#in general everyone in the 5th movie pisses me off

[ellysdreamworldd]

guys idk how i will handle the 5th year.. i LOATHE the umbridge from the dephts of my heart and if she starts yapping about the ministry and forcing me to CARVE WORDS IN MY SKIN i will be taking that irritating smile AWAY from her fucking face. like why was harry constantly getting mad at everyone with his anger issues but then he politely accepted literal abuse from that woman..bro make it make sense

[darkdevasofdestruction]

An Angel and A Demon ~ Pyramid Head x Reader

Update 2: My laptop restarted when I was in the middle of writing this, and trust me when I say it, I am positively pissed off, and I want to end my days, that's how bad of a day this was.

And I didn't leave the house.

That says a lot about today...

Update 1: But, without further ado, I was half-way writing this story, and I received this ask, and let me tell you...

helloooo, i absolutely adored the fanfics you wrote about kazan and danny🥺 could i request one where pyramid head is just really whipped for and in love with the survivor! reader but he doesnt know how to announce it to them so he brings her random ,,gifts" in and outside the trials and protecting her bc well, im pretty sure he cant speak so he doesnt really have any other options on how to express his feelings??

I live for it.

Bless you for sending me this, it's the reason I'm still sane right now.

I love you, baby-cakes.

Update 3: I want to kill myself so bad. Just smash my head on a wall until it explodes or sth. I was so happy with how this imagine turned out, only fuck fucking tumblr to just fucking delete EVERYTHING just as I was about to put the last gif and hit POST NOW.

--------

For the 5th time writing this :

FUCKMEDADDY - but this time - FUCKMYBRAINSOUTPLEASEIWANNADIE

Thanks.

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Hell - What was that place, anyway?

Some would describe it as an infinite ocean of flames and lava, where it's eternally melting-hot, and a bunch of hooved, horned, tailed red demons torture you with acid, with their red pitch forks, or boil you alive in their cauldron for soup. Or maybe you just get tortured by Stalin, who knows?

But never would have anyone thought that 'Hell' could look so...Normal. Well, normal in a very demolished, desolate, ravished way, but still...Normal, by human standards. Albeit, the never-ending loop of madness, anguish, agony and desperation of getting killed in different gruesome ways or fleeing for their lives and feeling a myriad of emotions pumping adrenaline through their veins so badly that their anxiety-meter skyrocketed to abnormal levels.

All this darkness, this hatred, this...Everything...It changed all the survivors. They became selfish, stubborn, rude, some even went as far as to sacrifice their fellow survivors in trials, just so they could survive. It was a complete mayhem that defied all kinds of reason, normality, morality or even ethics. Everyone became devoid of any laws that used to bind them to their humane sides, and now, you weren't sure if the killers were saner than the survivors or not.

But even in this abyss where you couldn't even see your hand in front of your very eyes, there was a little star - A beautiful angel radiating brightness and warmth, someone who was somehow able to guide everyone's straying souls with her benevolence.

In reality, she was merely a survivor, not the little lantern from an angler fish's head, but she treated everyone with such an untainted kindness...It was beautiful, and yet, unrequited for most parts. Everyone was still putting their own lives above all - And who could condemn them? - Perhaps their cowardice, for the girl preferred to save her fellow survivors as much as possible, even if that oftentimes assured her place on the hook, to be a sacrificial lamb for the Entity.

On the other hand, she rarely ended up on the hook - Most killers prefer to kill her themselves, instead of letting her become pray for the horrible Entity who tortured so many of them for refusing to cooperate - The Trapper, Evan MacMillan - He knew the best, with those hooks digging into his flesh, impossible to extract. He was the first to protect this girl. It wasn't much, but if he had to, he'd rather give her a swift, painless death, than seeing her without that serene, angelic smile on her face, as the Entity feeds on the last bits of her soul's beauty, the last parts of her humanity.

The other Killers were confused at the Trapper's actions, but little by little, they began to understand why this girl was so precious and special - And this domino effect hit Rin Yamaoka next, with Y/N stopping in the middle of a chase and taking off her jacket, just as Rin was about to butcher her with her katana, and she smiled, extending it to her. 'You must be cold' she said, realising that the Spirit was merely wearing a few bandages, not even her school uniform, or her kimono.

The ghost girl was shaken up by this, and told the others at the killer camp, but they just shrugged it off - Rin was a little girl who faced close to no kindness, they weren't surprised she was so taken aback by such a feat. That is, until Adiris, in a particularly terrible day, when everyone at the camp was staying away from her, as her profane censer wasn't able to cover the stench of rotting flesh - Y/N came over, taking out a small yet elegant glass bottle with pink liquid on it, spraying some on her - And now, The Plague smelled of roses and vanilla - 'You can come to me for perfume whenever you want, I always carry some with me!' she grinned at the Babylonian High Priestess, before leaving back to the survivor's camp site, leaving the ancient God symbol to stare with her mouth agape at the girl.

These words began to spread, and it was no surprise when the killers saw Susie clinging and begging her Legion friends to spare Y/N, for she was there to hug away her worries more than once, to tell her sweet words, to play with her hair and play the guitar whatever songs she wanted to hear, to get reminded of her home - She was so home sick that she freaked out, but now she was better, thanks to Y/N - 'I know you miss home, but sometimes, home is where your best friends are, and all three of them are here!' she tried to encourage the cute pink-haired girl who could only squeal and hug her new friend.

Even Ghostface wasn't exempt from falling to her charms, and they would often take silly selfies and mess around, making fun of the old horror movie tropes and doing lots of puns and pranks - So much that she even got his trust to be told about the Danny/Jed thing, and how he began his killer profession - 'You're a very talented photographer, Danny! You deserved all that recognition you got, both as a journalist, and as a killer!'

And very soon, Y/N found herself in the crushing arms of an overprotective Anna, humming her mother's lullaby together with walking through the forest, Y/N making flower crows for all the female killers at the camp site, and little by little, she somehow managed to worm her way under everyone's skins.

Y/N was the survivor with the highest survivability percentage, and maybe the Entity sometimes got pissed off, but at least she still got killed sometimes, so who cares? Well, that was soon to change as soon as a new Killer was added to this sick game - Pyramid Head, the terror of Silent Hill, as Cheryl, the new Survivor, called him - or The Executioner, as he was known now. He was ruthless, merciless, grotesque - He had his own criteria of killing, his own moral compass, ethics, conscience and understanding of the concept of life and death. Nothing that could compare to the visions of humans, clearly - Everything was gravitating around Divine Retribution and Justice, but the from the outside, he was nothing but a killing machine.

He would kill everyone and anyone that crosses his path, without fail.

Y/N felt like her fortune ended completely the second she found herself in the new, overly cramped map, with Pyramid Head as the killer - She couldn't help but run around like a spazzic meerkat, trying to find and fix as many generators as possible, without having to get face to face with the walking hazard...

Only to run past a stuck Pyramid Head.

Slowly backtracing her steps, she saw the mountain of a man with his metal pyramid stuck in the frames a low window which he tried to walk over. He was trashing like a raged bull trying to attack a matador, but it was clear he was getting nowhere with this.

"H-Hey, u-uhm...Need some help?" she asked in a soft, careful voice, almost like a meek cat trying to test the waters, but in return, he started groaning even louder from the wrath he wanted to unleash upon the whole world. "Okay, uhm...I think I saw a can of vaseline in one of the chests around. I'll go fetch it and I'll come back for you. Don't move." she said, only to then realise how horrible that sounded, considering the situation, and it only seemed to anger the killer. "...I'm sorry, ignore me, I'm an idiot." she slapped herself pretty harshly before bolting out of there trying to find the chest.

However, Y/N cursed herself for not having perfectly memorised the whole map by heart already, since she found the vaseline can after the 3rd chest, and then, it took quite a while to find the bloody window that got the killer stuck - And by the time she got there, she was dead tired. "Okay, I'm here, I found the vaseline! Let's try to get you out of here." Y/N muttered as she put her feet on the low window pane to get to his level. "If it's not too much trouble, could you please hold onto me? I can't balance myself with both hands occupied, and I'd rather not fall." she explained as she opened the vaseline can, only to shiver as she felt two big, strong hands getting a firm grip on her hips. It was almost...Endearing, were she not too busy trying to get the killer unstuck. She kept massaging the metal edge, trying to push and pull, also praying to whatever deity that existed in her human world that she had her tetanus shot done on time - Until finally, she was able to get hear a loud screech, like a pop, and the killer got unstuck, and in the process, he stumbled backwards, while Y/N fell down on her butt.

"Ouchie..." she muttered, rubbing her back and sides to take away the pain surging through her body. "Are you okay?" she asked, almost intuitively, without realising it at first, until she heart a low grunt that brought her back to reality. "O-Oh...! You have glass shards stuck in your side! And you're bleeding too! Hold up, let me help." she hurried to his side, while the killer merely stiffened, feeling her delicate, slender fingers tracing his body, while he heaved and slouched his shoulders from the repressed wrath. "It may sting a bit, and I'm really sorry, but I promise it will be better soon." her voice was so motherly and warm, which also resonated in her actions, as she gingerly took a water bottle and imbued some tissues with it, to wipe away the blood smearing down his skin as she extracted the glass shards, and then..."This is grandma's marigold ointment. It's really good, and it smells nice." she explained as she carefully smeared a thick layer of the yellow ointment on the biggest wounds, while the little ones were covered by smiley-flower patterned plasters. They were cute, and colourful, and they never failed to make her smile. "Okay, there we go, all better! I hope you'll feel better very soon!" her voice got a tiny bit more cheerful and upbeat.

It made the Killer think about a trillion things, as he stepped in front of her, towering over her like the Empire states building next to a smiling pomeranian. What was with this girl? Why did she help a killer? And why did he feel so...Warm inside? He could sense a foreign kind of luminosity, a naivite and innocence that he only witnessed in children and animals. This woman in front of him was untainted by the darkness and evil of the world.

It didn't matter how many hardships she's been through, or how much sadness she had to endure - Her soul remained as pure as any snowdrop, as the first snow of winter, as the fleece of a baby lamb who let out its first 'meeeeh' to its mamma sheep.

He couldn't allow this human to be maimed in any way - Not by the world, not by the Entity, and certainly not by him. - Screw the Entity, Pyramind Head kills by his own rules, and now, he was blessed to be faced with a human who bore no real hatred for her peers, or for the world, despite the horrible situation she was thrown into.

He didn't understand, obviously, especially as he remembered the myriad of abominations that lurked through Silent Hill, all of them created by the torment of humans - The very torment that distorted their own reality, which resulted in him needing to solve the purpose as The Executioner - Eradicating the world of all evil.

"Th-This sword is so heavy...H-How can you carry this around like that...?! Your muscles must be so strained and sore...Y-You really need a massage, I'm sure." she stuttered as she tried to lift the much taller and heavier sword from the ground, only for the brute to simply bend and pick it up with extreme ease, putting the girl to shame with her complete lack of strength. "Hehe...You're really strong. I'm embarrassed now." she chuckled softly, scratching the back of her neck.

Before she could leave or do anything else, Pyramid Head picked her up by the throat, careful not to hurt her or restrict her air intake - I mean, how else was he supposed to carry her so he wouldn't hurt her with his metal head or sword? - and it was pretty clear she didn't feel any malevolence from him, as she clinged on his forearm, trying to keep herself up, only to be dumped on top of the hatch, as the killer pointed towards it, so she would leave.

"O-Oh...! Thank you so much! You're really kind! I really appreciate this...I-I know it probably doesn't matter much to you, since you'll be doing this over and over again with all the survivors...But I really appreciate you for your kind gesture, and I appreciate you for being so nice with me. Thank you. Take care!" her dazzling smile lit the whole place up, but he couldn't talk, nor could he tell her how he should be the one thanking her for showing him that, despite the hundreds and thousands of years he had to roam the 'Earth' and execute the injust, miracles still existed.

As soon as she reached the survivor's camp, everyone cheered for her, asking how in the world could she have escaped the wrath of the butcher. "Oh, but he wasn't that bad. In fact, he's much more humane than I anticipated! I think he has a beautiful, blooming heart!" okay, she's lost it - the other survivors thought - but even so, she's always been a bit...Out of it, so who cares?

It took quite a while for the other three survivors to reach the camp, all bloody, in fact, like the new killer, who dragged himself with the same menace to the Killers' camp. "How the hell did you manage to survive?!" they yelled at her in utter shock, seeing that she got out of there unscratched. "Oh, you see...I found the hatch." she shrugged simply, not wanting to give away that the person who massacred those three was a soft one and he basically threw her down the hatch to her safety.

As she took a twig to roast a marshmallows, she noticed how Pyramid Head was standing much farther away from the rest of the killers - She knew that silent killers were bound to stay away from the more obnoxious one, remembering how Michael Myers almost killed Ghostface and The Legion at least a dozen times - But this time...He seemed kinda...Lonely? So Y/N took the matters into her own hands, roasted another marshmallow in another twig, and when it was done, she went to the killer's camp, calling out the lonely one's name - She has no idea why, but he actually followed her, pushing her further deep into the forest, until he was sure nobody was going to hear, see or interrupt them...

"Hey. You seemed pretty lonely out there...I thought you could use a friend. Thank you again for what you did at the trial...Here, this is a marshmallow. I don't think you've had many before...Cheryl told me of that horrible place you had to live in...So I hope this will make your day a bit better!" Y/N extended one of her hands towards him, so he could take the marshmallow - And a long, black tongue erupted from underneath the pyramid, snatching away the fluffy marshmallow and gulping it in one go.

What the hell was he turning into?

A towering man built of pure muscle, wrath and divine justice, with a pyramid representing the evil of humanity burdening his body, and a sword taller and heavier than the average human being constantly dragged in one of his hand...He now was a slave to a cute, innocent girl who was putting flower plasters on his minuscule wounds that would heal in a heartbeat regardless - He saved this girl who was now offering his these soft, squishy things that tasted overly sugarly, just like her upbeat and cheerful personality - If he could eat her, he was sure she would taste even sweeter than this - A sickish kind of sweet, that is.

She was indeed a beautiful angel in this tragic hell. But he didn't wait to snatch the second marshmallow either.

"Ah...! You liked it, didn't you? Well...Next time, I promise I'll give you more!" she grinned at him the same way a princess would to her chivalrous knight who saved her. The since he couldn't talk, silence took over them - It wasn't an uncomfortable one, per se, but it made it feel as if the conversation was over. "W-Well...I'll guess I'll see you around! Take care and I hope to see you again soon!" she waved cutely, trying to turn around back to her camp, only to feel a rough hand on her shoulder, turning her around and urging her to stop and wait for him and he went deep into the forest, leaving her alone and undefended by the potential malevolent forces of the forest.

When he returned, however, he stepped right in front of her, creating the perfect shade as he towered over her - Then he kneeled in front of her, so he would reach her eye sight, then he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and put a beautiful pink flower - As pink as the blush that started creeping on her face - He wanted to see her luminous face better, to highlight her dazzling smile and her glimmering eyes as the warm, silver light of the mother moon caressed her face.

Y/N felt her heart picking up the pace - It was beating so much faster than ever before - But this time, it wasn't out of fear or anything negative...It was something good. Something she never felt in her life, especially with her human acquaintances from back home. None was as chivalrous and gentle with her as this butcher of tormented souls - The bringer of justice, the merciless Executioner who was supposed to end the life of every living being that would cross his path.

It was insane how every Yin finds its Yang, even if that comes in the form of a little lamb of a small, frail girl, and a huge abomination of a brute man who knows nothing but death, bloodshed and carnage. It was truly crazy how opposites attract, and here she was, holding the killers large hands and gingerly putting them on her face, leaning into his touch - She felt safer now than ever in her life - Now, in the arms of an ancient killer.

An Angel and A Demon brought together in a perfect union.

As she leaned down, she touched the metal of the pyramid where she anticipated his forehead would be with her own forehead, and closing her eyes, she finally felt herself calming down. There was no need for words, actions spoke louder than anything, and she appreciated it...She appreciated him.

"Thank you." she whispered to him, knowing that yes, even though nobody else would hear it anyway, it was much more intimate than anything she ever experienced.

She was hooked.

Hope you liked my completely shameless pun, I couldn't stop it, especially after the pain I went through trying to write this...3 freaking times.

Yay.

[natromanxoff]

Most of you probably know about the alleged tape incident of Roger’s. After constantly getting pissed off because of him getting called as “dumbass”, seeing people trying to find and watch the video (let’s be honest that is actually a little impertinent); now I am able to acknowledge better how someone out there made up some incorrect version about this, maybe even totally fake, story and the misinformation had spread around. It’s actually getting even worse when the incident in question might not have happened at all.

