#identifying voice actors and animators. he was really young when he first started off so his first posts aren’t as polished but they get mor | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lillian-nator · 3 years

Text

Everything below was made by Me, Eye, and Ethan over the course of like 3 days

Thank you (with additions from sleepy my beloved)

Okay

Wilbur isn’t the oldest

Techno is

But it’s a war run empire, they take pride in their troops and armies and triumphs

The soldiers come first

So Techno is the commander in chief , the general

Wilbur, second born

Is heir to the throne

To the diplomatic side of the empire

and Tommy Gets shit

He doesn’t even understand why Phil had another kid

Of course there is the situation where Techno or Wilbur dies, or one of them steps down, but it won’t happen

Was he really born to be the understudy

he was born as a backup

Tommy was an accident but they’re not gonna let the public know that

like he's the Zuko

Phil doesn't really pay attention to him so his mother picks up the slack

Wilbur is 21

Techno’s 23

Tommy’s 17

However I have a really good idea for prince Tommy, just like what if he doesn’t like the way that people treat him? Like he doesn’t want all these yes men he wants to be he wants to be told now, he want somebody to tell him he that’s against the rules he just wants him like structure he just want someone to hate him he want someone to not like him and say no and tell him that he’s stupid which is why he does all of the stupid shit that he does

Ever since he was like 4

Everyone has said yes

He wants to defy them

He wants to just do something to make someone say no

That and he lowkey

He wants ~~Phil~~ Wilbur to pay attention to him

Is a Little Shit who causes so many problems on purpose to try and find someone who will push back against him

He wants someone to give him structure and discipline but overall he just wants his family’s attention

He’s broken shit, thrown temper tantrums, he’s started fights and he’ll he’s even snuck out and stole things

He’s never been stopped

People consider him snobby and spoiled

He's a brat

He gets everything he wants, but he doesn’t really want it, he just asks to see if they’ll tell him no

Tubbo = Stable Boy

Ranboo = Prince of another country (probably the americas)

Ranboo could definitely fit the role of an overseas royal prince who Tommy sees as a regal, spoiled, uppity little shit. Like Tubbo, who Tommy sneaks everywhere, has met Ranboo and likes him. Tommy can't possibly see why, he's unbearable.

Bench Trio = Best freinds

I think that Tommy and his brothers were always very very close

they just have jobs and shit

They took over Phil's shit

they probably drift apart as they get older, Wilbur and techno have duties and Tommy starts his quest for attention, they grow apart from their little brother without realizing it

Tommy and his mother (kristin) are always and have continued to be close

she definitely chides him, and tells him quietly to not do things for all of his "misbehaviors"

but there is only so much that she can do, because she has the duty to not make a scene

that and she's not who he's looking for attention from

You may be asking "How is crime recognized, identified, discussed, and atoned for?" more specifically, "Is it a 'you stole my bread so without asking anyone I'm cutting your hand off' or is it the US court system" ~~You may also be Ethan~~

The answer is:

like the UKs

But more like

Okay so the Supreme Judicial system, but Phil (and then Wilbur) has teh final say

Court system, but with Phil overseeing everything

instead of a judge

HOWEVER, that's in the national level

in smaller villages, its more of the cut your hand off system

because the judicial system isn't regulated

So bonus questions:

Punishments and the identification of whether a crime counts as a crime?

soldiers can call crimes out, and citizens can file reports

Phil's not really shit, he just doesn't show Tommy any attention because he's busy with the other two

Just honestly doesn't even care about most shit Tommy does

Like, doesn't pay attention to it until it affects him, he's busy running a country and training the boys to running a country

I don’t think they (the brothers) realize how badly everything is affecting Tommy

The only one who knows anything about the full extent would be his mom, and she’s in a similar boat to Tommy

Phil doenst really see her much either

Not like she could “Make a Scene” trying to get Phil to pay attention to his youngest, to actually love his child, he’s barely around

Kristin and Phil spend time together at night, but during the day everything is for the cameras

its like the UK royals, how they do shit just for the people

And Phil doenst want to hear about the kids at night, he wants to spend time with his wife

Tommy has stolen a car and will do it again

Just fucking hopped in and took a joyride

With Absolutely No Repercussions

Do you think Phil ever tries to hire like, a nanny or something? In the aftermath of the Car Incident? Yes, and it never worked

Tommy, like 15 at the time, pissed as hell as a random ass woman tries to tell him to go to bed at 8:30 pm

Tommy wants somebody to tell him no but not somebody hired to tell him no mannn

Tommy goes to like parties - like ragers

he has a network of really famous friends like young actors and shit

dude is a party animal, underage drinking, rumors of drugs, he’s the PR Teams worst nightmare, but they’re not going to say anything

The press makes up SO MUCH SHIT

The press once said that he had done cocaine when it was really one of his friends

Tommy adopts two dogs (hello Betty and Walter) without asking either of his parents

Betty is short for Elizabeth

He brings them in off the street

Literal abandoned street dogs and he goes, mine now

He like, walks down the street with sunglasses on, and just doesn't look at anyone as he walks the dogs, who have like black nice leather leashes

The paparazzi always finds him walking the dogs

like a modern celebrity

Mans can and will call the paparazzi on himself - because he is a drama queen ETHAN Tommy voice "hello pa pa. I have hired two new staff, pa pa." "Huh?" "they have found work in this palace as emotional support animals, pa pa." "....ok." tommy voice "he didn't even blink, elizabeth the fourteenth" END OF ETHAN MAKING FUN OF THE BRITISH

By the way just to clear things up with you all, Tommy addresses Phil as "Father"

most of the paparazzi's pictures of Tommy are him flipping the camera off

He poses for them

just sees a camera and fucking sticks his tongue out and flips them off

He’s wearing some atrocious outfit while walking his dogs and he just has a full on fashion photshoot of poses for them

If his dad won’t give him attention at least they will

Tommy befriends some of the staff

he hates a lot of the butlers tbh

thinks they're stuck up

but likes to gossip with the maids, and sit in the kitchen as the chefs cook lunch "Heyyyy, chef!" "Your highness, what is it, are you hungry?" "Can't a man just talk to his chef? Befriend his castle staff?" "Ah."

that and the kitchen gives betty and walter treats

Top ten Prince Thomas microaggressions

Number One: he calls Phil "your highness"

For context, kings are referred to as Your Majesty

He calls Wilbur Your Majesty

It was a joke when they were younger, a habit from then on, but now it’s to spite Phil

Tommy spends an ridiculous amount of money on clothes all at once, purely to see if Phil would yell at him for using the family debit card for it

He never wears the clothes

He doesn’t particularly like any of them anyways

Instead he donate them all anonymously

Tommy may be a brat but he isn’t wasteful

By the time Tommy’s 12 he’s started acting up, and it escalates slowly until he hits 15 where things just start snowballing and he gets worse and worse

he's definitely nicknamed by the press as some sort of party animal or fratboy

a spoiled brat

He’s 16, and he knows his place in the family, he is forgotten and glossed over, but he won’t be ignored, not if he can help it

The Public gives him the attention he wishes his father would give him, he walks his dogs with the paparazzi tailing after him, just hoping that maybe one scandal or one horrible picture will eventually be enough to make his dad actually See him

he'll tell the paparazzi what they want to hear

and give every magazine a story to tell

they notice him

he just wants somebody to tell him no, somebody tell this boy no without being paid to please

Tommy probably has like, pierced his ears or smth. Gotten tattoos.

he has holes in his face yes.

he pierced his ears and his nose

He has a tattoo on the inside of his finger that matches with Tubbo and Ranboo

Maybe the picture of him plastered from last weekend will make his dad reprimand him

Maybe the weed found in his backseat will get his Dad to ground him

Maybe the bottle of fucking pills he was “holding for a friend” but got caught with Will get some sort of reaction

and its not like he's only doing it for attention

he starts it for attention, but he loves it he does

he has fun, he loves his friends, he likes the parties and the air

but, he also loves the attention, he's not gonna lie

Tommy who took adderall at a party once but it didn’t do anything for him, he seemed to function a little better actually

Tommy who knows Techno has adhd and takes adderall for it, Tommy who puts two and two together Bc he’s not fucking dumb

Tommy realizing his dad never cared to even get him diagnosed or treated

and Techno does notice, he does figure it out, but he does either a "hey..." or a "m8 I'll just get you your own if its helpin you focus" and tommy is furious

Tommy's life here is just

'trying to be yelled at HARD MODE'

Just wants to be screamed at, lowkey

I think, Wilbur avoids the tabloids

And the press

And the news

However, his advisors often read him the shit about Tommy - or anything about him

But they never see the pictures

They don’t see the picture of Tommy drunk on a strangers balcony

They don't see how bad it is

Tommy however? LOVES reading what the press has to say about him

Phil sees it however,

And he’s so disappointed

He gives Tommy so many talks but it never works

Because it doesn’t get him to love Tommy, to care about what Tommy does

Not like their mother

And he never makes a scene, not in the way Tommy wants to

It's all about "YOUR RUINING OUR IMAGE"

not: "YOUR RUINING YOUR LIFE"

He never asks if Tommy is ok

He never asks if he’s safe

Tommy's mum however, SO MANY AWKWARD "STAY SAFE" TALKS

He doesn't just fucking jump off shit because of her, he's slightly less reckless so that he can come home alive to her

I just think that Wilbur, no matter how busy, would find time to concerned yell at his baby brother if he were to find out about the pills

Weed and alcohol? Not great but ok.

Pills though?? He is full blown concerned Wilbro there

His brothers care. Their father is busy. He's a jerk sometimes too.

Wilbur does put out the fire a bit

He’s glad Wilbur had his best interest in mind

But man

The news headlines

They do him dirty

Shit like “Prince Tommy Caught Doing Cocaine at Frat Party” really fuck him over

They really just try their best to make him look like shit 95% of the time

Tommy loves it, just a little

Bad press is still press

He laughs at the headline Bc he knows he wasn’t doing cocaine, but Phil doesn’t, wilbur and techno don’t know that

It’s a tense week after that headline is released

His mom doesn’t even know if Tommy would have actually done cocaine

They just don’t know

Kristin asks him

She’s the only one who believes him

I think Wilbur wants to believe him, Techno too

But it’s hard to, especially when you’re not even sure you know your own brother anymore

Wilbur says something along the lines of being disappointed in Tommy, if he thought Tommy was trying to be better

Tommy scoffs and says he is trying, but that it’s real rich of Wilbur to be or entering to care now

This isn’t even the worse headline

One time a blonde kid got picked up from the same party Tommy was at on a stretcher, he had had an allergic reaction

Some shitty journalist saw and automatically assumed it was Tommy

They ran with the story that the prince had fucking overdosed for at least a week

The things they say are close to the truth but not quite

The PR Team tries their best to help but

They don’t even know what’s true or not

Tommy goes on a bender for a week, and walks into their office with coffee and pastries to apologize

They all know that presents mean a rough week of damage control

But Tommy imports them these Bomb ass donuts so

Fair trade really

Also heaven forbid tommy gets seen with a girl

It’s the worst shit

Tommy gets caught, drunk off his ass, pushing a couch out a window

(To be fair the people were moving soon anyways, they didn’t need the couch, it was a going away party)

And the next morning, recalling what he did

He orders up those pastries and calls the coffee place

Swings by to pick up the coffee and picks up the pastries all within the next two hours and delivers them on the third with an apology note

It’s fucking DAMAGE control

Thinking about Tubbo and Ranboo being Tommy’s DDs when they can

They are

When Tommy’s handler isn’t around

Them doing wild shit together but not Wild Shit

Tommy teaches them how to do burnouts and donuts in a fucking lambos in an empty mall parking lot

Ranboo goes everywhere incognito, Tommy practically flaunts his rank, Tubbo is considered a nobody and doesn't have to do anything but show up in casual clothes. He has a uniform for stablework.

Ranboo's parents are approving of his friendship with the fledging prince, as they hope he can wrangle Tommy to regality and he's building positive relations between the two kingdoms.

Phil is disapproving, worried Tommy will taint Ranboo and his rep and cause a tense air between the two kingdoms. Tommy loves Phil's worry, he practically bathes in it, it's the attention he so craves.

Tommy definitely will hold Tubbo's hand when he walks with him, because the headlines all scream Tommy is the gay?? and while he's very incredibly straight, he finds this hysterical.

Ranboo isn't always in Tommy's kingdom and rather spends most of his time at home. He might be second to heir or the crown prince himself, but he does have to spend time in his own country. Tommy face calls him a lot and he and Tubbo are ecstatic when he announces he's going to visit

I imagine he's second to the throne because that means he can focus on building relations instead of training to be king.

Older sibling Fundy, gets chronic illness, and Ranboo has to take over the throne for a bit

One of Tommy's worst stunts was hitching a ride to the Americas/Ranboo's kingdom without telling anyone.

Whether by boat or plane, he was gonna go visit his young king friend no matter what.

I say "young king" but he's still a prince. Just filling in for fundy

But all eyes turn to Ranboo and Ranboo is stumbling with attention he'd never known. Tommy has to help, doesn't he?

He expects such a punishment for stowing away to visit, but the headlines are... positive. Prince Tommy's friendship with Princr Ranboo becomes.... legendary, practically. Tubbo is always excluded from the news, even when he comes with.

Never too fantastical for classism

But no, the headlines see Tommy's visit not as the young, rebellious prince stowing away, but as a young boy risking his skin to visit his stressed friend.

Tommy is appalled.

And Tommy just groans and shows him the phone

And Ranboo laughs and goes

“There there Tommy, I’m sure dragging me to a frat party will be enough to ruin the good press.”

“Maybe get a dui, you’ll have diplomatic immunity so no jail time?”

“Boo, I wouldn’t get jail time even if I wasn’t em-mune, I am simply too poggers.”

“Sure man, let’s go with that.”

Tommy’s like “maybe I need to actually start doing hard drugs”

Ranboos just like “no -“ just “Please god no, your brothers will kill both of us.”

The Boo is terrified of Techno and Wilbur

Not as royals though, simply as Tommy’s older brothers

Like he knows about Tommy’s issues with validation and feeling unloved, he knows his Brothers are often very busy

But he also sees the way they look at Tommy, and the way they look when people talk bad about Tommy

He knows if something were to happen and he was to cause harm to Tommy or cause Tommy to cause harm to himself

It probably wouldn’t end well for him

Wilbur and techno try as hard as they can

But they’re SO busy

That they can’t do much especially when Tommy’s so persistent on doing his shit

Tubbo is great with the horses he tends to, and Tommy adores them. Ranboo is an excellent, regal rider and Tommy and Tubbo are more rough and ballsy, so races are fair and fastpaced.

Ranboo once got bucked by a royal stallion and Tommy and Tubbo never let him live it down.

I imagine Tubbo lives on the property, as some servants do. He either doesn't have a family, has a bad one, or his family doesn't live close to the palace.

So Tommy 10/10 sneaks to the servants' quarters and he and Tubbo sneak out to ride the horses.

I feel like Wilbur makes more of an effort after the pills and cocaine incident, he tries to ask Tommy about the headlines

Purples is Tommy’s friend

Rich family, old money

Throws a lot of the parties Tommy goes to

Purpled and punz :handshake: Tommy

Frat Boys

I think you guys are underestimating the time that Tommy spends at the castle

Like he still has school, and usually 3 days out of the week he follows around his brothers like an endearing little shit

But those 4 days where he’s gone (which includes weekends) plus nights, he’s doing shit

Also, yiu know Pongo right

101 Dalmatians

That’s how Tommy walks Betty and Walter

They are like standing completely proper and walks straight

ah yes, the royal bitches and also betty and walter are there too

the paparazzi taking pictures of Tommy and the dogs

and Tommy turns, taking his sunglasses off, and smiles big and wide "They have names you know? You should stop callin' them 'the royal dogs'."

One of the guys, he's familiar with the prince turns on his camera and asks "what're their names Prince Tommy?"

"Betty and Walter. Give them some respect."

Tommy visits Ranboo sometimes. Ranboo was looking for him one day and just found him standing in a long hall, staring at a portrait.

It's Ranboo, just barely younger, hands folded behind his back, the perfect picture of regality.

Tommy is staring at it because he knows that at home, there is a portrait of Wilbur looking like that, and one of Techno, and one of Phil and Kristen, and one of himself.

But somehow this image of Ranboo is.. haunting

Not because it doesn't match with the Ranboo he knows, but because it does.

It haunts him because he can stare at his portrait for hours and never see himself, but this is so plainly Ranboo that it's chilling.

Ranboo stands beside him, hands folded behind his back as they always are when he is in nice clothes and his eyes are visible. Tommy glances over and Ranboo is facing him, but staring up at the picture. It's still him.

The clothes are different and his hair is longer now, but Tommy can't tell the difference past that.

He knows that Ranboo is what his family wants him to be

He knows that Ranboo is him if he hadn't strayed, the same past

Ranboo knows exactly what’s going through his head right now

And he knows exactly what he needs too

They get fucking piss ass drunk in Ranboo’s room order takeout and FaceTime Tubbo

They can party tomorrow, Tommy doesn’t need to be in public right now

ANywyas

Tommy and his mother have a wonderful relationship

she teaches him literacy and history, they have a tutor teach him maths

they eat breakfast together every morning

the whole family does

but his mum tries to eat lunch with him at least 3 times a week

he goes out for lunch the days he doesn't eat with his brothers or mom, out to some resturant, sometimes, they trash it or party, sometimes he just brings Tubbo, no big group, and they just chill

With Ranboo in line for kingship (the way royalty works is that if the ruler dies, it will always go to the next in line of blood, never by marriage. Even if every heir was dead, it would still not go to the ruler consort but instead to a family member of the late ruler), rep is so much more important

he can't really be seen with Tommy sometimes

not on the bad weeks

not when Tommy just destroyed a bnb or set off fireworks with his friends, or was caught throwing chairs into his friend's pool

Tommy likes sport cars

big car guys

He has an exorbitant amount of fancy cars

its truly like

disgusting

how many cars he owns

Wilbur makes fun of it Bc the kid is just now legally old to drive

But Wilbur has so many expensive instruments

Some of which he doesn’t even know how to play yet

to be fair

Wilbur doesnt go breaking his instraments

Techno, techno has swords, which makes sense Bc he’s a general

But the amount swords he has just hanging on his wall

Never meant to be used

It’s so many

I feel like Tommy has a few cars that he doesn’t even let get scratched tho much

His babies

he has his expensive cars that he wrecks

and then his expensive cars that he treats like gold

They’re named

Clementine is this horrendous orange car that he absolutely loves

Its a bright orange ferrari

(He loves it Bc it was a gift from Phil, one of the first cars in his collection)

(Tommy doesn’t know that the idea was his mother’s, his father didn’t know what to get him)

all of his cars have padding in the back for his dogs

Tommy hates purse dogs, the girls with them are always fake and horrible

but he wishes his dogs were that small

Easy to transport

but they got all gangly limbs like him

and stand up to his hip

Henry is his sleek black classic mustang convertable

its what he drives when he doesn't want to be followed by the papp

It’s what he drives when he takes The BT to lunch

its not that the paparazzi doesn't know its him

they know

but he's not in one of his bright fucking obscene cars

The press and Tommy have a weird sort of understanding

He creates their headlines and they let him have moments to himself

If someone breaches that

They risk getting blacklisted

that car was what he drove to his grandmother's funeral in

im not naming his grandmother, but all royals live like forever

Clementine barely sees the road I think

She’s kept in top condition

By Tommy’s own hands

But she probably doesn’t get driven to the parties

Or the brunches

Or the clubs

She's used pretty much exclusively for black tie events

Tubbo is his driver for those Bc he trusts no one else with the car

And he has to exit her before she’s parked

So Tubbo valets and then meets him inside

It’s also how Tubbo gets into the black tie events

so its modern right

so its like thousand-dollar suits instead of capes

so, Tommy just refuses to wear blazers and suit jackets

he always wears his button-ups rolled to his elbows

Maybe, maybe you’ll get him in a vest

But most of the time it’s a button up, rolled up sleeves, and the tie is most likely incorrect or untied

The only reason it’s correct half the time, is because Wilbur makes him let him tie it

Tommy won't wear the jacket because he prefers to roll his sleeves up - he's able to do anything, party or just like rough housing with his brothers, or helping out the staff

Wilbur won't wear a tie, or a button up most days, opting for a high-end sweater and loads of jewelry; its just much more his style.

Techno won't wear a vest because it restricts the places he can hid weapons, and he almost never keeps his tie tied.

Tommy trying to walk past Wilbur to leave with and untied tie

“Wait! You know you can’t leave like that, come here.”

Tommy’s groans and slumps over but walks over to Wil anyways

“I’m just gonna untie it halfway through the party, you know i will.”

“Well, I’m not letting my little brother walk a red carpet with an untied tie, you know I won’t”

The second half said in a mocking tone of voice, very clearly mimicking Tommy’s whining

It’s a soft moment, they stand there together, brothers

And as Wilbur’s pat the finished tie, they make eye contact and both of them have undeniably fond looks on their faces, damn they’re brothers n shit

“Thanks Wil.”

It’s quiet, it’s soft, it’s Tommy

“Of course.”

Just as soft, just as quiet, wholly Wilbur

Wilbur clears his throat breaking the soft atmosphere of the room

“Now go, you gremlin. Don’t be late”

Wilbur ruffles Tommy’s hair, careful not to mess it up too much

Tommy rolls his eyes And quickly heads for the door “Bye Wil! Love you! Don’t wait up!” Wilbur quickly yells after him

“Love you too! Don’t do anything stupid!”

“Oh Wil you know I can’t promise that!” Wilbur just rolls his eyes and returns to his book

Yeah Tommy stays away from tobacco I think

Just weed

and I wouldn't be surprised if like hits peoples vapes sometimes, but doesn't smoke cigs

for sure, its stressful

Wilbur smokes cigarettes though

and he can't act out like Tommy can

and Phil loves him..

Techno and Wilbur watching Tommy rebel in the ways they never got to

They feel kinda sad, that they never got to be kids like that, sad that Tommy feels like he has to act out for attention

he gets to do shit

like he gets to be a real teen

the whole, dumb rich 17 year old experience

like yachts, and expensive hotel rooms, and sport cars

And sure they probably wouldn’t have been going to frat parties or crashing brunch places, but they see him with BT

See him have actual friends

And they’re happy for him

But it hurts a bit

And Tommy's hurting too

It's a lot

but its like

even if Phil wasn't shit

its a lot of attention

like everyone is watching them at all times

Techno and Wilbur have to stay refined in the eyes of the press

Tommy gets to put on a show for them

Yeah yeah

Do you know how much a drunk picture of Prince Tommy is worth?

Too much

Some random guy on his first paparazzi job, gets a pic of Tommy, shirt mostly unbuttoned, tie tied around his head, drinking out of a beer bottle, and flipping off the camera while stumbling out of the most expensive hotel in the UK

The guy never has to work again

Purpled son of some billionaire, and Ranboo a literal prince is with him

They are both laughing at him

Tommy swung on a chandelier that night

A picture of that ends up online, some socialites Twitter

The amount of people in her dms for that picture?

Ludicrous

Like just the random pictures from Snapchat stories

Magazines pay thousands

Yeah the amount of double takes people have done going through their friends Snapchat stories like

Just tapping through

“WAIT WAS THAT PRINCE THOMAS????”

So, Dessert Drinks

It’s alcoholic beverages that have like chocolate or gram crackers or maybe candy in them

That are meant to taste like a dessert

So there’s chocolate cake margaritas, or like s’mores drinks

They’re Tommy’s favorite things in the world

Everyone thinks that he’d like the like strong, burning, whiskey esk stuff

But no

He wants the sweetest thing you got

Like he’ll drink straught vodka, but not if he doesn’t have too y’know?

