me Up”: this new George had a voice speaking directly to me.  “Everything She Wants” is a song about a man in an unhappy marriage, an unhappy 80s marriage, to be precise, because the female in question is fixated upon perfection through consumerism.  George in the song is projecting the role of the long-suffering woman, and in an act of pure subversion instead plays the hard-working husband who has to pretend that he is fulfilled by having a wife.  He is, in essence, bitching about having to play it straight, and in my mother’s bathroom I understood completely that a song dripping in sarcasm about being in a marriage was the queerest (and possibly most liberating) thing I had ever heard in my life up until that moment, the peak, the essence, being when he sings the lines: And now you tell me that you're having my baby I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to But one step further and my back will break If my best isn't good enough, then how can it be good enough for two?

Not only were these priceless, hilariously bitchy lyrics (the song is punctuated with his backing vocals screeching “work!”, “work!”) it directly expresses the reality of a gay man suffering miserably in the closet, and delivers a pungent commentary about the reality of living in the shadows of straight conformity.  The most delicious thing about it was the era it was tucked into (with its new rush of bubblegum pop)—if the song had a real message, it was sure to be lost in all of the neon fun.  The import was not, however, lost on me. 

Looking gay, as Wham! did, does not make you gay.  Making fizzy, lush pop songs, in and of itself, of course does not make you gay.  Being a male pop duo does not make you gay.  After taking over the world, hit after hit, the final No.1 for Wham! in “Everything She Wants” definitely, definitely made me gayer.  In sound and vision, it would mark the beginning of George Michael as a real solo act, on the precipice of joining the ranks of the biggest pop stars in the world.  Soon, George would have all the fame he could ever desire; sadly, it would prove to be the biggest closet of them all.

Last Christmas, 1984

Written in 1983, recorded in August of 1984, Wham’s “Last Christmas” would of course be announced as a December release (George had performed the song alone in a studio fully decorated for Christmas with engineer Chris Porter to set the mood).

In the UK there is a long history and competitive spirit surrounding a Christmas No. 1 , which meant the hit should be the last to chart for the year.  Famous examples of a Christmas No. 1 in the UK would include The Beatles’ “I want To Hold Your Hand” (1963), The Human League's “Don’t You Want Me” (1981) and Pet Shop Boys’ “Always on My Mind” (1987).  In 1984, during the filming of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, which was produced for famine relief in Ethiopia by Bob Geldof, one can see George Michael lamenting that the song they were recording would surely keep the Wham! track from going to No.1, and he was right.  “Do They Know It’s Christmas” won the year, with “Last Christmas” coming in as No.2.  He had smiled shyly when he said it, but one could tell he was over it.  If George Michael was anything in the 80s, it was ambitious.

In 2006, Michael released a Greatest Hits, Twenty-Five, featuring four new songs, one of which, “Understand”, would serve as a sort of apologia to “Everything She Wants”, imagining the couple 30 years later, and seeing the relationship more from the woman’s point of view.

George always insisted that “Everything She Wants” was his all-time favorite Wham! song, and he performed it regularly in concert.

[autisticrosewilson]

hey dude, i was wondering if you had any specific headcanons for the styles or types of clothes that anyone in wilson family likes to wear? really interested in your input for this

*heavy breathing* boy do I!!! I already know I won't be able to fit everyone in one part so we're doing the girls first

Tara:

There are layers, her fashion has evolved over time and I've separated it into three tiers.

Starting at the bottom, tier one was when Slade first took her in. She got most of her clothes from thrift stores and bargain bins, and she kept many of the clothes she collected while homeless. She had a kind of skater girl style when she did let Slade buy her new clothes because she strayed towards second hand stores and hand-me-downs. Often wore several layers regardless of temperature because of her chronic fear of the cold. Rarely do her clothes fit, every shirt she wears is for a band she's never heard of or the world's stupidest slogan that she could barely read, and her sneakers are basically falling apart but she gets really good at sewing to patch the holes.

Tier two is maybe a couple years into her stay with Slade, she's settled in a little and she's more secure with herself. I think she starts finding her style by borrowing clothes from the other girls, particularly Rose and Sunny, and when she gets a good grasp of what she's looking for Slade is maybe too willing to let her pick out whatever she wants (He just wants her to stop wearing 6 layers in 70 degree heat). She still wears jeans no matter the weather, but they're customized and they actually fit her! No more belts on the very last loop to keep her pants up. Her tops are usually colorful, light weight, and flowy. She starts getting really big on star motifs (fun fact Tara means star in some languages!) but because she shares clothes with Rose many of her outfits also have floral designs. Poppy likes putting bits and bobs on her laces too!

Tier three is where I see her now that she's older and she's been with the Wilson's for years. She's grown closer to the other girls and she's figured herself out. I imagine that she's 20 or so by now, just starting college. By now the line between her closet and her sister's is very fine, but she still has her own style. She's become more fond of skirts and dresses over the years, always with tights and flowy sleeves, and she's gone all in on the celestial and flower themes. Unfortunately for Sunny, her and Tara have the same shoe size, which means Tara is almost always in a pair of heeled boots these days. Not pictured are the statement earrings and rings she's grown fond of, often borrowed from Tanya since she still can't justify getting them for herself. I feel like all the girls have a charm bracelet and every charm represents one of them, Tara's charm is a chess piece!

Rose:

Unlike Tara, I don't think she ever ends up packing her old clothes away, I think she just stops wearing them to go out. As she grows up she has a reputation to maintain and so much of her early style (14-16) comes from her mom that it feels too private.

Tier one is a lot of florals and pale colors, and because Cambodia is so hot most of her wardrobe was shorts, skirts, dresses, and tank tops so a shopping trip was needed immediately. She also had mainly sandals, both because they went well with her clothes and because she hated socks as a kid. Look at my username I don't have to explain myself. She took to wearing a lot of her mom's old jewelry when Lili died, which is really sad but also she was dripped out. Pink and purple were her favorite colors and she definitely had an absurd amount of rose print. Not pictured for the sake of not bringing up bad memories is her pink cheetah print era 😔 she was a victim of the early 2000's, and she will not be the only one in this post.

