#i don't know if i will finish the film because I'm kind of bored out of my mind

[mysticfemme]

I started watching In The Heights last night because I haven't seen it (haven't finished it, I got bored), and all I can hear is Hamilton songs mixed in with heavy inspiration from Jonathan Larson and also kind of West Side Story (I've not seen it all the way through though so idk). But seriously, half the songs sound like Lin Manuel wrote them for Hamilton and then realised he was writing a different musical and just changed the lyrics 😭😭 the Latin music and inspiration definitely separates it from Hamilton but it still just sounds so similar

[melon-kiss]

I know some of you don't speak Polish and we can't afford to translate 40-min-long chaotic interviews for you and I'm a bit bored (meaning: my brain wants a break from writing but I'm stubborn and I want to finish it TODAY), so I thought I'd give you a bit of a trivia based on interviews with the actors and the crew of 1670:

throughout all the interviews, no one really asked if we're getting season 2. I mean, someone did and the response was: "Well, we know nothing" but nobody really asked if they had any IDEA about what would happen in the next season

I'm not sure about the actors but the creative and directive levels went to a series of lectures on how people lived in Poland in the XVII century

they received a substantial funding, especially considering the directors were complete "no-names"

filming took 3 months, December through February 2022 if I recall

they all lived in an open-air museum in Kolbuszowa; in fact, almost all of the building were already there, they only had to build the house, the barn and the forge

there was no delay in filming, which is apparently rare in the industry but that was because they had a very tight schedule and couldn't afford staying longer in the museum

the last episode was filmed on one day and that was the last day of filming and because of technical issues with cameras working in the inn (the short shot of Maciej serving the pig to the Adamczewskis' table had to be re-done 20 times!), they had to completely rearrange the wedding party scenes, turning them into long shots; the entire labor/dancing scenes were supposed to be shot from 13 (!) different perspectives and be arranged in a "music video fashion"

one of the first episodes (if not THE first episode) to be filmed was episode 7

the script was written with Bartłomiej Topa (Jan Paweł) in mind, however, the actor wasn't really convinced about participating in this project and took his sweet, sweet time to decide on it; same goes to Dobromir Dymecki (Bogdan). Topa says it wasn't because he didn't find it good - it was because he was afraid that the project would be underfunded and therefore fail as projects like that usually don't get the attention they need in Poland

Bartłomiej Topa said he portrayed Jan Paweł as evil and conniving for the first two weeks of being on the set and the first scene they recorded was the one with the "Adamczycha" sign falling down; only after that time, after one scene in particular (don't remember which one, sorry), he finally saw the true nature of his character and changed his approach to the portrayal

surprisingly, Michał Sikorski (father Jakub), unlike Topa, thought of his character as a silly, innocent man and he changed his mind only after seeing the Aniela-Maciej dance scene where he says Love is peaceful, love is kind, love is... unacceptable - he understood he got to play a villain

the actors were FORBIDDEN to improvise; their lines had to be memorised prior to filming

they shot the barrel-cleaning scene (the thing they do before blowing the magnate's son's head up) for 2h because Bartłomiej Topa and Andrzej Kłak (well, he plays Andrzej) couldn't stop laughing; Topa mentions he doesn't even remember how they managed to get it done

all the mud was brought there ON PURPOSE

Kirył Pietruczuk (Maciej) is a debutante when it comes to film, however, he is the only actor in the crew with an acting degree; not only that - he graduated with honors

when asked about this, Michał Sikorski said: "Well, but it doesn't matter, does it? Because, even thought I haven't graduated, I got to play a nobleman and he... well..." (obv that was A JOKE; he is like the sweetest person ever!)

he also said he wrote a "Maciej's journal" during filming and spent a lot of time creating a backstory for his character; he said it was helping with the a-chronical shooting; he read one of the entries out loud in his interview

he jokingly said his favourite episode is the last one because he got to kiss Martyna (Aniela) there

as mentioned before, casting Maciej's role took the longest. They interviewed about 300 candidates and none of them fit. Kirył recalls it was right after he signed a deal with an agency for the first time in his life and he immediately received a call after his first cinema audition and it was 1670, of course! However, he reports that the process was extremely long - he had to go through several stages, each one of them revealing more and more of the script and he wasn't informed it would take that long

The creators said they looked for someone who'd understand the character and his role in the film - as he is the eyes and ears for us, people from XXI century. "He's basically like a viewer of the events, one of us", Kordian Kądziela (director, episodes 5-8) says. It was important he had a good chemistry with Martyna (she was the first and only "Aniela" he had to do short scenes with and the chemistry was immediate) and was able to break the fourth wall properly - he had to have the talent to comment current events with just one look and I personally think he does it perfectly. The actor was also supposed to be "easily likeable by girls"

The first scene they shot together - meaning as Aniela and Maciej - was the dance scene and Kirył says it's his favourite scene in the entire show

Kirył said the scene with the magnate's son was initially very aggressive on his part, however, after speaking to the directors, he decided to tone it down as it was, indeed, not fit for the character to be this angry

they all said, once they got down to it, they had a feeling they were a part of something special

Feel free to add your trivia or correct me if I'm wrong.

[strikexlightning]

Ryan Howard x Male Reader

notes: this might not be show timeline accurate, I'm not even gonna lie :'), it's supposed to take place in season 6, I had the wiki open the whole time so hopefully it's at least passable, also sorry if the characters are ooc a little, I'm still in the process of rewatching the show.

cws: mention of ryan being into pain, fucking at work, they don't use lube

Your head falls into your hands, overwhelmed by whatever bullshit Jim was doing to Dwight today. Sometimes you found it funny, but on days like today, it made you question why you accepted the accounting position all those years ago. You at least wished you could work in the annex, or in that cozy little closet Jim put Ryan in.

You push back your chair, getting up and walking into the kitchen, deciding to get more coffee because you couldn't possibly think of going back into that area of the office without any sort of caffeine.

“Hey.” Someone behind you says. It makes you jump and almost spill scalding hot coffee all over your hand, and you turn, wondering how you didn't hear anyone walk in before you remember Ryan's “office” is directly behind you.

You give him a little nod in return, not in the mood for listening to his pretentious bullshit. The last time you came into the kitchen, the closet door was open and he made you look at the…interesting pictures he's been taking, trying to be artsy. He literally made you stand there for 30 minutes straight while the phone on your desk rang.

As he looks through the fridge, it's clear he's just pretending, using it to hide the fact that he keeps glancing over at you, trying to see if you acknowledge his presence. As you finish up making your coffee, he shuts the fridge, realizing it's not gonna work.

He passes behind you, leaning against the counter as you clean up the small amount of coffee you spilled. He's too close, his elbow almost touching yours.

“Got any plans after work?” He asks, and you shrug.

“I think everyone's planning on going out for drinks.” You answer, taking a sip from the mug. You weren't really interested in talking to him but you didn't want to be rude.

“Well I was asking about you specifically…silly.” He says, with a weird, awkward laugh. He added the “silly” at the end in a way that made it sound like he was debating on whether or not to say that, and you can tell he instantly regrets saying it as he awkwardly glances towards the film crew when you don't respond and then retreats back to his closet, shutting the door.

You squint at the door before slowly walking back to your desk, Dwight now back in his seat and Jim nowhere to be found. You work for a little bit before you start to get bored, switching tabs to a random game. When lunch comes, a few people leave together, leaving the break room empty because the few people still there were up to other things. You didn't really care, all you heard was ‘empty room all to yourself’.

You grab your food and get comfortable, being the only one in there. You read as you eat, some random fantasy book you had picked up somewhere. It was peaceful, without any shenanigans, no camera crew because they were off filming the interesting stuff.

And you jinxed it, because the second you start to enjoy your lunch, Ryan himself comes striding in, straight towards you. You didn't know exactly why you disliked him so much. He wasn't really that horrible to you, though he did kind of suck, and you didn't really care much about the others’ to hate him for any personal reasons. Part of you wondered if it was some kind of sexual frustration, because he was kind of hot and clearly didn't have anything against sleeping with coworkers. Maybe it was the sex dreams you had of him when he was VP, you just really wanted to put that man in his place, but he kind of did it to himself when he got arrested so after that the dreams kind of just stopped.

The fact that you found him sexually attractive freaked you out, not because he was a guy, but because it was Ryan of all people. The last thing he needed was another ego boost.

He stands in front of the table you're sitting at, staring at you until you look up at him. He sits next to you, getting comfortable and once again, way too close. He's practically on top of you, his hand squeezing your arm tightly, probably so you can't get up and leave.

“Listen, man. I found this new…business venture, let's say. I figured you'd be interested.” His voice is a low whisper, like he's telling you some mystical secret or something, and he stares at you expectantly.

You have literally no idea what the fuck he's talking about.

You stare back at him, a confused look taking over your face. “...you’re not doing coke again, are you?”

