#he's done so many other more prolific things

[falsestalwart]

I WAS TODAY YEARS OLD WHEN I FOUND OUT C.HRISTOPHER S.ABAT WILL BE AT THE CONVENTION I'M GOING TO THIS WEEKEND

[eternal-moss]

Christ, the whole Wilbur situation is so fucked. Already the things that are coming out of the woodworks so quickly are so sad.

tw for abuse and misogyny. If you aren’t aware of this yet, Wilbur Soot has been revealed as a prolific abuser

My heart breaks for all the people he’s harmed. I think Shelby was really intelligent in the way that she’s brought this to attention, without naming him. This meant that even though some people denied it or lashed back at her, the repercussions were minimised.

Wilbur responding proved it was him she was talking about, although the details she provided made it so patently clear it was him from the start, it made it so that he had to admit he was the one who had been committing essentially serial abuse on young women by the nature of him responding to the description of the unnamed abuser, although he didn’t mention that it was *multiple women* in his absolutely pathetic excuse of an ‘apology’.

I’ve been thinking about this deeply from pretty much directly the moment after Shubble revealed it really. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve ever watched any of Shubble’s stuff, and I’ve not watched streamers for a couple of years now, but the courage she had to do this is fucking immense. Wilbur is very well off financially with a massive and loyal fanbase, the influence he has is very large and not to be underestimated. His ‘apology’ reeks of PR pressure, although it fails to meet the mark on all levels of even a basic apology (which is not even the bare minimum in this situation) and omits some very important details.

It’s so sad that abuse and grooming is so common amongst streamers/YouTubers, but the response to this time (from the community) being genuine support instead of victim blaming does make me feel hopeful. Wilbur’s condescension of women and younger ccs is absolutely disgusting. This recontextualises so many moments when he’s been dismissive of and made jokes at women’s expense. What he’s done is abuse and it’s misogyny. He’s picked on people he knows are less able to fight back from all parameters. Misogyny is massive in the gaming scene, and he’s relied on all these women (it really is a lot at this rate, even an ex-trumpeter from Lovejoy) staying silent out of fear.

Shubble saying keeping their silence protected him more than it protected her is very true, and this will absolutely wreck his reputation. Rather, he’s fucked it up himself, and there really is no one else to blame in this situation. The people who knew about it and were subject to this were typically smaller, younger or female streamers. It’s disgusting that he had relied on their silence for so long.

This is a bit of a mess, but ngl so am I. It’s been eating at me for as long as it’s been going on, I found out almost immediately. I was quite a big Wilbur fan for a damn long time, since his early days of streaming (when skyblock randomiser was made etc). I was emotionally invested in his original music and looked up to him a lot.

The worst thing I think is that I resonated with his online interactions with Tommy (which makes me feel vile), and his adoration of Wilbur, always calling him ‘like a big brother’, and it fondly reminded me of me and my younger sibling. Except Wilbur would sometimes do some unexpectedly cruel things. Like stomping on Tommy’s hand and causing it to bleed. That alarmed me at the time, also when he revealed that he was relying on Tommy to talk him out of suicide, which really made me concerned about how healthy their relationship was. The worst thing is, this didn’t surprise me that much at all when it was revealed. Shelby’s descriptions could fit no other person, and it made sense and lined up with his past behaviour, but that doesn’t make it any less wholly awful and horrific.

I wasn’t going to talk about it on this blog, but I just feel angry. Angry for all these people he’s hurt. Angry that he���ll still be living comfortably off of his fanbase for years to come, young people who trusted and idolised him, the vast majority young girls themselves. Angry for Shubble, angry for Niki, angry for the women’s names we don’t know yet, angry for those who had been intimidated into silence. Angry for those who had been abused and brutalised by him. The main thing that’s coming up again and again is the biting, the bruising, the physical abuse, the way they were scared into saying anything, left traumatised by the way they’d been treated. As if that could be brushed off in any way by some disgustingly shallow and self-centred attempt at self preservation of his reputation. Fuck off.

Like Aimsey said, this isn’t some light cancellation from Twitter, these are reprehensible serial misogynistic crimes, and it’s only been days since the initial reveal and hours since his response and the influx of victims speaking up. My heart breaks to know how much more is going to be unearthed.

So yeah this is basically it, I treat this blog mainly as an archive for fan creations of things I like, but also as a collection of my thoughts. I have been unable to stop thinking about this, and I know that I’ve barely talked about mcyt on here, but I was heavily into dsmp and streamers for a long time. Shubble is insanely bloody brave for doing this, I wish them all the best (and the other victims) in recovering from his behaviour, as well as applauding her for the sheer fucking bravery to make the decision to speak up.

***I’ve seen some people saying Shubble uses they/them pronouns, but most people I’ve seen refer to her with she/her. If I find out she doesn’t use she/her I’ll change this post < Shelby uses she/they

[xoxoladyaz]

You're My Heaven, Angel (Paramedic Steve x Rockstar Eddie) - Part 2

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 (Coming Soon)

AN: I just wanted to say a quick THANK YOU to everyone who has been so kind and so supportive of Part 1! I hear you and I, too, want to create a whole series based around this idea. It's a lot of pressure following-up something that's so beloved, but I'm going to give it my best!

Robin must secretly hate Steve.

She must be the most incredible actress in the entire world. She must be the most prolific conman that’s in the business of conman-ing people or whatever. She must have made a blood oath with an elder god during a full moon that no matter how many days or weeks or months or years it took, she would one day make Steve Harrington’s life absolutely miserable. There’s no other reasonable explanation for why she insists on taking the scenic route to Eddie’s room - a scenic route which adds on two additional minutes of travel time instead of heading straight down the hallway (which maybe adds forty seconds tops). 

A route which means Steve has to bear two additional minutes of Eddie loudly introducing him to every single doctor, nurse, patient or family member that they come across on the way to his suite. Never mind that Steve’s worked with most of these doctors and nurses for years now, never mind that he actually goes to Sharla’s poker group when he has Thursdays off with the other fifty-something moms on staff (which Robin never ceases to find absolutely hilarious); no, Eddie is all smiles and arm flourishes, loudly – too loudly – proclaiming that they are now in the presence of his angel, his baby, his angel baby, the love of his life, the apple of his eye, his amor, his partner, his husband – 

“Congratulations, Steve! I didn’t know you got married!” Sue laughs as the entire production passes by. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve rolls his eyes. Eddie blows her a noisy kiss before clearing his throat. He takes a deep breath, and – 

“I’M GETTING MARRIED IN THE MORNING - ”

“Robin, he’s singing again!”

“I know, dingus, I can hear him.”

“DING DONG, THE BELLS ARE GONNA CHIIIIIMMMEEEEEEEE - ”

Steve turns back, risking a glare at Robin mid-step. “Remind me why we’re going the long way around?”

Robin snorts out a laugh, shit-eating grin firmly in place. “Come on, Stevie, we all need the exercise.”

“ – GET ME TO THE CHURCH ON TIMMMMMEEEE – Stevie? Stevie,” Eddie turns and sighs at Steve and okay, Steve can’t tell if Eddie’s eyes are super dilated because of the probable head trauma or if there’s a weird reflection from the fluorescents, but his eyes are, like, legit sparkling up at him. “Steeeeeevieeeee - ”

“Yep, I’m still here.” Eddie grins, flopping to the side so that their joined hands are resting up against his head. He sighs happily, his feet wiggling under the shock blanket, and it’s not cute Steve stop thinking it’s cute – 

“Steve!” He pulls his eyes away just as the gurney comes to a stop in front of Brenda, one of the intake nurses currently on shift. Brenda’s blonde and cute and ethically non-monogamous, but Steve is more of a one and done sort of guy. That doesn’t mean they don’t flirt like crazy anytime they bump into each other, though. (Hey, he’s gotta stay in shape somehow.)

“Looking good today. Is that a new shirt?” She asks with a smirk, her eyes running over his biceps. (It’s not a new shirt, Robin just ran it through the dryer, so it shrunk. Really, he should have gotten rid of it, but it makes his biceps look amazing.)

“Nah, it’s - ”

He has a line. He has a great line. But as soon as he opens his mouth to speak it, he’s cut off by a very loud hissing sound coming from his left and – 

Yep, it’s Eddie. Eddie, who’s glaring at Brenda like they’re mortal enemies. Seriously, it’s a good thing he doesn’t have laser eyes like that one superhero guy because if he did, Brenda would be at risk of getting too tan.

“MINE!” Eddie snaps at the end of his hiss and then, all while still maintaining eye contact with Brenda, he yanks Steve’s hand to his mouth and licks it. And not, like, a gentle lick that you’d get from a puppy. No, Eddie licks his hand like he’s trying to give Steve a tongue bath.

(His first instinct should be to pull away, but instead all Steve can think about it Eddie giving him an actual full body tongue bath - )

“Dude!” Steve exclaims when he does finally pull his hand away. (He hears Robin snort under her breath, clearly having caught onto the fact that his brain broke at the whole licking thing and shit, now he’s thinking about it again - )

“No, MINE!” Eddie growls, and Steve barely has a chance to wipe his hand on his pants before Eddie is grabbing it back, clutching it between both of his hands like it’s his special or something. (Special, was that the word that the guy used? The little creepy guy in that one movie? He needs to text Dustin and ask.)

“Aww, I’m glad to see you’ve finally met someone!” Brenda teases.

“Uh, yeah,” Steve replies distractedly, trying (and failing) to shake one of Eddie’s hands off of his hand because now that they’re actually at his suite, he’s going to need them. “Brenda, this is - ”

“The concussion patient from Lollapalooza, Sarah clued me in,” Brenda says, snapping her gum. “Eddie, right?”

Eddie pauses from wrestling with Steve to sniff at Brenda and honestly, as someone who spent way too much time at country clubs as a child because of his parents, Eddie has the whole I’m-better-than-you-you-poor-person-wearing-Adidas expression locked down. “That’s Mister Eddie to you, Briony.”

Briony? “Who’s Briony?”

Robin kicks the gurney forward with an eye roll and suddenly they’re moving into the suite. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, dingus.”

Eddie finally manages to tear his eyes away from Brenda. He perks his head up at Steve and once Steve’s face is in his line of sight his expression softens, the sparkles coming back in full force. “And it’s such a pretty head, baby.”

Such a pretty head SUCH A PRETTY HEAD – 

“I’ll show you – ow, Robin, seriously?” Steve yelps at Robin’s pinch.

“Stop being horny and help me get him on the bed.”

“I’m - ”

“Don’t listen to her baby, please, please stay horny, and lose the shirt while you’re at it!” Eddie sits up and starts frantically grasping at Steve’s sleeves. “Christ almighty, these arms, arms of heaven, arms of an angel - ” 

“Steve!” Robin barks and shit, he needs to focus. He takes advantage of the fact that Eddie let go of his hand to grab at his shirt and darts down to the other end of the gurney. They lift on a count of three, placing Eddie onto the bed and kicking the wheeled cart out of the way. (Eddie makes a loud WHEEEEEEEEE sound and then immediately goes back to demanding that Steve get naked.) Sarah, who’s followed the procession the entire time, grabs the empty cart and wheels it out of the room just as Brenda steps in.

“Well then, Eddie, let’s get started on intake,” Brenda nods, bringing out her iPad. “Are you ready to answer a few questions?”

“No.”

Robin groans and steps to the side, energetically fluffing and reorganizing Eddie’s pillows so he’s seated up. Somehow Eddie is able to lean around Robin’s wide-armed movements and fix Brenda with yet another piercing glare.

Brenda shoots Steve a look before nodding her head at Eddie.

Right.

“Hey, uh, Eddie, we really need to ask you a few questions - ”

“Hand!” Eddie snaps to look at Steve and sticks his hand towards him. He wiggles his fingers a few times before making a grabby motion. “Hand!”

It’s not cute. It’s totally not cute.

Steve sighs but walks back around from the foot of the bed and places his hand gently in Eddie’s. Eddie links their fingers and squeezes tightly. “Uh, how about now, is now okay to ask a few questions?”

Huffing, Eddie looks at their fingers for a few moments before looking upwards at Steve. Their eyes meet and he grins. “Hi angel,” he lets out a pleased sigh. “I missed you.”

Don’t say it don’t say it DON’T SAY IT - 

“I missed you too, Eds.” 

FUCK.

“Awwwww, my little schmoopers are being all schmoopy-moopy!” Robin sings in her best baby voice. (That’s it, he’s eating the rest of the Chunky Monkey.)