Tier two, I'll say she's about 15-17. I don't know if grunge academia is a thing but Rose actually invented it. She was mostly away from Slade for this, on account of him being a constant reminder of her mom's death, so this was when she was staying with Joey and going to school. This is also around the time she would've met Eddie so he probably introduced her to a lot of new music and movies, and half of her closet was graphic T-shirts she stole from him. Still preferred skirts and shorts but could occasionally be coerced into a pair of jeans, usually the compromise was tights or leggings though. This is also about the time she started really doing stuff as Ravager so I think it was the start of her straying towards more alternative aesthetics to shape peoples perception of her, especially being around the mostly older Titans who she wanted to take her seriously. Started playing around with hairstyles but was too scared to cut her hair because it was another thing that reminded her of time spent with her mom and she didn't want to mess it up. Put away most of her mom's jewelry to keep it safe, but keeps one of Lili's necklaces.

Tier three is where I see her now, 18-20 and not exactly on good terms with Slade, but she doesn't want to hunt him for sport either. She's got a support system both in and out of the family and she's made a reputation for herself both as Rose and as Ravager. She has begrudgingly started wearing jeans, but they have to be baggy and ridiculously soft or she'll want to bite someone the whole time she's wearing them. She's grown a fondness for chunky belts and stupid custom tshirts that make middle aged women on public transport uncomfortable. Honestly wears a lot of men's clothes because her shoulders are buff and she needs pockets on her pants. She's slowly been snipping away at her hair, and the guilt is lessening every time. Not pictured are the decorative eye patches she has, as if Lilian Worth's daughter is walking out of the house with accessories that don't match her outfit. Her charm is a sword <3

Sunny:

I literally made all of this up we literally only know A Name.

So like Tanya, Sunny was already an adult when she joined Slade. And in my version of her story she comes from an affluent family, so she has both the means and the desire to follow all the trends. Considering my very vague timeline, this means she'd be deeply entrenched in the fashion of the early 2000's. Tier one is a very tame showcase of this. Sunny was the cool older sister in all the movies, she wore velvet track suits with uggs and she wore almost exclusively Chelsea boots. Tank tops and bell bottom jeans and baby tees made up a lot of her wardrobe, but she's still Sunny so her style was a lot darker and desaturated than what was popular for the time. Not pictured are the chunky belts and sunglasses worth more than your car. While she didn't grow up in America, she's well traveled and she likes to keep up to date on the cultural climate of places she visits.

Tier two is her really going in on her edgier aesthetic, after growing up in a strict Catholic household - and a famous one where every move she makes is scrutinized - I think this was her attempt at rebelling. It wouldn't be Sunny if it wasn't dramatic and more opulent than needed, but it was a valid attempt at appropriating alternative culture before it was cool! Definitely got called a poser a lot, on account of being rich. Believe it or not this is her definition of "Mall Goth". She got flamed on Myspace for it. Nonetheless she is still serving cunt I fear. Not pictured is the makeup she slept in the night before and the glitter in her hair from a house party she doesn't remember.

Tier three is not quite "Mob wife" but it is something adjacent. I think whether she likes it or not she always ends up dragged back into her family affairs, it was only a matter of time before she had to start playing the game again. I think she dresses more feminine out of spite for all the wealthy old men she has to deal with now, who look down on her for being anything other than a wife and mother. But she's also opted for showing her wealth more plainly with vintage jewelry and real fur coats, she makes a point to only wear things she bought with money she earned herself instead of taking anything from her family. The great thing about running away to be a mercenary is that even in platform heels and leather skirts she's still the most dangerous person in the room, with an easily confirmed higher kill count and skills none of the old gangsters could dream of matching. Her charm is a bow and arrow!

Tanya:

Not sure how I feel about this one compared to the others, I had specific criteria for the boards that due to my very specific vision I couldn't meet but it gets the point across well enough.

Tier one, Tanya was already an adult with a degree and a job when she joined Slade but she was still pretty young. The thing about being a prodigy to the extent she was is that you tend to mingle with people older than you as a rule. I think she was pretty new to her position at this point, still figuring out how to handle things in her mother's absence. Tanya is someone whose been living as a black woman in these socialite, academic spaces since she was born, she's more than used to people talking down to her and she was operating on a sort of "they won't like you anyway, might as well be yourself because you're still smarter than all of them" mentality. All this is to say that her last name was Spears and it was the early 2000's, she was wearing chunky belts, LOW waisted jeans, baby tees, and neon track suits under her lab coats. Not pictured are the big ass hoop earnings and foundation a few shades too orange for her, serving cunt most of the time does not exempt you from a few flops.

Tier two, she actually invented the office siren trend so everyone say thank you miss Spears. For meta reasons this was me trying to figure out how to get her to tier three, but for character reasons this is like her mid twenties, she's cutting back on mask stuff to focus on her job because Starr labs is struggling to compete with bigger companies like Wayne Tech or Lexcorp and some people in this family have real jobs, Slade. Also she wanted to distance herself from...past mistakes (like wearing skirts over jeans). Monochrome colors, kitten heels, and a button up with just a few too many buttons undone to be business casual is what she was wearing at this point.

Tier three, she's inching towards her thirties and a lot of her time is spent helping people in more civilian ways. While she still talks to her old friends and family in the mask game she's mostly hung up the cape aside from all hands on deck situations. Which isn't to say that she's compromised her own style, just that she's prioritizing comfort, since she spends most days either on her feet in the lab itself or working late in her office for hours, no more heels or push-up bras around here. Corduroy pants, flat shoes, and long fur or leather coats is what's characterizing her fashion these days. Also her and Karen Beecher having the exact same hairstyle is,,,,something so I think when she's older she gets goddess braids. Her charm is a star!

