#i realize i am on the Getting Super Mad At People Who Make Popular Media website so hopefully this does not bite me in the ass

[taffywabbit]

idk if i'm way off the mark on this, but the way some people are responding to that Guillermo del Toro interview about the decline of studio animation is a bit frustrating to me. specifically the bit where he talks about "emoji animation" and how everything is over-animated and pushed too far and things are rarely allowed to not be ultra-cartoony (y'know, because animation always needs to be marketable to children who are never trusted to have attention spans, right?). like, i think he's generally correct about it! but some folks are taking the wrong message away from that.

i've seen people going off about how "soulless" and "corporate" various recent examples are, and talking about these pieces of media as though they're the result of some kind of personal failing or lack of skill/range on the part of the animators, and it's just like. do people realize that's the only animation you're usually allowed to DO in the industry, unless you get incredibly lucky and land yourself on a project/studio that's unusually cool?

when i was in college for animation it was literally drilled into us nonstop that everything had to be pushed more, that exaggeration was not a guideline or a sometimes-treat but a hard rule that always had to be applied regardless of what was going on, because the viewer couldn't be trusted to pick up on subtlety and we sure as hell couldn't be trusted to convey it. you ever wonder why there's such a specific vibe to a lot of self-directed student films, particularly ones that are focused on character acting/interaction or deep emotions and introspection (especially when there's minimal/no dialogue)? it's because for a lot of young animators, they haven't had the freedom to experiment with realism and subtlety up to that point and they're likely not going to have it again for a while (or at all, unless their career path leads to higher positions where they might have more creative direction over the things they work on. which also becomes a lot less likely if they're anything other than a cishet white dude, for what it's worth).

i would LOVE to see more nuanced, realistic, understated motion and acting in animation. i WANT more characters to be able to express what they're feeling through natural body language and facial cues and for scenes to allow me to breathe instead of spelling everything out in giant bold flashing text all the time. what del Toro wants to see changed in the animation industry sounds great, and i hope others join him in seeking to revamp what modern animation is allowed to be.

but as things currently stand, and as they've stood for a long while now, most artists doing the grunt work on the shows and movies you see are completely at the mercy of corporations and networks who have a vested interest in producing a very specific kind of marketable and cost-efficient media all the time. (and by extension that style is ALSO what's taught in most animation schools, because their job more than anything is to grind you down into a perfect little sweatshop worker who will bend over backwards to meet quotas and get your work approved and not question the higher-ups, even if you have little to no personal investment in the projects you're working on, so that the studios who employ you can maintain their good reputations or whatever)

anyways idk what my point was here, this really just sorta became a rant and my views have undoubtedly been coloured by my own personal experiences (this kinda shit is largely why i dropped out before my last year of animation school, for the record).

i guess just be kind to folks in the animation industry? they've had it fucking rough nonstop for well over a century (the majority of them are still not unionized and there's HUGE pushback against doing so in many places). i assure you they are doing their best to infuse the latest uninspired illumination flick or weird spinoff kids' show with literally any amount of soul they can. you don't have to like the stuff that gets produced by any means! be a hater! i'm certainly not gonna stop you. just remember where these creative decisions come from and why these conditions exist, and consider that when YOU watched something and thought "hmm that could've been done better", you can bet your ass someone actually working on it probably thought the same thing but couldn't do anything about it. these things WILL change as the industry itself improves, but in the meantime folks have to pay their rent, and that usually means doing what they're told and working in a way that will minimize revisions and meet quotas so they can keep their jobs. it sucks, but it is what it is.

[inkskinned]

no, actually, where is the whimsy?

my ex had a best friend named larry who asked me once: what do you think comes after irony?

we were at the bar where larry worked. it was a quiet night, and he'd hopped over to sit with us on the patron side. i swirled the lemon around my limoncello martini.

earnest positivity, i said, while my ex said, art self-destructs.

i stared at my ex. he stared at me.

his argument was the cinemasins argument: look how bad media is becoming! look at the loopholes and the dumb shit!

it was roughly 2011. galaxy print was still in. at the time, i had a favorite shirt that was a wolf howling at the moon. it got ripped in half in the wash and i honestly still mourn it. i dressed like effie stonem, because everyone did. and irony was the name of the thing. men liked MLP "ironically." the internet liked the kind of crass, "anti-mainstream" vibes of things like fuck romance, touch my butt and buy me pizza. we put cats in sunglasses everywhere, which was because we only liked things in irony.

and media had the same vibe in it: anti-hero white men would be "hard to love" and then storm off the scene. nobody was just earnestly trying to save the world: they were jaded, angry, unoriginal. mad you even asked them to try to help.

my ex ends up not being wrong. cinemasins becomes super popular. a lot of people start viewing media with this lens that is the cruelest, most jaded depiction. it's wrong for your character to have unexplained powers, even if the entire movie is about how strange it is she has unexplained powers - that is still considered a "loophole." characters make thoughtless, panicked choices? loophole. characters are actually kind people, despite hardship? loophole. features a woman doing literally anything without assistance? loophole. movies become hyper-aware of scrutiny, and now irony rules the media.

which means you go to a movie, and the character has to turn to the screen and say "beats me!!" or one of the side characters has to have some kind of quip like "are you seriously telling me that you think this is normal?" because nothing can happen in earnest. like a sitcom laugh track, we now anticipate the fourth-wall break: the moment that the media acknowledges it is telling a story. the media has to apologize for itself, or else someone like my ex rolls their eyes.

but here's the thing: i wasn't wrong either.

the difference might be that i am (and always have been) so soft-hearted that any crack in the light of this world will spear me into the ground. and i was the poet in the relationship. (he thought that was the same thing as being naïve and stupid). i was making things daily. i knew how all of us artists are driven by some strange desire to evolve. he notably liked to critique art, not to create it.

so yes, i've made things that are bitter and angry and even ironic. i've made long, sharp poems with all capital letters, and i've made poems about how the silence stretches out like a song. someone wrote once that we will spend our whole lives just circling the place we grew up. i think it's more that we spend our whole lives trying to remake a home. i think it's that as we age, it becomes less exciting to build the castle on the beach - we become aware of erosion, of windforce. we realize what we really want is to come home to our dog, castle or not.

and while art in the foreground is mired in white male violence and irony, and aggression, and not taking anything seriously - i don't think that's true of all art. i think more and more artists are leaning in to the things we love. the world has changed so much. they have taken so many things from us. the only thing we have left is love. at the bottom of the moving box - all we get is the faint sense that we have to appreciate what little we've got. i can't enjoy this stuff ironically anymore: what room do i have for irony? if it makes me happy, that is an amazing thing. there are so few happy places left for me. i want to be happy because of how leaves shiver beside each other like nestling birds. i want to be happy because of the color pink, and how magenta doesn't exist. i have spent so much of this life suffering, i have earned my right to a gentle ending. if nothing matters, i get to assign meaning to the nothing. i get to create meaning. i am an artist first and foremost, which means creation is my thing.

where is the whimsy? wherever i fucking put it. because if this is my last fucking chance to do any good in this world - i want to do it earnestly. i want to write things that make you happy. that make people feel heard and seen. what comes after irony has to be positivity.

it was close to my 21st birthday. in 7 years, i would end up writing a book about this relationship, which is hopefully coming out somewhere around May 2024. i come back to this bar scene in my memories a lot. i keep thinking of how pale my ex was. the look that crossed his face. how i looked back at him. how for a moment, both of us couldn't recognize the other person. like the gulf between us was a suddenly wide and cavernous thing. like we were alien to each other. he never took my opinion seriously, and he always seemed surprised whenever his manic-pixie-dream-girl ever broke free of the plot. like in the whole time we were together, i wasn't human enough.

this knowledge: where he said nothing comes after, my only instinct was what comes after is love.

[archivalofsins]

People have been curious why Kazui is going guilty, but like...

Kazui's break or make it moment is the release day of Amane's video. If people really want to make a case for him or work towards a specific verdict, they should do that leading up to Amane's premiere. There's a lot of fans in the West who only watch the video day one and only vote for that one day. This is why after the premiere he was innocent but now he's guilty. Because the people who view him as innocent aren't ones who consistently vote or keep up with Milgram.

So, chances are those people will come back around for Amane's premiere or start voting again once it's brought to their attention that Kazui is sitting at guilty and close to staying it. Even bringing it up in the comments of Cat would be helpful for those not really involved in the fandom proper to get updated on the current situation.

Because even if those sorts of individuals aren't active in the online fandom they may look in the comments of the video to get a grasp on common theories. So, they're more likely to see it and feel a certain way through youtube than any other social media platform. Possibly even be inspired to vote daily off of that too.

However, as it stands no campaign that's centered around or based solely on tumblr, is going to sway his verdict much. Especially since a lot of popular milgram artists are pushing for him being guilty on other platforms. For reasons that well some have seen brought to tumblr as well. When you have mainstay artists in the fandom reminding their thousands of followers to vote this man guilty daily, this is just what happens.

At this point, Kazui's case is a real pr nightmare. Because no matter how many people bring up the issues with voting him guilty here, it's not going to change much. Because we all know the issues that can arise from a guilty verdict in this case already it's individuals on other platforms that don't or are blatantly ignoring the problems this could cause for fun who are pushing for this verdict. So, doing anything here is just preaching to the choir.

If last trial Mikoto's verdict was milgram fans going against tikto* Kazui's case is a real tumblr vs Twitter scenario. I know tumblr is supposed to be the reading comprehension is piss poor website, but at least we got enough characters to make a point. Twitter users can't even form a fully fleshed out thought without making a Google doc, slide, or PowerPoint. Anyone really think they're working off anything outside of thirst and kneejerk reactions- they're probably mad because they realized Kazui won't fuck them.

From what I've actively seen they're swearing up and down through all their nsfw fan art of male milgram characters that this has nothing to do with him possibly being gay they just think lying is bad also think about his wife's feelings. No one can reason with this sort of logic best to ignore them and let their choice speak for itself. Because I, myself, am super down with seeing this sort of stuff blow up in other's faces.

However, if anyone is really trying to get this man to innocent again and doesn't want to wade through that cesspit, then Amane's trial is a better opportunity to make that case.

[edjectedly]

Fanon vs Canon

Alright y’all buckle in cause this is gonna be a long one. Here lately I have seen a lot of discourse over fanon and canon and frankly I am growing tired of it. I by no means think that this post will be the end all be all of this discourse, but I am hoping to at least shed some light on the importance of fanon and its impact on content, especially in regards to comics and accessibility.

TL;DR: Everything boils down to if you don’t like something there is absolutely no need to comment on it or interact with it :) Comics are hard to get access to and canon can be hard to experience. Fanon is a crucial part of fan culture. 

Recently, I have started devoting a lot of my time towards the Batman fandom, as superheroes have been something I’ve loved for a while and something just clicked when I first found Young Justice back when it was still on Netflix. I watched all the episodes and then realized afterwards I wasn’t content with the amount of content I got regarding my boy Dick Grayson, so I switched over to AO3 to find anything more. There I was introduced to the extended BatFam and that led me to reading exclusively Batman fanfiction so I could see more of these four brothers. A few years passed, my hyperfixation changed to Sanders Sides, and now I’m back neck deep in Batman. I don’t know what triggered it this time but I’m super happy to be here. Let me get to the point; I got into the Batman fandom through Young Justice fanfiction.

So why does that matter? Well, I tried to find a way to read all the comics so I’d have an understanding of canon so I could make my own content because I had just gotten out of a fandom where I was creating content regularly and I wanted to continue. I couldn’t find a way to read them, so I stuck to just reading fanfiction and finding stuff on Tumblr and slowly I stopped wanting to create things. I was too nervous that I wouldn’t abide enough by canon that I’d get roasted for what I created. The second thing I posted I even clarified that I hadn’t read the comics and that my knowledge came from fanfiction and so this was based on my canon and I still had people in my inbox and on the post telling me that I wasn’t being canon compliant. Which I wasn’t trying to be. This put the brakes on me creating again for a bit, but this time I got angry and started thinking of new ways to make things.

Still, I was seeing things about canon vs. fanon and how fanon was bad for changing characters. I decided not to care and now we have the Alternative Introduction AU I so love creating for. I thought about Sanders Sides and how that had been a big issue in the fandom, people characterizing characters differently from canon. I contributed this largely to a lack of content, the issue with Batman is that there is so much content.

Comics are weird. There are many timelines, versions, writers, etc. Canon changes writer to writer, and frankly I think that allows for a lot of different interpretations. Others, however, try to pick a set way characters should be. One of the biggest, or at least most memorable to me, was Tim Drake and his coffee addiction. Fans latched onto it, whether they saw it as funny or relatable or whatever, it became very popular. It made sense and people enjoyed it. This is great! People are engaging with the media, making it enjoyable for them, and expanding on characters in a fun way while forming connections with other members of the fandom. Then, I started to see people angry about this little thing people saw Tim Drake doing. This anger only grew when it happened to make its way into a comic. I think it was like one panel? No matter, it wasn’t big but I know people who got mad. They got mad that fanon became canon cause they didn’t agree with it.

Here’s the thing we have to think about; media convergence. Henry Jenkins researches Fan Studies and Culture and has an entire book about it. I am not gonna cite directly because that is a lot of work and honestly I am tired. But, the big idea is that fandom is ever evolving and changing across multiple platforms. No one can actually have all the knowledge in a fandom, it’s impossible. This idea of media convergence shows a shift in how we view culture in general. Media has become more participatory than in the past where most interaction came from spectation. People are seeking to make connections across different forms of media which leads to the adoption of fanon.

Where am I going with this? I have laid out a lot of pieces but some have lacked connection, so here we go. Comics can largely be inaccessible, leading to people seeking out the information in other ways as Henry Jenkins discusses, this leads to an adoption of different headcanons creating fanon. Now, how does this tie into my personal experience in creating content? I am not alone in the fear of retribution for not following the strict guides of canon. I was able to move on from it, mainly because I am full of spite and anger and ready to fight at the drop of a hat, but not everyone is comfortable doing that. How many people are we keeping from fandoms in general because of adherence to canon? I am wary of using the word gatekeeping because there is a trend of people moving towards dismissal of anything using the word, but this is what it is.

Gatekeeping is occurring in a different way than normal. In this instance the strict adherence to canon is pushing out those who cannot find a way to get ahold of comics or don’t have the time to parse through everything. I was one of those people, hell I still have issues getting a hold of comics and even though I know how to pirate them now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have the time to go back and read everything. In addition to having multiple iterations of one character, comics also present the unique challenge of having multiple writers per character per timeline. I know in one of the only comics I’ve read that was released recently, Dick is twelve when Bruce gets him and that his parents are shot instead of falling. Batman kidnaps him and purposefully antagonizes the Justice League, which he isn’t a part of. From fanfiction, I know that Dick was eight in a lot of iterations, that his parents fell because the lines to their trapeze had acid on them, that Batman is a founding member of the Justice League and among other differences.

