#it was choreographed as if it was a scene from a play instead of a regular concert which made the lyrics feel SO powerful

[come-see-our-show]

this might be controversial but i would trust taylor swift to write a broadway musical

[dumbsoftheart]

pas de deux

pairing: ballerina!reader x university!coriolanus snow

tags: 18+, mdni. dub-con, semi-public sex, oral sex (fem receiving), creampie, vaginal sex, dirty talk, power play, manipulation

summary: corio is tasked with writing an exposé on his university’s prized ballet student for the school’s newsletter.

notes: self indulging on my perfectionism being ruined for coryo’s self-pleasure!

word count: 4.9k

౨ׅৎ

coriolanus hated this assignment with the same fervour and passion he hated writing for his school’s publication. the only reason he’d even applied for the position was because he knew of the ways it would put him on the scene- articles and reviews with his name plastered over them were unavoidable to anyone who had half a brain to engage in thoughtful composition. he enjoyed writing critical pieces on political discourse or literature, anything that challenged him to peel back the layers of society and dissect it, persuade others to align with his mode of thinking, so the mere thought of his byline etched onto an article about ballet- of all things- made him want to curl up and die. he tried oh so desperately to pass on the assignment to one of his female partners, and even tried his hand at requesting his supervisor for a new assignment entirely, but he was coldly dismissed and cast away to the hallowed halls of the university's dance studio. he didn't notice how frustrated he’d actually felt until he flinched behind the sound of the studio door slamming behind him, clashing uglily with the buzzing noise of music that flooded his eardrums. it was unnecessarily loud, but he knew you could hear him enter. his jaw clenched the more you ignored his presence. 

instead, you focused on the strains of music you’d become uncomfortably accustomed to. the melodic rhythm of the cantilena you choreographed to consumed your body in a symphony of music. each note was dictated thoughtfully with the graceful movements you now begrudgingly danced for the stranger, weaving a story that transcended words, one only understood through the language of dance. as you traversed the space, your movements harmonised seamlessly with the refined tune, a testament to the years of dedication and passion you poured into this art form. you grew frustrated at the way his presence clashed discordantly against the elegance of your dancing and disrupted the harmony of the room. you watched in the corner of your eye how he marched his way to the centre of the room, lingering only a few steps behind you as you danced. you caught him clear his throat one, two, then three times. it grated against your patience, forcing you to stop dancing abruptly and march past him with the same conviction as he did to shut off the music, a huff escaping your lips at the sudden quiet as you stared expectantly at the tall boy before you. you watched his fists clench and then flex before he turned to face you, his pearly blond hair falling ever so slightly out of place from the speed at which he’d turned on his heel. 

"can i help you?" the words slipped from your lips, delivered with a flatness that barely concealed the tinge of annoyance behind it. your hand found its place resting on your hip, a subtle gesture reinforcing your composed stance, determined to maintain an air of indifference. 

“coriolanus snow. i’ve been assigned to write a review on you and your dancing for the university newsletter,” his introduction sounded pompous, as though he assumed you already knew of his identity. of course, you knew the name very well- his reputation preceded him. you couldnt deny that you too had once or twice been privy to the occasional swooning over the quite popular boy, but you found that now as he stood in front of you, tall and beautiful as he was, you felt a growing discontent for the man and his obnoxiously bright hair. yet, you clung fiercely to the facade of ignorance, a guise of disinterest veiling the curiosity that lingered beneath the surface. you held your head high, refusing to grant him the satisfaction of acknowledging his perceived importance in your realm of artistry. 

you pretended to think before a moment, before turning back to the speaker and switching the sound back on, gesturing for him to sit. you rolled your eyes at his request to turn the volume down. despite you hating everything that had to do with this review, you were aware of the potential impact this coverage had on your burgeoning career. you acquiesced, lowering the volume to appease his demand, a concession made not out of respect for the boy but rather with your future in mind. you knew the power coriolanus held with his words, as much as you hated it, and you knew you couldn't risk jeopardising your future at the sake of a little attitude. 

so, with an inward sigh and a curt nod, you allowed him to observe. you positioned yourself within the room as you waited to pick up on the rhythm of the music where you left off, quickly finding your place among the complexities of the song in a manner that seemed impossible had it not been for your tireless work and memorization of every single note and harmony of the song. 

as snow observed your movements, he jotted down comments in a small leatherbound notebook, his pen scrawling his disdain. "lacks depth," he muttered under his breath, pausing to look up pensively at your figure.

the comment caught you so off guard it took every bit of strength in you to not fall with the abruptness at which you stopped. lacks depth? what the hell would he know? you felt rage burn inside your chest, only fueled by the way he stared at you as if he had said nothing wrong. 

“what about my dance lacks depth, snow?” the question hung in the air, and you watched his adams apple bob up and down through the mirror as he swallowed, glancing briefly at his notes before looking back up at you. 

"the dance is fine, quite beautiful, i might say, but your movements lack the emotional vibrancy expected from a performance of this calibre," he responded, "there's an absence of connection, it feels superficial and fails to convey the intended depth of expression."

he spoke with a measured confidence, and you scrunched your brows at his words. you didnt expect him to know the first thing about ballet, and you still stood by that sentiment, but part of you wondered if he was speaking truthfully- a consequence of the sensitivity you harbour in relation to your artistry. dance was everything, and while ballet trained you to accustom yourself to harsh criticism, you always held those criticisms to your heart, and it pushed you to always do better than you had before. 

despite this, your shoulders never slumped, nor did you show any physical acknowledgement to his critique, only moving to turn your gaze from his cobalt eyes in the mirror to look him in them truly, strutting your way back to the speaker and restarting the song, determined to prove him wrong. 

“you restart the song when you feel i’m ‘lacking depth’, so i can know whether or not to call bullshit.” 

the two of you went at it for a while. he only gave you a few seconds at first before he continuously restarted the song, but you danced for him nonetheless. over, and over again. when you thought you’d finally caught him, he’d restart the song a few seconds later, and it took everything in you to not scream in frustration at the top of your lungs. you wanted to strangle him, in truth, especially when you caught a glance at his smirk the 12th time he’d restarted the music. 

it was nearly midnight by the time he’d given you some respite, and you made no effort to be hospitable as you collected your things and stormed out the door without a word. you pretended to ignore the scribbles on his notebook as you rushed passed him, unable to make sense of the haphazard writing. you hated him. the way he seemed to try seize control of your creative space and your studio made you go mad. additionally, you were convinced he was only trying to get under your skin, and you hated that it worked- even if you refused to show it (or more appropriately, tried not to show it, because coriolanus reveled in the fact that he did, in fact, get under your skin). 

coriolanus, on the other hand, walked out of the studio feeling quite prideful. he adored the effect he had on you: how despite his ignorance on your mastered art, he absorbed the control in the room. he adored seeing you struggle to keep up to his standards, watching your face twist with effort as you danced over and over again, all for him. watching the muscles of your shoulders and legs flex, the arches of your back and neck, the way you exposed yourself to him repeatedly- it festered a strange desire in him to tear you apart. you were so meticulous with how you danced that it made you look fragile. with every twist and turn of your body coriolanus felt his breath catch in his throat as if he were afraid if you moved slightly too much, you would shatter. only, he wanted to be the one to break you: tear away that meticulousness and precision built into you and mould it in a way that was perfectly suited for him. he wanted to dismantle that untouchable image you carried, strip you away of your elegance and create a dependence that would tether you to him alone. it made him care about your performance more than he wanted to admit. not because he cared for you, per se, and your success, but because he’d developed a carnal urge to shape you into perfection solely for his own satisfaction. knowing that onstage, your dance was now catered just for him, to his own liking? the thought made coriolanus’s pants grow tight with lust. 

the week progressed following the same routine: he would sit and watch you overwork yourself at his beck and call until your eyes filled with tears of anger and your body would give out and he’d leave you panting on the dance room floor, killing yourself until you got it just right. the boy was acutely aware of the mental struggles that accompanied ballet- the pursuit of perfection, the strive for excellence, the intensity of the competition and the pressure to excel. he knew how hardly you critiqued yourself and used it to his advantage; knowing if he played his cards right, soon enough he’d have you wrapped around his finger, begging him for that validation you needed to keep going. 

your performance was on saturday, and the way you worked yourself over the dreadful symphony of music had you lacking sleep. you couldn’t stop- even after you and coriolanus parted ways. you found yourself practising in your dorm room, counting steps on your way to class- you knew deep down that coriolanus’s article really meant nothing, as the man knew nothing about what he asked of you, and your success wasn’t at all tied to his review; but you were unable to stop. a voice nagged at you that it did matter. that somehow his influence could ruin you and everything you’d worked for. you knew how badly he was getting to you when the two of you crossed paths on your way to class. 

he took in the sight of you: your hair done perfectly, not a single hair misplaced, your pink tights and leotard, the pink cover-up skirt you adorned neatly wrapped around your waist with a perfect bow. he took in your lips, swollen and red from the anxious biting you’d fallen into the habit of doing again, the way you messily tried to cover up your dark under eyes with concealer and draw attention away from it with haphazards amount of blush. in passing, you’d simply given him a nod, but he was quick to grab you, looping his finger under your chin and forcing you to stare into those piercing cobalt eyes of his as he studied you. 

“you should wear white instead. pink washes you out,” he mumbled to you before turning away, his tall figure disappearing into one of the lecture halls behind you. had it been a few days prior, you would’ve found it in you to bite back. only now, you bit at your manicured fingernails as you dragged your fingers across the silky white pointe shoes in your favourite dancewear boutique, followed by the white leotard and tights you brought home with you that night.