“I’m eating the rest of the Chunky Monkey.”

“Uh, like fuck you are.”

“I'd rather have you eat me,” he hears Eddie whisper and yeah, okay, that’s one he’s just going to choose to ignore for the sake of what little sanity he has left.

“Right, okay,” he hears Brenda try to get things back on track. “About those intake questions - ”

“Oh, don’t worry Nurse Brenda,” the lilting voice of Dr. Suzie Henderson floats into the room. “I can take it from here.”

Steve turns just in time to see Suzie strut into the emergency suite. She shoots Brenda a grateful nod and Brenda, with one last wink to Steve, hands her iPad off to Suzie and heads out of the room. 

“Bye Steve!”

“Bye Brenda.”

“Yeah, bye Brittany!”

Suzie has the best laugh in the world, and she lets it fly on her walk over. “Hey Steve,” Suzie grins at him as she makes her way towards the foot of Eddie’s bed. “How are things going today?”

“Oh, good,” Steve replies quickly before turning to look at Eddie. “Eddie, this is Doctor Suzie Henderson, she’s my sister-in-law.”

Eddie slowly scooches his butt backwards so he’s sitting up more. “No, she’s our sister-in-law,” he huffs before turning and smiling at Suzie. “Hey sis!” 

“And you must be Eddie! I heard you were thinking about marrying into the family.” She lets out a quick giggle at those words but then clears her throat and throws her shoulders back. “Well, if you are serious about joining our Steve in holy – or unholy – matrimony - ”

“Fuck yeah,” he hears Eddie whisper.

“ – then I’m going to need you to answer a few questions.”

“Proceed, milady.” Eddie starts gently caressing Steve’s hand with his fingers. Steve shoots a look at Robin, who makes exaggeratedly sappy faces while glancing between Steve and their intertwined fingers.

(Forget the Chunky Monkey, he’s eating all of the ice cream they have left tonight.)

“Full name?”

“Edward Anthony Munson.”

“Age?”

“Thirty-one.”

“Name of your emergency contact?”

“Oh, that would be Uncle Wayne and Chrissy! Baby, you’re going to love Wayne,” Eddie says, turning to gaze lovingly up at Steve. “And he’s going to love you! Not as much as I love you though, that’s impossible.”

(Steve’s pretty sure that Bambi eyes here is the impossible one.)

“Great, is Wayne and Chrissy’s contact information in your medical file?”

“Uh huh,” Eddie replies dreamily, still gazing at Steve. 

“Okay, speaking of your file,” Suzie taps at her iPad, “any major events in your medical history that we should know about?”

“Hmmm?” 

He can feel it on his face, he can feel his stupid grin on his stupid face, but he chooses to instead focus on helping Eddie pay attention. “She wants to know if there’s major health events in your past that we need to know about, Bambi.”

“Bambi?”

“BAMBI?!” Robin squeaks after Eddie.

Shit shit SHIT -

“I mean - ”

“Bambi,” Eddie hums, blinking rapidly as he slumps back against his pillows. Once he's settled, he tosses his free hand across his forehead and moans happily. “He loves me. He loves me, he loves me, HE LOVES MEEEEEE - ”

Don’t blush DO NOT BLUSH BODY STOP BLUSHING

“Oh my god that was amazing, I have literally never seen you this red, you look like an actual tomato. Oh my god, I have to tell Nance, like, now.”

“Right, yes, okay Bambi,” Suzie interrupts with a snicker, “like Steve said, is there anything we need to know?”

“Well, we’re in love,” Eddie sighs, pressing a quick kiss to the top of Stevie’s hand. “I think I’m still a little high but it’s only weed, I’ve definitely stopped doing cocaine since, like, five months ago. No need to worry about that, angel,” Eddie pats the top of Steve’s hand.

“Yeah, no, I definitely won’t worry about that.” (He’s definitely going to worry about that.)

“Well, thank you for your honesty, Eddie. I’m going to take a closer look at your files once we get them just to get a better picture of your overall health before we run our tests. Now, second set of questions,” Suzie loudly taps and drags a new window on her tablet open. “What is your annual income?”

(Huh. That’s weird. Steve’s doesn't think he's ever heard any of the nurses ask that question before.)

Eddie snorts out a laugh. “God, I make so much money. A fucking stupid amount of money.”

“You have something in way of a retirement plan then?”

“Doc, I could retire for, like, the next five hundred million years.”

Susie hums as she makes a note. “Do you have anything against sharing resources with your romantic partner?”

(Okay, Steve definitely hasn't heard anyone else ask these questions before.)

“Nah!” Eddie scoffs before gently tugging on Steve’s hand to get his attention. “You’ll be the hottest trophy wife, babe. Do you have an apron? I’m going to buy you an apron.”

“And what are your feelings on children?”

“Kids? I love kids. Is he good with kids? I bet he’s good with kids,” Eddie rushes out. “Fuck, you’re going to look so hot pregnant, baby.”

Robin makes a loud barfing noise which Suzie naturally ignores. “What exactly are you looking for in a relationship?”

“Suzie - ”

“Him! My angel,” Eddie slumps to the side so he’s leaning up against Steve’s hip. “I want to wrap him up in a warm towel and keep him forever and make sweet, sweet love to him under the - ”

“OKAY, next question please,” Robin loudly cuts him off.

“So what you’re saying is you’re looking for a committed relationship with Steve,” Suzie ignores Robin's dramatics. “Are you prepared for lifelong monogamy?”

“Absolutely.”

“Suz - ”

“And you’ll work every day to be deserving of Steve?”

“For the rest of my life,” Eddie proclaims and fuck, he actually sounds serious. He actually looks serious too.

Huh.

Suzie quietly observes him for a moment before her face relaxes into a warm smile. “I believe you. Now, dealbreakers. What are your opinions on outdoor weddings? Steve gets scared in churches.”

“What?!” Eddie gasps, snapping back to Steve.

“SUZ – what, no, I’m not afraid of churches - ”

“Uh yeah you are, you said that every time you visit one you get nightmares about being sacrificed on an altar,” Robin chimes in.

“Gee, thanks, Robin.”

“Baby, baby, don’t worry, I’d never let them sacrifice you,” Eddie tries to comfort Steve, but everything that’s happened in the last thirty seconds – hell, the last thirty minutes – is starting to finally sink in and yeah, okay, there’s an obscenely hot and rich and famous rockstar telling Steve that he loves him and sure, he’s partially concussed but the joke isn’t ending, he’s acting like he’s serious and they’ve only exchanged like maybe twenty words total but he’s acting like this is actually happening and what if it actually could – 

“Shoot, we’re going to have to wrap it up here, loverboy,” Robin waylays his runaway thoughts as her beeper goes off. “We’ve got a fainter with a broken nose."

“Okay, okay.” Steve shakes his head and tries to gently extract his hand from Eddie’s grasp but Eddie lurches at the feeling of Steve moving his hands and whines, digging his finger into Steve’s hand.

“Eddie, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get back to work.”

“But – no, angel, please,” he blubbers before turning his eyes on Steve and –

Oh.

Oh no.

They’re even bigger and shinier when he’s crying.

“I’m sorry, Bambi,” he replies totally deliberately, “but I’ve got to go finish my shift. I’ll come back when I’m done, okay?”

Eddie sniffles, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay,” he whimpers sadly, and – look, this joke isn't really joking anymore so if Eddie's gonna go all the way, he might as well go all the way too.

He leans forward and presses a quick kiss to the top of Eddie’s head. “Be good for Suzie, okay?” As he draws back, he glances back down at Eddie. Eddie is blinking dazedly at Steve, all glassy-eyed and rosy.

“Wow,” Eddie whispers, and while the smile that appears on his face is small, it’s the warmest one Steve has seen yet. “Whatever you say, baby.”

“Right, right.” Steve nods and then pivots, making a hasty retreat out of the room.

“Later, Bambi,” Robin sings behind him, and then she’s quick on Steve’s heels. The hall’s crowded, though, so they aren’t fast enough to escape the start of Suzie and Eddie’s conversation. 

(“So, outdoor wedding? Maybe in spring?”

“Can it be in Hobbiton?”

“Uh, it better be in Hobbiton!”)

“I’m kinda surprised to see you staking your claim already, dingus,” Robin says, thrusting the portable gurney mat into Steve’s arms as they walk. “I was worried I’d have to make you.”

“I shouldn't have done that. I mean, he’s a patient, Robin!”

“Not anymore, he’s not!” Robin gently bumps his hip. “He's not your patient anymore so now we need to start planning your next move. I mean, he’s obviously going to say yes when you ask him out, but it still needs to be smooth.”

“What – I’m Steve Harrington, I’m always smooth.”

Robin is purposely silent.

“Okay, first of all, rude,” he says after giving her plenty of time to politely agree. “Second of all, even if I did decide to make a move, there actually isn’t a guarantee he’d say yes. Even if he wasn't just doing this because he's heavily concussed, I’ve hardly talked to the guy!”

“I know, he has no idea how much of a dork you are, it’s great.”

Steve offers Robin a hand as he climbs into the ambulance. (Not without shooting her a look once they're both seated, of course because again, rude.) 

Robin shrugs Steve's frown off. “Look, dingus, I know you think that you have all these great lines or whatever - ”

“Uh, I don’t think, I do have them - ”

“ – but they’re, like, obviously lines. Whatever you say to him has to be more real. He needs to know that if he says yes, he’s going to be going on a date with a guy that has the ooiest, gooiest, squishiest little itty bitty heart!” She squeezes her hands together like she’s holding Steve’s heart in her hands (which definitely isn’t concerning given the fact that she’s technically a medical professional who knows just how vulnerable that particular organ is.)

“Robs - ”

“ITTY BITTY!” She kisses the tips of her fingers. “And that’s why we gotta plan, doinkus. Edward Anthony Munson needs to be constantly conscious of the fact that he’s dating the best guy on the entire planet because you are, Steve, you are the best guy on Earth and you deserve a Prince Charming even though the Prince Charming archetype is totally outdated and part of a patriarchal initiative to establish systematic gender dynamics - ”

Well, shucks. Maybe Robin doesn’t hate him after all.

“ - doesn't exist, its still what you deserve. But more importantly than that, if Eddie does start dating you, then I have a better shot of getting him to introduce me to Chris Hemsworth.”

“Chris Hemsworth?"

“Uh, yeah.”

"Chris Hemsworth - Chris Hemsworth? Out of every famous person Eddie could hypothetically introduce you to, you'd want to meet Chris Hemsworth?"

"Well, yeah," Robin takes a brief sip of her water before shooting Steve a playful smirk. “I mean, as great as you are, I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading my emotional support himbo.”

Never mind, she’s evil incarnate.

(And she’s going to be out of Chunky Monkey in about five hours.)

Tags list: @piratefishmama @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring @noxturnallyevermore @little-trash-ghost @justforthedead89 @mmmmwaffles94 @omletlove @lostonceandneverfound @sweetwaterangel @punctualhowell @sapphirecobalt-1 @kedtheduck @lunesispunk @mrs-dr-reid @clockworkballerina @stayonmars @maya-custodios-dionach @kahri1 @renaissan-vvitch @xwildangel @sweetarts116 @musical-theatre-gay @ladylokilaufeyson5 @ellietheasexylibrarian @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @designatedgrape @steddiesoulmates @starlightshadowsworld @inmoonywetrust @hellfire--cult @singmeyoursimpsong @sleepdeprivedflower @loserhotline @m-owo-n @magpiemuseum

[blarshwritezz]

Yandere Victim x Serial Killer Reader

Male Yan x gn reader

TW - general yandere behavior, murder, mentions of suicide, smoking, ghosts/paranormal stuff, technically kidnapping

Victim!Yan was just a shut-in true crime fan with no direction in life. He didn't have a job, barely any cash left, no friends, no family. A total loser.

Victim!Yan was thinking about just killing himself and getting it over with. Everyone dies anyway, right? And there aren't exactly any cool killers to give him an interesting death like in all the stories he's much too obsessed with.

Victim!Yan was staring out his apartment's window, having what was supposed to be his last smoke. Tonight would be the night...until he heard screams in the alleyway beneath him.

Victim!Yan figured there was no harm in looking down. No reason to either, but something compelled him to do so. His eyes widened when he saw you, silencing those screams by burying a knife into your victim's neck over and over again.