He shakes his head. “Nope. I just think you and I should…discuss…business strategies. After work. Tonight.”

You're pretty sure he's just trying to fuck you and can't come up with a better reason to get you alone other than straight out asking. You're not completely opposed, so you shrug.

“Sure, I guess.” You glance over and see someone from the camera crew recording you through the window from outside of the door. There goes your undisturbed lunch break.

He grins, letting go of your arm and patting your back, his hand lingering for a little bit. “Sweet.”

You nod in response, not knowing what to say. Now that you're aware of what he's doing, it just makes it weirder that he's doing that rather than coming right out and saying it. You saw how he was with women usually, so you figured he just didn't know how to flirt with men.

He stands back up and stops in his place when he sees the crew filming the both of you, and then he continues to leave. You can see him saying something to them, but you can't hear it. You sigh when you check the clock, realizing your lunch is over and you barely got through the first ten pages of the book. You retreat back to your desk, finishing out the rest of the day playing computer games and avoiding doing actual work.

When it's time to leave, you grab your jacket, relieved that the day was over. You were actually intrigued to see where Ryan was going with his horrible attempt at asking you to come over. You knew it was some kind of sexual advance just by how see through he is to you, but you didn't exactly know how it would play out and it was a little exciting.

“Are you coming to the bar with us?” Meridith asks you as she comes up next to you. You shake your head.

“No, I'm…going straight home. Gonna get some rest. You have fun though.” You respond in a suspicious manner. Luckily she doesn't care and says goodbye to you before leaving with everyone else.

You see Ryan out of the corner of your eye, and you turn your head, not expecting him to be staring directly at you as Michael is trying to talk to him. Michael sees that Ryan is looking in your direction and he waves you over. You give him a small smile as you walk over.

“I was just telling Ryan about that new Mexican restaurant that just opened, we should check it out one of these days. You know, just us three guys. Hangin’ out.” Michael tells you. He seems really excited at the idea of that so you nod along, not wanting to decline.

But Ryan isn't even paying attention, eyes still locked on you. He's basically just eyefucking you, running down your body and back up to your face. He doesn't look away when you stare back at him. The two of you stay locked in a sexually charged staring contest, and neither of you notice when Michael realizes you aren't paying attention to him and leaves.

You make the first move, lightly pushing him against Jim's desk, to which he leans back immediately. That one action seems to awaken both of your urges, urges that were held back for the sake of being professional. He pushes a few things out of the way to fully get onto the desk, pulling you closer by your tie as your hands fall to his waist.

He presses his lips to yours in a heated kiss, letting you get in between his legs as he holds a hand in your hair and the other gripping your arm tightly. You unbutton his shirt and loosen his tie, hands grabbing at his waist and torso underneath his shirt. He wraps his legs around your waist, pulling you even closer as you make out while he bucks his hips up against you, moaning into your mouth. He pulls away, hands unbuttoning your shirt and then sliding down to your belt.

“I've always wanted to do it here.” He says, his face slightly flushed as he catches his breath.

“Why?” You ask. It didn't surprise you that he wanted to though.

Ryan shrugs as he gets your belt off. You do the same for him and he ruts his hips against you again, groaning softly.

“It's one thing you're not supposed to do, obviously I'd want to do it.”

You make a short humming sound to acknowledge what he said as you grab his hips again, grinding your clothed erection against his, straining against his pants. He moans, looking up at you with the most desperate look you've ever seen from him.

You lean forward, lips brushing against the man's neck. He lets out a soft sigh, moving his head to give you access to his neck. You kiss down to his shoulder before biting down, pulling a moan from him. One of your hands comes up to the back of his head, tangling itself in his hair as you kiss and suck at his neck and shoulder, trying not to make marks in spots that could be easily seen.

“Fuck..you can do them wherever, I don't care if people see.” He says, his voice breathy.

You raise a curious eyebrow and then move upwards, your hand sliding up to the side of his head and pulling it to the side more, which he softly moans at. You leave a mark in a very visible spot before you can tell Ryan is getting impatient.

Your fingers loop around the waist of his pants and you pull them and his underwear down, his painfully hard cock springing out. You do the same for yourself, your dick against his thigh. He stares down at it, biting down on his bottom lip. You stop what you're doing and he looks up at you.

“We don't have lube. Unless you have some.” You say. He looks off towards where the closet is, thinking for a minute.

“There's some in my desk.” He responds, but he grabs your arm to stop you from going to get it. “Just leave it, it's fine.”

You raise an eyebrow again. “Are you sure? It'll hurt.”

He looks away from you, grip on you loosening and moving to rub at his eye. “I don't, uh. I don't mind.”

You instantly understand and you even laugh slightly. You wrap a hand around the base of his dick, rock hard and dripping. It throbs when you slowly start to move your hand, pumping it up and down a few times. Ryan bucks his hips into your hand, letting out breathy, desperate moans.

You lift your other hand, spitting into it and wrapping it around your cock. Moving to hold his thigh, you guide yourself into him, making him suck in a sharp breath. He presses a hand to his forehead, and once you're fully in, he releases a high pitched moan. You're about to comment on it but decided against it, slowly starting to thrust in and out.

Ryan's eyes are shut tight, his mouth open as breathy high pitched moans escape him every time you push back in. You start to speed up, your hold on his hips getting tighter as you groan. One of his arms reaches out behind him, looking for something to grab onto and knocking over a cup of pencils and pens in the process. He grabs onto the edge of the desk, the whole thing rocking with you, things falling over and being knocked onto the floor.

You dig your nails into the man's skin, and his head falls back as he cums, landing on his chest and stomach. His cock twitches from the sensitivity when you only speed up more, pounding into him. He moans loudly, not caring if there's anyone still in the vicinity.

His legs squeeze tighter around you as he loudly begs you not to pull out with a lot of expletives. You groan out a “fuck” and bury yourself in him, releasing your load and riding out your high before slowing to a stop.

You both are silent while trying to catch your breath. Eventually, you pull out slowly, and back up, letting Ryan hop off the desk. He stumbles a little bit, his legs weak underneath him. He pulls his pants back up.

“I'm gonna go clean up, I'll be back.” He says, going off to the bathroom. You readjust your clothes, buttoning your shirt back up, and tying your tie back on the right way.

You try your best to fix Jim's desk, picking up all the stuff you knocked over and hoping he doesn't notice something is off. While you wait for Ryan, you think about the fact that you had sex with a coworker. In the place you work at. On top of your other coworkers desk.

You kind of understand why Ryan wanted to now, it was fun.

He comes back out, tie still loose and the top few buttons of his shirt undone, but his hair is fixed and he's less flushed. The two of you walk outside, walking past a few cleaners you did not know were in the building yet. Some of the camera crew are standing outside when you walk out the door and you almost jump. You and Ryan are silent before awkwardly going your separate ways to separate cars, the cameraman zooming into Ryan's marked up neck.

They had a lot of interesting questions to ask on Monday.

[copperbadge]

Supposedly, people with Anphantasia don't get scared reading scary stories, or at least not much. Is that true with you if you ever read Horror?

You know, I'd never thought about it, but I suppose it is. To an extent, anyway.

Follows a discussion of my relationship to horror prose and media; if you don't know what aphantasia is, as many people coming to this tumblr don't, I have a tag for it here that may help -- it's basically the lack of a "mind's eye", a visual imagination, so I hear/read things and don't see an image of them in my mind. If you are scoffing right now that nobody actually has a mind's eye, congratulations, you may also have aphantasia. The articles linked in the tag will be useful to you.

I have definitely been scared by prose before but it's very rare, and not much since I was a child, when the stories I found scary were preying on fears I already had. I loved the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books, and I think it's not unusual that I found the illustrations more frightening than the prose, but the only story that ever scared me was the one about the vampire who kept trying to grab a kid through a window -- because I had a window over my bed in my childhood bedroom and I was terrified I'd look up to see someone looking down at me through it. Likewise, as an adult, the only content in horror I find scary is what I think of as "mind horror" -- the loss of faculty or the loss of awareness of faculty (think the end scene of the novel Hannibal with the brain). Which is one of my biggest fears.

I don't read much horror because generally I get bored, which has in the past made me feel faintly appalled at myself, but which now makes more sense. Certainly I have no interest in slasher-style gore in prose, because I find it uninteresting and it goes on a really long time, while I don't watch it in movies/TV because the visual is upsetting -- so if I was getting the visual from the prose I might react more emotionally. I am a fan of Stephen King but mostly his early work where he was shorter on suspense, and I was reading it because I liked the ideas and the characters. Carrie is super interesting because of the personalities involved, not because of the violence or the horror aspects. But I've never seen a movie adaptation and I can imagine I would be deeply unsettled if not distraught by certain scenes if depicted visually. Although I didn't find the Hannibal TV series super upsetting (I mostly was put off by how bad I imagined Will smelled) so perhaps body horror just doesn't do it for me.