 

౨ׅৎ

“i need a break,” you sighed. it was the night before your performance, and only now did coryo have the decency to step back for a moment in his unrelenting pursuit of perfecting you. he nodded, shutting off the music as he watched you saunter towards your dance bag, downing half the contents of your water bottle with short pants. he stood to meet you, making his way behind you and resting his slender fingers on your tense shoulders. 

“whats bothering you, bunny?” the pet name sent a small shiver down your spine, and coriolanus threw his head back slightly at the feeling of you shudder, gathering all his strength to contain himself. you turned to face him, and he felt his dick harden at the vulnerability in your eyes. the fire that once burned behind them was fizzling, and he could tell. your mouth was parted as you searched for the right thing to say, but the words caught in your throat. 

“is it the dance?” he pressed, his face now dangerously close to yours, and you croaked out a small yes as his hand made its way up to your hair, his thumb stroking it gently, “you know it’s perfect, darling, you and i have been making it perfect all week long, no? show me which part is bothering you.” 

your head spun as he spoke to you- his fingers stroking your hair, the way his voice was now all of a sudden so soft; contrary to the stern way he’d spoken to you all week. but what really dizzied you was the sudden validation he’d given you. the casual way he threw it at you; as if it was what was known all along, as if you were crazy to think otherwise. 

you stumbled back towards the centre of the room, slowly positioning yourself as you waited for his go-ahead, form snapping into movement as soon as the music filled your ears. you watched in the mirror as coriolanus paced behind you, his chin in his hand as he watched you and pondered. your eyes closed with focus, moving with such ease that it felt second nature to you. then, the music seized, and you froze in place as you raised your head to look up at the man now in front of you. 

“you’re too tense,” he murmured, moving to press his hands into the soft skin of your shoulders, massaging the strained muscle gently. it did nothing at getting you to relax. inside, you were fuming as you replayed the past week in your head. you’d worked yourself dry all for the approval of a man whose opinion you couldn’t care less about. you let your guard down for a sliver of a moment and he used it to get inside your head. you hated him with every fibre in your being, and his breathing down your neck only fueled the fire burning inside of you. 

“get off of me.”

“just relax.” the way he whispered it was short of anything kind, spat at you with annoyance as he tightened his grip on you.

“i said get off!” it was the loudest you’d spoken all day. it was barely a shout, but it was enough for the man to recoil from behind you. you breathed shakily, hands trembling at your side. when you turned to face him, you nearly flinched at the sight of him. his usually perfectly combed back hair was now a mess, curls fallen out of place as he ran his hand through the golden strands harshly. you both stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity, panting heavily, waiting for the other to say or do anything to loosen the tension that filled the studio air. 

he looked down at the floor for a second, tonguing his cheek with a smile before surging forward, crashing his chapped lips into your plump, soft ones with a groan. you tried to push him away, but his grip on your face was too strong- and you couldn’t ignore the way your legs turned to jelly from the way he kissed you with an undying hunger. one hand made its way down your waist as he moved you backwards into the large studio mirror, your head thumping painfully against the glass, pain mixing with pleasure as coryo attacked your lips and dragged his hands all over your body, savouring the warmth of your skin through the fabric of your garments. 

“so good for me,” he groaned against your neck, the hot breath of his words sending shivers straight down to your core, “so perfect.. so pliable.. all for me. isnt that right, princess?” 

it was truly embarrassing, the way his words made you moan softly and rub your thighs together with want. embarrassing how compliant you’d become for him, how eager you were to please him. he took notice of the pathetic state you were in, watching with glossy and swollen lips how your legs trembled and your hips stuttered in a desperate attempt to gain friction against your growing heat. 

“look at that, so fucking precious,” he continued to watch you struggle, laughing softly to himself before snaking his hand between your thighs, cupping your cunt and slowly encouraging you to rock your hips back and forth. you whined at the contact, relief and pleasure swarming you as you ground yourself into the palm of his hand, gripping tightly onto the curls at the back of his head for leverage. lost in bliss, you barely noticed when the man made his way down to his knees, lip bitten so hard you swore you could smell the metallic scent of blood peer through your senses as he toyed his fingers across your clothed cunt. you moved to remove your small skirt, untying the meticulous bow around your waist and tossing it to the side. when your hand reached to remove your leotard, coriolanus removed his hand with a small chuckle. 

“what do you think you’re doing?” he tutted, and you whined at the sight of him below you, willing and able to keep pleasuring you but withholding that power. you scrunched your brows together with confusion, and coriolanus thought you’d never looked so beautiful: face flushed with heat, writhing above him while your hips urged for his fingers to touch you again. too lost in the pleasure that lingered, head thrashing from side to side with pleads to keep going- he wanted to ruin you. 

“good girls wait and do what they’re told. are you gonna be a good girl for me?” he chuckled at the way you shook your head aggressively, savouring your small moans as he returned his hand to where you wanted it most. a loud gasp escaped your lips when he ripped your tights viciously, the soft torn fabric now giving him better access to the skin of your thighs. he splayed his hands over them, massaging your muscles and soft tissue before pulling your leotard to the side and diving his tongue into the wetness of your folds. 

he pulled back with a moan, gasping as he peered down at the mixture of his spit and your slick connecting your cunt to his chin, and he looked up at you like you were a god, sticky and wet from the most trivial of touches. 

“you’re so wet for me, princess- such a good girl. you’re so good for me,” you couldn't get a word out before he took a long swipe with the flat of his tongue, lapping messily and so, so loudly- chasing the taste of you. he loved teasing you with his mouth. he thought about it that day, unashamed as he jerked his cock into nothingness when he caught sight of you on campus earlier that day, dressed all in white- just for him. the small gesture was enough confirmation to him that he’d won at the game you two were playing, that you let him break you into submission and you were now his to claim. the thought of taking ownership of you by reducing you to nothingness with his tongue alone had him cumming onto his stomach with a loud, broken cry. now, he had you right where he wanted- and he wasn’t going to let that pass just yet. 

he relished every sound and movement you made when he flicked his tongue up and down your lips, relished the tears that fell when he slowly circled it around your swollen clit, rejoiced in the way you gripped his curls tighter when he tongued your hole, gazing up at your already fucked out faced with pure lust and admiration when you came undone and released yourself into his mouth. he continued to lap and suck every moan and whine out of you until you cried with overstimulation. he stood up, licking his lips and stared down at you like a predator who’d hunted its prey. 

“you did so good for me, bunny,” he mewled, kissing your neck softly as you came down from your high. you had started to gain back your senses, and a wave of humiliation washed over you. the man you claimed to hate had just given you the best orgasm of your life, and suddenly you could no longer find it in you to hate him again. every fibre in your body ached when he praised you, called you good and cooed in your ear as you regained your strength. you continued to cry, no longer out of pleasure but in self-disappointment. you felt the urge to scream and lash out at him for robbing you of your senses, for reducing you to a state where the tiniest shred of approval clouded every bit your perspectives until you couldn’t figure out left from right. he continued to coo in your ear as you sobbed, but your eyes widened with fear when you heard the small sound of a zipper and looked down to see his cock in his hands, pumping slowly as he made his way into you. 

he shushed every one of your protests, his lips pressed tight against your collarbone as you tried to push away from him when his tip made contact with your hole, “be good, bunny, be good for me,” he chanted into your skin and your body broke down into more sobs as you willingly let him push into you. alarms were blaring in your head for you to stop giving into him, but your body was unrelenting and begging with want- and so all you did was cry as he thrust slowly into you, small moans of praise nonsensically falling from his lips as your cunt struggled to take all of him in. 

the way he mumbled his sweet words into your neck and the slow stretch of his cock prying you open had your brain short-circuiting, the sweet tone of his voice once again making you lose all sense of what was unfolding before you. you winced as he tried to thrust his length deeper into you. 

coriolanus didn’t like that. he took the sounds of complaint as direct disobedience. he wanted to hear nothing but your begging- he wanted you to thank him for letting you have his cock, and hear nothing but your loud moans and pathetic mewls as he fucked you. he grabbed at your bun, yanking your head back with such force that the once perfectly smoothed back hair came undone painfully, strands falling to your face and wisping at your shoulders. 

“does it hurt?” he asked, and for a moment you thought he was trying to take you with care, but when you nodded and his grip tightened on your hair, you knew you were oh so wrong, “i thought i told you to be a good, fucking. girl.” 

he thrusted into you harshly with each word and you cried out in pain, his cock stretching you out far beyond what you could handle, overstimulation making your knees buckle and tears fall from your eyes again. 

“thats it, baby. take it, be a good girl and take my cock.” 

your fingers dug into his back and coriolanus let out a loud, lewd moan, unable to peel his eyes away from the sight of his cock thrusting without preamble into the slick mess of your cunt. he threw his head back as you moaned through your cries, and thrusted even harder when you wrapped a leg around him to let him fuck you even deeper. 

he moved to rip off the top of your leotard, licking his lips hungrily as he watched your tits fall and bounce in tandem with his thrusts. he dove his head down, latching his lips onto your hardened nipple and sucking harshly, nipping and biting the soft flesh while his hand pinched and flicked at the other one. 

you were incoherent. your stop’s had turned into more’s and your sobs turned into that of pure desire. you threw your head to the side and gasped at the spectacle the two of you were making of yourselves in the middle of the dance studio. the mirror you were pressed up against had begun to fog up along the silhouette of your body pressed up against it, the cool glass dripping condensation onto your back and through your ruined clothes as coryo fucked you into oblivion. he looked right at you now, his fingers making their way to lace into yours as he pressed you even closer to him, your arms now bound against the coolness of the mirror. 

“fuck, princess, you’re so fucking tight. so tight for me, yeah? gonna make this pussy mine,” your head spun with his words and the constant pumping of his cock, unable to contain the obscene sounds you let out. you were so close, and the way you tightened around him as you chased your release almost had him cumming prematurely. 