Victim!Yan was instantly smitten. Heat rose to his cheeks as you eliminated the evidence, leaving only the mutilated corpse of your victim. He watched you disappear into the night, hoping and, for the first time in his life, praying that he'd see you again.

Victim!Yan saw the news about your "work" the next morning. Police officers even came to question him, but of course he didn't eat you out! You seemed to have so much fun getting covered in that red blood. Oh how he wished it was his. Those other people didn't deserve to die by your glorious hands!

Victim!Yan kept up with your killings in every way possible. News, podcasts, social media, gossip, every way he possibly could! He learned you, like many prolific serial killers, seemed to have a type when it came to killing.

Victim!Yan did everything possible to become your type. He started going out at night to places he suspected you might show up. He changed his physique, his hair, and even started standing up straight if you preferred him to be taller!

Victim!Yan never gave up, and finally, after so SO long of hoping to be caught by you, there you were! You were even more stunning up close! The way you ran after him on this deserted street was absolutely thrilling! And when you finally caught him, pinning him down with your perfect hands, he just about died of happiness before you even had the chance to spill his blood!

Victim!Yan relished every glorious moment of you stabbing him to death until his breathing finally stopped. He was so glad to see you take a little souvenir off his body...wait, he was still watching you?

Victim!Yan quickly realized he was most certainly dead, but somehow still able to watch you. Even follow you. And you didn't see him? After some initial confusion, he soon discovered he was a ghost. He was so elated!

Victim!Yan followed you everywhere! Even when you thought you were completely alone, he was there too! And you had hardly any idea, until he started to get bolder.

Victim!Yan would wrap his cold arms around you as you slept. He would start messing with your things, closing the doors in your home when he didn't want you to leave. You were so cute all frustrated about these new occurrences.

Victim!Yan only grew more powerful as a ghost, until one night you were even able to see him! You finally confronted him, lunging at him, going for the kill, and for both you and him to be disappointed about you not being able to kill him yet again.

Victim!Yan stopped letting you leave your house soon after that. No one could come in, either. The police thought something happened to you, and considered your killings to all be cold cases after a while.

Victim!Yan wanted to be your last and only victim, but saw how irritable you got now that you couldn't kill. He decided to generously posses things like dolls so you could still have your fun.

Victim!Yan would never ever let you go now. You were all his. His perfect killer.

And another one done!

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic - Fragments Iván Mas

wada sez: Yesterday, I shared a couple-dozen assorted previews for Mosaic strips which never saw completion. One artist, however, accounted for almost that many abortive strips all by himself! As I've mentioned in the past, Iván Mas was a prolific Mosaic contributor who often clashed with Mosaic leads Josh van Reyk and Shaun Knowler over their editorial policies. While sharing previews, he constantly expressed frustration over the months-long delay for comics being shared by the project. It's hard to say why most of these strips never saw the light of day, or how far along they were to completion: perhaps some simply slipped through the cracks! As Iván Mas is a true auteur, a real perfectionist, it wouldn't surprise me if he was simply unhappy with the end result for a few of these. I've done my best to translate relevant comments of his.

Untitled Animated Bulkhead comic [2007-09-20]

"May be a small teaser of an upcoming mosaic featuring the new TF Animated characters"

"Subtle Touch" (Death's Head) [2007-09-21, 2007-10-02]

"Light Awakening" (Optimus Prime) [2008-02-05]

"Versus" (Megatron & Optimus Prime) [2008-05-31]

"Iron" (Man of Iron) [2008-07-07]

Untitled Leozack comic [2008-08-10]

"Decepticons Power" (Overlord) [2008-10-09, 2008-10-09]

"Panel 1 of a Mosaic that I am making (another one) at the moment I have 12 on the computer that… have not been shown yet, I don't know if it is worth continuing making…. anyway I am making this one so that Vero, one of the colorists who has given us a hand on the mosaic theme can distract herself…. she expressed her desire to continue doing things and like her friend Rafa, she seems to have a lot of work… In any case, the drawing is not finished, some things need to be touched up… and above all, the background."

"A teaser of the mosaic that I suppose you will see some year in the next centuries….. I'm bored………. …………………………………. …………………………………."

"Duality" (Silverbolt) [2008-11-20]

"Eeeeh… well… a mosaic that I don't know if I'll end up doing, lately I've been quite busy so I've put the topic aside, however I have quite a few in the can… so… I don't think there will be much of a problem…"

Untitled Megatron comic [2009-01-14]

"Well… here's a discarded Megatron panel for a mosaic… it seemed unnecessary to the rhythm and inconsequential, besides the fact that I don't like the drawing too much. I guess because of all that, I didn't put any effort into it either…. It's out."

Untitled Kup comic [2009-01-18]

"Well, the title is quite self-explanatory, isn't it?…. a design for a mosaic that I hope I will be able to start preparing soon on Kup."

"New Ages" (Starscream) [2009-01-30]

"Well then… the truth is that I have quite a few mosaics scattered all over the place waiting to be translated or painted… it annoys me and disgusts me a little because I have to show things in dribs and drabs, the subject goes on forever and at this rate they will release it on the official page by 2050.

"That's partly why lately you'll see that I do them alone, if I give them to someone to paint it's possible that because of what people do, the thing will take forever…

"This problem is more personal and unreal than anything else, the truth is that it exasperates me not knowing or having a date to deliver or finish these things, I don't know if it is my defect or what, but I am very strict with deadlines and so on, obviously Yes, I am that way with myself as well with others, although I already said, yes to me, but I cannot demand anything from the rest, as is logical.

"So the fact of making a mosaic by myself means that I can control the deadlines at all times, and thus remain calmer in this aspect.

"That's why you will see that I don't stop putting previews or panels… as I said today I have 7 finished mosaics on my part… and they are waiting to be finished… and I'm doing 5 more… that's what I want To say that if I painted those that I have pending I probably wouldn't be able to draw those 5 so I won't give much more, a shame.

"In reference to the image, I must say that it is Starscream.. I honestly don't know if I will leave it in gray or in color.. for what I intend in the mosaic, perhaps it would do better with color.. but the results like this are not bad….

"However, a note, I don't like transformers with lips… that is, not like I've done them here… does that mean that I don't like this drawing? Well… it's not that I'm excited about it. , but it's not that bad either.

"However, with Starscream I have a problem… since he is a big mouth and a bit effeminate, unconsciously I always mark his lips a lot… but it's funny, it only happens to me with him, so I take it more as a detail that defines a bit. the personality of the character more than anything else, and it also helps to minimally distinguish between Skywarp and Thundercracker, so it is possible that… if you look closely, although you may not like it at all, this detail is not entirely bad.

"About the story… I can't tell you too much, logically… since… it's a page and I'll tell you what it's about…"

"Human Component: Ginrai" [2009-06-29]

"Here's a sketch about how I plan to draw Ginrai in the Human Component, a small character study… I wasn't planning on uploading it now, but since I don't know when you'll be able to see it… here's a little preview. I know it's not a big deal… but the page will be better.

"In theory, the style of this drawing is the same as that of the mosaic… so… I thought I wanted to make a color page painted with traditional watercolor."

Untitled Wilder/Shuta comic [2006-12-30, 2010-05-11, 2010-06-02]

wada sez: I've also included the very first piece of fanart shared on Iván's deviantART, which depicts Wilder!

"A long time ago I started a mosaic about this man… I may not finish it, but I wanted to give my version of this character.

"The Japanese guy was fine, but he had the eighties and effeminate air of that time, for a tough guy, a thug, he had too fine features, a perfect complexion, and a neat style, I can't imagine a gang member physically like that.

"I kept the characteristic features, such as the hair covering the eye and the tape, although here it is not appreciated too much, and I tried to give it a more serious, more realistic, and harder touch… I based myself a little on the actor Toshiro Mifune from the Hidden Fortress, for example.

"I think that this way, he physically passes more for being a "bad" gang member etc…"

"Well… a quick design that I made for a page that I have pending… and that will not be finished… about a preview of a Wilder against Shuta fight….

"I already showed you another of the panels a few days ago… the one in which we saw Wilder angry…

"So… if I were to make a comic about transformers… it would be something pretty similar to this.

"As you can see, I went from line art… as I always say, if the drawing is done in ink, in color, the only thing it can do is win… the colorist has to be very bad for it to not look good.

"Also… this type or style of robot, with well-drawn humans and rich backgrounds, I think would make a Transformers comic seen through different eyes, and not as a third-category comic.

"As you can see, it is a more serious, more adult and more realistic style, it is clearly Masterforce, a series that due to the incompetence of some, lack of judgment on the part of others and lack of general vision… I fear that it will fall eternally into oblivion, except for a few fans. A shame.

"It is somewhat reminiscent of the Bay or Figueroa style, but being less complicated, it maintains the characteristic features of G.1

"It doesn't look bad at all, for a quick design.

Untitled "TF3 Mosaic" (Scourge) [2011-07-08, 2011-07-11]

"A small contact with the character for a mosaic that I want to do, the truth is that in the movie he is very lackluster in the face of so many robots, however his potential, just like it had in the original series, is very great.

"Some time ago I made a mosaic about the Constructicons, directly in Photoshop, with a somewhat, let's say "conceptual" style, well, that was a small test to do other things of this type.

"To finish off the drawing a little and make it more of an illustration, I added a background of Chicago manipulated with a little color characteristic of the bad guys or this Shockwave.

"I feel that the resolution is not as good as it should be, but the original is too heavy."

"Fast design for a mosaic character. Yes, it´s Scourge in movie style.... not bad."

wada sez: And that's all! I was tempted to reach out to Iván to see if he could share any more material from these strips, but he hasn't been active on deviantART in almost a decade, and I suspect that he canned many of them for a reason. Still, it's an interesting window into his creative process and mindset regarding Mosaic as an endeavour!

[panelshowsource]

hi, sarah! i see you've watched a lot of british panel shows/comedians and i need a specific recommendation: where to start with dara o briain? he's right now my favourite taskmaster contestant ever and after listening to his episodes on the tm podcast and off menu, and watching him on wilty, i'm completely in love with his humor and manner of speech. what are the "must see" things he's done in the past? he's such a prominent figure in british tv but idk how to choose what to watch next

i have watched a lot of panel shows...you got that right hehehe...

i'm happy for you that you found someone you really like and get to explore a lot of new content! i gotta say, that doesn't happen often for someone quite so famous and prolific like dara, so it's fun for me to think back to all the stuff he's been in :')

he's a comedian, but he's also known for being mr big smarty pants, so he's done a lot of comedy programmes as well as smarty pants programmes & documentaries. you may choose to start in one of these distinct directions if there's a side of dara you like best! let me start with a few of my own faves...

he's probably best known — definitely by my followers, but also in general — for being the long-time host of the news-focused panel show mock the week, which JUST ended after 17 years. of the panel shows about news, of which there are many, this one is the most accessible and the most silly. dara is a GREAT host and has hilarious dynamics with the regular panelists, especially his literal best friend ed byrne (who we heavily stan). in fact, on mtw, you'll also see lots of other taskmaster contestants you may recognise, including panel captain and cult fave hugh dennis, frankie boyle, russell howard, and ed gamble. i know 17 years is A LOT, so if you've never seen the show and aren't sure where to start, i'm gonna recommend you give series 15 a go — as a new-er panel show fan, i think a more recent season like this one will be most accessible. also, this compilation of comedians roasting dara on mtw for half an hour is fucking hilarious lmaooo

dara has been on tons of panel shows as a panelist opposed to hosting, and you'd be amiss not to catch up on him on qi! one of stephen's smart lil boys and a clever laugh, he was made for that show. you can find dara's episodes here and i have all of qi linked on the masterpost! if you've never seen qi here's a silly clip that is mostly sean being one of stephen's naughty lil boys but it's a great example of the learning a lot/learning absolutely nothing dichotomy that can happen with a great panel (including dara!!)!

apart from that, i'd highly recommend you watch his stand-up! i put two specials on drive for you, 2012's craic dealer and 2015's crowd tickler (sorry for the mid quality — they're just dvd rips). these are pretty perfect for blossoming dara fans because they're funny, witty, clever, goofy — all the things we love about dara at once!!

as for my final personal recommendation, you should definitely check out dara & ed's great big adventure, a bbc two miniseries where the besties travel along the pan-american highway! they have top-tier wholesome bantz, ed is very fucking goofy (you will find quickly that being a fan of dara is being a fan of ed hahaha), and they explore some very beautiful cultures. i will work on getting decent rips of the show for my drive, but in the meantime you can watch this on dailymotion!

it would be amiss if i ended the recs here, because dara has hosted a lot of different series — but these series are based around very specific interests of his. some of the big ones include the following: go 8 bit, one of his most recent shows about classic and indie video games, very nostalgic with fun guests; science club (if you need full eps of this lmk, i should be able to get them but it will just take a lil time) and school of hard sums, nerds talking about science and maths, def have qi vibes; and the underrated stargazing live, broadcast every winter and when dr brian cox & our fave amateur astronomer mr ó briain talk about stars and shit! these are less necessary watching and more worth watching if the topics tickle your fancies~

okay i hope that helps!! there is obviously so much more to his career — including his many books — but i think this is overwhelming enough and i hope you don't mind the long post! feel free to catch us up on what you're enjoying down the line, we love dara and hearing what others love about him too :')

[intrepidacious]

97 with Ran, if you'd please 😌💕

occupy my brain

pairing: ransom drysdale x f!reader

word count: 1.2k

warnings: ransom being his usual self should be warning enough. implied smut. please note that my blog is rated 18+. minors dni. ageless/empty blogs will be blocked without warning.

prompt: 97. passionately making-out against a wall

a/n: i'm not gonna lie, posting this kind of hurts for obvious reasons but i don't want to sit on the prompt forever either because it's simply too good for that. this is the part one of come on down that i was talking about.