Poppy:

If you're getting war flashbacks to 2010 you can't imagine what I went through to find these

So Poppy was homeless for a while, and before that she was in the Dark Side Club, which didn't treat their prisoners especially well. Most of her clothes came from thrift shops and lost and found bins. The pictures I found are definitely in better shape than Poppy would have been, but I was working with Pinterest. She still tried to keep her own sense of style, like her love for pink but often it was just a matter of what she could reliably steal. Her jeans were about four sizes too big and her shoes were practically disintegrating, many of her clothes were often singed as well due using her powers. She typically kept her hair short too, in order to avoid her hair getting anymore singed. Dyeing her hair pink was an impulsive decision she made while watching Tara bleach her hair in the bathroom of a public gym, she'd snuck off to go steal a box of cheap dye from the drug store across the Street and Tara sighed, but helped her do it anyway.

Tier two sees her a little more settled into her new life, and while Tara strayed away from the new excess of wealth, Poppy had NO such reservations. She did take this time to start indulging in more of the hobbies she'd always wanted but couldn't afford, things like making beaded bracelets, and owning a bedazzler. While many of those beads ended up lost in the carpet and between couch cushions, and the bedazzling caused headaches for just about everyone, Slade was mostly just happy she was settling in. A lot of her shoelaces ended up covered in beads and she became very interested in making Kandi, although she didn't have many people to trade it with. This was about the time that Tara became more fond of embroidery and stylized patchwork, which showed in a lot of Poppy's clothes. She also liked customizing her hoodies herself, which often meant vandalizing them with bleach and/or acrylics. She starts growing out her hair too! It's still choppy from all the times it's caught fire but the rich people hair products are helping to the best of their ability.

Tier three is the only possible outcome for a girl introduced to us in pink and black stripes with spikey pink hair. Obviously she's a scene icon. The top left is basically her regular outfit anyway. The fact that her new huge pink and black striped hair is highly flammable is irrelevant, particular since she almost never uses her powers now anyway. She's mainly focused on school and has opted out of mercenary work because she's always been squeamish and fighting with other metas brings up too many bad memories. She still trains though, Slade is very adamant she be able to protect herself. Not pictured is the many layers of unnecessary belts and the pink galaxy pink leggings she wears under at least one other layer. The fact that she is not allowed to wear anything resembling a crop top has yet to stop her, and she is a regular fixture of the principal's office. Her real nemesis isn't even one of the many people she's fought it's the security guard that always makes her take off her 50 pieces of jewelry before going through the metal detector, second only to the administrator who always dress codes her. Honorable mention to the gym teacher who routinely hunts her down while she's trying to vape and watch anime with her friends in the bathroom. The unfortunate downside of being athletically gifted. Her charm is a cat!

[p-artsypants]

Blurb #14

I'm going to try to share 70 blurbs from my WIPs and unfinished fics to celebrate reaching 70 posted fics! To help with this endeavor, please feel free to send me a word or a fandom you know I write for, and I'll share the blurb. IDK if I'll get 70 prompts, but let's try it! Send as many as you want!

Some time later, he awoke again. This time, he was in a different room and on a bed.

The softest bed he had ever laid on, with a warm, soft, not-itchy blanket.

His stomach screamed for food and his throat felt dry. He sat up, his head throbbing, but he was no longer restrained.

The room was small, and had no windows, but it had smooth walls colored a warm tan. A light fixture was on the wall, bathing the room in a soft light, able to sleep in. There was several black boxes in the corner, one of which had glass on the front. Was it a looking glass? A headache started to form as he studied the items, and he decided he’d know later.

Next to the very soft bed was a table with a pitcher of water and a cup. He helped himself.

As for his dressing, he wasn’t naked anymore, but he wasn’t wearing any clothes he recognized. It was a long tunic, with no pants, no undergarments either. And the back was open as well. Was this normal clothing in the future? He couldn’t seem to recall what the others were wearing.

The door opened softly, and the doctor John came in. Though, he didn’t recognize him at first in this lighting.

“Hiccup,” said John.

“Uh,” started Hiccup, “hello?”

John smiled calmly at him and pulled up a chair, then he gestured at his head.

“What?”

John wiggled his fingers, asking him to move closer. He had something in his hand.

Hesitantly, Hiccup leaned towards him, as the doctor moved in with a white item. He wrapped it around the shell of his ear and then stuck it in his ear hole.

It felt odd and Hiccup touched it and moved it around until it felt at least a little more comfortable.

“There, is that better?”

Hiccup startled, suddenly aware that he could understand this man.

“I can—I can understand you!”

John continued to smile. “Technology has come a long way from your time. This earpiece translates my native tongue into yours instantly.”

Hiccup’s eyes widened. “That’s amazing!”

“And there’s far more than that. I’m going to start easing you into this change, but I know you’ll be discovering more and more everyday, just as science develops more everyday.”

Hiccup nodded in understanding.

John took out a black rectangle. “This is a phone. Nowadays, almost everyone has one. When phones were first made, they allowed one person to hear another’s voice over a long distance.”

“Like a horn?”

“Sort of, but just for one person. I’ll demonstrate.” John pressed the surface of the phone and it lit up several different colors and pictures. A few taps, and the device made a loud sound and then:

“Hello?”

“Hi Helena, it’s John. Hiccup is awake and I’m showing him what a phone is.”

“Oh! How fun! Is he there?”

Hiccup piped up. “Hello!”

“Well hello dear! Did John give you the earpiece?”

“Yes! And I can understand everything you’re saying!” He spoke almost a little too loudly.

“That’s wonderful! John, I’ll be there in a minute! He looks good, yes?”

“He’s doing much better. Much more alert and stable.”

“Wonderful! See you in a minute!” And the line beeped.

“That’s amazing! How far is she? Is she in the next room?”

“Oh no, Helena is at the other facility, looking after your dragon, in fact.”

At the mere mention, Hiccup sat up straighter, anxiousness setting in. “Toothless! Is he awake? Can I see him?”

“Not yet, but soon,” John assured. “You are still very weak from your thaw, and too much excitement will cause stress on you. The more calm and relax you stay, the sooner you’ll see...did you say his name was Toothless?”