“you gonna let me make you mine, huh bunny?”

“fuck, yes!” 

“s’at right? gonna let me claim you? such a good girl.” 

you moved your hips against his with no rhythm, simply in pursuit of the orgasm that coiled in the pit of your stomach. you kept your eyes on his, your mouth open with pants as you urged him to keep going. he hiked one hand behind the knee you had wrapped around him, the other one pulling you up so you were off the ground, letting him fuck you in a way that hit all the right spots in all the right places, and you just about lost it right there. 

he smiled, “you like that?”

“uh-huh..”

“you want me to keep going?”

“please- please dont stop, coryo, please!” 

his cries got louder, moans twisting up into a slightly higher octave, his face scrunched with pleasure as your cunt clenched around him with each of his words. 

“gonna fill you up with my cum, baby. is that what you want? for me to breed you?” he babbled, voice trembling, “gonna fuck you full of cum ‘n make you mine. no one else can have you.” his voice got weaker as his hips pivoted upwards to thrust even deeper. he was in complete in control of you; his elbows hooked beneath your knees and opening a new gateway to your soul.

“naughty fucking girl, huh? ‘s alright, good girls get to be naughty sometimes..”

“i’m gonna cum,” you whined pathetically, rambling over and over as it was the only thing you could think of. you were so close, and each word he groaned at you brought you infinitely closer. 

“you wanna cum?”

“i want- i want it so bad.”

“s’at right?”

“please, coryo- god, please! ‘m gonna be good for you. so good for you, daddy—”

your words collapsed into meaningless cries and shattered sentences— fuckyesyesyes— and cumonmycockbaby— as you worked each other towards release. you pulled him deeper to your center, tightening around him as the coil in your stomach finally burst and you saw white. you both came with a loud moan, yours no doubt shattering through the walls of the confined space, and coriolanus released his load into you with a long, droned out fuuuuuck as he slowly pumped his cum into you, mesmerised by the way it mixed and swirled with the mess of your own release. you whined at the overstimulation, body still jerking from the aftershocks of your orgasm, but coriolanus only felt himself grow harder. 

“coryo, i cant..”

he snapped up at you, gaze softening as he took in your tear stained and fucked out face. he took your face in one hand, squeezing your jaw tightly and admiring the slight cross-eyed look you had on and the dribble of spit falling from your perfect lips. he cocked his head to the side, smiling coyly. 

“oh, bunny, you don’t have a choice..” 

౨ׅৎ

@dumbsoftheart, 2023

[shapelytimber]

LIBERTINE !

Fuck the rushed dogshit ending, Wee John and Izzy continued to do drag together, sailing on the revenge from town to town. Don't miss their new "libertine" show !!

[PRINT] - [COMMISSIONS]

Ok after more than a week of reflexion, and a chat with my evil advisor @quijicroix (who is a genius)... Izzy Hands should have sang "libertine" by mylène farmer instead of la fucking vie en rose. Why ? 1) mylène farmer is a very famous french queer artist 2) her songs (especially libertine) are used all the time in drag shows in france 3) la vie en rose as taken other the years a very bougie parisian conotation, so to have a PIRATE sing it ?? Wtf ? 4) she often performed with drag queens on stage- and I could go on.

But all I have to say is, please please please if you've never heard it or seen the clip- Go watch it right now ! It's so fucking good !!! (cw nudity and a bit of blood. Also old ass guns)

Wee john gets to be cunt and play the vilain, Izzy (who is more of a drag king) gets to play the gender protag <3 the show of course include a choreographed fight scene at the end

Process + other famous french songs rec vvv

VERY rough colors

Sketch

And just to be petty, here are other famous french songs that would have been way better than la vie en rose :

- Le bien qui fait mal (Mozart l'opera rock) ("I have joy in pain, I get drunk on this poison until I loose my sanity". The most izzy ass song you can get, it's horny kinky angsty BDSM themed song what more do you want ? Ok to be fair it's more s1 Izzy, but still !)

- Mourir sur scène (Dalida) ("I want to die on stage". well it's less a love song and more foreshadowing for the end, but if Izzy's death had been better written, less rushed, or happenned in an hypothetical s3 (I really don't think they'll have one tho-), it would have been so good.)

- Les demons de minuit (Images) (sillier for sure, but horny and iconic. Alas it's very het)

My final note on this will be, why french ?? Because Abba Lay all your love on me or the winner takes it all would have been so fucking good-

PS : I did most of the rendering very tired and a bit drunk after a party hfrifgruigfrui I had so much to correct after that what a nightmare

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Yuri on Ice aka Yuuri's free programme would never have been possible without the beach scene.

In the beach scene, Yuuri opens up to Viktor for the first time. While they have been unintentionally working against each other until that point (exuberant flirting from Viktor and Yuuri trying to avoid him), the conversation on the beach brought them on the same page. That conversation has reassured Yuuri that Viktor's motives and feelings towards him are sincere and he starts feeling safe enough to open up.

Which leads right to the next scene where Yuuri sits in his room and decides to open up more as he contacts the music student who composed the programme his former coach Celestino rejected.

Now fast-forward to Yuuri and Viktor creating Yuuri's new free programme:

Yuuri's free programme is about his skating career. But it's so much more than that. Yuri on Ice also tells the story of Yuuri and Viktor, expressed through the piano (Yuuri) and the violin (Viktor). At 0:55 min, which is quite early in the programme, the violin joins and it dominates the song. This part represents Viktor becoming his coach. (The entire song is 3:41 min, note that a free programme was 4:30 min at the time YOI aired, and that the creators shortened the songs due to time constraints).

Yes, that's right: Most of the story told in Yuuri's free programme, Viktor is Yuuri's coach. Yuuri's programme that is supposed to be about his life as a skater paraphrases his entire career so far in 55 seconds and then tells the story of Yuuri and Viktor.

Then there's this part in the middle where the violin falls silent and the piano slows down as Yuuri has a realisation about love. When the music picks up speed again, the violin re-joins, but instead of doing its own thing now it's support the piano, which can be interpreted as Yuuri and Viktor now being a team, Yuuri and Viktor being lovers (hence, the realisation about love), Yuuri and Viktor staying together (the instruments playing together until the end, these a nuance of Stammi Vicino in that imagery). To be precise, there are many interpretations as this song can be applied to every episode where Yuuri skates it.

Now, as Viktor is Yuuri's coach and choreographer, Yuuri needs to explain to him what he wants to express with this song, so that Viktor can turn this into choreography. Yuuri needs to explain what the instruments mean and how this translates into his story. I can only imagine how embarrassing this must have been for him, even though he has already decided to open up more--it's still an effort he must do and which will become easier the more often he does it. But that first time when he had to explain all this to Viktor, yes that must have been super awkward. He might have tried to water down some parts of the story because he couldn't voice them at this time, then, as Viktor kept prying because it didn't seem to fit the music, gradually had to disclose more.

And Yuuri had to explain all of this to that music student as well so that she could compose the song accordingly, and he had to do this AFTER that first awkward experience when he commissioned a song that got shelved.

Without Yuuri realising that opening up isn't a bad thing, that it's okay to make yourself vulnerable to people who don't judge you and don't see you as weak, nothing of this would have ever happened. Yuuri learning that Viktor is a safe person to be vulnerable with because Viktor is dedicated to give Yuuri his full support and that his goal isn't to get Yuuri laid but that his feelings for Yuuri are of a serious nature ("that's my way of showing my love"), is the start of Yuuri becoming confident and that enables him to create not just his first free programme on his own but a free programme that expresses the different kinds of love he is feeling, most of all his love for Viktor.

If you enjoy my meta posts, please consider giving my blog a follow or checking out my works on AO3 (link in bio). You will find the results of my meta musings in there!

[unclaimed-garbage]

My First Impression Rant on S2E8: “The Full Moon.”

SPOILERS FOR S2E8 “THE FULL MOON” OF HELLUVA BOSS

[Things that I liked about the newest episode]

The Art/animation:

The art/animation was super good as always. The fight scene were choreographed rather well and it was just awesome. (Shoutout to the effects team as well).

The music and voice acting:

The music and voice acting were also really good (though at some points, certain characters didn’t sound right??? Like there was one scene where Moxxie confronted the Cherubs and his voice sounded COMPLETELY different. Aside from that though, the emotion in Blitzø’s voice for example where absolutely STELLAR.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many good things to say about this episode because tbh, it was a HUGE let down for me.

[Things I didn’t like]

The goddamn plot:

The pacing here was fucking atrocious and especially bad this episode. The goddamn cherubs and Dhorks got more screen time than Stolas and Blitzø, which shouldn’t be the case given that the episode is titled “The Full Moon” and should’ve been about Blitzø and Stolas’ “deal.”

It was also incredibly strange because why in the world would Vivziepop hype up this episode only to have it barely feature the main storyline. Sure, it was nice to see less of Stolitz, but when you market an episode as being a Stolitz-centric episode that’s supposed to be where they break up, you should expect more focus.

Instead though, we got more of Dhorks’ and Cherubs’ rushed Alliance that went nowhere and was the A plot, while the most important part of the series was shafted as the B plot.

Speaking of shafting the B plot, the pacing was another issue:

The pacing was (once again) another huge issue for me. Blitzø and Stolas’ talk about their “deal” was EXTREMELY quick. Though it was incredibly well done both voice acting wise, mood wise, etc, the pacing just went too fast and it would’ve been nice to see more buildup.

Not only that, but with The Cherubs’ and Dhorks’ situation, the fight went on way too long when it didn’t even affect the actual plot or story. It just meant nothing narrative wise and just felt like a waste of time tbh.