What does this mean? Canon isn’t clear cut and can be confusing. Strict adherence to this idea of what is right and wrong leads to the lack of participation in fandom spaces, and can even oust people who would otherwise enjoy this space. Fanon is fun, hurts no one, and provides spaces for creative liberty. If you don’t like how people are characterizing your favorite character, simply don’t read it. (This is different from people attacking characters, which if anyone wants that essay I’ll write it but that isn’t what I’m here for today.) Why are you so annoyed at people enjoying headcanons? If it has become fanon, that means it is widely liked, why do you feel like you have the authority to dictate how characters are? Besides, this is fandom/fanfiction/fan interactions, they aren’t canon. This is fans having fun and should be regarded that way. Shitting on other people's interpretations can and has stopped people from contributing their own fan content and limits the amount of growth a fandom can experience. Basically, it boils down to if you don’t like something there is absolutely no need to comment on it or interact with it :)

I could go on with the idea of fan service, but once again I am tired. If anyone wants that essay let me know lmao and I’ll work on it.

[yarrowleef]

Read Darkness Within all in one sitting last night and then passed out so here are my scattered thoughts i wrote down as i read, (afterthoughts in parenthesis)

Darkness Within Spoilers, obv

UGH GOD THE SECOND HAND EMBARRESMENT FROM SQUIRREL FAKE FLIRTING WITH ASHFUR IT HURTS

Just remembered Sandynose died and got a small boost of happiness (will Hawkwing and Plumwillow ever be allowed to talk again now? I mean probly not b/c they aren’t protags and non-protags don’t rly have friends but I can hope. Sorry, Hawkwhing and Plumwillow’s short-lived friendship in Hawkwings Journey was one of the last times I felt something)

Ghost fleas lol

Mothwing: i’m rude now. (but more importantly, Fuck Tigerheartstar for forcing his son to be around the cat that hurt him so badly, like he HAS to know how upset everyone is regarding Shadowsight and his accidentally helping the imposter, and he’s making him be the sole one to tend to him??? There is NO REASON Puddleshine couldn’t have done it. You think Puddleshine is going to try and murder someone?? )

Oh no don't make this a traveling book, and a ROOTBRISTLE traveling book this is going to be insufferable

BACON AND EGGS

Lightleap Is Good (Hey didn’t Shadowsight have another sister? lets be real we all knew Pouncekit was going to end up as the forgettable 3rd one)

Bristlefrost’s crush continues to feel unnatural to me. It’s like she’s grasping at straws romanticizing the most generic things.....wow....I love how ur just so...bare minimum competent....being polite to the loner we came all this way to ask for help like any somewhat reasonable person would....How admirable...I love the way you just *clenches fist* exhibit some basic traits of loyalty and skill that literally every warrior has (I s2g I’m this close to head canon-ing Bristle as a clueless aromantic who doesn't understand what romance is actually suppose to feel like so she just looks at feelings of low-bar admiration and assumes “oh I guess this is that “romantic attraction” everyone’s always talking about? guess I must be in love???” because both her crushes have felt out of nowhere and like. Idk fake/forced sounding like she’s just telling me that that she’s In Love Now while I continue to not actually feel it at all from her end. I know it’s just that I hate the way Erin’s write female characters in love but this head-canon makes me laugh)

Got scared because I thought they were going to villainize Spotfur for not wanting kits for a minute, but also excited at the concept of maybe exploring a female character that doesn’t want to be a mother, but it turns out she was just pulling a Sparkpelt and actually DID want the kits all along and was only hesitant because she’s sad. Shrug oh well.  (the only female character in warriors that was distinctly upset about pregnancy and motherhood was Lizardstripe and as we all know she was eeeeeevil and abusive and “overly ambitious” because why else would you not come around to being happy about motherhood?? YES I’M STILL SALTY ABOUT YELLOWFANG’S SECRET, BAD BOOK)  Whatever it’s fine so long as Spot doesn’t lose her rebel leader spirit forever and default to “soft mom” personality for the rest of her life, I gotta have hope because I actually like Bristle and Spot’s current relationship. Also I am actually very grateful they never made Bristle resentful at Spot for getting with her crush, as lots of middle grade/YA media has a very bad habit of demonizing female romantic “competition” and its super gross, so I rly do like that Bristlefrost is so protective and caring towards her instead. )

This series is trying to tell me that Rootspring is actually Big but I refuse to accept that. he has dumb scrawny bitch energy and we all know it

Sunrise: “Thunderclan may be better with a new leader” lol go off (i mean........they right tho...It’s unfortunate that the tension in this whole plot is a bit dampened by the fact that i DO in fact want bramble to die v badly. I don’t even have special hatred for him, I’m just bored of him.)

Yes Lionblaze beat the shit out of Ashfur

*HOLY SHIT THAT’S FUCKED!!!! (I wrote this in reference to the ghost summoning scene, this was all I could manage at the time, that scene was WILD and I am VIBING WITH THE HORROR OF IT ALL)

* Brashfur: Oh yeah? Could Ashfur fake THIS? *stands up with slightly better posture* Shadowsight: oh damn you got me there...... (asdfhhfhhgh im sorry that was really funny, how did that prove anything?? ONLY A ~REAL~ WARRIOR COULD STAND UP STRAIGHT WE ALL KNOW ASHFUR IS INCAPABLE OF GOOD POSTURE!)

End of the book: *LAUGHING NERVOUSLY* WHAT THE FUCK??? (I thought he was just gonna kill Squirrelflight right there holy shit can you imagine the RIOTS that would ensue in the wake of all this Squirrel/Bramble discourse I was so scared for a second.  

 But it’s fine, she just....went to super hell instead......Warriors has come so far lmao WHAT IS HAPPENING

Final Notes:

*On Mothwing, I don’t think her behavior struck me as “CHARACTER BUTCHERING” as much as it did for other people? I mean.....Warriors fans will say that literally any time a character does ANYTHING less then perfectly nice I think her actions just seemed that much harsher because we are reading from Shadowsight’s POV, and Shadowsight is taking everything 10x more personally right now (understandably so, but Mothwing isn’t inside his head) she wasn’t trying to hurt him. Also... like... Shadowsight DID get his name too early. It’s not Mothwing’s job to put his feelings above everything else, she’s not even his mentor, Puddleshine on the other hand, as his main mentor, I don’t understand what his deal is ignoring Shadowsight, that’s not how you help an apprentice but I suppose I chalk many of his mistakes up to also not being the most experienced medicine cat (he barely even had his own mentor.) Maybe he’s distant because he feels guilty and actually blames himself for not guiding Shadowsight better?? the two of them haven’t communicated about it yet so idk

 any way I give Mothwing a pass to be a little short tempered right now as a cat who has had her abilities periodically questioned all her life no matter how hard she works or how much experience she has, just because she doesn’t vibe with the spiritual cult side of the clans, I can understand why she’s a bit defensive of being questioned and frustrated watching so much hurt happen Yet Again due to reliance on StarClan visions over common sense, and I for one still stan her for slandering StarClan and refusing to accept Mistystar’s bullshit banishing like everyone else. Sometimes a character is at the end of their rope and can’t manage to be 100% nice 24/7 and that’s maybe not inherently bad writing? idk just my hot take. At a certain point we all gotta reckon with the fact that our perception of most popular supporting characters in heavily colored by fanon and we can’t always get mad at the authors for not adhering to it

*The sisters magic shit is my fav worldbuilding warriors has had in AGES, I love the way it’s described and it actually feels like it adds something to this world. I love this horror imagery with the ghosts, very excited for that. 

*still won’t be thrilled if Ashfur is working alone, because his motive doesn’t make sense right now. I mean the trying to get Squilf thing, sure, whatever, but the “I will make everyone pay for what they did to me”???? cause like?? Who??? they didn’t do anything to him?? Ashfur’s grievance was very specifically JUST Squilf. He has no other cause for revenge, he had no other beef or complaints about the clans to my knowledge? The cat that killed him is dead, and she’s like, the only other one that I could see as having “wronged” him?? I guess he also didn’t like Firestar much according to Graystripe’s Vow (and on account of how willing he was to kill him w/ Hawkfrost) but Firestar is ALSO dead. I don’t understand his angle. Will have to see last 2 books to judge i suppose.

*All in all I am interested to see where this is going!! but also the pacing as I feared is becoming a major issue. It’s better then ending the main conflict on book 3 like Vision of Shadows did, but omg. Hardly anything happened in all these pages. I realized I was over half way through and nothing about the situation had actually CHANGED or advanced at all in all that time. Similar to the past 2 books which I believe could have been combined, this plot felt like it should have been the first half of a book. Discussing whether or not to kill the imposter isn’t much of a standalone plot, it’s just the set up to a plot. Finding the sisters didn’t need to be a whole long thing, the debates about the Imposters fate didn’t need to be repeated 10 times, all those chapters illustrating that “Shadowsight is sad” were also drawn out, repetitive, and interchangeable, we probably only needed 2 or so chapters showing his struggles to get the necessary information across. It felt like a lot of padding, it was really slow and I did a lot of skimming. I am still very interested in the overarching plot and mystery behind the ghosts so that kept me reading but man this “will they won’t they kill him” plot did not justify it’s own whole book. Alas this is a persisting issue that will never be resolved while they continue to force 6 books into 1 series that doesn’t need 6 books. I’m sure the writers are doing the best they can with these unfortunate constraints but still, it’s a wonder this slow padding isn’t more of a detriment to their younger readers that the books are supposed to be marketed to.

[some-dr-writings]

SHSL Theatre Actress comes out as aromantic to Mikan, Ibuki and Korekiyo

Mikan Tsumiki: pt.1

·       It was a day just like any other. That morning you had invited Mikan to come to rehearsal to watch. Having a massive crush on you she more than eagerly accepted! She also knew how reckless you tended to be with your own safety, she liked being nearby to patch you up quickly.

·       It seemed to be a miracle that nothing happened during the practice. Mikan decided to meet you backstage. If nothing happened on stage, then you likely would end up getting injured helping change the spotlights or something. Maybe fall off a ladder or try lifting something and hurt your back. Who knows?

·       She rather quickly spotted you actually… With a guy leaning in rather close to you. “Come on, just one date. What’s the big deal?” “The big deal is, NO. I don’t want to go on a date with you!” “What? Think you’re better than me? Am I not your type?” “Yes! I am better than you! I don’t persist when people withdraw their consent!” Oh no. You were fuming. You had absolutely no sense of danger when you were mad. “And YES, you are not my type! I HAVE NO TYPE! SO LEAVE ME ALONE YOU CREEP OR I SWEAR I’LL DESTROY ANY CHANCE YOU BOUGHT WITH MONEY SINCE YOU CERTAINLY DON’T HAVE TALENT OR PASSION, OF MAKING IT ANYWHERE IN THIS INDUSTRY! DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK YOU’LL GET FAR DISRESPECTING PEOPLE?! THAT’S HOW YOU IMPRESS SOMEONE!? SORRY ASSHOLE THAT’S NOT HOW THE WORLD WORKS! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AT THIS? A WEEK NOW! AND GUESS WHAT MY ANSWER HAS BEEN EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU ASK! OH, YOU DON’T NEED TO GUESS, I ALREADY TOLD YOU! NO! NEVER! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!” As you were stomping away the guy grabbed your hand! The guy was about to say something when you headbutted him in the jaw. He likely bit his lip or tongue because he started bleeding. Mikan chased after you as you ran away.

·       You just kept running and running. “Y-Y/N!” “Mikan!?” You slowed your paced for a moment, grabbing Mikan’s hand, continuing to run.

·       The pair of you hid in Mikan’s dorm room. She sat you down on her bed before scurrying around getting supplies to examine you. Her cheeks were lightly dusted with pink as she held your face getting a close look at the top of your head. “Tsumiki… I-I think I’m fine.” “W-well, you may think so, but many illnesses can be present without making themselves known. The same can be said with injuries… I-I’m sorry am I annoying you!?” “N-no, no! You’re okay! I just don’t want you to waste supplies on me.” “Supplies w-would never be wasted on you! E-even if they don’t help, i-if it’s for you, it’s never a waste!” Her blush only grew as she looked at you with such determined eyes…

·       She really cared about you…

·       “Y/N w-what’s wrong!? Are you hurting? Why are you crying!?” You tried holding back the sobs as you quickly wiped those tears away. “I-I’m so sorry.” “Sorry? Sorry for what? I don’t need or deserve apologies! Did I do something wrong!?” “N-no, you’re amazing.” You buried your face in your hands, absolutely ashamed of yourself. “E-even if I was interested in romance I would never go out with that guy, but, b-but you…” You forced yourself to take deep breaths. You forced yourself to look at her even in that blur. You forced yourself to… to confess. “But you’re amazing! And I’ve been awful to you! I know you have a crush on me, I knew for a long time! I thought if I didn’t say anything, maybe nothing would change and it’d all be fine, but… I can’t keep doing this to you! I don’t, I can’t ever return your feelings. I love you, but not like how you love me! I’m aromantic. I’m just not attracted to people like that! And I honestly don’t mind, I’m so happy to simply have friends, I don’t need any other type of relationships to feel complete or happy, but, I can’t just keep stringing you along like this! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Mikan!”

·       “Y-Y/N, p-please don’t cry for me!” Tears were already streaking down her cheeks. “I really don’t mind!” “H-huh? What?” “If you’re aromantic, I don’t mind. Just please keep calling me your friend! That’s honestly all I want!” “I-I, no, I don’t want this to get toxic! You’re my best friend! I don’t want to hurt you!” You stood up, pulling her into a hug before burrowing your tear stained face onto her shoulder. Trembling, you hugged her tightly. “I can’t keep hurting you.” Mikan hugged you back, letting you get your emotions out.

·       Once you calmed down, she sat you back on her bed. “Y/N, as long as you keep talking to me, I don’t mind. As long as you keep calling me your friend, I honestly can’t care less if you return my feelings. I’ve never had such an amazing friend like you! So please don’t feel guilty!” “… Mikan… I… but you’ve been treated so badly, I don’t want to be another person who does the same to you.” “What are you talking about? You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met! I’m happy the way things are! I don’t need you to love me!” “But I do love you, but just… not romantically. Which is what you have for me!” “I really don’t mind! Even if you weren’t aromantic and you fell in love with and dated someone else, I wouldn’t mind!” “But I never can… maybe that can be some condolence for you?” “I don’t want condolences. Just keep calling me your friend!” “… You… You really are okay with just being friends?” Taking an icepack out of the ice chest beside her, she placed it on your head. “It’s not ‘just being friends’ friendships are just as important as romantic ones, if not more! Having friends can do wonders for your health!” “I… If you’re sure. It’s just… I don’t know, romantic love is everywhere in plays and media so… I know it’s a big deal to others.” “Well, it’s not for me! I love you, and you love me, but in a different way! And that’s okay!” You couldn’t help but smile.