This may also explain my hard-no on zombie media, because I'm not scared at all of zombies, I just find them boring and gross, and that leaves the post-apocalyptic humans. My hard-no on post-apocalypse anything is an aversion to imagining the end of my world, though, which isn't visual, it's conceptual, and not scary, just upsetting.

Like, people kept suggesting Zombies Run! to me when I was taking up running and -- well, one, I needed the music to keep my pace, I didn't want it interrupted. But two, I didn't see why a bunch of random groaning noises would make me run faster. If you could see zombies chasing you in your head, yeah, that'd probably be more motivating.

It kind of explains too why I haven't written much horror. I used to be very curious about how people worked out what's "scary" in horror prose and I guess part of the curiosity came from not experiencing it myself. It's tough to know how to write a scary story when stories don't scare you.

To be clear, I definitely experience fear. Reading Stephen King's "It" didn't really scare me, but there were scary moments in the film adaptations. I startle at jumpscares. There's plenty of stuff in real life that I'm scared of. And even podcasts -- I don't get mental images during podcasts like apparently most people do, but Magnus Archives got me with the "digging into your pre-existing fears" thing once or twice, and while I didn't finish The Left Right Game (I just got bored) the hitchhiker scene definitely got me. But I think, unless it's playing on something conceptual that already existed, yeah, I don't find prose particularly frightening.

Huh. This feels like the kind of thing that could have a significant impact on my creative output if I could crowbar my way into it. Knowing that I as an aphantic don't need descriptions that other people do has already, I think, impacted my editing process, but this feels like it maybe would somehow have an effect on the whole thing -- the fact that I don't experience emotions when reading in the same way other people do because I don't get the visuals is something to meditate on.

How the fuck did I ever even become a writer. Like what's up with that.

(Ironically it was X-Files fanfic. X-Files, a show that very much did scare me, for which I wrote and read a lot of fanfic, none of which did...yikes. Well, that's something to meditate on for the weekend.)

[being-of-rain]

In the days before The Legend of Ruby Sunday, I thought to myself 'RTD did a lot of big bombastic series finales in his day, and always with Classic Who villains. But that was fifteen years ago. Maybe he's mellowed.' Dear readers, he had not.

Here's my thoughts on the episode! But fair warning, they're mostly that it was just okay. I mean it was fine. It was a fun, mindless bit of build-up and spectacle. Of course it was very much a Part One, so a lot of my thoughts are just 'I wonder where this will go next episode.'

Firstly, I don't think I'm a massive fan of RTD's method of story arcs, which is to sprinkle references to something throughout a season that'll be part of the final story without much elaboration. It feels less like a story, and more like a drawn-out teaser for the finale. And continuing a trend that started in RTD's last full season that I'm not crazy about, there was so many arcs and plot hooks too. Before the episode my brother and I listed as many we could think of, and it actually addressed almost all of them, plus one or two we forgot about or thought wouldn't come back. It started to feel like the characters were ticking off a shopping list of questions. And I know that these things basically just exist for fans to speculate about. And I can't pretend I didn't have fun joking and memeing about all the arc elements with other fans. But as someone who both isn't really that interested in genuinely theorising about how a series is going to end (odd for a Dr Who fan, I know) and who really likes story/character arcs that develop over time, I guess I'm just not the target audience. This season the arcs have pricked my curiosity, but not much more than that - except make me wish they did more with the supernatural elements than a few badly-conceived gods and the cool fairy circle episode.

Anyway, Sutekh! In the last few years the TV show has done the Morbius Doctors, Beep the Meep, the Toymaker, the Shalka Doctor... I really shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, but I still sit in bemused shock when a finale revolves around Susan and Sutekh. And that is pretty fun. We had basically nothing of Sutekh this episode, so I'm very interested what the next episode will do with him.

I'm especially curious how much it'll dip into the Egyptian mythology aspect. Because on one hand, Pyramids of Mars is sorta built on the problematic and awkward trope that aliens at least inspired Egyptian culture. On the other hand, I think the Egypt link & aesthetic is a big part of Sutekh's identity as a villain/monster. I remember being bored when Big Finish tried to divorce him from it in their latest audio with him (but tbh I trust RTD to at least do a more entertaining story than that, even if he's boiling Sutekh down into simply a God of Death). Similarly, I think a really big part of why Sutekh made a big impact on the original Dr Who fandom is how he was a genuine overwhelming threat to the Doctor, something that probably won't be as big of a shock today. But the final part of Sutekh's identity is Gabriel Woolf, and he's absolutely as entertaining as ever.

As for Susan, after all that drama it'd almost be stranger if she didn't appear in some form in the finale. I'm wondering if Mrs Flood is Susan, something that's really weird to say seriously after thinking people were wrong about her being an important character for 6 months. At the very least I really hope they give Carole Ann Ford some kind of cameo, because it'd be such a missed opportunity if the very first companion actress was still alive and they didn't do anything with her.

What else? Mel continues to be lovely, and I continue to wonder if there's any reason it was her in particular who was brought back or if it was just to have a classic Who companion hanging around. Rose continues to be precious, and her instant bonding with Ruby is just adorable. I missed Ruth Madeley's Shirley, I assume it was filming conflicts that led to her being replaced by a preteen? When Harriet was introduced I distinctly remember thinking 'oh she's cute, I hope she sticks around.' And the Vlinx continues to have 1-2 lines and no explanation.

The VHS-powered time window was an extremely cool concept, but I feel like it didn't look as good and distinct as it could have. I'm not totally certain what I'd have done different but I still felt underwhelmed. And I'll say something I've said a lot, but I wish there was at least some vague rules to things like the time window. I don't care about scientific accuracy or real life logic, only narrative logic; if anything can happen with only a bit of poetry to justify it, the stakes and losses and victories aren't nearly as satisfying.

And this might make me sound like someone who looks for anything to complain about, but I feel there's something off about how UNIT is depicted recently. Like it's being glorified and simplified as 'the good guys' maybe more than it has any time before in the TV show's history. And it feels especially awkward when some of the UNIT characters are armed and armoured soldiers. I'm just very not in the mood to heroise someone who I might see committing war crimes on the news, you know. So I'm not really a fan of this version of UNIT and how it's consuming so many past companions.

Anyway!

Mystery Woman 1 (Susan): Sutekh. Mystery Woman 2 (Mrs Flood): Susan? Mystery Woman 3 (Ruby's mum): At this point I have to assume it's the Rani or Iris Wildthyme or Gillian Who or something.

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FROM THE NOTEBOOK *  assorted dialogue from the 2004 film, adjust as necessary

i am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and i've led a common life.

you know you're not allowed.

it's against the rules.

they fell in love, didn't they?

i see you got my letters, finally.

i know that they happened, and they were wonderful.

they didn't agree on much.

don't do me any favors.

what am i gonna do in new york?

you wanna walk with me?

i'm not usually like this. i'm sorry.

i could be fun if you want. i could be pensive. smart. superstitious. brave.

the way i see it, i've got three choices. one, i can shoot him. two, i can kick the crap out of him. or three, i leave you.

please don't do this. you don't mean it.

wherever she is, that's where my home is.

none of those options get me to you.

look at us. we're already fighting.

you go back to your room.

stay out of trouble.

you just tell me what you want, and i'm gonna be that for you.

you're dumb.

come on. one date.

it was an improbable romance.

should i be worried?

they were crazy about each other.

it was real, wasn't it?

we were just a couple of kids.

get in the water.

you know what? i'm gonna do it. it's over. okay? it's over.

so what?

we really loved each other, didn't we?

i love to paint.

will you go out with me?

you leave me no other choice.

don't touch me! i hate you!

i'm sorry, baby. please just get in.

do you think our love can make miracles?

it's not about following your heart and it's not about keeping your promises.

you gotta be kidding me. all this time, that's what i've been missing?

why don't you just go then?

well, that's what we do. we fight.

it's not gonna be easy. it's gonna be really hard.

i'm not bitter anymore because i know that what we had was real.

what's that supposed to mean?

let's do it again.

just wait a minute. we're not really breaking up are we?

we can just finish out the summer and see what happens then.

will you do something for me, please?

it's not gonna be easy. it's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but i want to do that because i want you. i want all of you, forever, everyday. you and me... everyday.

it wasn't over for me.

you know that i want to give you all the things that you want, right?

science only goes so far and then comes god.

i was just going for a walk. i couldn't sleep.

what happens if a car comes?

money. he's got a lot of money.

i wanna go out with you.

i lost you once, i think i can do it again.

there are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten.

you smug bastard. i hate you for saying that.

do you think our love can take us away together?

i waited for you for seven years.

don't you take the easy way out.

you're bored. you're bored and you know it.

stay with you? what for?

what easy way? there is no easy way. no matter what i do, somebody gets hurt.