He also like wine strangely enough

The like really expensive wine

Bc it reminds him of Wil

They have it down in the cellar

Techno is the whiskey dude

Or like 1942

Which is just a really bougie tequila

He just likes the shit that burns

Tubbo will drink literally anything

He’ll eat anything too

It definitely comes from the spot that he didn’t have that many choices like Tommy, but he genuinely just likes anything

Which is why Tommy really likes to treat him out to fancy fucking restaurants

One of Tommy’s favorite past times is spoiling his loved one

Fucking loves giving presents n shit

It's his love language

Ranboo doesn’t pay for anything when he’s visiting

Tommy insists on paying

Tommy has millions from the throne, he will use it

Plus he uses his daddy’s card so like, Phil can afford to spend the money

Oh he has one of those black cards doesn’t he

And by he I mean Phil

But you know, Daddy’s card

Black amex all the way

Boujie motherfuckers

Tommy's drunk like persona is different depending on the environment

When its Wilbur and Techno having to deal with Drunk Tommy

He’s like an excitable puppy, he would switch from rowdy to sappy real quick for his brothers

So they’re trying to get a drunk Tommy to bed but Tommy’s 100% clinging to them

Just full of affection

Techno tries to leave to go study and drunk Tommy just looks so fucking sad

Kicked puppy

He’s very much turning on the little brother charm, full scale pouting, whining, nicknames and all

making grabby hands, sitting on thr ground, fluffed up hair, shirt all wrinkled

"Fucking - fine. What are you gonna do without me, hm?"

He’s a god damned puppy and it’s hard to believe this is the same kid who got in a bar fight last week

he hangs off the chandeliers of boogie hotels

he also trashes his friend's rentals

on the other hand, he hugs his brothers

and steals Wilbur's crown

when he wears Will's crown it goes over his eyes

Still does after all these years

He’s grown but Wils head is simply too big

Tommy has his own crown of course

he just doesn't wear it as often as Wilbru does

Wilbur wears his all of the time

Tommy wears his when

A. he's drunk and with friends

B. at formal or royal events

he likes wearing it when he's partying

still thinking about drunk Tommy and his brothers having to deal with him

He makes techno give him a piggy back ride

He can walk fine, he just wants a piggy back ride man

Can you blame him?

They all really miss being little

They miss being able to be kids n shit

when their mother took care of them

and their father did all the king shit

And when Techno would give Tommy piggyback rides in the garden

When Wilbur had all the time in the world to learn how to play guitar

Even if it comes from Tommy getting drunk off his ass they’re glad they can still find the childish joy that they once had y’know?

Techno gives Tommy a piggy back ride to his room, and Tommy steals Wilbur’s crown and they talk and it’s nice

And as everything winds down Wilbur plays his guitar

And it’s so similar to when they were younger man

...

but then,,, Wilbur gets called down for an emergency meeting

and Techno has to make sure the guards are doing their rounds

and Tommy's left all alone in The Prince's Chambers

and people wonder why Tommy likes partying

fills the time, doesn't it?

He wakes up cold and alone and hungover

And he calls Tubbo and they just fucking day drink man

It’s a bad two days

Yeha but basically after this night he and Tubbo get fucking drunk as hell and they don’t come back to the castle for two days

And Tommy is barely sober during those two days

After those type of days happen Tommy always goes completely straightedge for a week

He doenst need to develop an addiction y’know?

Plus the chaos doesn’t have to happen drunk

He’s pretty irrational sober anywyas

half of the parties he's at he's not even drunk

sometimes he'll get high

but he just likes the adrenaline

and just hanging and being fucking assholes with his mates

POV you are an emotionally wrecked prince who is hanging onto this present as proof that your dad knows who you are at least in the slightest and you find out it’s not actually a gift from him but something your mother told him to get you

He didn’t even think twice just called the dealership and asked for the car, didn’t even know which one it was

mmmmm Tommy wrecks Clem that night

It’s not a good night for anyone

Got drunk as hell man

No dd

Car crash

I don’t think Clem is totaled

And Tommy is ok

But she’s scratched and dented and it’s just a representation of how Tommy feels

Something about Clementine being symbolic of hope and the idea that his father knew him

And with that crashing down

Clementine was bound to crash too

Tommy gets out with some bruises and Clementine can be fixed

But it happens on a public street so it’s everywhere

Tommy wrecks Clem

Then fucking goes on a bender

just destroys shit

parties so he doesn't think about it

and then he fucking crashes

Wilbur and Techno and Kristin all know what the car meant to him, what it symbolized to him

So when there’s a headline and a picture of Tommy staring at a wrecked Clem, they don’t know how to feel

maybe he mentioned something about upgrading Clem to Phil, or offhandedly at family dinner

And Phil asks something like “Right and when did you get this one?” Very rudely y’know

And Tommy’s like, it’s the one you got me for my birthday last year, and Phil just says something about how he has to be more specific because he doesn’t even know which one that is

And Tommy feels everything crumble around him and he just tensely says, “never mind...” and goes back to his food

The other three watch the whole exchange like, “fuuuuuuuuuck”

And then as soon as dinners over Tommy’s out the door man

He’s gone

he doesn't take the dogs, which means he's causing damage

He doenst even take Tubbo

they can hear the handler hand Tommy the keys

Tubbo comes to Wil to ask if he knew where Tommy was and that’s when they realize Tommy’s going out to cause real damage

And Tommy’s phone is turned off

They can’t contact him

Tommy gets handcuffed

he won't get arrested, but he'll get brought back in a police car

he fucking like crashed into a poll on purpose

like it was less on purpose and more like he definitely wasn’t not trying to hit something

And then they fucking breathalyzer him and he’s drunk as balls

Straight vodka type night

there's a bottle in the cupholder

He gets out when he wrecks and you just see him dead eyed staring at the scratches on her hood

The dent in her door

The cracks in the windshield

And he just takes a swig of the bottle

He lets the police take the bottle and handcuff him, taking him back to the palace

Clem is towed back too

He doenst care man

this is bigger than party to distract Bc it’s all he’s thinking about even drunk n shit

So I feel like he’s absolutely crushed

he spends like a week or two in a depressive episode won't leave his room, won't talk to his dad

and then he asks his mom "why didn't you tell me?"

and she just purses her lips and and shakes her head

and he's out

he needs to leave

he doesn't need her pity

and he just goes to Purp's and parties

because he just wants to have fun for one night before he learns that everything is a lie

His brothers are there as much as he lets them be

Tubbo too

Ranboo would try to make it over after seeing the headlines

he gets on a jet

and goes as soon as he sees the news

cause Clem was Tommy's baby

He loved that fucking car man

And then

Boom

One dinner is all it took to ruin everything

Phil's just left like "what'd I do?"

Techno is straight faced

Wilbur rolls his eyes at Phil

And Kristin just looks stressed

She’s still staring the the door Tommy all but ran out of

none of them finish dinner, Kristin waves the butlers over to clear the plates

They don’t, and Phil is just so confused and frustrated and he doesn’t know what happened

Top 10 Prince Tommy Headlines: 10. Mourning or Disrespectful: Prince Thomas caught smoking outside grandmother's funeral 9. New Connections? Prince Thomas and Prince Ranboo seen outside Palace walking Royal Dogs 8. Protective Older Brother; Crown Prince William shielding Prince Thomas from cameras while walking down London streets 7. When Will He Stop? Prince Thomas continues his week-long bender 6. Another Frat Party: Prince Thomas found stumbling drunk after rowdy night at The Ritz London 5. Boy Crazy? Prince Thomas and Mystery Boy seen dancing at Crown Prince William's Birthday Ball 4. Is Prince Thomas's Rampage Over? The Prince seen hungover, nursing a coffee at London Branch Costa Coffee 3. Time to stop; Prince Thomas caught doing cocaine at socialites party 2. A good friend - Prince Thomas flew to the United States to help Prince Ranboo with new responsibilities

1. When is enough, enough? Prince Thomas crashes after driving drunk, arrested.

10 Tommy doesn’t smoke cigs so mans was just getting high at his grandmas funeral

he was real close with his granny, it was a sad day

It was because his father said something like “oh, I didn’t know you were coming Tommy”

It was his fucking grandmother Phil

Tommy just puts his sun glasses on, and sits as far away as he can

Number 5, the boy is Tubbo, Tubbo thinks it’s fucking hilarious, Tommy is pissed

Some of those headlines seem like they’re from the car month

Obviously number one is

But then the bender headline

Then the coffee one

And then the Wilbur one

They seem like a series of events

big month for the press

Tommys hungover and he calls Wil asking for him to pick him up

And Wilbur drops everything Bc he’s just glad Tommy’s coming back home

wilbur fucking glares at the cameras

Tommy's used to it

And then the press tries to mob them and Wilbur Almost breaks decorum

Like almost fucking yells at someone who gets too close

and Wilbur never does that

he's so in-line

he never breaks the rules

but goddamn if they take one step closer -

He’s been especially stressed, and all he wants is to get his baby brother home man

He’s been smoking a lot more since the wreck

He just wishes he could make everything better

Tommy relishes in talking to the press

Wilbur will clart someone who gets to close to his baby brother

The press who’s never seen Wilbur as anything other than composed and charming suddenly being faced with a very angry older brother who smells slightly like cigarette smoke

Wilbur in the Pogtopia coat but it’s some designer piece that’s expensive as hell

It’s his smoking coat

And it’s what he picks Tommy up in

So he smells like smoke

And not the tasteful cologne he usually wears in public

just like a dark overcoat

really expensive wool

Wilbur using it to cover them from the cameras

when they were younger, like 16 and 12, Wilbur would hide Tommy

like no one got a picture of Tommy until he was 14 or 15

Kristin really hid the boys when they were kids too

Tommy trying to peak out and make faces at the camera

it was illegal to get pictures of them younger than 10

like immediate blacklist

And also maybe some legal issues

Wilbur pulls Tommy's hood up over Tommy's head

And it’s very older brother of him too, he pulls it over to protect his face but then cinches the strings to be a little shit

Those Wilbur and Tommy brother moments comps exists in the universe too

But it’s just shit like that

Tommy has a great support system

He really does

His brothers love him

His mom loves him

He has two amazing friends and a bunch of other great friends as well

And sometimes he feels like a brat for throwing all these fits over his dad y’know?

Wilbur always tries to like, keep an arm around him when they're doing red carpets

And keeps Tommy sitting next to him at Royal events

but also like, steals food off his plate

and ruffles his hair

Tommy whispers the fucking worst jokes about the dignitaries and nobles and Wilbur has to keep a straight face

god thats tommys favorite thing to do

he tries so hard to get Wilbur to laugh and lose his shit

The fucking big boobs bit

But it’s Tommy whispering it to Wilbur completely out of context and randomly at a gala

ALSO

THE WHOLE EXTENDED FAMILY BULLSHIT

TOMMY HATES IT

LIKE WHO THE FUCK IS THIS LIKE AUNT TO HIM?

HE DOESNT KNOW HER

But Royal Families are always big on that shiit

They try to hug him n shit

And Tommy depending on how Brave n shit he’s feeling (how fed up he is) will either politely excuse himself or straight up say no and step back with a glare

he's honestly uncomfortable around the strangers

who say they're family

like he's too sober for this

He needs a god damned drink

But he’s in a vest and a nice tie and his crown is sat proper on his head

And he can’t have a drink

god he's like a little doll, he plays by Phil's rules

the crown comes on and he's the proper prince

He fucking hates it

he sips on Wilbur's wine, and does the whole "tequila for water" thing sometimes

Flask in his sleeve

Techno catches him with the flask once and is just impressed

god is that a look on Techno's face

He sees Tommy slip it from his sleeve and somehow sleight off hand take a drink

And it’s just a raised eyebrow and a head nod that says

Good for you

Bc techno also needs a drink during these events

Sometimes Tommy will spike his and Techno's drinks

as Wilbur regally sips on wine

Wilbur fucking also secretly wishing he had a flask during the drier events

Wine drink just isn’t enough sometimes

Wilbur puts on his best face

and pretends he wants to be there

and gives out a warm smile, and raises a glass

god he fucking hates it sometimes

and sometimes he loves it

but man, does he hate it sometimes

Tommy complains and Phil makes a passive aggressive comment about how

“Oh but don’t you love parties Tommy.”

Wilbur sits between them

The table goes

Techno Kristin Phil Wilbur Tommy

Tommy just sneaks another sip of the flask

he doesn't have time to deal with his dads shit

Slumps back in the seat

He probably wouldn’t even try to hide it after that

Not like Phil is actually looking at him

He can let the press have it

He doenst care

just like leaves the flask next to him

under teh table

and jsut takes large swigs from it

Tommy maybe having a group of his friends crash one of the stuffy events

Not an important one

So fucking dedication ceremony to some inane building

He just invites a wild group of socialites

It’s nice

It’s not as wild as a normal Tommy Innit party

But it’s not a stuffy fucking boring ass royal meeting

they just bring some fucking whiskey into the back room and chat shit

Tommy fucking has a group of friends crash this gathering

It’s not wild

But it’s not stuffy

It’s nice

Tommy even drags Wilbur back for at least a little

and that takes a whole lot of work

It really does, Wilbur isn’t even a little tipsy off the wine, and Phil been by him the whole time and it’s just been hell, he can’t get wiobur away from the “socializing” hes doing

but when Wilbur is a bit tipsy he just becomes more charasmatic

truly a king

Less someone putting on a mask for their father

A little bit more authentic

he's a natural, sipping wine with one hand, and shaking hands with the other, crown propped beautifully on his head, million dollar suits hanging off his frame

It’s nice to see his brother in his element

its a bit sad

but its nice

A little yeah, Wilbur’s

Wilbur’s leaving him, not really but

Wilbur being king is-

It’s going to be hard

Different

More than it is already

Wilbur will always love him

But eventually he’ll be too busy for Tommy

Just like Phil is

And it hurts

But that thought is what makes Tommy take a drink of his flask and drag Wilbur to the back room

Wilbur doesn’t have to forget him yet

Tommy looks real regal too

Wilbur wishes that Tommy could see what he sees

But he knows that Tommy’s self worth issues would take more than a nice hug and some warm words to fix

Tommy looks regal, and the gold crown really fits with the whole golden boy aesthetic

and he laughs, and makes conversation with everyome

and everyone eases up around him

Wilbur wishes that Tommy saw what he sees

also

Tommy and Ranboo's texts have been leaked once

Wow so many dog pictures dude

but also

:sparkles:state secrets:sparkles:

That was hell to clean up

it fucking was

it used petnames (which the public is never supposed to know about the nickanmes of royals fun fact)

and said shit about Phil

and detailed Fundy's illness which isn't public

and talked about meetings that Wilbur forced Tommy to attend

Tommy was terrified

Ranboo too

He was so scared someone would be angry at him for it

He doesn’t think he could handle be yelled at for this thing that wasn’t even his fault

like of course he could've not said it over text

but one of his best friends lives an ocean away

and his life is just all about secrets

dont make this something too

:sparkles: hackers :sparkles:

if someone god a hold of Tommy's IP, or Phone, or Phone number

dms

they could be using instagram, twitter, or snapchat to have some of these converstaions

dms can get leaked real easily

Mmmm you ever think about Crime Bous

Because all I can think about is when Wilbur does get out of the house, and just like every event they go to

Tommy isn’t a fucking party boy then, he’s just Prince Thomas, Crown Prince William’s baby brother

And they always get photographed and shit

But they have a great time

They’re always smiling when they’re together

Sans Wilbur being a really protective older brother, and when their grandmother died

It’s nice to just go get lunch together at that one specific cafe they’ve been going to for years

Or just walk the dogs together

Just hang out and be brothers

They sit at the same table every time, and Tommy has gotten a Raspberry Lemonade since he was 8

When they walk the dogs, Wilbur holds Walter and Tommy holds Betty

Sunglasses on, big wool overcoats, and pants that were sewn just for them

And they’re seen walking out on the streets during big events a lot too

To like take a breather

Tommy has made a habit of allowing the press to ask him questions whenever they find him

Wilbur on the other hand always knows exactly what to say to press that come up to them

He always shoos them off with a polite “we won’t be answering any question right now thank you” and a blinding smile

And Tommy’s making a face at the press from over his shoulder

Either like sticking his tongue out or making some sort of face at Wilbur

As he gets older, he stops doing it as much because it gets a bit tiring, everything is tiring

But he does it every once in a while, usually a sharp grin over Wilbur’s shoulder accompanied by a middle finger

when like press sees that Wilbur smokes like a lot

big thin

and I feel like Wilbur would straight up be like "its not a big deal, its completely legal"

and hes like smoking 8 cigs a day, but its fine

He doesn’t have an issue

It’s just a little stress relief

King at 21 is a lot to handle

and maybe the stress is so much that it becomes a problem

but hey its his relief

its legal

he's fine

That’s Wilbur’s mantra most of the time

he falls asleep in Tommys bed a lot, waiting for the teen to come home

wilbur does

he finishes a pack, and sighs, rubbing his eyes

The empire is on the brink of war, it always is

He looks in Tommy's room, its empty

And he sits on the bed, waiting

10 minutes later he's asleep

The sheets don’t smell like Wilbur, and Wil thinks that’s what makes it’s so comforting

They don’t stink of nicotine or Wilbur cologne

The smell like Tommy

and while that smell like expensive booze, and coconut shampoo

its perfect

and the dogs are in Tommy's room too

he's a little less alone

Betty is the cuddler

She’ll come up and sleep next to Wil

but she wont do it to just anyone

its a bond, its trust

its the fact that Tommy likes Wilbur

she growls at Phil

she nudges at Kristin, LOVES kristin

anyways

its lonely and sad

because Tommy usually doesnt come back

Tommy snakes back in early in the morning and tucks Wilbur in

Though most times Wilbur falls asleep in Tommys bed

Uncovered

Completely dressed

He’s lucky bettys fur is sleek otherwise his very expensive clothes would be covered

I think Wilbur more often then not will wake up with Tommy in his arms, and that makes him very happy

like, Tommy comes it at 5am, and just snuggles next to Wilbur

It’s makes Tommy sad to know his brother is waiting up for him to never come

But at the same time he’s always so happy to see him when he gets home

I imagine sometimes butlers come to get Wilbur for work, and Tommy makes them leave so that Wilbur can sleep in "Hello your highness, we came to fetch King Wilbur for his morning briefing" "He's sleeping." "Well, I can see that Your Highness -" "So let him sleep." "Prince Thomas -" "Let. Him. Sleep. Okay?" "Yes, Your Highness."

I've decided that Tommy is the big spoon

in these vulranable moments, when Wilbur is weak, Tommy kind of holds him

like obviously there are a lot of tims, where Wilbur wants to hold his baby brother

however, Tommy kind of holds Wilbur, like wraps himself around Wilbur, and puts Wilbur's head in the crook of his neck

this happens when Tommy comes home to find Wilbur in his bed

either this, or Tommy curls into a ball and rests his head against wilburs chest

Tommy has daddy issues

Wilbur has the weiht of the world

Techno has ptsd

Phil: fuck you my kids are completely fine!

Wilbur’s nicotine addiction

Tommys abandonment issues

Technos fucking PTSD

Once, when the empires war was getting really, really bad, and Wilbur had to decide life or death shit

He smoked a whole pack in a day

And then just kept going

His hands wouldn’t stop shaking

why wouldn't they stop fucking shaking

Tommy stopped partying that week, he isn’t ignorant, nor a fucking dick

He was Wilbur’s right hand for as long as he needed him

Despite how badly he wanted to party until he could see straight

His brother needed him

His king needed him

And he will gladly serve Wilbur as long as he would have him

He stood right behind Wilbur

Every decision

He was right behind him

Even if it meant constant decorum and constant royal dress, Tommy was there

And that was a grounding fact

If Tommy hadn’t been there Wilbur thinks he may have lost it that week

Sometimes the only thing that kept Wilbur’s hands from shaking terribly was holding Tommy’s hands

When the advisors and court had left

Tommy would take Wilbur hands and make him do breathing exercises

Wilbur wasn’t allowed to look anywhere other than Tommy’s eyes

They would get through this

Together

They would, Tommy would make sure of it

Tommy in the room also made everyone a bit nervous and loosen up around Wilbur though

Because sometimes they act like they can boss Will around

And Tommy is stone faced, and has the media wrapped around his finger

The court knows that all it would take is one “scandalous statement” from Prince Thomas to end their careers

Wilbur could fire them, but he’s stressed

Any other day, he’s a fucking FORCE to recon with

But Tommy? He’s here to ensure the best or their careers would end

And you know that Tommy has at least 3 sources in the biggest news outlets in the empire

He could get ANYTHING out there

Wilbur’s throne is the biggest in the middle

Two thrones smaller aside him

Within the like office / study / planning room

Tommy's hasn't been used until just then

Tommy finds it quite uncomfy

But he can deal

Also Tommy drops the nicknames for the week or so

No “Big Man”

It was “Will” and “William”

Your Majesty at one or two points

But that felt a little too formal for both of them

Too alienating

Tommy learned a whole fucking lot of fucking politics that week

Not that he didnt listen in his lessons it’s just that

Well

He can’t not listen if he’s not there

It’s different IRL too

Seeing all the decisions

It’s terrifying

And he’s exhausted

Dressing nicely and talking for 12 hours a day about politics

And life / death decisions

So many cuddles dude

Just permanently cuddling if they’re not presently working or “coping”

And I think

That although Wilbur is the one who’s going through it

When they cuddle, Wilbur likes to hold Tommy

Just in the sense that Tommy’s here and safe

In the midst of all the death around Wilbur

He needs to know that his person, his kid is alright

Plus having this one thing this one routine helps him feel a little on control during this out of hand time

:sparkles: Prince Tommy PR leak :sparkles:

I talked about how Tommy was close to his grandmother

and how he was smoking outside of her funeral

maybe it was during that time in his life

really dark place in his mind

smoked and drank every day

Wilbur smoked a lot during that time yet

they probably drank together a few times

like straight up vodka

Just they’re so young and so tired

and so its like, pictures of Wilbur and Tommy (and just Tommy) drinking in the parlor, and in the like, bar area of their private living area, dark eye bags, red eyes, just straight from the bottle

Both of their ties were undone, no jackets, sleeves rolled up to their elbows, Wilbur's top 3 buttons are undone, they're both like manspreading

like they're just at their lowest, particularly Tommy, but Wilbur was having an adjacent bad time

Tommy's hair is a fuckin' mess

HOWEVER, they're both still clean shaven, neither of their shorts or trousers are wrinkled or stained

They may be going through it, but the royal image waits for no one

How does the castle react? Immediate lock down.

Interrogations or some shit

none of the princes are allowed to leave

they have to do clean up

they write scripts essentially for Tommy and Wilbur to adress the press

they need to send out a memo that they don't agree with underage drinking

its all structured, scripted, and written by advisors (and their father)

major damage control

which is just not what Tommy needs right now, because he's like trying to work through his grief

and Wilbur has a fucking fight with his father about that

Phil does not care

They fucked up

Someone else fucked up

And now they’re going to be big boys and fix it Like Phil's going to Tommy's room to get him to look over what his quick press tour and Wilbur jsut stops him in front of the door "He's fucking grieving - Let him have a moment will you? Don't you know how close he was with Gran?" "You messed up. He messed up. Now you're gonna be big boys and fix it." “You’re horrible sometimes you know that?” “I am your father” “Then act like it, your majesty”

meanwhile Tommy: in bed, hasn't slept, major depressive spiral, cuddling Betty, Walter standing guard at his door, holding onto a blanket that his grandmother gave him

just - can't even cry anymore

just empty

Literally just despondent

Staring at the ceiling as Betty noses his face

like good luck getting to get up, let alone read shit

He hasn’t showered in days

He is very much not presentable

like it's only been a week or two since his grandmother's death

and he still is processing

He is no where near done grieving

#tommyinnit #wilbursoot #wilbur soot #philza minecraft #philza #technoblade #tubbo #ranboo #SBI #sleepy bois inc #sleepyboisinc #LILLYS NEW AU #THE KING THE WARRIOR AND THE PRINCE #long post

170 notes · View notes

dynamics-of-an-asteroid · 4 years

Note

Dont suppose you have a copy of the interview you could share?