·       “A-although, if you don’t want to be friends, that’s fine too! Whatever you want!” “Mikan, no! Dang it, I thought you were gaining confidence!” “I-I’m so sorry!” “Stop it! We’re friends! You don’t annoy me! But please believe in yourself more!”

  Ibuki Mioda:

·       Your group decided to do a musical and who better than the Super High School Level Light Music Club Member to ask for help about the music!

·       It was… an interesting experience. She spoke of how before she could help, she needed to see if you could all perform together. Being more of the shy sort you found Ibuki to be a bit much at first, but through playing her games you rather quickly warmed up to her. You still were a bit quiet around her, but she did more than enough talking for the both of you.

·       Performing with her was certainly a lively event. It was also the most fun you ever had performing and that was saying something! You absolutely adored the stage but with Ibuki it was like you entered an entirely new world! One of boundless energy and excitement! One of pure passion and nothing else! The stress of wanting the other performers not mess up seemed to fade away as you just got lost in the music pouring your heart and soul into every last note! It was amazing!

·       Though it seems others may have misinterpreted your passion. Specifically, your co-star. He was a nice boy. New to performing, but he certainly had talent and passion. He was a good kid.

·       After the performance you ran straight to Ibuki, hopping around still feeling that boundless energy flowing through you. As the two of you were excitedly talking over one another neither of you notice as your co-star approached. Once the two of you finished spinning around and headbanging you finally noticed him. “O-oh, hi.” “Hey, Y/N, uh, could we talk for a moment… alone?” “Sure?” Hesitantly you followed the guy. Once you were alone, he asked you out. “Sorry, but, no thank you.” “Oh, really? I thought we might have had something. You were always so stiff during the kiss scene in practice but tonight you were more relaxed! I, thought that maybe… you started liking me?” “Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, that was just the passion of the performance.” He rather awkwardly walked away.

·       As you marched away you overheard some conversations. The usual really. You were stuck up, that’s why you never gave nice guys a chance. You burned fan mail because you were so disgusted by them. The usual really. There’s bound to be poison thrown your way given how runaway popular you were. Besides, it’s not like they were entirely wrong, who were you to refute them.

·       You decided to hide in your dressing room to ignore it all. As expected, a large pile of gifts and fan letters sat waiting for you there. After changing out of your costume and removing your makeup you started slowly going through it. It was normally nice, genuine compliments and the like, but sometimes the gifts and letters got… creepy. Those letters in particular, you burned. After emptying the small trashcan, you placed the letter at the bottom, you lit a match readying to drop it in the can.

·       As you were doing so you heard that bubbly voice call out your name before opening the door. “Whow, Y/N, what’s with the match? Wait! Ibuki can guess!” The girl quickly skipped over to you, looking into the trash bin. “Oooh, so the rumors of ‘the heart breaker’ are true.” “Ah, so you’ve heard those rumors and nickname.” You limply dropped the match, watching the letter burn. “I don’t get why people can’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I swear, it can’t just be me. There must be people, who even if they are interested in romance, must find this uncomfortable, right?” “Oh, you’re aromantic?” You flinched not expecting to hear that. “… Uh, y-yeah.” You were immediately filled with dread. Being aromantic was not something you tried keeping secret, but you did try to be selective with who you told. “Nice! Ibuki has a fellow, repeat after me! A! RO! MAN! TIC! Aromantic buddy!” “Fellow aromantic buddy? You’re aromantic too?” A big smile creased the rock star’s lips as she eagerly nodded. “Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s correct!” You let go of the breath you didn’t even realize you were holding.

·       “So, what’s with that letter?” “Ah, well… A ‘fan’ I had to file a restraining order against, they stalked me for some time and constantly showered me in very uncomfortable gifts like their baby book and letters of proposal. The proposal letters in particular always make my skin crawl knowing I even touched the unnerving thing. And even with the restraining order they always find some way to get them to me. I’ve tried throwing them away, but they somehow get back to me. The only way to get rid of it is to burn it. I can’t be the only person who finds this creepy! It’s not just because I’m aromantic, right? So many people have told me that I should be nicer since they’re a fan, but… I just can’t. I don’t think it’s okay, but… when so many people tell you you’re wrong, you can’t help but wonder…” “No, you’re right. They’re a total creepo! The girls from my old band would get letters like that and they weren’t aromantic and found them creepy!” “Oh thank goodness, it’s not just me!”

·       After that performance your confidence in yourself outside of acting slowly blossomed with Ibuki’s help. It felt amazing to have a friend who was the same as you in that aspect, truly being able to understand your position. Since you two worked so well together on stage she insisted on forming a band with you, and even made outfits for the pair of you with aromantic pride flag colors. Ibuki very quickly became a very dear friend to you.

  Korekiyo Shinguji:

·       Ah, Valentine’s day, a day you dreaded. It was nice getting chocolate, but many of the girls asking you out was the bad part. Having to reject girls all day was rather tiring, especially so when they insisted on you telling them who you gave your chocolate to. No one. Even when you told them that, none believed you. From some reason not liking anyone romantically was impossible to them and they said you were stuck up or lying.

·       As the day loomed ever closer bringing white and pink hues with it, you decided to try to save yourself some grief. Maybe you could tell them you weren’t interested in anyone, but you were gifting your friends chocolates? You hoped this would help. You had to try something, hiding didn’t work last year, somehow, they always found you.

·       The morning of Valentine’s day you took a deep breath before leaving your dorm room. Aaand you were already surrounded by girls… This was going to be a long day.

·       You managed to find and gift each of your friends a chocolate bar… all except one.

·       Kiyo.

·       You were having trouble getting the proper inspiration for your role, so you began to do research. In your research you met the anthropologist. He immersed you in the region, it’s traditions, history, everything. When speaking with him you felt you were truly there. From then on, you always went to him for guidance, after all, plays were deeply intertwined with anthropology and you really liked people who were especially passionate about their interests, like him. Even as shy as you were his calm demeanor could ease you and get you out of your shell.

·       He was most certainly your friend and you were determined to gift him some chocolate before the day ended! He wasn’t answering his phone, he wasn’t in his lab, if he was in his dorm room, he didn’t answer the door. Where could he be? You spent the majority of the day dashing down hall after hall, hiding from your fans, and searching for your friend.

·       You were exhausted seeing that bright sunset. Sighing, you laid down on the snowy ground looking up at that clear sky. “I guess I can just give it to him tomorrow… I mean, today isn’t the only day I can show I love someone… NO!” You abruptly sat up. “He’s done too much for me! I have to find him today!” “Simply beautiful.” “Kiyo!?” The man slowly strode towards you with his hands in his pockets. “Such wonderful determination. And for love no less.” “Finally.” You scrambled to get up, pulling the chocolate bar out of your pocket. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Kiyo simply stared at you in surprise for a moment before gently taking the chocolate. “I had no idea. I accept your feelings but my heart belongs to another so I can not return them to you in kind.” “Oh! No, no! I’m giving all my friends chocolate today.” “All your friends you say? So, you’re celebrating Philia today instead of Eros. The love of friendships, not passion and romance.” “Yeah! It seems most media and so many people always focus on romance that other relationships are left behind.” “I can see where you’re coming from. There have been countless traditions through out the ages celebrating the pleasure, passion, and lust of the romantic. Eros is so tightly intertwined with reproduction and continuing the species it’s almost instinctual, natural to find it so important. Though… I must wonder if you are thinking this because you have yet to find someone to treasure in that way.” There it was. You sighed, hearing that all too familiar sentiment. “Is something wrong, Y/N? Did I hit too close to home there?” “Well… Yeah. It seems everywhere I look not being in or not wanting to be in a relationship is seen as wrong. Like it’s demonized to not want that. People will say to just lower your standards, or to just wait because you’ll meet the right person SOMEDAY or that if you’re not in a romantic relationship you’ll be completely lonely! Like only romantic love can make a person complete or something! Like you’re some alien for not wanting that! Because clearly something MUST be WRONG with me, right!? Because everyone else wants it! Because friendship isn’t good enough, right!? So if it’s not, then why do people make friends in the first place!? If all people want is romance, then why make friends!? Do people only make friends to turn them into potential partners some day!? Is that what I’ve been missing this whole time!? Do all my relationships, my friends, mean nothing!? SHOULD I want more from my friends!? Is that what’s wrong with me!? Because according to the world I have to want more, so there has to be SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME, RIGHT!? BECAUSE I NEED TO LOVE SOMEONE ROMANTICALLY, TO HAVE A PARTNER, TO HAVE KIDS, TO RAISE A FAMILY BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT ALL THIS IS ABOUT, RIGHT!? BECAUSE I’M BROKEN RIGHT!? I’M BROKEN FOR NOT WANTING THIS! I’M SOME FREAK-SHOW PEOPLE THINK IS SOME EMOTIONLESS HUSK! BECAUSE I CAN’T LOVE, RIGHT!?”

·       And you laughed. Hugging yourself, through broken sobs you kept laughing. That chopped up hyperventilating turned warped drowning laughter. You didn’t know why, but you just couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe it was all the stresses of the day had taken it’s toll on you. Maybe you were scared that Kiyo, a person who you knew had a reverent respect for romantic love would tell you, you were wrong like so many others had. Maybe… maybe you were just exhausted from having ran around all day.

·       “s-sorry kiyo…” You tried wiping the tears from your eyes but they just kept flooding out. “i-i’m not ma-mad at you, i-i swear…” You buried you face into your hands wanting to disappear. You wished Korekiyo would just walk away and pretend he didn’t see your outburst. You hated yourself for yelling at him. It wasn’t his or anyone else’s fault. You were just so sick and tired of romance being shoved down your throat, for others acting like it was some necessity that you were missing to be a complete person. You hated it all so much. You knew you weren’t wrong, that you were okay the way you were, but… having that constant pressure on you always made holding on to the truth difficult at times… It just hurt. You merely melted in the gentle suffocating warmth that surrounded you.

·       “… If you want romantic love, yet don’t want it in the moment, you are valid. If you don’t want romance at all or ever, that is valid too. And friendships do not merely exist to morph them into partnerships. Aristotle spoke much on the subject. He spoke of how there are different kinds of friendship just as there are different kinds of love. Friendships are necessary to get a better view of the world, even if one had the whole world in the palm of their hand, it would mean nothing without friends, companionship. You are valid, Y/N.” He hugged you tighter, trying to show he was there for you.

·       He let you go, letting you take a step back. Taking one last deep breath those tears finally stopped flowing. “s-sorry.” “Hmm? Care to elaborate? I see no reason for you to do so.” “I-I… I’m aromantic, and… your comment just really got to me.” “Then, I believe I should be apologizing. I didn’t realize those words would hurt you so.” “E-exactly, you didn’t know.” “Yet, they still hurt. Just because I knew not the damage they’d bring dose not numb the pain any less.” “… yeah.”

·       To your confusion he turned around… He was changing masks? He only ever turned around like this when doing so. When he turned back to face you the chocolate bar was partly unwrapped. “I accept and return your love, Y/N.” “Thank you.” Cheerily he snapped a piece off and popped it into his mouth… somehow. You still had no idea how he ate or drank with those things on. “So, shall we go to my lab for the evening? We have much research to do.” “Hmm? I’m not starting any new plays, Kiyo.” “No, not for that. To search for examples of aromantic orientation through history. Very few examples spring to mind on the subject and I’d like your help remedying that.” “Kiyo.” You couldn’t bring yourself to speak for a moment. You just… took in how overwhelmingly happy and relieved you felt. “Yeah, I’d love to help you. Let’s go.”

[localkatshelter]

Okame’s Underbelly: Anticipation |1st|

(Shinso x OC)

Katsumi's POV (localvillageidiot#0870) and Shinso's POV (hecker#8339)

Summary:

 Two people with a common passion meet unexpectedly during one of Shinso's lowest moments. He'd like to forget it ever happened but Katsumi has her own reasons for not letting it go. Through push and pull, they struggle to understand one another, regardless they can't keep away from each other.

Preview: 

| How long have I been staring at myself in the fucking mirror? My eyes look so dead...but don’t they always. I realized the extra lifelessness wasn’t due to my overall apathy or shitty eyeliner; it was due to them being red and puffy. That’s no good. I hurriedly searched through the cabinet for my eye drops. They were usually used for another purpose, but today, they’ll be used to disguise the fact that I had been crying. |

(Katsumi's POV)

My head fell forward for the millionth time as I struggled to stay awake for the last five minutes of my summer remedial science lab. Why does science have to be so boring? This fucking professor always lectures for the full three hours too. How could someone possibly have this much to say about chlorophyll? All I could do was watch the clock tick by until, finally, the class was dismissed. I gathered my things as quickly as possible and headed towards my dorm building. Throwing my things onto the kitchen table, I immediately started to strip and headed towards the bathroom. The silver lining in having to come to campus in the summer for my remedial class? Getting to move in early and having the whole suite to myself. I showered quickly and put on my typical Friday night attire: some broken-in mom jeans that I embroidered and had a friend paint on paired with a comfortable faded band t-shirt I had stolen from a partner I had long forgotten the name of, tucked and held in place with some old belt I fished out of a Good Will bin a few years ago. I hummed as I put on some clear lipgloss and touched up my hair. Perfect. I made sure to set out some dinner for my fat cat who was hiding somewhere in my bedroom, likely in my sheets. For a supposed emotional support animal, I never saw much of her unless she was in the mood to cuddle, which was usually at night.

“Harley, I’m going out. I’ll be back.” I called out.

She meowed from the bed in response. I grabbed my things from the table and tossed them into my bedroom before popping my headphones in and heading out the door. I was on my way to the only place that made my summer Fridays bearable: The Squeaky Wheelhouse.

After a short while, I walked up to a dark and disheveled, yet oddly charming, building. This was my hidden gem, the highlight of my college career, a place where artists gathered to share their work and critique the world around them without fear. Friday nights were open mic nights for spoken word poetry, which I didn’t think I would like until I heard Okame perform. Their words about the plights of the world of heroism and comic book celebrities brought to life really resonated with me. Most of their pieces were critiques on how heroes navigate their jobs and how they are treated by the government, the people, and each other. I admired the way they captured the duality of appreciating heroes for what they are while also not feeling a need to bow to them as if they were gods. It felt so real to me, especially because around the same time I first heard their work, I had started my photojournalism blog on a similar topic. It was really just a love project at first. I would take pictures of heroes in the heat of battle and use them to show how human they really are. Honestly, I'm not even sure if it was me or my quirk that had the idea first. My hyperempathology quirk sometimes had a mind of its own. It was always dragging me into situations that I had no business being in. I always ended up manipulating someone's emotions to make them feel better, which had positive and negative results. On the one hand, I was glad that I could make someone feel better. On the other hand, it made me feel like shit because not only did I manipulate someone’s emotions without permission; I also absorbed the negative emotions I had alleviated. In a strange sense, the blog was my own way of alleviating myself of what I had alleviated. I had never expected it to take off either, but there I was, a month later, still taking pictures of heroes in their most desperate and vulnerable state in an effort to humanize them. I kept at it because, well, they are people after all. They aren’t gods, they have emotions, but the way the media and the government build a hero’s image doesn’t allow for much expression. It’s unfair to them; it's as if they aren't allowed to be people anymore. I had always thought I was alone in that, but apparently, I’m not. My blog has a pretty decent following now, which I am super proud of. Although I’m pretty sure that a lot of people in the hero community despise or at least dislike me for basically being renegade paparazzi.