That leads to my next issue, the stakes:

The stakes of this episode were meant to be incredibly high. This was the episode where Stolas and Blitzø were theorized (and confirmed) to break up. Despite this high-stakes moment that’s been forever in the making, with the Cherubs portion of the episode (that took up more screen time than the supposed main focus), the stakes were incredibly non-existent most of the episode and then quickly hit you like a brick in the final five minutes where the most important part comes to play.

Like sure, some may argue that the stakes and tension hitting you was supposed to be like that, but it just felt like bad writing to me.

This leads into the next issue which is tone/tonal whiplash:

This episode suffers from pretty bad tonal whiplash imo. While a good portion of the episode was used to bring Dhorks and Cherubs back into relevancy, there were moments where Blitzø went out (and met Fizzeroli later on) to buy new stuff for their monthly fucking.

Despite the audience heavily suspecting this episode would be Stolitz’s breakup episode, there was little to no buildup. In the beginning of the episode, we get Stolas and Blitzø’s duet talking about the full moon and whatnot. We know that Stolas will give the asmodean crystal to Blitzø, but we don’t know how he’ll react.

We see everything on Blitzø’s side going wonderfully, he’s buying stuff for their “deal” and whatnot making sure it’s perfect (because it’s heavily implied Blitzø is worried that Stolas is getting sick of him). On the other hand, we see no buildup on Stolas’ side. No buildup whatsoever. After the duet, he’s completely gone until Blitzø meets up with Stolas. I think that works against the episode and it’s intentions. So, it went from Blitzø being happy, to things all going to shit with little buildup imo.

The Episode’s intentions:

Honestly, this episode really rubbed me the wrong way, especially when Blitzø finally confronts Stolas about everything. It truly seems that they’re trying to paint Blitzø as the villain, when that’s furthest from the truth.

In scene one (which I’d previously screen recorded, but you can only upload 1 video from camera roll), we see Stolas asking for the book back. Permanently so he can give Blitzø the Asmodean crystal. Blitzø’s reaction here is VERY telling, as he automatically assumes he isn’t doing good enough in their “deal” and thus is jeopardizing his business and his employee’s livelihoods. This is just one example of the gross power imbalance in their “relationship” and like it or not, this scene alone proves that Stolas has created and upheld a gross power imbalance.

Scene/video two ALSO showcases the gross power imbalance in this situation. Blitzø is literally CRYING and BEGGING to keep the book because (as of this point in the episode), he is unaware of Stolas’ intentions and truly believes that the deal is being revoked and he’ll lose his business, job, and cost his employees’ jobs and livelihoods.

Scene/video three truly bothers me in more ways than one because STOLAS was the one who suggested the “deal”. STOLAS was the one who suggested they meet up on the full moon for sex. So WHY is he acting so surprised that Blitzø expected it to be about sex when that was the standard STOLAS set? It really does feel like the narrative is trying to sympathize and make Stolas seem like the victim when Blitzø is merely upholding the arrangement hess. been confined to.

Scene/video four REALLY REALLY grinds my gears after Blitzø rightfully goes off for being blindsided and given no chance to process what the hell Stolas has told him, Stolas is yet again treated like the victim while Blitzø is made to be the villain. Blitzø literally mentioned in the scene before this that he needed time to think things over and couldn’t have this thrown at him like that (and also rightfully goes off on him for seeing him as lesser and being toyed with).

Not only that, but it’s just misguided at best and downright malicious at worst that Blitzø’s trauma and abuse from Stolas is either completely swept under the rug or spun to make Blitzø be the villain in the situation when he’s merely fighting back against the abuse he’s faced.

The final part, The Hype:

Honestly, this episode was REALLY disappointing. It didn’t even reach the 30 minute mark and was the same/similar length as every normal episode, yet it was supposed to be so much more important. We were promised a good episode where Stolas and Blitzø would discuss their “deal,” yet it was shafted to the last five minutes and felt incredibly rushed and victim-blamey tbh. The hype for the episode didn’t really match what we got imo and I’m more disappointed with this episode than I’ve been with the other episodes in season 2.

Overall, I really hate Stolitz as a ship because of portrayal in the series and the episode heavily suffered because of it and also suffers from the usual issues due to the lack of proper pacing and the fact that it wasn’t even longer to allow for more time.

Rating: Tilts between a three and a negative infinity tbh

Maybe I’ll make a much more in depth/thought out say since this one was kinda a heat in the moment one I made while on my way home from Walmart. 💀

[shehungthemoon]

Just dumping my Ina Paha thoughts here. 🙃

First of all I did NOT know it was the 100th episode going into this, so i was very confused watching the montage at the end lol

I also had to click out and make sure I didn't click the wrong episode when the Pilot started playing at the beginning. When I heard Danny's voice on the phone instead of Hesse's I swear I got whiplash

It's filmed so well (bar where they reshot the pilot where Steve gets Danny on the phone instead of a dead dad, in which they literally forgot to put the same filter over the scene to make the stitching coherent) and I absolutely love the camera work they did with the white-room and the video projections. It felt very much a level above normal network television cinematography, especially the parts where Steve's going in and out of the hallucinations.

Steve finally FINALLY killing Wo-Fat was so cathartic, it should have happened ages ago but I'm willing to look past all the dumb ways he survived just to allow this incredible ending to his story.

Ina Paha gave me Kono doing... this. I owe Grace Park my whole life. Pls costuming department put her in hot pink again 💗

yes, it was a Steve episode. but Danny REALLY shone, first as the only resident Actual Detective figuring out what happened to Steve by the tire-tracks, rampaging through the compound steadily and efficiently and knocking people off without a pause, and then in Steve's mind shooting Hesse's kneecaps off?!?!?! That was CRAZY and probably not suppose to be as hot as it was and definitely made me want an ex-mobster AU immediately. Basically I have a competency kink and really like badass!danny shit 😊

Seeing Chin's long hair again made me swoon

My jaw dropped when I saw Jenna! I think it's really interesting that Steve still thinks of her so much, and I was surprised that she showed up in both the actual dreams and the montage. I definitely underestimated how much she impacted Steve's life, it seems, and I hate that we'll never hear him address that and we'll only know about it inadvertently like this.

(hand over the heart for how lori got like. one team shot. poor girlie.)

⭐I took the montage at the end as being flashbacks and memories that Steve was having as he left the compound. Looking at it through that lens certainly makes one unwell.

Obligatory squeal for Adam appearing just to save the day :))) look below to see the love of my life! :)))))) ⬇⬇⬇

Of course, the obligatory mcdanno bullet(s). It writes itself! The way Danny said Steve's name so small and broken when he found him. The way they look at each other on the ground, the pain their faces. I need an official apology statement from Scott and Alex for it. Can we talk about what flashes by during the montage at the end? (IMO it being Steve's memories.) So much Danny.

The first thing is Danny and Steve's first meeting. Jfc. The showrunners milk it SO MUCH and who's complaining

The big, rocking hug. The hands clasping underground. Gracie of course. And then Danny collapsing from the bioweapon, which to be honest I was NOT expecting to see at all--it felt like a genuinely strange choice to include in there and it really ONLY makes sense if you go along with all that being what Steve's remembering. Even then, I was surprised to see it, so basically this is Hawaii Five-Oh making mcdanno gayer than even I was wanting them to be. Steve still thinks about that? From so long ago? Even with so many other close calls in between then and now? Good fucking lord ok then loverboy that's WILD. Canon accepted ig this show is just pure whump.

Danny goes through all of this just days after losing his brother and killing Reyes. JFC can we please address that. I need a 30k introspection fic to let me into this man's mind rn.

The Wo Fat v.s. Steve fight at the end was INCREDIBLE. I would love to give the choreographer's hand a shake, it's some of the best work I've seen on television in a long time. It was impressive for a procedural like this. It was long and physical and you truly didn't know what the outcome was going to be; it everything that their built-up relationship deserved for a conclusion. It also happening with a Steve coming off of hours of torture and drugging was crazy (guess we finally know who would win a PVP if they were both at full strength!). That being said I was really impressed with Wo Fat's capabilities and physical prowess, I was not expecting it to be so even and close to the line. I actually jumped when Steve LIFTED him up into the lighting fixture. We do not talk about Steve's (Alex's???) raw upper-body strength enough.

Anyway. Electricity in the water play. The physicality hell that this gif below is ⬇. Fire extinguishers and loaded needles. Crazy martial arts. Chair and buckets (holy shit did y'all see the force with which Wo Fat SHOT that bucket?????) flying. All's fair. I loved it.

The shot going right through the forehead, clean. I don't know how to put into words why that's so monumental to me but it is.

The mystery bad lady was SO intriguing, I wish we got more from her... How does she know Wo Fat? Why was she entrusted with all that information on him and Steve and especially Doris? Absolutely where did she come from, what was her name? Why did I have a huge huge hot crush on her? All important questions. (Goes to show that h50 CAN give us some more genuine badass, not just there to date someone women characters, just explicitly choose not to. I'm holding out for Ellie to remain platonic so hard right now.)

Almost forgot Danny in that black Hawaiian shirt. Will be whimpering over that image forever. The whole episode I was trying to focus on the underlining betrayal mystery they were laying out but every time my brain started working too hard Scott with his stupid waist and those flower patterns just started flashing into my head

Again, are you seeing this:

I'm unwell and so so happy.

H50 you're a gem when you want to be.