Last month, I have come across and received the scan of another article which had headlines about this matter. And guess what? While I was only expecting to read pure nonsense again, there was more about it - I realized that it doesn’t tell about it as Roger giving the wrong tape and it’s totally different. The Sun said “it’s stolen" too but everybody around has been saying “he gave it”. Before I start, I’d like to point out some important points: 

1. Be aware that this is, even though it has reached out to tabloids, a private issue. Whether the story is wrong or right, this is a story about a private stuff of them. Above all, Roger is already a private person himself about his personal life. Please be respectful at that if you ever say something about it.

2. You all use this story to mock him in some ways which I don’t really appreciate – it’s kind of like IILWMC –, don’t do it. I am not writing this down for you to change the context and make more jokes. My sole purpose is trying to stop this ‘gave the wrong tape’ accusation because I don’t see any source or proof regarding that. Send me if there’s any but I don’t think there is.

3. Always remember that these are only tabloid stuff. Most of the time, they are not credible or creditable at all. Those are the same papers which wrote all the horrible things when Freddie passed away. It’s hard to trust anything that those unreliable papers wrote about. But, at least, we’ll be able to see the origin of some details. Basically, keep in mind that this whole thing might not have happened at all but it also mentions nothing about him making a mistake - that part doesn’t appear anywhere on the internet actually, except on the words of fans’.

4. Let’s just not delve into this subject much more than necessary but only read the paper to see what it says. As I said, this post is written only for information.

We all know about The Sun article (May 4th, 1991). The one I mentioned now is from Sunday Mirror (SM) (May 5th, 1991). There is a couple of interesting points when you compare these two; that person asked for £10,000 from the first one anonymously and £5,000 from the second one by arranging a meeting; The Sun says they let the police know about it and some progress have already been made, SM says they gave the files to detectives the previous night; The Sun is somehow able to tell that the video was recorded in the previous year but also tells that it’s not known how the copy was made, meanwhile SM describes it with details. They make me nothing but more suspicious, like they are in contradict and something feels off. Did he request two different amounts of money from two different newspaper company by having only one copy to see which one will accept? Or were there more than one copy? If there were more than one, it makes me think that people would have found it by now. I am not going to question these anymore though, I don’t want to do that and it’s not my aim at all, because the main point I’d like to talk about and correct is how the tape has reached out to Douglas Lane, the person who tried to sell it,: by the man who was hired to do some work at Roger’s home when he was away. He thought the tape he saw on the shelf is a video from The Miracle album and took it home to watch so he basically ‘stole’ it because he ended up making a copy and giving it to Lean.

Lean claimed the tape had been “borrowed” and copied by a 47-old-friend.

The man had been hired to do building work at Taylor’s £700,000 second home in Kensington, West London, while the star was away.

He took the tape from a shelf thinking it was a video from Queen’s Miracle album.

Lean said: “He is a Queen fan so he thought he would take it home and have a look at it.”

And Douglas, who earns money in an unsatisfying amount, thought that he would get more by selling it.

“He had the sense to copy it and put the original back, but he didn’t do anything with the copy.

“He knew I was involved in music and told me about it.”

Lean, who drives a concrete mixer by day and earns £20 a night playing guitar in pubs, said: “I immediately thought I could make myself a packet out of it.

“It was my idea to sell it.”

Sunday Mirror writes that Lean said Roger edited the tape so that after those “sessions”, you see Breakthru video and he labelled the tape “Breakthru promo”.

“Taylor has no idea the video has been copied,” said Lean.

He said the tape was labelled “Breakthrough Promo” — the name of the band’s single from the Miracle album.”

I mean, really? I honestly don’t have any idea why he would do that. Why would he add a private video on a same tape with one of Queen videos? Why would he bother? If he did, why does he label it with that? Why does that worker get so curious about a video from 2 years ago? Maybe he didn’t have chance to see it in those two years, that could be the only answer. But why does he bring it to his home rather than watching it in Roger’s home? Surely, he wouldn’t see any problem at that as he’s fine with taking something that doesn’t belong to him. It’s purely a chance that he came across with something unexpected which will make him want to copy it at his home.

And after everything, this is apparently what Lean says:

But he insisted: The video was not stolen. It was just borrowed and copied.”

I can say a lot of words right now but I won’t… If all these things are really true, that is not an excuse of taking someone’s private stuff to copy without their consent, not ethical at all as he aimed to sell it and make it public. Ergo it was indeed stolen.

So, see? There is no “mixing the tapes and giving the wrong tape to a fan”. I assume this article must be the first place where that wrong version came from. And if it is telling the truth, there seems to be no mistake he has done here because his private stuff has been taken from his property unbeknownst to him. Briefly, we don’t know for sure if they had a tape and if it has really reached out to someone but if it did, then I believe this is high likely how it would happen.

It’s worth to mention that there is another theory regarding these news, that it’s been arranged to take media’s attention off Freddie. I can’t tell which one is true or if both them are wrong and nothing even happened, of course. It’s up to you, choosing whatever you’re going to believe in. But know that I can’t see any creditable source about him giving the wrong tape - so I wouldn’t suggest believing in that or keeping talking about it - and there might be more about this that we don’t / won’t know about so it’s only haste to make a judgement based on these. 

Last note about something regarding him in general: Please, don’t take the different versions of this story and comments about them into account when you form your opinion about him because only those things don’t define him. Or the other way around, “if it’s Roger, it’s probably true - he would do it” attitude is not really fair when we consider that it’s actually you who chose to perceive him in that way by getting influenced whether by the movie or some ‘facts’ around - they do not reflect some aspects of him in the right way. Always try to find an original source. It is not always only him who would have his fun in those various ways, it is possible for any other rock star. All of them did some stuff - sometimes some really bad stuff - but it is not only Roger (I don’t mean the stated story here though, I honestly can’t see anything bad there). So him being the one who is involved in this story doesn’t prove or provide any authenticity. If everyone complies with that while critizing him or not approving something about him, it is always acceptable and welcomed, in my opinion. And that is valid about everyone, of course.

[choibinn3]

get to know me game!!

tagged by: @tyunni

tagging: @tyuncafe this is suuper long btw so dont mind it if u dont wanna do it!! hehe

what day is your birthday? dec 8th, sunghoons bday 😥 (thats how i heard abt enhypen actually, my friend was like "OMGG u share a bday wirh my bias!!!!")

what’s your favorite color? pink <33 it makes me so happy

what’s your lucky number? 8!!! like my bday date :')

do you have any pets? no :(( want a kitty real bad though

how tall are you? skipping. no comment. next question.

how many pairs of shoes do you have? like THREE and i rotate between two ♥️

favorite song? kpop?? um rn fever by enhypen or ghosting.. non kpop would be amoeba by clairo (shits GOOD plz go listen to it)

favorite movie? not the biggest fan of movies, but im suuper into slasher films/horror!!! so maybe smthng from there??

what would your ideal partner be like? jungwon ♥️ LMAO

do you want children? nope!! love kids but parenting doesnt sound like smthng id want to do unfortunately

have you gotten in trouble with the law? not that i know od?? Dont tell anyone

bath or shower? shower.. i dont thinj ive ever taken a legitimate bath b4, always showered

what color socks are you wearing? soz to say this but socks suck!! also irs 11pm and im in bed BUT THAT STILL STANDS

favorite type of music? like genre?? no clue, but i typically like music that reminds me romantic pining (aka, fever ♥️ or around you by hyunjin)

how many pillows do you sleep with? pillows are four!!! plushies,?? infinite bitch!!

what position do you sleep in? curled up on my side hugging smthng hehe

what you don’t like when you’re sleeping? yk that sleep where like,, ure sleeping... but u feel awake the whole time?? and rhen u wake up fuckin groggy like uve just been lying there.. that.

what do you have for breakfast? no breakfast!!! 2 cool 4 that. also i wake up at like uhh 11am-3pm sometimes

have you ever tried archery? NO!! sharp objections should not be in my possession apparenrly. tch 😒

favorite fruit? strawberries? mangoes?? anything fresh

favorite swear word? no favs, jm too indecisive for that :((

do you have any scars? yea, i dont have a cool story for them though.. i was just a scab picker kid lol

are you a good liar? SHITTY. horrible, the worst. i cant lie dor shit nd it gets me all shcoked everytime someone is like "mai ure LITERALLY so bad at this" during a lying game lol

what’s your personality type? istp-t!! same as huening whoooo 🎉🎉

what’s your favorite type of girl? mean girls...... i jusy like mean ppl in general but mean gurls have a special space in my heart ♥️!! theyre so demonized but as long as theyre not acrually complete assholes (like homophobes, bigots yk?) they r everythint 2 me

innie or outtie? gots an innie :]

left or right handed? right

favorite food? no favs again!!! but SPICY FOOD YUMM

favorite foreign food? probs uhh Bún bò Huế!!! im viet so idk if that counts as "foreign" but omgg ITS SO GOOD

are you clean or messy? messy!! i feel like everythings much more comfy and natural.. not like too messy though

most used phrase? BARK BARK (not proud of this one guys)

how long does it take you to get ready? like 40-60mins... ONLY BC i zone out tthough and forgot im meant to be gettinf ready LOL

do you talk to yourself? Yes. i do <3 thats also why i read&write fanfictions

do you sing to yourself? mhm!!! esp when the songs too good i sing along or throughout the day

are you a good singer? actually, literally not sure at all. i took chorus since like elementary school tho if that helps

biggest fear? heights and commitment ♥️

are you a gossip? what does this mean. but i think?? i like heaeinf gossip but im not tonna get outta my way to talk abt it ?

do you like long or short hair? on myself short!!! but guys&girls nd just everyone in general look so damn good with long hair sometimes

favorite school subject? none lol <33!! school sucks this question pains me every time i see it on back2school answer sheets

introvert or extrovert? introvert, im a lil hermit all cooped up inside my room all the tim3 ://

what makes you nervous? ppl i like are cool!!! or like ppl in general, i cant even order my boba by myself dude

who was your first real crush? i THINK. it mightve been my bff from when i was in 5th grade.. idk if this counts bc i (THINK) but like...... i cried so fucking much when we stopped being friends. it felt like a breakup and im still not over it tbh (tmi?)

how fast can you run? not fast at all but i can JUMP

what color is your hair? black, still have virgin hair!!

do you like your own name? umm tbh no, but my screen name (mai) is my middle name anyways so i dont think that matters too much

what makes you angry? people who dont listen :( pisses me off but tbh i dont get angry often

do you want a boy or a girl as a child? NEITHER. if i had to pick maybe boy but NOOOOO

what are your strengths? ive been told im endearingly stupid (like twice by the same friend) and it stuck with me. like AWWW :(( U THINK IM ENDEARINGG??

what are your weaknesses? id say im too socially anxious, public speaking makes my hands shake and i cant speak so its real bad

what’s the color of your bedspread? like white with blue polka dots ^_^

what’s the color of your room? this nice beige color,, like the color of my blog rn actually!!!! i based it off of jungwons color scheme but ig this works too

[silenthillmutual]

Danganronpa 1 & 2 characters as High School “recommended reading” books I actually read

Makoto Naegi

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when i read it: 5th grade for fun, 10th grade for English class did i like it? well enough yeah content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism, ableism, and sexism about: Recounts a summer in which Scout and her brother, Jem, watch their lawyer father defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in the south while balancing raising them alone. Other stuff happens, but that’s the most important plot thread.

Sayaka Maizono

Medea by Euripides when i read it: i don’t remember, maybe 9th for drama, 12th for English? did i like it? yep! content warnings: child murder, infidelity, some pretty brutal other character deaths, sexism about: Medea, who has sacrificed everything to be with her husband - even committed treason - has been left by the man so he can move on to woo and wed a princess. And she loses her shit.

Leon Kuwata

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn by Mark Twain when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism (use of the n-word), domestic abuse, classism iirc? about: After his abusive dad comes back and demands money under the threat of death, Huck Finn runs away with a fugitive slave down the Mississippi River. Being Mark Twain, it’s a comedy, although Huck’s father is genuinely kind of frightening and his friendship with Jim is kind of heartwarming.

Chihiro Fujisaki

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade & freshman year of college for class did i like it? I’ve got mixed feelings; i love the book, hate most peoples’ interpretations of it. content warnings: character death, incest (depending on the version of the novel you read), unethical doctors, neglectful parents about: Thinking he knows better than literally anyone else he’s ever met, Victor Frankenstein decides it’s his birthright to play god. He robs graves to build the perfect body, and then, once he’s successful, flips his shit and refuses to acknowledge any part he played in the creation, wrecking the lives of like everyone he knows.

Mondo Oowada

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when i read it: like 6th or 7th grade, for fun did i like it? i loved it! content warnings: abuse, thematic classism, character death about: Honestly the most obvious choice to make for Mondo. Ponyboy Curits, a greaser, recounts the last few months of his life in which, after being repeatedly harassed and then nearly killed by gang of rich kids, his friend Johnny stabs one to death. In order to keep Johnny out of prison and Ponyboy out of a boys’ home, the two run away. Considering Ponyboy is also being raised by an older brother, this totally fits Mondo.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

King Lear by William Shakespeare when i read it: twice in college (discliamer: as an english major i had to taken an entire course on shakespeare, so he shows up a lot here between that and having done theatre) did i like it? no content warnings: a surprising amount of gore for a stage play, including a guy getting his eyes gouged out and someone getting beheaded iirc about: The king’s getting up in years, so he’s hoping he can drop the workload off onto his three daughters while remaining the figurehead. His youngest, Cordelia, who he loves best, refuses to kiss his ass by saying that he’ll still have power over her once she’s married, and this pisses him off so he disinherits her. Then her sisters, annoyed with their father and his favoritism, decide that with Cordelia out of the way they can now do basically whatever they want and determine to make his life hell. Since he named them Goneril and Regan, I don’t blame them.

Hifumi Yamada

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer when i read it: college, but i wanna say i read some of the stories in it for English classes in high school? did i like it? some of the stories i did yeah content warnings: varies from story to story, but i remember unsanitary, drunkenness, and infidelity about: The overarching “plot” as such is that a group of people are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and decide that to pass the time they will tell two stories each. Each story is told in-character, and whoever tells the best story has to...buy everybody dinner, or something? I don’t really recall. It’s a comedy, but it’s also unfinished because Chaucer bit off way more than he could chew.

Celes Ludenberg

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? probably, i’m a fan of Poe content warnings: drunkenness, murder about: This one got memetic on tumblr for a while, but essentially this guy decides to get revenge on an old friend of his for some kind of sleight by getting him drunk during Carnival, leading him into the basement, and burying him alive. Poe isn’t one to go soft.

Sakura Oogami

“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? no content warnings: objectification, something akin to torture about: A family finds an old man with wings lying face-down on the ground and decide to keep him like a pet. People see him and assume he is an animal, and the family decides to start charging admission like their own private sideshow, while onlookers abuse him. One of those extra depressing stories that makes you wonder why the hell you had to read it for class.

Mukuro Ikusaba

The Crucible by Arthur Miller when i read it: the first time, probably in 6th or 7th grade, and then several more times after that for a variety of other classes. it’s a theatre and English class staple.  did i like it? when taken in context, yes. but i’m also fucking sick of reading it. content warnings: infidelity, paranoia bait, period-typical racism & sexism (takes place during the Salem Witch Trials) about: The plot is a witch hunt, in which a girl who had an affair with a married man claims to have been taken over by the spirit of the devil and that all her friends and a variety of other townsfolk have too. It follows the trials as they try to determine who is and is not guilty, who will repent for their sins, and thematically is about puritanical hysteria. It’s about the Red Scare of the 50s, surveillance, the Hollywood Blacklist, propaganda, and tyrannical government. Naturally, teachers fail to provide any context for the play that actually makes it relevant or interesting. Compare to modern day callout/cancel culture. 

Kyouko Kirigiri

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose when i read it: 10th grade (although i’d already seen the movie) did i like it? yes content warnings: thematic classism & xenophobia about: The jury of a case in which a teenager is accused of murder convene to determine their verdict. All but one man believe him to be guilty. The rest of the play covers his attempts to sway his other jurors into at least casting aside their prejudices to view the case impartially.

Byakuya Togami

The Federalist Papers when i read it: summer before 12th grade for AP Gov. yikes. did i like it? oh god no. i had to have my lawyer dad explain it to me. content warnings: legalese and it’s boring as fuck about: i mean it’s just a bunch of essays to promote ratifying the the constitution. I don’t even remember if we read all of them. that’s how bad my retention of the subject is.