For you, dear anon~

His Dark Materials: Andrew Scott on life after Fleabag and Sherlock

We’ve loved him as both Fleabag’s Hot Priest and Sherlock’s menacing Moriarty. Now, he’s back on our screens in the new series of His Dark Materials. Polly Vernon talks to our TV crush

Andrew Scott is mortified. The actor – formerly Moriarty to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, then the Hot Priest of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, imminently Colonel John Parry in the BBC’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – arrives at the photographic studio, bang on the appointed hour, in a fawn cashmere cardigan with a fine gold chain around his neck, bemoaning “this terrible, terrible eye infection, which is making me so self-conscious. I’m so sorry. It isn’t that you’ve massively upset me before we’ve even started. It’s so annoying. But anyway…”

Scott, 44, is small, vivid, wiry and garrulously Irish, with a face that is not handsome so much as mesmerising, intense, sharply boned, symmetrical, startlingly expressive. Sequences of emotions so subtle and complicated that I can’t begin to identify or keep up with them ruffle his brow from moment to moment. And, yup, the whole thing is rather disrupted by his left eye. This is no light kiss of conjunctivitis. It’s a swollen, red, perma-weeping situation that engulfs the whole socket. Scott turns his face two thirds on to me, so the infection is largely hidden, which would probably help if we weren’t sitting in a brightly lit hair and make-up room with a massive, inescapable mirror fixed to one wall. “Oh God,” Scott says every time he catches sight of his reflection.

Stress?

“Let’s be honest,” he says. “Let’s not skirt around the issue. It’s being overworked and…” Scott’s eye begins weeping. “Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. Really, really very sorry.”

Wanna wear my sunglasses, I ask, holding them out to him.

“That would be a bit more weird, wouldn’t it? I actually did think about that in the taxi, but I thought that would be some sort of weird and screwed Invisible Man-type thing. I mean, it couldn’t be worse. And then we have to go and get our photograph taken. It’ll be one of those pictures where, you know, those creepy pictures… Of people crying?”

That’s what Photoshop’s for, I say.

“Anyway. Let’s just ignore it.”

I wonder if it’s particularly hard to walk around with an eye infection at a point in time where you’re not merely famous, as Scott is – a star of stage, screen and Bond film, winner of multiple awards, including, as of barely two weeks ago, a Best Actor Olivier for Present Laughter at the Old Vic – but specifically famous for being sexy.

In 2019, Andrew Scott became synonymous with, well, sex. While playing a character technically known as the Priest, whom the general public instantly renamed the Hot Priest, the spiritual support turned transgressive love interest of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s supremely popular Fleabag, Scott became a cypher for the nation’s more exotic desires. A deliciously contentious pin-up. Ground zero on an earnest social media debate about whether the Priest’s relationship with Fleabag should be considered abusive, power imbalanced, “problematic”. And that was just for starters.

The Priest’s sexual iconography extended far beyond the limits of the show, becoming the subject of internet memes and real-life merchandise (visit online retailer Etsy for your £12 Hot Priest mug emblazoned with an illustration of Scott in priest’s robes, alongside the word “kneel”, a reference to a pivotal moment between the show’s lead characters, which takes place in a confession box, the climax of which, assuming you haven’t already seen it, you could probably take a stab at). There was an unprecedented upsurge in young worshippers, and women started bombarding social media “influencer” the Rev Chris Lee of west London with nude photographs. There was much foetid fan fiction.

To be publicly defined by so much sex, as Scott still is, a year and a half after Fleabag concluded, and then to be encumbered by something as visibly unsexy as an eye infection, I can see how that might make a chap self-conscious.

Scott isn’t here to rake up all that old Hot Priest stuff, mind. He’s here to talk about the second series of His Dark Materials, a lush, expensive fantasy drama based on the Philip Pullman books, jewel in the crown of the BBC’s autumn schedule. The series was filmed through 2019 and the beginning of 2020 and had all but wrapped before lockdown. Good timing, as it turned out, because the extensive post-production processes, unlike shooting, could be completed in isolation.

Scott’s Colonel John Parry is an explorer, the missing father of the central character, 14-year-old Will Parry. He’s a man who slipped into a parallel universe some years earlier, acquired a “daemon” – an exterior animal-formed expression of his soul, a female osprey called Sayan Kötör, voiced with public-pleasing symmetry by Phoebe Waller-Bridge – and never found a way back to “our” world and his son. I speak as a fan of the books, which you might describe as a darker, existential response to Harry Potter, although honestly? They’re better than that. The show is great, a deft, rewarding interpretation, and Scott is an exciting prospect as Parry.

Did he jump at the part?

“I did, actually. It was definitely something I was into. We were doing a play and it seemed like a fun thing to do.” Scott is one of those who slips into the third person when speaking about himself in a professional capacity.

Had he read the books?

“Yeah,” he says. “I think they’re extraordinary. The truth, but told on a slant. I love the way Pullman tells children about spirituality or religion in such an extraordinary, intelligent way. He doesn’t speak down to them. He talks to children’s souls.”

Given that Pullman effectively kills off God through the course of the books and Scott’s a lapsed Irish Catholic who has suffered his share of shame on account of the church’s grip on his homeland (more on which shortly), I’d imagine Pullman’s books talked to Scott’s adult soul too.

Presumably, he didn’t have to audition. Presumably, he never has to. Too famous for auditions?

“No,” he says. “Although I’ve always thought auditioning is a pretty good thing to do.”

Why?

“Because you’re able to understand, ‘Oh, this is the vibe here.’ You think, when you’re an actor, you don’t have much choice, but I’ve always felt like auditioning is a good opportunity for you to go, ‘Oh well, I don’t much like you either. I think you’re dreadful!’ ”

I don’t care that you didn’t give me that part?

“Yeah.” Scott becomes playfully, theatrically defiant. “I don’t care!” He flicks aside an imaginary rejection with a churlish hand.

Will John Parry and His Dark Materials be enough to eliminate all residual overtones of Hot Priest sexiness from Scott? Maybe. He is a fine actor, no question, entirely transformed from role to role. I saw him play Paul, a narcissistic, fame-addled touring rock star, at the Royal Court in 2014 in Simon Stephens’ Birdland, back when his deeply sinister Moriarty weighed almost as heavily on Scott’s reputation as the Hot Priest does now. I’d watched him become someone else entirely on stage. “Oh, you saw that?” Scott says, pleased.

I quote, “Am I cancer?” at him, his defining line from the play, as evidence.

“Oh Jesus. Oh f***ing hell. Oh my. I’d forgotten that line. ‘Am I cancer?’ ”

The Hot Priest association hasn’t left him yet, which is why I find myself asking what it’s like to be the very definition of sexiness.

“You get invited to more parties.”

Better parties?

“Yeah.”

Better than during his Moriarty phase?

“Definitely.”

It must be fun to find yourself le dernier cri in sexy, according to the whole nation.

“Yeah, that’s fun,” he says. “I didn’t really like being associated with scary. It’s not what I’m interested in being, in life, being intimidating to people. It’s not part of my nature, whereas being sexy to people…”

That is part of his nature?

“Well, they’re very different things.”

They’re both about having power over people.

“I suppose they are, yes.”

So did Scott, bored of scaring people, say to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer and star of Fleabag and a long-term friend (they met in 2009 while starring in Roaring Trade at the Soho Theatre), “Write a role for me that will make everyone think I’m just really, really sexy now”?

“That’s such a good belt. Are they two ‘Gs’?”

“Exactly.”

——————————

Andrew Scott is not the easiest interview. He’s utterly charming. Really, just a delight. In between prostrating himself for the offence of his eye and apologising for not turning up the first time we were scheduled to meet (ten days earlier; a delayed Covid test result meant he couldn’t make it), he ensures I have a good time in his company. He is playful. He makes me laugh. His every utterance is delivered as a grand performance. (“Shhhh! Just… Shhhh!” he implores, placing a finger against his lips while expressing frustrations over the mindless jabber of social media, and he does it so powerfully, he compels me to be quiet, breathlessly to await delivery of his next line.) He finds elegant ways to flatter me. He laughs at my jokes and is terribly taken with my belt.

Yeah. For Gucci.

“Oh. Ha ha! I thought it was the Golden Globes. I love the Golden Globes. Ha ha!”

And of course, he’s Irish. Clichédly, melodiously Irish, which makes everything sound softer and jollier than it might otherwise.

As for the actual business of being interviewed, of answering straight questions with straight answers, finishing off sentences, offering more than a slip-slide of vagaries punctuated by vigorous hand gestures, none of which translates into print? He’d rather not.

He tells me, as he’s told other journalists before, this is because he’s interested in navigating the line between “privacy and secrecy”, then says he’s aware he’s sometimes “got away with secrecy under the guise and respectability of privacy”, as if signalling potential incoming slipperiness, which means I prepare to throw every trick in the book at him.

First up: amateur psychology.

Might Andrew Scott’s gayness be at the heart of his reluctance to speak more freely? Perhaps. This is no scoop. He’s been out for almost as long as he’s been famous. “I mean, as a civilian, I was quite young [when I came out], you know? But then, as a celebrity…”

He tails off, allows me to fill in the blanks. This is another of his evasion tactics. I can’t very well quote Scott on the presumptions I make about things he never quite says.

He had to have another coming out?

“Yes. And I have another one coming up.”

He has another coming out coming up?

“Yeah.”

So that will be, what? Tier 3 gayness?

“Tier 3, yeah.”

Scott grew up in Ireland at a time when it wasn’t legal to be gay, which could certainly seed an enduring reluctance towards carefree openness in a person. He invokes the concept of shame more regularly than the average interviewee. He was born in Dublin in 1976 to Nora, an art teacher, and Jim, who worked at an employment agency. He has one older sister, Sarah, and a younger one, Hannah.

He was shy, so started attending a children’s drama course.

Did that help?

“Yeah. Acting to me is not pretending to be someone else. It’s more like, this is who I actually am. The lie that tells the truth,” he says. I am none the wiser. He was clearly talented. He went from adverts to his first starring role in a film aged 17 (Korea, directed by Cathal Black), won a bursary to art school but took a place at Trinity College Dublin to study drama instead, and ditched that six months in to join Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. He’s been gainfully employed in the field ever since.

How Catholic was his upbringing?

“Well, there were Catholic priests in my life,” he says. “None of whom I wanted to have sex with.”

Does it amuse Scott to know he inspired a mass fetishising of priestly ranks? That in 2019, the Hot Priest would make, “Can you have sex with a Catholic priest?” one of the most googled terms of the year?

“Absolutely f***ing mental,” he says.

Homosexuality wasn’t legalised in Ireland until 1993, when Scott was 16.

“I always think, if I’d had a boyfriend then, which I definitely did not…”

No?

“No.”

He knew he was gay, though?

“No. No, no, no, no!”

Was he suppressing it or not thinking about it?

“I would say suppressing. Definitely suppressing. I don’t believe people just don’t think about it.”

An upbeat, cheesy jazz remix of something or other starts playing outside the room.

“Oooh, this is the soundtrack for this bit of the interview,” says Scott. He wiggles his shoulders to the music.

I switch to strict dominatrix interviewer mode. Focus, I say. You were about to tell me something good.

“Oh, shit, was I? OK. I think what’s really insidious is that people don’t ask you about sex or… People wouldn’t say, ‘Are you gay or are you [straight]?’ And the lack of directness is very damaging. They just didn’t go there.”

Does he think his family, friends, the people closest to him knew then that he was gay?

“No,” he says. “I don’t think they did know. Or maybe they have a suspicion, but they think, I want to be respectful, so I’m not going to ask about that. Then [when you do come out], people say, ‘Oh, I’m glad.’ You know? If you do talk about it. So I suppose what I feel now is, talking about sex or sexuality is important. Really important.”

Having said that, “There’s still getting rid of the shame. In a situation like this, 10 or 15 years ago, I would have been…” He fakes shock, horror. “Oh no! Polly’s just asked me about [he switches to a whisper] that.”

Scott will talk about his sex life only notionally. No specifics. For 15 years, between 2001 and 2016, he was in a relationship with the actor turned screenwriter Stephen Beresford (Scott starred in Beresford’s 2014 film Pride). Ever since, he’s refused to answer questions about his romantic life.

And he’s not going to talk about it now, I presume.

“No.”

What if we talk about it opaquely?

“OK.”

Where does he see himself, domestically, in an ideal world? Married with kids whom he’ll, I dunno, adopt or have via surrogacy?

“I like it. It’s bold. Am I going to adopt or…?”

Get a surrogate?

“I definitely think that’s something I would be open to.”

Great, I say, with blatant sarcasm. Thanks. How specific.

“Ha! I’m sorry. OK. Have I got any children at the moment? No. How can I… [explain]? OK. I was with a friend of mine in Dublin…”

His partner?

“No, no, no. Not my partner. Ah ha. I see what you were…”

Teasing. Yes.

“Ha! Yes. So, I was with a friend in Dublin and we were walking around and he was looking at apartments and I was like, ‘What about this place here?’ You know? And he said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Why not?’ and he said, ‘I don’t live a heteronormative life, so I don’t want a heteronormative house.’ ”

What’s a heteronormative house?

“Two up, two down thing. He goes, ‘I can live in a loft or a weird space. I don’t need those things.’ He was so proud of it. He really owned it. I think where a lot of one’s pain comes from is when you go, ‘I should want that.’ And so, to answer your question opaquely, I have kids I adore. I love children, genuinely, and I had a very happy childhood. But I also feel, if I don’t have kids, that’s all right. I think I would’ve attached a lot of shame beforehand, with not living a particularly heteronormative life… Even with being gay, there’s a sort of way of being gay that’s acceptable. And I don’t feel that any more.”

He feels you can be unacceptably gay?

“Exactly. Exactly!”

I ask when shame shifted for him and Scott says it was when Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour of same-sex marriage in the 2015 referendum, which felt, he says, “like acceptance, genuinely. And I remember going out to this gay bar in Dublin and this girl came up to me, this cool Dublin girl, and she said, ‘What are you doing here? You need to go down to, I don’t know, blah, blah, this bar in some park.’ She was saying, ‘This isn’t the right gay bar for you. This is some shit gig,’ when the fact I’m in a gay bar in Ireland [at all] is a miracle to me, and then some person with a half-shaved head is telling me, ‘No, you need to go somewhere cooler.’ ”

His left eye starts weeping again.

“I’m so happy about that,” he says. “Even though I’m crying.”

I ask Scott if he has a game plan when picking roles, if he plots his course from Sherlock villain to Bond quasi-villain (he played Max Denbigh in Spectre) to sex icon, and, if so, what next? “No. Jesus, no,” he says.

We talk about the totalitarianism of social media, which he isn’t on, and share a mutual despair over it. “I thought it was something one would associate with the right, but actually, now it’s [the left] that is very ‘you’re this’ or ‘you’re that’. I find that quite frightening. It actually makes me feel ferocious.”

Is he not worried about being cancelled, of somehow saying the “wrong” thing, according to Twitter sensitivities, then having a thousand voices mobilised against him, demanding his firing, in the style of JK Rowling?

“I’m not,” he says. “I refuse to be. A very intelligent person I was talking to recently was writing a book and he said, ‘I’m going to get a sensitivity expert to have a look. I don’t want to get cancelled.’ I found that frightening.”

Is he rich? “Rich is the absence of worry about money,” he says. He can’t remember the last time he worried about money.

That must be nice.

“Of course it f***ing is. I think it’s a miracle. I really do. I was working in a French theatre in London for nothing – none of us was working for anything – and I remember the artistic director of the theatre talking about the fact we weren’t earning any money as some sort of virtue. I remember feeling really annoyed about that, like this isn’t good.”

This leads to an inevitable conversation about how the arts are suffering with Covid, including a segue down the Fatima route, the much shared government advert that depicted a young ballerina and suggested she retrain in something called cyber. “Her name’s not even Fatima,” Scott rails. “I think she’s called Desire’e. From New York.”

I mean to ask him about his experience of filming The Pursuit of Love with Lily James and Dominic West, stars of their own recent off-screen micro-scandal in Rome, just in case he lets any scurrilous insight slip, but our time’s up and it’s not as if Scott has much form on offering up scurrilous insight anyway.

Still, I feel grateful to him for meeting me halfway on the other stuff. And so I say goodbye to Andrew Scott, the UK’s foremost gay heterosexual lapsed Catholic faux-priest lust icon with a troublesome eye infection.

#''Tier 3 gayness'' is peak comedy #I'm not sure if I should put this in the tag but y'all can reblog if you need it on yours #long post #andrew scott

44 notes · View notes

theschizoidblog · 4 years

Text

Snape, the Schizoid

Blog 4: 30/07/2020

While I usually write about how Schizoid personality disorder affects me, I think there’s a lot to be learned from drawing comparisons to fictional characters. In fact, before I got my diagnosis, I was writing fanfiction in which I poured very large portions of my soul and very being, often without realizing I wasn’t really writing about other characters, but I was exploring my own inner self. I loved writing about outcasts, about recluses and sometimes I didn’t know if I just was in a sort of love with the characters I wrote about, or if they were me.

At the age of 18, we’re talking about 2001 here, I got into Harry Potter. And with that I mean: I got into Severus Snape. Described as an ugly git and a mean bastard, I still loved him to pieces. (And Alan Rickman portrayed him beautifully, RIP)

And here might be the reason why he lured me in straight away: Snape is a schizoid, like me. And that only clicked when I got my diagnosis a few months ago. 19 years after first encountering the character. And after rereading some of my own fanfictions, I started realizing that what I’d described as Snape’s problems and needs in those stories, were my own. Strange how that works!

In this blog, I’m going to run over some traits of SPD (schizoid personality disorder) and explain how Snape fits into the criteria.

This post serves three purposes:

To people who have no idea what schizoid personality disorder is, this is a means to familiarize yourself with the disorder by exploring the traits while you imagine a character you already know.

To people with schizoid personality disorder, this is just meant to be a fun little blog where maybe you can recognize some traits of yourself. No worries, I have not forgotten we’re all on a spectrum and each schizoid is different.

To fans of the Harry Potter novels, I hope that you come to realize that people can identify with flawed characters for very personal reasons. Don’t be mean to fictional characters (unless they’re Umbridge I guess XD), because you never know who identifies with them. Your rejection of a character can feel like the rejection of a person who struggles with the same things. Anti-culture, in all fandoms, has to end. It’s not adult. It’s not wise. It’s mean. It’s exhausting.

I also feel like I need to make a statement about JK Rowling’s intent: I doubt she knew what SPD was when she wrote Snape. She said she based him off of one of her old teachers – no idea if that man had SPD or was just generally unpleasant. The way that Snape matches SPD is eerie though, just like Luna matches schizotypal personality disorder rather well. (More on that later.) An actual psychologist might disagree with me and say “No he’s not schizoid because….” – and hell, I’d love to hear it. I don’t mind it if this post, written by a schizoid but not a psychologist, starts a discussion that will help people understand the disorder even better, even if I’m wrong in assessing Snape. Or if we can learn to understand Snape better because of me being wrong, that’s also a win-win situation.

Ready? Let’s dive into it!

Cause

SPD is said to be caused by a combination of genetics and environment – as is the case with many other personality disorders. But ask around in schizoid groups, and most will tell you that there were issues in childhood with abuse, lack of warmth or understanding at home, or the presence of a “bad parent”. According to webmd: “Some professionals speculate that a bleak childhood where warmth and emotion were absent contributes to the development of the disorder.”

We all know that Snape’s early childhood was not a happy one. He had an abusive muggle father and grew up at Spinner’s End, the opposite of what you could consider a happy childhood home.

When you grow up in a loveless home, it ruins a lot of your own enjoyment of life. You get trust issues, you become awkward, and so when Snape finally arrives at Hogwarts, he gets bullied. He’s already rather isolated (he only had Lily), and they picked on him because kids can sniff out weaknesses and he was an easy target.

The bullying did nothing to stop the disorder from developing further. Many schizoids have gone through bullying themselves, and it does nothing to help you grow closer to human beings as you get older, quite the opposite, a bond of trust is broken and it’s incredibly hard to heal that. You’ll be suspicious of everyone you meet once that sort of thing happens. The more bullying you receive, the more you hate the world as you grow up. Maybe that’s not true for all people or all schizoids, but I bet some can relate.

You might say: “But Harry also got bullied at the Dursleys and he turned out fine!” Well, I guess he did. That’s the thing with many heroes – their tragic backstories make them poster boys of “look what they overcame and how he saved the world!” – but it’s not that realistic, and if you’ve got a genetic predisposition to develop a personality disorder instead, you’re screwed. Let’s also not forget that Harry’s first year in life was a very loving one. The very first year in a child’s life is crucial, and if things go wrong in early childhood, that leaves scars that most people carry with them for the rest of their lives. Snape never had that steady sort of home, not even for one year, or if he did, there’s nothing to indicate he did.

Diagnosis Criteria

Okay, time to get digging! According to the DSM-V, you need to display at least four symptoms in order to be diagnosed with SPD. Also keep in mind that these traits need to be present for longer than just a few months or a year or so. You might recognize some of these traits as something you’ve gone through yourself if you’ve ever been depressed – it’s when these traits last for what seems like your entire adult life, that a diagnosis with the disorder can be made. (I’m also not familiar with every other trait of every other disorder in the DSM-V, so as I stated in the beginning, it’s possible that other personality disorders are even more fitting of Snape, but that I just don’t know them yet.)

The seven criteria are:

Lack of desire or enjoyment for close personal relationships

Always chooses solitary activities

Little or no interest in sex with other people

Experiences little pleasure from activities

No close friends other than immediate family

Indifference to criticism or praise

Emotional detachment and lack of emotional expression

➤ Emotional detachment and lack of emotional expression

While this is usually at the bottom of the list, I want to put it on top. This is what they also call “flat affect”. You can give us a present, and it might seem like we’re not truly grateful. We may laugh with a joke, but the light never reaches our eyes. Emotionally, it doesn’t seem to an outsider like there’s a lot going on, and if it is, it’s going on so deeply within our souls we’re hardly aware of it ourselves. Think of Snape’s monotonous voice when talking. Now Alan Rickman is a brilliant actor and emotes with very very small signs sometimes, and it’s not like when talking to me, you’re talking to a wall. (But my empathic mask makes me appear rather normal to most folks.) (I don’t think Snape has a mask like that.) Other characters that have schizoid traits are, for example, Mai from Avatar the Last Airbender or Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher. If you know and visualize these characters, you may understand better what I mean with the “lack of emotional expression” then. Also, Snape being a great Occlumens? It’s because he’s the reigning champion in suppressing his emotions, like all schizoids are. We would make wonderful Occlumens, I think. XD Snape being mean? Not all schizoids have a good amount of empathy, they’re too emotionally detached for that. (Others are very empathic to some causes, but might be picky in what they are empathic about. For example: they can be empathic towards animal cruelty and Black Lives Matter, but don’t give a shit about other causes.)