Oh well. No one knows it’s me who runs the blog. The closest anyone has ever gotten was when someone traced my IP address back to the college campus, but Kyoto University has upwards of 22,000 students enrolled. There’s no way someone would be able to find me out as long as I don’t use my personal electronics to post. Okame had also become a popular performer at the Wheelhouse and had a sort of residency time slot on Friday nights. It was weird, but I was proud of them too. I felt like we were similar, almost connected by our mutual views and creative outlets. On top of that, they used a pseudonym and a ghost performer just like I used a pen name and hid my IP address for my work. All of the aligning characteristics made me think we would get along if we ever met, but that’ll probably never happen.

I walked into the building, waving to the Friday night staff that I had gotten to know over the summer. I took a seat on a comfortable looking armchair near the back corner of the main room that had a decent view of the small performance stage. I opened up a book that I brought with me to read until the performances started. I ordered a large mint tea and settled in, anticipating Okame’s latest insight.

(Shinso's POV)

I had bitten my lips raw at this point. There’s no way it’s actually over. We’ve broken up so many times before, and we’ve always managed to hash it out. But this time felt different. She wasn’t returning my texts with curt responses. She wasn’t posting about me subliminally on her social media to piss me off. She didn’t show up at my house with the gifts I had given her and dramatically throw them at me. No angry voicemails. No tears. No nothing. The strangest part was that her last text wished me well, even though I ended it this time around. All of it almost felt like a real goodbye. But still, there’s no way.

I had to talk to her tonight to make sure. Throughout our whole relationship, despite our arguing, we never missed a Friday at The Squeaky Wheelhouse. That was our way to ease the stress from the strife of the week prior. No matter how mad we were, we would still begrudgingly sit together and enjoy the show. By the end of the night, we would always manage to soften towards each other once again. Even if my piece of the week was bitterly aimed at her, she still respected me enough to put my voice out there and perform it for me. That’s what I loved about her. She knew attention made me squeamish and vulnerability was definitely not my favorite pastime. I shared the document that contained today's piece with her. It was an apology. She could barely squeeze those out of me normally, so she had to know I was deadly serious this time around. I tried not to envision her reaction or dwell on whether or not she would even accept my apology because it made me so anxious that I wanted to jump out of my skin.

How long have I been staring at myself in the fucking mirror? My eyes look so dead...but don’t they always. I realized the extra lifelessness wasn’t due to my overall apathy or shitty eyeliner; it was due to them being red and puffy. That’s no good. I hurriedly searched through the cabinet for my eyedrops. They were usually used for another purpose, but today, they’ll be used to disguise the fact that I had been crying. Save those tears for later, Shinso. She’s seen me cry even less than she’s heard me apologize. Numbness was the best blanket I’ve ever had. But tonight, I’ll avoid covering myself up. I need to show her that I care because I’m known to fucking suck at it. After I applied the drops, I roughly ran my fingers through my torturously messy violet mane, exhaling heavily. I tried to dress up a little this Friday. I know it’s trivial, but I want to be my best for her tonight. My outfit was made up of my typical dark colors, but I dressed it up with a black jean jacket, chelsea boots, and a few bulky rings that she gifted me but were too cumbersome to actually wear. What makes them even more annoying is that I’ve been fiddling with them all evening to distract myself, and let me tell you, it’s not working. I have another hour until I have to leave; I need a better distraction.

I plopped myself down on my bed with my laptop and clicked on my “The Underbelly'' bookmark. I always loved the irony of this blog served as an escape but also as a merciless glimpse into reality for me. My leg bounced as the page loaded—no new posts. Shit...well, it has only been a couple of days. I thoroughly looked forward to the new content because the author and I are eerily like-minded as far as hero ideology. Sometimes I felt as if I wrote a few of the entries myself. They’re the only person that I felt connected to on a philosophical level, and finally having that was comforting, to say the least. It was a bit taboo to criticize heroes so harshly because it was easy to be labeled as ungrateful. I’ve personally always felt like a great way to show appreciation is to continuously try to improve a system that everyone relies on. I guess people just don’t like to make sense. Hero work is honestly one of the few things I actually cared about, and to see people be so dismissive really pissed me off. Then again, people don’t really know I feel this way. I try not to let people get into my head too much. That’s why I created my Okame persona. I wanted to get my views out there without making it about myself at all. I felt it didn’t really hold true to the purpose of my message, with the whole not making hero’s these god-like figureheads simply for doing what’s right. That and...I hate when people look at me for more than a few seconds. My searing glare usually fixed that right quick. Quickly getting over the minor disappointment, I closed my laptop. Well, I didn’t have another alternative distraction, so I decided to say fuck it and head to the kitchen for some liquid courage.

I downed about two shots of rum. I was taking the bus there anyway, so it’s not like it mattered. I checked my watch, 30 more minutes. I wracked my brain for something to alleviate the unbearable anticipation as I blankly stared at the bottle of rum. Oh! I could pick up her favorite soju. It’s super strong, so we usually reserve it for a day where we don’t plan to do shit else but enjoy each other's company. But I feel like if we’re gonna hash all the bullshit out, we might need to be generously buzzed. Liquor store it is. I adjusted my collar before I headed out the door.

I decided on four bottles of the grapefruit soju because she really likes tart flavors. She always made fun of me for liking the sweeter sojus, but I’ll let her think she has the better taste tonight. The drinks were hidden away in a plastic bag tucked under my feet. I tried to settle in my seat towards the back as I checked my watch again for the fifteenth time. It was now 5 minutes after the starting time. Guess both the show and my girlfriend(?) are running late. My hands automatically began scratching at the already chipped polish on my nails. She’s been uncharacteristically calm during this fight; I wonder if she’ll stay that way once she sees me.

[whereistheonepiece]

So @lesbian-space-ranger​ and I accidentally created a new Zosan AU that we’ve been talking about since last night. A note: half of this is me summarizing, half of it is pulled directly from Discord because Cas (lesbian-space-ranger) has such great ideas.

This is a long post. I don’t feel like putting it under a read more. So. Enjoy. Or keep scrolling. Either works.

So this post happened

These roles just came to me. Didn’t need to give it much thought because Sanji has the appearance and demeanor of a lead singer and I like the idea of him using his skilled hands to play piano at the same time.

I also watched the movie Rocketman earlier in the week. You know, that Elton John biopic. I adored it and it’s been heavy on my mind lately and I liked the idea of Sanji giving a high energy performance from the piano. (Sir Elton John’s music comes into play later.)

And as for Zoro, I find the bass and/or the beat the sexiest part of the music in a song and, naturally, I can see him rocking at either.

So I asked Cas if she had any other headcanons for this AU and this thing is too good to not share.

Yeah, so Zoro and Sanji are in a boy band with Usopp and Luffy. Luffy started the band. Luffy does guitar, Zoro is on bass, Usopp is on drums, and Sanji is on keyboard and vocals.

Nami is their manager. She works them hard and has taken a 40% cut of the profits because of the guys’ naivete and inexperience. But she’s why they took off. She booked their gigs at every venue she could manage, no matter how small.

They got their big break when Nami met Vivi, who’s a talent scout for the record label Baroque Works. Nami insisted that Vivi had to see the boys perform because they’re something else and Vivi’s heard that a thousand times, but she agreed because Nami is cute. Nami and Vivi are dating. Also, re Baroque Works: Crocodile looks like a sleazy music producer, doesn’t he? So does Doflamingo.

So Sanji is the pretty one, Luffy is the funny one, Zoro is the quiet/broody one, and Usopp is the smart one.

Zoro has a lot of deals with fitness brands, but secretly finds the famous life unfulfilling. This comes back later, so keep that in your back pocket.

Robin runs their social media. She’s so good at her job, running all of their accounts and tweeting simultaneously, you’d swear she had four sets of hands. Wink.

Franky does pyrotechnics/lighting.

Brook is their stylist.

Chopper was their first real fan. He and Zoro grew up in the same neighborhood and Chopper just always idolized him. He followed them before anyone knew their names. He was their hype man, saying encouraging things like "I know you guys are gonna be great!" He believed in them even when they didn't believe in themselves.

Usopp set up their recordings before they got signed because he’s savvy. And then Chopper would sell their crappy CDs. At these tiny gigs. Like coffeehouses and stuff.

Sanji can play keyboard because his parents forced him to play piano as a kid. They had this idea that classical music would teach him discipline and make him smarter. This is how he meets Zeff. Zeff’s your typical stern instructor, but he’s the first adult to ask Sanji what he actually wants and likes. Zeff sees Sanji’s not into it so he asks him what music he likes and Sanji tells him he likes pop, so Zeff gives Sanji a more rounded education. This includes Elton John because I say so. It did inspire me to put Sanji on keyboard, after all.

But other than being Sanji’s piano instructor, Zeff becomes the one positive adult figure in young Sanji’s life and he becomes something of a mentor figure for him. Zeff has a garden and he lets Sanji work in it with him. This garden is how Sanji gets his “little eggplant” nickname. Sanji pulls an eggplant out before it’s ready and it’s so small and pitiful and Zeff won’t let him live it down. Like, Sanji keeps in touch with Zeff even into adulthood and after he makes it big and he still calls Sanji little eggplant.

Zoro and Sanji are always doing that, "Kind of flirting, not really” thing on stage.  Sanji is always like walking up to Zoro on stage and acting like he's going to kiss him but pushing him away at the last moment. And it's this huge mystery whether they're actually an item or not. This comes from Nami. Sanji and Zoro have this natural chemistry with each other that leads to speculation and Nami, knowing how boy band fan bases work, saw dollar signs. But it’s not just pragmatism on her part; she knows that one cannot simply go up to Zoro and Sanji and say “You obviously like each other. You should date.” So she makes money and helps her friends find happiness.

Usopp has speculation going on as well. People are always confused as to who he’s dating. Tabloids keep being like "Usopp dumped Nami and is now dating Luffy!" "Luffy Scorned?" "Luffy ditches Usopp and steals his girl!" And they just think the entire thing is hilarious. They collect headlines. The answer is Usopp is dating Luffy and Nami and Luffy and Nami just become really affectionate with each other after dating Usopp long enough. Also Nami is dating Vivi, like I mentioned, and sometimes Nami brings her on as a plus one. 

Sanji and Zoro keep giving conflicting answers about their relationship status. Like they'll tell one person they hate each other and another person they're gonna get married someday. Sanji has to walk this fine line of being "in love" with all of his female fans and also "in love" with Zoro. Or not. Who knows? Like Sanji enjoys the attention but he really really plays shit up for his fangirls. This makes Sanji even more popular. Just picture pages upon pages of Sanji/Reader and “Zanji” fics on Wattpad. Nami is one smart lady. "I am the smartest, prettiest, most clever person alive."

Zosan getting together really is just a bunch of Fake Dating tropes. At first it really is just to get more press for the band. Nami schemes with Usopp and Robin to push them together. Robin's a social media genius and knows how to craft tweets and Instagram posts that fans will overanalyze. 

Meanwhile eventually Zoro and Sanji admit to each other they have actual feelings and one day Usopp finds Sanji sleeping in Zoro's bed, both of them completely tuckered out. But they don’t know Nami crafted this. They just come clean and hope she won't be mad and she's like, "Yes! Finally!" and they're like "What?" and she's like, "I've been waiting for you two to realize you have actual feelings. Did you really think I'd just use you for profit like that?" and they're both like "Yes" "Of course"

Zoro’s mad at her for meddling. Secretly he’s grateful, but he doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction and he’s yelling until Sanji grabs his hand and he just calms down.

And to bring Elton John back into the picture, just picture Sanji doing a cover of “Your Song” and uploading it online and thinking about Zoro. Naturally the comments are abuzz with people speculating that he’s singing about Zoro. And like. Onstage Sanji does his rendition and sends these small glances Zoro’s way, partially because he knows it’ll get the band a lot of attention, partially because that song is sweet and beautiful and it’s such a simple way to explain his feelings. (There is a reason why Moulin Rouge included it!!) I imagine this happens before they come clean to each other. Like, Zoro comes to him and is all “I keep thinking about that song you did...” And they go from there.

And eventually the band comes to its natural end. 

Usopp goes solo and flourishes, working as a songwriter and a producer. He wrote the band’s songs and he’s had a drum kit since he was, like, ten and he can make his own beats. He’s not the singing type (though he is good at it and could reach new heights if he came out of his shell), so he’s the kind of artist who makes the beat and then gets super famous pop singers to feature on his tracks. But he also writes songs for other singers and is so good at it and produces other artists’ tracks. I also like the idea that he’s taught himself to play multiple instruments, but he prefers the drums/percussion. He totally played percussion in school and was in marching band. I was in marching band for one year. I loathed every second of it, but I know he’d be phenomenal in drum corps.

Luffy isn’t much in music anymore, but he keeps himself busy. He’s something of an influencer, the kind of celebrity who gets paid to wear fashion brands’ clothing. He’s also Usopp’s trophy husband, living off the money he made off the band. Usopp grew wise to Nami’s antics and made sure he and Luffy would live comfortably for the rest of their lives, even if Usopp were to retire. Luffy also is secretly a Buzzfeed journalist because it’s fun for him to write these hit articles and people not know it’s him because he’s writing on this super bland pseudonym. 

And then there’s Zosan. They have a falling out after the band splits and go their separate ways.

Sanji quits being a professional singer because he’s tired of the prying into his personal life, but he still mentors and/or teaches. He has a string of girlfriends and finds no fulfillment in those relationships because the women are only interested in his celebrity.

And they aren’t Zoro.

Zoro tried branching off into commercials for fitness, but his heart wasn’t in it. He kind of takes up ranching on a whim and learns that he’s really good at it. He likes the physical labor, the quiet, being away from it all, nobody knowing his name. He doesn’t pursue anyone after Sanji because he feels like if it’s meant to be, someone will appear.

And Sanji does.

Sanji finds out where Zoro is through Luffy. So he makes his way to the ranch and finds Zoro and Sanji is all “Come back. I miss you.”