Toko Fukawa

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? kind of? content warnings: bugs, emotional abuse, depression about: A man awakens one day to find he has transformed into a giant cockroach. It’s a metaphor for his depression and what a burden he feels like to his family. If you read anything about Kafka’s life, you’ll understand why he was depressed.

Aoi Asahina

Hamlet by William Shakespeare when i read it: i’ve forgotten when my first time was because i’ve had to read it so constantly. if i had to wager a guess, i’d say middle school, though i’ve read it for fun, for drama class, and for English class. did i like it? yes content warnings: character death, suicidal ideation, incest vibes (depending on your interpretation) about: Hamlet, not over the early death of his father, is enraged that his mother has married his uncle. He’s really bringing everyone else down about it, and then he starts to see his father’s ghost on top of it all. No one’s sure if he’s just mad with grief or if the ghost is for real, but he starts making life for everyone else difficult when he decides to try and expose his uncle as his father’s murderer.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller when i read it: 10th grade i think? did i like it? if i believed in book-burning, this would’ve been the first turned to ash in my trashcan content warnings: infidelity, mediocre white men with narcissism, suicide, not sure what else about: An aging father who thinks he was robbed of success by circumstances refuses to face facts that he is a loser by projecting his failures onto a son that now hates him and thinking real big of himself for a wash-out.

Junko Enoshima

Othello by William Shakespeare when i read it: college did i like it? it’s my favorite Shakepseare play, actually! content warnings: thematic racism/xenophobia/Islamophobia, domestic abuse, character death about: A tragedy centering around the planned downfall of Othello, Moor of Venice. He’s relatively well-respected for his heroics and generally being a pretty cool guy, but for whatever reason, Iago wants to see him suffer. And when I say “for whatever reason” - it’s because Iago never gives a consistent one, but at the end he admits the entire thing has been his orchestration and he’s had no issue exploiting peoples’ bigotry as a means to an end. One popular and pretty text-evident theory is that Iago is in love with Othello. But - causing a ruckus, bringing society to its knees, and torturing a man just for shits n giggles? Getting it all done by sheer power of charisma? That’s all Junko ever does.

Monokuma

1984 by George Orwell when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade for class did i like it? yes but i don’t recommend it. i like tedious shit. content warnings: paranoia bait, sexual themes, torture, probably other stuff i’m forgetting about: Classic dystopia lit in which the government controls the flow of information to the degree of creating its own language (”newspeak”) to explain the technology used to survey its citizens and distill history-changing propaganda. Especially relevant in an era of “fake news.” Where Big Brother Is Watching comes from. Extremely difficult to get into.

Hajime Hinata

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck  when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah content warnings: ableism, implied domestic abuse, character death, animal death, era-typical sexism (1930s) about: Very desolate and depressing novella about the futility of the American Dream to “make something of yourself”. Two farmhands, Lennie and George, arrive at a California farm seeking employment. They just want to earn enough money to open up a farm of their own - a rabbit farm - and things are all downhill from there. Well-written and one of Steinbeck’s shorter works.

Twogami

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yes! i loved it. but in the way that you love sleazy tabloid rag stories. content warnings: infidelity, car accidents, character death about: Stupidly rich people in New York in the 1920s being fake as hell. It’s about excess and decadence and the idea of having a rags-to-riches story, and it’s very homoerotic.

Teruteru Hanamura

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? one of my top faves tbh content warnings: alcoholism & drug usage, thematic classism & racism (ie that’s the point), sexual themes, violence, non-graphic suicide (like literally the last sentence), character deaths about: You know how 1984 is a very pessimistic dystopia about government surveillance? Brave New World is like “what if everything was a utopia because of government interference?” It’s easier to get into than 1984. It’s about a man from the upper echelon of society discovering the dirty secret of how society is able to able to function the way it does, an outsider into his world to shake things up.

Mahiru Koizumi

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen when i read it: i dunno, summer between 9th and 10th grade maybe? did i like it? yes! i loved it. content warnings: there are a couple of guys who are sort of gross but there’s nothing that bad in it about: An upper-middle class family - more the mother than the father - trying to marry off the eldest of their five daughters. It’s largely character-driven and most of the plot focuses on Jane’s relationship with Bingley, Elizabeth’s relationship with Darcy, and the problems witch judging people based on first impressions.

Peko Pekoyama

Call of the Wild by Jack London when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? fuck no content warnings: graphic animal violence. if there’s other stuff i forgot because i fucking hated this book. about: I think it’s something like a dog getting lost in Alaska and has to learn to be a wolf in order to survive? It’s incredibly brutal and is one of those media where just reading it makes you feel cold. 

Hiyoko Saionji

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not really content warnings: man i don’t know, but it’s by Tennessee Williams so there’s probably alcoholism, daddy issues, and homophobia about: An overbearing mother embarrasses her son and disabled daughter when an old school friend comes to visit...I’m not sure if there’s more of a plot to it than that. Like most Williams works, it’s largely character-driven.

Ibuki Mioda

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino when i read it: college did i like it? this is one of those rare exceptions in books where i read it, because i remember having a visceral reaction to it, but i can not for the life of me remember a single damn thing about it other than how stupidly difficult it was to read.  content warnings: it’s metaficiton. about: You are the protagonist. I genuinely can’t explain anymore than that.

Mikan Tsumiki

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? not really, but i’d be willing to reread it content warnings: domestic abuse, rape about: Unstable Blanche DuBois goes to visit her sister, Stella, and meets her appalling husband Stanley. All Tennessee Williams plays seem to have a theme of family tragedy in them, with this being probably the most bleak example. 

Nekomaru Nidai

The Odyssey by Homer when i read it: 9th grade, then again in college for a classics class did i like it? yeah content warnings: your usual classical Greek-variety nonsense, including character death, infidelity, and partying. about: Odysseus attempts to make his way back home after the Trojan War, and has a time of it. Having pissed off Poseidon he’s gotten off-course and gotten lost another ten years, and had a whole slew of other adventures trying to make it back home and save his wife from the harassment she’s been getting since his disappearance.

Gundham Tanaka

The Tempest by William Shakespeare when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not especially content warnings: thematic colonialism & racism...not sure what else but it’s hard as fuck to read. try reading it out loud & acting along to it. about: I didn’t totally get it but there’s something about a wizard having been banished and now people are coming back to find him for some reason? the people who exiled him & his brother & daughter have crash-landed on his island and now he might get his revenge. Thanks, TVTropes! All I remember is discussing in one class about how The Tempest managed to predict the “finding” of America and how the English would treat the native peoples. It’s a “romance”, which in that day and age meant it was about magic. Influenced some science fiction works like Brave New World (the title of which comes from a line spoken by Miranda). I should probably reread it.

Nagito Komaeda

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger when i read it: 8th grade for fun did i like it? yeah content warnings: implied pedophilia. i’m sure there’s other stuff but i don’t remember it well enough. about: Perennial troublemaker Holden Caulfield is kicked out of boarding school, and takes a hell of a long time getting home from the place as he complains about his declining mental state, hypocrisy, and loss of innocence. It’s one of those books you either really love or really hate, and has been repeatedly challenged because Holden swears too much and might be bisexual.

Chiaki Nanami

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw when i read it: 12th grade, i think did i like it? yes content warnings: classism about: A linguistics professor makes a bet with a friend that he can take any lower-class citizen and teach them to speak formal English, well enough to pass them off as aristocracy to other rich people. It’s the plot upon which the musical My Fair Lady is based, although it was intended as a deconstruction of the kind of plot whose trope it now codifies.

Sonia Nevermind

“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: infidelity, character death about: A guy comes home and tells his heavily pregnant wife that he’s been having an affair, and he’s leaving her. She doesn’t take it well. I won’t spoil the rest of it, as it’s a short story, but it’s fun to keep in mind that it’s be the same guy who wrote classics such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Kazuichi Souda

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare when i read it: 8th grade for a book report and then again in....i don’t know. i’ve had to read it a lot. did i like it? sure, it’s got some pretty great insults content warnings: men being douchebags including stalker-y behavior, and a woman falls in love with a man who has a donkey’s head (it doesn’t last) about: Hermia & Lysander are planning to run away to get married because Hermia’s father doesn’t approve of Lysander, and she’s trying to dodge the affections of Demetrius - the man to whom she has been betrothed, because he’s an ass who, among other things, slept with her friend Helena and then ditched her. Which Helena is still hung up on, even though he’s a gross creep. At the same time, a group of actors are trying to get together a play for an upcoming royal wedding, and the King of the Faeries is trying to win back his wife. This all connects because a faerie decides to fuck around.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier when i read it: college, for an independent study did i like it? yeah content warnings: graphic violence, i think some homophobia? about: Kids and staff at a private school take a candy sale way too damn seriously. There’s basically a mafia at the school and some sort of weird popularity contest and hazing going on. 

Akane Owari

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? i guess so content warnings: human hunting about: A man finds himself shipwrecked on an island, and is then hunted for sport. No, really.

Monomi

East of Eden by John Steinbeck when i read it: technically i’m in the middle of it right now, but that counts, right? did i like it? so far, i guess i do, but it’s mainly i care character who comes up later. couldn’t give less of a shit about adam trask, full offense content warnings: period-typical sexism & racism (set around the turn of the 20th century and published in 1952), implied pedophilia (that gets incredibly glossed over), ableism about: A combination of heavy-handed religious allegory (Steinbeck really just can’t cool it with the Cain and Abel theme naming) and family tree history. Follows the Trask family through Adam’s childhood, tumultuous relationship with his brother, even worse relationship with his wife, and horrible parenting of his children. The end (which is what the film adaptation covers) is more centered on his son Cal Trask grappling with the idea that he might be evil because of his genetics, or something. I think that’s an argument you could make of Monomi, being related to Monokuma (or at least, how i’m sure she’d feel).

[sevenincubistolemyheart]

Hey I wanted to message you but for some reason Tumblr won't let me. I've been writing a BTS Au set in a College setting and it's the first thing I've ever written. This is just the prologue and it's in third person point of view

Summary: Samantha was ecstatic that she was accepted into one of the top Universities in the country. Even more thrilled that she was one of the 8 student to be offered a full scholarship. One of the benefits of the scholarship is getting to live in a luxury apartment instead of a tiny dorm room. However when she learns that her new neighbors, the other seven recipients of the scholarship, only received it because of their connections to the college, she vowes to never associate with any of them, under any circumstances. But what happens when all of them start to pursue her.

Samantha was thrilled when she was accepted into the University of her dreams. It was one of the most selective colleges in the country. When she was getting her AA degree, she somehow managed to keep a 4.0 GPA while acting as Student Government President and clocking 62 hours of Community Service. All of that torture was the reason she was not only accepted, but was one of the eight students to receive a Full Scholarship.

She had always considered herself to be an independent woman. But now that she truly was going to be on her own, in a completely different part of the country, she had to admit that she was kinda scared. She would no longer have her friends around for movie marathons and dinner parties, she always knew it was going to happen, but it didn't make it any easier when it actually happened. All she could do was think about how amazing this was going to be for her future and for her. She also couldn't deny how excited she was about finally getting to have a real college experience. She got her AA at a state college and was living at home, and she couldn't wait to see what it was like and to meet new people.

There were many perks that came from her scholarship, like not having to pay the crazy expensive tuition, but the big kahuna was the living situation that came with it. One of the members of the Board of Trustees owns an apartment building, about 15 minutes from campus. This year any student that received a full ride scholarship would be allowed to live in an apartment there for free instead of one of the forma on campus. Sure there were only 8 full ride scholarships so it wasn't like he was giving up the whole building, but still she thought it was an extremely generous offer, and she sure as hell wasn't going to complain about it and if you saw the place you wouldn't either. To say it was nice would be an understatement. The entire building practically screamed luxurious. It had a restaurant, gym, pool, office spaces, conference rooms and a 24 hour Cafe. And her apartment was just to die for. There were only two apartments on the entire floor, hers and the penthouse, which took up a majority of the floor. She could only assume that it was huge based on the size of her apartment. It was a spacious 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, it had a kitchen and a living room, with a mini office space in the corner with a desk. Plus the walls were soundproof so she could be as loud as she wanted to without getting told to shut the fuck up. It was pretty cool that her last 2 years of absolute hell had paid off, and that she was living here in this place instead of a tiny ass dorm with a roommate she would most likely hate. The situation was kind of perfect but there was just one problem, the seven guys living in the penthouse next door.

It turned out that one of the boys was the son of that Board of Trustees member and him and his friends received the scholarship because of that. It left a bitter taste in her mouth that these guys were practically handed their scholarships on a silver platter when she worked her ass off to get hers. She felt even more upset for the kids who worked just as hard as she did and we're more deserving of the scholarship instead of the seven guys who didn't even need it because they had "daddy's money". The guys themselves were all extremely attractive, but they were your typical entitled douchebags. They were basically an unofficial frat with how many parties they threw and the number of girls that came crawling to their apartment. Boy was she glad that the walls were soundproof. Samantha avoided them like the plague. Nothing pissed her off more than someone with zero work ethic and thinks they're better than everyone else because they have more power or money. She was raised to work harder than everyone else around her, it was embedded into her brain and she lived that, it was why she made the accomplishments she had. So she made a pact with herself. Never get close the the BTS guys and if they make the mistake of trying immediately shut them down and put them in their rightful place. She made the pact official by taking a shot of vodka and putting on a Harry Potter movie and let herself get lost in the Giblet of Fire. Let's do this thing

I was really hoping for some feedback as this is the first thing I've ever written. I'm open to changing it to first person p.o.v I just started writing it in third person. Please let me know what you think so far.

-----

Hi hun, I'm flattered you enjoy my works enough to want me to review but I'm honestly not really good enough to do any kind of judging for others works aha. I'm just...some person ya know?

I also kind of don't want to set a precedent. I don't have much time to write as it is and the few fics I want to read and have time for get added at my side blog for fic recs. I would feel bad if I turned down a bunch of people asking me for feedback and I don't want to feel pressured into doing so either.

I will say, especially for your first work at least for my experience, you'll look back and cringe like nothing else as you learn and grow. But the catch is you don't grow unless you write and(if you want) share with others. It's hard. I started out in 5th grade so my writing was...aha. You can imagine. My role playing also helped develop my fic writing when that eventually came to be(when I entered high school). Just keep at it if it brings you joy!

[migleefulmoments]

Le Sign, Abby

Anonymous asked: this is funny, C posted a photo of beard, D posted photos with the beard. Almost like they were sitting next to each other and saying “ok ok I will say this” (and it isn’t like EVERY Halloween Darren and Chris post their costumes for their fans)

 ajw720 answered:

The only difference, C controls his SM and the bearding, D does not, (that isn’t true but I know you need to believe it or your world comes tumbling down). but they knew the Halloween post was coming when C posted his belated b-day wishes (not that he acknowledged they were late).  

It really is, if you can remove the very human, tragic element, like a script for a really bad D Movie.  C posts “Happy Birthday, Babe!” a day after the man’s actual b-day and “D” praises his fake bride for MAKING TEN costumes (let me stop you right there, Darren was actually APPRECIATING Mia for putting together 10 costumes while he was too busy to help. He was praising her for thinking of and executing 10 costumes. He was honoring her for being as into Halloween as he is and playing along. He was praising her because he loves her. If he wanted to praise her for shopping he would have use the word shopping. Your reductive shopping tirades- which you turned it into a full day of nonsense intended to bully Mia- misses the point of his Tweet entirely. At the end of the day, he appreciates her. If your lover appreciates you AND is sensitive enough to care about your feelings they should write something about you on social media..if they aren’t, then it sucks to be you but shut up because the shopping straw man silly makes you look petty, obtuse, unappreciated, mean girls who are so jealous you can’t see straight.  Yes, a lot of their costumes this year were mass-produced and purchased this year-so what? Who cares? Is the bar of Halloween costumes that they are all couture? In the past they have used costume designers- they never made their own costumes entirely from scratch themselves. But that doesn’t mean that coordinating 10 costumes isn’t time consuming and clearly Darren didn’t care -he appreciated her.) Sure praise her if she actually designed them and sat with her sewing machine  No, she went online and ordered things (I doubt she even went to a store) (Why would that matter? You really have no idea what she did do you? You’re just grasping because you're so pissed that Darren mentioned Mia and now you are stuck erasing that history...AGAIN. Darren is always doing things with- and saying things about- his wife that prove time and time again that they are a couple and he loves her...it infuriates you because you have to erase it or "debunk” it. ) and 3 couple costumes were cheap frankly (Again, why would that matter but also at $50+ per costume, I wouldn't call that “cheap”?).  The only thought was how narcissistic she could be (What did she do? I didn’t see her social media...what did she say? Oh, right, you didn’t see her social media.  You're just pissed that Darren mentioned one nice word about her. Your the one who blew it up into Armageddon and gave her so much attention) in their execution (as @flowersintheattic254 pointed out even the Mario costume had  a reason, it was a reminder of Japan and the fake encagement by referring to the ad that paid for their trip there) (Huh? You're insane.  That’s suuuucccchhhhhh a stretch- but then you cannot stop thinking about that trip. I just don’t understand who the person you believe ccDarren is.  Is he such a coward that he lets Mia walk all over him and hurt him over and over? Why would he agree to be a dog hurt by CDV or make fun of the place they g to engaged if ccMia was ruining his life? Nobody is that much of a wuss ass twit.  The rest of us on planet sanity know that a the real reason they wore that costume was because Mario wins when he rescues Peach).