A lack of empathy is what makes plenty of people an easy prey to fascists. Without empathy, what moral compass is going to stop you from becoming a bigot? (And I also want to state that within the disorder you’ll probably find people of all political leanings – many schizoids also seem to have a thing for the underdog, and thus seem to often lean towards the left instead of the right side of the political spectrum. But as with ‘regular’ people, you’ll find people swing both ways.) But here, in Snape’s case, his hatred for his bullies and his father (a muggle) pushed him right into the Death Eater’s arms, and they were glad to welcome a man of his skill, maybe even giving him the illusion, for a while, that he had found a new family. It didn’t last, and eventually his eyes opened to what the Death Eater’s really were. He was too young and naïve to see what they wanted of him (and the one person he loved), and it basically ruined his life. He was a teenage fool, and after losing Lily’s friendship, he had no one left to keep him out of that bad group of friends.

➤ Lack of desire or enjoyment for close personal relationships

Does Snape strike you as the social type that’s trying to make new friends all the time? Have you ever seen the man enjoy the company of another character in the books? Not just tolerate, not just need, but ‘enjoy’? Even when it comes to Lucius or Karkarov, it seems he is just keeping an eye on them, observing them rather than offering true friendship.

Maybe McGonagall might be an exception. He seems amiable towards her, in a competitive way. He might get a kick out of their arguing. She’s certainly an intelligent woman so he might enjoy her company for intellectual reasons.

➤ Always chooses solitary activities

We see Snape engage in a few activities at Hogwarts, such as going to Quidditch matches, or being present at the Yule Ball. Death Eater meetings and gatherings in the staff room might be social activities, but let’s not pretend Snape has a lot to say about whether he attends those or not. As a teen he already excels at potions, a solitary activity, and when we are given a glimpse of his “summer” lifestyle at Spinner’s End in Half-Blood Prince, he’s just reading. He certainly doesn’t entertain a crowd in his spare time, like, for example, Slughorn does.

➤ Little or no interest in sex with other people

I hear you coming now. “BUT LILY!” Schizoids are often asexual, but not necessarily sex-aversive. When asking around in a schizoid group, about a third of the schizoids seem to be in relationships or are even married, perhaps even more. And many of the others have had sexual relationships in the past. Many have tried to make relationships work, only to realize at a later point that that sort of life was not for them and that they would never be truly happy in a relationship. Other schizoids are happy in relationships – so it exists! It’s not impossible! (Remember: you need 4/7 traits, not 7/7 to be schizoid.) Also keep in mind, if Snape really was interested in sex, why would he pine after a dead woman for 16 years? He’d be over her way sooner and into someone else’s pants way sooner too. Lily was the first person in his life that gave him any kind of warmth, so him pining after her is not strange or inexplicable behavior. She offered what he craved, what he lacked, and he mourned her for the rest of his life, because he feared no one would ever give him that warmth. (And he kind of turned that into a self-fulfilling prophecy by being such a recluse.) He dreamed of love, but we have no idea what it would have been like had he actually ever had his affections returned. Maybe he’d have enjoyed a relationship with her for a long while and she would have been the only person he could have tolerated, or maybe after a year or so he would have thought “this is suffocating” and ended the relationship.

➤ Experiences little pleasure from activities

Can you recall Snape laughing in any scene? Smiling, even? I can imagine him to feel rather content when brewing potions or studying the dark arts, and he does have passion for what he does. But to a schizoid, passion and pleasure are not necessarily the same. We experience emotions differently. In some ways we don’t experience them at all, in other ways, we might feel like there’s a wall around our emotions, and we have no idea how to get over that wall and check what the currently active emotion is. But with logic, we can determine “I guess I’m happy now that I’m doing this thing I like doing.” Intellectual pursuits are fun too – like solving a puzzle, it gives a little boost of dopamine when you make it to the next level, so it’s not surprising he excels at Potions.

➤ No close friends other than immediate family

Basically, Snape only really had Dumbledore, and that bastard only used him to win the war. (I have beef with old Dumbledore, okay?) But Snape confided in Dumbledore, and the other way around, and so I think it’s safe to say that there was a true friendship between the two. When Dumbledore died, Snape was truly alone. (Which is incredibly tragic and heartbreaking when you think about it – in the last year of his life, Snape had no one, really no one, as he tried to keep Hogwarts ‘safe’ and eventually died. And everyone hated him for killing Dumbledore, not knowing the truth about his allegiance. Everyone who had once spoken kindly to him, like the other professors at Hogwarts, now considered him arch enemy #2, behind Voldemort.)

➤ Indifference to criticism or praise

Compliment or insult a schizoid, and it’s not like they won’t give any response at all. They might say “thank you” or they might get a little defensive about the insult, but they won’t always lose a lot of sleep over it. It kind of depends on who the praise or criticism is coming from. I can imagine that it did mean something to him if it came from Dumbledore, whom he cared about. I don’t think it meant anything to him what his students thought of him, since he didn’t give a personal level of shit about them. There’s also a moment where Umbridge shrieks “You are on probation!” and it’s described as “Snape looked back at her, his eyebrows slightly raised.” Then she says that she expected better after how highly Lucius Malfoy always speaks of him and she dismisses him. Snape then gives her “an ironic bow” – he really doesn’t give a rat’s ass and I love him for it.

These are the 7 criteria that you need to fit 4 of to be diagnosed with SPD – I managed to link all 7 to Snape – so I think it’s not unlikely that Snape is truly a schizoid. Now, for the next part I would like to highlight some other comorbidities which many schizoids also have, that seem to appear in Snape as well.

Comorbidities

➤ Depression In about half of all schizoid patients, depression is or has been present. How do you notice that in Snape? The greasy hair, among other things. Bad teeth. Always wearing the same outfit. If you’ve ever suffered from a bad depression, you know how difficult it suddenly becomes to shower at a regular interval, how you can go days without brushing your teeth, how wearing comfortable clothing is more important than looking fashionable – how it is absolutely meaningless to look fashionable because who the fuck cares anyways. Snape doesn’t seem to give a hoot about himself or his appearance, which strikes me as a sign of depression. And what does he have to be happy about? He knows Voldemort is going to return and he’ll have a cursed job as a double-spy. He knows he’s probably going to die. I wouldn’t be happy either.

➤ Anger Outbursts/PTSD Not all schizoids have this, but it’s something I have myself and which I’ve written about extensively in one of my previous blog posts. I look at it as a way of my inner self breaking down the walls and coming out to say “I know that I’ve been quiet for the past 37 years but what the fuck I’m really angry about this and have been for a while and I’m not going to contain it any longer” – and then the anger comes out disproportionately. It’s hard to impossible to really control such an outburst. And often, there is a very obvious cause to the outburst. Sometimes it’s PTSD related. For Snape, while he does not emote often, you see a few outbursts – like when he is face to face with Sirius Black in the shrieking shack, his childhood bully. He seems mad at that moment, not at all composed anymore, the sign of a real anger outburst. (I think it’s PTSD helping that anger build.) A few moments later, he thinks he has turned in Sirius Black to the Ministry, Sirius, who he holds responsible for the death of James and Lily (and it’s especially the latter’s death he can’t cope with), so when Sirius escapes, he loses it again. Then the next time he gets really angry is when Harry enters his “worst memory”. That’s a few years later, during the Occlumency lessons. While he’s no longer shrieking, he’s white with rage. My pro tip: don’t impose on the privacy of a schizoid, we get mad. XD In Half-Blood Prince, he’s got a moment where he’s like “Don’t call me coward!”, looking ‘inhuman’. I too can get anger outbursts over false accusations, and this one must really hurt, because at that moment, he’s trying to save Harry’s freaking life while the boy is all like “lemme at you I’mma kill you like you killed Dumbledore for fun!” – Snape was probably grieving the loss of his only friend and confidant and knew he was on his own from that point onwards, and then you get this bloody teenager trying to drag you into a wizard’s duel you’re not in the mood for, calling you a coward, which is the last thing you are. Man it has to suck to be Snape. I also want to state that there are many moments when things go wrong in class, but Snape never loses his temper like that. He’s not pleasant and he punishes students, but he doesn’t get mad – he gets even. That makes it all the more interesting to analyze the moments that he does go bananas.

Random Thoughts

Before I finish this blog, there are still a few small things I’d like to get out of my system about Snape and SPD.

➤ Snape and Luna

They are my favorite characters, but also because they’re very, very alike and very, very different at the same time. Both didn’t have a great childhood (Luna lost her mother at a young age) and they get bullied as kids at Hogwarts. Snape is called Snivellus and Luna is called Looney. All the suffering they endure, affects them differently though. Snape gets meaner, Luna only seems to get nicer. I see them as two sides of the same coin. One dark, one light, both a little eccentric in their own way. When you look at it from a personality-disorder point of view, then they both have personality disorders that are related to one another. Snape has Schizoid Personality Disorder, Luna has Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Schizotypal Personality Disorder is where you’ll find a lot of eccentric people who believe in conspiracy theories. Both are class A personality disorders. Some people might even have the two personality disorders at the same time. Schizoids seem to be rooted in reality with their thoughts, schizotypals can really start believing strange things if they’re not careful, alienating them from others And, in case you’re now wondering: “So many schizo-personality disorders! Is this also schizophrenia?” No – schizophrenia is when you have delusions and hallucinations as well. Read up on those disorders if you’re interested, because these descriptions of mine are too brief and don’t do it justice.

➤ Snape was a bad teacher

Not fully, and yes, he was. I think knowledge-wise, Snape was way better at Potions than Slughorn ever was. You notice when Hermione can’t keep up in her sixth year while Harry is sailing through Potions thanks to Snape’s book. Snape’s a genius and would have been able to instruct his students to be more efficient when brewing potions. But personality wise? Don’t put a schizoid in front of a classroom. And for that, I kind of blame Dumbledore. Snape wasn’t asking for a job as a teacher, but that’s all Dumbledore had to offer, and thus he put Snape and his unwilling students in a room together where none of them wanted to be. I think Snape would have been better off as some kind of a scientist, just him and his books, inventing spells or potions. But he was not given much of a choice, and he was forced to socialize with teenagers (ew, gross), and that must have drained him terribly. It’s a wonder he was usually roaming the hallways at night because I would have been too exhausted to get out of bed. That makes you realize it’s truly a work of fiction because who on earth has that kind of stamina? :-P (No, in all seriousness it’s probably also depression at work, keeping him up.) Snape was a jerk to Harry and Neville and Hermione on various occasions, and not all of it was to “keep up appearances” to the Slytherins. He seemed to even enjoy a bit of sadism here and there. You could contemplate why he poisoned Neville’s toad. Was it just to spite poor little Neville, or was he hoping his student would perform better under pressure? (Which Neville did.. The toad didn’t die.) It’s a cruel way to teach a lesson, but I think he must have thought the end justified the means. But what a traumatic experience to Neville, who then had Snape become his greatest fear.

➤ Purity culture vs Snape

We’ve seen a shift on both Tumblr and other social media where fandom is about purity culture. Back in 2002 folks were like “We love the baddies, deal with it”, and the people that didn’t love the baddies actually dealt with it and you could joke with people who preferred the Gryffindors and just poke a little fun at one another, but it was fun fandom. But over the years I’ve seen fandom change. Nowadays you can’t even express love for Snape without someone seeing it as their moral obligation to remind you of what a “bad person he really was”. To them I can only say that I like him for his best qualities, and forgive him for his worst. And honestly, I don’t need to justify liking a character to anyone. If I want to put Umbridge-posters in every room of my apartment, are you going to stop me or call the cops on me? Purity policing is weird. Very American, too. (Though I’ve seen some Dutch folks go apeshit as well over purity concepts.) And as a Belgian I don’t have time to put up with that shit. XD And purity policing also is just nasty when you consider that some folks are like “I relate to this character” and the next person is like “THIS CHARACTER IS EVIL AND DESERVES TO DIE!” My response to that part of fandom is: “Just fuck off already, jerkface.” Personally I was heartbroken by his death, because I feel like he could have made up to the people he’d hurt, I would have loved to see relationships mended between him and McGonagall and him and Harry and such, but instead we were left with him passing on some awkward memories to Harry and then dying. (Tbh I’m not the greatest fan of his crush on Lily, but whatever, I can accept it and understand it. She was the only light he ever knew.) It’s not his fault he didn’t get to redeem himself as a character, not fully - and that’s what makes fanfiction fun. So if people want to explore that in fic, let them. A character like Snape is too much of a treasure to shove under a carpet and pretend he never existed. Write all the things about him, have him have all the adventures!

I think I’m done now! If you stuck around until now, 10 points to Slytherin or whatever house you’re from. (Probably Slytherin if you’re reading about Snape.) What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment, send an ask, or whatever!

#severus snape #snape #pro snape #schizoid #schizoid personality disorder #blog

49 notes · View notes

cassiopee-utopia · 4 years

Text

The day I run into you #1/3

Hello! This is my first fiction

/!\ English is not my mother tongue! Many mistakes are probably in this story and I deeply apologize for that. Please feel free to correct them if you see some, it will help a lot!

Summary : A short story (3 chapters) about the day a young student randomly run into Timothée Chalamet in the streets of Paris.

Enjoy!!

Chapter 1: Meet me at the corner

(2,3k words)

Today I’m randomly walking in Paris as I like to do it when the weather is good and I don't have anything planed. This way I can discover new places of this huge capital I live in during my studies. For now, I'm doing a four-months internship that will end in a month or so. I'm doing it in a fashion press office and I'd say I quite enjoy it.

Currently I am in the 16th arrondissement. This neighborhood isn't really animated as only the richest people live here. But I guess sometimes it's nice to get away from the unrest of the city and just take a walk in a calm area.

As I have been walking straight for a long time, I decide to turn left at the next street corner. And well, let's just say that decision changed my day.

Indeed, the moment I turned is also the moment an idiot coming from the street I was heading towards decided to turn at full speed exactly in the opposite direction and one thing leading to the other: boom *collision*. That's the moment I ran into you.

- Ouch, I say trying to get up.

- I'm sorry, I'm very sorry, I didn't see you, sorry… says the man I bumped into.

I can't see his face as he is trying to pick up all the books he dropped, but weirdly I have the impression that I know this voice.

- Here, that's also my fault you know, let me help you picking up this mess, I propose.

- Thanks, but you don't have to.

He finally raises his head in my direction and boom *2nd collision*, but in my mind this time. Timothée Chalamet is just in front of me.

For a moment my brain decides to just, stop working. I fix my gaze on him and say nothing.

- Are you okay?

- Um.. Yes.. Um.. I am, I say getting a grip.

I look to the books I’m holding and hand them to him:

- Your books.

- Thank you. So, um, where were you heading before we…

- Nowhere in particular, I say smiling, I just like to walk around in Paris. Discovering new places, etc.

- Oh, then you should know some good secret places, right?

- I guess, I say a little confused, well maybe, I don't know, depends on what you call "good secret places"… And you, um, where are you going, if I can ask?

- To my hotel, I need to put down those books I just bought.

- By the way, what's all this?

- Just some French novels. I like to buy some when I’m in Paris. It's to practice my French and my French culture I guess, he say giggling.

- That's nice! So… um…

I absolutely don't know what to say next and don't want this conversation to end but luckily, he made me THE offer of the year.

- You said you wanted to help, so maybe you could help me bringing my books to my hotel?

As I already almost collapsed in front of him, I try my best to not have my third "collision" of the day and focus. Unfortunately, all I manage to say is a quick:

- Yes.

- Great! I take one half and you take the other, he say handing me the books I previously gave back to him. My hotel is this way, come on.

I take the books, nod and follow him quietly.

We continue walking in silence for a few blocks and then he finally asks:

- So, um, I don't even know your name.

- Oh, yes, I am Rachel.

- Well, nice to meet you Rachel, I'm Timothée.

At this moment I don't really know what to do. Do I tell him the truth and say that I know who he is and that I was basically fangirling him a few months ago, risking to seem totally crazy to him ; or do I pretend the opposite? It could be credible, I mean, he's not that famous yet, everybody doesn't necessarily know him, it's not like he was Leonardo Dicaprio or Brad Pitt. But this second option would also include me lying to him, and besides the fact that I don't like to lie, he doesn’t deserve to be manipulated. Moreover, it's not like we're going to become friends or something, as soon as we'll get to his hotel, he will nicely invite me to leave, so I guess I have nothing to lose.

- Yeah, I kind of know who you are. But don't worry, I'm not a crazy fangirl! I say giggling.

Gosh why did I have to say that too! I'm such an idiot!

He takes a moment to think about the stupid shit I just said and then he answers:

- Well, then you should know how funny I am!

That was not expected but I'm glad he doesn't care that I know him, and that he takes it with humor. I decide to take this opportunity.

- Um… that's not what I actually heard…

- What did you hear then?

- That you were that type of young actor with an enormous ego and basically no talent, I say with a very serious tone.

He stops dead with a very offended look and says:

- What!?!

I look at him, keeping my seriousness as long as I can and suddenly burst out laughing.

- Hey! That's not funny!!

- Oh trust me, it is, I say still laughing.

He rolls his eyes and stops:

-So, here's my hotel, I would have invited you to come in with me but since you're so unkind to me…

- Oooh… Look who's all offended!! I answer with a slight smirk.

- Fine, if you keep it that way… he say turning his back to me and going toward the entrance.

- Wait wait! Okay, I'm sorry, but you know it was just for fun right? Who would have known Timothée Chalamet was that touchy!

He stops, turns around with a big smile of satisfaction.

- And that manipulative… I add walking in with him.

After taking the elevator we arrive in his hotel bedroom. Contrary to what I thought, it's not a giant suite, it's just a big room with a little "living room area" with a table, a big sofa and two armchairs. The curtains are closed but the room is still quite luminous as it's the middle of the afternoon. The decoration is pretty standard, but the luxury and the quality of the bedroom is still visible.

- You can put down the books on the table, Timothée indicates me before taking off his shoes.

I do so and stay besides the table, not knowing what to do next, and starting to feel a little bit embarrassed. Luckily for me, this guy seems to always have something to say.

- So, why don't you say to me what you really know about me without making some bad jokes like you did earlier, he says sitting on his bed.

I roll my eyes, sit in front of him on the couch and answer:

- Why do you want to know what I know about you? I'm pretty sure you're not going to learn anything as it's just some random facts about you.

- Well, let's just say I'd like to know what fans think and know about me, to know if there are false information circulating about me.

- Okay, first, who said I was a fan? (Of course I was one, but that's something that he didn't need to know for now). But if you really want me to do that then fine.

I started to tell him things I knew about him, like the fact that he is half-French and that he used to spend some holidays near St Etienne. Obviously I didn't tell everything I knew as he asked because I don't want him to see me as one of these crazy fangirls, even if in a way, I kind of am or was one myself. I also took advantage of this conversation to make fun of him a few times, mentioning that "peach scene" or that "Statistics rap" thing for example.

We kept talking about him and eventually about me for a while.

Then, still in our conversation, as I am exploring the room with my eyes, my look stops on the little space between the two closed curtains. I squint in order to identify what there is behind it and finally understand what it is. At this moment I am not listening to Timothée anymore. I just get up and walk in the direction of the window.

- What are you doing? I think he asks.

Still focus on what I am doing I open the curtains with an abrupt gesture, revealing the most beautiful thing: a perfect view on the Eiffel Tower.

I know it's totally cliché but as I am not a real Parisian since I've only been living here for less than a year, I really love that monument and it's one of my dreams to have a view like this.

As I open the window to go on the small balcony, Timothée joins me.

- How can you close the curtains when you have such a beautiful view? I ask.

- I just took a nap before I went to buy my books.

- A nap? Oh, what are you, 70? I say giggling.

- No but I have jet lag, he answers a little pissed.

- Oh yes, that's right, sorry… I didn't even ask you why you're here.

- For fashion week.

- Really!? That's so awesome, I love fashion! I wish I could go to a show one day, I say leaning on the guardrail of the balcony in direction of the magnificent view. So, what were you saying just before I got to the window?

- I was talking about my upcoming movie that I'm not supposed to talk about, he says sitting on the floor.

Even if we are in late June and that the weather is sunny, it isn’t too hot so we could stay on the balcony and continue our conversation. I sit like him on the floor and answer:

- Um, you're telling me secrets now? I guess that's a good point for me then… I look away from him and add in a low voice: too bad you're already taken.

- Taken? Taken by what? He asks confused.

I look back at him and roll my eyes as I have to say it out loud.

- Taken by a girlfriend named Lily.

He smirks and says while playing with a twig he found on the ground:

- Guess you don't know everything about me then.

- What do you mean?

- Lily and I broke up months ago.

- Oh, I say without being able to prevent myself from letting out a small smile, smile he immediately notices:

- You know, it's not good to be happy about other people's breakups, he says smirking.

- I… I'm not happy… I'm really sorry, um, you two were… you were a cute couple… I say embarrassed.

- You know I'm teasing you right?

- What!? Hey! That's not funny! I say punching him in the arm.

- Haha, that was for you're little joke earlier.

As an answer I just make a face to him, which makes him laugh even harder.

We kept talking for a while when suddenly he got up after looking at his watch.

- Shit!! The fashion show!! It's in half an hour!

- It's today!? I ask following him inside.

- No, it's right now. I really have to go. Haider Ackermann may be my friend, he doesn’t like when people are late, especially when we're talking about work… his work!

- Oh, um… I should get going then…

- I am really sorry to abandon you like that but even if we talked about it earlier it completely went out of my mine. Sorry.

As he is searching in his suitcase, I realize that my little dream with Timothée is now over.

- Okay, goodbye then… it was nice meeting you… I say going to the door.

- Um, yeah, really nice! He joins me in the front of the door. Sorry again, and thanks for the books, he says pointing them, even if in the first place you are kind of the reason they ended up on the ground. He giggles.

I giggle softly too and look up straight in his eyes as intensely as I can, maybe to trigger a reaction in him that would be favorable to me, at this point, any reaction would be good. But after ten seconds nothing happens. So I look down quickly, quite embarrassed, and then look up at him again and say in French:

- Au revoir Timothée (Goodbye Timothée).

He smiles and I immediately open the door and go out before saying something stupid. As I close the door, I realize I won’t have any souvenir of this incredible meeting, no photos, nothing. Just the images I would always keep in my mind. When I walk away from the door towards the elevator, I’m starting to regret not to have insisted a little more, like asking for his number or to see him again after the show. But no, my big lack of self-confidence decided to do nothing, and now it is too late. But then, from nowhere, the impossible happened. I hear the door I closed a few seconds ago opening again.

- Rachel, wait!

I turn back to him.

- Do you want to come with me? To the show?

Continue reading ! -> second chapter here: Chapter 2

#timothee chalamet #fanfic #Timothée chalamet imagine #timmy #timothee blurb #timothée imagine #timothée chalamet fiction #timothée chalamet story #short fiction #short story #timmy chalamet #first fiction

4 notes · View notes

letterboxd · 4 years

Photo

Life in Film: Kris Rey.

As her new comedy I Used to Go Here opens, Chicago-based writer and director Kris Rey talks to Letterboxd editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood about turning 40, divorce, female friendships, why nobody but Jemaine Clement could pull off a scene making tea, and what we can all learn from Generation Z.

If Kris Rey’s new comedy I Used to Go Here were a typical Hollywood rom-com, it would finish just before Rey’s film starts: with Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs) as a newly published author, engaged to be married to a handsome guy. Instead, we meet Kate in a Bushwick apartment she can no longer afford, as her publishing company breaks the news that her debut novel (Seasons Passed; terrible cover art, purple prose) is a failure and the publicity tour is off. That’s on top of the insult that her fiancé has recently ended their engagement.