And there’s just a lot of soft Zosan content during Sanji’s visit. Sanji’s always been afraid of horses, but he’s not afraid when he’s with Zoro, and Zoro teaches him they can be gentle creatures, it’s just that you just have to respect them. (Ha. Get it?) Zoro takes Sanji on a ride and they go out and he takes him up the mountain and shows him how beautiful the view is. Sanji's watching the sunset and he's like, "Damn that's the prettiest thing I've ever seen." And Zoro is looking at Sanji and he says, "It sure is." And Sanji's like, "you're not... even looking." And Zoro's like, "No, I'm looking alright. Prettiest thing I've ever seen for sure."

More soft things like Zoro taking off his cowboy hat and putting it on Sanji. Them sitting by the fire, Zoro playing acoustic while Sanji sings. Whenever people see them they’ll ask them if they’re musicians and they share a knowing smile and say “Yeah. Something like that.”

And Zoro convinces Sanji to move out there with him. The others come to visit. Luffy and Chopper are obsessed with the cows and horses and the chickens. Luffy wants, like, eight pet chickens. Usopp is skeptical. Doesn’t believe Lu can look after a pet.

And it kind of ends there. It was us going back and forth, oftentimes out of chronological order, and so here I am putting it all together because it’s too good not to share. But it was a lot of fun.

[santaclausdeadindian]

Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in

@mr-laugh

Oh boy, lot to unpack here.

So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?

And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?

If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!

There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.

Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.

Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.

Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.

Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?

Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.

Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.

Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.

Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.

He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,

It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.

but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;

Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.

it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.

This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!

A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.

Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.

Central Europe?  What, Germany?  Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!

Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.

I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything.  It always is.

No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.

See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?

Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.

Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!

If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.

This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.

Moving on. As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.

No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.

What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.

ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)

There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.

The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.

Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.

We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird.  Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.

to be continued

[thecomicsnexus]

THE MAN OF STEEL #1-6 OCTOBER - DECEMBER 1986 BY JOHN BYRNE, DICK GIORDANO AND TOM ZIUKO

In this story, we follow Superman’s journey from his gestating matrix until he is 28 years old. He will learn where he comes from, he will find love, he will find possible friends and dangerous enemies, and he will find himself.

SCORE: 10

John Byrne’s run on Superman is such an amazing feat. Every time I read it, I realize something new. And I have been reading this since I was 10. If you really like this story, you should also read the companion mini-series: “World of Krypton”, “World of Smallville” and “World of Metropolis”, all from 1988.

And I mention those series because there is clearly a bible behind this new Superman. There is so much clarity on his backstory, it pop-ups all the time in form of casual exposition (which I will allow considering this is the re-introduction of the character and his world).

I am pretty sure John Byrne’s style may feel very dated to modern readers. I feel like he was already dated last decade, but since I grew up with his Superman, I am biased.

I also have to emphasize how different Superman feels from the pre-crisis Superman. This is a very human version of the character. You really feel he is human, he is not super-powerful as before, but he is still strong enough to stand up for those in need. In fact during the second issue, you cannot help but feel this is Christopher Reeve’s Superman, and Margot Kidder is Lois Lane.

There are many differences with the pre-crisis Superman as well, and I will go over them in the spoilers section.

Suffice to say, this version became THE SUPERMAN. “Lois and Clark” and “The Animated Series” took a lot from this version (although “The Animated Series” mixed some Silver Age stuff into it as well). And it is, to me, still my favorite version of the origin. Probably because everything makes sense, something the following writers didn’t care that much about.

Spoilers after the break...

I feel like the biggest departure of this version is Lex Luthor. And it still the one thing I cringe about in the modern DCU. Having Lex Luthor become a very powerful nemesis makes a lot of sense in the modern world. Him being a Mad Scientist or a Xenophobic never felt right to me, and it is usually hard to justify his actions (or why he comes and go from being a known villain, to being the president).

Another big change is the idea that Clark wasn’t born in Krypton. This changes things for the better (in my opinion), as it makes him more human. All these stories of Baby Superman instantly falling on Earth make little sense. In this revision, it took Superman like 50 years to make it to Earth, and he was just gestating all the way.

Another big change is Ma and Pa Kent being alive. Again, another thing that makes Superman more human, and also explains why he is who he is. You cannot help but love the Kents, they are simple, but they have convictions (Jonathan Kent was in the war even, this will come handy in future stories). Having a different (or at least one) father figure makes a big difference to shape Superman’s personality. This version of Superman doesn’t have super-intelligence, and wasn’t raised knowing how to make robots. He is a farmer’s son. And this also makes Luthor’s intelligence more menacing to him. Byrne’s Superman may not be super-intelligent, but he has morals and he has empathy.

Magpie is introduced in this story, but she also appears, in the same month, on Batman (with cover by Byrne). Her character is kind of a throwaway mad villain, that caught on in popular media.

Also the idea that Luthor hates Superman because he used to be the most powerful man in Metropolis until his arrival, may seems stupid to people like you and me, but very corrupt, very powerful people are wired that way. (I come from the third world).

We get to meet the post-crisis everybody. Even Lucy Lane (who gets her sight back from a dying Bizarro). And Superman learns his origins through a recording of his father, but when he is 28 years old! That is a long time thinking you are human to think of yourself as an alien ever.

The other big change is in the Lana Lang - Pete Ross dynamic. Being Lana who knows Clark’s secret identity, and of course... there was never a Superboy. This will cause significant trouble to the Legion of Super-heroes continuity.

I know this version has detractors. And I would agree with them if those other versions were so polished as this one. Since the story was reverted, Superman has been floating around without a proper personality (which led to very wrong versions of the character). And worst of all, without a proper clear continuity. Whatever you think of this version, you have to agree that a lot of effort was put into making it stick. And DC committed to it (although, not enough to make Byrne stay, as he would later leave for DC’s lack of commitment to his version, but he was probably exaggerating).

[smokeybrand]

He Gave Us The Signal

I’ve been giving Batman a lot of sh*t lately and feel like this gives the impression that i actually hate the character. I don’t. I actually really love Batman. His entire mythos is really the only thing i like about DC Comics. I find the way there heroes are represented to be unwieldy and too fantastical for me. I absolutely know how contradictory that sounds because, you know, comic books, but lets be honest; It’s a lot easier identifying with Spider-Man than it is Superman. Marvel characters, from the outset, were grounded in the real world. They were written like real people. I got into comics during the gritty Eighties so all of the comic companies were trying to reintroduce more grounded, grimy, fare. Indeed, my first Batman comic i ever read was the introduction of Killer Croc. The first Bat-book i ever purchased with my own money was The Killing Joke. That version of Bat,an is my batman and, while i have had a roller coaster relationship with the character over the last thirty years, dude remains one of my favorite characters to date. I just wanted to take some time and gush about what i love most in the Bat-verse. Just the comics though. If i included ancillary media like the cartoons, movies, or games, I'd end up writing an entire novel.

Cassandra Cain

I love Cass. Love her. I think she is the best addition to the Bat-Family, period. Aside from injected a bit of Asian representation into a mainstream comic with little to no fuss, her character is the most compelling one since Bruce, himself, to get that shine. Progeny of super-skilled assassin, David Cain, and one of, if not, THE best martial artist in all of DC, Lady Shiva, Cassandra is a one woman wrecking crew. She was hones as a living weapon since birth, for the sole purpose of brutalizing man. Cass is an AR-15 with legs. She is easily the best warrior, including Bruce, among the Bat-fam and yet, the most delicate. Watching Cassandra grow from a violent mute into the woman she was right before the New 52 was a pleasure. And then she was erased for half a decade. That sucked. However, her recent reintroduction as Orphan has been pretty chill. I like the relationship she has with Duke Thomas. I liked how she could feel compassion for someone like Clayface, even if no one else could see the same thing she could. I love Cassandra Cain, man. I loved her as the bet Batgirl. I loved her when she had her title snaked away and became Black Bat. I'm loving her as Orphan. I like what Cass has become so far. Here’s hoping they don’t f*ck her up going forward.

Knightfall

I actually really like Knightfall as a concept. I don’t much care for all of the other sh*t that goes on after the book, Azrael Batman was a mistake only redeemed by his White Knight revamp, but i tend to gravitate toward arcs where Bats is given the full-court press and Knightfall is one of the best. It also introduces Bane, a character i am rather indifferent to but still respect, as a proper force of nature. To this day, his breaking of the Bat has been a defining moment in the Bat-mythos, one that has lingering repercussions like The Killing Joke or No Man’s Land.

Damian Wayne

Damian took a few years to grow on me but i love the little dude. he’s like a mini version of his assault father and i love it. There is so much sass packed in that little kid, it’s ridiculous. That said, he is not to be taken lightly. Damian Wayne is child of Brice and Talia Al Ghul, through what can only be seen as a drugged rape at some point. We’ve seen this idea flirted with a few times, the first i can recall being Ibn Al Xu'ffasch from Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come. When i realized who that character was, i was shocked and intrigued. It felt like there was a ton of potential there and a proper missed opportunity for mainstream DC comics. A decade later, we were properly introduced to one of the best additions to the Bat-Family in decades. Not better than Cass, though. And, before you get at me about that super deepcut, questioning my Bat-cred and everything, yes, i am aware that, technically, a version of Damian exists in the main Bat-contnutity dating back to the Eighties. Son of the Bat is a thing that i acknowledge but that kid as never names and had no character so i prefer to think the 06 introduction is the real origin of Damian. Plus, kid got a pet cow. That sh*t is adorable.

Joker

I wanted to put Joker War here because that was the best Knightfall story I've read in years but then i hesitated because i realized how much i loved Endgame. And then A Death in the Family. And then The Three jokers. And then The War of Jokes and Riddles. And then Emperor Joker. and then White Knight. And then The Killing Joke. And then The Man Who Laughs. And the Mad Love. And so many more that escape me at the moment I'm writing this. I realized that it was Joker, himself, that i loved so much and for good reason. Joker is, quite literally, the best comic book antagonist of all time. He’s so malleable, evolving over the years with the times and trends, lending his distinct clown chaos to some of the best Bat-stories ever written. The ambiguity of his identity coupled with the fact that he knows Batman’s entire history is absolutely horrifying. The fact that he refuses to even assault Bruce on a civilian level because “it’s not fun” is absolutely contradictory and solidifies his position as pure, antagonistic, chaos for the Batman, alone. There is no Joke without the Bat and i love that dynamic so much. I love this character so much!

The Court of Owls

I really enjoyed this whole arc. Thomas Wayne Jr. The Talons. The whole clandestine cabal of elites, poisoning Gotham for their own gain. It tickles my tin hat sensibilities while being something that makes all of the sense for the cesspool that is Gotham City. The Court of Owls was easily one of the best narratives to come out of the overall abortion that was the New 52 and i appreciate Scot Snyder for bringing it to us. This narrative fleshes out a lot of underlying aspects of the mythos, gives a bit more agency to and intrigue to Dick, and allows for a myriad of potential stories where Batman is effectively pitted against Gotham, itself.

Jason Todd

I was never a he fan of Todd as Robin. At that point, it was just him and Dick, and Dick was a MUCH better character. In my opinion. I enjoyed his introduction, though. Snatching the rims of the Batmobile was kind of a brilliant way to differentiate him from goody-goody Grayson. If I was old enough to vote, I definitely would have voted to kill him way back when. Fast forward to his resurrection in Under the Red Hood, and I am hooked. His super edgy, Punisher-esque, vigilante justice is fantastic to see. Todd is understandably brutal, violent, and unforgiving. His solution to crime is a bullet between the eyes and that makes for the most interesting dynamic with his pops. More than that, outside of the Bat-family books, Todd is thriving. I love Red Hood and the Outlaws. The current run, not the original. Mostly his relationship with Artemis but I adore the big brother position he took with Bizarro, too. Jason Todd started out as a ridiculous replacement for a beloved Robin, got beaten with a crowbar then exploded, resurrected decades later to take on the mantle of the man who killed him, raved through Gotham on a one-man mission to destroy everything that was the Bat or Joke, and eventually settled into being the black-ops branch of the Bat-fam. I respect his growth as a character and I love his relation ship with Artemis to bits. That feels super right. That Trinity, the Dark Trinity, is my favorite and it absolutely has everything to do with Jason Todd's utter bad-assery. His new costume his sh*t, tho.

White Knight

I’ve literally wrote an entire essay, gushing about my love for this Elseworlds universe. You can search for that on this blog by looking up Bat Kino or White Knight to bring up my detailed fangasm if you’re curious but, in short, the White Knight universe is the best Bat-anything I've read in years. I really, really, liked Endgame but White Knight is so much more compelling a read, it’s hard not to give it the edge.

Harley Quinn

I’ve written in part about my love for Harley in my post about my disdain for Punchline. I love Harley, man. Watching her growth as a character has been a very real privilege. She’s been handled incredibly well by the writers at DC and watching her popularity grow over the years has been very refreshing. Harley always had the potential to be great. Her introduction in the Timmverse was one that sent ripples throughout the fandom so, when she was moved over to the comics, it made sense she’d be a hit. More than that, comic stories are free from the constraints of television censors and we saw an absolute evolution of Harleen over the next three decades. Harley went from being a lovesick whipping girl, locked in a violently abusive relationship with one of the worst psychopaths in all of DC, to a brilliant vigilante and trusted ally to the Bat-family I love that Harleen has found real love with Ivy, even if DC keeps shenaniganing that relationship. I love that she uses her PhD whenever she can. I love that she is one of the most complete, nuanced, and fun characters in the entirety of the Bat-fam. Harley Quinn is a real gem and one of the best things about modern Batman. Even is I do miss the old jester outfit.

There is, legitimately, SO much more I can reference because Batman has a very LONG history full of content to adore. Off the top of my head, Bat-Cat, Hush, Bluebird, We Are Robin, Year One, Damned, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, Signal, Beyond, Gotham Girl, Thomas Wayne; It's like an embarrassment of riches. If I listed everything, I'd be here all day. Just Joker stuff, alone, is more than enough to fill several of these lists. I really, genuinely, love Batman which is why it's so seeing him written so poorly as of late. The climax to Joker War was excellent, I'll admit that, but the lingering issues with that OC Punchline chick taints that triumph for me a little bit. The idea of The Batman Who Laughs and the entirety of the Dark Multiverse is absolutely intriguing, but look what they did to my boy. They massacred my boy with all of this literal godhood nonsense. And don't even get me started on this Ghost Killer guy. I thought Clown Hunter was a little bit of a shark jump but this guy? Word? Batman is a great character with one of the best rouges galleries in comics (Spider-Man give him a run for his money) and one of the deepest, richest, histories to pull from. He is a character that has endured for eighty years and I know he's weather this panicked stunt writing as of late. I just have to remember the stuff I love and try to tolerate the rest. Even after taking the worst kind of hit, Batman always finds a way to stand back up.

[cornholio4]

Loving Spider

Author’s note: this was a one shot I made on ao3 I had decided to continue as a normal story. You can find the story here https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13138303/1/Loving-Spider. It is indeed a shameless plug.

It was after school and Marinette Dupain-Cheng was frustrated after what had been going on for about a week. Lila had gone back to her lies and everyone was buying them again, it led to her having to sit at the back while Lila got HER seat next to Adrien.