And seriously how are people not questioning that she spent the entirety of her month picking TEN costumes? (Because it isn’t our place to question that. I don’t get your beef? Is it because she isn’t stuck working 9-5 in a cubicle like you are? Is it because she both a successful business and a wealthy spouse so she has more freedom than you do?)  Who has time for this?  I know, i know, a person whose only role in life is to play fake plus one.(You come off as so jealous every time you bring this up-and god how many times can you bring it up? How other people live shouldn’t concern you. It just spins up your anxiety and you have no control over it. Couples make decisions about their roles and their work schedules and nobody else gets a say and nothing is “normal” or “abnormal”.) 

I am just so tired by D in particular being utterly dragged down by the useless dead weight by his side and his team’s sole ambition to promote her and make her sound like a decent person. (Here’s the harsh reality Abby- Darren posted his Halloween costumes and gave Mia a simple mentioned and you have written or reposted 23 posts about it just today. It has consumed your blog and your life. The ONLY person pushing and promoting Mia is YOU and your ilk. Mia is a decent person with lots and lots of friends-but even if she was the world’s worst person-even if she sat all day stalking and cyber-bulling strangers - you still have no say in who Darren marries and loves. That you don’t like her- or that you 

If they wanted to praise her, maybe they should have forced her to participate in the zero waste initiative instead of sitting drinking by the pool or have her volunteer to help young girls who have been kicked out of their homes, or have been raped.  (This entire paragraph is rich-talk about moving the goalposts- if he had put her in the video-which wasn't under his control since it wasn’t his project, he was just the host- you would have lost your shit over her being in the video raging about her lack of worth  she isn’t famous, she’s a slut, blah blah blah...like please please have enough self respect to recognize that you would have been livid if she was in the project). Or pick any cause and truly volunteer her time to promote it (you have NO idea what she does with her time or money because she doesn’t post it on social media. If she did, you would be raging that she was looking for attention- so please stop. What do YOU do to help the world?).  If she is not going to actually get a job and pursue a career (SHE OWNS A BUSINESS!!!!! Just like your boss... and you know she does. Your refusal to accept that is an ad hominom logical fallacy) please force her to do something that is actually of value and contribute something good to the world. But to praise her for picking TEN costumes? (Le sigh.)   

Praise that comes from a man who this year alone won three awards, is starring in a show he created and wrote the music for, has his first big movie premiere this week, is exec producer and star of a huge show on N/etflix, just announced his starring role with 2 A++ lists actors next spring on Broadway, celebrated the 5th anniversary of the festival he created, volunteered his time for the zero waste initiative, performed at several charity events, and was just yesterday name limited series actor of the decade.  Where is the praise for him from his “bride”? (Abby, come on, just because she doesn’t have public sm doesn’t mean she isn’t praising him in real life -or on her private sm-in fact, she has praised him on her social media that has been reblogged and you bitch about that. She was bragging about him speaking Tagalog at a dinner and your bitched and moaned that she didn’t know the language his mom speaks-forgive me for not believing you know more than she does). He at least deserves it. (Why does he deserve it? Because he’s famous and he’s a good actor? People are more than the value of their celebrity. You sure buy into the celebrity-obsessed culture don’t you? Pathetic. A husband thanking his wife for doing something for him is not something you can argue about-It is what it is. You have no say. There is no argument, no straw man, no gaslighting, and no erasing it). 

(here is where it gets intense)

How do they not see how ridiculous it is for someone with D’s accomplishments in 2019 alone praise a person for purchasing TEN costumes for Halloween? (SMH because one has nothing to do with other. Comparing them is another logical fallacy-your entire post is full of them. It’s like saying that if I am honored for my work saving kids’ lives, you can’t be honored for your work because your work in corporate immigration isn’t as important as mine is). And stans, how do you accept that this is right or normal. (I just don’t get why you continue to ask us WHY and then outright refuse to learn from what we say.  A life without learning is a wasted a life, Abby. To answer your question-because there is no “right" or “normal” when it comes to a stranger’s life. Darren’s life is Darren’s life and he can marry a Rhode’s Scholar or high school drop out with a low IQ. He can marry someone who never wanted to work or someone who wants to own the world. He can marry a humanitarian or Kim Kardashian.  It’s his choice..not yours...you have no say whatsoever.)  You really know nothing about him and have such little respect for him as a person if you continue to accept the character his idiotic team has created on his behalf.  It is so far from the person he is and that he generally holds himself out to be when given the opportunity. (oooh someone has been reading my blooogggggg. No, Abby, YOU have no clue who Darren is.  When I read Darren’s words or hear him in an interview, I take in what he says and I simply add that info into my internal “who is Darren” file. This is how we learn about the personality of anyone and everyone we know. We hear what they say about themselves and we take in how they act and what they care about, what they don’t care about, what they think is important, and what they do with their life at work and outside of work and we form a persona in our minds. You, on the other hand, have decided Darren is a very specific persona that you only see on rare occasions and looks far more like Blaine than he does like the real Darren.  So instead of listening and learning, you immediately set about to rewrite his words, change the meaning, and debase their value and intent because you have already formulated your version of Darren and it’s static. You won’t accept anything he does or says as “real” if it doesn’t meet that fantasy Darren. But this isn’t how it works in real life. We don’t label someone and then expect them to fit that model at all times or we get angry and scream “this isn’t normal”.  Everyone we know is growing and learning and changing al the time and we simply take in that information and store it away as part of their personality. You spend so much time being so angry about Darren’s life  because you haven’t actually seen much of your ccDarren since Glee ended. And you know that at some level because you just said “It is so far from the person he is and that he generally holds himself out to be when given the opportunity” That is the key here- the Darren you love is never around because that Darren ceased to exist when Blaine went away. The Real Darren is the one you see every single day- he’s a multifaceted guy-just like all of us- who can be prim and proper when he wants to but can be bawdy and crude and sexual. They are all Darren Criss). 

This isn’t about being a “gay fetishist” or “hating woman” this is about wanting for D to be fairly and accurately represented and no longer forced to participate in this stupid, life sucking game to promote a person that contributes absolutely nothing to the world.  (No, you're right, this isn’t about being a gay fetishist or misogynist- you are those as well- but this right here is about you not liking the person Darren Criss is in real life and demanding he adopt the persona of a character you fell in love with on Glee.    Darren was never Blaine. Yes, he can act like Blaine in an occasional Tweet or during an interview- usually on the red carpet when he doesn’t know the interviewer. But that doesn’t mean he is that person.  Think about it, you have never once seen the Darren you believe he is outside of Glee events, interviews, your favorite 3 Tweets (the Met Gala coat, the granddaughter of his Midway character and Bradley Cooper)  and the conversations you imagine he has with his family and Chris. It isn't reasonable to believe that the Darren you see every single day isn’t the real Darren. People are who they are, they aren’t who we want them to be- that goes for your favorite celebs, your parents, your best friends, your lovers, your coworkers and even your children (which is a very hard lesson for some parents). You’re suggesting that he is acting like someone else because you don’t like what you see. That isn’t  healthy, period. As for promoting a person who contributes nothing to this world- judging someone based entirely on other people’s social media mentions of her is frankly fucked up. It’s another logical fallacy to believe you know what Mia does for the world. She owns an entertainment venue and Darren is an entertainer. Just because Darren has more fame than she does, doesn’t make him more valuable. It’s really pathetic and sad that you see the world that way.)  If you want to have a strong female role model, there are so many, i’ve talked about a few in the past few days (thus far Nancy, Lea, and Phoebe)  and will continue to do so, but please stop worshiping a person whose sole reason you are speaking about her is her connection to D, even if you refuse to accept it is fake.  (Abby, Darren loves Mia. He married her, IDK what it takes for you to understand that you have no say in his life and bitching and moaning and demonizing Mia says nothing about Mia, but it does say everything about you. You're petty, cruel, a bully, and you are losing sight of reality- please get some help. As for role models- I had to ask because I couldn't’ imagine that Lea was Lea Michele-it’s funny how your opinion of her changed after you saw more of the real Lea on LM/DC tour. Maybe you should learn from that.  Nancy Pelosi-I mean yes but are you suggesting Darren marry Nancy? And Phoebe? Phoebe who? I don’t understand this argument at all. First of all it false presumes that everyone looks to Mia as a role model. None of us know her. The only people obsessing about others looking to Mia as a role model are you and the tinhats. I’m 50 years old, the only younger people I look to as role models are people who are doing something to change the world we are living in -fighting corruption, hate, and climate change. I don’t look to Lea, Darren or Mia as role models .  I enjoy them as entertainers and I think Mia is kick ass but it ends there.   We can all look to Nancy as a role model, but what the hell doe she have to do with Darren and Mia? My celebrity crush on Darren has nothing to do with looking for strong female role models nor does it have anything to do with who he is married to). 

[purplesurveys]

711

How fast can you say the alphabet? I can say it quickly without my accent failing me, I guess? I’m too lazy to time it. What are you allergic to? None. How many serious relationships have you had? Just one. If you could read one person's mind, who would it be? I wouldn’t want to target one person like that. I’d only be picking my dog’s so I can hear what he thinks of me, ha. If someone dared you, what dare would you be afraid to attempt? Eating/drinking anything rotten.

How do you like your eggs? Scrambled or over easy. What's your most expensive piece of clothing? Probably my shoes. Most of them are several thousand bucks. What was your last big achievement? The last objectively big achievement I made was finishing the first half of my thesis and getting the go signal to finish the rest of it. But if we’re counting tiny steps that feel like big achievements, it’s having an article published in my org’s publication this week. I co-wrote it with JM and Rick, but it still feels nice to get to say I was productive during the quarantine. What famous person's memoir would you like to read? I’m willing to read anyone’s biography/autobiography since it’s one of my favorite genres. But at the moment I’m probably most willing to read something about Kim Jong Un since it’s generally hard to find material in North Korea as it is, and it would be fascinating to hear about their life and culture there. Have you ever had a "false alarm" moment, what was it about? Sure. A few months ago I was in Manila for a workshop and my car wouldn’t start when it was time to drive back home. Pressing any button on the key fob wouldn’t work and I couldn’t open the doors, so I was pretty much just locked out. I was already stuck there for a while and I was starting to panic, so I called up my parents to ask for help and they were already getting dressed to drive all the way where I was. Right before they left the house Jhian was mysteriously able to make stuff work and opened my door and I gave my parents the happiest “false alarm” ever haha. Do you know how to ride a bike? I don’t. My dad recently pumped air into the wheels of the bike that we have in the house so I can practice riding it throughout the quarantine, but I just can’t. I never did learn what my friends say when they tell me to just “find my balance.” If you could breed two species together what new animal would you create? No thanks. What 5 world leaders would you make sit down in a room to discuss issues? Isn’t that already the point of UN? If you were in the hospital who are the two people you'd want by your side? Gab and my dad. When was the last time you cried and what made you cry? Ooh ya got me. With this quarantine not letting me go anywhere and giving me new experiences, I’ve had no reason to cry lol. 

The last most vivid reason I remember crying was that one Wednesday in February where everything went wrong  – Andrew and I got red marks all over our thesis and we got practically yelled at over how bad our work had been so far; accidentally spewing peanut sauce all over the said thesis draft immediately after it was returned to us; almost losing this one thing for the org that I 100% WAS NOT allowed to lose, and having to ask Andrew to go back to campus at mid-fucking-night just to retrieve it and feeling shit the whole time for asking that of him; and having to deal with an unresponsive source for an article I needed to write and finish ASAP. I cried nonstop until like 2 AM that night. If you could ever take a street sign, what sign do you want? It’d be such a pointless steal, so no thanks. What is your favorite ride at any amusement park? Haha anything mild and for kids tbh. My stomach can’t handle rides. Have you ever raised money for charity? I haven’t spearheaded any fundraisers but I’ve donated for some, like whenever workers from exploitative corporations go to UP to visit some classes, talk about their struggles, and ask for support. How do you feel about growing older? I’ve got little time to be scared of it because getting old just happens all the time and constantly. I just take it for what it is and learn along the way. What wild animal scares you? Probs lion. I’ve never seen one in real life and movies and shows have conditioned me to think they’ll attack any human that comes close enough, soooooooo no thanks. I’d love to be corrected and to find out that they’re big softies, though. Do you think actors and athletes are overpaid? I can argue that for some actors, but definitely not athletes. Athletes bust their ass day in and day out and are in constant need of training, transportation, and the adequate gear, equipment, etc. Some actors just have to sit pretty and they wouldn’t even be good at it. Have you ever been alienated, if so for what? This was me for most of what you’d call middle school. People were starting to be more conscious of trends and using it as a basis for who to hang out with, so while everyone had a Blackberry, got side bangs, and listened to The Summer Set, I was struggling to fit in a place where my love of wrestling would be accepted. Of course there was none, and I felt left out for a while.

More recently, this was also me in applying for AIESEC but I’ve already touched on that a couple of times here. The alienation was so bad my friends and I just resort to laughing about my experience whenever it gets brought up. Have you ever not returned something you borrowed and if so what was it? I have a couple of Gab’s jackets, but she doesn’t mind me keeping them since I get cold quicker and more often. When you pack your lunch, what's your favorite packed lunch? Loooove when my dad makes curry for me to bring to school. What was the one most important thing you learned from your parents? It’s impossible to start at the bottom and work your way to the very top. I’m constantly worried about staying at the bottom, so it’s always comforting to see how far they’ve come.

On a parenting note, I’ve learned that I should talk to my future kids the way they are – kids. Ever since I can remember my mom has always gotten mad at me as if I was already an adult, so it’s made me permanently terrified of all adults/the idea of pissing anyone off. She would always just get mad, banging stuff around, and never explain to me what I did wrong, so to this day I get very self-punishing when I feel like I’ve done something wrong but don’t exactly know what it was I did.

How fast can you run? I used to be good as a kid which is what landed me on the track team in grade school, but I didn’t enjoy running so I did it less and less every year. Now I’m just meh at it. Have you done something you worry could come back to haunt you, what? Nothing that bad, no. What is your most favorite feature of your favorite electronic device? I’m very happy with the battery life of my laptop, considering how 1) my old Macbook Air only had a battery life of one hour, and 2) the laptop I had before had a damaged battery to begin with so I couldn’t even use it/bring it anywhere unless it was plugged in. The 10-hour battery life for my current one is a fucking dream for me lmao. If you had to build a small ark, what 7 animals would you save? All the endangered ones so like an elephant, Philippine eagle, panda, orangutan, tiger, and a rhinoceros. I’d save the last slot for a stray dog. What is your favorite Christmas or holiday tradition? I love going over to my mom’s cousins’ place and have our tradition of exchanging gifts singing My Monito/Monita. What novel would you love to be transported into to live out your days? I prefer non-fiction, soz. What is your favorite hiding place? MY CAR. It’s seen my worst breakdowns, my sleeping sessions in the middle of the day, and the days where I’m okay but simply need a break from everyone. If I feel like being alone I just head inside, recline my seat, and tune out the whole world. What is something your parents love that you actually love too? Indian food. Have anyone ever said "I love you" and you couldn't say it back. This is me with my mom. I’ve stopped saying “I love you” ever since I came to terms with the fact that she has brought a lot of trauma into my life and it would be unfair to the both of us (mostly me, heh) if I said it back. Have you ever ridden a camel? I haven’t. It would be very difficult to find a camel on this side of the planet.

What's been the hardest loss you've had to take? My grandfather and Nacho. What emotion is your least favorite and the one you are not in touch with? I hate feeling embarrassed obviously, but I’m regularly in touch with it because there’s always at least one event a day where I fuck up and I feel extremely embarrassed. Do you think facial moles or freckles are cute? I don’t mind them. They’re not a common facial trait where I live, so I’m more fascinated by them than anything else. Would you ever pick up a hitchhiker? I’ve read too many accounts of serial killers where hitchhikers were involved to feel skeptical about them but I know I’d also feel bad if I ignored them. I honestly don’t know what to feel about them as I don’t live in a hitchhike-y area.