Death had always been a passion of yours, but you’d never fantasized about it quite as vividly as you had over the past couple of weeks.

One might have thought it came with the profession, but no.

It felt truly unfair that the texts you were studying told you exactly what poisons were most likely undetectable in the average blood test, how they were to be administered, how long your victim would suffer before his inevitable demise, eyes bulging as he struggled to take another labored breath …

Instead, he let out another annoyed sigh and you rolled your eyes.

You’d been going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole for the better part of the evening and he hadn’t even opened his damn laptop.

When you first got the job as Harlan Thrombey’s research assistant, you’d been ecstatic. You’d applied for it without ever expecting a call back—after all, he was one of the most prolific writers of crime fiction alive while you barely made it into your grad program. Sure, knowledge of forensic science was somewhat of a prerequisite to any self-respecting mystery writer, but still. You were sure there were hundreds of fretting English majors begging for the opportunity, and in the end, it fell to you.

Of course, your excitement was soon to be nipped in the bud when you met the other research assistant, who you would be working closely with over the entirety of the summer: Harlan’s very own grandson, Ransom Drysdale.

In the beginning, you tried. You really tried. But there was nothing to be done.

He was an asshole who seemed to be under the assumption that if he pressed just the right buttons, all the actual work would get done by you and simply fall into his lap at the end of the day; just the way it’d probably been all his life.

And because the first couple of times, you were playing nice and letting him get away with it, you were now stuck in this nightmare of a position. Sat on the couch in his large and strangely empty living room on a Friday night, daydreaming about extremely potent poisons.

Ransom sighed loudly again and your eyes snapped to him. He was still draped across his armchair, feet dangling off the armrest, an extremely bored expression on his stupidly handsome face.

The fact that, despite his horrible attitude, his features still had that effect on you made your blood boil even more.

"You know, if you actually did the work we agreed on, you probably wouldn’t have to sigh every five seconds," you said sharply.

An easy smirk appeared on his lips. "How else am I gonna get your attention?"

"How about by being less of a pain in my ass?"

Ransom’s eyes dipped down for a moment, only to return to yours with an amused glimmer you didn’t care for. His grin widened. "Where’s the fun in that?"

"This isn’t about fun, Ransom. This is my job. You know what that means?" Poisons and choking. "It means that certain things are expected of you."

He didn’t look particularly impressed. "Like what?"

"Like, I don’t know, research? Doing what’s asked of you instead of just being a prick?"

He snorted. "There’s just so many better ways we could spend our time," he drawled, in a tone that you could dissect all too easily.

Unbelievable.

"Keep dreaming," you muttered through clenched teeth, ignoring the way your heart twisted.

He was an asshole. You dealt with enough of those in your labs, and you made a point of not delegating any more brainpower to their presence than was necessary to get through long evenings. It was as easy as that.

Then again, none of the lab guys were quite this infuriating.

Ransom’s gaze had started wandering again, slower this time, more deliberate. You could feel a tingle go down your spine.

"We’ll see," he finally said, his voice very low.

You had to leave.

You slammed your laptop shut with a lot more force than necessary.

"You know what?" You grabbed your bag off the floor resolutely. "It’s late and I still have a lot of stuff to get done before I talk to your grandfather tomorrow, and you’re no help at all, so I’ll just get going."

He shook his head, the self-satisfied grin still not budging; for some reason, that only bugged you more. You were already half-way to the door when you heard him murmur, "Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine."

And that was it.

Your bag dropped to the floor with a resolute thunk as you turned to glare at him. "You know what, Drysdale? I don’t know why I bother with you anymore. I should just tell Harlan that you’re a slacker."

Something flickered in Ransom’s eyes, but it vanished almost as instantly as it came. "He already thinks that anyway," he said dryly, finally getting out of his damn chair to face you. "And you wouldn’t."

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"Because …" he said, taking a measured step closer. "Then you wouldn’t have an excuse to come to my doorstep anymore."

A slightly manic laugh bubbled up in your chest, jumbling your heartbeat on its way up. "Are you kidding me? I would love to never have to see you again."

Ransom tilted his head. "You’re a terrible liar." He took another step.

"What are you doing?"

You wanted to move backwards, away from him, but your feet seemed to be firmly rooted to the ground. He was close enough to touch now, and you balled your hands into fists.

Of course, he noticed. His grin morphed into something almost wicked.

"How long," he said, his voice even lower now, "are you gonna keep pretending there’s nothing between us?"

You couldn’t breathe. Otherwise, you might’ve smelled the cologne on his shirt and any last coherent thought would’ve left your body. You already found it impossible to look away from his eyes.

"There’s no us here," you said.

"Maybe you should leave, then," he answered, sounding despicably level-headed. "You know where the door is."

"I am."

Neither of you moved. The amused spark in his eye felt close enough to ignite something.

"Or," he continued, the distance between you small enough to count the freckles next to his eye, "you could stay. And we’ll see."

"Shut up," you snapped, but there was no conviction behind it. Your head was hammering.

"Or what?" he said smugly. "You’re gonna call me a prick again?"

He was too close.

"I said, shut up!"

"Make me."

It caught you off guard, that’s what it was.

You’re not sure what happened next, only that your shoulders were suddenly crashing against the wall and Ransom’s mouth was on yours, hungry, unforgiving, all-consuming.

And for some reason, instead of pushing him away, your fingers tangled in his hair and pulled him closer, tugging on the dark strands until he groaned hoarsely against your lips. His hands were large on your waist, on your neck. Slowly, his knee wedged between your thighs, pulling you closer onto him until your hips started moving on their own accord.

He kissed you like he had something to prove, and fuck; maybe he had a point. You weren’t sure. You’d stopped thinking.

Ransom Drysdale was deadlier than any poison; and much more addictive.

thank you for reading 💛 if you want to see more of my writing, check out my masterlist or follow @intrepidacious-fics for update notifications—and yes, there will be another part to this. eventually.

[thessalian]

This is probably important to know about.

A summary: y'all know how SAG-AFTRA was on strike recently about a lot of things, up to and including the whole thing with voice actors being replaced by AI? Well, the strike ended, but some things didn't quite get ironed out. A lot of people were still not overly keen on the lack of protections voice actors had with regards to their voices being used by AI. So something had to be done.

Something apparently was, or is starting to be. SAG-AFTRA signed a deal with Replica, an AI tech company that deals with voiced AI, about when they can and cannot use a voice actor's voice that way. There are reportedly a lot of protections for the VAs there, though without having seen the actual text of the deal, I couldn't speak to how many loopholes are in it, but I would guess there were a lot.

Why do I guess this? Well, mostly because the minute the news broke on this, every major voice actor out there started flagging up that, despite SAG-AFTRA's claims of having spoken to "leaders in the VA industry" about this, no one had heard about it. I mean, Steve Blum hadn't heard about it, and he is a foundational pillar of the VA industry. So ... SAG-AFTRA is lying when they say that they spoke to "industry leaders", frankly. The question becomes, why?

SAG-AFTRA says, "Oh, you can opt out of letting them use your voice in future!" but ... well, first of all, an AI cannot as yet mimic a human's performance, so their reputation's going to take a hit as their voices end up doing a fairly flat and unconvincing acting job because their voices' stresses and inflections are going to be decided on by a computer that doesn't entirely get nuance. Voice acting is a freelance gig, and if your voice acting gets a bad rep in the industry, you can probably kiss further work good-bye. So what option do you have but let your AI-generated voice do more work? At least there's some money coming in at that point. Which is ugly across the board.

SAG-AFTRA says, "It's entirely opt-in!" but ... what happens when video game companies start demanding that VAs go through AI tech companies instead of casting agents and literally won't hire you unless your voice is AI-generated?

SAG-AFTRA says, "It's only the one AI tech company we have this deal with!" but ... they're talking about being in discussion with several more.

SAG-AFTRA most of all says, and here I paraphrase a bit but not that much: "AI is an innovation and we can't stop it so we're just going to stop trying and make the best of it". Which is not any kind of 'best' at all, for the reasons above.

And on top of all this, and in a similar spirit to that last comment by SAG-AFTRA, Steam has decided to actually let games with AI-generated assets be sold on their platform ... provided, Valve says, that they actually state publicly, on their Steam store page, that the game was made with AI assets and exactly what those AI assets are, so that consumers can make an informed decision. Given what garbage games Steam lets through the screening process anyway, I worry about what they won't catch.

Because I am not going to knowingly touch anything generated by AI. I'm not going to do it. I've seen online friends (mainly Facebook, honestly) who do AI generated images and go, "I know, I know, buuuuut..." And I'm like ... no. Just ... no. Do I commission art as much as I'd like to? No. Could I get all the art I wanted if I would just use an AI image generator? Yeah, with the caveat that bits of it would be weird as fuck. Am I going to do so? NO. The whole point of automation was that it was supposed to do the grunt work while humans created art, not the other way around. I refuse to support it in any fucking way. I don't care if it's "innovation". I don't care that "we can't stuff it back into Pandora's box". I hate it.

I mean, at its heart, AI is just one more way to delay the inevitable bursting of the bubble economy that late-stage capitalism and "fiduciary duty to shareholders" has created. AI means they can cut more labour costs, and make profit margins expand a little more, to keep up the fiction of perpetual growth just a little longer. Companies are going to push this to its limit, and people are going to suffer as a result. I will not support anything to do with that ... well, at least if I have any choice in the matter. The worst part of all of this is that because it is companies who pretty much run everything that are pushing this bullshit, I actually don't really have any choice in the matter most of the time.

It's one more depressing thing, finding out that AI is being parcelled into damn near everything at this point, even things we're more or less forced to use. I hate that Microsoft is just bundling AI wholesale into its next Windows updates, and why I'm holding off on Win11 for as long as possible.

[tobiasdrake]

An audience in the sky. We've done weirder things, to be sure.

Their feet look like shoes. Are they wearing bodysuits or are they just... like that? Are they statue people? I have so many questions.

Do you want to do the talking, Garl? I might just wind up making offensive inquiries if I do it.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN YOUR CHEST

Oh shit, that means they can hear me muttering too. >.< "Boy, these weird-ass bodysuit cloud giants and their confusing architectural choices sure are very normal and fine!"

There you go, buddy. The Oracles already know it, but we gotta make sure everyone far and wide hears the legends of the greatest Warrior Cook who ever lived. I want people reading your fable and being inspired to master the frying pan long after you're gone.

...okay, the last time someone singled out one of my friends for an attribute like this, I wound up threatening to drown a fish. I hope we're not about to go down that road again.

Because I'm protective of Serai, but I am very protective of Garl.

Is this a big request? Gonna be honest, the answer to that question is no. We have no idea what we're asking. We just know that we need to do it so that I can strangle an asshole with his own tendrils.

Please, wise council, assist me in carrying out retaliatory violence against a godlike entity who was, himself, simply taking fair compensation for the incredible amounts of cheating we were doing!

Does. Does the goddess Luana not count or something? I'm pretty sure I just vouched for him a moment ago and we're all pretty convinced that I'm Luana. I might even actually be, who knows? So.

MIC. DROP. That's right, we speak with HIS authority!

Resh'an: She does not speak with my authority.