Hiccup shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

John nodded. “Well, you can tell us later. For right now, we don’t want you talking about the circumstances under which you were frozen. We fear it’ll upset you too much.”

Hiccup shifted his gaze. “I...would rather not talk about that right now either.”

“When you’re ready.” He raised the phone up again. “Now, like I said, you can connect with another person anywhere as long as you have their contact number.”

Hiccup had so many questions about just this one thing, but he knew he had much to cover.

[thefallenangelsgang]

Seeing as I just got tagged again in something similar by the lovely @victoriouscabaret, I probably should wrap this one up lmao. Unfortunately I'm about to show y'all how horrifically baby I am (as if the incessant Gen Z style posting and vocabulary wasn't telling enough 😭)

-------------------

Do you make your bed?

NO. The most I do is straighten the sheets (because I have yet to meet a sheet or life hack secure enough to beat my slumbering form. It's actually comical how easily I can pull a sheet off the corners) and shake out my blankets when they have more than the usual amount of cat hair on them. Sheets and pillowcases go on after wash and blankets get dumped in a pile on the foot lmao.

Favorite number?

Anything devisable by 5. Looking back on it actually a miracle no one diagnosed me with OCD sooner. I have childhood memories of compulsively counting things by fives and I have an abnormal interest in the way time breaks down by fives. The fact that you can use the analog clock face to do 5s multiplication tables is also a fun fact that still amuses me to this day. That probably only marginally has to do with OCD though.

What's your job?

I'm a student in university for History and Theater and maybe Poli Sci (except for this last semester, which I took off to reign in the burnout I've been nursing since I was way too young to be experiencing burnout on that scale). I have a summer job as a Housekeeper at a local nursing home. It is far from my first pick but the pay is very good for my area and it puts the compulsion to sterilize everything to work relatively well. When I'm on campus I work in the Theater's Costume Shop.

What I want to do is a different matter. My dream will always be to Act but the stressors are a lot and I am far from marketable to a common audience. I am aiming for a day job in Museum work (exhibit design or educator) with contract night work in Theater Tech (lighting, sound, or costume design) or even finding a way to fully do tech work in a stable manner.

Can you parallel park?

Yes but in nothing bigger than a small SUV and only in spots that are obviously much bigger than my car. I refuse to putz around with tight spots. I'll walk my disabled ass if I have to.

Do you think aliens are real?

I have no strong opinions. I am never going to say "absolutely not" cause history is full of hypotheses being disproven. This is also my rule when dealing with the concept of god and cryptids. Oral histories and folklore meets phenomena our brains have trouble comprehending and I am never going to say something is impossible just because our meaty overlords (that being the brain) fills gaps.

And also shit gets weird in the Appalachian Mountains. Between the chemical poisoning from generations of mining operations, waste sites, the dense vast forests, and unmapped cave systems, I'm never going to 100% say "that cannot happen."

Can you drive a manual car?

This is the one that babies me significantly. No. Though I am interested in learning!

What's your guilty pleasure?

I love taking pitch black showers. In the cooler months (before every day gets up to 70°F+) I like them piping hot. It drives my father up the wall because he's a 5 min shower kinda guy and I need to take 45 minutes in the sensory deprivation chamber or I am a bitch.

Tattoos?

None yet. I want some, I've got plans for at least 4, but I am weary of getting them right now. It's a pipe dream, but I filmed a short film that will be hitting major film festivals in 2025. I don't want to commit to the map of the Shire thigh piece I want or the vertebra on the back of my neck on the minuscule chance something big happens. The other 2 are smaller but I'm struggling with placement because I do want them to be hidden.

Favorite color?

Deep jewel tones. bonus points if the word "velvety" describes them. Real slut for royal blue and forest green. Also the washed out sort of khaki green color.

Favorite types of music?

Folk, both traditional and the stylized modern stuff, and Alternative, mainly from the 2000s to the 2010s. I am also into Musical Theater. Anything with a solid rhythm pattern or an emotional sound can very quickly become my favorite.

Do you like puzzles?

Logic games, yes. I don't find traditional puzzles all that relaxing. I am okay at Sudoku and word games. I have the white man hubris that i would kill at escape rooms despite never having done one.

Any phobias?

Spiders. IRL spiders I can mostly handle. They gotta be fuzzy though, those smooth bitches are not friend shaped. The reason I hate smooth spiders is because any kind of fake spider or spider-adjacent creature from any kind of visual media, but specifically very large cgi spiders in film and video games, are my main trigger. Giant painted spider in a fantasy book? no thank you. Spider in video game? Please god let there be an arachnophobia mod/setting. Spider-like creature done in CG or with practical effects? Tell me when this bit is over I feel like I'm going to be sick.

I genuinely think this stems from my childhood fear of real spiders (I was much more weary of them as a tot) and my parents showing me LotR at way too young an age. Shelob was not a suitable visual for a 7 year old to see in the dark.

Favorite childhood sport?

I played Basketball in middle school. I was not very good handling the ball outside of passing but I was very good at seeing and widening openings. I usually played one of the wings on offense and covering the wings on defense.

I was a little terror on defense but you had to be in my area. For some reason the local girls basketball scene was full of teams who fought almost ridiculously dirty. Nearly got in a fist fight with a girl on the court because she was literally two-handed shoving me while we were running a play and I gave it right back. She did not take it well. To highlight how normal that was, the Ref clapped his hands and simply said "Okay girls, fight club is on Tuesday" and didn't do ANYTHING else.

Not to mention my very first year, the girls team only had 5 people on it (that is the MINIMUM number you need). I was a 4th grader playing full games with our only breaks being the hard baked ones (half-time and the short breathers between quarters) and our Time-outs. We once had a difficult game where we were neck and neck with the other team and in the last quarter (so we were in no position to just forfeit) and the Refs saw my tiny ass and the rest of my poor teammates absolutely dying and started using their timeouts (which is a rare occurrence, refs only do that if they have a call to discuss). I think we won that game too.