What was your funniest computer or phone wallpaper? Eh, I don’t really pick wallpapers to find them funny. If you're searching for a relationship, where is your go place to look? Unapplicable for my demi ass. When and where are you happiest? Either anywhere with Gab or Skywalk with my orgmates. What was your favorite age, so far? 16 has so far been the year with the least fuckups. What is your favorite part of the day? Typically, it would be the moment I realize I’m done with everything that needed to be done for that day, like if my last meeting has ended or if I’m finished with my last class, and all that’s left to do is to drive home. What book have you read multiple times? The Septimus Heap series up til the 5th book (there are 7) only because in the past I had always made plans to restart and finish the whole series, but I never did get around to finishing it so I’ve only just kept restarting and restarting the books.   Do you keep a budget? No budget. What matters to me is at least being able to have savings at the end of the week, which is tbh not the smartest thing to do. Have you ever test driven a car you knew you weren't going to buy? Nope, I’ve never gone car shopping like that. Pretend you're doing an interview, what's the first question? Uhhhhhhhhhh idk depends on what the interview is for? What do you have a hard time visualizing? Everything. I’m not a very visual person and creativity is my weak point, so I genuinely struggle if I do have to imagine anything. Abstract reasoning has always been my least favorite part of tests. What makes you feel uncomfortable in group settings? If all of them already know each other and I am just starting to try and fit in – it’s worse if they’re all loud and extroverts. The former is what made my internship hard for me in the beginning, but thankfully they were all very nice and could tell I was shy so they knew not to overwhelm me by being too loud. What was your worst date ever? I haven’t had a bad date. Have you ever gotten in a bidding war on Ebay, if so for what item? Nope. If you had to pick one food to eat everyday for life, what would it be? Risotto or chicken wings. For dessert, macarons. Are you supportive of your friends even if you don't agree with them? As long as their choice doesn’t entail stepping on human rights, e.g. not being pro-choice or supporting a president that supports killing the poor, I’ll be fine with the disagreement. Have you ever used the opposite sex restroom in an emergency? Yeah I had a bad nausea attack one time and needed to vomit but I only had enough time to run to the men’s bathroom before I started throwing up everywhere, so that’s where I ran. What did you think was stupid until you tried it? Ube cheesecake. I really hate ube flavor and I hate everything it’s in, but I gave it a chance when a local bakeshop incorporated ube in cheesecake since it’s my favorite kind of cake. I ended up really liking it and now I often look for it when we have family get-togethers. What subject do you and your parents never see eye to eye on? Politics, duh. Where do you see yourself in 1 year's time? Having a job, out of the quarantine, maybe saving for a trip. How scared of the dark are you? I’m fine with the dark as long as I’m not somewhere that’s meant to be haunted. What is your favorite type of seafood? Crab fat, sashimi, eel, and sea urchin. What triggers your inner shopaholic? I don’t really have a trigger. I don’t even consider myself a shopaholic. I just shop for new clothes once I feel like I’ve been repeating my clothes too much. What is the rudest thing a person can do to another person in your opinion? Insulting dead parents is one. Except if you’re the Marcoses, heh. What public figure do you disagree with the most? President Duterte, obviously. I wanna barf just having to call him President. Do you think you could ever be a firefighter, why/why not? Nope, because I’m terrified of fire and I don’t have half the stamina needed to carry the shit they have to lift when they have to put out fires. What is/was your favorite bedtime story? I don’t have any. My favorite kids’ book was Corduroy, though. What was the last thing to make you feel happy? My dog going down the stairs and going straight to me for pats once he was done. What is your opinion on rats as pets? Rats are pests here so I find it pretty disgusting. I think hamsters are fine, though. What is something you're afraid to try? Cliff diving, bungee jumping... anything that would give me the sensation of leaving my stomach behind lmao. What cartoon character best describes you? Mr. Peanutbutter from BoJack Horseman. What keeps you interested in your goals or dreams? The fact that I went through so much shit as a child/teenager that I absolutely have to make myself happy in the end, and I can only do that by achieving my goals. What is your favorite actress beginning with the letter J? Jessica Chastain. What song makes you dance uncontrollably? Crazy in Love by Beyoncé, heh. If you wanted to live off the radar where would you live? I was gonna say Sagada but everyone knows it’s my favorite place so it’d probably be one of the first areas they’d start to look... so I’d go with Batanes. That place can’t get any more secretive with their sporadic phone signal and nonexistent internet/data connection. Do you like nachos, if so what topping is a MUST have? Melted cheese. Do you have any subscriptions? Netflix and (technically) Spotify. Which is better, Mario or Sonic? Mario. I’ve never played a Sonic game and I’ve only ever encountered him playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is a Mario-themed game to begin with. Who is the most creative person you know? Alex, someone from my high school who can recreate any. thing. Art is in her blood; she was my seatmate for one sem and she was constantly doodling and drawing and making new stuff in every class we were in. Besides a pickle, what is your favorite thing pickled? I hate pickles and anything pickled :/ Not really in the Filipino palate. What did you do for your 21st birthday? If not, 21 what are your plans? I celebrated it mostly alone because Gab couldn’t be present. Angela made me feel better by taking me to dinner and an arcade.

Are you a role model for anyone in your life? I dunno. I hope so, for at least one person. What song do you hate the most? Any song by The Vamps or Meghan Trainor. Do you think you need to slow down and enjoy life more? Isn’t slowing down what we’re all kinda forced to do right now? Can you impersonate anyone famous? Eh, sure. It’s fun to copy Gordon Ramsay for one hahaha. If you could go back in time to change one thing what would it be? Going out of my shell as early as freshman year and avoiding the semester-long breakdown/depressive episode I had. Can you honestly say you're enjoying your life right now? I can’t say I’m unhappy lmao. I have no problem doing nothing at home for more than a month – besides, this already serves as the break I planned to have shortly after graduating. After this I’ll be really ready to start looking for a job. What is your favorite salty snack? Pringles. What is your favorite restaurant? Yabu, Torch, Pound by Todd English, or Frankies. Idk man, I’m craving so much shit now that I haven’t eaten out for more than a month.  Have you ever been in a play for school? Yeah, we were all required to be in all the annual school productions from kinder to senior year.

[dreamsinthefoxhollow]

Resident Evil vs Super Soldier

It was night in the city. I had joined a group of around fifty. They were just regular people who lived in the city, but who were now the survivors. We had taken shelter in a low-level apartment. It was a good place, lots of concrete and few ways in. While they were upstairs doing their scared people thing I was out in the courtyard. There were some lights off in the distance, maybe 3-4 blocks out. That's where the things were at. They weren't making the light. They were just in the part of the city that was still well-lit. It was safer here, in the dark. The light from the stars overhead, and the glow in the sky from the city lights, were more than enough for me to see by. It wasn’t that I had especially good vision at the moment, it was just good enough that I could see (with that old fake night filter from cheap movies). I could also see that there were little things crawling about in the grass. At least one was nearby, probably a few more out of sight. I could hear them rustling. Then I caught one trying to sneak into the building. I chased it down and caught before it could get in the doors. It was silvery and thin, like some kind of worm with dozens of short legs. It was a mean little thing. If it got ahold of anyone it would have easily ripped them up and infected them. It was also very crunchy when I squeezed it to death in my hand. That was kind of gross and messy. It bled blue slime. This was bad, though. If those little things were here, and found the people in the building, which it seemed they had since they were headed that way, it meant ... Damnit. Couldn't even wait for me to finish my Snake Pliskin monologue. Other things were running across the courtyard. They could have been dogs, but without skin, and with heads larger than their torso, and lots more eyes than needed. There was someone else there, watching from a balcony. He kind of reminded me of Bucky, the Winter Soldier. He had apparently been watching me skulk about the courtyard, and was now standing at alert, ready to start defending the building. I shouted that he needed to get the people out. I'd handle this while he got them to safety. I would create a distraction! It sounded good, and he apparently went along with it. I drew a weapon, some kind of oversize automatic pistol firing in short burst mode. It didn't take many shots to take down the four-legged things scampering through the grass. But that was just the beginning. After a few seconds more were running across the dark courtyard. I shot them, too, but there were a lot more this time. Dozens. And they were getting bigger. At first, I was brave, and foolish, and heroic. I ran towards them, shooting, shooting more, shooting even more, making sure I was giving the herd a good rout. But when they started to get bigger and faster and meaner I had to change tactics. Well, I had to but I really didn't. I felt around in my backpack/hammerspace for a good rifle, while still firing with my other hand. Problem was, I couldn't seem to get a rifle. It was just empty 5th dimensional bag. Then things got worse. Now there were things easily the size and shape of hogs, and maybe even hippos. These were crazy fast, highly muscled, red, dripping slime, skinned beasts. They circled me as I circled them. I was trying to stay out of a straight attack line, while dodging others that were jumping in from the sides, while shooting at everything that was moving, while still feeling around for the missing rifle. I imagined in a moment I'd have to resort to pointing my finger and making "pew pew" noises. The pistol ran out of its bottomless ammo cache as I found a stubby rifle in my other hand. I whipped that out and ... oh so nice. That thing was devastating. While those big things were absorbing my pistol fire until they had too many holes to function, this rifle was tearing them apart with bursts of explosive round. I couldn't help but give a wild laugh.I managed to break through the wild rush of beasts and make my way to the lit city area. But the things were flooding the area, and I swear they were somehow getting as large elephants, but much faster ... and leaping ... along with things that may have been humans, but were also skinned and red and oozing slimy stuff. Worse still, they were all increasing substantially in numbers. Even my superhuman abilities were getting to the limit as the piles of bodies grew and waves of things sprang in from all sides. Retreating was a good plan. I had given the people enough time to get out of the building, I hoped. It really was only just a few seconds, maybe 30 or a full minute, since this had all started with those first few running hound things. It was hard to tell time while in the middle of a heated battle. Maybe it was more like five minutes. Regardless, I was out of time. I managed to clear a space enough to dodge closer to some pillars of a building. The massive wave of things was coming from only one direction, swarming along the avenue in a red wave of disgusting fleshy red bodies. I fished around in the bag again and pulled out some kind of really large shotgun. Not like just large, but like huge and stubby. Like a cartoon version of a hand cannon. I fired it just above the seething horde of things still charging at me. It had a heck of a recoil, and in a moment dozens of streaks were filling the air as the canister shell opened over the crowd, and then there was a nonstop rumble of explosions as all of the released mini-shells carpet bombed the area. I dropped the single use weapon and ran while the bodyparts were flying. We were going to meet at the city center, where there was a delegation of higher beings, the keepers of this place. I caught up to the crowd of regular people, still being led by that one guy, just as they got to the base of the central towers. I picked up what looked like a large cat and tucked it under one arm. The cat seemed to both be pissed at me and grateful. The central towers were monolithic black walls curved to form a broken circle around some more curved monolithic walls, which ... It just kept going in layers, each a taller set, with the center roughly some kind of spire reaching up into the night sky and out of sight. We didn't make it much past the third set of walls when there was a really ugly noise from out in the city. It was screaming monsters mixed with screaming sirens. These sirens were the kind only used for really bad things, like tsunami, earthquakes, or the city blowing up with nuclear-level weaponry... The higher beings glided down and plucked all of us from our feet and flew up to the higher reaches of the spire. I had the uncomfortable honor to be one of the last to be picked up so I got to watch as explosions the size of full skyscraper buildings were going off just a few blocks away, getting closer, one every second or so. I could see flames and debris in between buildings. It was an uncomfortable sight. We all were safely spread out among the tops of the spires. The tops of these things were flat and huge, like an entire city block. They were also a dull red, almost rust colored. Most everyone was clinging together and staying far away from the sheer dropoff edges. I was speaking to one of the beings, an androgynous, tall humanoid with angelic wings of something that looked like glowing mist behind it. We knew each other and were on good terms. I was told the things we escaped from were not yet done. They would be coming up to where we were, eventually. We couldn't stay there. The beings could help us relocate to another part of the world, as soon as they figured out what was the best place. But things went really bad really fast. Some of the larger beasts had managed to climb the spire and were clawing over the edges. I whipped out the rifle and let loose a full auto attack on the nearest to me. The beings flicked others away with psionic shoves, like flicking ants off the rim of a cup. But the beasts were too many. In sheer numbers they were closing in, despite being flung away or turned into shredded burger by my rifle. Even that other guy was in the fray, with a sort mini-gun looking thing that was dealing even more damage than I was. Then we were suddenly zooming through the night air. I couldn't tell if we were unceremoniously dumped into some kind of teleporter, wormhole, or just carried really fast through the air. I just knew that things had gone very wrong and very bad, because the higher being who had carried me (and the cat) was telling me we had to seek shelter because the higher beings themselves were under attack from something else far greater than we had seen, something far worse, and threatening to even them. Not only did my angelic ride give me bad news, they had apparently been unable to get me to the intended destination. I was dropped on a mountain top maybe 200km outside the city. I was separated from the others. The mountain was all black rock. It was cold. I could see the city still lit up with little glowing searchlights and a little blob of citylight aura. Then it was just a large blob of blinding light. Ah yes. The nuclear option. Wait. The blob was getting way too big. It looked more like a molten bubble than a nuke. It was getting way too big, way too fast. Did some nutcase overload the antimatter power generator under the city? I backed away and scrambled off the rocks and onto a dark path carved in the solid stone on the sheltered side of the mountain. The air around me shifted from a nearly still, cold mountain breeze to a warm draft. The sky overhead turned orange and silver. I heard voices in my head. Not those of the higher beings, though they were still present at the moment, urging in multiplicity of tone to get to safety, and not just for us but for themselves. These new voices were microwave broadcast voices coming from something orbiting above the planet. I was being instructed to head to a military launch facility less than half a km away, but kind of straight down the side of the mountain. The higher being voices were snuffed out suddenly. The air around me started to glow, and the ground began vibrating uncomfortably. I knew there were other survivors dumped all around me, out of sight, but the new voices kept urging me to not worry about them and get to the facility. I scrambled straight down the side of the mountain like a drunken barbarian running through a cornfield that happened to be growing on a near-sheer cliff. The facility was a collection of black buildings with trusses and armored walls. I ran under some kind of archway and slammed against a metal-truss-lined wall. I was sheltered from the glowing air. There was a pipe there and I grabbed it and held tightly to it. I mean, it looked like a pipe, but it was actually a teleportation interlock lever. The archway was a teleportation site. The voices in my head said to remain calm and hold on tight because it was going to be close. At the same time the glowing around me had turned the night in a sun-like mid-day, and the heat in the air was causing steam to evaporate off the scratched armored sleeve on my arm. I could see parts of the building bathed in the light start to glow red and yellow as they were superheated. Oh, this wasn't just some large nuke, or even an antimatter reactor overload from the city power station. This was an orbital planetary sterilization wave. It swept over the facility, turning the air into charged plasma. The cat still tucked protectively under my arm yowled in words I could understand. "We are so fucked, you f-"