you have like a two second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.

i think our love can do anything we want it to.

you wouldn't be here if there wasn't something missing.

if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, i'll smile at you with joy, and remember how we spent a summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love.

i have to go now.

well, you can't have everything.

if you're a bird, i'm a bird.

would you like some breakfast?

i wrote you 365 letters. i wrote you every day for a year.

in one respect i have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: i've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

it wasn't over. it still isn't over.

would you stop thinking about what everyone wants?

would you just stay with me?

i couldn't sleep last night because i know that it's over between us.

the best love is the kind that awakens the soul, and makes us reach for more.

you tell me when i am being an arrogant son of a bitch and i tell you when you are a pain in the ass. which you are... 99% of the time.

i love you. i'll be seeing you.

that's my sweetheart in there.

why didn't you write to me?

you arrogant son of a bitch.

it's normal not to forget your first love.

i already know i should be with you.

i'm not afraid to hurt your feelings.

what do you want?

it's not that simple.

goddamn it, what do you want?

the doctor needs to see you.

don't you go away. i'll be right back.

i don't know any tunes.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

if you're interested to know about the show- you really didn't miss much lol especially you having been a fan for so long what they showed in AYS wasn't anything we haven't seen before except for not hiding their bodies like they usually do. The show didn't show me anything new about their dynamic or them as people. They spent 80% of the time at restaurants or just eating the other 10% was actual activities 5% of them talking (which by the way they really have nothing substantial to talk about it which was probably the only surprising thing about this show- their conversations were either bringing up the other members or them bickering about something dumb) you can tell there was alot of dead silence that was edited out because one moment they're talking then it gets quiet then it cuts to them on their phone lol the last 5% i would say was what people consider typical jikook like jimin being affectionate playful touches yadda yadda yadda

all in all it was kind of eh. I feel as though tbe target audience was for heavily jikook biased only because as an outsider I can't imagine how boring it must have been- even for an army I bet it was okay for them.

Hi, thank you. It's okay, though 😅

After so many years I've learned how to navigate through content and watch only the parts I'm interested in, and that's basically what I did to watch Jimin's clips because I wanted to see what he looked like, or some of his opinions.

I can also tell when something might be relevant or it could be new information, so I watch that too. I'm also able to realize if I need more context around a clip or gif, and in that case I usually look for a longer clip, subtitles, translations, etc. I might even go to the source and watch the episode myself, which is what I did for example when taekook had that conversation in ITS 1. I never watched the show, but I have watched that episode. Gifs, pictures and clips without context are reactionary mostly, and people post them for fun or whatever. But when you go to the source content more often than not is not that impressive after getting the full picture.

As for the show, there's a post I made months ago, around the time it was announced, where I said I had questions about 2022, 2023, and they weren't going to give me answers, so I couldn't bring myself to be interested. And nothing has proven me wrong so far. Them saying they didn't really meet up in 2023 wasn't one of my questions, I was already certain of that so it was more of a confirmation. All in all, I knew how they were going to act because I've been watching them every single day for the past 7 years.

Watching Jimin listen to his music was probably the most relevant thing to me lol. Because we hadn't really seen that! He basically went MIA a while after face, and besides from the hot 100 live, we didn't get to see many of his reactions to his own music. I'm not talking about reacting to achievements but him just listening and appreciating his songs.

Also, his body. Like. I really thought we'd never ever see his full moon tattoo that way.

I've started watching the last episode because it's one of the last stuff Jimin filmed before enlisting, so I want to see it. I still haven't finished it, but yeah I'm watching that just fyi.

I disagree that Jimin was touchy, though. In fact I've noticed he's rather reserved in his interactions with Jungkook, compared to what he used to be like up to 2021ish. But that's also something that's been noticeable for a couple of years. For the record, I don't think any of them were touchy or clingy or none of that stuff. There's a reason the only clip people I've seen people use of them touching is the one from the first or second episode 😭 that's like 1 minute out of 9 hours of content.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

You know, instead of making this a reblog of my post. I'm going to make it its own. This concerns this one. https://www.tumblr.com/geekgemsspooksandtoons/749080478974443520/you-know-i-just-wanna-say-this-now-i-actually?source=share

I was actually very surprised that post got some attention. I'm guessing a lot of people agreed with me. Granted, I think my criticisms could've been clearer because I hadn't seen Predators in years. And I seem to agree with certain things someone like Cordz has said. But glad people understand why I guess I don't talk much about Predators.

And I want to say this here too. You know, I totally understand if some fans aren't really into the "Space Samurai" idea with the Yautja lore in the comics. Or more so, they don't like them being similar to something like the Kilngon's from Star Trek. It's not for everyone. I can understand if some people simply want...the Predators to be all...assholes in a sense? I mean, they kill people. This is a very "Chaotic Neutral" species.

Granted, I'll always fuckin hate the idea of them being "Rich dentists" or just...watching Movie Bob's video of "STOP TRYING TO MAKE US LIKE THE PREDATOR" I still hate this video. This video is stupid. This dude didn't watch the movie right. And comparing it to Eric Trump WHAT THE FUCK DUDE?! God, I hate this video.

Dude, I feel offended watching that and I can't finish it. Movie Bob isn't a nice dude anyway, and he sucks at reviewing crap. He's also a stalker in a sense, but this isn't about him Listen, I get understand the Yautja lore isn't for everyone. I do think the best course of option or what I think is maybe a balance of the two. Or how I want to see it. Sure, there's an honor code. But maybe most of the race are basically assholes and there are few that pretty okay.

You got Diablo from the first film. Pretty much the perfect example of an "Asshole" who simply enjoys the hunt. To where I may sound crazy. But ever since I was a kid, it looks like that dude smiles a few times before and after he beats the shit out of Dutch. He's very aware he could kill Dutch so easily, but he'd rather give him a 'Fair fight' after seeing what Dutch was capable of.

And then there's Dachande from the original AVP comic who is pretty much a big contrast from Diablo who doesn't even hunt humans. Granted, it seems weird I'm using a character from a comic. But I genuinely love the idea that not all Predators are the same. The idea of them or canon thing that they are nomadic, it gives variety and makes the species much more interesting. It'd be...kind of boring if all of them were the same.

But hey, this is what happens when you make a sequel and expand a universe. Yet honestly, the idea of a species not conquering other planets, but instead choosing to hunt all sorts of species is still scary. And the idea that they are aware of what they are doing.

[berrypass-de-murdler]

1. Murder in Hollywood

It's the show version my good murdlers.

First thing to make clear, is there a design for every character no, but WILL there be a design for every character, planning on it yes, so uh... Dame Obsidian will be here eventually rip. Check the first post for designed characters ofc

BUT FOR THIS EPISODE...

DEDUCTIVE LOGICO - he's a magnifying glass and the logo... obviously lmao. Follows his in-book physical description to a 0, my deepest apologies, when I made this smol man I couldn't imagine him to be 6 feet tall, as such, the heights of the characters will be (sometimes very) off. Such as Logico being 3'4". Anyway, cartoon Logico is British, has an extreme Napoleon complex, and a humorously high-pitched voice for his angy personality. In this version he was originally just an actor who played a detective in the Midnight movies, until he naturally ends up in the face of real murder, day after day after day after

THE AMAZING AUREOLIN - my very first design, I was so stupidly proud of her original sketch that I turned it into... this entire project. I LOVE MY RABBIT DAUGHTER AND NO ONE CAN LAY A HAND ON HER - she made me get invested in the storyline after being framed and shit. ANYWAY, unlike most of the Murdlers who just kind of resemble animals, Auree is... just a rabbit. She is also British because because, and in this storyline, she was suspected of murdering her husband after he left her for making too little income. Now she has to raise her Marshmallow Peep-looking triplets on her own, with a target on her back at all times... I love her sm

MIDNIGHT III - For the least creative design there is probably, and the only non-anthro character, have this man whose design is so boring, he doesn't even get an official artwork, I just scribbled him in two seconds. A tiny blob of smoke even smaller than Logico, he sounds more or less exactly like Red Guy from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared and is... that. He doesn't even have eyes underneath his shades!! In this storyline, Midnight is Logico's boss from the beginning, and convinces him to take up real-life detective work.

Dame Obsidian is planned to unsurprisingly be a golem-type creature

DON'T READ THE EPISODES UNTIL YOU'VE FINISHED THE FIRST BOOK!!!

But anyway, the summary/dialogue:

Logico drinks his coffee somehow, despite not having a mouth, so he kind of just pours it down his coat, like... eh???

LOGICO: MY!!! That is simply the PERFECT temperature.

He watches a screening of one of his detective films and squeals like a little girl. Midnight III, his boss, greets him with news.

MIDNIGHT: You need to stop doing it in the film. You need to do it for real.

Logico doesn’t want to.

LOGICO: I don’t give a shit about a murder!