[socialshakespeare]

With you guys doing Hamlet as your play your reading this month, it aligns with my performance of Hamlet (and so sadly couldn’t read in) but I thought I’d share some tidbits from this performance: 

- there are two Hamlets as Hamlet speaks so much, they do share To Be or Not To Be and it’s glorious - Both Hamlets are played by queer women. As a result, Hamlet is by no means straight. It’s been agreed in the cast that Hamlet has slept with Laertes, Horatio, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. - The ghost speaks through the tannoy system - Claudius and Gertrude first entrance is to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff. They have a choreographed dance number too. - We only have one prop knife. It is known as “the communal dagger” since it’s used by Both Hamlets, Laertes, and Guildenstern. Not all at once thankfully. - Speaking of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they’re both being played as frat bros. Claudius can’t tell them apart. - The dumb show is done with masks and a paper crown made out of the script. - Instead of The Mousetrap, Hamlet recites a poem (one the actor wrote herself) with heavy bass playing while Horatio stares down Claudius menacingly. - Hamlet also gets a sick recorder solo. Or at least it would be sick, but she can’t play the recorder. - During one scene, Hamlet gets tied up and dragged onstage by Guildenstern. She also runs off and Guildenstern has to make chase - The gravedigger is Icelandic and they sing the songs in Icelandic. - Yorick’s skull does not exist. Hamlet mimes holding one. - Ophelia also doesn’t have a grave. But Laertes and Hamlet fight in top of her regardless. - Hamlet and Laertes don’t fence. They play the Wii instead. We still have Hamlet’s line of “Since he went into France I have been in continual practice.” So it just sounds like he’s been playing games while he’s been mad. - The communal dagger makes its return. However the idea was floated around that instead it would be a poisoned Wii remote. - And finally and most importantly: Hamlet dies in Horatio’s arms. When she does, Horatio collapses on her dead body out of pure grief. 

It’s been overall a fun performance to be a part of and I thought you’d enjoy these little notes.

- from Emi

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Hi there! Sorry to bother you, I was just wondering, do you have any tips for writing scenes with more than two characters? I started thinking about it reading your answer about threesomes, but I struggle even if sex isn't involved. It's like, my camera angles are big enough to focus just on two people per time

Hello! It's no bother at all! I like to answer questions about writing to the best of my ability!

For non-sex scenes with three or more characters, I try to make sure that something else is going on alongside whatever dialogue is taking place. This can be something like characters eating, playing a game, traveling somewhere, or fiddling with something. It's all about making sure that the characters who aren't actively speaking are doing something and choreographing their thoughts and feelings to the audience clearly, even if they're not the focus of the discussion (X hadn't responded to Mc's and Y's argument growing more heated, but their cuticles were behind their teeth again, putting blood on their tongue instead of words). Everyone should have something to do, and they should be actively reacting and engaging in the scene unless being passive serves a purpose and tells the readers something about their character.

This is especially important when writing threesomes as well. The characters should all have something to do, so finding positions/kinks/activities for everyone is key. I find when writing from a third person limited perspective (though this could also apply to others), it's important to use the POV character to mention what the others are doing (X's hand is traveling up MC's thigh as Y moves in closer to press kisses to the nape of X's neck). As long as no one is doing nothing unless that nothing is being remarked on by the other characters or called out by the exposition, you should be on the right track. Just check to see when you haven't mentioned the other people in the scene, determine what they would have been doing, and then include that information in some way for your readers and you should be able to bring more information into focus.

I hope that can help, and if not, sorry! I gave it a try!

[stevenssticks]

HEYY P!!! MLL

Just imagine watching a movie with dave and being high n there's a ..... scene n since he's high he's a lil vulnerable so he gets hard n asks u to help him by giving him head or sum

AND THEN this man starts fingering u FROM THE BACK???!?!?

im sorry ive been thinking about this all night

HELLO MY DEAR!! sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for so long like… i just didn’t feel prepared to write it yk. anyways.

so you don’t even remember what you put on. all you know is that you fucked around and smoked a joint with dave, who has been your best friend for YEARS. and now you’ve both somehow ended up lying sideways on your couch, watching a steamy, very obviously choreographed sex scene. however in dave’s high ass mind he couldn’t give it much thought. all he knew is that the moans from the woman on the screen sounded almost like you, or maybe it’s the weed, and he’s getting impossibly hard in his sweats behind you.

uncaring about the consequences of his actions, dave decides it would be a good idea to grind up against your ass, which you gasp and try and turn to face him. dave keeps a tight grip on your middle though, whining into your hair.

“fuck… ‘m so hard.. can you help me? please? sorry i cant…” dave grunts and grinds against you again, and your hands come down to grasp his where they’re placed at your middle. squeezing before you slowly trail down to your sleep shorts. stoned brain unable to think about the consequences of letting dave do this right now. you pull down your shorts, no panties underneath. dave’s head nearly explodes.

you feel dave’s hands slide from your tummy over to your hips, and then you hear (and feel) shuffling behind you, before the hot length of dave’s cock is sliding in the crevice of your ass, already wet with his precum.

“oh shit… been thinkin’ bout this. wanted it for so long now.. oh fuck, thank you. thank you..”

dave thrusts up, yowling at the stimulation. his hand reaches in front of you. sloppily playing with your clit a little before he reaches for your leg to hoist it up over his hip. he keeps humping you, short bursts that leave your head spinning with every moan and whimper he lets out behind you.

“‘s so good. so good. oh fuck, i’m gonna cum all over you. maybe you let me put it in?? please??” you slap him, still having enough of a mind to think that you want to save that for when you’re not high. so dave instead shoves two of his fingers inside you. fucking you fast and hard, getting even hornier at the slick sounds your pussy makes when he thrusts his fingers in. “so close… so close.” dave chants, and then he’s thrusting once, twice and seizing up behind you. you feel his cum paint your ass and lower back as he keeps humping against you like he’s in heat. still impossibly hard, feeling like he just won’t stop.

“oh fuck i’m cumming. there’s so much… holy shit…” dave’s fingers have reduced to just massaging your sweet spot. you reach your own hand down to your clit, rubbing in tight circles until you’re also cumming around his fingers.

—

i cant.

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

Revival is innovation! You are geniuses!

Strikingly, the artistic influences of Frecknall’s revival – grotesque art, expressionist movement, the theories of the playwright Bertolt Brecht – were all prominent in Germany before being banned by the Nazi government. In fact, the show’s aesthetics could be seen to represent the antithesis of Nazi art.

Additionally, Redmayne’s marionette-like movements evoke the puppet theatre popular at the time (such as the Salzburg Marionette Theatre, which became an instrument for propaganda under the Nazis). So if the Emcee is a marionette, who is controlling him?

Redmayne’s performance pays homage to German expressionism, an early 20th-century art movement that emphasised the artist’s feelings or ideas, rather than replicating reality. The contorted movements seen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) are replicated in his unnatural limb extensions and melodramatic facial expressions.

He also echoes some aspects of expressionist dance, a counter movement to classical ballet, which sought to convey feeling through unrestrained, grotesque, eerie movement.

The influential expressionist choreographer Mary Wigman (1886-1973) was often hunched over in her performances, and wore masks to dehumanise her face. Redmayne mimics an inhumane mask effect with his expressions, and he hunches over for much of the show. As per the spirit of Wigman’s practice, his jagged performance embodies the extreme rupture between Weimar and Nazi culture.

Brecht, a contemporary of Berlin’s cabaret scene, devised epic theatre as a remedy for escapist theatre, which he perceived as socially irresponsible due to the way it “intoxicates” viewers and discourages critical thought. In Brecht’s plays, gestures were exaggerated, and costumes and makeup were bold and eye catching. His attitude to musical numbers was equally brutal: “They must be cold, plastic, unflinching and, like tough nutshells when they get caught in dentures, knock out a few of the listener’s teeth.” In drawing attention to their own artifice, Brecht’s techniques created defamiliarisation, keeping audiences distanced enough to remember they were watching a play. Although his theories remain controversial, the Brechtian influences detectable in Redmayne’s performance are contextually significant given Brecht’s experience in Nazi Germany.

Redmayne at the Tony Awards

Indeed, his performance is a hammer to the head compared to the flirtations of previous Emcees. Past productions lulled audiences with upbeat numbers and romantic subplots before sucker-punching them with the long-since-festering presence of Nazism. Ultimately, the theatrical spectacle that initially disguised this threat from the audience is revealed to be the very tool of fascist propaganda that the show is critiquing. Instead of confronting the audience with a mirror (a clear symbolic device, but maybe not the most effective in provoking legitimate reflection), this revival invites us to reevaluate our perception of entertainment by considering how we feel about its more controversial changes.

[bloodyshadow1]

so the percy jackson series was good, not just decent, but genuinely good. There are 5 criticisms that I have to make though to get them out of my system. Mostly small and 1 that will hopefully change as things move forward. Please dont take it seriously, the show has been great, but there are some things I need to get off of my chest as I watch it

I don't really like how the minotaur looked. just a preference I thought he looked too bulky and too much like a bull that happen to stand on 2 legs instead of a human bull hybrid. I was actually wondering for a while if they changed things and he was going to stay on 4 legs for the fight.

I dont' know if I like Percy having Riptide at the start. Personally Percy's first training session where he every normal sword doesn't feel right in his hands was one of my favorite scenes. I like how he does have a weakness where only certain weapons, (powered by the sea) feel right in his hands while others feel awkward to him. I don't know how they would do the scene in a show where you aren't having Percy's inner POV so I get it, I just feel sad that one of my favorite scenes is gone

Chiron sometimes just looked weird. Not the actor or anything, but the way they shot him sometimes. The scenes where he's walking with Percy, when they cut to him they show him from the waste up and without Percy by his side, like they cut back and forth between the two like the two actors were shot in different locations and they are trying to pretend they weren't without digitally editing them together. They also sometimes seemed to refuse to show Chiron's horse parts, I assume to save on CGI for it, but it looks awkward sometimes because the actor moves like he has a centaur body in some of the shots, but because they don't show the horse body the way he moves doesn't look human, like he looks very stilted and doesn't move his body like he's taking steps. Combine with the first part it doesn't even feel like Percy's talking to Chiron, the centaur, but Chiron, the 8 foot guy from a lower budget project.