I miss it from time to time but I'm no longer as spry or are there teams that play that kind of game around me.

Do you talk to yourself?

All the time. Too much probably and some of it barely makes sense lmao. I'm sure it drives my family up the wall.

What movies do you adore?

Oh boy. I don't even know where to begin. The Sound of Music has been a favorite since I was a child and my eyes just recently been opened to the majesty of The Birdcage and To Wong Foo. The LotR movies are up there. Rocky Horror, A League of Their Own, It's A Wonderful Life, and White Christmas.

Essentially anything that celebrates something that society tries to ignore for various reasons (Dumplin' is another example), or is nostalgic to me (Bedknobs and Broomsticks! I can't believe I forgot that movie!), or is made with so much love it bleeds out of the screen. I have a soft spot for old Hollywood films that feature some of the greats of dancing at the time.

Coffee or Tea?

Tea. I despise the taste of coffee. I'll drink espresso on occasion and have suffered through a heavily doctored cup of joe when I need the kick of caffeine but I am a tea person through and through.

I don't like anything particularly bitter and prefer fruity and herbal flavors. I REALLY like mint tea.

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

Labor and Delivery Nurse like my mother. We would visit her before bed when she was on night shift and I remember the nurses station of that unit like it was yesterday. Those are some of the only pleasant memories of a hospital ward I have and I've been in a LOT of hospitals and a LOT of different units over the years.

-------------------

Tagging some people I want to know more about <3 (no pressure though!)

@helena-bug (shhhh I know we've known each other over a decade stfu lmao)

@fablewritesnonsense

@just-another-wasteland-merc

@tcustodis

[roboticchibitan]

5. teapot you'd buy

(there are so so so many I'd buy but there's a limit to adding pictures, alas)

6. definitely cursed

(i can't tell if the very cursed baby is a real teapot or a drawing, i hope you can tell me)

7. more work than tea is worth

(crab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

8. you have to pay me to take this hone

Image description below cut due to length.

I am absolutely fascinated by the cowboy bathtub revolver teapot. What a combo! He's got his gun in case anyone jumps him while he's in the bath. No stagecoach robbery while this man's getting clean! Also, I'm pretty sure you're not the only person who's shown me an anatomical heart teapot and been like "I want it."

The first cursed teapot reminds me of one of the bad guys from Farscape. I'm pretty sure the baby pot is not a drawing but it might be AI art, which is against the rules, but you clearly didn't send me AI art on purpose so I'm not going to give you a hard time. The last cursed teapot.... yeah that's really cursed. Very cursed. Cursed indeed. So cursed.

I like both of your "more trouble than the tea is worth" teapots. The grape vine one is pretty, though it looks like it's not meant to be used because who wants to grip that handle? And the crab one is just fun.

Ok so fun fact the lips teapot is actually a Marilyn Monroe teapot from the 70s. I've been sent it multiple times because it is, indeed, very weird and uncomfortably sexual. The M&M teapot is also making a weirdly suggestive face, so I sense a theme here. Also, that M&M's eyebrows are in the wrong place (the lid isn't lined up perfectly}.

Image description:

9 photographs of teapots.

Photograph 1: a red anatomically correct heart teapot.

Photograph 2: A teapot in the shape of a cowboy in the bathtub. The handle and spout of the teapot are molded to look like a revolver. The bathtub is too small for the cowboy to spread out in, so his knees stick out of the water. Bubbles cover his nether bits and a cowboy boot sits on the side of the tub.

Photograph 3: a teapot in the shape of a head in a helmet. The handle is a naked man who is making contact with the head at his hands and one knee, as if he is trying to push the head.

Photograph 4: a silver teapot with a silver baby doll's head and body parts sticking out of it, as if the baby is wearing the teapot as a onesie. This photo is the one that may be AI generated.

Photograph 5: a marbled teapot in the shape of someone sitting in the fetal position. The material of the teapot is flesh colored and the handle is shaped like a spine. The spout is a golden metal tube protruding from the mouth.

Photograph 6: a blue teapot with a handle and lid handle in the shape of a grape vine. Right where the hand would go, a cluster of grapes hangs down.

Photograph 7: a blue and brown teapot in the shape of a crab. The lid is very small and shaped like a fish.

Photograph 8: 1970s Marilyn Monroe teapot, which is a white teapot with a spout that has very plush lips on the end and a mole on the body of the teapot near the spout.

Photograph 9: A tea for one set in the shape of a red M&M that is making a suggestive face.

End ID.

[hermannco]

I loved the designs you did for cane and able in codotverse, reminds me of wendell and wild from the new stop motion movie!

what inspos went behind your designs if you are okay with telling

I've had those designs stashed for years

if anything Wendell and Wild GOT INSPIRED BY ME!!!! /j

Lmao thank you

I'm about to info dump and dont take anything I say as Canon, this is me hyperfxating and having LITERALLY too much information in my brain about to random ass motherfuckers.

Okay so, fun things. About Inspo.

ABOUT CAIN: Normal Cain. Soft, grandpa man.

2008 Cain. (From a HoM comic I am not too fond of except...)

Fucking sharp lunatic with his hair going EVERYWHERE. Constantly UNHINGED.

And so I decided to strike right on the middle bcs I always enjoyed the idea of this motherfucker flipping like a switch, also because he is an older brother, and he cleans the house and does the crops and tells stories and helps with the animals and maintains the house, and is fuzzy and very classic focused. But you know, he will also murder Abel in a split second and he gets a JOY doing it. Most of the time. But also enough to live with him normally and still have dinners and get mad when someone else hurts him.

His front hair flop also comes from the fact that he has to hide the "MARK OF CAIN" TM. The one that hits you 7 times worse if you hurt him. He has no control of what that shit does tho.

Also fun fact, the houses are located in Kentucky (Unless they are teleporting) and stuck in the 70s aesthetically LMAO.

So I sharpened the old man, still gave him kind eyes. I unbrokened his nose, because is impossible to break it without you dying, so this man is SURPRISINGLY DELICATE when it comes to fights.