Of course she had gotten over her old crush on Adrien, but still the seat meant a lot to her as her friendship with Adrien helped her become more confident. But now it seemed like him and the whole class was against her.

Well Chloe, she had been dethroned as the one on top of Marinette’s hate list. For how angry that Chloe had made her after all this time, it never made her so mad that she was in danger of being akumatized or turned the whole class against her!

“I know things are bad Marinette but they will get better, I promise, why don’t you give Peter a call? That is bound to cheer you up!” Tikki suggested popping her head out of Marinette’s bag. Marinette’s eyes opened when she remembered that she had yet to call her long distance boyfriend Peter Parker.

They had met during the Summer when she had her parents had went on vacation to Queens, New York. She had met Peter who was a gifted science geek. She had gotten to know eachother especially when by accident they each discovered the other’s secrets........

About one of them being like a spider and the other being like a ladybug.......

They agreed to keep eachother’s secrets (it was embarrassing to her that all her hard work that she had her identity exposed to someone else). Peter was in actuality New York’s costumed super powered crimefighter Spider-Man. They grew closer, Marinette even helped design his new suit with him to replace the homemade one he had been using before. They had by impulse kissed before they left. But they had been keeping in touch by email and phone calls.

Peter actually knew certain people who gave him someone to help him translate different languages. True as Spider-Man, he reminded her of Cat Noir but as Peter he was a loveable dork. Her parents and his Aunt May even remarked how similar they were. plus it was nice to have someone else to open up about having to keep secret being a superhero.

She got out her phone and started calling Peter’s number, she answered it and asked “Hey Peter, how was Stan’s funeral?” she decided that she didn’t want to let Peter know about her troubles and comfort him. The last email he had sent her told her that Stan, one of the neighbors of his apartment had passed away. he was a nice sweet old man who was filled with stories and advice for Peter when he came to him. The funeral would have taken place by now.

“It was hard to say goodbye to Stan but we had eachother for comfort....... Sorry had to move there....... Still we are able to move on but guess what, on social media my Spidey account was contacted by someone from Insomniac Games and they want to talk about making me into a Game!” Peter told her a bit somberly but grew excited at the last bit.

NYCWallCrawler was the social media account that Peter had set up for his Spider-Man identity. It was becoming quite popular in New York.

Marinette was weirded out by the pauses but said nothing about it, she happily told him “when it comes out you can be sure I will be first in line at my local game store! Sorry Peter, can you hold for a second.........” Marinette sounded apologetic at the end when she saw that Alya and Nino were coming over towards her.

“Marinette, we have been giving this some thought and seeing how lonely you have been and how this has been affecting you.....” Alya told her and Marinette grew a smile waiting for the apology....

“We forgive you.......” Nino finished and Marinette stood there opened mouthed hoping that she heard them wrong. “We know that you just made a big mistake and overreacted from your jealousy, and you don’t need to apologize girl..........” Alya told her with a smile reaching out her hand that Marinette angrily smacked away with her free hand to their shock.

“Good because I got nothing to apologize for! Some friends you all are, I thought I knew you all better than that to go along with this! Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to my call with someone far more worthy of my time and attention than false friends!” Marinette shouted to the shock of the two, the classmates who were nearby and Marinette herself.

She walked away and noticed to her horror that her hand with her phone was still near her shoulder. She then went back to her phone and heard a gasp making her groan realizing Peter heard her shout like that. She should have covered it....

“Wow Marinette, what did Chloe do to get you this riled up this time?” Peter asked with concern making Marinette sigh.

“No Peter, Chloe practically had nothing to do with it this time....” Marinette and she decided to explain everything to him.

“Sorry to hear about that Marinette, from what you have told me I thought your friends were a great bunch that I wanted to meet myself..........” Peter told her apologetically and Marinette gave a sad smile.

“Still I have a great feeling that you will have a big surprise when you get home......” Peter told her cryptically before hanging up. She blinked and put away her phone in confusion.

“Big surprise, what does he mean?” Marinette asked Tikki and Tikki just shrugged, Marinette jsut began walking home. She was ignoring any classmates who tried to walk up to her.

She got home to see a huge crowd in front of her family’s bakery; she saw Nadja Chamack trying to get closer and asked what was going on. “You won’t believe it Marinette. Tony Stark is in Paris for a meeting and he brought an intern with him. A boy about her age and they are in your family’s bakery right now!” Nadja told her excitedly and Marinette blinked in shock.

She then made her way through the crowd and entered through the door. She saw that at the counter was a smiling Tony Stark along with Peter’s Aunt May. She then saw looked to see Peter waving to her with a cheeky smile.

She then engulfed him in a hug, “Tony came to me and my Aunt May about us coming over here on a trip, I have been having to keep a secret from you for some time so I can see your look on surprise.” Peter told her apologetically but Marinette didn’t think much of it.

“Marinette, why don’t you and Peter have some time to yourself and play a game in the living room.” suggested Marinette’s father when Marinette let go of Peter. They went to the living room where Tom already had a games console set up.

They began getting to work playing some rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike III, having fun. While playing they started talking about recent bad guys they fought and Peter was telling her about a She Ra cartoon he had been watching on Netflix. However her thoughts began drifting towards what had been happening to her recently.

“if you ask me III makes up for the disappointment that II was, the first game set up a high standard that they only managed to match with III...” Peter told Marinette only to see that she was growing a bit sad.

“Is this about the lying girl and the gullible classmates?” Peter asked in concern pausing the game to meet her in the eye.

“I still can’t believe I allow my emotion to get an Akuma after me and I had snapped at Alya and Nino in the middle of our call....” Marinette told him feeling a bit ashamed in herself. Tikki came out when she was sure there was no one else about and gave Marinette a hug on the neck.

“They were the ones who screwed up and everyone has their limits, even the most sweet Marinette.” Peter told her making her blush a bit. “Plus you said that you overreacted when you first saw her and her first lie, well that was another mistake and if they are still buying lies after that then it’s their fault for being gullible. I still have some citizens buying the whole ‘Spider-Man is a Menace’ thing that Jameson spews on about.” Peter continued and Marinette just sighed once more.

“Plus I am not entirely honest myself, it’s not to get attention but i have to hide being Ladybug....” Marinette muttered but Peter picked up her head to meet him in the eyes.

“I know all about that, at least you jsut have to hide Tikki. I have to hide my outfit and equipment. Last time I had to hand wash my suit, my excuse to Aunt May was that I was washing the American flag....” Peter told her causing Marinette to laugh.

“Let yourself cool down Marinette and if they decide to keep being idiots then that’s their fault. You are the amazing sweet girl I am proud to call my girlfriend, you are the one whose a gifted designer who won a contest by a famous designer and was chosen by a rock star to come up with his album cover.” Peter assured her and she smiled.

She then decided to put it out of her mind as she asked if they can continue playing the game. Peter then got an idea and grinned while asking if she would give her a minute. Marinette blinked in confusion but gave a nod.

Peter then got out his phone and went on his social media page and logged in as NYCWallCrawler. He then began typing away:

You want to know Spidey’s tailor? It was made for me by a visiting design student from Paris. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, she designed an album cover for Jagged Stone! She is going to be big one day!

He smirked as he posted it and went and unpaused the game after putting his phone away. Hopefully now more people will know how much better than Lila, Marinette is and hopefully she won’t try and kill him when she finds out.

[cecilspeaks]

141 - Save Dark Owl Records

The prison of your own mind is undergoing budget cuts.

Welcome to Night Vale.

Today I’d like to open the show with a statement from a local business owner, Michelle Nguyen.

Michelle: An insidious presence has invaded our town. That presence is located in the Night Vale mall and is called the Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express. I’ve seen you shopping there, Night Vale, and I want you to know you’re all murderers with the figurative blood of independent record stores dripping from your hands. “No, no” you’ll say, “that isn’t figurative blood, it’s literal barbecue sauce from the Black Angus barbeque bacon burger and it’s delicious!” You’ll keep blathering on how about “Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express keeps thick juicy beef burgers layered in between your albums, so you can flip past them and impulse eat as you shop. It’s so convenient!” [angrily] Well you know what? Convenience is another words for laziness. When you come to my store, to Dark Owl Records, you have to earn your music! Our extensive underground section is kept literally underground, and you have to dig random holes in the dirt to find it. We don’t provide you with a shovel, you can’t even bring your own. You must use your fingers. Broken knuckles and fingernails peeled back to the quick are the sign of a true music lover. Sometimes, you won’t find music you think you like, but then you realize that the rhythmic grunts and scrapes of bloodied hands into rocky earth is itself music.

Anyway, come to my fundraiser tonight at Dark Owl Records. It’s a party, and parties are the worst, but I don’t have the money to pay my bills anymore and it’s your fault, so just show up and do the right thing, or I’ll go out of business. Ok, thanks!

Cecil: Thank you, Michelle. Our radio station is doing a remote broadcast live today at the Save Dark Owl fundraiser. We’ll do some interviews and there’ll be live bands, and it should be a lot of fun. Hope you see you down here, Night Vale! Come show your support for local small business.

But first, a word from our sponsor. Today’s program is brought to you by the Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express. The popular franchise mashup had its grand opening only three weeks ago and is already a booming success. From their regional frosty treats, like the cactus thorn malt, to their wide selection of best of complication albums. There’s something for everyone at Food Barn Gladtown Records Express. And by popular demand, there’s now extra fry sauce on everything, including the Bluetooth headphones. You don’t even have to ask for it. You have to ask if you don’t want fry sauce, and you have to give a good reason why not, like uh, a signed doctor’s note. Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express. Your community entertainment culture conglomerate.

And now, a public service announcement.

Deb: Hey old friends! Corporeal humans, cor-corporeal humans, former babies, future corpses, this is Deb, a sentient patch of haze, speaking for the department of motor vehicles. We know you haven’t heard from us in a while. But [blows raspberry] we haven’t heard from you either. Relationships are a, [clicks tongue] two-way street, so to speak. But [hiccups], I know there’s been some tension and things have gotten a little weird between us. No need to get into that right now. Or ever again, as far as we’re concerned. But if you wanna come over some time and just talk, just say hi or anything, then the department of motor vehicles will be opening our doors for one hour every weekday between 2 and 3. That’s all we have to give emotionally right now. Self..care. We would like to see you again though just to [emotionally] hear your voice. We hope you’ve been doing well. [hiccups] We’re a little drunk, and it’s late. Man, we just got done watching Carol for the third time in a week. [angrily] And you haven’t really been posting on social media lately, so we just wanna know what’s going on with you. [drinking noises] Again, no pressure, no strings attached, and if it gets crowded you could always take a number as usual. But the DMV wants you to know whether your number 19 or 99, you’re always number 1 to us! [snorts] [cries] We, we miss you. We miss you.

Cecil: Listeners, we’re here live at Dark Owl Records, and the fundraiser is getting off to a great start! People are buying shards of records they dug out of the ground, there’s a cake with thick black frosting and undulating tendrils. Mm, looks delicious! There’s an effigy of the Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express with a lot of long pins sticking out of it. And at the center of all the excitement is Dark Owl owner herself, Michelle Nguyen, and her girlfriend Maureen. What a treat! Hey you two, wanna say hello to all of Night Vale? Ah that’s weird. Uh, Michelle sent me a text right now while simultaneously staring unblinkingly into my eyes from three feet away. Uh, her text says: “We heard the spot you did for Burger Barn Gladtown Rec Ex and we are not speaking to you at this time. Please leave my party, Cecil.” Oh I get it, oh no, this is a, a simple misunderstanding, Michelle. See, in radio journalism, we have a moral responsibility to play ads and make lots of money. I see where you’re confused. Does that help clear things up? Aaand Maureen is pouring ice coffee all over my laptop. I’ll go find a towel, while you go to the weather.

[A Pale Sun Rises Over New York" by Scrawnyman, https://scrawnyman.bandcamp.com]

Michelle: Hey, this is Michelle. Cecil had to go away, but there was a hastily assumed agreement I would take over the show while he’s gone, so here I am, Michelle. Broadcasting live from my own party, which is better than mingling with people and being all social and stuff, right? Uh, no offense to anyone who’s here, but this is the first party I’ve ever agreed to attend and it was only out of desperation. I mean, all parties are born out of some form of desperation. Ugh, parties are the worst! I wish everyone would go home. No, no, don’t go home, it’s so nice that you’re here… I guess. But you know what else is nice? Being alone. Or mostly alone. That’s really what independent record stores stand for, you know? Individuality, independence, isolation. Don’t follow the herd, go home, be alone. It’s the best. 

Oh shoot, I was afraid something like this would happen. I mean, everything’s fine, there’s just a little situation out back. I’m gonna hand the mic over to Maureen while I deal with this.

Maureen: Um, hello? Hey, uh, this is Maureen. Don’t be scared or anything. A-actually be scared, but not about what I’m going to tell you. So what happened is some people were digging in the underground music section and the ground kind of split apart and now there’s a giant, like arthropod thing. Uh, it’s tearing people’s limbs off and whatever. Seems really mad and people are screaming, there’s like a lot of blood, blood is so stupid. But Michelle has it under control now. She’s kicked out everyone but the spider crustacean thing, because it was the only one who wasn’t being fake about its love of music. So yeah um, come on down to the store. Uh remember: we’re here to save Dark Owl! And even though the biggest section is the not for sale rack, there’s still a lot of great things to choose from. I know that some of the best things I’ve ever found have been here. Michelle, for one. Uh, don’t tell her I said that.

Also earlier today, I was crawling around inside the ventilation system, and I thought it would be really narrow and claustrophobic like air closed shafts usually are, but actually it kept growing wider and taller until I could stand up and walk around. I could even run if I wanted to. The ducts and passageways unfolded in front of me and I felt totally lost, but in a good way. I ran and ran and somewhere along the way I lost my flashlight and it didn’t matter. I could see with a sense other than vision, maybe it was taste. Ductways tasted like an everything bagel, and that guided my way. Then I could taste voices outside the vents. A voice I knew well was talking to a customer about a color limited edition single of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” on one side and “Love Will Keep Us Together” on the other. The record’s cover art depicted the eruption of Mount St Helens, but like a year before it actually happened, which makes it super valuable. I followed the taste of their voices, which was like green apples but the artificial candy flavor version, and I ended up in the obsolete media bunker behind the register, where I lay down on a pile of warm Sheena Easton singles and CD-roms filled with corrupted Limewire files. And that’s where I am now. Aand I’m gonna take a nap. Bye! [snoring]

Michelle: Hey Night Vale, I’m back. It’s all under control now. Sorry, I have kind of a contentious relationship with my neighbor Matt. He’s a 15-foot coconut crab that lives underneath the lot behind our store. We usually get along OK, but he really does not like parties, and I should have told him in advance, but I was busy and totally forgot, so my bad. Anyway, I let Matt eat the patrons who were wearing airpods and he was happy, so the party is still going strong. Most of the people are dead or have been kicked out, but I wanna make it clear that the party is still happening. So come on down to Dark Owl Records and save our store! Honestly, things are so much better now that everyone’s gone, so this is really the perfect time to show up. We have some special listening stations where you can browse all your favorite genres, like silence, post-silence, proto-silence, under-silence… I know you guys might not have heard of under-silence yet, but that’s like when the headphones are projecting what’s inside of you back into your own ears and you can hear your internal organs processing blood and fluids, and you’re filled with the awe of how all these seemingly archaic gooey parts can possibly work together to keep you alive and functioning, and you eventually pass out and/or vomit.