Midnight has a plan.

MIDNIGHT: Fine. Just come to the high-end Hollywood party we’ve invited you to, with all the best directors, and Dame Obsidian.

LOGICO: KI-KA-KU-FE-JET WHAAAAT? I ADORE Obsidian’s work!! I MUST GO, I MUST GO, I MUST GO!!! [jumps around like an idiot]

MIDNIGHT: Good. See you there.

He goes to the party. Midnight is there and The Amazing Aureolin is doing tricks. Logico meets his idol Obsidian.

OBSIDIAN: YES, YES, VERY EXCITING I’M A BUSY WOMAN.

LOGICO: Oh… my dear heart!

Anyway, one of the directors drops dead in a bathtub - inappropriate!! Logico REALLY doesn’t want to have to do this but his inner workings are tingling and he has to know who does it. 

MIDNIGHT: Look at my pipe, it’s nice isn’t it. LOGICO: No one cares, Midnight, this is a crime scene! OH… YOU’RE ONE OF THE SUSPECTS!!  MIDNIGHT: Hurray.

Logico digs Obsidian out of the seats. Aureolin acts extra sus and fights audibly with her.

AUREOLIN: I trusted you! I trusted you and your fork, you dumb… fork!  OBSIDIAN: THIS WOMAN IS ACCUSING ME OF MURDERRR 

Logi gets a call from a voice blabbing about how ironic it was that Obsidian had a fork… and ate with it. 

LOGICO: Oh, hahaha, eating, with a for- WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU??

In the end, Logico places the blame with his answer. 

OBSIDIAN: OOH, SHOCKER, IT WAS THE LITTLE ONE. AUREOLIN: …Obsidian!... 

Auree fights for her claim.

AUREOLIN: I thought you said you were a detective! You have no proof of what you’re saying! LOGICO: My proof is plenty - the other two suspects did not do it!  AUREOLIN: Who do you think you are?? MIDNIGHT: She’s fighting it, she’s clearly guiltyyy

Guards grab Auree and drag her away.

AUREOLIN: No cell can hold me! You know what you did! I’ll have you a- MIDNIGHT: Shut uuuupppp LOGICO: I suppose… I kind of did give a LITTLE shit about a murder. MIDNIGHT: Good. That’s your new job. LOGICO: MY NEW JOB?!?!?

THE END-

Episodes are formulaic bc book format, so some will be shorter than others when nothing much happens, but hey, time for short king to solve a hundred murders!!

The power of Goat Lord compels you!

See ya next time murdlers!!

[891movies]

392 to go

Delicatessen (1991, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro): I don't really have much to say about this movie. It was fun and charming but pretty forgettable, a quintessential 3/5 movie to me.

Get Carter (1971, dir. Mike Hodges): There's a certain base level of misogyny you have to get used to if you watch a lot of old movies but sometimes it becomes so overt, so violent that it completely ruins the viewing experience. Like yeah, Michael Caine is incredible and the cinematography and score are great. But every single female character in this movie exists to be sexualized, victimized and brutalized, sometimes all three, and it happens with such frequency that it becomes impossible to ignore or to enjoy the rest of the movie.

Marnie (1964, dir. Alfred Hitchcock): Speaking of violent misogyny haha. It's different here, though, because it's kind of the point - even if I don't think it was completely intended to be by Hitchcock. Tippi Hedren brings such an incredible energy to this role. The image of her standing in frozen in Sean Connery's arms, completely disassociating from her body as the inevitability of what's about to happen sets in, will haunt me forever, I think.

Jules and Jim (1962, dir. François Truffaut): For the first thirty minutes I was sure this movie would be an all time favorite for me but the rest of the film doesn't really live up to the first part set in 1910s Paris. But it's still great, make no mistake!

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, dir. Robert Altman): As always Altman is cynical as all hell but damn if he isn't good at it.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, dir. Werner Herzog): Figured I'd better knock this one out before seeing Eggers' version and I'm so happy I did. The vibes? Impeccable. This movie is slow, unsettling, and absolutely gorgeous to look at.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, dir. Woody Allen): I believe this is the last Allen movie I had left on the list and I am very relieved to have him out of the way. That said, I think I could have really loved this movie if I didn't know what I know about Woody Allen.

The Natural (1984, dir. Barry Levinson): God I was bored. On the upside, this movie gave us one of the best episodes of The Simpsons.

Up next: With this post, I have officially watched 500 movies from the list since starting this project. I did a top 25 list after my first 250 and I have been really looking forward to doing a second one, so look out for that! (I'm also gonna do a worst list but probably not until the project is finished.)

I also had the idea of watching one movie a year since the year I was born up to 2020 (the most recent year covered by the list), to sort of track the cinematic landscape as it has changed in my lifetime. I checked and I have at least one movie left in each year, so it's doable! Next movie will be from 1992, and it will probably be A Tale of Winter.

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday roundup + a list

I follow a few people who do monthly reading/etc updates and I have always enjoyed reading them and been slightly jealous that I couldn't seem to stick too it, it always felt too overwhelming for the end of the month and I'd put it off, but! idea! combine with my little friday list posts which I'd also stopped doing because I was afraid they were boring so...combo might be interesting enough for me to keep doing them!

reading:

Cabin at the End of the World - Paul Tremblay: I liked this one, especially how, similar to The Pallbearer's Club, you end the novel not really knowing what was real or not and the point is it doesn't matter what was real, only how the characters understood reality.

Bloom - Delilah S Dawson: For book club. It definitely had it's issues (it didn't start off super well), but it was short and captured that fun Hannibal-like energy, where the foreshadowing is super obvious and you're just like noooo nooooooooo girl don't eat it! (I was gratified to get to the acknowledgments and find it was indeed inspired by Hannibal.)

(in progress) Lord of the Rings: Keeping on track with the one-chapter-a-day read through for Lent! We just finished The Two Towers today, onto Return of the King tomorrow.

(in progress) (phone book) Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule: So I'm trying to keep one book going on my phone (a 'phone book' lol) to prevent doomscrolling, and right now I'm rereading the High Republic series and continuing on. I fell behind after Phase 1 ended, but I'd really like to catch back up. Light isn't my favorite of this series and it's not my least favorite -- tbh I stopped reading after Phase 1 because I hated Midnight Horizon that much, I'll be skipping that one on this reread -- I read a review when it first came out that said it felt like the whole novel was inciting incident and I think that's exactly it, it has to do a little bit too much to establish the setting and characters, and never really feels like it gets going. Besides, I tend to like things a little crunchier, so some of the optimism of the start gets kind of grating for me personally. Much prefer the followups and the aftermath, but this isn't bad and it's certainly better than doomscrolling!

(in progress) Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka : This is so good. It's so good. I waited a while for the library hold and it was 100% worth the wait, it has that literary fiction style that I really love in my genre fiction on occasion.

watching (tv):

The Bequeathed (Netflix): Didn't live up to my expectations, but that might be on me because I read a review that erroneously called it a 'creature feature' and I was like 'damn, there's going to be a creature, that's crazy, when's the creature showing up??' There was no creature. And the solve to the mystery wasn't that interesting either. Meh.

(in progress) Silo (AppleTV): This show is surprisingly good, as I posted early this week. Like. I heard about it from a true crime podcast ad read, and just kind of watched it because I have a free AppleTV trial and a crush on Rebecca Ferguson. It wasn't meant to actually be good, but...it is??? It's really engaging, and I think shows how much good acting and direction can elevate a script. The ending of the last episode I watched was objectively kind of silly, but it was so well done you felt like it was super serious. Damn though, this is totally going to be the thing that gets me to keep paying for AppleTV because there's going to be another season. Damn. This is how they get you.

watching (film):

Dune Part 1 (2021): I made everyone watch Dune Part 1 in preparation and also it was my birthday and they could not say no. I think my mom made it....15 minutes? but my dad and I had a great time

Dune Part 2 (2024): I was so on top of the IMAX tickets for this, I refreshed that page a hundred times last monday to get the perfect seats in the mid-center and then I did not BUDGE for all 3ish hours of this movie. It was. So good. There was one shot that legit made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. I think I'm going to go see it again next tuesday. It was so good.

video game update: Still stuck on Dead Space. Still stuck on Cult of the Lamb. I'm figuring out how to balance side quests and the main storyline with KOTOR, which is progress, and on my perpetual Fallen Order playthrough I just did the sad Venator side quest and then got to Dathomir for what would have been the first time if I was not always so set on immediately getting the double-bladed lightsaber upgrade.

craft update: I'm two short rows away from being done with the short row section on my sweater vest. Infinity scarf has been derailed because I tangled a skein of yarn so badly it's probably going to take hours to fix it and I need that color to keep going. So. Tabled.

weekend list:

work (boo) - but work has been pretty slow and fridays are my wfh day so the below items will probably partially get done while I'm on the clock

laundry (also boo) / tidy

it's going to rain all day so the secret goal of friday is really just not to leave my house

work on current long wip which, yes, I did end up restarting -- or rather just starting the second draft earlier than I expected. I was going to push through and have a full rough draft before I started the second but it was really rough and I think now that I have 1) the most self-indulgent scenes, 2) all of the 'plot exposition' scenes written it was time to start going in order and straightening out inconsistencies and repetition.