A well groomed beard that can be easily messed up. And big CAINines.

The clothes are just classic Cain clothes but pushin a little bit more of the military ww1 aesthetic he is placed with.

The long and short, Grandpa please go to bed.

ABOUT ABEL:

Younger frisky freer brother.

A lot of Abel is based of Harveydont's Abel work. In all honestly we both worked on these bozos over the years.

Regardless here is the explanation for his look at least on my end.

He has always been a fancy little lad, a lot more pristine than his brother. A lot of the thought behind Abel is how he does a lot less of heavy work such as gardening or house renovating, but does things such as cooking and sweeping and organizing. Which is why he can always afford to be dressed to the nines.

Always seems to dress BETTER and be well more mannered. But while nicer he is also a trickster. So He can't be a circle.

Anyway, this picture also has done its millage.

This is the ORIGINAL sketch for Abel by Joe Orlando. I think my man nailed it first try. There has been A LOT of Cains over the years, but Abel always... ALWAYS relatively looks like this. And I have NO ROOM to complain.

As you can visibly see he hasn't changed much... I just put a knife to him and sharpened his features, as well give him bigger eyes than Cain bcs 1) makes him also look unhinged 2) Can also look more innocent.

Also his mutton chops are cleaner, in general his look is more put together and softer. He is supposed to be PRISTINE. The ring on his hand is because CANNONICALLY, Abel wears the gayest shit in the comics and I something he could fiddle with when nervous. (Mesh shirt while cooking, you know, gay club look just while cooking, iconic. Speak your truth, king.)

Also I made their skin darker bcs I am tan to darker color and I Was like, lol I can't be stopped now!

I hope this helps.

[justabigassnerd]

okay I know you don't write for marvel anymore (unless you do, idk), and this isn't an ask, but just imagine the shock Steve and Bucky must've felt when they see a flat screen tv in color for the first time.

Like we get the scene were Steve runs out into New York for the first time since he and Bucky left to fight in ww2 in the 40's and is shocked to discover that its not the 40's anymore and he has, in fact, been out cold since then and its now the late 2000's, early 2010's and things are completely different.

Because, according to my grandfather, tv manufactures didn't start messing with the idea of color tv's until the 50's, and color tv's weren't very common in most homes until the late 60's early 70's because of how much they costed (I found an article that said a color tv set from a company called Westinghouse that started selling color tv's in New York costed $1,295. the article went on to say how in todays money that would've costed somewhere around $10,000).

So just imagine when one of them walks into the avengers tower or somewhere, whether it be after Steve first woke up and had calmed down or after Bucky was saved from HYDRA and is no longer trying to kill people and they see a fucking flat screen tv... just... the pure fucking time shock.. cuz the last time they both had a good look at their surroundings it was in the 40's when tv's were big, heavy boxes that were in black-and-white, but here they are now sitting Infront of a flat screen tv that's in color!! JUST. JUST THE PURE SHOCK OMG. Imagine how old they must've felt!!!!!

OMG ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY FOUND OUT ABOUT COMPUTERS TOO HOLY SHIT!!! Cuz those didn't come out until the 70's!!!

Anyway have a good day/night and sorry for the long rant lol.

omg don't apologise for the rant because I never really gave this much thought when I was in my Marvel era

but you're so right they surely lost their shit seeing a tv in colour like if I were Steve running out into Times Square when he first woke up I'd be requesting to be back in a coma or some shit bc that would be too much for me to handle right off the bat

Bucky would've 100% been so confused and shocked seeing it all too especially after HYDRA and probably not until after Endgame bc there was so much shit going down he probably barely got a chance to process things but I just know Bucky geeked out at least a little because tv's are not only huge and now in colour, but they've got streaming services so you have damn near every movie/tv show at the press of a button (not to mention if Bucky found the movie version of The Hobbit)

oh and computers? basically portable tv's that you can do more stuff on? they'd be so shocked and awed by them. I think computer's would also kinda scare them a little so they stick to pen and paper to take notes

I actually loved giving this some thought this was so fun, if y'all ever wanna just talk to me about anything fandom-y I'm so down fr

much love <3

[nicoleanell]

DEAR FESTIVIDDER,

Welcome and thank you in advance!! As I say every year (or every-other-year when I partcipate) these are just some thoughts, but feel free to focus on different characters/storylines/etc. I'm excited to see anything you're inspired to make from the sources below!

I also tagged all the fandoms so you can see how often I reblog stuff about them, consider it a vidding vision board. :D

If you're checking out any of these sources for the first time, content warning for some blood/gore in Renfield (played for comedy) and blood, jumpscares, animal death in Midnight Mass.

Film (Safety)

Renfield (2023) - Listen. Cinema peaked when Robert Montague Renfield decorated his little apartment in bright '70s colors and kitty cat bedsheets to Lizzo, and then peaked a second time when Ben Schwartz snorted a centipede. This movie is bloody camp nonsense but somehow also an earnest abuse recovery/revenge fantasy, and it gave me Emotions and a crush on Nicholas Hoult. His giant sad eyes and self-empowerment arc mean the world to me.

Television

Abbott Elementary - Wholesome sitcom in the vein of Parks & Rec following teachers in a Philadelphia elementary school (as a child of two public school teachers it hits close to my heart). I'd kinda like to see an Ava vid, she's so entertainingly terrible but then has great moments of growth as well. Or one centered on Janine, Janine/Gregory, or just any kind of fun ensemble thing!

The Afterparty - Murder mystery comedy with the twist that each episode, a character gives their version of events in the style of different genre parodies. Honestly I'd be fine with just a season 1 vid because I liked it more than season 2. (With the exception of S2 giving me the Sapphic Wes Anderson Movie of my dreams.) S1 had just about a perfect ensemble (Yasper being a highlight) and great execution of the Rashomon-style premise.