Kate is given a faint ray of optimism when her creative writing professor (Jemaine Clement) invites her back to the liberal arts college she graduated from a decade earlier, to give a talk to his Gen Z students. Leaving Brooklyn and her pregnant bestie behind, Kate dives into the nostalgia of her old Illinois stomping ground, and I Used to Go Here turns into a low-key, pot-fuelled, intergenerational romp through ideas of success, friendship, creativity, authenticity and idolization.

The film’s fans on Letterboxd include Matt Neglia, who writes: “Gillian Jacobs brings charismatic charm and restraint to her role as a writer longing for a time when we were filled with endless potential without the fear of failure.” Matt DeTurck identifies with this theme: “Relatable for anyone wrestling with fitting the pieces of their life together in ways that feel truthful.”

On the contemporary representation of university life, Alex Billington remarks that “it’s got all the college movie tropes… but it repackages all of these in a smart adult-looking-back indie film package”. Max notes that “the college kids are an invaluable addition and feel like people rather than college or Gen Z stereotypes”.

Kate (Gillian Jacobs) and David (Jemaine Clement) in a scene from ‘I Used to Go Here’.

Your film starts just after the point at which a mainstream comedy about a single white woman in her thirties would end: with Kate’s book being published to no acclaim, her engagement being broken off, everybody else pregnant except her. It runs in opposition to the happy endings Hollywood has made us expect. Kris Rey: Oh god, [that’s] so astute. No-one has said that before and I have never thought of it before, but that’s so true! I think what’s so interesting about the whole journey that she goes on, and all of our own personal journeys, is that you’re used to, like, at the end of the movie, they get married! She gets her book published! And then everything is perfect! And then you realize: ‘Oh. Oh god, okay. How do I move on from this?’ So, you’re right, that is what’s so different about this.

The other thing—and I’m sure this can be said about most films this year—is how the set-up feels weirdly right for these times, which is to say: the widespread derailment of plans that the pandemic has wrought. It’s like we’re in a strange global coming-of-age. Several Letterboxd reviews observe how, for women in their late twenties to early thirties, there’s a second coming-of-age where everything suddenly feels extremely nostalgic. The film dives into that longing feeling by literally returning Kate to her old college. It’s funny, you know, a lot of people have pointed out how this doesn’t quite fit into a category. It’s not a rom-com, it’s not a true coming-of-age film in a sense of what we know that to be. I think that part of it is exactly what you’ve just pointed out, which is that it’s about a unique period of time for women, where you do reach this precipice. Mostly, it comes out of this big ever-pressing question which is “Am I going to have a family or not?”. Not every woman, but most women, have that question in their head until they either have a baby or they reach the age where they can’t have a baby anymore. “Am I going to have this? Am I going to follow this path of domesticity? Am I going to find a relationship that works long enough to have a family with them? Am I going to have to make sacrifices in my career to make room to have a family? Am I going to find them all at once?” Men just don’t have that point, to no fault of their own, but the fault of the patriarchy in general, which is that it has to be a conscious decision for women in a way that everything revolves around that, as we go about our lives at that age.

And you’ve explored that idea in more than just this film. I loved the awkward-yet-sincere moment at the baby shower, when the friends make her hold her book alongside their third-trimester bumps for a group photo. A book is a baby, and its publication should also be celebrated! Scenes like that emphasize how well Gillian Jacobs embraced the role of Kate. What did she bring to it that wasn’t on the page? There’s such a special thing that happens when you cast anyone for anything. It certainly happened with Gillian, but also with everyone. Definitely Jemaine was a big one, which is that I don’t typically write for specific actors. I write a character, I write the dialog, and then when I cast them I think ‘oh, Jemaine Clement is going to be in this role’, so then I go back through and read the whole thing in his voice and think ‘maybe he’d say it like this instead’ and maybe after [a scene we don’t wish to spoil], he would make tea for everyone. Very few, if any, American actors would be able to pull that moment off. That is kind of what I’m looking for: who are they? Are they able to feel like real people? Because so often they feel performative.

Like versions of a person. Right. Like they’re acting like a person! Gillian is very authentic. If you were to talk to her, she would just seem like her real self, and that was what was so appealing about her for me. Gillian just really brought herself, and I learned about her as a person.

As well as great comics like Kate Micucci and Jorma Taccone, there’s a lovely assortment of inclusive young characters who live in Kate’s old student house. Where did you find them? I just flushed them out and gathered them and held them close! There’s a couple of them that I didn’t know but I had seen in other stuff. Josh Wiggins, who plays Hugo, I’d seen him act in a movie called Hellion. Forrest Goodluck I saw in The Miseducation of Cameron Post. He’s incredible in that and I knew I wanted him to play Animal. Hannah Marks was someone that was sent to me, and we talked on the phone and I just knew she would be perfect. She’s such a brilliant go-getter and filmmaker and so ambitious in her own life. Khloe Janel, who plays Emma, auditioned for me here in Chicago and she’s so good. I adore her. I was taking a walk yesterday through the neighborhood and I saw her name on a little sign—she was making these poetry zines! I bought one.

Hugo (Josh Wiggins), Animal (Forrest Goodluck) and Tall Brandon (Brandon Daley) in ‘I Used to Go Here’.

The person we need to know about is whoever the guy is who plays Tall Brandon! Brandon Daley, who plays tall Brandon, is a person that I just knew. He is on the periphery of my social circle and he had come to a few parties at my house. His buddies called him ‘Tall Brandon’, in this very demeaning way! They were of course all good friends. I thought he was such a funny character that I wrote the character based on him. But I didn’t know him. Then he heard that I had written a part called Tall Brandon and he asked if he could play the part. I was like, “I don’t think so, Brandon!”

Was he an actor? Kind of. He’s a filmmaker but he’s much younger than me and he hadn’t done anything besides his own work. But I made him audition for the role based on him! [Laughs] I don’t know, I was just like, it’s a huge role, you know? The last thing you want is someone who can’t act like themselves, which everyone struggles to do. Anyway, he was so good in the audition, so funny, and he just nailed it. He steals the whole movie! He’s just so good.

I Used to Go Here is a long way from problematic college fare like Revenge of the Nerds or the angst of St Elmo’s Fire. It feels thoroughly 21st-century, especially in how the Gen Z housemates take an inclusive, ‘sure, why not’ approach to having Kate tag along with them. What inspired the way you wrote the intergenerational aspects of the film? There weren’t necessarily college films that I was using for inspiration. I wanted the place to feel the same that she left, but I wanted the people to feel different. This is what I’m finding in my life. I’m gonna turn 40 this year, and when I interact with people in their twenties, I’m blown away by the way that they view the world and the way that they view themselves and each other. I’m so impressed by it. And I am on board with a lot of these cultural changes that we’re seeing happen before our eyes, like, the idea of gender identity has changed so much, and so quickly. I’ve never seen anything change like that in my life. The idea of consent. When I first heard it I was like, “What? You have to ask if you wanna touch someone or kiss someone? It seems so lame!” Now, I can’t believe that we ever did that! I’m learning so much. They seem so clear-headed about it all. I just think that we have a lot to learn from that generation.

The movie’s not about that, necessarily, but it’s infused into it and I wanted that to influence Kate, in her life. Some of it is specific to this generation, but some of it is also just specific to being in your twenties. The character April, the way that she thinks about the [publishing] industry and her art, and the way that Kate, who is jaded, is like, “Okay, whatever, you’re naïve, make your little magazine, but you’ll have to follow the rules.” We’ve all been faced with that before.

Kris Rey with her son Jude Swanberg on the set of ‘I Used to Go Here’. / Photo by Blair Todd

So it’s a watershed year for you, turning 40. What would you define success and happiness as now, compared to when you were in your twenties and the ideas you had about the industry then? Oh, god. Okay so I’ve also had a lot of personal growth because I got divorced this last year, which was crazy. I’ve got two kids, a four year old and a nine year old. So I’ve been through so much; it’s been such a huge change for me. I have learned a lot, but one of the things that I have learned so much is that the relationships that matter the most in my life are my female friendships. I’ve always known that, but I’ve never seen it so much as I have in the last two years, both personally throughout my divorce, and professionally through making a film without a romantic partner to lean on. Of course I have male friends that are wonderful and supportive, but my female friends, those relationships are where I’m realizing I wanna put my effort into more than any other part of my life.

Okay, it’s time for a few questions about movies that are important to you. Thinking back, what is the film that made you want to be a filmmaker? Boogie Nights was the first film that I watched when I was in high school that I thought ‘oh, this is a job, and I’m seeing someone make stylistic choices that are interesting and unique’. You can see the behind the scenes in that movie a little bit. I remember watching it and thinking ‘that would be a cool job’. I also really loved the movie Bottle Rocket in high school. I began my filmmaking career thinking that I wanted to make documentaries, and so there’s also a lot of docs that I loved. But those were the early films that made me realize that it was even a job. Unfortunately not any female filmmakers, because I think that was just so rare [then].

What is your all-time comfort favorite film? Sleepless in Seattle, no question.

There’s your female filmmaker! Yes, but with a movie like Sleepless in Seattle, it’s such a mainstream movie that I never thought of it as ‘a job’. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I saw more independent and auteurish works. But Nora Ephron is a genius. That movie is perfect in my opinion.

What’s a film that, as a teenager, felt like a mirror into your soul? That movie with Chris O’Donnell, an Irish film, Circle of Friends. With Minnie Driver! Who is also in Good Will Hunting, another film I saw in high school. I haven’t seen Circle of Friends since it came out, but it felt very real to me, that movie. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that movie to anyone!

Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998).

What is the sexiest film you’ve ever seen? Shakespeare in Love! [Laughs.] There’s two movies. One was Legends of the Fall. It was literally the sexiest movie I’d ever seen up till that point. I was very young when it came out and there was this lovemaking scene by candlelight and I was like, ‘oh, that’s what sex is!’. And then Shakespeare in Love. That scene where he’s unwrapping her? So hot.

Who is another director you’d die for? I’m such a huge fan of Nicole Holofcener. I love her films so much. I have never met her. I do know some people that know her and I am honestly so scared to meet her because I like her work so much. She’s probably my favorite filmmaker. I just vibe with everything she makes. I love the tone. I just love all of her movies.

What’s a film that we should watch after we watch yours? You should watch She Dies Tomorrow. It’s so good, and Amy Seimetz is my very, very close and dear friend. We started making movies at the same time. Our movies were supposed to premiere at SXSW on the same day, and now they are being released on the same day, and we’re just in love with each other. Amy and I are— the movies are so wildly different from each other, but her movie is so good. It is really funny, it’s really weird and it’s really appropriate for the times right now.

I feel like some reviews are missing the comedy in it. I laughed so much throughout that film. I agree: people don’t get it! Can I shout out another movie that I watched recently? Crossing Delancey. I had never seen it before and my sister-in-law texted me and she was like, “you should watch this film like right now—this seems like something you would love”. I couldn’t believe how good it was. It’s so great. It feels like it could be shot right now in Brooklyn. All the cool kids in Brooklyn are dressing exactly the same way that all the cool kids in Brooklyn dressed in 1988, or whenever it came out. She’s having a dialog with a friend and the friend is like openly breastfeeding. And the way that they’re talking about romance and all this stuff is so on point. That movie’s great.

And another female director! Joan Micklin Silver. Yeah!

Related content

Dana Danger’s chronological list of films directed by women

Appropriate Behavior: the Letterboxd Showdown of indie, slacker and mumblecore films

Quarter Life Crisis: a list by Mary, and another by Michelle

Follow Gemma on Letterboxd

‘I Used to Go Here’ is now in select theaters and on demand. All press images are courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.

#kris rey #i used to go here #college film #college comedy #comedy #jemaine clement #gillian jacobs #female director #directed by women #52 films by women #kate micucci #jorma taccone #letterboxd

3 notes · View notes

kylendooleydesigns · 5 years

Text

Hazbin Hotel and My Thoughts on Feminism

This review is in no way aimed at any one specific group or ideology. These are mere opinions that people can choose to agree or not agree with. I am no way trying to sway the minds of anyone who chooses to read this review, people have their own opinions and have the right to express them. Thank you.

First, let me begin with my thoughts on the "modern feminist", I'll get to what I mean by that in a moment. For now, let's start with what the definition of feminism is; Merriam-Webster defines feminism as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes and the organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.

Now, with that said, I'd for everyone to pay attention to the word "equality". Feminism's roots can be traced all the way back to Plato and his classic Republic, where he advocated that women had the "natural capacities" that were equal to that of men for governing and defending Ancient Greece. (Olson, John, History.com) Ever since Plato's advocation for women's equal standing to men, women have been protesting and fighting for their rights to stand at the same political and economic point as their male counterparts. It wasn't until the late 18th and early 19th centuries when women were finally given their right to vote, New Zealand being the first sovereign state to give these rights to their women. After this revolutionary change, women joined in the war efforts of WWII, the Civil Rights movements, and began the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which still continues to this day.

Now, while I admit that the idea that the Equal Pay Act was created in 1963 and we are still dealing with the unfair distribution of pay between men and women, I'd like to bring up a personal point. My mother, who was born in 1963 mind you, has been working since her teenage years. She joined the military, got married, had a kid, divorced, remarried, and had another kid after her time in the military had come to an end, she fighting in the Gulf War before then. With only a military background and no college degree, my mom continued and still continues to work for the government through checking military helicopters for cracks to keep them from falling apart from atmospheric pressure. She's worked like this for over thirty years, seeing people come and go, men getting laid off or getting paid more than her fellow female co-workers. With that said, my mom actually gets paid more than most the men she works with, not only because she's the only one at her workplace who has the qualifications to do her line of work, but because she rarely ever takes time off. In fact, while she was pregnant with me, my mom refused to take maternity leave and went on working in this hazardous workplace despite the many objections of her male co-workers all the way up to my birth, my dad having to travel back and forth to see both my mom and me while he got our current house ready, meaning he wasn't always there to take care of her.

Years later, a female co-worker of hers got pregnant, took her maternity leave and when she got back, she found out a male co-worker had gotten paid more than her since her time away. She of course went off on her supervisor, but here's the thing: because she had taken her maternity leave and was unable to work, her male co-worker had to basically take on a double-shift and do the work she was in charge of, thus receiving pay for doing so.

Growing up in an environment with a mother who was a strong, independent woman after her divorce with a daughter and having to fight in an actual war that may or may not have lead to her sleep apnea and a dad who supported my mom from a different state while she was pregnant, I never saw there being that big an issue with the equality of men and women.

Now, I will say the unequal pay issue does get under my skin; however, the thing about equal pay and equal rights, is that women have to put in as much work and as much effort in their workplace as their male co-workers. Like I said, my mom worked while she was pregnant, thus getting the pay she deserved for the work she put in and her female co-worker who took her maternity leave and got mad for the work she didn't do went to her male co-worker. I can only imagine how she'd feel about it if the co-worker was a fellow woman.

This brings up my issue with the modern day feminist. Back in the day during the early growth of feminism, the issue was about equality. Now a days, it seems that "equality" is being replaced by "superiority". Here's an example of what I mean, I have more guy friends than girl friends, and most my guy friends are huge gentlemen, always wanting to support and keep us women's spirits up, meaning they enjoy paying for their food and opening doors for them. One such friend was sweet enough to open a door for a complete stranger who happened to be an older woman. Instead of thanking him for his kindness, with no real care that she was a woman, she went off on him and told him that just because she was a woman didn't mean he had the right to treat her like some delicate flower. He was, rightfully so, very confused and a tad hurt. I, Original Fox, a woman, upon hearing this story, called her a "bitch". Here's the thing ladies, people who are nice and do things out of the kindness of their hearts do it because their cool people, they're not doing it to make fun of our physical differences.

With that said, my conclusion to the feminist movement is that I believe in equality, equality meaning we are all treated, act, and do things as equal beings, not one being above the other. I don't care who you are, what you identify by, what your background is, how you handle a situation as a person, or what issues you're dealing with, if you put in the time, effort, strengths, and fight to do what you think you deserve without blaming a certain group: men, women, religion, politics, whatever, I'm rooting for you. Don't listen to the racists, sexists, and closed minded people who want to bring your personal views down and prove to them without putting yourself at the top of the advocate pillar and saying you deserve better without even proving it.

Now, on with the review of Hazbin Hotel.

For those who don't know, Hazbin Hotel is a pilot two years in the making created by YouTube Animator Vivziepop or Vivienne Medrano, who is best known for her Die Young music video by Kesha using her Zoophobia werewolf character Jay Jay. The story centers around Charlie Magne, the princess of Hell, and her hopes to open a hotel for rehabilitating demons and sinners. This plan contrasts with that of the yearly "cleansing" where non-angelic looking angels come and slaughter the inhabitants of Hell to make room for more sinners. Wanting to find a less violent way of hindering this overpopulation, Charlie, along with her manager/girlfriend, Vaggie, and their first client, porn star, Angel Dust, must prove their cause will work in order to keep the Happy Hotel running.

When I heard of this, I was excited and had high hopes. I had been a fan of Vivziepop's work for a long while, enjoying her animations and loving her now on hiatus, Zoophobia webcomic, and when I heard a project she had a huge passion for was going to air a pilot with the help a whole production team, voice actors, and some genuine talent, I was at the edge of my seat and had anticipated the pilot being aired. Does it live up to all the hype? Let's find out!

Well, off the bat, I wasn't all too crazy about the opening. I had been, admittedly, overly excited for the pilot and was expecting something... Different. The opening is your basic musical opening where the main character sings while images of what the world is like moves about around them, which wouldn't be so bad, if the musical number was original. The opening song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" was written by Joseph McCarthy and was first performed by Dolly Sisters in the musical Oh, Look! When I found this out, I was a little disappointed. I was probably expecting way too much from this pilot, but at the very least, I was expecting a more original musical number written by the team Vivziepop worked with in bringing this pilot to life. But that's probably just a nit-pick on my part, like I said, I was expecting a little too much from these people.

After the opening, we're immediately introduced to everyone's favorite, slutty spider, Angel Dust and his sassy attitude toward people who want to slut shame him. What follows is what I can only describe as being a story on crack. Everything is shown to us super fast with little time to breathe and explore the setting we are in, which I can understand with Sir Pentious and maybe Cherri Bomb, but with just getting out of the musical number of Charlie singing about how her world isn't the way she wants it to be and being introduced to Angel through a "don't slut shame, because it's their body and no one else's", it just seems like everything happens way to fast and everything is thrown at us without really letting us appreciate what we're looking at, the news scene being no better as they zip through the report of the fight going on and the introduction of Charlie and her "passion project". Again, that may be a little nit-picky as I did have higher expectations.

It's here that I also would have liked to know what the two little demons that help Charlie with her second musical number were and what role they play in her life. I mean, they must be either her mom or dad's henchmen or "help" wherever Charlie's used to live, but I would have preferred they played a bigger role than just singing and playing their instruments.

The third issue I have at this point is the use of sound effects. Again, a little nit-picky, BUT, I feel the use of sound effects with every movement and moment a character is on screen is a little too much. It doesn't help that the soundtrack never shuts up. Music or a sound is always playing, never allowing for us to take in what the character is saying on a more complex or understanding level. The only parts that are quiet are the limo scene and the Charlie calling her mom scene, which are honestly two of my three favorite parts because we get to see and meet these characters, understanding them and their personalities, as well the relationships they have with each other. Except maybe Charlie and Vaggie's, but I'll get to that later.

I enjoy the relationship Charlie does have with Katie Killjoy (in fact I enjoy Katie's relationship with Tom as well), the only critique I have here is Katie's "I don't touch the gays. I have standards." This just seems to be an add-on to make us despise Katie as a character, because of her views on the gay community, basically saying homophobia is a bad trait of a person and makes a character more of a villain, which I've known homophobes. They're not evil, they've just been raised in an environment where being gay isn't the norm and, in a strict background, "the gays" is a mental illness that can be easily taken care of through the proper therapy. As for Katie's "standards", again, this doesn't mean she's a terrible character. In fact, look at it like this, it's an adult cartoon and the jokes are meant to make you laugh, not judge a certain group in a cold and harsh way.

However, Charlie's relationship with the people of Hell as their princess and heir to the throne, I find a little off pudding. I'm sure there's some kind of hidden meaning to how the royal family is treated as celebrities over that of rulers of a certain area, but for now, I'm just gonna nit-pick a little more. My opinion on princesses in the media is at a bit of an all time low. Ever since the birth of the Disney Princess Trope, the views of a princess in any form in the media has been to hate being a princess, sing about how much it sucks to be a princess, remain princess when it's obvious they're no longer a princess and should take the title of Queen. Charlie is sadly part of this trope, the only good part of this being that no one but her girlfriend takes pity on her. What I mean by this is that Charlie shows signs that her father has high expectations of her becoming the heir to Hell and taking rule in his place as the future queen, making her status something to sing about how much that sucks, of course her dreams contrast with that of her father's expectations, like most Disney Princesses. That being said, I'm not exactly sure I see the purpose of her being the princess of Hell when no one treats her as one nor do they seem to care that Lucifer is her father, other than to make her relationship with her father strained, which isn't bad don't get me wrong, but there are other ways to work that subplot in without adding the title of princess to her name.

After the whole fight scene, we get the scene where Vaggie goes off on Angel for making the hotel look like a joke. This coincides with my issue with the whole feminist aspect and her and Charlie's relationship, so I'll get to that later. But I like this part because of the quiet moment we get, so there we go for whatever that was.

When the trio gets home, I do like how we see a subtle hint to the fact that Angel does want to reform and go to Heaven and escape his abusive sugar daddy by how he makes a crack at the lack of food to feed all of the non-existent souls and immediately feels bad. Of course, you can't force change on someone in the blink of an eye, so I give him a pat on the shoulder for not knowing how to apologize for his assholiness.

This then leads us to the calling mom scene where we see Charlie struggling to prove her father wrong and asking her mom for advice for feeling this way. From what I can assume either her folks are divorced, her father is dead and Lilith is in charge of Hell, or Lucifer left that part of his family to marry Narissa from Zoophobia and had Damian. I mean in the opening we see a shadow of Lucifer taking the shape of Zoophobia's version of the Devil, so that's my fan theory and I'm sticking to it! And before people say that's impossible, if that's the case, then Charlies is no longer the heir to the throne, but here's my response to that: Charlie was born first and is the daughter of Lilith, who I'm not gonna get into, because this isn't part of the review, therefore making her take the throne before Damian by political standards. Anyway, this scene was fine, I wish there was more info on exactly what her relationship is with both her parents, seeing as they never make a real appearance in the pilot to show their personalities, but I'd also like it if there was a main character whose relationship with their parents isn't severed because of the character's dreams, a strict family, or dead.

And then HE comes into the picture. THE one character I lost my mind over. Alastor, the Radio Demon!!! I LOVE this character! While I'm sure most fans find Angel to be their favorite character and don't get me wrong Angel is awesome, Alastor is what has me hooked to the show. To compare him to Charlie, Vaggie, or Angel, Alastor, in my opinion, is an optimistic pessimist, something I find myself as being on a daily basis as I too find good entertainment in the destruction of others as they fall into the fiery pits of failure. Not only that, but each moment he's on screen there's this mysterious vibe about him with his permanent smile and his end goal in helping Charlie, something I find rather attractive of my demon... I mean... Men. His interactions with the other characters is fun, he's got a classy excitement to him, wanting to provide and receive entertainment in the most morbid and old times of places. His version of "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow" is a hilarious change to Charlie's cheery, uplifting view of her people, his version being a look at the souls in Hell as lost causes, their punishments being eternal, there being no escape except for the life they've lived before and the agony they have to face now is bliss. His take down of Sir Pentious was like a huge "bitch please" which was absolutely wonderful, from his power to his facial expression in the end.