I finally got an HDMI splitter so I can use the PS4 and get un-stuck on Cult of the Lamb (I haven't checked on my cult in so long!!), I just need to reorganize the wires

maybe untangle yarn. maybe. but I think that's going to wait for sunday at the earliest. I need some cooling off time, but once I can look at it without rage, I think it's just a matter of putting on a movie and being patient

go for a run

I hope this is....mildly interesting at least, if not feel free to block the lists tag XD have a good weekend! <3

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

For the first time in probably... 5 years? Bit more? Bit less? I rewatched A Silent Voice. I wanted this to bookend the KyoAni groupwatch because it's pretty much their only standalone feature film, and I already know it's good and I like it, so it seemed like a nice spot to finish off with. And, yeah. I feel a little more complete having done this. Also feels like spring cleaning in a sense because I torrented the ITBD release and that was a clean 40GB I've finally gotten to delete lol.

But anyway. I've kind of had a bit of an arc with this movie. I watched it a long time ago, honestly think I gave it a 10 at first, and then hovered it down to a 9 at some point, and I'm pretty sure that happened when I read the manga. For a while there I thought the manga was straight up better, primarily because the manga is more. It's longer, there's more time spent on the supporting cast, there's more scenes pertaining to the main cast, there's an entire subplot about making a movie, and it continues for about a full volume's worth after the movie ends. And, you know, that's all a good thing, right? Everyone's fleshed out, there's more time with these characters, their relationships are better realised, it's all good.

But at some point, and I admittedly couldn't really tell you when, I started to prefer the movie. I haven't reread the manga whereas I've rewatched the movie several times which probably caused this, but I noticed that I'd basically forgotten everything that had happened in the manga that wasn't in the movie, and I think that's because I kinda stopped caring. Like the characters are more fleshed out, yeah, but when I'd be remembering the series I'm only really remembering Shouya and Shouko plus to a lesser extent Yuzuru. There's a movie making arc, but do I care? The best part about this story by far is Shouya and Shouko. Two wounded individuals trying and struggling to reconnect with each other but also their desire to live at all. It's a story of guilt and of redemption and of how painful it can be wanting to live despite everything. At some point I'd convinced myself Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation made the right call cutting a lot of stuff from the manga, because it gives the story a clearer focus on its best part. Their relationship is the thing that I care about and it's the thing the movie decided was the most important. Just cut the bullshit, the movie's better for it.

And so we get to today's arc, wherein I feel like I've realised that the movie simultaneously cuts too much and yet too little at the same time. It does focus primarily on Shouya's story of redemption and his development with Shouko, but a lot of other things are still kept, sometimes to the movie's detriment. Does the movie benefit from having Mashiba be a character? He's fleshed out in the manga but in here he just shows up, wants to be friends, and then gets yelled at. Shouya and Shouko's whole narrative would feel less muddled without him. Although at the same time he was a fleshed out character in the manga and it'd be better if that came across in this adaptation at all. Like you can cut him and it'd be better or you could have more of him and it'd be better. We're basically in a sour spot where entire parts of the movie don't really work because they should have a different level of focus - whether it's more or less. Entire swathes of this movie feel somewhat meandering because it doesn't commit to either approach. It wants to present everyone faithfully but it also cuts a lot of everyone's scenes to focus on Shouya and Shouko stuff. This leads to this whole thing where certain characters like Ueno and Kawai are really hard to get a read on because we don't spend the time we do with them in the manga. But again if we did it might just be sorta boring? Like do you see the problem I'm having. The movie's caught between a rock and a hard place. There's a perfect version of this story somewhere but it's neither the manga nor is it this anime. Cutting like half the cast is probably my preferred option but that's also a little nuclear and enough of them are important to where that probably wouldn't work. But again it doesn't really work as-is and it mostly works in the manga but it's also a little dull. There is no victory to be found.

And with those very mixed feelings aside that I don't think I communicated all too well, I have in fact lowered my score for this movie once again, and now it is down to... 8/10 lol. Yeah no I can say all that shit but I mean the movie's still an audiovisual masterpiece and has a fantastically written lead pair and tons of very strong emotional moments, like I still found myself crying several times during this rewatch. It's got by far the best depiction of bullying I've seen in anime such that the things it has to say about why bullying happens and what it does to people feel extremely potent and relatable. There are characters I don't love if everything I already said wasn't proof enough but certainly the lead pairs' family members in particular are incredibly likeable and compelling characters that are involved for lots of the strongest scenes in general. There are aspects in which the movie is a little confused and I think should've been adapted slightly differently but god damn if it isn't a gripping story all the same.

That's all from me, bye lol.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

Random update on my journey to become a pretentious film buff:

I've been trying to push for a movie a day, at least. Sometimes two if I'm lucky. Sometimes none if I'm lazy. But after my last post where I watched the entire Alien Franchise (sans AvP and Romulus), here's what I've been watching:

Psycho: Yes, I finally watched the original Psycho. To be honest, I've always had a problem watching older movies, so I was surprised at how easy it actually was to watch this one. It was pretty good, though perhaps for the wrong reason. I was honestly laughing through most of it over just how bad these people were at committing crimes and getting away with them. Like that girl was acting so incredibly sus in front of that cop for no good reason. Anyways, 4/5 stars I guess (I'm using Letterboxd to keep track of this).

X & Pearl: In case you don't know, those are two separate movies but they're related via the main character. I watched X first, and Pearl second. Not sure what the intended order of it actually was though, but whatever. It wasn't too bad in that order. Both I thought were pretty good, though I kind of preferred X to Pearl because I thought the "antagonist" motivations in X were...let's just say unique. I can't recall a time where I've seen that particular motivation used. I gave X a 3/5.

Pearl was still pretty good, I just liked X better. Unless you're an idiot like me, the connection between these two movies is pretty obvious, but it tripped me up at first so I didn't wind up understanding it until the very end. Anyways, this movie's good. 3/5 stars (these are arbitrary lol).

Boy Kills World: The one and only non-Horror movie I watched recently. I'm not exactly trying to focus on horror, it's just sort of accidental at this point. I'm in a horror mood so I'm just bingeing horror movies I haven't seen. I swear I watch other stuff too lol.

Anyways, this movie was about as good as one could probably expect it to be. It's just a cheesy, dumb action flick. The plot is middling, but it works. The plot twist is alright. I didn't see it coming exactly, but I also wasn't like "omg no way, what!?", it was just a thing that happened, ya know? Overall, I think my only criticism is that it felt like it was missing a second act. Bill Skarsgard is insanely nice to look at throughout the entire movie though so that's a plus. 3 1/2 stars.

Brightburn: I'm gonna be honest, I didn't care for this movie. It tries to go with the whole "bad guys win" ending that, to me, just fell flat because I don't really give a shit about the bad guy. I'm not sure if I'm meant to feel for him inherently because he's a child, but he's a pretty boring as fuck child so I wound up not caring when he inevitably won. 2/5 stars.

Smile: This movie was OK, but it really felt like that scenario when someone asks to copy your homework and you tell them to just change a few of the details. The one who's homework they're copying of course is It Follows. They have very similar premises, only instead of the monster passing through sex like a shitty STD, this monster passes through trauma like a shitty ex. Personally, I think It Follows did it better. 3/5 stars.

The First Omen: The last on this update, I just finished this right before writing this and it was alright? So, perhaps controversially, I've yet to see The Omen (watching it literally as I type this) so this movie didn't do much for me. I understand it's setting up The Omen though, so that's where the supposed payoff is, but I personally think movies should be able to stand up by themselves, even if they're connected to a franchise, and I'm not sure this one does.

This movie left me confused. It focuses hard on this young girl, leading you to believe she's vitally important and you reasonably assume she's the key figure or "MacGuffin" in this movie, only for us to find out that she's not, and it's actually the main character who's the important one. But then I'm left wondering why I spent the last hour and a half of this two hour movie focused on a red herring.

Not to mention, there's a lingering question I had by the end when everything is burning down which is... if y'all have the actual fucking Devil chained up in your basement as your demonic sperm donor, why the fuck do you need the antichrist so bad?

I'm also just kind of curious about their overall motivations here. Like, we're told that they belong to a different sect of the church who believes that they need to make bad things happen so that more people are drawn to the faith, which at face-value I'm like okay cool, reasonable motivation I guess. But then what is the plan with the antichrist then? They have him get raised by some well-off politician (to set up the Omen) but then what? Presumably you intend to kill him at some point? Is the idea to let him get powerful enough to show everyone he's the legit antichrist, but not so powerful that he doesn't wind up destroying the world like he's meant to? It's just confusing is all, I don't know. Hopefully the Omen explains it. Or the Omen II. Or III. Or IV lol. Anyways, 3/5.