The Bear - Drama/dramedy set in the chaotic back-of-house world of a Chicago restaurant. I love how real the environment, relationships, and characters of this show feel. I adore Ayo Edebiri so I'd especially like a vid centered on Sydney, her ambitions and anxiety and passion, but again anything that inspires you about the show would make me happy! I love everyone in this dysfunctional restaurant fam. I don't really ship Syd with Carmy so I'd prefer not an explicitly romancey vid.

Midnight Mass - There's a venn diagram between Catholic Trauma and Vampires that Mike Flanagan seemed to crack like nobody else ever has lol. After Hill House (which I got an incredible vid for a couple years ago) this is my favorite of his horror-drama miniseries, I really love the mood and themes it explores about faith/religion a source of both comfort and harm. Pretty much a "do whatever you want with this source" request!

Web Series/Internet Content

Dimension 20 - There's a lot of source here and even I haven't made it through all the older intrepid heroes campaigns yet (not to mention all the side quests). I've basically seen everything from A Court of Fey and Flowers onward. Favorites include Neverafter, A Crown of Candy, and I'm really enjoying the current Burrow's End series. But honestly if there's any season or mini-season or general vibe YOU especially love and would like to focus on, feel free to do so! And if you want to incorporate stuff like art, minis, fan sources, or just rely on the player dynamics, go for it. I love basically everybody but special shout-out to Lou Wilson.

Amaury Guichon (the chocolate guy) (Youtube/Tiktok/he also had a Netflix show) - Guichon is a French-Swiss pastry chef known for making elaborate, edible chocolate sculptures, and posting usually wordless montage videos of his process. I'm just kinda curious what a Chocolate Guy vid would look like! Watching his videos and the work that goes into each piece is so fascinating, and he has a really charming and pleasant vibe. Love the technical skill, the commitment to the bit, and the fact they often look like they taste good on top of it!

[star-girlzz]

You said that Cherry was designed after Barbie, now I wanna know what the others are designed after. Especially Xaje, her brother, and Afia

Xaje was designed to be a bit of a mysterious female character with short hair, I had a specific trope in mind but I don't really have a name for it. Also, for her visuals, I wanted a black-and-white contrasting color scheme. I also wanted her to mostly appear to be soft. Xavier basically piggybacking off of that idea but also like the opposite. Where Xaje was soft, he was rough and sharp. It's also why he's relatively tall since she's pretty short. He's lost some of his edge from his character concept because I've grown entirely too fond of him. Afia's design went through many changes as she initially was not in the same story as Xaje. Her character concept was definitely always brown. Her clothing style was soft as well but flowy. I couldn't decide if I wanted her to be black or south Asian (Indian specifically) which is how I decided she should be both. Later I decided she'd have a religious aesthetic with influences from charlie brown and late '50s to '70s fashion. Lee Ann has far too many inspirations for me to count tbh but she was designed after an idol/sex worker concept that was supposed to be bright and make use of neon colors. So she bares a lot of resemblence to the memes from MEMEME!/GIRL protagonist, Kami-Sama. Her red star earrings are a direct reference to Jerrica Benton/ Jem from Jem. For Artemis, there were a lot of concepts for him but his design idea was that he'd wear a fur coat smoke cigarettes, and have long hair. He was supposed to look a bit tired and unkept. As his character evolved I decided id really exaggerate his hair and make it longer. The night I first drew him I also spontaneously decided to give him blonde tips based off of the musician Towkio. Morris's character concept was entirely to feed into the character archetype that was being poked fun of at the time which was the man with blonde hair and blue eyes who you have to guess if he's: a) Jack Morrison aka Soldier 76 (Overwatch), b) Joseph Christiansen (Dream Daddy Dating Simulator), or c) Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Marvel, duh). Though I will also say his concept started with the main character of the dating simulator, Coming Out On Top's main protagonist, Mark. The main idea is he is a clean-cut white guy who's gay. Caesar, who was pretty much created exactly around the time as Xaje bc I wanted two characters to come in a pair and be a duo, the concept was probably a mix of a lot of things. His design and personality take a couple notes from Fuyuhiko from DanganRonpa 2. but the idea for him was that he'd be aggressive but not necessarily burley or tall. In fact, I liked the idea of him being baby-faced. What's been pretty consistent in his design though is that his clothing style is a bit flamboyant and that he should look like he's made of gold. I’m not sure when I decided Joyce would have long silver hair? To be honest it was something I probably decided when I was making her look for this post  but Joyce was supposed to have a very distinct look every time you saw her but eventually I wanted to make her character more relevant and fashionable so I decided she’d have an insta baddie/ influencer look to her more than anything. Evol and Etah were based in appearance after  Aikurō Mikisugi from Kill la Kill (in both his nudist form and his everyday form) but honestly I’m glad they got a race lift because I’m not very fond of that character in retrospect. They’ve had many appearance references in the past years.  Travis was based off of someone who used to run this tumblr blog I followed a long time ago. They’ve long since left the site. I definitely wanted him to be a trans masc character who didn’t entirely fit everyone’s concept of masculinity since he shouldn’t have to! My decision to make him blasian was also in reference to an old OC I had that I’ve since retired. Clarrissa’s appearance takes inspiration from seductive characters and old comics of the like. Her idea was that she was a promiscuous character with a vintage aesthetic that was definitely rooted in rockabilly and pin-up art. Clover’s was based on the art of Kiwi-Byrd and their OCs. I’ve been a long time fan of their work.  Ferris was based off an older concept I had from a character which i suppose means his design takes cues from what alternative or indie men of color were wearing back in 2015.

[reasoningdaily]

Like most Americans, I spent the 60s, 70s, and part of the 80s in awe of Bill Cosby and his total domination of popular culture. He was the first African American to star in a dramatic television series, I Spy, a show my family in Buffalo, New York, always watched. Cosby cut a striking figure on-screen then. He was funny, smart, and even elegant—all those wonderful things many white Americans didn’t associate with people of color. In fact, as I thought of going public with what follows, a voice in my head kept whispering, “Black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don’t need someone like you, an African American with a familiar face and a famous name, fanning the flames.”