With that said, is this pilot flawless...? No, absolutely not, far from it. There's some things, like the soundtrack, the opening song, and the sound effects I'd think about doubling down on and allow us to take in the world we're being introduced in to. If someone came into this show completely blind, they'd probably be a tad confused as to what's happening and why. Fans already know Charlie is an overly optimistic demon spawn, Vaggie is a pessimistic feminist with no care for men, Angel Dust is a cross-dressing spider who enjoys being the "bad boy", and Alastor is a deer with a need for endless entertainment. People who don't know VivziePop and her work, won't know/care much about these characters going straight in and will most likely like to explore the world and its why.

And now, the coup-de-gras: my one issue with this pilot and what it seems to be shoving down pessimistic people like me's throat. Women rule and straight men suck. Do NOT quote me on this. I do not know Vivienne or the people she worked with to make this pilot. This is MY opinion after having watching the pilot, listening, reading, and following the creation of this show from the beginning. They can correct me on this in future episodes or deeper dives in to characters and development.

So, off the bat, we're introduced to a male gay character who dresses like a woman and is slut shamed by everyone except his friends who have similar views as he does. In my opinion, this doesn't work for me. I get wanting to "represent the minority"; however, the depiction of straight, heterosexual characters slut shaming or having sexual encounter/feelings toward said character with cruel intentions to bring someone down isn't something I see as a good representation. Granted, there are several people out there who will make a person feel like shit for having views that do not conform to what society deems as normal, but in today's world, where media and the children of today are exposed to these views, the "minority" becomes the majority. I get it, life sucks, oh darn, well then fight for equality, don't fight to make straight cisgender community seen as the closed minded community that doesn't give a damn. There are plenty of cisgender heterosexuals who support the LGBTQ+ community and have no problem with anyone who doesn't fit the old views of the world. It just seems, from what I've experienced, that if you're a straight, cisgender human being that has no real tie to the Pride Movement, you're a homophobic monster who takes the side of all the haters. That's not true, we just aren't playing for the same teams nor do we believe we were born in the wrong body.

Next is Charlie and Vaggie's relationship. Don't get me wrong, having a gay lead is no skin off my nose, if anything, I don't give a damn what their attracted to. If their a good character and have good development and don't let their sexual identity get in the way of their goals, I'm good. But when it comes to Vaggie and Charlie, there's just something I personally find "off". For one, VivziePop actually brought this up in a Tumblr post in response to another about how they didn't like the idea of Charlie and Vaggie being a canon couple because it'd just be another way of representing the gay community through the media's abuse of showing how open minded they are, to this VivziePop revealed that Vaggie and Charlie are indeed a couple, but she'd rather not focus on their relationship and instead focus on the story. But upon the pilot's release, their relationship is already put a slight focus on from Katie's "I don't touch the gays" afterwards touching Charlie who Vivzie revealed may be a Bisexual characters having dating a male character in the past and to the overly cutesy peppy girl and her overly protective, pessimistic girlfriend. I honestly don't care about whatever relationship these two have, so long as it doesn't effect the plot in a negative way, one example being that they fight, break up, and get back together through some TV show bullshit that has little to do with the rest of the show's running. This show is about getting demons into Heaven, it's not an after school soap opera.

This brings me to Vaggie's character as a whole and to her views affecting that of the central tone of the show itself. Vaggie is clearly a feminist, this being brought up when Angel reminds her that she doesn't seem to trust any man, any men... Men. She punches a guy who calls her girl a bitch, gets angry at Angel only when Charlie screwed up too by both singing and getting in a fight with Katie when Vaggie specifically told her not to sing as what they were doing was serious, refuses to trust Alastor without allowing him a second chance, something she is helping Charlie to achieve and support despite Charlie herself being open to helping Alastor understand where she's coming from, and calls the hotel a "man cave" just because Husk gets a bar in order to keep him working at the hotel. I get it, alcohol is somehow a sin to the hotel, most likely because it can lead to drunkenness or sloth and gluttony, but that doesn't make it a brothel or a man cave. In fact, she doesn't seem to argue having Nifty, a female character as part of the staff as she just zips around cleaning, but here's the thing about Nifty: it's clear she's straight and how they portray how straight she is contrasts with the other female main characters. Nifty is boy crazy and a clean freak, being confused as to why the hotel is such a dump when everyone living there is ladies, not knowing Angel on a personal level yet and wonders where all the men are. This to me, is a stereotypical straight cisgender female: wanting to clean, make new friends, and meet some men. Being a cisgender, straight, female myself, I can tell you, that's not who I and I hope some other girls are. I've never been much of a clean freak or boy crazy, in fact I'm a bit of a slob and don't really give two shits about men; I've honestly got more important things to concern myself with than over getting a boyfriend. Nifty is a fun character and I enjoy her place in the show, but I would have liked it if Vaggie immediately wanted her out of the hotel as she did with Husk and Alastor, showing some God damned equality as a feminist and if Nifty was a little less concerned about gender roles and having men around. Depicting feminism is fine in media, but don't go overboard with it. Make some straight, cisgender males actually great people who support the ideals of women and don't want to see them fail, show the equality we as women fought so hard to achieve, by making the roles of men and women equal, not one gender being better than the other morally. Alastor is a great character, but he did slap Vaggie's ass, which was unneeded, but I'll admit I found that hilarious. I can only hope Alastor is only fucking with Vaggie and her views on men and turns to a pretty awesome guy who, while not believing in her cause, supports Charlie anyway he can.

All in all, I loved this pilot and see great things coming its way, I just think things could be tweaked and lessened down to be less of a huge middle finger to certain groups of people and less of an Ed, Edd, and Eddy soundtrack of unnecessary sound effects. I'd recommend this pilot to anyone with a passion for animation and wanting to put something you've worked years for to give them that jolt of ambition. If you're bothered by too many loud moments, less quiet moments, too many jabs at the heterosexual cisgender community, and lots and lots of sex jokes, this probably isn't for you. Check it out on YouTube and give it a try.

P.S. to those of the religious community, me being part of it, if the version of this Hell is off pudding and isn't how it should be depicted in comparison to that of the biblical version and it offends you, I suggest either ignoring the pilot completely and its growth, or you can see the horrifying reality behind it... It's... An... Adult... Cartoon!!! *collective gasps* for more information please check Family Guy, South Park, and, I know I'm dating myself here, but literally every episode of the Simpsons ever.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this rant/review. These are just my personal views and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Eat chocolate.

Imma take a nap!

#hazbin hotel #feminism #vivziepop #vivienne medrano #alastor #hazbin alastor #personal rant #rant #sorry for the rant #review #hazbin review #dont take this the wrong way #grainofsalt

5 notes · View notes

shoujocentral · 5 years

Text

Top 5 Kannazuki no Miko Characters

KnM is one of my favorite anime of all time. The story is unique, the romance is beautiful, and the mecha battles, though divisive, are entertaining as hell. However, the best part of the anime by far are the characters. There's so many of them, and while some are... less impressive than others (*cough* Girochi *cough*), the ones that leave an impact REALLY leave an impact.

Today, I'm here to count down my five personal favorite characters from the Kannazuki no Miko anime. But first, and honorable mention...

Hon. Mention- Makoto Saotome

Mako is best girl. No doubt about that. She's energetic, upbeat, and one of Himeko's few friends. But all of that changes when she loses her entire Track and Field career in the first Orochi attack, and in her grief blamed Himeko. Of course, she eventually comes around and makes up with Himeko by encouraging her during her lowest point. FRIENDSHIP GOALS!

So... why is she only an honorable mention? Well, she's barely in the show. Her only times to shine are in episode 2 and 9, and she's basically non-existent for all the episodes in between. Basically, she's awesome, but awesome only in minimal doses.

No. 5- Reiko Ota

My favorite sub-villain of the bunch. Reiko has a kind of "don't take no shit from nobody" attitude, which is a personality type that I relish. She's a woman of few words, but every word that comes out of her mouth is just pure bliss. My personal favorite is her "Number 69" joke towards Corona (which is actually kinda messed up once you know Corona's backstory). I also love how she's the only one to call out the fact that Tsubasa is gay.

One of my favorite parts of the show is when we learn that Himeko is a fan of Reiko's books. This injects a bit of dramatic irony into her character since she became an Orochi due to her failed career as an author. It really makes me wish that she and Himeko interacted at some point. Oh well, that's what fanfiction is for ^_^

No. 4- Souma Oogami

Ladies, gentlemen, and those of unspecified genders, may I introduce the manliest man who ever man-ed! Souma may not be the most deep or complex character of the bunch, but you can't deny that he's a total badass. His Japanese voice actor has some of my favorite battle screams in all of anime, right up there with DBZ. I get chills everytime he shouts his signature attack "Nichirinkouretsu Daigekiha!"

Of course, he does have a small bit of development towards the end of the series. He starts off with the impression that he needs to protect Himeko from the Orochi. But after Himeko revives Ame no Murakumo by herself, he recognizes her strength and wants to fight the Orochi by her side. Respekt Wamen, my man!

No. 3- Tsubasa

I love this edgy little gay boi! His mech is a darker version of Souma’s, he’s the first villain with a legit air of intimidation, and his fight with Souma oozes awesomeness! He even gets his own insert song, which is a total banger 😎

What I love most about Tsubasa is that, despite being 100% buttfuq insane, he talks to and treats Souma like a caring older brother. When he fights Souma in episode 5, he almost seems proud that Souma has embraced his Orochi powers and has become stronger.

Tsubasa also serves as a great parallel to Chikane. Both become Orochi because of their love for someone. The difference is that Tsubasa is able to see, through Chikane, what a monster he’s become. With that, he sacrifices himself to give Souma strength. Now that’s character development!

No. 2- Chikane Himemiya

"NANI?! Chikane is Number 2??? Get the torches and pitchforks!!!" I know, I know, but please have patience.

What can I say about this actual goddess that hasn't already been said? Even if you've never seen the anime, you can't call yourself a yuri fan if you've never heard the name Chikane Himemiya. She's beautiful, elegant, commands authority wherever she goes, and the biggest damn sweetheart you'll ever meet (specifically to Himeko).

Chikane is by far the most damaged character in the show. She was born into a wealthy family and raised under the highest of high expectations. She had to be perfect at everything, but no one ever took into account the toll this would take on her mentally. Literally, the first person who treats her like a normal human being, Himeko, she ends up falling in love with to the point of obsession. Yeah... she's clearly not all there.

In truth, Chikane falling for Himeko is the worst thing that could have happened to her. She lives in an environment where homosexuality is clearly not the norm, and thus has no way of openly expressing her love for Himeko. This causes her to see herself as "disgusting" and to make up for this, she tries to help Himeko hook up with Souma.

Of course, I can't talk about Chikane without mentioning the most controversial scene. Chikane's decision to make Himeko hate her so she'll sacrifice her to Ame no Murakumo... by sexually assaulting her. She did something terrible, unforgivable, and that's exactly why it's so effective. This is the scene that proves how imperfect Chikane is. She made a horrible decision because she's flawed, she's human.

I could go on about Chikane forever, but that's a topic for a whole other day. Right now, I need to move on to Number 1. My favorite character in Kannazuki no Miko...

No. 1- Himeko Kurusugawa

I know what you're thinking. I know I'm probably the only person on Earth who feels this way. But I'm standing my ground with this one. And here's why...

I identify with Himeko so much. When I was young, during later middle school and early high school, I was weak, unpopular, and cried at just about everything. I believed I was worthless and that eveyone else was better than me. But as I got older, I grew up and became a more confident person, someone who pursues what they want despite the many obstacles that stood in my way.

Granted, the reason for my growth wasn't because I was forced to become a mystical priestess and revive a giant robot god, but that's besides the point.

Coming from someone who may have been the most pathetic kid you'd ever see, what I look for in a protagonitst is someone who's flawed, but more importantly, someone who's vulnerable. In that sense, Himeko is a perfect protagonist. She's the last person you'd expect to be chosen for the task of saving the world. She's a 16 year old girl who puts eveyone's happiness before her own and blames herself for everything that goes wrong in her life. Even her body is unable to take the strain, as she faints almost everytime she faces a dangerous situation.

However, as the show progresses, we see Himeko grow into her own. She becomes braver, wanting to be there for the ones she loves. She becomes stronger, enduring the trauma of sexual assault and reviving Ame no Murakumo all by herself. She learns to love herself, realizing she does have a place in this world and people who care about her.

The only thing that doesn't change about her is her greatest flaw: her undying forgiveness. Her ability to look past everything bad someone has done to her. This applies most to Chikane. Even after Chikane assaults her, attacks Souma, becomes an Orochi, and DESTROYS THE ENTIRE WORLD... she forgives her. Because that's just the kind of person she is.

There's no greater strength that the ability to forgive the unforgivable.

Well, that was a mouthful. I hope y'all enjoyed my first Top 5 list. You may or may not like Kannazuki no Miko as a show, and I can understand that, but I hope my little insight into these characters swayed you just a bit.

Until next time, my fellow yuri lovers! ❤️😊❤️

#yuri #shoujo ai #yuri anime #yuri manga #kannazuki no miko #destiny of the shrine maiden #kaishaku #chikane himemiya #himeko kurusugawa #chikane x himeko #himeko x chikane

29 notes · View notes

silver-kitsuneneko · 6 years

Text

Conventions Are NOT Consent

I hate making rants. But because of this shit with Momokun, I have a few things I would like to say. First, I’m not going to bash her or anything, the internet has done that enough and she’s seriously not worth my time but will use her as an example to talk about why she and people like her are what’s wrong with the convention community. It has become more and more of a problem in the recent years. Whenever you have to have signs all over a con saying something that you any adult SHOULD know is not only sad but troubling. Cosplay is NOT consent and Just because you’re at an anime convention; all social etiquette is still in play! Look I get it, going to a con is a chance for people to be themselves. It’s a de-stressor where you can sit back, relax, geek out with old and new friends and then go back to the grind. Yes, a convention is a space where you can dress up, be weird, or whatever, hell even vendors and artists get into it. What job can you have where you can walk to a person for hours about your favorite TV show and get paid for it! However, there are a few idiots who think “I’m at a convention! This means I can do whatever I want!” Yeah no, just because you’re at an anime convention or event, doesn’t mean you can do whatever, common sense is still in play. And it’s sad that this has to be stated but here are a few things you should not do at a convention

First, Keep You Hands to Yourself! This is a phrase that most of us have learned in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and by second grade it’s literately drilled into our heads that unless someone says it’s okay, DON’T TOUCH ANYONE! Though there are exceptions to the rule, like spontaneous hugs and things but if you don’t like someone to hug you, PLEASE tell them. Personally, I like getting hugs but some people don’t like being touched at all. We are also taught in school, at home, and early 90s PSAs that we have all no-no areas. For women there’s three no-no area, for men there’s two no-no areas and no one has the right to touch you in YOUR no-no area without consent. So things like groping a woman’s breasts, pinching a man’s butt, or putting something in close contact against or near someone’s private parts without their consent is sexual harassment and violation of that person’s space. Men: if you see a woman in a sexy cosplay, breasts out, ass out, posing and jiggling her breasts, this does NOT give you any right to touch her. If she’s fully clothed and you think she’s attractive and want to talk to her and she’s into you and flirt with you, this does NOT give you the right to touch her. If she’s at a convention or anywhere minding her business, this does NOT give you the right to touch her. If you wouldn’t do it outside of a convention, then don’t do it at a convention. Women: Contrary to popular belief, men are not 24/7 sex addicts. They don’t crave sex and constant stimulation and this should be an excuse to harass them either. If you see a hot guy dressed as a dead ringer of your family anime character, this does NOT give you the right to touch him. If he’s not in cosplay and looks like you average or handsome joe, this does NOT give you the right to touch them. If they are at an anime convention minding their business, this does NOT give you the right to touch them. It’s sad to say but if Momokun was a male cosplayer and doing the things she has done, she would have been blacklisted and jailed by now. But there are other ways people have started to harass others at cons. Also, making a cosplay costs a lot of time and a lot of MONEY. Whether someone gets it custom made, made it themselves, or bought it, money was involved. What does this mean? This means that if you do touch someone’s prop or cosplay without permission and ruin it, you made that person lose money or have to figure out how to save it. It’s not fair to that person that they want to fix YOUR mistake because you didn’t ask for permission and messed up weeks or months of work.

Do NOT take photos of anyone or anything without consent. Now taking pictures to capture a moment is not anything new. It’s actually a fun pastime. But with the way cameras have evolved within the last decade, it’s easier than ever before to have take a photo and upload it and share it. This is a good thing but when it’s used to harass and bully, it’s a problem. In the early days of the internet, there was a website dedicated to making fun at bad cosplay. And their definition of “bad” were people who did do the effort but were overweight, underweight or the “wrong” ethnicity to cosplay the character. Now, the many people just randomly go to cons and take photos of people and use for sites and things. Once again not bad but many people do NOT want their pictures taken. Some are camera shy, some people are sensitive to lights, some may not be in their best look, and some cosplayers know that if someone is chasing them down for a picture with them in a revealing outfit, it’s not for a good reason, so in that case “ask before you take!” It became so much of a problem that for awhile, there were incidents were men were ejected from cons and banned because they had cameras and taking lewd photos of female attendees and cosplayers alike. Because of this, security has been amped up became some of these people have been blacklisted from all conventions. Case in point, there was an incident where one of these people slipped through the cracks. I was at the event and the event itself was disorganized from the get go but because someone stole something they had security roaming and this man came out of nowhere, got down on the ground and took a few up skirt shots of a friend of mine. She of course screamed and tried to restrain him but he got away but thankfully because of the previous incident, security was on high alert and he was immediately apprehended. Because of this and many incidents, taking photographs were added to the cosplay is not consent movement. This also extends to artist and vendor wares as well. I have seen and was a victim of people taking photographs without permission. For artists who draw, they know it’s because they don’t want to buy the print so they’ll take a picture instead. For makers, many take pictures just to see how it’s made but in rare cases, to t come back for it later. In any case, it doesn’t to ask before you snap. It’s just common courtesy. Once again, if you wouldn’t do it outside of a convention, don’t do it inside.

A convention is not your personal anime fantasy and use common sense. Many people go to conventions. Once again, fun and de-stressing however, it’s not like you’re living in a real life anime or a protagonist in an anime. So what does this means? Don’t treat anyone like literal shit because you want to be funny or edgy just for one day. Don’t ask or be tsundere because that’s what you identify as. Tsunderes are assholes on anime and they are assholes in reality. Don’t run after someone and assault them because you’re a yandere and that person is with your “senpai”. Don’t go up to people cosplaying as certain characters and attempt to carry them off insult them because they are like this character in this show. Sadly in the Hetalia fandom, there were a lot these instances from the Nazi salute with Germany cosplayers and randomly calling Spain cosplayers pedophiles. Or an incident where a group of cosplayers kidnapped a young child because she was dressed as Chibi America. Don’t insult or roast guests or voice actors because you want to look cool in front of your friends because once again, you look like an asshole. It’s a no win solution for most because if a voice actor or actor have a reputation for being rude or mean to fans it can damage their career. A good example of this would be a recent convention with the actors of Infinity War with a group of disrespectful fangirls. As I said, playfulness or okay but roasting and being a complete jerk is not funny or cool. It’s one of the reasons why actors and actresses or voice actors don’t go to conventions. It’s a miracle that Josh Keaton still tries to connect with his fans after all of the hate and backlash he’s gotten. Also, anime girls are different from girls in real life so don’t think “I saw in a manga where a boy meets a girl and he fondles her and she get aroused and he took her virginity and now she’s his girlfriend because of this so it should work with other girls” or “if I compliment her breasts and she’s nice to me, it’s her right to have sex with me” is something that happens. If you saw it in a manga KEEP it in your head, if you try to replicate anything you saw in a hentai manga or any manga of that nature you are not only the problem but you will get arrested. I added this in because there are some people who thing like this and it’s disgusting.

Finally, do NOT blame your behavior on any mental disorder or condition or upbringing anything really. This is something that I’ve seen before and Momokun is just one of many who have done this. Having ADHD, depression, anxiety, social anxiety, autism (high functioning), or bipolar disorder is NOT an excuse for inappropriate actions! I have known MANY people who have used excuses like these as an excuse for being assholes or doing something idiotic and it needs to stop. My toxic booth mate often used her upbringing and bipolar disorder as the reason for being asshole, I knew of an incident where a friend’s coworker was acting obnoxious and loud and when called on it they stated “I have autism so I don’t know any better”. I have a few friends who are high function autistic and when I told them the story they even said “yeah no, you don’t scream and act out if you’re high functioning”. Being “smart” doesn’t give you the right to spout racial slurs or jerking off into cups. Not knowing any better is also not an excuse because you DO know better. If someone is telling you or giving you a sign of being comfortable, STOP your behavior. Being female, LGBTQ, male, or anything does not give you the right to do anything and don’t use it as a reason why you’re acting in a socially unacceptable way. It’s making yourself and anyone with those conditions, upbringings, and groups look bad and it’s not fair to them!

In conclusion, remember to always have fun at a convention. That’s the sole purpose of a con, fun. As attendees you al can make things easier by reporting any wrong doings, calling someone out when you see something not right, or just following basic social norms. Just use common sense people.

#momokun #anime convention #convention etiquette #anime expo #cosplay community #cosplayers #this needs to stop #this needs to be said #this is serious #she's apart of the problem

500 notes · View notes

sunnysynthsunshine · 6 years

Text

4th Comedy Monologue

“Hands up if you just love combining strange foods together and gauging down on them while watching netflix on a late night?”

Oh yes you over there what do you like to conjure up?

Gravy and rice,Nandos mayo on pasta or...or lightly salted Doritos dipped into a KFC Oreo Krushem

KFC,Kentucky Fried Chicken or Kentucky I can’t say the word but this is what baby me would’ve called it Chicken one of the biggest fast food chains in the world or mainly in the UK while America has so many fast food places we only have a couple of their places while the rest are mainly local

They have tacos,soups and stacked burgers over here we only have the odd few places and then the chippy down the street

Speaking of chips, who here has tried their new chunky chips yet?

Ok,quite a few of you enjoy your potatoes being chunky and the rest of you like chips how you like your make up covered in plastic and full of chemicals.

Personally despite not minding the new chunky chips I’d go with liking both of them but I’ve seen mixed reviews

Some prefer the chunk others don’t, while some of their chips weren’t bad I get the same feeling from eating them that I get from our everyday weather

“It’s very dull isn’t it? like my eyes when I lose sleep”

Sometimes you just want to get the blanket out and have some britcom and chill

Which I know probably isn’t going to catch on since most of you prefer watching american teen dramas about comic book characters where the same person who plays Salem the cat

is the same guy who was in that old disney or nick tv show from your childhood

Either that or your someone more into looking at images of Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor’s actors from the Bohemian Rhapsody film

then again me neither, and I mean the Roger Taylor from Queen not the Roger Taylor from Duran Duran although they’re both cuties

John Deacon and Brian May’s actors too

When I watch films I try to teleport myself into the film’s universe as much as I can

I got a bit of a surprise when heard a northern irish actor playing one of Freddie’s lovers Paul Frenter

On hand Yay! More representation!, more film opportunities, on the other hand he plays the villian!

When I went to see the film I expected some things but then again outside of their music I didn’t know much about the personal lives of Queen,

In one of the scenes with Paul Frenter I was like is this a film about classic rock legends or does it want me to break free?