Garl has a full-ass god squad plus whatever Serai is! Truly, there has never been a mortal being in this or any timeline more blessed than he, so clench up your colossus-holes and sit up straight! You are in the presence of greatness.

Hold up, what?

Huh. We didn't even know the Vespertine was important. I guess we're just.... very prolific looters....

You got any other trials to obtain shit I've already swiped?

*proudly* We got so pissed off one time that we turned into balls and flew away. We have not been able to do it again, nor do we have any idea how we did it, but we DID and that makes us pretty awesome.

I'm. Not sure. Why that's an answer to the question but apparently it is. Good job, Serai. Fantastic job of doing whatever it is that you did.

I'm curious about that myself. Garl, you said you had some idea of a thing you could offer but this was all coming straight out of your visions so... how's this going to work?

And does your Borrowed Time expire once we get the approval, or after we do whatever we have to do to get the approval approval? I need to know if you're going to suddenly drop dead and flip over that railing the second this conversation's done.

(Which, also, by the way: Railings. See, Moraine? Was that so hard?)

I REGRET EVERYTHING WHY ARE WE DOING THIS

Garl's Elder Mist prophecy did say he would soothe a long-tormented soul. I wrote it off as referring to Malkomud but if it's still in effect, then that's another one he has to complete before he can die.

Yeah, that one. That's the one.

He also told you to be mindful of your limitations but you still insisted on getting shot for me, you selfless fuck. T-T

I only about 80% understand what they're talking about (Thanks, Teaks! It was in the Sleeper's fable!) but this is the boldest thing we've ever done. And we've done some bold-ass shit.

I love it. I'm excited to be a part of it. We should probably let the molekin know that we may or may not be about to wreak utter annihilation upon their entire civilization and they do not get a voice in the matter.

[wanderlustmagician]

heyheyheyheyhey

uuuuuh

ramble about some weird history fixation of yours

plz <3

Ooooooooo :3 you have said the magic words

I tried answering this from my phone twice and it wiped it. So had to wait on the tablet xD

I've always enjoyed doing research and reading on various bad ass women in history. I find it so fun and fascinating that several different countries can say that they're at their most prolific and successful when they're ruled by a Queen. It's usually the Kings where a lot of the drama is, but even then the Queens are being bad asses behind the scenes.

One area of history I circle back to a lot is Henry VIII and his wives. Mostly his wives, they're honestly the more interesting ones in that trainwreck. Catherine of Aragon was essentially being held hostage after her first husband, Arthur, and Henry's elder brother died suddenly. Arthur is super kind of tragic, to me. A lot of what little records of him remain show a very lonely existence. He didn't really get to be around his family a lot and grew up with a lot of expectations resting on him. He was only 15 when he died. Anyways Henry's father, Henry VII (and don't get me started on the naming thing back then, I do my family's ancestry stuff and it makes me absolutely CRAZY), didn't want to lose a very profitable alliance with what was a united Spain and, if I remember right, also didn't want to return her very expensive dowry. So he just... refused to send her back?? So rude. Anyways, little future Henry VIII spends that time learning the things he didn't get to learn when he was the spare and wooing Catherine. It works. She is successfully wooed.

They're married for 20 years. Two decades. The people LOVE her. She is an A+ Queen according to the people. She's invested in the arts, she's investing creating a culturally diverse court. She sponsors young noble ladies to go learn about the courts, culture, and arts in other ladies countries/courts. Anne Boelin is one these ladies she sponsored. We can get to her another day though. Catherine is emulating her mother, Isabella I of Castille, and her court. Things she learned at her mother's knee growing up. Being from Spain, she was a very devout Catholic as was her daughter, Mary.

Then after many years of being a devoted queen, suffering through the trauma and agony of many miscarriages and children lost young or stillborn, and having to live as a hostage - Henry VIII betrays her by casting away their now formerly shared faith, disavowing their marriage and casting away their daughter, and imprisoning her till she eventually dies. She never gets to go back to Spain, never sees her daughter again, and is forced to die dishonored and alone.

And what's worse, to me, is that Henry VIII loved her, but when it came down to making a choice between his wife and his legacy... he absolutely made the wrong choice and then kept making it. By the time of his death, he'd thrown both away.

I could have kept going but this was getting long and if I started on Anne Boelin, I wouldn't have been able to stop. Henry VIII did Catherine of Aragon dirty, but so did his father and a lot of the people in her life ( I think the only person who was ever on her side was Arthur, her first husband, but he died after like five months... so who knows how long that energy would have lasted.) However, Anne Boelin got done almost worse for how much he loved her versus how he handled the end.

I dunno if this is what you were hoping for but tadaaaa. Thank you for the ask Somer <3

[impala-dreamer]

Captives of The Court - Chapter Twelve

A Supernatural Series

~Strange things are brewing in Connecticut, so Dean and Y/N go check it out. After stumbling through town, they fall into something that’s been going on a very, very long time. Can they put an end to the bloodshed and make it out unscathed or will they need a little help this time?~

Starring Dean Winchester x Y/N Y/L/N

Series Warnings and Info may be found on the Masterlist Here 

Impala-Dreamer’s Masterlist  ~  Patreon  ~ Published Works

The crowd had gathered; each participant hidden behind lace or leather masks and hoods that kept their faces well in shadow. Despite the cloaks and masquerade, most were known to each other. The townsfolk had been there before, watching the rituals, bathing in the blood of the male offering, soaking up the potions Bronwyn brewed from the victim’s love. It was old hat by now, just something that had to be done for the good of the town. A few of the new supplicants still found it shameful, and they kept to the back of the room, skirting the edges and holding their breaths as the sacrificial lambs were manipulated and used up.

A newcomer stood in their midst that night, a petite woman draped in a charcoal cape that hid her bright red hair and porcelain skin. She wore a mask of intricate sapphire lace that matched her sparkling gown, and walked through the crowd with the air of royalty. Whispers erupted in wake as she moved to the center of the congregation and approached the altar.

Bronwyn met her there, smiling in greeting and nodding. “So glad you could join us.”

The stranger smiled and thanked her host, a thick accent rippling through the air. “The pleasure is all mine, Bronwyn. Very excited to see what you’ve been working on.”

Pride swelled in Bronwyn’s chest and she tried to hide it behind a tight smile. “Then let’s begin, shall we?”

She turned and spread her arms wide, welcoming her followers.

“Tonight, we have an extraordinary surprise. As many of you came to realize, two hunters stumbled into our town recently, and I was fortunate enough to capture their… attention. Now, the very thing they came to destroy, will destroy them!”

A low, rumbling laugh filled the room and the candles flickered as the new waves of air struck the flames.

Bronwyn held up a hand and the crowd silenced immediately.

“Beautiful though this couple is, they are even more special. Not only are they deeply in love, one of them… is famous.” Her eyes widened beneath the mask and the room rang with anticipation. “Allow me to introduce our honored guest tonight… Dean Winchester.”

With a snap of her fingers, Dean moved into the room. He walked as if in sleep, his body mobile but his mind empty. Naked and shining with a glaze of sweat, he stood in the center of the room, his bare toes edging the runes carved into the ancient stone. They formed a circle around him, seven feet around, and he stopped at the edge, locked by the magic and Bronwyn’s command.

The audience exclaimed at his beauty and the novelty of having such a prolific hunter in their circle. The sapphire witch took a step back, fading into the throng, watching, hiding.

Bronwyn grinned and continued with a wave of her hand “Let us not forget his lover and our vessel… Y/N Y/L/N.”

Y/N entered just as Dean had, naked and entranced. She stood next to him, toes touching the arch of the magical circle, waiting, empty.

With everything in place, Bronwyn began the first part of the spell. She worked at the altar, mixing the tincture of her own design and anointing Dean and Y/N in turn. The oils ran down the faces, dripped onto their chests, puddled at their feet. The scents of damiana and rose filled the room, and their bodies weakened, growing more pliant with each word Bronwyn spoke.

“Esse simul!”

The followers replied, chanting the spell along with Bronwyn and the magic took hold. Dean turned to Y/N and laid his hands on her shoulders, spinning her to him. They kissed, heavy and wet. His hands dragged down her body, her fingers clawed at the nape of his neck.

With more than a dozen pairs of eyes upon them, they fell to the ground within the circle, biting and licking, scratching and pinching. She rolled onto her back and rode him hard, her arousal in control of everything.

He groaned beneath her, body crushed into the stone. His eyes were wide and fixed on her flesh but he was unable to wake, too trapped inside himself.

The room roared with cheers when he came and the essence of his orgasm was trapped in another jar, locked away to be used for the main spell.

Two hours went by and their bodies were tired. Their backs were scraped by the stone, their sex aching and raw from constant use, lips swollen and bright ruby red. Close to breaking down, they lay in each other’s arms, driven to keep touching by the spell until one more orgasm was ripped from Y/N’s throbbing cunt.

Satisfied so far, Bronwyn clapped her hands and addressed the room. Y/N and Dean went still, afforded a small break to catch their breaths.

“Please help yourselves to supper upstairs while we give our guests a rest. The altar must be prepared for the second part.” Her gaze swept over the hooded company and she pointed at the steps. “I shall be with you shortly.”

As the coven ascended the stairs up into the main house, Bronwyn tended to Y/N and Dean. She got them up from the cold floor and let them sleep in each other’s arms against the wall.

She cleared the altar and set up a new cloth of plush purple velvet and a small pillow for Y/N’s head. A sharp knife of pure silver laid at the head of the altar and she blessed each piece as she laid it in place.

Finally, she took her leave, following her supplicants up the long stairs and shutting the door behind her.

The sapphire witch slid out of the darkness beneath the staircase and rushed to Dean and Y/N. She slapped his cheek hard, mostly for fun, as she knew he was too far gone to react. She eyed him for a long moment before speaking, taking in the view of his nakedness and shrugging.

“Not bad…” She smirked. “But I’ve seen bigger.”

Moving closer to Y/N, she laid her hands on both their foreheads and bent between them to whisper. “Surgere.”

Y/N gasped as a jolt of energy struck her heart and she sprang up, nearly knocking their savior over.

“Holy fucking motherfucking hell!”

The witch shushed her with a harsh hiss and a finger over her lips. “Be quiet!”

Dean shuddered as he woke and shook himself, too fatigued to yet stand. “Fuck. Y/N?”

She went back to him, crouching down to check on him before jumping back and into a fighting stance, weary of their helper.

“Who are you!”

Dean waved at her to lower her voice and back down. “Shh. Friendly,” he croaked.

The witch dropped her hood and tugged the mask from her eyes. Rowena smiled flirtatiously. “You recognized me behind all this?”

Dean rolled his eyes and sat up. His muscles were aching, bones near to breaking. “Only you would wear a glittery get up like that.” He stood, wincing at the pain and quickly covered his manhood. “What the hell?”

Rowena looked down at his hand and smirked. “Don’t worry. I took a wee peek before I woke you up.”

Y/N gagged. “OK. What the hell is going on?” She tried to hide herself behind Dean, but it was no use, so she slung an arm over her chest. “And, thank you, Rowena. Sorry I tried to punch you.”

Rowena batted incredibly painted lashes and shrugged her cloak off, handing it to a grateful Y/N. “Don’t worry about all that. Let’s just get you out of here before they come back.” She turned towards the steps and the tunnel carved behind.

Dean grabbed her shoulder. “Wait. We can’t just leave. We gotta-”

“Have to what, Dean?” Rowena snapped. “In case you’ve not noticed, you’re naked as a newborn babe, unarmed and half dead. You need to get out of here before Bronwyn and her folk come back for part two.”

Y/N shivered. “Part two?”

“Aye. First, they wring every possible ounce of orgasmic magic from your bodies, and then-” She paused and looked over her shoulder at the altar.

Y/N swallowed hard. “They sacrifice us.”

“No.” Rowena shook her head solemnly. “Much worse.”

Dean balked. “Worse?”

“Well, you, they sacrifice. But not after they have Y/N carve you up. And… well-”

Y/N leaned in, wide eyed and concerned. “And?”

Rowena sighed. “Dean must impregnate you before they drain him and dispose of his corpse. Then they keep you, magically accelerate the gestation, and… eventually… kill you and the fetus after stealing the birth magic.”

Dean and Y/N stood stark still, staring at Rowena with jaws too tight with nerves to actually drop.

Y/N trembled inside. “What!”

“It’s very complicated, very dark magic.”

Dean blinked himself back into the moment. “Sex magic?”