I'm kind of mixed on the fight scene by the river in ep 2. It was well done, well choreographed but I don't think Percy ever steps foot in the water until Annabeth pushes him. The whole point of the scene was to show Percy gets a power boost when he's in the water, that he goes from a 12 year old to superman when he touches it. In the show, he just starts to get good, kind of like Jackie Chan mixed with the first Matrix Neo. I think it's to show him as a natural swordsman, but I liked that it wasn't just him, but the powerboost he gets due to being a son of Poseidon not just a prodigy. It is somewhat mitigated by him already having Riptide, a blade that fits perfectly in his hands instead of a basic camp sword that would already feel awkward in his hands, but still, I would have preferred it like it was in the books. Also Clarisse's scream at the end wasn't great either, should have done another take. Screams are hard though so whatever but still felt cringy. Also also, the whole strategy was to put Percy on boarder patrol near the river specifically so he would have the same advantage he had in the bathroom, not just him guarding a random road on the battlefield and stumbling into the river. The strategy still works because the main goal is to draw Clarisse away due to her grudge against Percy, but it would have showed off Annabeth's strategy chops to have multiple reasons

This one is gonna be controversial because the Actress playing Annabeth is already getting a stupid amount of hate, but I do think they sand down her edges and slightly girl power her up when it isn't necessary. Annabeth is one of my favorite characters in the series, tied with Percy for first, but I like her flaws and all. I like how she stood aside when Percy and Clarisse have their first clash, and got covered in toilet water too, I like how she has a dumb little girl crush on Luke who views her like a little sister and is embarrassed to the point of blushing when he addresses her, I like how she interrogates a barely conscious Percy about something he has no idea happened. I just feel like by reducing her screen time and letting Luke show Percy around it lessens who she is as a character and sands down her edges in attempting to making her a 'girl boss.' Which brings me to the other part of the issue, Annabeth is a super smart badass and talented action girl, you don't really need to say it if you're not going to show it. She doesn't need to be shilled, the character should just be allowed to be. That's why Luke's comment about her being the best warrior in camp kind of rubbed me the wrong way. The line could have been something about she's only 12 and one of the best warriors int he camp already and I think it would have amounted to the same thing and kept things more grounded. I don't mind her being hailed as one of the smartest or best strategists, but maybe it's just me being an adult, it's weird to say a 12 year old is the best warrior in the camp where they train child soldiers. That being said, she's only been in one of the two eps, she'll have plenty of time to show off her other skills. And again I want to be clear, it is not a flaw of the Actress, it's a flaw of the writing that I hope they course correct as a book reader

--> PS to point 5 Unfortunately, TLT doesn't have that many fight scenes compared to the later books and while Annabeth is the brains behind the quest, I'm not sure if she's going to get a chance to show off her fighting prowess unless they change the books so from a book readers perspective it just feels like a tell not shown line

-> PSS to point 5. Also another small nitpick, kind of feels blasphemous as a percabeth shipper, but I think the 'you drool in your sleep,' line wasn't delivered in the proper area. when Annabeth is being Percy's sleep paralysis demon, she interrogates him over what's happening on Olympus and the solstice, it felt weird to her just standing there just to say the line. I think she should have said the line at the toilets when Percy mentions seeing her in the infirmary and asks if she's stalking him. I think changing some things around makes it feel more real and less like a line they had to say, but that's just me

Other than that, sure there are moments that made me cringe, but I'm also an adult and the show is for kids, it's fine. I think the series is great and it's only been 2 episodes, there's plenty of time to find their groove. They change stuff sure, but eh, I'm okay with most of it and even happy in some cases. Even if I'm criticizing I'll only mention it in my posts if I think the books genuinely did a scene better.

[therealslimsanji]

something I'd like to point out about One Piece fans (mostly on Twitter) who think they are more righteous for only (in large amounts might i add, just gushing over their faves in the anime by reblogging gifs, posts, fanarts many times per day every day) reblogging content from the One Piece animanga & boycotting/no longer posting about the One Piece LA just cuz of Taz's """neutrality""" & choice of wording it as "conflict" instead of "genocide" (which conflict is classified under):

They 100% ignore how their "anime that supports absolute freedom + human rights & is anti-genocide, anti-colonialist, etc"... is a product of mostly overworked, underpaid animators under slave-like conditions ie the opposite of freedom, as discussed in this highly viewed video (easy to understand for non-anime people here) : https://youtu.be/BDEIPa9b3OU?feature=shared

I fully believe that even with Netflix being shit, the Live Action staff, script writers, set designers, camerapeople, scene choreographers, actors etc. are way better compensated for their passion & hard work than anime animators forced to take multiple projects just to barely afford their rent & meals while sleeping under 5 hours every day.

Toei animation inc is part of the problem where they obstruct the Toei animators' unionization attempts, & historically is part of the reason why Japanese animators trend to be basically underpaid, worked 20+- hours a day slaves under contract (cuz they followed the Tezuka model of one new episode every week for multiple anime even until it's unfeasible in more complicated-looking modern anime).

The recent anime studio that tried to do good (Kyoto Animation) by setting humane work conditions + donating to a shooting spree tragedy's victims... ran out of money & folded, while many studios that are formerly passion-driven got turned into hellish sweatshops former employees have been rallying against (eg Mappa, which currently produce many extremely popular ongoing anime like Jujutsu Kaisen & Chainsaw Man, which mamy Twitter users reblog too). Most studios keep their animators shut with NDAs & only the ones who get fired/kicked themselves out could speak out, with many studios having dirt.

Holy shit. I had no freaking clue it was that bad! I feel so sorry for those animators, especially the ones tryna support a family on trash pay.

But even with this knowledge you'll still have people that will argue "I'm not talking about what goes on bts, only the storyline and the character Taz plays blah blah blah!" Even though I've had multiple anons point out all the moral complexities that have come up in the anime/manga.

I ventured over to Twitter for a hot second just to see what was going on, and I actually saw a few more positive Taz posts as opposed to constant negative so that's a plus!

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S1E18: The Maze

Tubbs is sent undercover to save hostages in an abandoned hotel.

This is absolutely one of those Vice episodes where you are given two versions of the truth and are asked to be discerning enough to realize which one is real. Vice likes doing this a lot with music-- you see something happening on screen that's contradicted by lyrics or musical tone, and you have to figure out if what you're seeing is the lie or whether it's what you're hearing. In The Maze, we are presented with a spoken truth (some people aren't "good enough" to be cops, the world is hard and dangerous, a kid with a gun can't be thought of as a kid ever again) and a witnessed truth (a "bad cop" is suffers no consequences because he's a cop, people you think of as disposable or even frightening are worth protecting, a kid with a gun may be dangerous but that doesn't make him not a child) to striking, devastating effect. There's a distinct sense in this episode that our protagonists are playing proscribed black and white roles in a drama they're not quite ready to see shades of gray in yet-- later in the series their disenchantment with the justice system will come, but in this point in the series, they don't quite see what we, the audience see.

I started this one thinking "it's always weird seeing other cops outside of the main squad," and then one of them immediately died

Womp womp

The two "new" cops, Tim and Dickie, are talking about how they finally made some "real arrests," and how they usually can't get charges to stick because something-something-the-law, and that it's because of guys like them that the area they're in is starting to get "cleaned up"

Immediately Sonny and Rico correct them, very gently explaining the concept of community organizing, and pointing out that whatever "clean up" they've seen happen recently has nothing to do with the cops and everything to do with the people who live here deciding to stand up for themselves and invest in their neighborhoods

This is the thesis of the episode

From here on in it becomes a split between Tim's tough-on-crime view (what's said) and Sonny and Rico's maybe-heavier-policing-isn't-the-answer view (what's shown)

The dancing guy, Pepe, is played by a choreographer known by the real-world name of Shabba-Doo

Sonny pours water on him because Sonny is an asshole

There is a scene in which Switek offers Zito lunch while Zito tries to pick up a woman through the window of the bug van; both of them tell the other they're "pitching" and I. I have questions

Tim, the asshole cop whose partner got shot, suggests that the best way to catch the criminals that killed Dickie is to just go into a building full of squatters guns blazing, random innocents be damned

Sonny glares at him like he is a leopard and Tim is a plate of ground beef

They decide to, instead, send Tubbs undercover in to see if he can clear the squatters out and get them to safety before they go after the Escobars. In order to do this they dress Tubbs up as the world's most beautiful filthy transient. He looks like he should play Jesus in a modern version of Jesus Christ Superstar

It should be mentioned that the ~*scary dangerous building*~ the homeless people and the Escobars are in is a dilapidated hotel owned by a rich white guy who's on the phone about golf when we meet him, and it turns out the only thing really scary about it is that the people inside are living in terrible conditions because they are poor. In case, y'know, other parts of the episode weren't already clear enough on the whole "maybe the system is broken, actually" angle.

After Tubbs is in the hotel for approximately three and a half minutes, Tim charges across the street with his gun because it's "ridiculous" that this is "taking so long"

He completely ruins the operation and causes an immediate gunfight between the police and the Escobars to break out; Tubbs and the rest of the squatters are taken hostage as a result. Tim is not punished for this-- Castillo says that if he "didn't need every man," Tim would be sent home, but that's it.

Let's be very clear, this is a perfect example of why the whole "one bad apple ruins the whole bunch" thing is 100% true about the police

You get one Tim the Asshole on your squad and people fucking die

Actor Joe Morton, who I best know as Henry Deacon from Eureka, but who others may know better as the SkyNet Scientist from Terminator 2, plays hostage negotiator Jack Davis. He has a big ol' stick up his ass, but he's kind of hot anyway?