We both were laying on the floor of a brightly lit room. The walls were scratched and silvery-white. I sat up. I was steaming, and parts of my armored outfit (of course in black) which weren't scratched, dented, bloodied, or shredded, were burned like torched rubber. The cindered edges were still glowing in fading oranges and reds. Smoke trails were curling up in the still air from ... well, from me. The cat sat up beside me, completely silent and seemingly stunned, unburned, uninjured, but stained with all manner of grime. I picked the cat up again and we exited the room through an armored airlock. I set the cat on the ground as several uniformed soldiers checked us with some instruments. They referred to the cat as Kaiht, or 'A Kaiht,' as in that was one of what it was. It sure wasn't just a large cat, and was treated, and talked to, like a person. Kaiht was led out and the soldiers helped peel off the armored parts I was wearing. Thankfully I had some leathers underneath so I didn't need a change of clothing, at least not right away. Once out of the room I marched straight towards a very specific area. The hallways were clean and bright and would have looked like a very modern and upscale office building, if it were built using the layout plans of a submarine. The halls were narrow with exposed boxes or conduits at random. I reached the location in the maze of halls with the lone soldier escort having to double-time to keep up with me. I had reached an observation deck. This was a rather large ship, and I wanted to see out the back. There were several other people there, all survivors from the catastrophe, just as myself. There was only a dozen or so of us. I didn't see the other guy among them. We gathered on a balcony-like platform and gazed into a sea of pure, blinding white. That ... wasn't exactly supposed to be that way. Someone pointed into the sea of white. I had to squint and blink several times before it changed into the familiar black of orbital space. There was the planet we had been on, slowly receding. I could have covered my view of it with an outstretched hand. It was very indistinct and fuzzy, out of focus. The lower ¾ was a hazy mix of blue and brown, while a crescent covering the upper ¼ was a glowing haze of hellfire. It was spreading. From our vantage point we were looking at the unburned side of the planet, and the crescent was the sterilization wave coming around from the far side. Another few minutes and that wave would fully engulf the surface. Everything would be more or less a molten sea of lava and slag. Then, the process would repeat. The planet would glow brighter. Then again. And again. It wouldn't stop until the entire ball of planet was around the temperature of a small sun. That would take a few hours. The group and I went separate ways when we walked back into the ship. They were solemn and comforting each other, or in shock. Civilians. They'd probably never heard of such a thing, much less seen it, or lived through being in it. Lucky bastards. Also, the billions of unlucky bastards still on the planet, right now, inside that glowing crescent, or a few minutes away from being turned into carbon dust. That was a lot of death on someone's hands. I marched again, this time without an escort, since that guy stayed with the shellshocked people. I made it to a dining area/meeting room. There was food set out on large plates, one at each of a dozen or so seating places. A few people were already there and nodded to me as I entered. I recognized one as one of the higher beings, now gracing us with a more corporeal presence instead of straight-up godlike visage. They poked at the food with an amused tilt of their head. Kaiht - I think that was her name as well as her species - walked over and hopped onto a nearby chair. She was big enough to look down at the plate, but still looked like a huge, white housecat sitting in a chair at a table. I recognized two others as pure, secret-handshake-club military. Others were part of the ship's crew. Someone else walked in from a doorway next to what looked like a projection screen. She was a tall black woman in a slightly different uniform, and had that air about her that said she was more than 100 percent in charge of this entire rescue, and planet destruction, and more than just this ship we were on. She sat at the head end of the table. I sat beside Kaiht. We both picked at the food with disinterest, but Kaiht tore into it after a moment of cautions sniffing. I was busy staring at that woman. Oh yes, that woman. We knew each other quite well. We were not on the best of terms, but still on terms that meant we wouldn't be actively shooting at each other without due cause. She nodded and gave me a very curt and short version of "hello" worded more like, "Glad you could join us. Sorry about the last second teleport. I hope you weren't cooked too badly." She was snide, but I knew her enough to know she meant it literally, and would not have waited until the last millisecond if it hadn't been necessary. I also knew that planetary sterilization wasn't something she could just order on a whim, no matter how high up in the relative food chain she was. She picked at the food on her plate and turned toward the screen. It lit up with a little flickering of scintillating light pinpoints, before forming a holographic image next to the table. Ah yes. Here would be the real higher-ups who gave the orders to murder billions of civilians, and who would have explanations about the sea of monsters, and probably new orders for all of us.

Then I woke up.

[juliethebibliophile]

I Realize I saw The Lightning Thief Musical 3 Days Ago Now and I Still Haven’t Blogged About It?

So I’m gonna do that now. 

Okay, so I first heard about this musical 5 or 6 years ago on Tumblr when they first started workshopping it. Since then, they’ve been off Broadway twice(I live in New York), literally ON MY CAMPUS once, and every time my best friend and I have planned to see it but been too busy or forgotten to buy tickets. This year, while they were in Manhattan for their tour, we FINALLY went. That notion alone was enough to make me cry you guys, you have no idea how much it meant to me to finally see this show(that is another post entirely that I made on Facebook and might make here but I digress)

FULL SPOILER FREE REVIEW BELOW THE CUT

 Okay, so first thing I’ll say is from the moment this show began, forget that, from the moment I was on my way there, but especially when I got into the theatre, and again when the show started, I turned into a 14 year old again. I had not touched “The Lightning Thief”, or the first Percy Jackson series, since the 5th grade(I’m a junior in college now). I hadn’t even thought about the franchise as a whole since I read “The Blood of Olympus” when it came out in 2014(okay that’s a lie, I read the first Magnus Chase and Trials of Apollo but you get the picture). And yet, this show got me jumping up and down and crying about Percy instantly. And now I’ll go through the reasons why I think that is. 

So with me not having read the first book in ten years, I knew the movie was inaccurate, but I didn’t really know how or why because the plot of the movie was what stuck in my mind. When I reread the book in preparation for the musical, and saw the musical, I really understood where the movie went wrong, and in turn where this musical went so right. In general, the musical comes off like the characters and places in the books jumped right off of the pages. What really amazes me about this is that the actors are all obviously in their twenties, and yet you still feel like they’re the twelve year olds you know and love from that first book. I credit this to the incredible talent of the actors of course, but to some other things as well. 

The musical works with minimalism in terms of sets and effects, for obvious reasons, but this serves it so well. The minimalist way that everything is done matches the heart of the book. The things they do are things that kids playing pretend could do with props in their garage. And that’s what makes it so great: it has this childlike story hour feel that matches the childlike feel of the books, and also plays to the nostalgia factor that the books hold for the majority of the show’s audiences. 

The show is a comedy in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t feel like a parody because the books are comedic/not taking themselves seriously in that same way. The way the gods are portrayed in the musical(I won’t spoil anything but like...I nearly pissed myself at Poseidon) much better matches the feel of the books than the edgy, domineering figures in armor that the movies gave us. Every moment of laughter that the show provides has so much emotion behind it as well, and it harkens back to Percy’s sarcasm and ridiculous sounding chapter titles from the original series. 

The songs are amazing. Seriously, it’s been 3 days, and this soundtrack is still the only thing I can listen to. There are songs full of emotion and heart like “Good Kid” (which I’ve been crying over for years), “Strong” and “Tree on the Hill”, songs that are full of comedy and fun like “Another Terrible Day” and “Drive”, songs that’ll have you crying from triumph and pride like “Son of Poseidon” and “My Grand Plan”, and songs that are a perfect combination of everything like “Campfire Song” and “Bring on the Monsters”. In general, they all reminded me of the most joyful, innocent parts of myself, and reminded me what it’s like to love Percy Jackson.

The way the musical handles time restraints is spectacularly done as well. The song “drive” basically covers all the major events of the quest in about 5-10 minutes(save for Aunty Em’s and the trip to the Underworld which have their own scenes) and they technically don’t do everything that they do in the book, but the musical finds a way to pay homage to and acknowledge those events while also brushing past them in a comical way that the audience eats up. 

Speaking of time constraints, the musical also pays homage to beloved parts of the series that don’t occur in “The Lightning Thief”. Without changing or manipulating any plot points, they reference Bianca and Nico, the “dam” snack bar, Percabeth, and more. The subtle references are even more fun than if these elements had been placed in via changing plot(I’m looking at you creepy pool makeout scene in the movie) and the audience goes wild every time. 

That’s another measure of how spectacular the show is. The audience, which anyone with eyes can see is comprised of hoards of diehard Percy Jackson fans(fully grown adults in Camp Half-Blood T-shirts EVERYWHERE), goes absolutely batshirt nuts with excitement over this show. This makes it such a fun show to go to, because everything you wanna cheer for in an absolute nerdy, over-the-top way, everyone else is cheering for as well(Percabeth references, Percy being proclaimed the Son of Poseidon, etc.) It just brings you back to childhood joy and innocence for the two hours that you’re there.

The show immerses you in nostalgia in every way. The concession stand sells 90% blue food(an expert way for them to get all of my money too I willingly spent 17 bucks on snacks because they were blue). They reference inside jokes and fan favorites. In general, you can tell that everyone involved in the show has been a Percy Jackson fan at some point(or at least they did their research because seriously...”dam”). It’s funny, ridiculous and quirky, but so are the books, and the musical is also deep and emotional and beautiful in ways that I can’t even put into words. Just listen to Good Kid and Son of Poseidon. Seriously. They’re on Youtube and Spotify. You will cry. 

In conclusion, I have nothing negative to say about this show...like at all. If you’ve ever been a fan of Percy Jackson in any capacity, you’ve gotta see this show. I’ve been so ridiculously happy since I saw this show, and I forgot until I saw it what a significant part Percy Jackson played in my childhood and adolescence. It was an absolute delight from start to finish, and I will definitely be seeing it every time I have the opportunity. 

[seenashwrite]

Dearest Nash, I've touched on this before in (I believe) in a discussion re: why some mainstream fics get oodles of notes while more original ones do not, *but* I wanted to get a bit more specific here. There are certain writers here whose writing has a definite vibe to it (if you will) that separates their work from others, and your name is one of the first that comes to mind. Bear with me, because trying to detail what makes your writing stand out is difficult while trying to articulate a Q

^ this is a gif with parts 2 - 4, just FYI

Hmmm… this is a bit of a brain buster. But I can answer it, and I think succinctly, maybe with a touch of that Spidey sense you mention:

Thank you for your inquiry, hope that helps! 

I kid. But this is a brain-turner. And a characteristic which, like you say, ain’t limited to me. I’d honestly throw comedians under this umbrella, too, not because I’m necessarily gunning for a laugh every time, but because it’s pretty much their job to take a “basic” (a tenet or fact of life or present reality or whatever) and present the observation with a twist. I think of storyteller comedians specifically, your Patton Oswalt-s, Maria Bamford-s, Kathy Griffin-s, and John Mulaney-s.

So if I can sum up, assuming I’m tracking with you, what you’re more or less driving at with the “how” is this –> Is there anything beyond simply personality, or an auto-pilot thought cascade (for lack of better terminology) that contributes? Are there things someone could do/be proactive about, to perhaps cause this same sort of reaction to happen in their brain?

I think there just might be.

Folks reading this, let me ask you a question, and you cannot look it up:

What was the name of the Sherpa guide who led Sir Edmund Hillary up Mount Everest?

.

.

.

His name was Tenzing Norgay.

Nash, what in the name of the frozen corpse of George Mallory does this have to do with Lion’s question?

I shall tell you.

My father told me that fact when I was quite young, so young I legit couldn’t even ballpark my age for you. The context was that having little facts tucked away in your brain may come in handy. Not in a Jeopardy kind of way, more in a conversational way. I’ve no idea why the man thought the Sherpa guide who led Hillary up Mt. Everest would ever come up during a conversation with enough regularity to justify my knowing that fact (aside from him randomly quizzing me throughout my life) but hey, I guess it just did.

But speaking of Lil’ Nash, the situation for her was that she was the eldest of all the Nash litter by miles… like seven or eight years, I’m not bothering to check. So I had a lot of alone time, and my grandmother was my chief babysitter, so prior to kindergarten and then til I was in about second grade (so: all day long during the week, then every weekday after she picked me up from school), I was pretty much always at her house. Yeah, there were toys, but not a lot to do. And I’d read. I’d been reading on my own for a decent while, not because I was some prodigy but because my dad read to me *constantly* when Lil’ Nash was Itty-Bitty Nash, and it “took”. My mom also, every time she went to the grocery store always - and I mean always - brought back a book for me. It might’ve been an Archie comic—-

Mandatory #fuck the CW’s Riverdale tag

—-or a Babysitter’s Club, or Sweet Valley High, Judy Blume, Madeleine L’Engle, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, you get my point. Some small paperback. It would piss Dad off because he’s a cheap bastard and two buck books once or twice a month were really gonna cut into the savings [eyeroll] but also, in a way, because I’d kill it in a half day/a day. Wouldn’t put it down. After awhile, I started writing my own silly little kid stories, then - and this is where the creative writing love came about -  I started writing soap operas for my Barbies. (When I was older - like, 5th grade? 6th grade, maybe? - none of my peers were still playing with Barbies, and I got made fun of when, at a sleepover, they saw my stash. And I was like - No, no, no. Those aren’t for playing. That’s my cast.)

Time went on, and when I was bored at post-church lunch/dinners, I would also read the old encyclopedias at my grandmother’s, the ones from the late ‘60s/early ‘70s that she had for my mom and my aunt. As I got even older and became fascinated with rooting through the boxes in gran’s basement, looking at all the cool old clothes, I stumbled upon my aunt’s collection of Whoa-Hooooo Shit There’s No Way My Grandparents Knew You Read These books. Those kinda Harlequin-esque ones, except my aunt’s tastes run close to mine, none were the same shtick with different covers, shmultzy-sappy romance, there was always some sort of intrigue along with the sexy times, and she also had, like, every legit V. C. Andrews (meaning: not the ones from the ghostwriter, this was way before her death) book.

What is my point? I read a LOT. Now-a-days, other than fanfic (which… straight up: I don’t read a lot of that, either. I peace out on probs 80% of it before the third-to-fifth paragraph. It’s gotta sell me fast, yo) I haven’t read fiction in probably, oh…. 12 years? I think the last ones were the first couple Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Wait, no! I lie! I read the 50 Shades books when I was traveling 2x/wk for a job about 4 years ago, and I needed the laughs. It worked. Oh my days, that woman can’t write. The screenplay might’ve been worse, it goes her, then Buckleming, then everyone else. It’s bad. In any event, past decade or so, it’s more historical stuff and true crime and science stuff and all that old fart jazz.

Okay, so that’s #1: Read. And not just anything, be well-read, and that doesn’t mean developing some level of expertise, by “well” I’m saying to cover the spread. You’re building your tool kit, is all. You won’t use most of it, but it’s nice to have options. You also don’t always have to get this stuff from reading now-a-days, because podcasts. Cover the spread there, too. Lemme look at my bookmarks…. 

[Spongebob narrator voice: A few moments later]

I’m back. Science - Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe; General current stuff without being news - CGP Grey’s Hello Internet; current events with shittons of pop culture, past and present - Greg Proops’ Smartest Man in the World; fun history stuff - The Dollop; entertainment stuff - How Did This Get Made.

#2: Keep a notebook with you and jot down turns-of-phrase that spark something in your brain - things you read on websites, on twitter, in articles, things you hear people say (real life, TV, movies, podcasts), and write it. Don’t snap a pic with your phone or make a note in your phone. There are studies behind this, I’m not hunting them down, you’ll just have to trust me, but there are, and it goes to being reflexive, a brain “muscle memory” thing, if you will. You’re not doing it to plagiarize, you’re doing it to dissect it, kind’ve like you did with the example you gave on me —> went from punch action to punch spiked with booze to a punch with a spiked gauntlet.

Which leads to #3: Mental dictionary. I have a large vocab repository, and it stems from the tons of reading - I stop and look up stuff if I either don’t know it, or it’s used in such a way that I think they’ve got it wrong and want to double-check that maybe there’s another usage I don’t know - and also stems from a drive to combat the (still fairly thick) deep South drawl I can’t kick, and not for lack of trying. But see, I couldn’t have whipped out that progression if I weren’t aware that one definition of “spike” is “to add alcohol to”, or of the common shtick in stories of spiked punch like at high school proms typically, or knew about the existence of spiked gauntlets / old school armor. 

And I guarantee you that a good chunk of people didn’t really “get it”, and just thought “Nash Be Nashin’, that nutty gal”. So they “get it” on that level, but don’t Get. It., if you see what I’m saying. And that’s fine. Maybe it got something cranking in the back of their mind and it’ll hit ‘em in the middle of the night, or they’ll be watching Game of Thrones or something, see a gauntlet and be like “Oh goddamnit, I just got a throw-a-way one-liner from three years ago” and have a chuckle.

Related, re: looking stuff up and things that people “get”? I didn’t know fuck-all about Twilight, but it seemed of import to the folks around 5 years younger than me, the Nashlings wouldn’t shut up about it, so I got a good working knowledge of it. Same with Harry Potter, and through it I got to “know” J.K. Rowling, who I find to be an exceptional writer, so that was great, and I’ve watched the movies for the most part over the years at Christmastime, and I don’t give the first shit about what “house” I’m in, nor do I care about what Patronus I’d fart, but I have a working knowledge of what those are, and horcruxes and who Snape and Voldie are, you get my point. I can keep up. But to do it, I had to take the time to look it up. One thing I would not trade for gold is Michael Sheen chewing the goddamn scenery in that battle segment from the last Twilight movie. Have I watched the movie? No. But that scene is the shit. And that baby CGI is horrific on several subtle levels. And not-so-subtle. I’ve digressed.

Back to those notes: So if you’ve got these notes jotted, you might see something else and think “I feel like that could’ve been snappier…. why do I think that….” And you’ve got a resource at your disposal, that little notebook. Hell, jot that thing down - things you think could be done better. I have in many documents a highlight around chunks of scenes for my big dog story where it says in bold above or below “DO BETTER”. Meaning: there’s a better way to get from A to B, but I’m just not quite there yet. I’m pretty quick on the uptake and can crank out something snappy on the fly (like say, in CASPN chat or when banging out a short reply or thank you note) but there’s definitely times I gotta slap a DO BETTER on it and walk away til that snappy something-or-other light bulb goes off. 