Rowena nodded. “Aye. Usually, it’s not used to this extent, and normally no one dies, but Bronwyn is a truly evil bitch.”

Dean laughed. “Witch,” he corrected.

“Bitch,” she asserted.

Y/N shrugged in agreement and stepped away from the other two. She grabbed the silver blade from the altar and chucked it against the wall as anger swelled in her gut. “Ain’t nobody getting me pregnant,” she hissed, ripping the cloth from the stone and tossing it at Dean. “Cover that dick and let’s get out of here. We need about two cases of Gatorade and some red meat.”

Still quite dazed, Dean wrapped the cloth around his waist and hobbled towards her. “Burgers?” His stomach growled.

Y/N sighed and pressed her palm to his cheek. “Of course, baby.”

Annoyed, Rowena clicked her tongue and tapped a jewel-studded shoe. “Shall we hurry please?”

The tunnel was long and short, and only Rowena made it through without ducking. She lead them down into the darkness and back out the other side, all the while, answering their questions in careful whispers.

“How many of them were there?” Dean asked, nearly cracking his head on the roughly carved ceiling for the tenth time.

“I counted fourteen aside from myself.”

“Including Bronwyn?”

“Aye.”

Y/N groaned. “That’s a lot. Recognize anyone?”

Rowena tripped over a rock and huffed. “A few. That horrible John Willard was one of them. Tried to sneak his hand under my cloak.”

“The sheriff.” Y/N grit her teeth. “Yeah. Figures. Handsy dick…”

Finally, they hit moonlight and breathed fresh air for the first time in days. The Impala was still stashed in the woods half a mile down the road and they ran to it as fast as their exhausted legs could carry them.

Dean’s naked ass squeaked on the leather as he slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine.

Rowena hung back, unsure of what to do.

Y/N yanked her door open and paused, squinting at Rowena. “What’re you doing? Come on.”

“I have to go back in or they’ll know it was me who helped you escape.” The taste of fear bathed her tongue and she cringed, hating it.

“No.” Y/N opened the back door and tugged on Rowena’s arm. “You can’t go back in there. If they know we’re gone, they already know it was you. You’d be walking into an execution.”

Dean threw his arm over the seat and looked back at them. “Yeah. Besides, we still need you. Now, get in. I’m freezing.”

Sequins sparkled in the moonlight as she climbed into the backseat.

[todayisafridaynight]

A Little Late and the way you already picked up on it despite not really hardcore seeking out ninkyo (yakuza-genre) media says enough, but I wanted to second that it is absolutely true queer appeal is inextricable from ninkyo as a whole. That's why RGG is the way it is!

If Nakano and Motomiya--both incredibly prolific ninkyo actors, with Motomiya producing+writing for+leading the biggest series out there right now, Nihon Touitsu/Unification of Japan--can sit down to talk, describe ninkyo as a genre about men falling in love with men, the "ultimate BL," and carry on without missing a beat, I think that speaks for itself. And like, they're not wrong at all--even if it was a little tongue-in-cheek and even if the subtext is rarely intentional, many if not most ninkyo stories are fundamentally about love.

Why that matters is because ninkyo specifically portrays the idealized version of the yakuza--"ninkyo" translates to "chivalry." There's very little that could be considered ideal about being a yakuza nowadays; that much is explored in non-ninkyo yakuza media. Of course there are the universal ninkyo themes of being able to make something of yourself from nothing, of defending the defenseless, of fighting back against injustice from the wrong side of the law when the "right side" isn't serving you, but at the core of many of these stories, there's one thing in particular that makes it worth it to be a yakuza.

Ninkyo depicts a world of extremes--often unthinkable to an ordinary person--which the characters are willing to bear so long as they can keep the only people who truly recognize them in their lives, and so long as they can have it reciprocated. To trust others and to be trusted in return, as Mine says. For them to go to those lengths for a fundamental human desire resonates with queer people in a world that asks for so much resilience from them just for existing. I think this is also why the stated reason Mine fell in love with Daigo was simply because he saw him as a man.

It's not always as clear-cut what kind of love it is as with Mine, but I don't think it's done cynically like you see in actual queerbait. I'd say it comes from an earnest place, raw and without self-consciousness. I think the blurred lines and openness to interpretation are also a big part of the appeal. Not just in the obvious sense of being presented with these intense bonds that are open to interpretation, but I can imagine there's also comfort to be found in the depiction of love that's hard to define in exact terms and in recognizing it doesn't always need to be defined in and of itself.

To some degree, within the history of ninkyo, I think RGG and Nihon Touitsu genuinely revolutionized how openly these topics are discussed. Ninkyo has always primarily been a genre of film, and even with Nihon Touitsu being a direct-to-video series, if you're queer or a woman or both, it's common to feel like you don't belong in the ninkyo space. Going to theaters or renting tapes or DVDs without feeling judged--or apprehensive about the content's depiction of queerness and/or women--has often been trickier than it had to be.

It's specifically the accessibility and culture around video games and online streaming, as well as the relative privacy and ability to curate your circles, that has allowed for these series to reach fans like that--so much so there's even a term for women who got into ninkyo via interpreting it through a queer lens, ninkyo joshi. Nihon Touitsu is actually what popularized that phenomenon in recent years.

There's also something to be said about RGG and Nihon Touitsu as media and the people behind them being more welcoming towards queer and/or female fans than a lot of ninkyo is in general. You won't ever catch me saying RGG doesn't have a history of queerphobia and misogyny, but at the same time, I think demonstrating they could handle characters like that respectfully went a long way, in addition to RGGS having a pretty good track record as a workplace. Similar deal with Nihon Touitsu and Motomiya doing his best to gear the series more towards a general audience and his commentary on multiple occasions agreeing his and Yamaguchi's characters' relationship reads as a BL. Even if that's as far as it goes, it does mean something to be acknowledged.

Anyways uhhh do you think Mine was an OG ninkyo danshi... like A Ninkyo Joshi But A Guy... I feel like if you're living in Japan, especially in an area with a lot of actual yakuza activity like Minato as Mine does, you'd only really come away with the romanticized ideals about the bonds between men Mine has from ninkyo... personally I just think it'd be super funny if he was an OG ninkyo joshi who transitioned into a ninkyo danshi, like when gay trans guys have a "fujoshi phase"... the call was coming from inside the house etc etc...

thank you for the history lesson on the yakuza genre, its relationship with queerness and people being able to acknowledge those undertones, and jp society's relationship with the genre. its great that big names in the genre are making it more socially accessible to everyone and not making it feel limited to a certain group of people :)

bout mine being a fan of the genre before. Being A Part Of The Genre so to speak tho, i think its a fair assumption to say he was a fan. if he wasn't beforehand, then seein them blokes sacrifice themselves for daigo def made him one lmao

[honourablejester]

Okay. So I saw a giftset of Werewolf by Night, and it’s the first thing Marvel has done in a decade that actually interested me. I’ve never read any of the associated comics, but it looked really fun. So I borrowed my sister’s Disney+ account and watched it. I’m a sucker for a good Universal-style horror.

And it was a good Universal-style horror. I actually enjoyed that. A lot!

Spoilers and more detailed (long) reaction under the cut:

I can see the Wolfman and King Kong influences, definitely. There’s also a distinct House on Haunted Hill/Clue vibe as well, and a bit of Tales from the Crypt/The Abominable Dr Phibes for Ulysses Bloodstone. And a fair bit of Young Frankenstein for the ‘will reading’ and the choice of black-and-white. I also got a bit of The Breed from the cage scene, but I doubt that one was intentional, just where my brain went. All round, a fabulous selection of classic screen horror influences.

Also. Jack Russell. Is adorable. I have so many questions. How did this idiot manage to infiltrate a secret organisation designed to kill him while apparently fucking YOLOing it the entire fucking time. He somehow got a medallion for entry (off a hunter?), he got explosives, he got explosives he doesn’t know how to use, and just … strolled up and figured he’d come up with a plan as he went? Ted! Ted, you can’t let him out alone like this!

(Apparently Ted is exactly as bad, Ted is a danger magnet, Jack YOLOs shit all the time because Ted is always getting captured, I cannot with these two. They’re idiots. And adorable)

Like, Elsa lands in the middle of this idiot convention, and hats off to her for rolling with it spectacularly.

Of course, from Jack’s perspective, he’s landing in the middle of her idiot convention. I fucking love his expression during the ‘will reading’, like trying not to glance around during the animatronic corpse recital all ‘what. the fuck. is this normal for you? do you people live like this?’. I love when you hit the first reveal of Ted, and you realise that this is not Jack’s scene, and from Jack’s POV he’s infiltrated the weirdest collection of psychos on the planet. Like he rocked up without a plan, to a society dedicated to killing people like him, and now there’s a wind-up clockwork corpse and a flaming tuba and five psychos trying to kill each other (and him, and Ted) over a rock. He’s so hilariously awkward trying to fit in, but like … how do you roll with that sight unseen? He did pretty good for a guy with zero preparation who walked into that.

(To be fair, the other hunters were also perturbed by the whole animatronic corpse thing)

Sidenote: Harriet Sansom Harris is having a ball as Verusa, and more power to her. If you’re going to be the vindictive, crackpot widow of the Abominable Dr Phibes, you might as well go all out.

And Elsa? You turned out surprisingly well, considering. Well done girl.

Also? Further question on Jack, with his cover story of a 100 kills. Did he … pick that number? Was he just brainstorming ‘what’s a good, round number of monsters for a hunter to have killed’? Did he mean to be the most apparently prolific killer there? Was that a real number? I have so many questions on how the hell he figured out where to rock up, how he got access to this event, did he kill a hunter to get here, did he just make a cover story up off the top of his head, did they verify his story at all? Like, how did he get here? What was the time frame from Ted being taken to Jack rocking up with his snazzy suit and his medallion and his explosives to get him out?

This werewolf boy is amazingly competent for such an absolute idiot.

On the flipside, mind you, this collection of psycho hunters are amazingly incompetent for a group of elite hunters dedicated to slaying monsters.

Poor Elsa. She’s pretty much the only relatively sane and competent person there. Which is amazing, given that that’s her dad’s talking corpse up there making death puns.

That being said, she does fully roll with the ‘fight each other to the death’ part of this ceremony as completely normal, while poor Jack is over here going, again, do you people live like this?

I adore Jack’s reunion with Ted in the maze. Like, the pair of them chiding each other for getting into trouble, and comforting each other, and being completely blasé like, this is fine, no problem, we’ll get out of this no trouble. Absolute idiots. I cannot. Who let them out alone?

This is followed immediately by a hunter overhearing them and Jack getting chased into and locked into a crypt. Because, again. Who let them out alone?

Whereupon he finds Elsa injured, and immediately offers to help, because she’s the only one who didn’t attack him on sight, and he’s just soft that way. He’s adorable. And more than Elsa can deal with, because who let this puppy into this death match? He takes off his snazzy tie to bind her wounds, and she already cannot with this man. He’s supposed to kill her, that is the entire point of this whole ritual bullshit, but he doesn’t know that, because he’s only here to rescue his friend (family) and these people are actually insane, and Elsa is just … okay. We’re doing this. I will help you save your friend. The monster. Named Ted. Because you are actually insane, but why not. Sure.

I love how she rolls with it. How despite being raised as a hunter by actual psychos, she immediately is onboard with nonlethal negotiation and taking the monsters at their word and putting her weapons away to deal with them. (I love this so much later, when she gets the Bloodstone before werewolf!Jack can get up, and then she puts it away, even though he’s just messily slaughtered an entire room, because him remembering her might work, and she’s willing to risk her life on that rather than hurt him unnecessarily. She’s visibly shit-scared during the entire cage scene and battle scene, but she takes her life and her nerve in her hands for his sake, despite having only just met him and the fact that he’s been secretly a monster. And her, a hunter and a hunter’s daughter)

They’re amazing, that conversation they have in the tomb, finding common ground, taking chances, thinking each other absolutely insane but in, like, a good way. She hands him down bits of her aunt’s corpse while she looks for keys, and he’s just … righto. He tells her to call Ted by his name and she’s all … the monster is named Ted, okay then. Family, right? Families are just like that.

Ted? You have a lovely name. Elsa! Because she’s also a bit of an awkward idiot at times.