[sighs] I really don’t know what I’ll do if I have to leave this place. I’ve spent so much time here, I don’t even remember where my house is. One night after work, I walked down the street I thought it was on, but nothing looked familiar. And I kept walking for hours. I finally saw my house, but when I walked in, the door opened into the kitchen instead of the living room, and there was this family I’d never seen before eating dinner. There were four large serving bowls of mashed root vegetables on the table. The family didn’t notice me at all, they ate their mush and talked about their days. The mom was worried about the new boss at work, and the son forgot to go to his dentist appointment, and the daughter had a chemistry test that went okay. I didn’t want to freak them out, so I et myself out the back door and kept walking until it as morning. And in the cacophonous creak of dawn, I ended up back at Dark Owl just in time to open for the new day. And it didn’t matter, you know, that I couldn’t find my house because –

Wait, what’s this? An empty-eyed courier child just handed me an envelope. There’s a, there’s a check inside, and it’ a coupon for something called the “100 percent fish hot dog”, and a hand written note. It says, “Hello, my name is Jules, and I’m the franchise owner at the new Burger Barn Gladtown Records Express. Here is the rest of the money for your fundraising goal. When you become a franchise owner like me, you’ll think to yourself, ‘oh cool I’m an entrepreneur now, I’m going to be my own boss. I’m finally going to have agency in my life, you know?’ At least that’s what I thought when I filled out he online personality test that told me I had what it takes. I’m a type 23: outgoing but grounded. I’m detail-oriented but I can also see the big picture. I’m competitive, but I follow the rules. Classic type 23.” The note goes on. “But there are so many rules, Michelle. You have to conform when you’re in a franchise. And if you don’t, you’ll go under. Not merely monetarily, but to this place they refer to only as the cavern. If you end up there, you don’t ever come out again. Anyway, one rule is that we need at least one business competitor to remain open at all times. Until our lobbyists overturn the Sherman anti-trust act, we need Dark Owl Records to stay in business. So please take this money. I don’t wanna go to the cavern. Please, Michelle. Sincerely, Jules.”

OK, not sure how to deal with this right now if I’m honest. This person opened up a rival record franchise, and now they wanna give me money from their corporation to stay in business? I dunno. I need to go soul searching. I need to listen to some ambient room tone tracks used under famous movie scenes. I really like the one from the diner in “When Harry Met Sally”. Whatever, I guess. [steps, door closes]

[steps] Cecil: Night Vale, I’m so sorry I left you. I went to get a towel to clean up the spilled ice coffee, and there was this giant spider lobster thing, he-he cornered me and I couldn’t escape. He just kept talking and talking and god, he was boring! The worst person to run into at a party. I didn’t know how to get out of the conversation without being rude, uh I finally said I’d go grab us both a slice of cake and sidled out of there. I hope everything went OK while I was gone. Let’s see. Oh, there’s no one really left. The radio gear has been abandoned except a sleeping Maureen under my chair. There’s an inordinate amount of blood on the floor, and hey looks like the little cardboard thermometer that shows the fundraising goal has been fully colored in! Wow! We did it Night Vale! I guess that means there’s enough money to keep Dark Owl in business, at least through this month’s bills. That’s the thing about bills, they keep happening.

Well, whatever the future holds, the party was clearly a success. As was this ultra fun remote broadcast. So music lovers, kick back, put on your fry sauce-dosed headphones, listen to your newly purchased album shards, and put some vitamin E cream on those knuckles! Stay tuned next for the cla-cla-clack of CD cases being browsed, like a fluttery little heartbeat in the darkness.

Good night, Night Vale, Good night.

Today’s proverb: A good way to tell if an artistic idea is worthwhile is to remember that the most successful video game of all time is “a plumber steps on turtles”, so who knows?

[howtohero]

#214 Forcefields

Whenever you’re a public personality it’s a given that whenever you do anything anywhere somebody is going to try to throw something at you. Sometimes it’s harmless: a compliment, a smile, a huge wad of hundred dollar bills (if you don’t specifically know that that large number of non-sequential unmarked hundred dollar bills was acquired illegally you’re allowed to keep it pass it on!). Other times it’s a bit rude but it’s still not really gonna affect your day since you are a superhero and you’re plenty powerful: an insult, a tomato, flaming garbage. But sometimes it’s really dangerous stuff that you do not want to hit you: a hex, a heat seeking missile, a really big rock that has your name scrawled on it in permanent marker. (For a brief period the villain The Defacer was going around scrawling the names of superhero’s on different large rocks in the hopes that a stronger villain would eventually come along and use their superior strength to hurl the rock at the designated superhero. She was quickly defeated but her legacy lives on! Many of her rocks are still out there and every so often they do get thrown at the named superheroes.) You may be thinking, “woe is me, am I forced to live a life where people can just throw things at me every time I go out to the field???” and the answer to that is a big fat KIND OF. We can’t stop people from throwing things at you but we can sure as heck stop those things from hitting you in the face and ruining your day! In fact, eagle eyed readers may already have noticed that the solution was actually carefully hidden within that question. (Bat-eyed readers may already have noticed that the solution is up top in very large letters). We’re referring of course, to forcefields.

Forcefields are a superhero’s best friend. A good one will protect you and your loved ones and your home from all manner of outside attacks and unwanted solicitors. Forcefields can be used to shut out all of life’s problems. Boss on your back about the quarterly financial reports? Forcefield! He can’t bother you now! Also your computer just flew into a wall so you couldn’t get that done anyway! Birds giving you anxiety because the fact that they’ll always be a little bit better at flying than you due to generations of inborn instincts? Forcefield! Birds can’t even get near you now. Also you’ll stop getting feathers in your teeth every time you accidentally fly into a bird at lightning fast speeds. Supervillains keep launching nuclear missiles at your hideout because you accidentally posted your location on social media? Forcefield! Which will also conveniently protect you from all the nuclear fallout that I guess is just gonna annihilate everything around your hideout. Er, don’t worry, they make big forcefields! You can just put one around the whole city!

City-wide forcefields are actually growing to be pretty popular in states or countries with a large super presence. You’d be surprised how many evil schemes could be foiled by just erecting a giant forcefield around a city. Superheroes have been able to retire just thanks to the presence of city-wide forcefields. Unfortunately though, supervillains are nothing if not creative. Some supervillains have used forcefields of their own invention to trap entire cities in impenetrable domes. It’s the ultimate hostage situation. (At least until somebody figures out how to make a large enough forcefield to hold the entire planet hostage.) <Say that gives me an idea!> Supervillains use these forcefields to cut off cities from the rest of the world often causing them to descend into chaos and anarchy within a matter of minutes. It’s a classic scenario with no clear and simple solution but don’t worry we’ve got a couple of absurd and complicated ones that’ll get you right out of that problem!

You’re a superhero, you should have no less than thirteen different secret passageways that can get you in and out of the city undetected, but if you don’t it’s time to make some. Fire up your Drills for Thrills drill tank and start heading down. If your supervillain is any good they’ll have thought of that and their forcefield will extend into the ground and you won’t be able to simply dig a tunnel underneath the forcefield. But who cares about, we’re not going under, we’re going to circumvent the problem entirely. Simply keeping on drilling downward until you get to the Earth’s core. Now, if you’ve splurged and paid for the Drills for Thrills deluxe package this won’t be a problem. Your drill will be 100% guaranteed heat resistant and you can just keep on drilling through to the opposite side of the Earth without any fear of being burned, melted, or convected to death. If you didn’t pay for the deluxe package, well, turn around I guess, this is not the option for you. 

No forcefield is perfect (generally this is unfortunate but in this case it’s quite handy!) they tend to have at least one weak spot somewhere. To exploit these weak points you need to contact a friend on the other side because the two of you need to exert an intense amount of force on either side of the weak spot in order to compromise the structural integrity of the entire forcefield. If the forcefield is blocking any signals from getting out, preventing you from contacting your allies on the outside through conventional means, worry not, your city has been trapped in an impenetrable city by a supervillain, there are going to be cameras. You see, one of the reasons supervillains take hostages is for a ransom, a city’s worth of hostages is probably worth a lot of money so you can be sure that they’re going to be making a ransom video. And if they’re not even doing it for the money they’re doing it for the bragging rights so they’re still going to want a recording of what happened. All you need to do is get your markers and your glitter glue and make a big poster and stand in the camera shot. If your friends are watching the news or follow the supervillain on social media they’ll see your message and the two of you can attack those weak spots and save the town together. 

Turn your entire city invisible. Get some industrial scale levels of invisible paint and just paint everything invisible. Or project a hologram of an empty field over the entire city. This will make the bad guy think that your city was a transdimensional city that simply blipped out of this plain of existence. Supervillains know better than to trifle with the unknowable forces that control transdimensional cities so they’ll probably just pack up their forcefield and call it an early day. 

Dress up like a different supervillain, one who the offending villain hates. This shouldn’t be too difficult, most supervillains wear masks so you don’t even have to horribly scar your face or paint your skin blue or anything. Then, once you’ve perfected your costume, go up to the forcefield and laugh maniacally. This is sure to catch the attention of the villain who has trapped you who will, at first, join in with your laughter. Maniacal laughter is quite contagious. There’s your medical fact for the day. Once the laughter dies down though, the villain will most likely ask what the heck you’re laughing about. Supervillains are a questioning and inquisitive lot. And also remember, he hates you, he does not want you laughing. Now this is the most important part, and you better be able to carry out with the utmost confidence. You need to convince the supervillain that you have trapped them within a forcefield. This is not going to be easy but it’s also not going to be as difficult as you might think. All you have to do is convince the villain that your master stroke was to trap the entire world except for your city, which is actually secerelt your supervillain headquarters, within a giant forcefield. It’s the ultimate scheme, remember, no villain yet has managed to trap the entire planet in a forcefield so the entire planet bar one city will be seen as quite the feat. The real villain isn’t about to let you take credit for doing something so amazing which you didn’t even do! They’ll bluster and rant and rave and accuse you of lying and repeatedly claim that you are mistaken and that they trapped you within a forcefield. This is where you have to make sure you stay your course and stay calm. Just shake your head and say something like “Oh Demolistructor you simple minded fool, can’t you see? You played right into my hands! Oh you poor thing, you don’t even realize how thoroughly I have bested you. I guess now there’s really no question of which of us is the greatest villain!” I guarantee you that’ll get their hackles raised. If you get them mad and flustered enough they’ll shut off the forcefield to prove to you that it’s theirs and then all you need to do is punch them in the face and steal their forcefield projector. 

If you’re using forcefields as a superhero in order to trap criminals, remember that this is not a permanent solution. Forcefields are useful to stop a villain in their tracks, or to isolate them from their weaponry or machinery, but they cannot be used as full-time prisons. For one, they’re (more or less, see above) impenetrable, which means you can’t give your prisoners things like food or a clean, less on fire set of clothes. There are also no bathrooms in forcefields. So make sure you get those villains to actual prisons before long. Also, if you’re creating a full forcefield bubble, you need to make sure that air can be circulated. You don’t to suffocate yourself or others by creating a full air-tight forcefield. Superhumans with the ability to create their own forcefields are often endowed with the secondary power of choosing their permeability. They can allow carbon dioxide and oxygen to pass in and out while shutting out harmful gasses or water or oxygen-sized shrunken assailants. But if you’re designing you’re own forcefield you’re not going to be able to be as exact, so keep that in mind when deciding to use forcefields in different scenarios. 

Forcefields can be a highly useful asset in any superhero’s arsenal. They can be used, to protect, repel, or even trap enemies, but they can also be used against heroes in the same ways. So know your forcefields, know their capabilities, their strengths, their weaknesses. And remember, regardless of which side of the forcefield you find yourself on, nothing is ever truly impenetrable, so be ready to get creative. 

[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘Moon Shadow’ Review

"Fear is order. Fear is control. Fear is safety."

Season two of American Gods wraps up. It was... a little confusing. The episode, not the season. Well, actually also the season.

Much like 'Donar the Great' a few episodes back, 'Moon Shadow' had a lot in it that felt very Fuller-esque. So again, I ask myself how much of the planning for this was already underway before his exit from the show. Quite possibly none, and it's just the result of a DP or one of the designers having a similar artistic taste, but it seems to carry across all the elements of design, from sound to shot composition to the visuals.

Take, for example, a moment that I've seen now in a couple of places questioned as, 'What the hell was that about?' I refer of course to the gorgeously framed close up shot of the snails on the side of the burial vault. Fun side-fact, I had to look up what exactly those above ground stone things that Shadow was lying on were called and was informed that they were very common for Egyptian Pharaohs. Nice detail work there, set designer or whoever made the decision to have them in Jaquel and Ibis' cemetery.

Now, the contrasting image of Shadow sleeping on top of the Vault, then waking to find Laura sleeping on the adjacent one is a very nice, if not overly subtle, 'in life we are in death' visual. Particularly given the characters involved. But then they up their game and open the morning shots with that close up of the snails clinging to the side of the stone monument. This is a great shot for a few reasons, but it's there for a very Fuller reason. It's a stark visual of gross, complicated, uncomfortable life clinging on in the face of cold, unalterable death. It's the same message as Shadow lying on the thing put in a much more confrontational way.

But I appear to be waffling in the little details instead of looking at the big picture, so let's look at that big picture.

There are a few ways to wrap up a season finale, but two of the most popular are either by building to a spectacular reveal of something that changes our entire understanding of what we've seen before, or arriving at a climactic plot development. Both of these can either be something completely out of left field or the final realization of something that's been slow burning for a long time and is finally paying off.

Wednesday's reveal as Odin in season one's finale would be one of those slow burn examples of the former. Easter's decision to join Wednesday and unleash her power starting the war was the slow burn example of the latter.

This finale kind of attempts both, and while there's a lot I like in this one, neither of those threads feel like a complete success. Perhaps looking at the two of them individually will help me parse out how I feel about this episode, because, honestly, seven or so paragraphs in and I'm still not 100% certain that I know.

So, clearly the big reveal here is that Shadow is Wednesday's son and has some sort of powers. This is, to be fair, a huge reveal. But the problem is that they've sort of half revealed it at least three or four times this year, and so the net result is not unlike when your sassiest friends comes out of the closet to you and your first reaction is 'Oh, did we not already know that? I thought we were already clear on that.'