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the tag @pinkie-satan!

-last song: 0 - LMYK (English version)

-song stuck in head: 勇者/Yuusha/Hero - yoasobi (it's the frieren op)

-fav colors: purples, especially when they're down the blue end.

-currently watching: ah okay. so. I'm watching anime seasonals this time for some reason? Kinda surprised I'm keeping up with them as well as I am honestly. so anime-wise: frieren, spy x family s2, my new boss is goofy, deranged detective, tearmoon, I'm in love with the villainess. kdrama: move to heaven (I am genuinely enjoying it but there aren't many episodes so I think I keep delaying to make it last longer). don't think there's anything else I'm forgetting rn (but there probably is). I have a few other shows I want to check out like scavengers reign but probably when I'm less overloaded with my current lot.

-currently reading: does it count if I technically read it all yesterday? uh, ima say yes because I was probably sleep-deprived and so may give it a reread when I'm less so. latest murderbot book: system collapse. really good. there were a couple of parts I wish had been pushed further but overall it was exactly what I wanted out of a murderbot book so I can't complain (for context: murderbot is sci-fi and a mix of hurt/comfort, comedy, and intense relatability courtesy of the main character). other than that, it's mainly dungeon meshi. finished up volume 1 earlier today after getting distracted for ages and the fake biology aspects are so fun. (also have ongoing stuff in terms of manga and fics but I'll spare the details of those as there're a lot)

-currently craving: hot chocolate (brb)

-last movie: the marvels. was kinda disjointed but I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it actually was given the reception to it. also I know cats are probably expensive to deal with on film sets but did they really have to cg them to that extent? pls. I want real cattos. real alien cattos. whatever

-sweet, spicy or savory: usually sweet but occasionally spice

-relationship status: single, which personally I'm happy with, but people can be weird about it sometimes.

-current obsession: still in my link click era, trying to resist getting back into murderbot or nirvana in fire or stranger/secret forest.

-three fav foods: hmm, bolognese, gyoza, fior di latte gelato

-last thing googled: showings for anatomy of a fall. (unfortunately there aren't many which is a shame. I'd like to watch it but not really planning to go out of my way for it)

-dream trip: going to be boring and say the same here but japan fr. I'd want to actually have a vague sense of the language before even considering it though because what I have rn is just an assortment of words vaguely to do with murder mysteries

-anything you want right now: my original answer to this was depressing so I'm just gonna say the motivation to actually sort out a new laptop because rn I'm probably going to beat out my record for how long it took me to transfer over to my new phone after getting it (around a month iirc). I haven't even started figuring out what I want to prioritise in terms of specs or how much money I'm willing to spend and it's so much easier to do this kind of thing *on* a laptop (that isn't broken :V)

Tagging in anyone who wants to join in. I know especially I have some newish mutuals/followers and I'm not great at interacting directly but feel free to have a go ^^

[freakingoutthesquares]

Pulp Words: Siân Pattenden Taken from Select Magazine, October 1994 Transcription: Acrylic Afternoons

Russell Senior is the guitarist with "mad, staring eyes" and an interesting sideline in violin-playing with Pulp. He lives in Sheffield with his girlfriend and two children in a Coronation Street-style abode with a "certiflable lunatic" over the road who throws stones at his window. He is having a problem getting rid of the Artex that swamps the walls of the house at the moment, and has just finished painting the bathroom.

COCKTAIL SHAKER "I've always liked the idea of it, but only recently have I been able to afford to do it. The idea of sophistication like in a James Bond movie. It's just civilised values. Particularly in Sheffield, there's a tendency for things to turn into a Hogarthian nightmare. All these lairy people wandering about. It's for people like me to keep a stiff upper lip."

SUNGLASSES "I have so many. It started a few years ago in France. I wore these sunglasses, and afterwards in a nightclub loads of French people offered me money for them. I thought, Here's a way to earn money. So I bought loads of pairs and wandered around waiting for people to buy them. They didn't. Also, I've got these mad staring eyes. At concerts people'd be dancing, but there'd be a pool of emptiness in front of me, with people looking terrified. I started wearing sunglasses so I wouldn't disconcert people."

SOPHIE "She's my daughter, she's six. She's very into the macabre, Egyptology, vampires, things like that. Her favourite book is the Tibetan Book Of The Dead. Her teachers must think we're Satanists or something, because I see her school books and it's all drawings of vampires and stuff like that. I quite like horror films and horror books, but it's mainly her interest. She wants 'em."

JACKET "It's my own and I have worn it, but I wouldn't wear it to do the gardening. I got it from the cat shelter at the top of our road - a charity shop, not a place for beleaguered cats. I think originally it was the jacket that the mayor of a small American town owned."

GLASSES "These are from East Germany. I bought dozens of boxes of these in a car boot sale and they're the only ones left because they're so fragile. They're amazing, the kind of thing that would be in Modesty Blaise. They're completely impractical, which isn't really me. I like everything to be functional. I only use drinking glasses that are not made this century. It's tacky, new glass. I don't like tack and I don't really like the '70s either."

LAMP "You know lava lamps? I used to sell them. That's very Pulp, innit? That's a glitter one. The thing about your lava lamp is they take an hour to warm up, and they're good to look at but the light they give out isn't terribly interesting. Whereas the glitter ones give out a nice warm light. That's from my dealing days - kitch value that is, but I use it."

TREASURE CHEST "About three years ago Sophie found a large golden key in a wood near us, and recently she found a bottle with a map. We found this old tunnel from the map, and we came across this treasure chest. It's true. It had brass candlesticks in it, rum, spices, amber, old books in Latin, Roman coins - treasure. It was worth nothing individually, but accumulatively... it was everywhere the glint of gold. It's here to stand for the fact that I'm the treasurer of the abode, which means doing things like doing the books."

WALLPAPER "It's fairly neutral. The main thing in this house is getting round the Artex in the other rooms. I regard Artex as an affront to civilised values, a deeply cynical form of decorating. To me it's the epitome of bad taste, I try to avoid it."

CHESS "I play on tour. Touring is 90 per cent intensely boring, and there's always a tendency to do the most mind-numbing things - to be surrounded by screwed-up cans of lager, play Nintendo and have three kinds of music all playing at the same time. It's terrible. Whereas chess perks the mind up. I'm not a good player but it's one of those civilised things."

STEREO CABINET "I don't think it looks very nice. It's OK, but you've got to put it on all the black hifi stand stuff. I've got a thing about keeping any sort of reference to music out of the mainstream of my life. You won't see any Pulp posters in my house. I don't listen to our records."

MUSHROOMS "I use them in cooking, I pick them to eat them. I learnt about them from books. I had this chart with mushrooms on, I saw all these exotic things you could find in the woods. Fungi is an amazing world, but there's a certain snobbery involved - it's just an excuse to charge exorbitant prices for a meal. Most of them aren't as nice as ordinary mushrooms from a shop. That's the truth, as someone who's tried most of them. The best? A shaggy parasol is probably the finest."

HERBS "I like having all the herbs and spices there are, every nut in existence, every seaweed. I like going to shops to buy a nice vegetable or piece of meat, and come home and think, What are we going to do with you then? I like having every possible cuisine available to me. That choice. If I was going to live in London it would be because you can't get fresh basil in Sheffield."

RECORDS "I don't listen to that much, but I'd listen to Wagner and Bach quite a lot. The Rolling Stones are probably my favourite classic rock band. (Confidentially) I have listened to The Auteurs a bit, that's my concession to the '90s. It doesn't play a large part in my life music, at home."

SUNGLASSES STAND "Plastic and fluorescent, maybe luminous. I wouldn't have that kind of rubbish in my living room ordinarily, it's my one token Pulp thing. If you're going to say Pulp is all about '70s-ness and kitschness, well, it's one media perception that isn't me. There are other elements to Pulp of which I'm one."

VIOLIN BOW "To represent my amazing violin playing in the group, such as it is. My violin's at the practice room. No, I don't play it round the house to amuse the kids."

Kitten.

[eva-knits12]

What sweater curse?

Summary: Eva knits her bf Colin Shea a sweater for his birthday.

About the sweater curse: It's been said that if you knit a sweater for your boyfriend or girlfriend before getting a ring on your finger, the relationship will end before you have a chance to finish a chance to finish the sweater.

Side note: Since What's Your Number? was released in 2010/2011, the events take place at around the time of filming, which was most likely a couple years before the release of the film, so around 2007ish or 2008ish. Knives Out was released in 2019, but the sweater pattern that is linked is more recent. Otherwise, an aran sweater is a classic piece of clothing that everyone should own at least once in their life. In fact, I'm a huge fan of any kind of cable knit sweater.