Here’s a recent one where I backtracked, matter of fact - that noir spoof thing I wrote? Along with my co-writer, Moscato? There was a line that I couldn’t hit with a good zinger, so I just said moments were going by like a fat hamster on a wheel, which is cute, but not really grooving with the setting/the vibe. Less tipsy, when I was correcting some inelegant formatting and a misspelling [sigh], I went “Oh! Why didn’t this occur to me last night? Right. Wine.” So the line is now about moments dragging like a rolling donut with a copper on its tail. Get it? The cop’s a fat ass. The donut-cop stereotype.

…….Fine, it ain’t my best, but it fits better. Moving on.

And this leads nicely into #4, and a specific tip I can impart - assuming you’ve got a passable-to-high level of vocabulary in your tool belt, practice messing around with making nouns into verbs, and twisting random stuff into descriptors and using bizarre words/things in metaphors/analogies. Like, I say “adulting” quite a bit. Ali - @littlegreenplasticsoldier - I thiiiink was writing recently about Sam being drunk, and he’s a tall wobbly Jenga tower on his last Jenga. Going back to the noir, pulpy detective style, try messing with the whole “S/he was like a ___ that ____”. Add on to stuff that’s well known - He was like a dog with a bone, if the bone was a ____ and he was a ____ and we were in a ____. (I have *nothing* in mind to fill those blanks, by the way, feel free to twist it into sumpin’)

What else…. okay, here’s a #5: In drafts, let yourself wander, and see what kicks out. It can be fueled by silliness or anger, but I don’t reckon you’re gonna get the “snappy” you’re aiming for if you’re down in the dumps and going full-court-press angst. The best stuff, IMO, comes from the space in between goofy and pissed, and that is The Land Of Snark. You can always re-style it to bend more dry or wistful should you need to, certainly, depending on the situation.

Have a sample of a primo Nash Digression that was fueled by ire in a recap from Season 12 (episode 19). I had said - RE: the random inclusion of the character Joshua, which still pisses me off because they burned a character that held massive potential for future stuff as he’d been shown to be the only angel with direct access to Chuck, so, y’know, that could never come in handy, like ever again in the series, right? - the following.

Mandatory pre-emptive #fuck Dabb

[Spongebob narrator voice] A few moments later —> 

On god, I have no idea where that came from, and here’s where we go back to ol’ Spidey up there, because end of the day?

All that other stuff’s the foundation, sure, but there’s always gonna be the weird iggy, the thing that can’t be learned or taught, whatever the quirky synapse is that fires off in my/our brains. In my experience, it’s an ADD-ish sort of jam mixed with the Nostradamus effect. Meaning, (A) we’re at Level 10, rapid fire thought processing >50% of the time, and (B) throw out enough stuff for long enough, some of it’s going to stick. And I whiff it plenty. Multiple times in CASPN chat I’ve been like “Whoo, tough room” when something falls flat.

A specific example: @mrswhozeewhatsis - and I think you saw this, but anyone else seeing this may not have - gave probably the most fantastic analogy I’ve seen regarding the whole “getting it” thing, and while it was on the topic of meaty plots that get too far into the weeds (my specialty) and how it can lessen appeal to a broader audience, it still applies here. 

She said “Sometimes, when I’m reading something of yours, I feel like there’s a joke I’m missing. It’s like watching Spaceballs without having seen Star Wars.” I say that to say - nobody’s gonna land references that cover the spread 100% of the time. And, y’know, fine. I figure maybe it’ll prompt someone to do a quick google for - well, let’s use Spaceballs. Most folks will no doubt get the Star Wars part, but maybe not Spaceballs. Maybe they’ll check it out, find something they enjoy. Or learn a new word. Or get a brainstorm for a story. Who knows?

Last tip: Don’t actively mimic anyone’s style. Much fail. And I don’t only mean because if they’re on a social Venn diagram with you, would likely recognize themselves in your stuff——

Takes a moment to wave to the peeps still trying with me! #bless your hearts

—–but because it’s fucking hard. I did it broadly on the noir thing, that’s not a hard thing, to homage generalities, but the way I’m messing with doing this on that silly Princess Bride series? Purposefully styling it like Goldman? It’s good  challenging and all, and it is making it feel more in the groove with the book/movie, but I have to be in the right frame of mind or it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard, and when I have pushed it, then gone back, it’s sloggy, soggy garbage.

I say all that to say: it’s an amalgam of brain-wiring/personality, and world/life perspective(s), and knowledge acquired over time. The first just is; the second will evolve in myriad ways, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse; the last is the one where you/we have control, we can fill bucket after bucket of information, and the well won’t ever run dry.

Sorry this took so long. I kept adding and subtracting. This is the edited version, if you can believe it. Welcome to Nash Brain. 😉

[thislifeisyours-ifyouwantit]

Introduction; 5/3/20

Ah fuck, where do I start with all of this…

I guess this would be a good way to journal, as seeing as I’m a particularly lengthy writer, and an articulate one at that. Writing by hand used to be my preferred method, but with all the things going on and our (my) world changing so much, I don’t have the time to sit down and properly write by hand. So this is what I’m going to do instead.

I’m overwhelmed and got too much on my mind, so I found that maybe making a journaling blog might help.

I’m 23 and I’ve seen too much evil in this world, so it now exists inside of me. That’s what I’m calling it now- evil- all this pent-up rage that’s a part of my healing process with the CPTSD and PTSD.

It originally started to crop up when I worked out, and it has begun to grow out of hand the past couple of months. Psychiatrists past and present have told me it’s normal to feel vicious and enraged towards your abusers, even healthy and normal as it’s a sign of healing… But man, is this normal?

I even gave it a face. It’s name is Venny, short for Vengeance. It walks on two arms, like that Japanese urban legend thing, the Taka-Taka or some shit? Huge grin on its face, and slits for pupils. Jagged teeth. Maybe I’ll upload a picture of Venny. Venny even can transform into a feral three-headed rotting werewolf… Sometimes my rage takes different forms.

All it feels like is a bloodthirsty animal that wants to hurt people. Hurt those that hurt me, and hurt myself, as of lately…

That’s primarily why I started this. My suicidal ideation has gone through the roof since COVID-19 began. I feel nearly out of control. And historically knowing me, I’ve got serious problems with control and the need to be in control.

Things fucking suck right now. And if you really, really know me, things “sucking” for me is quite monumentally different than other people. My bullshit tolerance is so much higher than normal people. I’m so used to being walked all over like a doormat, lmfao. Probably because my PTSD allows me to tolerate such high levels of stress (or not even register I’m stressed in the first place).

It started with getting an ESA. I tried pairing myself up with a couple of dogs. It didn’t work out; I actually got stressed out & had anxiety attacks in response to the dogs. Damn did I want a dog. What kind of sick, twisted system of a body gets stressed to a thing that should be therapeutic? What the fuck.

So then I spiraled quickly after I pitied myself and resented this stupid PTSD brain of mine. I was angry that I was trying to find solutions after my PTSD had been getting out of control the last few months, and I was trying to find a solution, and this didn’t work. Then I considered a cat. But even though I wanted to deny it to myself, my allergies to cats are pretty high. And then… I wanted a ball python, which was pretty lit.

Now, my insecurities about finances have been haunting me since I quit my job due to my PTSD (do you see a running theme here) and I began to worry about what my parents would say if I wanted a snake (newsflash: they suck at supporting me, and they were not too positive in response to a snake when I said I wanted one). I waffled between pets a lot. I think I’ll go for a cockatiel or bird, as it might help a lot… I love birds, have for two years now, might as well jumpstart.

Then, the whole “breathing issues and can’t work out” issue got to me. Gaining weight has been really fucking getting to me. I want to spite kill myself over it. I’ve been setting up a routine to eat three times a day instead of eating uncontrollably, and I walked every day, but I still grew even more depressed.

I think the thing that’s driving me most nuts is NOT HAVING ANYTHING TO DO AT ALL. FUUUUUCK. I’m going nuts with nothing productive to do, save for my classes. I want to work, but then again- disabilities, I’m immunocompromised, harassed out of my jobs… good shit you know.

And my roommate has been driving me up a fucking wall. She’s an extrovert, I’m an introvert. She’s also obviously neurotypical as all Hell, and very needy for contact with people. Couple weeks back I asserted my boundaries with her, but she still invades my space sometimes and it drives me nuts. She touches me without consent (no not sexually, like hugs and pokes (the fuck?) and stuff like that). Mostly her neurotypicality (is that a word?) is what grates me like cheese. It wakes Venny up… Makes me want to stab the shit out of her or something. I know that’s concerning and evil and stuff, but she’s said shit that annoys the fuck out of me. We were watching a movie where a guy got possessed by an evil ghost and he cut himself pretty bad to spell a message in blood. She knows I’ve self-harmed. She says “dude, how deep do you have to cut yourself to bleed that much?”

I immediately had to tell her “dude, don’t say that stuff- it’s highly triggering.”

Oof, God I cannot stand it.

And to put the icing on the cake: Registrar denied my petition for my credits at my last institution to substitute general education credits at my college now. Had a breakdown in my car. So I’m at a setback for graduation by at least a quarter. Which doesn’t seem much, but when you’re a disabled, pissed off 5th year college student like me, so close to graduating, who was going to graduate in the summer but now CAN’T because you got set back by TWO FUCKING CREDITS… Makes you want to run your mid-sized vehicle into the closest godforsaken lake.

So basically: I’m stuck indoors, with a huge ESA problem, I can’t use my #1 coping mechanism which is working out, my graduation plans got fucked up, and I want to hurt myself and everyone around me. Greaaaaat.

I mean, on the plus side I’ve got my boyfriend Max, who is a GODSEND, who is so patient and sweet with me. I’m currently at this place as I type this and set up this blog. And I may have settled on a bird finally; finally got back to my professors after getting the fuck out of town. We shall see.

I don’t know what to do with myself, or what to do to cope better. Whenever I’m alone, I fixate on cutting again. I’ve been so, so many years clean, like 5 years clean. I want to kill myself so bad when I’m alone. I just wish I had the gym back.

~*~

[coll2mitts]

#96 Meet the Feebles (1989)

I’m only on the 5th movie out of 100, and I’ve already started asking myself the question, why am I doing this?  Is this really just about killing time while in quarantine?

This movie was written and directed by Peter Jackson.  I just want to mention this before I start to explain the plot of this movie, because it is batshit bananas.  

It opens on a musical number, asking the audience to, in fact, Meet the Feebles, a parody version of the Muppets.  The song is cheery, and a bunch of different animal puppets are singing and dancing on stage.  There is a bunny that pops out of a carrot, sings, and then the carrot shoots off into the sky like a rocket.  The most disturbing-looking hippo is lowered from the ceiling and I have to pause the movie because I can’t stop giggling for 2 minutes.  But then I start to realize she has boobs, and they’re massive.  And that they have nipples.  I only have a second to think, hmmm, that’s an interesting choice... before my eyes are assaulted with the sight of a walrus fucking a cat.  And an aardvark is sniffing worn panties.  And a rat is rubbing his crotch because he wants to fuck Lucille, who is not, in fact, a loose seal, but a poodle, which is the first of many egregious missteps of this movie.

Then, these little fuzzball puppets get run over by a barrel, and the rat eats their flattened corpses.  The rat is filming BSDM porn between a cow and a roach in the back of the theater.  There’s a paternity suit between a chicken and an elephant who have the most atrocious chicken/elephant hybrid baby.  A fly eats shit out of a toilet  There’s a bunny orgy.  The bunny then gets AIDS and vomits all over the stage.

The knife-throwing frog has a heroin problem and stabs several puppets during the show.  The rat drugs and tries to rape the poodle.  The walrus kills a guy by pouring borax down his throat because he tried to sell him bogus cocaine.  The rat and the walrus drive a car through a whale’s mouth and exit through the anus.  The hippo finds out her pedophile manager boyfriend is cheating on her and she binges on cakes.  When he dumps her, she tries to commit suicide and fails, so she takes a machine gun and massacres almost all the cast instead.

It was exhausting to watch this.  I’m reminded of a scene from Daria, where Jane posits that puppets can make anything funny.

Jane - I'm telling you, puppets make anything funny. Give me something that isn't funny.

Daria - Um... a plane crash -- into a nuclear power plant.

Jane - Okay. Now, picture the same plane crash, only the cabin is full of screaming puppets flailing their skinny little puppet arms. Funny, right?

Daria - Hmm... maybe. Are they on fire?

Jane - Hmm...

The movie tried so hard to shock its audience that it didn’t bother to wonder if what they were showing was actually funny.  Had they done that, they would have only released this 8 minute clip, where the heroin addicted frog relives his Vietnam experience.

The rest of the movie, however, is so boring that having puppets was never going to save it.  There is no overarching plot other than rehearsing for a television special and having that go fairly poorly because everyone is fucking insane.  All the side plots - the bunny being sick, the hippo getting broken up with, the elephant and the paternity suit, the hedgehog wanting to get married, the frog trying to score smack, the walrus buying drugs - are a bunch of vignettes that do nothing to actually propel anything forward.  When everything is so disjointed like this, there ends up being no story.  I’m not invested in this production, I don’t want these puppets to succeed.  Even worse, I don’t care enough about it to actively root for them to fail.  When the movie doesn’t have a solid story or plot, it has to rely on something else to keep the audience entertained, and I’m assuming comedy was the ultimate goal here, because, again, it’s all puppets.  Watching someone get assaulted isn’t funny in general, nevertheless when it’s a poodle, so pretty sure it failed there.  So, no, Jane, I’m sorry, puppets unfortunately do not make everything funny.   This movie is the cinematic equivalent of Garbage Pail Kids.

I don’t even want to discuss the music because it was so forgettable.  The one song that made any sort of impression was a fox singing about how he enjoys sodomy.  That’s the whole bit.  There are butts hanging from the ceiling and I didn’t even laugh.

Now, if this project is a way to distract myself, wouldn’t I want myself to enjoy it?  I probably wouldn’t have adhered to a list, or made myself finish any of these movies if I knew they were going to be train wrecks, right?  I’m supposed to be bringing positivity into my life since the whole world has gone to shit.  I could die, why would I waste my precious moments on earth watching cheap puppets vomit and piss all over everything?  

How am I going to use the knowledge I’m obtaining?  Do I want to understand cinema more?  Will I continue to do this once I can see people again?  Will this get easier as I get higher up the list?

Next is Dancer in the Dark, which has Bjork in it.  Please let it be good.