So my/this country has been featured quite a few times recently in films hasn’t it

Derry Girls,Coming Home,Game of Thrones,Star Wars etc.

While I’m listing these I think your noticing something in the intonation and tone of my voice

It’s that despite being Northern Irish my voice doesn’t sound like I come from there

I come from the land of punk music,Nirvana and chip shops but because I looked up to Hannah Montana,Lady Gaga and P!nk for most of my life so as I got older I ended up sounding like a alternative instagram model before instagram even existed.

That and with the stuff I was interested in I could go from being into Music,Games and books to being interested in the cultures of different countries

I used to love typical american based things,then japanese things during my weeaboo phase although I will admit that phase might still be going on,German things,Scandinavian things etc.etc.

In the year Instagram was invented 2010,I was on holiday on florida and because my yank voice of stars and stripes was developing the people in florida didn’t know I was from a different country that’s how confusing my voice was,

I mean I know now. some people here are like me and don’t have the accent but even before that as a child my voice was so high if someone went up to me or had a conversation with me it would be like talking to a balloon.

You’ll float too! (evil voice) (mickey mouse voice) Hiya Fellas it’s me Mickey Mouse

But if we are talking about representation and how we identify with certain people or characters

I’d say I’m not really much of a liam neeson type of irish person I’m more of a Ed Byrne irish person

I like potatoes,punk music and pirates how about ye

So speaking of certain generations liking certain other alternative things

A lot of people have started liking blur recently

Then again who likes the gallaghers anyway?

So the people liking Blur are like what I used to be like about One Direction

Pulp are pretty good too I like me some of Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker in his younger days actually looked a lot like Ed Byrne other times he looks like Tim Burton

There is one thing I disagree with Jarvis Cocker on though and it’s his short tea about michael jackson

Basically during the 1996 brit awards he showed his bum to the public in protest of the cringy performance michael jackson was doing

Oh,great now that makes it sound even more wrong

Jarvis was defintely off his cocker but he wasn’t mooning the moonwalker...ok he was

He interviewed a furby on the radio moving on

So, Michael Jackson one of the rock legends alongside bowie and mercury

You either like him,adore him,not really care about him or dislike him based on the rumours and scandals created about him by certain people and publications

I love him,he was peculiar sometimes but I was fascinated by that by his neverland,

by his talent and by how he was able to reach into the hearts of millions

So many opportunities for comics and actors to make creative jokes or puns

but nope let’s joke about the one thing some people mainly associate him with outside of his music which he was tormented for the rest of his life.

Oh almost forgot my blanket,at least I’m not dangling it over a window balcony

(deadpan stare)

Cringing can at times feel like a sting from a bee

Speaking of bees we apparently won’t have them for much longer

Bees are now next to pandas and Tigers in the endangered animals of the USA

Have we learned nothing from the bad history of colonization!

Well in the words of Suggs let’s bless the bees

Besides It’s the wasps you should be killing not the bloody bees

you can remove the cause but not the symptom

It’s a bit of a mind flip as the future continues we are heading into a time slip

Let’s do the Time Warp again!

I’ve recently been listening to the soundtrack of Rocky Horror Picture Show

But not just that the sequel too

Some of you know what I’m talking about and the rest are probably surprised that a rocky horror sequel even exists

It’s called Shock Treatment it came out in 1981 and it was less successful

It’s more focused on Brad and Janet as they live in a fictional town called Denton

Where everything is televised as the town is located inside a tv studio,

Not too different from 2019 seeing as we are all looking at screens that show manufactured faces,

The storyline is about how reality tv affects the public and mental health

Considering reality tv hasn’t changed much since then I’d say that film was quite accurate in it’s satire

Do I need to bring up roxanne from Celebrity Big Brother?

Brad is not feeling good after the events of the first film so he and Janet have been having marriage problems.

They go on a game show hosted by tosser in a purple wig...I mean Barry Humphries as they sing about how they relate to refrigerators and toasters

Such a mood

Brad is then sent to the set of a fictional soap opera Dentonvale which takes place in a mental hospital

Where the character actors are played by some of the same actors from the original such as Patricia Quinn,Richard O'Brien and Nell Young

The songs are actually quite good

Especially the title song,little black dress,farley’s song,Breaking Out and Me of Me

For those of you curious to see that film watch it

If you like rocky and if your ok with rocky going from the sci-fi horror genre to the musical comedy genre

When you see that Time Warp sequence in Rocky Horror it’s like a circus just a group of talented people being their kooky,incredible fun vibrant selves

It’s art house,it’s shock humour,it’s surreal but it’s fun and it’s out of this world

Like Belfast sometimes a few weeks back I was there and the streets were full of performers

There were musicians,actors,comedians,stunt artists and even a very tall person on stilts

It’s things like these that make me realise how creative this country is

A lot of good talent is overshadowed from our lack of representation in media to being ignored in projects

Northern Ireland is a cool place

Kurt Cobain,Stiff Little Fingers,Van Morrison,Two Door Cinema Club,Patricia Quinn,Mark Ashton,Terri Hooley, Jimmy McShane and all you performers,singers,actors,dancers,designers,Producers,Directors,Artists and Creators

are all from here

I’m just a sweet transvestite from Hibernia--i ha ha

We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow

We're going to do it

No matter how the wind is blowing

We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow

We're going to do it

We just gotta keep going

The sun never sets for those who ride on it

Goodnight!

9 notes · View notes

kenjiro-s · 6 years

Text

What goes well with tea ?, a TeruYama story

Of ink and ivy

Tattooing, Yuuji thought, was one of those jobs that looked way more complicated than they actually were. While the ivy leaves wrapping around the girl’s upper arm were taking most of his attention, he spared some part of his mind to just observe his own hand. It was steady, the movements controlled and smooth. Nothing too choppy, just lovely lines and colours. Amazing what one’s body could be taught to do. Another line, down and up. One more, dip and pull. Carefully. Just a touch here and a bigger spot there. Gently. Just a little more pressure…Perfect.

Sitting up, he wiped the girl’s skin and helped her stand. A minute later she was twirling in front of the huge mirror, a huge smile on her face.

- This is amazing ! Loot at the colours ! And the swirly lines ! And the details…! – The man with her, identified as her father a few sessions ago, dropped the resigned face and smiled a little.

- It is beautiful.

- Thanks, dad, you’re the best ! – And then she proceeded to throw herself at him. What a cute picture.

- My colleague will give you the final instructions on care and we should be all settled.

The man turned to him while his client bounced towards the front to talk to Tsuchiyu, her giggles ringing through the studio.

- You really are an artist. – That was a bit unexpected but Yuuji didn’t let it show. The man had been adamant from the very beginning that he didn’t approve of his daughter getting a tattoo the moment she’d passed the legal age. But, for what he’d gathered, there had been promises made and daddy’s little princess had called all the favours owed at the same time. So, ivy leaves it was. Her father had been polite but nothing more, displeasure on his features more often than not, and the few times she’s twitched from the pain at the beginning, Yuuji had been sure he was about to get his face smashed with how tight the man’s fists had been.

But now, he seemed honest in his praise.

- Thank you, sir. – It never hurt to go to the extra mile. Yuuji might be loud and appear flighty but he knew when to behave. – Your daughter’s a fighter. She didn’t even twitch. – That was a big fat lie, of course. Teenaged girls usually freaked out from sheer nerves. True, this one hadn’t lost it as much as some others, but he’d been extra careful. One wrong movement and she might be force to wear the outcome on her skin for the rest of her life. He was a professional and knew how to handle shifting and moving clients, but it was still tough.

The man laughed softly, rubbing his face.

- That’s kind of you but I think we both know the truth. Either way, it doesn’t matter. She’s happy and that’s what’s important.

- She will care for it well, I can see from the previous sessions. So you have no reason to worry.

- Yeah. – The man looked around a little, obviously awkward, and then reached to shake Yuuji’s hand. – Thank you again.

A few minutes after they’d left, Yuuji was trying to keep his eyes open while laying on one of the tables. It had been a long session, lots of colours and small details, and his neck hurt. His spine felt like it was bent in the middle and any effort to sit straight sent shards of pain through his skull. He was way too young for that.

After stretching a little, popping his spine with a bit too much glee, he rose and pulled out the thick notebook with his appointments. He was sure, but it never hurt to check…Ah. Perfect. Nothing in the next three hours. Just enough time for lunch and rest.

Yuuji stepped carefully around the large column, covered in art, and listened. A sharp scream, almost high enough to be heard only by canines, pierced the air. He couldn’t help it, he jumped, knocking a large frame off the wall. What started as a startle ended up with him using all the reflexes he’d built through his high school volleyball career to catch one frame, knock two more off, lean on them to keep them from shattering and still manage to drop the pack of collectible cards they kept on a shelf. And this was just the beginning. Whoever had made the glass-shattering sound just kept wailing and wailing like a banshee, and Yuuji felt like his ears were about to start bleeding.

- Need help ? – He barely heard the voice over the screeching. Tsuchiyu slinked around and pulled the two heavy frames from behind his back, tiptoeing around the spilled cards on the floor. – And what’s tha sound ? Did Bobata agree to pierce someone’s pet ?

- You tell me, you’re the guy with the schedules. – It really did sound like an animal, Yuuji thought. Though through the wails he could hear incoherent mumbling which could pass for words, maybe, so it was probably a human being. He hoped. Though, on the other hand, a human who made that sound…And just kept going… - Should we call an ambulance or something ? This can’t be healthy.

Just as he was about only half-jokingly to reach for his phone, the sound cut off as suddenly as it had started. Yuuji could hear his own heartbeat in his ears with the deafening silence that blanketed the studio. Tsuchiyu stared with wide eyes and they both turned, slowly, to the curtain that hid Bobata’s space when said artist pulled it open. Wow, he really looked like he’d aged at least a decade since the morning. With a heavy sigh, he dragged his feet towards the back, leaving the scene for them to see.

Yuuji was almost afraid to look inside. He took a deep breath, prepared himself for blood and maybe flesh hanging out, and opened his eyes. And blinked in confusion. The woman on the chair blinked back, just as surprised. There was…nothing. No blood, no discarded needles or instruments on the floor, and the client’s cream top was pristine. What, the…

- Miss, are you okay ? – Apparently, that was her cue. He had to admit he hadn’t seen such acting skills for a long time, American film actors could learn from this woman. The tears, the sniffling, even her eyes were red and she sounded like she was choking. Even threw some hiccups in there for good measure. He’d be entertained if his confusion hadn’t just reached astronomic levels. – Miss…?

- It hurt so much ! – Okay, if he hadn’t been sure before that she’d been making the noise, now he knew. His first instinct was to close his eyes and cover his ears, but he was the boss and it was up to him to keep it all under control. – He just kept it in and pushing, and pushing, and…

- Madam, your… - Yuuji glanced at Tsuchiyu, who tapped his ear. – your ears are not pierced. There is no mark, not even the beginning of a hole. The needle never touched you, you’ll be okay…

As suddenly as she’d started, the tears cut off. She jumped to her feet, raised her chin and bared her teeth. She actually showed her teeth. He was honestly impressed. He was also used to people trying to appear taller than him all things considered and she didn’t even come close. Still.

- Is this how you treat a client, huh ? Calling me a liar ?

- Um, miss…

- Trying to tell me I don’t know how it feels someone to jab a huge needle in my skin? What now, are you going to tell me I imagined that man, that…that monster trying to rip my ear off ?

- Actually…

- You know what ? I was going to come here and get my lip pierced, maybe bring my friends but now ? Now, I will tell everyone what a lousy job you all do here ! Yes, and how terrible you treat your clients, and how nobody here knows what he’s doing ! You’ll be sorry !

And before he could get even a word in, she flew past him in flurry of flowy curls and scarves, made sure to kick the pile of cards on the floor and then to slam the door so hard the chime fell off and hit the wood floor with a sad tinkle. Yuuji, still holding one of the frames, slid his phone back in his pocket and seriously considered locking the doors and sleeping on the sofa in the employee lounge. It wouldn’t fix his pounding headache but he would feel better, he just knew it.

- No closing. – Sparing an angry glance at Tsuchiyu, or at least as angry as he could fake, he went to find Bobata. The man in question looked like he’d just dunked his entire head in a basin of cold water and was currently dripping all over one of the carpets with a towel hiding his face.

- Heeeey, my man, my friend, buddy, bro… - A snort told him he’d achieved his goal. – What, the Hell, was that ? What happened ?

- Nothing. – Bobata slid the wet towel from his eyes down to his neck where it kept dripping and ran his fingers through his wet hair. – I was just about to do it and she started screaming. I just touched it to her ear to check the place, it never went in. Because I didn’t…

- I know, trust me. Still, the sound she could make ! Did you hear that ? Incredible ! It sounded like dying record.

- You think that’s bad ? Her face was an actual nightmare, I’m telling you. – Bobata shuddered. – Terrible.

And since Yuuji was a man who cared for his friends he went for hot drinks. Tsuchiyu had confirmed they had no bookings for the next two hours so he, as the owner, had volunteered to get tea while they ordered pizza. Now, looking at the fancy purple letters on the window, he considered that maybe picking the first place that popped up when he searched for a teashop was not the best idea. From the bell on the door to the fireplace (An actual fireplace ! Why did it have that ? And in a teashop ? ) the atmosphere looked cherry picked and hand painted. Someone had taken great care into every tiny detail to create an experience. Yuuji was impressed. And hot. He’d practically ran to the place, not sure if they had a break at noon that wasn’t announced or if they’d be swarmed with customers over lunch. And the inside was just as warm as the fireplace suggested. Taking his heavy jacket off, he let the breeze from the closing door hit his bare arms. Ah, much better. Now, the reason he was there…

Before he managed to leave hand prints and probably drool over the shiny glass that separated him from rows upon rows of magnificently looking chocolate…things, the door behind the counter opened and a young man hurried inside. Well, hello there.

He had messy chestnut hair and dark eyes, and, as he got closer, Yuuji saw he had freckles. Damn. Forget the chocolate, he was a moment away from drooling over the cashier. Shifting his jacket in his other hand, he glanced back to see if he’d been caught staring. And, for half a second, he caught the cashier staring instead. Not at his face, though it would have been nice, but at his tattoos. Second best, still perfect. He smiled a little. His new friend was impressed, he just didn’t know it yet. Wow, creepy much ?

- Hi, what would you like ? – He even had a soft voice. Adorable. True, the man was a touch taller than him, but Yuuji was kind of used to it. He was a realist when it came to his height. Of course, now he’d been asked a question and had no idea what to answer. He knew he liked one of the types of black, he knew Bobata got close to indecent when in company of flavoured green tea and that Tsuchiyu, for such a short and soft-looking guy, drank an unhealthy amount of black coffee, but right now his brain went blank. The cashier was blinking at him with the most innocent and adorable face Yuuji had seen and that definitely didn’t help with his brain activity.

- I’ll take… - He touched his face, a nervous habit he thought had been dead and buried, trying to buy time. What did he like ? Well, that was easy. He liked all the directions the cashier’s messy hair was flying to but that was probably not the right answer. Okay, how about… - Say, what kind of tea would you recommend for this weather ? – Nice one, this sounded almost natural. And then he just had to go and ruin it. - It’s all cold and wet outside ?

“It’s cold and wet outside ?”. What was that ? Why had he tried to turn it into a suggestion ? It didn’t make any sense ! There was nothing sensual in cold and wet weather ! It was…awkward. Awkward and weird, and the cute man would definitely not like it. Though he hadn’t run away or backed off so maybe the situation was salvageable. The silence definitely didn’t make the picture look better and his eyes were just as shifty as the cashier’s but he still had to try, once more.

- …and your phone number…? – He grit his teeth and tried for a charming smile. He knew he could do it, he was hot enough but the long pauses in the conversation were staring to get to him. His confidence, shaken from the wails still echoing in his ears, was definitely going under. And the cashier knew it.

- We have a nice almond, apple and cinnamon tea ? Really suitable for the winter ? If you like spiced… That sounded nice. Like something with a strong scent and flavor that even Tsuchiyu with his weird tastes could like.

- Oh, I love spicy things. I looove hot and spicy…things. – Yuuji suddenly wondered how fast he could run back to the studio, pack a small bag and move to a different continent. Sure, control was tight but he had some savings and wasn’t chased by the Government. It couldn’t be that hard. Because right now, changing his name and inventing a tragic backstory involving a horse, a black field and several cats seemed like a much better option that standing there in the warm shop with the prettiest face he’d seen in a long time carefully backing off from him. It wasn’t fair that the one terrible morning that would traumatize him for, probably, weeks to go, would happen the same day he met his soulmate. Life was unfair. He gave up and picked the most interesting spot on the floor to stare at. It was better than anything he’d done today after his client had left.

- Is it going to be for here ? – Well, that was unexpected. Almost jumping out of his skin, Yuuji couldn’t help but look up at the cashier. He was holding a large jar with his head tilted like a confused bird and Yuuji was in love. Also, that man had, again, asked a question. He was on a roll, all right.

- Um, to go…? Yes, I am taking it with me. Can I have three ? – Good, good, that was good. A full sentence, nothing weird, just regular human interaction. He could do it, he was an adult. He had his own business, damn it ! After a few more tense minutes with only the machine making a single sound and then, silence, the cashier handed him a cardboard tray with three large paper cups. This was pleasant. It was nice. Which was why, of course, he had to go and mess it up again.

- And your phone number ? Maybe ? – The counter looked like real marble. Strong, sturdy, easy to clean. If he slammed his face onto it out of pure mortification, it wouldn’t take the cute guy forever to get it nice and clean and useful again. And it would solve his current problem of not being able to shut up or be charming. Yeah, it sounded like a good plan. Cute guy opened his mouth, either to tell him off or to call for help, but at that exact moment the back door opened again and a tall blond came in.

If the cashier was cute, the new man was intimidating. Yuuji could swear his life went before his eyes like a film reel. Unlike the cashier, he had more than a couple centimetres on Yuuji, and what was worse, he had a blank face that gave off boredom and slight displeasure. Though considering how calm his eyes were, he either was heavily into whips and spikes, or had a basement full of mutilated bodies. Or both. How could someone project such apathy and murderous intent at the same time, Yuuji wasn’t sure, but the man in front of him was succeeding. And it was his cue to leave. Run away. Never show up in that neighbourhood again. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

- Thank you for the recommendation. See you ! – At least he still had his good manners. And all his limbs. Which was a win, all things considered. Running almost all the way back, he almost went in with the door, leaving it to slam behind him. From the doorway, Tsuchiyu glanced at him suriously, but Yuuji couldn’t even take a breath.

- You okay, boss ?

- N… - He tried again. And again. – No. I think – He coughed. – I think I barely escaped with my life. And also, I am in love.

Bobata called something from the staff room and Tsuchiyu hushed him.

- How about you come in, sit down and tell us all about it. And, what’s that ? Look at those cups, you’ve really outdone yourself this time.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu fanfiction #fanfcition #terushima yuuji #yūji terushima #yamaguchi tadashi #teruyama #COFFEE SHOP AU #different first meeting #rarepair #rare pair hell

4 notes · View notes

theatredirectors · 5 years

Text

Sharifa Elkady

Hometown?

I moved to America when I was three from Saudi Arabia, and then moved all around the South until I was about 13. I consider my hometown to be Charleston SC, as that is where I spent the majority of my formative years.

Where are you now?

I am currently in Louisville, KY as a directing apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

What's your current project?

I’m working on a play that’s part of the New Voices Festival, which is sort of like a Humana for young playwrights in Middle and High School. The specific piece I’m directing is called What’s More Important and is about a young woman who through trying to deal with her OCD, has physicalized it as a person. I very much celebrate plays that take you through another human’s experience, and this play not only inspires empathy but engages the audience on what someone with this disorder order actually goes through, versus the stereotypes surrounding it.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

Growing up as a woman in a physically male body, I often tried to be things I was not. I wore so many masks hiding who I really was, so that I could fit in; so that I could assimilate. In a way, I was acting long before I hit the stage. But when I finally did, as a 7th grade actor in middle school, there was something different for me. Yes I was playing a character, but by having these lines memorized, by knowing who that person was inside and out and just reacting, for the first time I was able to get out of the prison that was my head and just be. It allowed me to not think about how different I was, how strange I was, but to just live this life on stage. It was the most freeing experience I had ever had, and I was hooked.

What is your directing dream project?

WHEW, that would definitely be Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. There’s a lot feelings surrounding that show, from a lot of different people. For me that play was a gateway into the kind of theatre I’m so passionate about producing; because it was the first piece of theatre that I could relate to. As a trans, Middle Eastern, Muslim woman, there wasn’t a lot of content that I could identify with. When we think about the theatre being taught, especially the classics, it centers on white, cis, straight story telling. When that doesn't reflect you but it’s all you’re exposed to, it’s hard to not feel like you’re wrong for being different. Disgraced allowed me to feel represented, to have solidarity with a character because I understood what he was going through. That play is all about the post 9/11 Middle Eastern American experience, and it’s very difficult to understand that internal war it creates unless you’ve been through it. That’s why it’s a dream project for me, because I feel that I would be able to bring it to life in a way that accesses it’s truth. Having directors of the culture and shared experience as the story-telling can unlock the sort of authenticity that is a necessity for plays like Disgraced, and I’m hoping to be apart of a wave that recognizes that importance.

What kind of theatre excites you?

I’m very bright and bubbly; I love sparkles and color and if you asked me my favorite animal; Unicorns are real. But when it comes to my taste in theatre, I gravitate towards plays that delve into the darkest aspects of humanity, often shaped by our societal structure. Plays that express the severity of societal limitations often through the vitality of their characters. I want a play that’s gut wrenching, that takes your heart right out of your chest and sets it on fire in front of you. Plays like Disgraced, In The Blood, Yellowman, We’re Proud to Present, The Royale, In The Heart Of America, The War Boys, Stop Kiss, Ruined. These are plays that dissect the experience of marginalized people and beg the audience to empathize and realize their positions within society. These are plays that deep dive into the darkest behaviors that human beings can inflict on each other, and destroys the notion that they are uncommon. These plays have the power to change society and inspire thought within the audience. That’s the theatre that excites me.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

I remember for the longest time, I kept asking for a seat at the table. Theatre has not often supported voices like mine, and I wanted to have the opportunities that weren’t previously available to people like me. What I’ve come to realize after starting to get that seat, is that it isn’t actually helpful for me. Yes I’m being invited in, which is amazing, but because the structure theatre operates in hasn’t had diverse people previously, it doesn't know how to support us. It wants us to operate in a system that was created by those with privilege, therefore it SUPPORTS those who have that privilege and not everyone. Theatre has to branch beyond diversity into equity. We have to reformat how the system of theatre operates, so that it celebrates every single voice, and supports every single person. I no longer want a seat at the table, I want a new table.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

For me it’s something I desire deeply. I haven’t had formal training in directing, everything I know is self taught or learned from observing other directors and other directing styles. To have access to three years of training meant to shape and grow me as a director is invaluable to me. I want to be the very best version of myself as a director and I see grad school as a necessary step for that. But something that I have learned, is that you have to find the right school for you. It’s not just about the degree its about can you find a place you can truly learn from, that appreciates your style and doesn’t want to change it, but nurture it. That’s the place I’ve been looking for and hopefully, I’ll find it soon. My point is, the importance of getting a directing MFA lies entirely with the individual and there desires and needs.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

Directors like Steve Broadnax, Pirronne Yousefzadeh, May Adrales, Awoye Timpo; directors of color who understand the power of theatre, and the vitality/importance of those have traditionally been underrepresented. Playwrights like Naomi Wallace, Ayad Akhtar, Dael Orlandersmith, Betty Shamieh, Suzan Lori Parks, Carolyn Gage, Lynn Nottage, who use their voices to change how an audience thinks about people they have never taken the time to know. People who operate in the highest levels of theatre, and recognize the importance of providing resources to those sorts of directors and playwrights. Basically, if you’re a theatre maker who uses theatre to educate others on the lives and experience of those who have been marginalized, you’re my hero.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

Do. Not. Give. Up. WHEW DON’T GIVE UP! I can’t tell you the number of times I came close to throwing in the towel, but if I did, I wouldn’t have the amazing opportunities I have now. You’re important, your voice is valued, and you can change the world of theatre. So keep pushing, stay determined, be smart about the opportunities you take and always know you have a resource of directors to find solidarity with and to ask for help from. Feel free to contact me, [email protected], and I’ll talk you off the ledge!