Sonny smokes like twelve cigarettes in the course of about 3 minutes, and then goes outside because he can't stand to look at Tim any longer. Castillo makes an attempt to comfort him in his extremely Castillo way (he's the one who says the Escobars, who are a bunch of teenagers, "stopped stopped being kids when they started using guns"), which does not seem to calm Sonny down much. He tells him the best thing he can do for Tubbs is "be cool," and then there's a lovely little match on Sonny's face and Rico's face, both looking off to the side, both looking worried.

The graffiti in this episode slays me

666 is COMIN

Why ME

Rico plays with the child hostages, and a teenage girl dances to the music playing inside her head. I genuinely feel like this is one of the saddest episodes of Vice-- we see the squalid conditions these people are forced to live in, they're humanized and made very real feeling, even if they don't have many lines, and you know that even if they all get out alive, nothing good is going to come of it, because they've been living illegally inside an unused building and the police will have to remove them, leaving them all completely homeless. There are multiple shots throughout the episode of the beach-- its crystal blue water, the sun, the pristine sand, palm trees-- through the broken windows of the collapsing hotel. The squatters are bereft in an ostensible paradise, completely disconnected from the glamorous world outside their crumbling walls.

Sonny suggests that they pinpoint the exact location of the hostages; Tim asks why they should bother when it was the hostages who "got them into this."

Yes Tim

Definitely not you, fuckwad

When Davis negotiates to let the small children hostages go, Jaime, one of the Escobars, argues with one of the older boys that "they're just kids," and that they should do as the police said and let them free. Jaime appears to be about fourteen.

Sonny insists he go in to find the hostages; Davis stands behind him shaking his head no at Castillo. Sonny goes in to find the hostages. He climbs over a fence and through a hole in the wall in his loafers and chinos.

When Sonny figures out where the hostages are located, they send in what appears to be the entire national guard of Florida. The Escobars, it should be noted, are five teenagers.

At the end of the episode, approximately twenty adult men with machine guns point their weapons at one teenage boy. He breaks down in tears and falls to the ground, because no matter what Castillo said, he is ultimately a frightened child.

The episode ends on a freeze frame of Sonny and Rico looking at each other, silent, with the darkening blue sky behind them.

[olympic-paris]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

September 5

1912 – John Cage (d.1992) was an American experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. He is most widely known for his 1952 composition 4'33". The score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece—four minutes, thirty-three seconds—and is meant to be perceived as consisting of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed.

Cage was an early composer of what he called 'chance music' — music where some elements are left to be decided by chance; he is also well known for his non-standard use of musical instruments and his pioneering exploration of electronic music. His works were sometimes controversial, but he is generally regarded as one of the most important composers of his era, especially in his raising questions about the definition of music.

Along with painters Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, John Cage and his life partner choreographer, Merce Cunningham became a part of a circle of young gay artists whose ideas challenged the macho, self-expressive Abstract Expressionists, who were to dominate the 1950s New York art scene. They developed an alternative creative process that has become the hallmark of post-modern art.

On August 11, 1992, while preparing evening tea for himself and Cunningham, Cage suffered another stroke. He was taken to the nearest hospital, where he died on the morning of August 12 The composer's death occurred only weeks before a celebration of his 80th birthday organized in Frankfurt by the composer Walter Zimmermann and the musicologist Stefan Schaedler was due to take place. However, the event went ahead as planned, including a performance of the Concert for Piano and Orchestra by David Tudor and Ensemble Modern. Merce Cunningham outlived his partner by 17 years, and died peacefully in his home, of natural causes, on July 26, 2009.

1943 – Jack Charles is an Australian Aboriginal actor, musician, potter, and Aboriginal elder. His screen credits include the landmark Australian film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), Bedevil (1993), Blackfellas (1993), Tom White (2004) and Pan (2015), among others.

Born to a Bunurong mother and Wiradjuri father at Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River, Charles was a victim of the Australian Government's forced assimilation programme which took him from his mother as an infant. He was long of the mistaken belief he was a Koori. He was raised in the Salvation Army Boys' Home at Box Hill, suburban Melbourne, where he was the only Indigenous child and where he was sexually abused.

Charles received a Christian education from the Salvation Army and continued to observe Christian values into his 70s when he told Geraldine Doogue,

"I've employed my Aboriginality as my religion now ... instead of God, I've found that the Godhead is within me ... I'm solely directed towards making an accommodation between Black and White."

In 1970, the director of the New Theatre Melbourne, Dot Thompson, cast Charles in Athol Fugard's The Blood Knot and this was followed by a non-Aboriginal role in Rod Milgate's A Refined Look at Existence.

Charles was involved in establishing Indigenous theatre in Australia. In 1971 he co-founded, with Bob Maza, Nindethana ('place for a corroboree') at The Pram Factory in Melbourne, Australia's first Indigenous theatre group. Their first hit play was called Jack Charles is Up and Fighting, in 1972, and included music composed by him.

In 1972, Charles auditioned for the role of the Australian Indigenous title character in the television show Boney but was declined because they were "looking for an actor with blue eyes". The job went to New Zealand-born James Laurenson who wore black face make-up for the role.

In 1974, Charles played Bennelong in the Old Tote Theatre production of Michael Boddy's Cradle of Hercules which was presented at the Sydney Opera House as part of its opening season. Also in the cast was a very young David Gulpilil.

Stage work includes Jack Davis' play No Sugar for the Black Swan Theatre Company in Perth.

Charles was the subject of Amiel Courtin-Wilson's 2008 documentary Bastardy which followed him for seven years. The film's tagline describes him as: "Addict. Homosexual. Cat burglar. Actor. Aboriginal." The film was in the official selection for Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney and Sheffield Doc/Fest film festivals.

In 2010, Ilbijerri Theatre staged Charles' one-man show called Jack Charles v The Crown at the Melbourne Festival. Charles was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play for this performance. Jack Charles v The Crown has since toured across Australia and internationally. In 2012, he performed in the Sydney Festival production I am Eora.

Charles played Chief Great Little Panther in Joe Wright's 2015 film Pan.

In 2016, Charles played the role of Uncle Paddy in two episodes of the television horror drama series Wolf Creek. Also in 2016, he played the role of Uncle Jimmy in the television drama series Cleverman.

Charles was for most of his adult life a petty thief and drug addict. He was sentenced to imprisonment 22 times and convicted twice as many times, mainly for burglary and drug offences. His first conviction was entered when he was 17 for the offence of leaving his foster home without the permission of his foster parents. In breach of a forced assimilation order, driven by curiosity about his race, he had been seeking out members of his tribe in Melbourne. He later commented, half-jokingly, that his cat burglary endeavours in luxury districts such as Kew, Melbourne, were rent-collecting missions on Aboriginal land.

1944 – Dario Bellezza (d.1996) was an Italian poet, author and playwright. He won the Viareggio, Gatto, and Montale prizes.

Dario Bellezza was born in Rome on 5 September 1944. After his studies at a liceo classico in his native city, from which he graduated in 1962, he worked for several Italian literary and poetry magazines: Paragone, Carte segrete, Bimestre, Periferia, and Il Policordo. He was known for various poetry collections and novels reflecting his homosexuality. He first came to prominence in the mid-1960s as a contributor to the periodical Nuovi argomenti, where he proved himself to be what a Times Literary Supplement critic called "a very young and very daring poet who unashamedly describes his homosexual exploits."

Bellezza entered the Roman intellectual world in the mid-1960s when, thanks to literary critic and writer Enzo Siciliano, he became increasingly close to Sandro Penna, Aldo Palazzeschi, Attilio Bertolucci, Alberto Moravia, and Elsa Morante, who eventually became a confidant.

The difficulty of homosexual life in Rome, particularly the requirements of secrecy and clandestinity of the love act, is a staple of Bellezza's poetic and prosaic writing. In Bellezza's first novel, L'innocenza (Innocence, 1971), Nino, the protagonist, consciously chooses the perdition and corruption of a living homosexual hell. In Bellezza's infernal world, homosexuality can be nothing else but prostitution and neurotically masochistic obsessions: in Lettere da Sodoma (Letters from Sodom, 1972), his conclusion is that everything is Hell and that the only salvation is the systematic refusal of the self.

He died of AIDS in Rome on 31 March 1996. That year, a poetry prize was established in his name.

1946 – Stephen Crohn (d.2013) was known as "the man who can't catch Aids" despite being a homosexual with a high-risk lifestyle in Los Angeles; as a result was able to make a huge contribution to scientific understanding of the disease.

In March 1982 Crohn’s partner, Jerry Green, with whom he ran a restaurant, became one of the first people to die of Aids, though the disease only acquired its name six months later. In the years that followed, Crohn lost, by his own estimation, more than 70 friends to the disease. Yet even though he had taken no special precautions and remained sexually active, every time he went to be tested the results were negative.

In the early 1990s his case came to the attention of Bill Paxton, a scientist at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York who had been looking for gay men who seemed resistant to infection. With a colleague, David Ho, Paxton exposed Crohn’s blood cells, and those of another volunteer, to HIV.

HIV causes infection by penetrating a type of white blood cell known as CD4, locking into two receptors on the outside of the cell. But the scientists found that the HIV, even at concentrations thousands of times higher than those that occur outside the laboratory, could not penetrate Crohn’s CD4 cells. The reason, they discovered, was that one of the cell receptors, known as CCR5, was genetically flawed, preventing HIV from getting through. The variation, which appears to have no other effect on health, positive or negative, is known as the “delta 32 mutation” and occurs in less than one per cent of the population.

The research into Crohn’s immune system led to the development of maraviroc, a drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor and is used to prevent infection spreading in patients who have contracted the virus. In 2006, an Aids patient in Germany was pronounced cured after receiving bone marrow transplants from a donor who had the mutation.