[surveysonfleek]

626.

do you ever wish you could just go to sleep & never wake up? no. i’m more satisfied with being able to sleep and not having an alarm to wake me up the next day.

do you want to have any children? if so, how many? i do eventually whenever i’m ready. maybe two depending on how pregnancy treats me.

how many piercings have you had in your life all together? six.

how many do you have now? four.

do you have a problem with bisexual, gay, or bicurious people? no.

do you use hearts like this <3 a lot? i used to when i was younger. not anymore.

what were you doing at 12am? working.

do you like where you live? it’s okay. a bit far from places but i like the general area.

how’s your sister? she’s good. probably sleeping.

is anyone over protective of you? not really.

have you ever made someone so mad that they broke something? they punched the wall and broke their ego lmao.

what color is your toothbrush? white and orange.

is there someone who meant a lot to you at one point, and isn’t around now? of course. hasn’t everyone had friends/family/partners that you drift apart with?

what do you do when you’re having a bad day? sleep it off. or do surveys.

where is your mother right now? sleeping in her room.

when was the last time you cried really hard? probably some time this year.

let’s test your memory, what were you doing at this exact moment a year ago? i actually have no idea.

do you smoke weed everyday? no.

if the year consisted of only one season, which would you choose? autumn.

have you ever liked someone older than you? yes.

who was the last person to call you? my boyfriend.

are you multi-tasking right now? nope.

what is the most irritating thing? people.

are you a patient person? not really.

do you ever listen to country music? nope.

do you get mad when people smoke around you? no, only if they blow smoke directly in my face.

did you lie on any of these questions so far? nope.

do you remember who you liked in january? yes.

is life good or bad? mostly good, could be better though.

are you the oldest child? yes.

what was the last thing you said to someone? bye.

are you happy? yeah i guess.

ever been told someone loved you? yes.

who was your last missed call? my boyfriend.

do you like cold and rainy days, or warm and sunny? cold and rainy only if i’m staying home.

are you nervous about anything? i usually am but i’m okay right now.

are you happier now, or three months ago? same.

what’s your current mood? tired.

what color are your eyes? brown.

do you and your mother have a good relationship? yes.

do you know anyone with literally no common sense? yep lol.

have you ever worn the opposite sex’s clothing? yes.

honestly and don’t lie hows your heart these days? it’s okay. good and bad days.

do you miss anyone right now? yeah.

have you ever had a summer romance? yeah but it lasted more than a summer.

looking back, did you ever think you would be where you are now? nope.

do you remember who you had feelings for december 2009? yes haha.

is a best friend pissing you off right now? no.

what woke you up this morning? nothing. just felt like i had enough sleep.

do you have a brother? nope.

are you sad right now? no.

do you like winter time? yes, i love it.

are you going to get hurt by a guy anytime soon? i hope not.

was it a boy or a girl to text you first today? boy.

what are you listening to right now? nothing.

when was the last time you wanted to slap someone in their face? never.

are you scared of spiders? not super scared, just cautious. i’m scared of the huge ones though.

do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? not really.

do you have siblings over the age of 21? no.

honestly, who were the last six people you texted? omg i cannot be bothered to check rn.

has a boy ever stayed up with you all night? yes.

when’s the last time you cried yourself to sleep? i don’t think i’ve ever literally done that.

do you struggle to articulate your thoughts and feelings? not usually.

do you believe in divorce? yes.

do you think you’re old? yes.

are you a jealous person? not anymore.

where have you lived throughout your life? in sydney.

what’s the greatest thing that happened to you today? coming home from work.

has anyone said they love you in the last week? yes.

would you rather visit australia, germany, croatia or jamaica? croatia or jamaica, never been to either.

when was the last time you saw your dad? on the weekend.

if your boyfriend or girlfriend smoked pot, would you care? it depends how often tbh.

have you ever camped out with a significant other? no.

what keeps you awake at night? idk. my body clock.

how many times have you stayed in a hotel? way too many times to count.

what does your third text message say? who is it from? idk.

plans for tomorrow? work.

honestly, what’s on your mind right now? nothing. friday i guess.

other than a person, what was the last thing you cuddled with? a pillow.

where was the last place you got completely wasted? i forgot.

do you need/want new clothes? yes. always.

what did you eat for lunch today? cake lol.

how would you feel about traveling abroad alone? i wouldn’t do it unless i’m meeting up with a friend after a couple of days.

what was the last thing you watched on tv? i forgot.

when is the last time you wore a dress? a couple days ago.

do you prefer hot, humid weather or bone-chilling cold weather? cold.

last person you yelled at? idk.

have you ever watched one tree hill? yes, i used to be obsessed with it.

who did you last have an alcoholic drink with? friends.

are you afraid of falling in love? no.

what color eyes does your cat have? no cat. what is the drinking age where you live? 18.

do you lead people on? no.

how do you feel about your hair right now? it’s bad but it’ll do. i’m too lazy to wash it.

do you ever actually make your bed? only when friends come over lol.

do you have a nickname? yes, a lot.

have you ever thought that you were honestly going to die? no.

who did you last say i love you to? my boyfriend.

when is your birthday? 5th dec.

is there any emotion you’re trying to avoid right now? no.

do i ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? yes.

when did you last hold hands with someone? yesterday.

can you touch your nose with your tongue? no.

stalked someone on a social network? haha duh.

are you afraid of the dark? only if i’m somewhere i’m not familiar with.

have you ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? no.

have you ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? no.

whats currently bothering you right now? work.

what are you currently hearing? nothing.

are you currently frustrated with a boy/girl? no.

who was the last person you got in an argument with? my boyfriend.

who is your number one on facebook? idk?

have you ever gotten a sunburn so bad it hurt to move? yes.

have you ever driven without a license? unintentionally.

are you wearing shorts? nope.

do you straighten your hair often? weekly, sometimes not at all.

have you ever been to jail? nope.

how many people of the opposite sex have made you cry? maybe three.

last non-alcoholic beverage consumed? water.

when was the last time you were annoyed? idk not long ago.

how many windows are open on your computer? three.

is there someone you don’t ever want to lose in your life? yes.

where did you get the shirt you are wearing? my mum got it for me from overseas.

have you ever had a surprise birthday party? no.

how did you get your last bruise? i don’t remember the last time i got one.

who is in your house right now? my, my sis and mum.

when is the last time you ate pizza? three days ago.

what is the last movie you saw in a theater? fantastic beasts. officially a year ago lol.

do you remember the name of your first school you ever went to? yes.

do you sleep on your stomach? yes.

are you wearing a sports shirt? no.

are you happy with what you currently have in life? mostly yeah.

what happened at 10:00 am? hmmm idk.

do you drink coffee? not usually.

if you were given the chance to go to paris, would you go? yes.

would you eat a live tarantula for $1,000? i’d consider it.

do you know anyone who has been arrested? no.

what are you excited for? christmas.

are you more feminine or masculine? fem. are you tall or short? more on the shorter side. have you ever gotten your nails professionally painted? yes. what gender do you prefer? male.

could you forgive a cheater? idk. is lying about something serious as bad as cheating? they’re pretty damn equal.

[militant-holy-knight]

Alleged Lucasfilm Insider Spills the Beans

On May 26, 2018, on the /tv/ board on 4chan an user titled Lfl did an AMA session with the users. Given that the source was anonymous and his refusal to prove his credentials, we should take his information it with a grain of salt. Though I felt like resposting most of what he revealed. I know I am posting this with the good chance that OP was just roleplaying, but time will tell whether any of this is real or not.

>any talk of firing kathleen? She’s certainly not in good standing after the Last Jedi debacle. Absolutely hated in my department and by a lot of others I know of.

>Let me guess this is a thread where you pretend Lucasfilm is in shambles because a single movie is underperforming. Far from it, actually, but we’ve seen better days. TFA killed a lot of the creative/“anything goes” vibe we had, as evidenced by the “Art Of” book. Seriously, take a look at how cool some of the concept art we had that was thrown out for a safer approach. However, R1 was a blast to work on and felt like the old days. TLJ and Solo were very awkward to work around. A lot of wasted potential with Solo and a lot of in-fighting with both productions.

>tell me about Indiana Jones, news on the 5th film, are more films in the future? It’s in development hell. 2019 is a lucky shot in the dark. Overall, I don’t know much beyond the fact that it’s barely been moving along.

>Do you wish Kevin Feige was in charge? Are toy companies pissed off because of the lame characters and designs? Possibly. There are a number of people I’d rather have in charge of the writing, mostly some of the creative veterans like Filoni or Leeland. The general idea around here is that a “hands off” producer who could also keep things under control would work best. Hasbro is actually pissed off at the way information is handled and the focus on “earth tones” and less interesting visuals in both background aliens and main characters. Going forward there will be a push for more “toyetic” and PT-esque designs. I’ve seen some interesting IX designs, especially Kylo/Rey, who both have “battle armor” on. Kylo has some sort of red crystals on his. Not sure if Kyber or whatever.

>Is the next anthology really Obi-Wan? Any plans for Maul in other anthologies? Yeah, Obi-Wan is the next anthology. Bit of a poorly kept secret at this point, but the announcement should happen within the next 3-4 months. I’ve seen some concept art and it’s honestly breathtaking. I have a great feeling about the film as long as it isn’t stiffled creatively. Don’t believe any bullshit about Thrawn being in it. As far as I know, he’s not. Next movie is up in the air, but talks are revolving mostly around a Boba Fett/Bounty Hunters movie. After that a Solo sequel is planned depending on how well this movie does. That’s where Maul should be making his next appearance. If Solo bombs then he’ll appear in the Fett movie. Considering the Mandolorian connection between them, it’s not a bad idea in my opinion.

>When’s Kuntleen getting the boot? How exactly are you going to right the ship for Episode IX? How much internal division is there at Disney/LFL about the direction the franchise is taking? Kathleen isn’t going anywhere until post IX. If that and Solo underperform then she’ll probably be chained to a smaller project that no one cares about, (ala FOD) and given creative control to herself. 9 is going to be very different. Timeskip, more “toyetic” designs. Personally, I think the damage is done at this point. A lot of higher-ups were gunning for JJ to do all 3 movies and are losing their minds at the idea of SW becoming unprofitable. By the way, Johnson’s trilogy will most likely not happen. Overall there is a very tense atmosphere in the upper-class of the company. Very competitive overall. Lower on the ranks, everyone seems a little bit more disgruntled than usual and a lot of the “magic” is gone. A lot of people are just happy to be paid.

>Is there any truth to the rumor that they are abandoning the trilogy structure for a continuous MCU style? That’s bullshit. Trilogies will always remain. Now, the anthology movies are a different case. Those will be handled more MCU-like.

>Anon you’re exposing yourself as a fake too easily here. Nobody shills on 4chan. It wasn’t JUST on 4chan obviously, but on the internet as a whole. Journalism sites, fan sites, ect. I think the lesson Disney learned is that shilling for a SW movie is pointless when the fans are so opinionated.

>How did they try to defend it? Rian Johnson was being toted around as a “true fan of both the OT/PT” here and that was the narrative/marketing strategy for awhile. Backfired when the movie actually came out and marketing had no idea how to handle it, so damage-control mode was engaged.

>Tell me the truth, how much posting on the Star Wars reddit is paid for? I go there for a good laugh every now and then, it’s the only community I’ve seen where people are so determined to be positive about TLJ that they will include stuff like “TLJ was my fav SW movie btw” at the end of completely unrelated posts. Reddit is a huge center of the marketing campaigns, especially since the site is such a hivemind and opinions get parroted once they’re popular enough to stand on their own. /tv/ is very similar, but contrarian, and harder to control. The Force.net is another, albeit smaller, center for damage control.

>what’s Rian like? Weirdo. Easily one of the weirdest fucking dudes I’ve met, and I only met him twice. Words cannot describe how awkward he is.

>What’s Pablo Hidalgo really like? Awesome irl, but a bit of a dick online. He’s constantly bombarded though. Personally, I think Matt Martin handles fan relations much better and more enthusiastically.

>Why is Disney afraid of using classic aliens? Why are all their alien designs fucking shit and the exact same earthy-brown muppets? Honestly, the art design in the Disney films are fucking boring, uninspired and more Dr. Who rather than Star Wars. Don’t even get me started. The reasoning behind it is despicable too. That brown/earthy skin tone is cheaper to cast for the prop department than recreating the colorful classic puppets/mask. It’s all about cutting corners. The amount of humans in the recent movies is so fucking boring and everyone agrees. Hopefully that’s something fixed with the “toyetic” initiative in future films.

>what is the general opinion of the movies and characters (rey, finn, poe) in the office? Not hated, but the general opinion is that nothing will come close to George’s movies/characters. Gotta admit, it was funny to watch some of the OT purists at LFL start to appriciate the PT when TFA came out. I think those movies will age a lot better now that George is gone. I know a fair amount people who really enjoy the ST characters. Rey is obviously the most popular, but everyone seems disappointed that Finn was sidestepped and turned into a joke in TLJ/TFA.

>Are they really talking about recasting Leia? That seems like such a shitty thing to do. Unfortunately, I can confirm it’s been talked about. No idea who the picks are, but it’s a better option than CGI Leia IMO

>Do you know why Trevorrow was Fired? What happened behind the scenes in rogue one between Edwards and Gilroy? He literally had no idea what to do with IX after Rian’s Rape and flipped out. I don’t blame him, who the fuck even cares about IX in the fanbase now?

[secretsofthemasquerade]

But what is wrong with Light Yagami? What is wrong with the classic anime Death Note? Why does it have to be Americanized, whitewashed and tossed into theaters? Why?

*Netflix

It doesn’t “have to be”, but spreading culture and media sometimes means localizing the original work for it to suit the target Audience. And the target audience of Death Note (anime and manga) in Japan is certainly not the same as the target audience of the Netflix version.

Why was Ugly Betty localized? Why was The Ring? What about the Hunger games? They’re all localized works. Ugly Betty was a telenovela, The Ring is a Japanese horror film, and obviously, Hunger Games is a blatant rip off of Battle Royale (while the other two did respect the original works and paid licencing :p).

Death Note, the manga and anime, both place themselves in a very specific context that just cannot be transposed into the Western. First Japan does have the death penalty, but only apply it so scarcely. There’s no crime and violence culture in Japan (at least not in that kind). A serial killer in Japan just weighs so much more than in the US, because in the US, y’all have one every three days (even adjusting for population). The police investigation that follow and the lack of army also play a big role in the originals. 

Changing the name, dropping the story in the middle of nowhere, Ohio just fails to explain why and how Light is insane. The meanings behind the originals are lost in a pure transposition into a western society (at least the American one. Had this happened in England I would have been less pissed off :p)

There’s two ways to bring something from a culture into another; subtitles with reading guides, and localisation. Plain transposition does not work. 

This is why in 99% of subtitled work, you have pauses, translator notes, and stuff that needs to be spelled out loud for people who do not live in the context. That the school year is from April to April in Japan, so you don’t change grades in September after the “big holidays” (which isn’t even that big). That the police has an overwhelming positive reputation. That people spend 3-4 hours per day in public transport. That there is public transport. That classrooms have assigned spaces and being 40 in one class is nbd. Shintoism. Buddhism. School pressure, contests, grades. Non taboo sex. Teen dates. Tengus, other creatures…

Subtitles led to this stupid lol (obviously keikaku is a specific word for plan which implies a bunch of connotations that should have been explained in the translator’s note, but wasn’t…)

I love me some culture learning, but having to get a BA to understand and enjoy a series is a hassle and I understand why people don’t want to.

This is where localisation works for us lazy entertainment consumers. 

Card Captor Sakura’s Kero has an accent from Okinawa in the original, and to avoid explaining that to 10-12 year-olds, France chose to have him have a southern accent. Sakura’s age was also changed (by mistake, she was in fifth grade of primary school, while “5th” in France corresponds to our second year of middle school, so she went from 9-10 to 12-13 yo, which actually allowed to explain why there were different teachers and allowed mature words and romances to work better). Everyone’s names were also changed as to allow watchers to get attached to the characters more easily (this was only in the anime, in the manga they kept the original names). 

Overall the fact that the story happens in Japan isn’t really the turning point or the main approach of CCS. So they could get away with minimum work (change of currencies, change of grade names, and because it’s aimed at kids, the relationship between wood, fire, earth wind and water is explained to everyone).

But for Death Note, this is not enough. If you want to tell the story of death note, you have to change 95% of the setting and really “adapt” the whole thing. Light being part of the majority (straight A smart student) is fine, and this is why him being white in and out of itself is not the problem. To me the problem is the whole thing ; you can’t transpose a story about a serial killer who thinks he’s doing the world a favor into gun-loving America just like that. Shinigami? Yeah, gods of deaths, that’s easy. Misa fangirling over the guy who killed the assassin of her parents? That’s fine too. 

I think the problem lies fundamentally in how the theme is taken and adapted to the American context. Death Note isn’t about murder, it’s about where do you draw the line and how far will you go to “do good”, all with a delusion of grandeur. It’s about what’s acceptable and what isn’t, about the respect of the institutions (trial and execution of a sentence) and immediate justice. And how, of course, the gods of death are playing an olympian game with punny mortals who are given powers they shouldn’t have.

The death penalty is far too common and misused in the US to be shocking as to the American public. Kira, in this context, just becomes y’alls judicial system, it’s y’all’s power structure already, but Kira in the original context is rogue, goes against the establishment. This is why it really fails (and this is why a plain transposition of Battle Royale would have failed too, the Hunger Games fits the American narrative so much more.. much to my cringy self).

Who know what does great localization work?

Blizzard. Play World of Warcraft (or Warcraft 3) in French, (Latin)Spanish or German, and you’ll see how all Feats and Achievements, quest names, character names, and other winks are directly related to that language’s culture and common frame of references. There’s a few “international references” that are kept (���Over 9000″ for instance), but many others are rebuilt from scratch for puns, cultural references, and of course, TV series, movies, politics and stuff. Some references are from shows that are American but who became huge in France too (Forest Gump reference for instance :p the chocolate box)

Those of y’all who speak French.. https://www.youtube.com/user/gybet37/videos (Warcraft III)

But these are just easter eggs :p Localisation for content is harder and needs very very skilled writers. That Netflix show, meh.

About GiTS, it seems they missed the point of the original, tbh, but the iconic scenes being redone with today’s technology was cool and they really seem to have used the 3D really well. Considering the high budget and how the American general public needs to have a "big name" on the billboard... it's a safe thing to do when you're pouring millions into it. I mean as a general random person can you name 10 great Japanese American actresses? I can't. I would have preferred a better Japanese actress (seems there were some fails) but I don't blame them for using white actors to sell in their own country. It's why it's an adaptation. So yeah. Of course we need more diversity but the public in general needs to care, and tbh they just don't. It's entertainment, it's not social justice for 90% of them and they just want a nice pop corn stuffing waste of time stuff and not author philosophical shit. Then again I did say they missed the point of the original didn't they ;)