Plugs!

I am one of the four Drama League Directing Fellows working at the Hangar theatre over the summer, so if you’re in Ithaca, New York, let’s grab coffee and come watch one of my shows, hint hint wink wink.

For any more info on me, check out my website sharifaelkady.com, it’s cute and colorful.

#Sharifa Elkady #askadirector #theatredirectors

0 notes

melancholiablackbile · 7 years

Text

A lot of questions... my my, someone's curious lol

@black-satin-dancer tagged me, cheers dude :D

Rules: answer all the questions, add one of your own and tag as many people as there are questions …pshh please, let’s keep it realistic - I don’t even know that many people irl. (also didn’t feel obligated to answer the Dragon age/Mars effect questions, because I’ve never played it)

1. coke or pepsi?

Neither. I absolutely hate fizzy sweet drinks lol. The only thing I enjoy is kombucha and I’ve had ginger ale which I can tolerate. (btw did you know there’s something called bacon soda? I just found out and I’m absolutely horrified and disgusted. pls burn this knowledge out of my brain thank)

2. disney or dreamworks?

I don’t have a preference, nor am I overly invested in any of the two, so it depends. By Disney I really like Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare before Christmas and Frankenweenie, to pick a few. As for DreamWorks, Penguins of Madagascar are THE SHIT omg 3. coffee or tea? I’m a tea person, however I enjoy coffee flavour in things

4. books or movies?

Both

5. windows or mac?

I use windows, don’t feel like I’m missing out or anything tbh

6. dc or marvel?

I’m only starting to get into comics, and I’ve probably seen more marvel films than dc ones, but I think I like dc a little more I like the older Batman films by Tim Burton.

7. xbox or playstation?

playstation. “OF COURSE we’re going to go with the ps4 - they’re blacker!” :D

8. dragon age or mass effect?

Haven’t played either, but was thinking about giving Dragon age a go

9. night owl or early riser?

aw shit dude, I don’t even know anymore. my sleeping schedule is so fucked up lately, I tend to be a night owl tho. But hey, time isn’t really anyway, so..

10. cards or chess?

both, but you can do more with cards. like chess is just one game, but there are lots of different card games. I personally identify with CAH, I think the company should hire me, because I’m a horrible person lmao

11. chocolate or vanilla?

chocolate all the way. I don’t eat it often, but when I do, I’m a snob about it - I only like the dark stuff (only vegan ofc). bonus points, if there’s dried fruit like berries in it. To sum it up (i’m taking this way too seriously and detailed lol, but I have insomnia ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) overall, chocolate flavour is better I guess, vanilla makes me vomit, it’s disgusting and I hate it. 12.vans or converse? I used to own a pair of converse, but neither are shoes I’d wear now

13. fluff or angst?

a good combination of both ehehe

14. beach or forest?

forests are awesome - they are green and smell amazing, you can spot a lot of wild animals and the atmosphere is very serene and calming. I’ll always pick forests over beaches, unless the beach is all sand or small round marble stones, the water is clear without the detached, rotting algae stuff that floats around and ew, the sun has fucked off so I don’t get sunburnt (my skin always skips the tan stage right to red and I prefer pale skin anyway) and all sweaty and shit, there are NO people beside those I’m there with and I do NOT spot any animal while in the water that’s bigger than like 5cm. Because even though I love and respect it deeply, I’m genuinely afraid of sea life, I don’t care that there are lots of totally harmless creatures. …lmao, I feel like a rich asshole saying all that - way too many demands. (sorry sea/ocean, I love you, but you freak me the fuck out)

15. dogs or cats?

I have dogs, but I love both. With dogs, the love is more likely to be returned though :D

16. clear skies or rain?

clear night skies for star gazing, rain during the day

17. cooking or eating out?

I eat mostly raw vegan nowadays, because it’s healthy I don’t have the energy to cook and can’t be arsed and I’m not too fond of eating in public so… preparing/eating food at home?

18. spicy food or mild food?

all the spices lol

19. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas?

How is this a question, have you met me? My whole existence basically revolves around celebrating Halloween like every day

20. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot?

The first one is way better imho, I’m usually a little too cold anyway (no pun intended omg) and I’m fine with that.

21. if you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Hydrokinesis (so basically I’d be a water bender ehehe) or Telepathy

22. animation or live action?

both are great (with the exception of some anime adaptations lol)

23. baths or showers?

showers don’t take too long, but baths are very nice from time to time

24. team cap or team ironman?

Team Loki, duh! No, but honestly, I’m not really invested in the whole civil war thing, but if cap is a nazi, then I’m team ironman

25. fantasy or sci-fi?

both are amazing and bring happiness into my life

26. do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so, what are they?

I guess I have a lot of favourite ones, but these two came to my mind right now: “I do desire we may be strangers” (Shakespeare) it’s such a classy and eloquent way to tell someone you hate them :D “And so being young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy” (E.A. Poe) because ME tbh

27. youtube or netflix?

Youtube, no netflix here

28. harry potter or percy jackson?

Harry Potter all the way. I’ve read the first Percy jackson pentalogy and don’t get me wrong, Greek mythology is awesome, but wizards over demigods

29. when do you feel accomplished?

Idk, when I’m able to do more than the bare minimum and when I totally Tony Stark the whole subject/study material the night before the exam. and probably smug/petty rather than accomplished - when I prove horrible people/people I don’t like wrong or do things they don’t approve of lol

30. star wars or star trek?

I have to say Star Trek but I love both

31. paperback or hardback books?

Hardback. HARDBACK!

32. horror or rom-com?

I’ve always gravitated towards horror - psychological, gothic, really bad b/c movie style, etc. - I get bored by rom-coms

33. tv shows or movies?

depends, but both. as an aspiring actor, beside theatre, I think I’d like to work on films over tv shows - if I ever get the chance to do so that is

34. favourite animal?

penguins, rats, corvids.. but like, birds in general and all animals are awesome anyway and precious and worth of life 35. favourite genre of music? alternative rock - which is a broad spectrum tho, so I guess rock sub-genres in general.. art rock, goth rock, punk rock my favourite (purely because of the name) is krautrock (aka kosmische Musik) which is the German term for space rock, but the literal translation is either herb or cabbage rock lmao :D throw in some psychedelic stuff, ambient music, experimental and classical and I’m good to go

36. least favourite book?

Madame Bovary. I think The Great Gatsby was boring too. I don’t usually read books without researching it a bit before so I can somewhat predict whether I’ll like it or not. (btw, if you’re into fantasy at all, 10/10 recommend reading the series A Raven’s Shadow by Anthony Ryan, he’s such an eloquent writer and the plot and characters are incredible! 37. favourite season? The season of Halloween - autumn all the way

38. song that’s currently stuck in your head?

Cinnamon Bone by Eliza Rickman. She has a really nice voice and combined with the melody it sounds very unique. Actually didn’t know who the singer was until a few days ago. She also performed in the weather section in a Welcome to Night Vale episode. Oh and I rewatched CATS the musical on Sunday, so like.. the whole libretto is playing in my head on loop :D I’ve pretty much known the entire thing by heart since I was like 8 lol

39. what kind of pyjamas do you wear?

Either boxer shorts or Levi Ackerman’s running titan pyjamas lmao

40. how many existential crises do you have on an average day?

I’m having an ongoing one since the age of 16 tbh

41. if you can only choose one song to be played at your funeral, what would it be?

Space Oddity by David Bowie

42. favourite theme song to a TV show?

I’ve know this song before I started watching the show, but Far from Any Road from True Detective is amazing. And the opening to snk season 2 lol, it gets me all fired up and ready to salivate every time Levi appears cry probably idk :D

43. harry potter movies or books?

even though, they are problematic in some aspects, both have their charm (pun absolutely intended this time)

44. you can make your OTP become canon but you’ll forget that tumblr exists. will you do it?

Bitch, my otp is canon. and I doubt anyone can really forget about tumblr - you can try and leave, but it will never leave you

45. do you play an instrument and if so, what is it?

Not like professionally or since early childhood and all that, but I taught myself how to play the violin and I think I’m pretty decent. Same goes for drums. My dad and I low-key collect musical instruments, I think we have around 20+ pieces ^^

46. what is the worst way to die?

alone and helpless and in excruciating pain from whatever the cause was that didn’t kill you immediately though, so you have to suffer

47. if you could be entirely invisible for a day, what would you do?

Be sneaky ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) lol idk, I’d do stuff anxiety and self-consciousness prevent me from in normal life. Okay, that is so pathetic, but my first thought was “I’d go swimming” … *wipes away a tear*

48. If you could have personally witnessed anything in history what would it be?

I feel like it’s kinda selfish and considering I’d choose this out of any moment in history maybe a wasted opportunity? but I would have loved to see David Bowie perform. Idk, I’m sure there’s more, but it’s 3am here..

49. If you could understand animals but you could never understand humans again, would you?

I find I often don’t understand humans anyway..

50. What is your most favourite album currently?

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars by David Bowie is my go to favourite album, haven’t really listened to whole albums lately, just a few songs here and there 51. (my question) What is your favourite word/phrase/colloquiallism? Name one (or more) per language you speak c:

tbh, Jeremy tagged most of the people I’d tag too, so I’m just adding @the-river-dream-shore and @slecnaztemnot to this if they or anyone else feel like it ;) I’m going to sleep now hopefully~

Note: Wow, that’s a lot of reading material lol. Why did I sound so angry?? I was tired, so that took a toll on my answers, I promise I’m not that much of an asshole :D

#tag game #questions #personal

4 notes · View notes

eddycurrents · 5 years

Photo

For the week of 12 August 2019

Quick Bits:

Absolute Carnage: Scream #1 begins a three-issue tie-in to the larger “Absolute Carnage” event, from Cullen Bunn, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. It spotlights a trio of former symbiote hosts, including the titular Scream herself, who was dead. It’s interesting to see the length that Carnage’s influence can have as he tries to prepare the world for Knull.

| Published by Marvel

Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety #1 is a one-shot dealing with the other four symbiotes that resulted from the same experiment as Scream from Clay McLeod Chapman, Brian Level, Jordan Boyd, and Travis Lanham. Regardless of whether or not you’re reading the broader event, or know anything about the symbiotes’ history, this is a damn good horror story. It focuses on a family going through the nightmares of a separation and what happens when another horror is brought in from outside. The artwork from Level and Boyd is perfect and terrifying.

| Published by Marvel

Age of Conan: Valeria #1 begins the next Age of Conan mini-series focusing on the wider world of characters in Conan’s canon, from Meredith Finch, Aneke, Andy Troy, and Travis Lanham. This one expands on Valeria, from the Howard novella “Red Nails”, giving her a backstory and quest in finding her brother’s murderer.

| Published by Marvel

Analog #7 somehow manages to up the level of intrigue further as seemingly everyone alive that knows Jack tries to kill him, while Sam and Oona try to get more information on Oppenheimer. Great action scenes with the usual amount of black humour here from Gerry Duggan, David O’Sullivan, Mike Spicer, and Joe Sabino.

| Published by Image

Batman: Universe #2 continues reprinting the previously Walmart-exclusive story by Brian Michael Bendis, Nick Derington, Dave Stewart, and Josh Reed. It’s great. The humour is a wonderful touch amid a bevy of so many dark and grim Batman stories out there right now and the art from Derington and Stewart is amazing.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman & The Outsiders #4 is mostly a tale of preparation as both sides gather themselves and get ready for confrontation. It’s somewhat disturbing as to how easily and quickly Sofia has fallen under Ra’s al Ghul’s influence. Great art from Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice #2 continues this wonderful crossover from Jeff Lemire, Michael Walsh, and Nate Piekos. There’s something very compelling about a Bruce Wayne who can’t stop being Batman even in a world where there’s seemingly no crime and disturbingly hilarious when Gail flirts with Aquaman.

| Published by Dark Horse & DC Comics

Captain Marvel #9 broadens the mystery in part two of “Falling Star” as Carol tries to track down Dr. Minerva and find out what’s going wrong with her powers. The conspiracy and secrets that Kelly Thompson is seeding into the story are wonderful.

| Published by Marvel

Catwoman #14 begins “Hermosa Heat” from Ram V, Mirka Andolfo, Arif Prianto, and Saida Temofonte. It sets up a heist that pegs Catwoman as a number one target for assassination from a united group of crime families and it’s a great start. Nice use of a number of DC’s villains and gorgeous artwork from Andolfo and Prianto.

| Published by DC Comics

Collapser #2 continues the brilliant madness from Mikey Way, Shaun Simon, Ilias Kyriazis, Cris Peter, and Simon Bowland. This issue tries to explain away Liam’s problems as schizophrenic hallucinations to disastrous results.

| Published by DC Comics / Young Animal

Critical Role: Vox Machina - Origins Series II #2 continues the quest to rescue Grog as Pike joins the party. The artwork from Olivia Samson and Msassyk is gorgeous. Especially the undead action scenes. Jody Houser again captures a lot of the humour and fun of the voice actors’ characters here.

| Published by Dark Horse

Detective Comics #1009 kicks off a pretty interesting predicament for Bruce in this airplane crash tale from Peter J. Tomasi, Christian Duce, Luis Guerrero, and Rob Leigh. It’s good to see Deadshot again and you’ve got to wonder who he was targeting among these businessmen.

| Published by DC Comics

Elephantmen 2261: The Pentalion Job #4 concludes this series in a rather interesting way. Definitely not what you’d expect. Wonderful art from Alex Medellin.

| Published by Comicraft

Event Leviathan #3 spends its time telling us why the Red Hood isn’t Leviathan while expertly evading the assembled detectives. Interesting that he outsmarts Batman and Robin here, let alone the rest of them. You’d think that this rather measured, slow pace of unveiling the mystery and telling the story would possibly be frustrating or boring, but it’s not. It doesn’t feel like a point extended and belaboured in usual decompressed stories, but rather natural elimination of suspects and events. It also helps that Alex Maleev's art is phenomenal and there are some genuinely hilarious zingers from Brian Michael Bendis.

| Published by DC Comics

Fantastic Four #13 concludes the Hulk vs. Thing fight. The artwork from Sean Izaakse and Marcio Menyz is phenomenal. Beautiful layouts, incredible action, and stunning colour work.

| Published by Marvel

The Flash #76 gives us part one of “The Death of the Speed Force” as it picks up on the previous threads of the new forces and attempts to start putting the family back together. Great art from Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, and Tomeu Morey.

| Published by DC Comics

Ghosted in LA #2 is a bit of a weird one. The banter with the ghosts is wonderful, the art from Siobhan Keenan and Cathy Le is perfect, but how the story deals with a negging asshole is very odd. Especially as Daphne is then later castigated for bringing a guy back home, effectively breaking one of the terms of her staying at the house true, but he was prepared to rape her. It’s just...odd. Seems to be blaming the victim, framing them as her bad decisions in reacting to her ex seeing someone else, rather than anything else.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

Gideon Falls #16 takes a huge step with Norton, as he arrives in the farm town reality of Gideon Falls, and is essentially identified as Clara’s missing brother, Danny. It’s a very emotional issue from Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart, and Steve Wands, even as it gets even more disturbing.

| Published by Image

Gwenpool Strikes Back #1 is the very entertaining, funny debut of this new mini from Leah Williams, David Baldeón, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Caramagna. It’s basically memes and shitposts as Gwen tries to figure out how to get a superpower in order to stay relevant in the 616. It’s hilarious.

| Published by Marvel

Hawkman #15 continues Carter’s problems with the Shadow Thief as he seeks help from the Shade. I love revisiting anything from James Robinson’s tenure on Starman, so it’s good to see Shade. The art from Pat Olliffe and Tom Palmer is a bit scratchier and looser than usual, but it fits the darker, shadowy aspect of the story.

| Published by DC Comics

Invaders #8 continues “Dead in the Water” from Chip Zdarsky, Carlos Magno, Butch Guice, Alex Guimarães, Dono Sánchez-Almara, and Travis Lanham. This one explicitly lays out what’s wrong with Namor and it’s fairly tragic.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League Odyssey #12 is the culmination of Darkseid’s plans from Dan Abnett, Will Conrad, Rain Beredo, and AndWorld Design. It’s bleak as it sets up Darkseid’s new Apokolis of Sepulkore, drastically changing some characters in the process. I don’t know how or if they’re going to get out of this.

| Published by DC Comics

The Life and Death of Toyo Harada #6 is an interesting “now here’s what really happened” ending for this series from Joshua Dysart, CAFU, Doug Braithwaite, Andrew Dalhouse, Diego Rodriguez, and Dave Sharpe. It’s interesting to see how Harada survived and his mindscape confrontation with the kinds of creatures that currently possess Angela.

| Published by Valiant

Loki #2 is even better than the first issue, building out a very interesting quandary as Loki tries to figure out who he is now beyond ruler of Jotunheim and “Thor’s brother”, as he contemplates a status as “god of nothing”. Daniel Kibblesmith, Oscar Bazaldua, David Curiel, and Clayton Cowles lead us on a rather humorous journey with a very interesting cliffhanger.

| Published by Marvel

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #9 may be the strongest issue to date, which is saying a bit since this series has been solid since day one, as Miles’ dad and uncle stage a plan to rescue him. Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garrón, David Curiel, and Cory Petit deliver an emotionally rewarding tale, with some very impressive layouts and action, particularly as the rescue kicks off.

| Published by Marvel

Oblivion Song #18 continues the confrontation with the Faceless Men. It’s less than positive. It’s interesting how this has gone south faster than expected, developing the previously unseen rivals on Oblivion fairly quickly and in rather surprising ways. Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, Annalisa Leoni, and Rus Wooton continue to regularly upend the status quo with each issue.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Once & Future #1 is a thoroughly excellent debut from Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ed Dukeshire, blending offbeat characters, humour, and British folklore.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Outer Darkness #9 is another highly entertaining issue as the crew comes across a science station whose staff have been driven to murder one another. I’m still loving how John Layman, Afu Chan, and Pat Brosseau are playing with mixing different conventions of horror, sci-fi, and episodic storytelling to build this narrative.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Punisher Kill Krew #1 is another spin-off from War of the Realms, cleaning up loose ends from Malekith’s forces’ spree on Earth from Gerry Duggan, Juan Ferreyra, and Cory Petit. It’s bizarre and hilarious to see Frank Castle continuing on against monsters, but very entertaining. Also, Ferreyra’s art is gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Punk Mambo #5 concludes this series with a confrontation between Punk Mambo and Azaire. The artwork from Adam Gorham and José Villarrubia is gorgeous, with very impressive attention to the different loa.

| Published by Valiant

Reaver #2 expands upon the party, allowing them to bond a bit and develop the characters a bit more. Some things definitely don’t seem to be as they seem. More low magic fantasy fun from Justin Jordan, Rebekah Isaacs, Alex Guimarães, and Clayton Cowles.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Red Sonja #7 continues on from the shift in the Lord of Fools one-shot, with Bob Q providing line art, as Sonja tries to outthink and outmanoeuvre Dragan’s forces. It’s interesting to see the tactics involved here, especially as Dragan seems to be losing more and more sanity.

| Published by Dynamite

Road of Bones #4 is the disturbing end to what has been a brutal horror story from Rich Douek, Alex Cormack, and Justin Birch. It definitely makes you think about how far someone will go for survival and possibly even what lies they tell themselves in order to carry on.

| Published by IDW

Rumble #15 concludes the “Last Knight” arc in a very interesting way. Interesting bits about sacrifice and family, even as the void begins consuming all. Gorgeous artwork from David Rubín and Dave Stewart.

| Published by Image

Second Coming #2 continues to be an interesting mix of dark humour and social commentary as Sunstar continues to go horribly, horribly awry in try to teach Jesus how to be a superhero. Mark Russell, Richard Pace, Leonard Kirk, Andy Troy, and Rob Steen are telling a very interesting story here.

| Published by Ahoy

She Could Fly: The Lost Pilot #5 brings this second story to an end as Luna finds out what actually happened to the pilot. It’s actually surprisingly normal given all of the oddity that has taken place in these series. Great work from Christopher Cantwell, Martín Morazzo, Miroslav Mrva, and Clem Robins.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Silver Surfer: Black #3 gets a little bit trippier as Silver Surfer tries to help Ego with a little infection problem. The art from Tradd Moore and Dave Stewart is gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Sonata #3 reveals more of the planet’s secrets and the peoples’ various mythologies about it. It’s interesting to see two different groups of people lay claim to an individual place and incorporate it into their religion in a sci-fi/fantasy story. It’s somewhat similar to how divergent faiths lay claim to Jerusalem. Beautiful artwork from Brian Haberlin and Geirrod Van Dyke.

| Published by Image / Shadowline

Usagi Yojimbo #3 concludes the first arc published by IDW, “Bunraku”, and it’s damn good. It’s taken me a bit to get used to the series in colour, though Tom Luth is doing a great job, but the story and art from Stan Sakai have remained fantastic regardless.

| Published by IDW

The White Trees #1 is a very haunting, moody fantasy tale from Chip Zdarsky, Kris Anka, Matt Wilson, and Aditya Bidikar. The artwork is astoundingly beautiful as three parents, legends from a past war that seemingly fractured their friendship, search for their kidnapped children.

| Published by Image

Wonder Woman #76 sees a fair amount of reunions as Themyscira and Earth are bridged again allowing for passage. Very nice art from Lee Garbett and Romulo Fajardo Jr. Also, one killer of an ending.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Amazing Spider-Man #27, Conan the Barbarian: Exodus #1, Doctor Strange #17, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #11, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #10, Go Go Power Rangers #22, Gogor #4, Hit-Girl: Season 2 #7, House of Whispers #12, Infinity 8 #14, Immortal Hulk: Director’s Cut #1, Ironheart #9, James Bond: Origin #12, Joe Golem: Occult Detective - The Conjurors #4, Orphan Age #5, Powers of X #2, Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #5, Silver Surfer: Prodigal Sun #1, Star Trek: Year Five #4, Star Wars: Target Vader #2, Star Wars Adventures Annual 2019, Sword Master #2, Symbiote Spider-Man #5, Titans: Burning Rage #1, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #47, Unearth #2, Unnatural #12, The Warning #10, Xena: Warrior Princess #5

Recommended Collections: Amazing Spider-Man: Hunted, Archie by Nick Spencer - Volume 1, Asgardians of the Galaxy - Volume 2: War of the Realms, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark - Volume 1, Guardians of the Galaxy - Volume 1: The Final Gauntlet, Lightstep, Mr. & Mrs. X - Volume 2: Gambit and Rogue Forever, Ninja-K Deluxe Edition, Sideways - Volume 2: Rifts & Revelations, Sparrowhawk, TMNT: Urban Legends - Volume 2, Vampirella vs. Reanimator, War of the Realms, Xena - Volume 2: Mind Games

d. emerson eddy might be a vampire hunter.

#This Week in Comics

1 note · View note