Trigger warning: This is mostly fluff, but there is some implied smut, but don't worry, it's not graphic or descriptive at all. I like to keep things on the fluffy side, because not every is comfortable with smut.

As a knitter, there is a curse about knitting your significant other a sweater. I chose to ignore this, even though everyone in my knitting circle had warned me about this. My knitting books also had this in them, and here I am, with my knitting needles, yarn, and the pattern for Colin's sweater, that was going to be gifted for him on his birthday.

I moved to Boston two and a half years ago, after securing a job in the IT industry. I came here, after the company I was working for in Detroit laid me off. I took up knitting to help with the boredom of working backstage. Knitting also helped with my depression and my anxiety.

Little did I know that moving here in the spring 2007 would change my life.

Three months after I moved here, I met Colin Shea, after my friends from work took me to a local bar to celebrate my co-workers birthday. His band was playing at the bar, and I had an awesome night, and I managed to get Colin's number. It devastated Jake, who has quite the crush on me.

When Colin picked me up for one of our date nights, he discovered my yarn stash.

"What's this?" Colin asked, when he saw a pair of knitting needles poking out of my knitting bag, and picking up a ball of yarn.

"Colin, it's my knitting. I knit and I also crochet. It sounds boring, and you're thinking it's a hobby for old ladies, "I said .

"That's so cool. I don't think it's a hobby for old ladies," Colin said.

That was one month into our relationship, and it just keeps getting better.

"When did you start knitting and crocheting?"

"I took it up in college. It gave me something to do when I would be working in the costume department. I majored in theatre before I majored in computer sciences ", I said.

"Can you make me something?"

"Sure. I can make you a hat, a scarf, a dish cloth, a pair of fingerless gloves, a blanket, a sweater..."

"I didn't expect a whole inventory...", said Colin.

"I'll surprise you," I said, giving Colin a kiss.

"Let's go to dinner, and then we'll see the new Batman movie."

"I know it was filmed in Detroit, so I'll point out anything of interest if it comes up on screen."

Colin and I went on our date, and we even cuddled in the movie theatre seats, with a huge bucket of popcorn and a huge bag of M &M's between us.

That led to some more dates, and eventually, I moved into Colin's apartment because my landlord raised my rent, as I could barely afford the place by myself anymore.

One year later, on our first anniversary in 2008, Colin wrote me a song, and played it for me on his guitar. I'll never forget it, because it came from his heart. I got Colin a vintage inspired record player, along with some old records that I found at a local used book and record store. One of those records was Kick Out the Jams by the MC5, and I had a story that went along with it.

Here we are, two years later in 2009, and we couldn't be happier. We even found a small house that was in our price range, and are moving into it in the fall.

On our second anniversary, Colin tried to cook me dinner, only for it end in disaster, and the smoke alarm going off when I got home.

"Oh, honey, this was supposed to be a surprise," Colin said, with a laugh, while Dickens, our dog that we rescued, was happily wagging his tail, sitting by Colin's feet, waiting for me to come home.

"Oh, I'm surprised all right, but coming home to the house nearly burning down is not my idea of a surprise," I said, laughing.

"Okay, I'll order us that pizza that we like", said Colin. "Happy anniversary, sweetheart," Colin said. "I love you so much," Colin said, capturing me in a very deep and loving kiss.

"Happy anniversary, Colin," I said, giving Colin his present, which was a pair of fingerless gloves and a matching scarf and hat that I knitted for him that would keep him warm for the upcoming colder weather that Boston and Michigan are famous for later in the fall.

"This is lovely, honey. Thank you. Thank you for agreeing to be my girlfriend two years ago," said Colin, grabbing my waist, and dancing around the kitchen with me.

"Colin, I am proud that you're my boyfriend. I love you, my favorite rock star. Every day has been full of happiness, and every day is always a brand new adventure with you", I said, with tears of joy in my eyes.

The pizza came, we ate our favorite pepperoni pizza, and then I pulled out the special dessert that I picked up for us at our favorite bakery. After that, Colin kissed me deeply and lovingly, and picked me up bridal style.

"What's next, rock star?" We already had the perfect anniversary, even though it didn't go according to plan", I said.

"We're going to the bedroom, for another surprise," said Colin, with lust blown eyes.

Later that night, Colin and I enjoyed a nice romantic bath together.

Two years later, I was knitting Colin his sweater, which was a lovely cable knit in a cream color, much like the one Ransom Drysdale had worn in the movie, Knives Out, but without the holes.

As I was working on the sleeves to Colin's sweater, I didn't hear him come in.

"Honey, I'm home", Colin called.

"Have good day, rock star?"

"Yeah, the kids weren't as unruly today as they were weeks ago," said Colin.

"That's good. Plus, you're getting along well with my brother, so that's a good sign," I said, while giving him a kiss.

"Honey, is that for me? Just being with you is present enough", said Colin.

"Colin, you know your birthday is coming up soon, and you know you're mom, she always makes a huge deal of it", I said.

'This sweater is for my brother", I said, putting the sweater back into my knitting bag. "Plus, I have something special planned for your birthday ", I said, winking.

"But three years ago, everyone thought I would still be single, and not have a girlfriend that lasted longer than three months", said Colin.

"Colin Shea, listen to me. Your family still loves you, even though you chose a much different path," I said, trying to cheer up, when I saw the devastated look on Colin's face.

Just then, Dickens our dog, came running into the room when he heard Colin. Dickens was licking his face, trying to cheer him up, too. In the process, Dickens knocked over my knitting bag. Yarn flew out, the sweater had managed to somehow fly across the room, and the sleeves came off the needles, only to frog several rows from Dickens wanting to do his part of cheering up Colin. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I had managed to gather up the yarn, and wind them back into the skeins as best as I could. I had managed to get the sleeves back on to the needles, and luckily, Dickens managed to only frog them back to the cuffs. Colin scooped up the sweater, but luckily, there was no damage.

"Dickens, you certainly have given us quite the surprise," Colin said.

"You know, how about we order some Chinese tonight?" I said, laughing at Dickens surprise appearance, after napping by my feet all day.

"I just hope it stays down," I said.

"Wait...are you...?" asked Colin.

"You'll find out soon", I said with a wink.

Two weeks later, I finished Colin's sweater. I found a gift box, and wrapped it in tissue paper, and wrapped it. I even found a cute card for Colin.

"Happy birthday, rock star", I said , kissing him.

"Honey, you didn't have to do this", said Colin. "I wonder what this is."

"Open it", I said.

Colin unwrapped the gift, and opened the box, and carefully undid the tissue paper. Inside, was a lovely cream colored cable knit sweater.

"Honey, I love it" said Colin. He gave me a loving kiss.

"There's something else," I said.

"Honey, I don't need anything else. Everything I want is right here, under this roof", said Colin, capturing me in another kiss.

"You'll love this one," I said opening the top drawer on my nightstand and grabbing the envelope with the small box attached to it. I gave Colin the package, nodding at him to open it.

Colin took the envelope with the small box I attached to it. Colin opened the small box, and inside the box was a pregnancy test that was positive. Colin then opened the envelope, and inside was an ultrasound sound picture.

"Honey, how could my birthday just have gotten better?" asked Colin, love filling his eyes, and his large hand going to my non-existent bump. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"That's why I've been nauseous lately. It's why I've been throwing up a lot lately" I said. "It's also why I was sent home early from work two weeks ago, and have been working from home ever since", I said.

"I really wanted this to be a surprise," I said.

"Eva, I always knew you were crafty, but how did you manage to keep it a secret for two weeks, knowing that your family thrives on gossip?" asked Colin.

"Easy, I didn't post my pregnancy on Facebook," I said, referring to the newish social media site that became very popular among everyone. "Plus, I wanted to get my pregnancy confirmed before we announce it. I had your mom take me to the doctor, and Dr. Westfield confirmed it."

"I can't wait to meet him...or her", said Colin. "I love you," said Colin, capturing another kiss.

"Daddy loves you so much," Colin said, talking to my non-existent bump. "I'm so happy you exist, and I never thought I'd love someone as much as I love your mom", said Colin, kissing my belly.

"I love you, rock star", I said. "I love you, and I love your daddy, and you wouldn't exist if it weren't for me meeting and falling in love with your daddy," I said, rubbing my belly.

Colin and I fell asleep again that morning. Dickens jumped up on the bed, and placed his head on my stomach. After a few hours, I woke up in Colin's arms, with Colin staring at me and smiling at me lovingly. Dickens and Colin didn't want me to leave the bed, even though I really needed to pee. I couldn't wait for Colin's birthday party tonight, in which, we would make the announcement.

Colin was going to surprise me on my birthday, but not with a sweater. He was going to surprise me with a ring, as he had been secretly shopping for the perfect ring.