Also. I absolutely cannot get over that Jack didn’t know how to use the explosives. He turns it on by accident. He’s running around with a hot grenade because he’s a fucking idiot who brought explosives that he didn’t know how to use. And the wall. Getting the sticky bomb in the crack in the wall. I cried. Buddy! Buddy! Just put it in the crack. Holy God. How? How is he alive? How is Ted alive? What is keeping this pair of morons in one piece? Aside from divine fucking providence.

I love Elsa’s giddy smile at seeing Ted run to freedom as well. Like, being polite to him worked, and he treated her right and sanely as soon as she did the same to him, and she’s legit happy that he’s free, monster or no monster.

And then Jack tries to return the favour, tries to pick up and give her the Bloodstone, and he’s a werewolf, and the mystic hunter artefact immediately lays him flat and exposes him for a secret monster too, and her whole face just falls. Not so much at the monster part, I think, and more because he fooled her, and now she doesn’t know how much of what went previously was real. Is he a lovable idiot who’s casually gentle with her, or did she get suckered by something more sinister yet again?

Also they’re both about to die, so there’s that. And he’s going to kill her.

The whole cage scene, her being locked in to be killed as a traitor by the monster she aided, really did jump my brain back to The Breed, just for the scene of Steven Grant being locked in with his vampiric and starving partner who he’s only shakily beginning to trust. I like what I like, okay? This is a good trope, I like it a lot.

And he’s still calm as anything, I’ve got 5 days until the full moon, we’ve got plenty of time to figure shit out! Honey. You’re in a cage, in a society of monster hunters, and they know you’re a werewolf. Could you maybe be a little bit worried? Does this man have any survival instincts?

And his first question is if Elsa is okay. And she still cannot with him. He is a monster, and he’s going to kill her, can he not with the sweet idiot thing? And he’s trying, because he knows he’s a monster, and he’s trying to control the harm he does, and he is essentially a sweet idiot. Who happens to turn into a ravenous monster once a month.

But he’s in the hands of different monsters now. And Elsa knows how they work. And she knows he’s going to be forced to kill her no matter what controls and systems he has.

And there he turns serious. There he turns afraid. Not that he might be hurt, but that he might actually be forced to hurt her. She’s taking it with desperate sarcasm and equanimity, but he’s suddenly deadly serious. Willing to beg. Willing to plead. And desperate to try and protect her from himself.

A tiny thing about the sniffing scene? Where a werewolf lunges across the cage, a strange man, and starts wrapping himself around her and smelling her? She’s a hunter. She’s a training fucking hunter who disliked the ritual on moral grounds but still saw nothing particularly weird about a ritualised fight to the death for a rock, and who has brutally killed one person and thrown down with several more so far. He lunges over and starts sniffing her, and she doesn’t kill him. Or even flinch, really, just asks what the fuck. She … very clearly, already, instinctively, wants to trust him. Even when he’s being really fucking weird and possibly deadly. You’re a woman in a cage with a strange man who you’ve only known for like two hours, and he jumps into your space and starts smelling your hair and skin, and you just … you roll with it? You let him? You immediately grok what he’s trying, and you just ask him if maybe it’ll work?

She’s trying to trust him. Despite him really not earning it yet. She’s trying to hope, not in her family, who she knows will betray her, but in a strange kind monster that she’s known for twenty minutes. She asks him if it will work. Does it work.

And he says … Once. One time. One time this saved a life, my wolf knowing someone’s scent. Once.

And then he stands up and begs not to be used against her, to be killed as he is, the only casualty of his idiocy.

I love when werewolves get the proper Universal Wolf Man treatment, the proper tragedy and desperate fear and hope for your loved one’s safety from your own monstrosity. Of all the classic horror tropes y’all could have picked, you picked a good ‘un.

But he’s also, the second he knows this is for real, immediately planning to fuck shit up for the assholes who’ve put him there. He’s looking around the room and planning. If they going to turn him against his will, he’s going to try to keep Elsa safe, and he’s going to fuck them up. He tells them to kill him as a man, or there will be no mercy, and he means it. As a man, not just as a wolf. If they want to open that box, okay. He’ll open it with them. He was planning. Where he’d hide. Where he’d strike. Before ever they turned him, he was planning how he’d kill them for it.

They are incompetent. I know they didn’t expect a werewolf to crash the party, but this hunter society are absolute morons who apparently have no idea what a werewolf can actually handle and do. They put him in a cage that can’t hold him and deliberately wake the monster. And then stand close enough to be mauled for it. Like. That is 100% on you, babes.

I love that Elsa is visibly terrified the entire time in this scene. She’s covering it with brittle sardonic asides, as best she can, but it’s clearly a faltering cover. And I don’t … I don’t love that she’s terrified because it’s a throwback to the damsels of classic horror, I love it because it isn’t. She’s terrified because she’s trapped helpless with a creature who will tear her limb from limb, and it’s her family that have put her here, and there’s no way not to be afraid of that. She’s terrified because she’s going to die, at the hands of a monster.

And despite that terror, despite that clear, scene-long agony of fear, she still makes the decision to trust him. She takes the risk of putting the stone away. When she gets it. With a rampaging werewolf on the loose, she takes the lessons he gave her with Ted, how terrifying things will treat you with respect and dignity if you only do the same for them, she takes this thing that goes against everything she’s lived and been taught and learned, and she risks her life on it. To avoid hurting a man who was only there to save his friend. He said he might remember her, even as a werewolf, a one in however many hundred chance of him not killing her, and that and how he’s treated her are enough for her to risk everything she’s terrified of.

I love the terror because it’s so clearly the groundwork for her absolute courage later. Her attempt to repay dignity with dignity, even at the risk of death.

Courage is not necessarily taking a weapon and facing a monster. Sometimes courage is dropping the weapon, despite everything you’ve ever learned, and trying to reach the monster instead. Not blindly, but because he did his best to reach and protect you as well, and because he and his friend have consistently showed what kindness and dignity are worth in the little time you’ve known them.

She’s a fucking good one, Elsa Bloodstone. No better black sheep to be caged with.

Also? Congratulations to this show on a good old fashioned monster scene. An excellent shadowy transformation and then a bloody, brutal fight scene. In which the two most brutal kills are Elsa’s, if only because we actually saw them, while Jack’s are mostly covered by blood splatter on the camera. She can fight. She could have fought him. She could have hidden behind the Bloodstone and just put him on the ground as Verusa did. But she didn’t. She saved him and put her weapon away to speak with him instead. Even with a werewolf straddling her, claws at the ready while she shakes with terror, she just holds his eyes and gently touches his face. Dignity for dignity, gentleness for gentleness.

And because of that, he recognised and spared her, even as a maddened, injured wolf among enemies, and Ted fucking swoops back in to save her life from her step-mother. Ted the tree monster, who can incinerate a person with a touch, crashes back through the glass fucking ceiling and saves her life. Because she helped out him and his bro.

They are morons, and I love them.

And then we finish to ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ as the scene shifts back from the black-and-white of Ulysses Bloodstone and his ritual deathmatch, to the warm colours of Elsa picking up the pieces, and Ted and a werewolf-hungover Jack continuing their exhausted bromance-slash-marriage in the woods.

I wanna say congrats to the boys for surviving the Bloodstone family madness. And I wanna say congrats to Elsa, for surviving their idiocy.

I enjoyed this. Deeply. Like I said, it’s the first thing Marvel has done that I’ve enjoyed in a solid decade. Granted, a good riff on classic horror movies, while avoiding most of the MCU continuity, is likely cheating, but still. This, and only this, I would like to save and have on DVD. It was good.

And, to reiterate, who is letting Jack and Ted out alone? They’re idiots.

For the love of god, learn how to use your explosives. Before you accidentally set them off. Mother of the good god.

[seikilos-stele]

At one time, I was a prolific writer, now I’m a busy commentator who flings an idea now and then when people seek me out. The one thing that did not change in either role was that I could not work on more than two projects at the same time -possibly three-otherwise, they would begin to influence each other. Perhaps I have a limited attention span.

Today, I opened my in-box to no less then ten of your potential projects, and at least four WIP.

That was today. In actuality, I believe that you have about seven WIP that have been active in the last ten days. I want to know a few things about both the ability and the methodology for managing this many projects.

First, I want to note that while all the WIP & finished projects are of the same Fandom, essentially, that is all they have in common. We have potential TV episodes, AU, OC, Angst, Hope, Illness and so forth. No easy bridges for immediate crossovers.

So what is the trick?

Do you keep each fic logged into your head so that you can pick them up at any moment? Do keep the detailed outlines close at hand, so you can review before you begin?

I can imagine that working on one fic my possibly inspire ideas for another WIP, or do all others remain outside your scope when actively writing? Do you ever conflate multiple WIP (bleed characteristics from one fic to another)

Do the 5X a character did this or that always begin as a group concept, or have you ever looked at prompts a say, “Hey! These ideas all share a them” and decide to combine them.

Finally, one of my absolute favorite collections of yours was the NighThrawn fics. At some point you broke them up up. Were they created originally to be a related collection?

I hope I’m not distracting the creative machine, too much!

Ooh!! No worries, I'm not doing anything creative at the moment 😆 I'm annoying my brother by practicing Louis Armstrong songs over his silent films. (Ain't Misbehavin'....fits really well with Sangue Bleu...somehow).

Um, let's see. I'd say that some days a fic really gets you. The long one I just wrote on Sunday, the 18K oneshot about a political prisoner coming home from the war and making friends with an "enemy" kid -- that's the sort of idea that comes at the right time, when you're in just the right mood, and you can breeze through it in just a few hours. It's like the stars align and everything goes perfect.

But most of the time I just really want to write and I like to have a full stable of ideas to choose from. Like, it's easier if you can just pull up a list, scan through it, and pick one. You can write 1K, and then when you get sick of it, you can pick a different idea and keep going. Spit out another 1K, switch ideas, do another...

I don't keep them logged in my head, I 100% forget all about them as soon as I switch to a different fic 💀 The only reason I get anything done is because Google Docs always suggests your most recent documents to you when you open it up in the morning. As soon as it stops suggesting a doc I basically forget about it forever. I definitely need the outlines to refresh my memory, and I've sometimes had to stop working on fics because I wrote my outline down in two different spots and can't find it or remember where I was going. Very bad memory for that stuff.

Hmm, as for conflating multiple WIPs, or ideas bleeding over, definitely yeah. Sometimes a seed will be planted in WIP 1, develop a little in WIP 2, get more interesting in WIP 3, and then become fully realized in WIP 4. To go back to the political prisoner fic, you've seen how that works. It's like:

What if this character was a political prisoner, and he got rescued, and then later he moved back to his hometown and met--

Oh shit BUT WHAT IF that traumatic incident I mentioned in Chapter 2 actually also involved Character B!

OOH and then what if Character A and B were both rescued by C--

Wait a second back to Idea 1, what if B and his wife were there at the end, and they--

OOH WAIT I really want to write that idea with the kid, back in his hometown, let me just--

Hey hang on a second I could totally finish Idea 1

And why have I never addressed A's abandonment issues? I'll mention that right now, in Fic #1, but I really need to add it to Idea #4 and write that as its own oneshot...

And for now, 6/7 are written, so that's not a bad record. I hope to do the last one soon. It was the same with Thrawn fics, you'd be halfway through a oneshot with a set plot when you suddenly think of a cool touch that you'd love to explore more, so you finish that fic and immediately start another one, where you go really in-depth. Or you think, "I would love it if this horrible whumpy trauma happened, but I really can't justify it with this plot. I should construct a whole DIFFERENT plot so I can write this scene!"

Hmm. I don't think I've actually done a 5 Times fic that started out as separate ficlets. I wish I did that more. It would work better. Usually, I come up with the 5 Times title and then wrack my brains trying to contrive six entirely different scenarios that are still interesting to read.

For the NightThrawn fics -- well, I got really into Thrawn/Pellaeon, but I didn't feel totally at ease with their voices and personalities. So I had a word generator spit out 30 prompts for me, and I wrote one quick and easy Thrawn/Pellaeon fic per day for a whole month. A little while later I realized how few NightThrawn fics there were, and it really upset me because NightThrawn was THE pairing for me after reading Thrawn 2017. I was totally flabbergasted that people shipped him with Eli! So I applied the same treatment, I grabbed a list of 15 random words and started writing. 15, not 30, because I had to prioritize a collab with NadiaYar. (Well, I mean, I love writing with Nadia. Any collab with her takes priority over whatever random time-waster I'm fiddling with for fun XD)

I think I originally posted them as separate ficlets -- then changed my mind and re-uploaded them as a single multichapter collection. And changed my mind again, and re-uploaded them all as separate ficlets XD Back then, too, I was always juggling WIPs. I remember the 30-day Prawn ficlets were coming out at the same time as Signal Lost // Contact Regained, so every day I was writing about 1K for Prawn and then racing to SLCR to complete my daily chapter and maintain my posting schedule. That got really frantic toward the end. I had a good head start but I ended up taking a month or two off SLCR entirely before I regained interest and wrote the ending.