Side note: that's not a helpful thing to say to the friend in question, should the occasion arise.

Since almost the beginning of the series fandom has been more or less convinced that Shadow is Odin's son Baldr. Or Baldur, or Balder. Old Norse didn't have a strong written component outside of a limited set of runes, and the written forms we understand of it today were almost entirely imposed on it later. Thank you for indulging me with sharing that. Orthography is one of my favorite things. Orthography and assembling flatpack furniture.

Ahem. Fandom has long believed that Shadow is going to turn out to be Baldr. That's a nice, big reveal to end the season on, but by the time we get to Wednesday openly confirming it at the end of this episode we've already heard him talking to young Shadow in flashback while Shadow's mom is dying and been nearly beaten over the head with the implication of Shadow's paternity during the discussion of his presumably half-brother Donar.

On the other hand, we have the plot development of Mr. World officially commencing what we might call the counterattack in the war by using the newly resurrected New Technical Boy to facilitate New Media in calling the entire world down on Shadow, Wednesday, and for some reason, Salim. It was clever of them to publicly use not just the bank robbery in Chicago, but also the massacre of the cops back in 'Lemon Scented You' and the alleged 'chemical attack' in Kentucky which was of course really Easter's taking back the spring. That all gave it a nice sense of all the multiple plot threads coming together organically, and was tied together well by New Media finally speaking to Shadow in the same way old Media did. That's the first time she's really felt like a continuation of the same character for me, and I'm down with New Media now.

That's all great. But it's tied in, in fact it's the entire impetus for, Shadow's big character transformation in which he learns to use what powers he has. Specifically, he seems to alter reality by reaching into his own memories to clear the police and SWAT units from the funeral home's vicinity. From what we hear over the news, he didn't change things so much that the cops aren't still looking for them specifically, but did make them 'un-know' where specifically they were hiding.

The problem is that I think more than a couple people will have read that last sentence and thought to themselves, 'Huh. so that's what was happening,' and therein lies the episode's real problem. I think the blame really can be laid to Yggdrasil in this case. Having Shadow dragged into the tree, on top of all the flashbacks and intercuts between dream and reality so that he can metaphorically and literally hatchet his way into the god-space, is just an overly complicated and muddy way to visualize that. And that muddiness really hurt the reveal that they were trying to make the big exclamation mark at the end of the season. Instead of coming away thinking, 'Wow, I can't believe what just happened!' the viewer leaves thinking, 'What the hell just happened?' and that's not a great note on which to end a season.

No Yggdrasil!  Bad Tree!  Put the nice man down!

Quotes:

New Technical Boy: "Hello, old friend."

Laura: "I am not my mistakes, Shadow."

Burial Vault Inscription: "She hath done what she could." That is just an incredibly depressing final memorial.

Mr. Xie: "Science is the closest we come to wrestling god." New Technical Boy: "Why would you want to…?"

Laura: "Planning on kissing me again? Cause I’ve had kind of a day." Bilquis: "My kisses have been known to improve a day."

Laura: "You don’t like him either." Bilquis: "Is that what your intuition tells you?" Laura: "No, I just know an I’d-like-to-punch-that guy-in-the-mouth-look when I see one."

Salim: "Sorry, I’ve never purchased liquor before. It’s for a friend. He’s a leprechaun. He died." Cashier: "OK."

Bilquis: "I’m a great believer in frankly assessing one’s situation."

Salim: "I don’t know what we are going to be, but I want you to know that I don’t regret any of it. You have taught me how to love."

Jinn: "You know me. Eyes of fire, shit for brains."

Bits and Pieces:

-- I suspect that Nancy and Ibis' conversation over the chess game is going to reward re-watching after all is said and done and the whole story is told.

-- I still don't entirely understand whose side Bilquis is on or what her goals are. She's certainly all right with Laura killing Wednesday and actually seems to consider the offer to join her. No Ruby Goodchild this week.

-- The first ten minutes with Mr. World and the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast is hands down my favorite thing this show has ever done. A beautiful exploration of the interrelationship between fear, belief, and objective reality. Crispin Glover was born specifically to deliver that monologue.

-- I've come to realize that the most useful way to watch this series is to assume that whatever happens was the outcome wanted by someone, and then work backwards as to who would want that outcome and why. That also works for Agatha Christie books, by the way.

-- I liked the old Technical Boy better. He had much more personality. And while I get that they were going for fiber optics with the new costume, it ends up coming across as Green Lantern. Was that a Michael Green nod?

-- The echo of the opening War of the Worlds monologue sprinkled throughout New Media's on-air rant was very effective at bringing everything together. Nicely scripted.

-- I love the wall-size bas reliefs of Bruce Langley's head on the walls of Xietech. I need them in my home.

-- The NRA logo on the opening film card leading into a discussion of how creating fear allows you to control people was an inspired touch.

-- Here's hoping that Laura's running away with Mad Sweeney's body means that we haven't seen the last of him. Even though they're both dead, I'm still 'shipping them super hard.

-- The Jinn chose to protect Salim by taking him away, even though it means facing consequences for disobeying Wednesday. That's very touching. I assume we'll learn in season three why the Jinn is bound to Wednesday.  I very much hope it doesn't involve rubbing a lamp.

-- It's very in character that Wednesday's entire role this week was 'Go out for dinner and watch the pieces fall into place.'

-- It's strange that they went out of their way to remind us in the pre-credit sequence that Sweeney had sent the spear into the Hoard, and never got around to addressing that this week. Setup for next year I suppose.

A mostly enjoyable season finale with some very high highs and some very low lows, which sums up season two in a nutshell. Still, any series that gives me this episode and 'Donar the Great' in a single season deserves to go on for many, many years.

Two and a half out of three graveyard snails.

P.S. please bring Chris Obi back next season.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[coloringthegreyscale]

Hi, despite my body’s popular belief, I am in fact still living

So this counts as me surviving my first Pride, motherfuckers!

I’m eating pizza, listening to music, and contemplating life’s questions like “Why the fuck am I still awake?” but for those who want to hear about this, here it is:

So Friday, we got there at around 3. Doors didn’t open until 6, so that meant we could wander around the Short North for a few hours. There wasn’t much to do other than wander around the shops and make friends with the staff at Pressed Grill while we ate loaded cottage fries and waited for my phone to charge. Spoiler Alert: Phone didn’t actually charge and in fact the battery died while it was off and plugged in, so fuck everything for about five minutes until I decide that I’m not going to let my bitchy phone ruin my fucking night.

Then, it’s what every single person who ever purchased a ticket to an event with general admission - it’s the standing game.

Standing game that lasts 3 and a half fucking hours.

So we used this time wisely by making friends with the people around us. I, miraculously, without the aid of my phone, managed to run into @dottiethunderfuck​, but we couldn’t talk very well because we were about two rows of people away from each other. Thank you, Dottie for giving me more encouragement! I wish we could have talked more. You’re a gem of a human being.

So everything started an hour and a half later than it was actually supposed to. First it was the underwear fashion show put on by one of the local gay businesses, hosted by our very own  Virginia West and Crystal Something Something. (Nina West was billed to host with Virginia, but is out for five weeks due to an expensive foot surgery that keeps her off social media, and no one is buying this story, what the fuck guys?). They talked about the rally Virginia headed because Pence was in town that day, and this is pretty much an excuse for me to say I love our gay city and drag queens. Also, turns out my roommate was high school friends with one of the models. Surprise!

Then, after what I think it was probably 5 hours at this point, after the fashion show and the opening music act, The AAA Girls came on and they were all gorgeous. They performed four or five songs I think? The banter was hilarious, the uncoordinated choreography was great. I loved watching them.

After was a lightning round of a meet and greet, so if this story doesn’t seem very detailed, it’s because I literally had about a minute to meet three queens. Went like this.

So first off, I need to mentioned that the art that I made was small in scale, but because of the wood and the watercolor paper, and the fact that I knew it would probably get jostled around a lot, I had wrapped them in tissue paper.and wrote which belonged to who so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. I neglected to unwrap them before I handed them out and I probably should have, but you live and you learn. I still fucking gave them the thing when I almost forgot to bring them twice.

So Courtney was the first in the line, so I struggled with the art being like “hold on, I actually have gifts for you guys!” and I handed them off to each of them. I vaguely remember Courtney saying something like “Oh thank you” and then “Oh, it’s beautiful!” but I dunno. I could be making that up? I know she said something. Did I say this was fast and I was super nervous?

So Willam actually gestured me back and asked me my name and then introduced herself (thanks Willam, for speaking to me like we were just normal strangers who met for the first time and not like I’m a nervous idiot fan who can’t properly speak to people - that’s not sarcastic, that’s entirely serious). She asked me if I wanted a photo and then said something like “Come, settle into my sweaty armpit” and then wrapped her arm around me. Photo taken, she wished me a happy pride, thanked me for the gift, I’m pretty sure I got a hug at some point and then I was passed off to Alaska, who hugged me, thanked me for the art and said it was beautiful. Over, done. I’m shaking. But fuck it. Done.

Apparently the roughly 45 seconds I got with them was lucky because we found out the next day that about 40 people were turned away. There were a lot of rumors hopping around and people were admittedly incredibly upset and bitter, but guys - do not blame the queens. I am certain that if they’d known there were people still waiting, they would have stayed. The whole event seemed to have hit a huge hitch somewhere and it wasn’t very well laid out. So be mad and what not, just try to keep a level head if you can.

Anyway, we walked back to our car, went home, got about three hours of sleep, woke up at around 7 to get ready and head back down so we could get a decent place for the parade. Which was two hours long. I got hugs from my coworkers who were marching in the parade and then at some point ended up just sitting on the street with my new #lovewins flag that we need to figure out where to put it.

Another long walk down to the festival, passed out on the grass, wandered, and then caught a ride back up to Short North so we could eat proper food at Pressed Grill (if you guys are ever in the Short North in Columbus, this is one of those places you need to try. Food is decent price, staff is super friendly, and everything is delicious). Then cue another walk, back to the car, said goodbye to friends we met up with, and then back to Axis.

Sidebar: On our way back, we were going to cut through the convention center because it provides a bit of relief from the heat and also bathrooms. Origins was happening the same time, so there was a crowd of people. As we were passing, an older guy looked at me and said “You need to drink some water. You look bad.” My roommate commented that that was a rude thing to say, to which he adjusted his wording to say “Oh, I just meant she looked tired and probably should stay hydrated to stay healthy.”

Yes, hi. Not sure who died and made you my dad, but I’ve been walking for like twelve hours with minimal sleep. I’ve been drinking all day. So kindly go fuck yourself.

Anyway! Back at Axis, we keep getting conflicting stories on what is happening with Adore’s meet and greet. The irritating part about this, is that it’s before her performance and during the giant drag show that’s happening before it, and we keep getting different information. @dottiethunderfuck​ comes to the rescue again, finds me, and tells me that it’s definitely inside the club in the VIP lounge at 9 pm, but capacity for the lounge is only 50 people, so it’s best we get there early. So we book it to the upstairs because fuck taking chances at this point, and also fuck standing and double fuck being in the heat.

So we chill for the next hour, sitting, chatting, people watching, etc. Until we start to line up for the meet and greet that Adore DEFINITELY had, do not let any trolls on Instagram try to convince you otherwise.

So here’s the twist of the fucking story. Roomie is usually the bold and collected one of the two of us, while I’m the one riddled with social anxiety. I felt like I was actually doing a pretty good job at keeping my cool, up until Adore walks past and says hi to everyone and then I look over to realize that Roomie has completely lost all of her cool and is like “Holy fuck, I’m meeting Adore, what now?” and I’m standing there like “well if your going to panic, what the fuck am I going to do?”

This time I at least had the conscious thought to unwrap the gift before I give it to her. But here we go:

Roomie had me video her meeting Adore. While doing so, suddenly Adore is smiling and waving at me. Apparently, Roomie had told her that I was excited to see her but I’m very shy and nervous, so I might be very quiet. She steps off after getting her photo and second hug and now it’s my turn.

So I’m greeted with an instant hug. She didn’t even wait for me to get to her, she met me halfway, and I handed her the art saying I had a gift and she looked at it in disbelief, the conversation went a bit like this:

“Wait, this is for me? I can keep this?” “Yes.” “This is beautiful! What is it? Watercolor? I love it!” “Yes.” (it’s also got a bit of charcoal but I digress)

At this point, she was fiddling with it to try to stand it up on the table and she turns and looks at me and asks me if I’m alright. I tell her I’m fine, I’m just a very nervous person. But I’ve got her attention now so I conjure up every single bit of courage that I have to tell her what I kept forgetting to say to Bianca and Courtney and Willam and Alaska.

“I wanted to make you something to say thank you, because you made me smile when I really really needed to.”

It’s a very simplified statement on what kind of mindset I had been in about 10 months ago, but she hugged me again and said something to the effect of “That’s incredibly sweet. Thank you so much. You’re too sweet.”

She said something about how she couldn’t wait to show it to her cousin, that he’d love to see it because he’s an artist too. We got our photo together, she thanked me again and wished me a happy Pride, I told her to have a good night and we parted ways.

So yes, guys. For those who think that Adore didn’t have a meet and greet, she did. If you didn’t know about it, that’s the combined fault of yours and the coordinators who didn’t explain things to the staff. So that clusterfuck, again, is on them and not on the queens.

Anyway - back down to catch the second half of the giant ass drag show going on outside.

Yeah, hi. We’re Columbus, OH and our drag scene is fucking a-maze-ing. Hi. Motherfucker. Stage nearly broke down it was so shook by all that talent.

We also knew one of the queens and we were SO PROUD to be able to tip her on a stage with this kind of a crowd. She’s come so far. She fucking worked it.

I got my fingers sucked on by one of the queens taking my tip. So there was that.

I ended up next to @dottiethunderfuck​ again and we both kept shooting heart eyes at each queen and king that came up on that stage because hi, did I mention that Columbus has a fucking great drag scene because it definitely does. I love them.

Then Adore was announced, she got up on stage and did her set, which was very short, but she was absolutely hypnotic. When I could see her. Some asshole decided he was going to try to tip her and wouldn’t move. Roomie at one point tapped him on the shoulder and was like “She’s not going to take your tip. She’s not that kind of performer.” He tried to start a fight with her. It was stupid. She’s a presence, though.

Second she left the stage, we had to bounce because we were about to pass out.

AND THAT WAS MY FIRST PRIDE!

I don’t have pictures of the meet and greet yet, because those were taken by the club and are to be posted on Facebook later. Thank you everyone who helped me through my random breakdowns leading up to this. It was probably a good thing that I didn’t finish the Bianca costume, but I at least got to make some art that I was relatively proud of and managed to give it away (which is a problem for me, if you knew me).

I’m going to continue to lurk in my dark room now and cuddle my dogs because I have to work tomorrow and I definitely don’t want to.