Imagine my joy in the mid-80s when an agent called to say Bill Cosby wanted me to audition for a role on the The Cosby Show. Cosby played an obstetrician, and he sometimes used models to portray pregnant women sitting in his office waiting room. It was a small part with one or two speaking lines at most, but I wanted in.

I was in the midst of an ugly custody battle for my only child. I needed a big break badly and appearing on The Cosby Show seemed like an excellent way of getting Hollywood’s attention. I’d appeared in one or two movies already, but my phone wasn’t exactly ringing off the hook with acting jobs.

Cosby’s handlers invited me to a taping of the show so I could get the lay of the land and an idea of what my role required. After the taping I met all the cast and then met with Cosby in his office to talk a bit about the hell I’d been through in my marriage. He appeared concerned and then asked what I wanted from my career going forward. He seemed genuinely interested in guiding me to the next level. I was on cloud nine.

I brought my daughter to the next taping I attended. Afterward, Cosby asked if I could meet him at his home that weekend to read for the part. My ex-husband had primary custody of my daughter at the time, and I usually spent my weekends with her. Cosby suggested I bring her along, which really reeled me in. He was the Jell-O Pudding man; like most kids, my daughter loved him. When my daughter and I visited Cosby’s New York brownstone, his staff served us a delicious brunch. Then he gave us a tour of the exceptional multi-level home.

Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm. Cosby suggested I come back to his house a few days later to read for the part. I agreed, and one late afternoon the following week I returned. His staff served a light dinner and Bill and I talked more about my plans for the future.

After the meal, we walked upstairs to a huge living area of his home that featured a massive bar. A huge brass espresso contraption took up half the counter. At the time, it seemed rare for someone to have such a machine in his home for personal use.

Cosby said he wanted to see how I handled various scenes, so he suggested that I pretend to be drunk. (When did a pregnant woman ever appear drunk on The Cosby Show? Probably never, but I went with it.)

As I readied myself to be the best drunk I could be, he offered me a cappuccino from the espresso machine. I told him I didn’t drink coffee that late in the afternoon because it made getting to sleep at night more difficult. He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one.

It’s nuts, I know, but it felt oddly inappropriate arguing with Bill Cosby so I took a few sips of the coffee just to appease him.

Now let me explain this: I was a top model during the 70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa. I’d had my fun and experimented with my fair share of mood enhancers. I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good.

My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop. Cosby motioned for me to come over to him as though we were really about to act out the scene. He put his hands around my waist, and I managed to put my hand on his shoulder in order to steady myself.

As I felt my body go completely limp, my brain switched into automatic-survival mode. That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment.

“You are a motherfucker aren’t you?”

That’s the exact question I yelled at him as he stood there holding me, expecting me to bend to his will. I rapidly called him several more “motherfuckers.” By the fifth, I could tell that I was really pissing him off. At one point he dropped his hands from my waist and just stood there looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

[petrichor-edje]

My dad just had me watch The Abyss and I have many thoughts (both my dad and I are somewhat experienced rec divers (70+ dives)) and I really enjoyed this movie although my mom did accuse us of being divers who liked to watch stories about horrible things happening underwater and made fun of us

Anyway thoughts below

- very first shot of Lindsey, we see her stiletto touch down on the deck of this ship with perfect balance good for her

-mustache navy man so afraid to admit a woman knows more then him that he hides symptoms what could go wrong

- the entire exploring the downed sub sequence my dad and I are arguing about wether or not they are using a line for navigation because we can’t see it

- finally spot the line they are using and I’ve never dove a line before but I know enough to know they are doing it poorly

-also why does it look like a fancy curtain pull no wonder it broke

- alien thingie shows up and all the equipment loses power(?) or malfunctions and this means the sub crashed because of one of them

- if the guy who fucked up his mix didn’t get hurt in the initial convulsions he’s probably going to be fine

- there’s a storm coming and the navy guys fucked off to fuck around with nukes fuck them seven people died because you wanted to play with a bomb (6ppl on rig +guy in crane)

-this situation would be less stressful if someone turned off that goddamn music

-“raise your hand if you think that was a Russian water tentacle” single best line in the film

- Lindsey should have been allowed to slap him in the face

- man with psychosis has gun and nuke all signs point downhill

-the plan is to nuke the aliens genuinely can’t tell if he’s delusional and expects them to survive this or if he just doesn’t care anymore

- SUBMARINE FIGHT!!!

- if they had normal regulators instead of those stupid full face helmets they could have buddy breathed back to the rig just fine

- Lindsey I know your plan involves drowning but you coulda swam halfway back with the time you spent underwater kissing jfc

- fun fact apparently a guy survived for like forty minutes in a similar condition to what happened to Lindsey and came back fine

- I am so fucking mad with the scene where they are trying to revive her they try for like thirty seconds and give up and nobody was doing compressions for the first part of the scene and then THEy TaKe thE OXyGEN OUT??? When they think she’s dead??? It’s been like thirty seconds and there is no reason to take it out? Even if she’s dead there’s no way it could make the situation worse and if she’s alive it’s kinda fucking important?????

- then there’s that tender conversation and all I can think about is where they got dry clothes from because you know everything on that rig is now damp and salty and also curly hair is a bitch to dry

- now bud is going down in the liquid gear which has made it’s reappearance after being mentioned once an hour ago

- the worst part about the whole descending sequence is that there’s not even anything to be mad about because it’s a terrible idea but there is literally nothing else that can be done there is no better option

- I do love the bit with the colored wires tho because it is seriously hard to differentiate color at depth and it was super relatable

- but he literally just guessed because at this point why the fuck not 50/50

- and then he’s dying and I’m crying and it’s very sad but it’s also okay because he did what he needed to do to give everyone else a chance and he’s made his peace with that but somehow that’s the saddest part

- and then alien

- I love the aliens stupid little blinky eyes so cute when they blink

-was worried that at the very end when the alien ship brought them up and I saw the hatch to the rig open that that were going to just explode because of the pressure differential

- glad that didn’t happen must have been alien magic *shrugs*