OK I think that's all XD Thanks for asking, I'm really glad to see the Asker's Studio is back. It was a really bright moment for the Thrawn fandom imo and you made a lot of fic writers happy with questions like this. Your brand of insightful commentary and questioning isn't common in fandom these days -- and I'm sure it was NEVER "common", but even less so now, as fandom becomes more mainstream. So thanks again, and I can't wait to see who else you asked, and read their answers.

[ahjdaily]

INTERVIEW: Catch Albert Hammond Jr in L.A., Taking Guitar Lessons (GQ)

By Michael Tedder | July 4, 2023

The erstwhile Strokes guitarist talks to GQ about his latest solo album and life after NYC.

For archival purposes, full text is stored below.

Strokes lead guitarist Albert Hammond Jr helped define NYC cool in the ‘00s with his signature three-piece suits—typically accessorized with a cigarette and a “what, me worry?” grin—and guitar leads that were flashy but perfectly synced to his band’s impeccable minimalist songs.

Hammond moved to Los Angeles in 2019 and became a father two years later. (He’s married to restaurateur Justyna Hammond Jr) But he has maintained his unflappable cool even while keeping extremely busy. In 2018, he released his power-pop solo album Francis Trouble, inspired by his twin brother who died before they were born. In 2020, the Strokes released the Grammy-winning, Rick Rubin-produced album The New Abnormal, which proved to be a comeback for the band after close to a decade of relative inactivity. And now he’s returning with the new Melodies on Hiatus, a winning 19-song reflection on mortality that mixes elements of new wave and indie pop while keeping room for the type of just-bombastic-enough soloing he made his name on.

Hammond, who first stepped out on his own with the crisp 2006 album Yours to Keep, has remained prolific ever since, recently expanding into co-writing songs for the likes of Natalie Imbruglia and acting in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. GQ Zoomed in with Hammond to talk about his new album and what he’s learned in his two decades as a public figure.

GQ: So you've been very prolific in the past few years. As you get older, do you find yourself wanting to make the most of your time?

Albert Hammond Jr: I don't know. I don't feel prolific. I actually feel quite lazy. I think I like getting lost in song. Ideally, I'd really just like to practice guitar and play (for) the Strokes and maybe try to write songs for other people. But I do love music and it's not lost on me, the time I have to explore the instrument.

You feel you are still exploring your instrument?

Yeah, always. I feel close to reaching a point where I'm going to change if I put in the work, I just gotta not procrastinate. I found this really cool guitar teacher, so maybe that'll help me do it. I'm definitely not bored of learning things.

I think some people are virtuosos and that's definitely not me. I think I've done as good as I could with what I know. But I always say, I think if I could do that good with what I know, if that was better I could do even more. But to be honest, to be really great at something, you gotta sacrifice quite a lot. And so it's hard to find that balance because most people who are really great are kind of viewed as dicks because you have to be a little bit of a dick and be a little selfish.

Is taking lessons humbling?

I don't know. I don't walk around thinking about all that I accomplished. If what I have is what people think of being a rock star it feels very different than how I imagined it when I was a kid. So I don't know if I need humbling. I don't really feel like my ego's that big.

The top tennis players have coaches—like, the number one tennis player has a coach, a mental coach, all this stuff. When I'm learning stuff with a teacher, it's just like having mentors in your life. I feel like that's for some reason—frowned upon isn't right. But for some reason, it’s maybe viewed as you didn't figure something out.

You have a song on the album called “Old Man.” Has aging been on your mind?

Time is kind of an equaling factor for everyone. No matter what you feel or say when you're young, eventually you'll get older and look back and be like, Oh, shit. You'll see it from so many different points of view.

As you get older, you realize, especially now, we really live at a time where people love to point fingers at other people and forget how human we are and fallible and the mistakes we make. And in time you can kind of get the ability to see it. You create a lot more room for love and understanding as time goes on, the longer you've been here. So it's more just not having the same judgment I did as when I was younger.

I read an interview with you where you said that The New Abnormal gave The Strokes a new, younger generation of fans, but sometimes when you play older songs, those fans don't recognize them. How does that feel?

Yeah, it was just funny, because you expect Oh, when we rip into this song, it's a crowd favorite. Honestly we could go and just do the new record and then fill in with stuff. We don't play much from the fourth and fifth album and I, when I look at our top 25 [on Spotify], there's actually quite a bit from the fourth and fifth album.

So it's pretty cool to see. I guess for me what's exciting is though there's such great success for the first three [albums], the later three have as much success in [terms of] people wanting to hear certain songs. So we just noticed, if we were to play [New Abnormal cut] “Selfless” right off the bat, or even like a song like “Chances” from Comedown Machine, I think the crowd would erupt more than hearing “Hard to Explain.”

On The New Abnormal, you gave Billy Idol some royalties on the song “Bad Decisions.” Was that out of an overabundance of caution?

Yeah, I guess the world sits in a space now where you deal with it beforehand instead of after. I don't know. It's not something I think about or care about—there's certain things that are gonna have inflections, whether you're trying or not. There's times where there are similar melodies and you've never even heard the song.

It's not the centerpiece of the song for me. So I feel like as long as it's not the centerpiece, it's kind of all right. I see it in comments where people hear songs and, "Oh, this sounds like this." And I don't think they have any idea what they're talking about. Sometimes, they'll be so off.

Did you pay attention to the recent copyright lawsuit with Ed Sheeran and the Marvin Gaye estate?

I was gonna say I try to avoid anything with Ed Sheeran. I did not. I mean I remember, I think suing someone for a vibe is very weird. I thought [the lawsuit against] Robin Thicke was bad. That shouldn't have happened. That was just strange, especially [because] that's been happening for so long with sampling.

I don't think it diminished Marvin Gaye. When I heard it, I wasn't like, Oh, I just wanna listen to this and forget Marvin Gaye.

Switching topics a little bit, what do you remember about playing the Bernie Sanders rally in 2020?

I remember everything—I’ve got a pretty good memory. It was amazing to meet him. It was amazing to actually meet—[is it] name Cornel West? He came backstage and we just spoke for like 10, 15 minutes.

It felt electric—like you were in the middle of something that was alive. You can feel that at a show, but this wasn't because we were playing. There was just an energy that was already there when they were speaking, and that comes from people. People bring that.

When that happens, they're having a conversation in between their gut or their subconscious or something 'cause like, the crowd sends out something, it goes with the speech, people feel feelings, it goes back, that's how the room feels electric 'cause it's stuff that's being said without words.

Like many people who loved your music from the start, I started dressing like the Strokes. So thank you for that. How did the band come upon a signature look? Was it something you guys talked about or does it come naturally to you?

I mean it's so tough to talk about, because things are organic that you can't explain. When you're a group of people, you share dialogue, you'll share reflections of how you speak, how you walk and just like things mesh all together when you're that young and you're hanging out all the time. Do you talk about that stuff when you're younger? Of course.

It's not just based on, you wanna look cool, you're trying to, exude something, to women or to people in general, that we're a band. You're 18, you're gonna talk about your stage moves, you're gonna talk about your performance. What part of the show was boring. The same way you would about songs.

At the time there were a lot of bands where it was a dude and out of focus people. We want it to be perceived as the way pop groups were perceived back in the day where you knew everyone. It seemed more interesting if you knew everyone. You could like the band because you liked one [member]. So you had more of a chance to be liked, if people knew five people than if they just knew one.

It felt really cool to be 18 with those guys, before anything was going on. We were just playing music. It still can feel like that sometimes backstage. We're just in a different room and a lot of time has passed.

[stoookes]

I'd argue that Virat's fanbase would be equally sizeable in Omegaverse, but whether it would be so rabid and toxic is an interesting question.

So irl,so much of Kohli's popularity and hero worship is a result of social media. Virat happened to debut and rise through the ranks in an era when the digital revolution was sweeping through India, and the country was becoming more modern, more developed, more involved than previously in international arenas. That is not to say that cricketers weren't hero worshipped in India before. They were. Sachin is a prime example of that, and he played in an era where social media was practically non-existent. But what social media has done is brought every aspect of players' personal lives and private moments into the public. Celebrities today, are arguably way more accessible than they were in the 90s. You didn't have much way of knowing what Sachin did in his off-time, of how he celebrated in his dressing room, etc. but Virat is constantly visible through his social media, we get constant updates on him online and that helps him stay relevant beyond his statistics. Sachin's hero worship stemmed purely from his cricketing success, and while his achievements are a big part of Virat's popularity, the latter part of his fame comes from a celebrity culture that social media helped establish. And it also helps that Virat is a very noticeable personality. He's got an aura about him. And honestly, I think he was India's first cricketer who really embraced the glamour that accompanies being a celebrity, especially in his younger days, and even if other players did it before him, there wasn't really a way for the public to know of it. Cricketers like Sachin and Dravid wanted to stay out of the limelight, but young Virat really wanted to be seen and noticed and appreciated. Another reason for his fame is that he does so many ads, endorses so many products and is brand ambassador for so many brands, that at least in India, he's everywhere, on every billboard. He's just a very marketable person. And he's so marketable because with the dawn of the digital era, cricket as a sport got commodified in a way it hadn't before, and became a thing to sell, and who was the demographic to cater to? India, obviously, and by extension, South Asia, because cricket is the most popular sport there and India is the most populous country in the world. So obviously the place with the most consumers is the one that is targeted. And who is the most famous cricketer in India? Virat is. Which is why he became the face of world cricket, and then a global celebrity like no other cricketer before or contemporary to him has.

Would he be this marketable in Omegaverse? I think yes. Ever since he was like 18/19, Virat was being hailed as Tendulkar's second coming, and with Sachin inevitably in his twilight years, that grabbed people's attention, because what people wanted then was a person onto whom they could transfer all the hopes and expectations they had up till now pinned on Sachin. Indian cricket fans have always worked in this way where out of 11 people in a team, they find one or two players, mostly the best performers, to latch onto and glorify and elevate. First it was Gavaskar, then Kapil Dev, then Sachin, then Dhoni and now Virat, also Rohit, probably Shubman or Yashasvi will succeed them. And obviously, Virat lived up to Sachin's legacy-- being prolific since his debut, accumulating runs, scoring centuries for fun, and bailing the team of tough spots. Especially from 2013-16/17, there were often times when Virat was the sole consistent performer, and single-handedly dragged us to wins. Even if he's an omega, it's going to be hard to deny or disregard the impact he has, when he's repeatedly proved it. Virat's social media marketability, his international fame, stems from his career achievements. He bagged so many endorsements and interviews and stuff because his skill was what got him famous in the first place. And other players did not get that hype because at that point, they weren't performing as well as Virat.

So I think Virat, in Omegaverse, even as an omega, will retain enough of his fame and fanbase. Maybe it'll take him a longer time to build up a fanbase like that than it did irl, but he definitely gets there. In the beginning of his career, I can see him being supported mostly by omegas, and some betas and a minor amount of alphas. And I think there'll be another class of alphas, who go to watch him play because he is hot. Like, irl, women's cricket has male fans who follow the sport only because they find a certain player hot. It translates to the men's game too. So many girls watch cricket because they find Virat or Shubman attractive. Virat's style and fashion choices are often imitated by teenagers and young men, who want to be like him.

Again, some really good points here, and you've got me thinking about the differences between VK and Tim as they both come into the sport as out omegas at the same time, but VK has much more fanfare around him whilst Tim kind of goes under the radar, teams only knowing there is an omega in the opposition squad because they have to be told.

And this now has me thinking why? Initially it was going to be the BCCI not wanting to miss out on being the first to play an omega, but actually I think this makes more sense stemming from VK. He hears about Tim (like Stuart does) and he makes the play for the BCCI to take the shot on him, that he can and will outperform alphas, that his secondary gender doesn't matter and he can help put the BCCI in the history books if they'll give him a chance.

Albeit an English-made game (I think) India very much believe it's their sport now and this, to me, adds to that. The BCCI are seen as the ones shifting the game, modernising it, all thanks to VK's persistence.

There's something here, I know it, just got to iron out the creases but there is definitely something here