In later life he ran support groups for Aids patients and made sure that the lives of all his friends who had died of the disease were commemorated with a square on the huge Aids Memorial Quilt, which now consists of more than 48,000 hand-sewn panels.

But despite his contribution to scientific knowledge about Aids, according to his family Crohn suffered from an all-consuming sadness about friends who had died. On August 24 2013 he took his own life.

Crohn was the great-nephew of Burrill Crohn, a gastroenterologist who first described the inflammatory bowel disease that carries his name. Crohn himself felt that by helping scientists he was carrying on the family tradition.

1946 – For two decades, Freddie Mercury (d.1991) was the front man of one of the world's most popular rock groups, Queen. That he was able to maintain this status in spite of continued critical hostility, his flamboyant gender-bending androgyny, and questions about his sexuality is one of the more impressive accomplishments in the history of popular culture. He was also, arguably, the first Indian international rock star.

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in the British colony of Zanzibar, East Africa (now part of Tanzania) on September 5, 1946. His parents were Parsees and his father was employed in the British civil service. From the age of six, he attended boarding school near Bombay, India, and showed a considerable aptitude for art and music. It was here that he was first called "Freddie" by his classmates.

In 1964, the Bulsara family moved to England, where Freddie completed his education, graduating in 1969 from the Ealing College of Art with a diploma in art and design. Around this time he adopted the surname Mercury, naming himself after the messenger of the gods.

After college, he sold second-hand clothes in trendy flea-markets, where he met future bandmate Roger Taylor, and joined Ibex, a local London group, as a vocalist and keyboard player. In 1970, he formed a group with Taylor and Brian May (joined in 1971 by John Deacon) for which he chose the provocative name Queen.

Even in its earliest days the band was notable for its stage performances, replete with light shows, flamboyant costumes, theatrics, and loudness. The group's first album, Queen (1973), was greeted with critical hostility, as were its early live performances, a result, no doubt, of the implied queerness of its name and Mercury's effeminate, long-haired, heavily made-up stage persona. The group's breakthrough came the following year with the album Queen II, and the first big hit single, "Killer Queen," a tribute to a fabulous individual "just like Marie Antoinette" who may or may not have been female.

Within a year Queen was one of the most popular bands in the world and began a series of world tours that drew crowds often in the hundreds of thousands. From 1975 until 1983, Queen enjoyed a long string of successful best-selling recordings. These include "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the album A Night at the Opera (1975), "Somebody to Love" from A Day at the Races (1976), "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" from News of the World (1977), "Bicycle Races" and "Fat-Bottomed Girls" from Jazz (1978), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust" from The Game (1979), and "Under Pressure" (with David Bowie, 1981).

In 1980, Mercury underwent a drastic image change that demonstrated his talent as a gender shape-shifter. Gone was the flaming, campy, "queeny" persona, replaced by a macho one, mustachioed, muscular, short-haired, and attired in an undershirt and tight-fitting jeans (he had an impressive package). The new image was not without its own camp elements, which many fans took at face value.

Mercury nevertheless continued to confound gender assumptions, performing with the rest of the band in complete drag - and full moustache - in the video I Want to Break Free (1984).

During his lifetime, Mercury made no definitive statements about his private life or sexuality, leaving the interpretation of his public image up to the individual imagination; accordingly, many fans were shocked when events made some sort of revelation inevitable. In Queen's early years, Mercury lived with a woman, Mary Austin, with whom he subsequently maintained a significant friendship; in 1980, however, they separated, and he lived thereafter until his death with Jim Hutton, supposedly his gardener.

On November 23, 1991, Freddie Mercury released a statement confirming that he suffered from AIDS, as had long been rumored. He died the following day.

Jim Hutton, who himself was tested HIV-positive in 1990, lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life, nursed him during his illness and was present at his bedside when he died. Hutton claimed that Mercury died wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him. Hutton died from cancer on 1 January 2010.

Since Mercury's death, many tributes, including an AIDS benefit concert and a ballet choreographed by Maurice Béjart, have honored him. In 2001, he was posthumously inducted as a member of Queen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical drama film about Freddie Mercury. It follows the singer's life from the formation of the band up to their 1985 Live Aid performance at the original Wembley Stadium. It was directed by Bryan Singer from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten. It stars Rami Malek as Mercury, with Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Allen Leech, and Mike Myers in supporting roles. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor served as consultants.

Bohemian Rhapsody received numerous accolades, including a leading four awards at the 91st Academy Awards for Best Actor (Malek), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing; it was also nominated for Best Picture. The film also won Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, and was nominated for the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture and BAFTA Award for Best British Film, while Malek won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA for Best Actor.

1975 – (John Paul) J. P. Calderon is an American professional volleyball player, model and reality television participant. In 2006 he was a contestant on Survivor: Cook Islands, the 13th season of the CBS reality show.The following year he became a regular member of the The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. As part of his experience he was the February 2007 cover guy of Instinct magazine. He did so again in 2008, becoming the first man to be featured on their cover twice.

He attended California State University, Long Beach, where he played for the school's nationally ranked men's volleyball team. His family is into soccer so it was a point of stress from his father that he played volleyball instead, until he started winning volleyball awards. From a young age he wanted to be a model but got negative feedback from his dad, so he stuck to sports instead. His dad was won over when Calderon modeling career took off.

Calderon was offered a pro volleyball opportunity in 1998 in Barcelona, Spain but decided instead to finish his degree. He was offered the assistant coach position for the Long Beach State University women's volleyball team. He did so for five years, first as a volunteer for three years, then paid for two more years. He credits the time as learning the differences between men's and women's volleyball styles. At the same time he got a local club coaching position at Mizuno Long Beach Volleyball Club, and began coaching for Junior Olympics. He began his professional volleyball career in 2004 and became a nationally ranked Association of Volleyball Professionals player.

He credits his time on Survivor: Cook Islands (2006) with opening his eyes than he controlled his choices and had options.

In 2007, Calderon began his modeling career when he joined the cast of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. Stating that he had for a long time wished to model, Calderon came to an open casting call held in the first episode of Season 2. He said the process, and Dickinson, were fun, but they did have the models drop their modesty, and be naked, and in their underwear constantly. He was called back in episode 2 and eventually signed to the agency.

The third episode saw Calderon being approached to appear on the cover of Instinct magazine, a publication that requires that its male cover models be openly gay. Although he had been "in and around gay people and nightlife", he had not publicly talked about his sexuality to the media. He knew he was gay since high school, and even worked as a bartender in a gay bar. There were rumors that he was gay but he avoided addressing them, as well as invitations to interview with gay publications like Instinct.

Calderon came out as gay on his appearance in the February 2007 issue, their swimsuit edition, which included the cover, a photo spread, feature story and interview. He said he wasn't pressured into the decision and was supported by Dickinson. "All of my fears, everything that I was scared of… it was the complete the opposite," he said. "It's been great. All of my friends, the volleyball world, absolutely everybody has been supportive. No one has shut me out."

Dickinson, in particular, has been very supportive, and told him that her role models for being tough, driven and ambitious, were all gay men. He credits his coming out as helping him reprioritize his life. In 2009, he was also a cover model for the popular French gay magazine Têtu.

In 2012 Calderon modelled for the NOH8 Campaign created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska, to oppose California Proposition 8 which attempted to change California's constitution to forbid same-sex marriage. Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional in 2010, and confirmed in June 2013 following the conclusion of appeals in Hollingsworth v. Perry at the U.S. Supreme Court.

In October 2013 he became engaged to his longtime boyfriend Julz Heaney, in Hawaii. They have been together since 2007.

1987 – The Homomonument, dedicated on September 5, 1987, this gay monument is located in down-town Amsterdam, near Westerkerk and the Anne Frank Huis. This monument is a symbol against denial, suppression and discrimination. The monument also commemorates those who were victims of persecution because of their sexual orientation.

The planners also wanted to make sure that the monument didn't just honor those whom the Nazis killed, but gay and lesbian men and women who have suffered throughout the centuries and who continue to suffer today. Discrimination and oppression of the LGBT community is hardly a recent phenomenon and people still suffer greatly around the world for no reason other than being born the way they were born. The Homomonument recognizes and honors this.

As it is meant to honor both men and women, the designers were adamant that the monument wouldn't be tucked away in some dark alley, the location of which known only by those with a keen interest. It was always the intention of developers to place the monument in a central spot in Amsterdam, and the Westermakt is indeed the perfect location.

The monument was designed by Karin Daan and consists of three 10 x 10x 10 meters of triangles forming a large imaginary triangle 36 x 36 x 36 meters. A triangle is located on the Prinsengracht and it is often normal to put flowers close to it. At street level there is a triangle of granite with the text "Naar een vriendschap zulkir mateloos verlangen" ("a desire as limitless as friendship), a quote by gay poet Jacob Israel de Haan ,born in Amsterdam, who was killed in WWII. The third triangle is located near Westerkerk and is often used as a stage. The triangle was chosen because homosexuals had to wear this symbol in pink for the concentration camps. Since the seventies the triangle is often used by people proud of being gay at Gay Pride Parade.

1991 – On this date a group of ACT UP AIDS activists called "Treatment Activist Guerrillas" (TAG) accomplished one of the funniest and most outrageous bits of public activism when they literally put an enormous condom over the home of homophobe and antii-AIDS research and education Senator Jesse Helms in Arlington, Virginia. The activists knew they only had 7 minutes before the police showed up.

[mikefaistinfo]

Interview: Mike Faist Isn’t Sure About This Whole Acting Thing

“I can’t tell if I hate acting or if I love it too much,” he said ahead of the debut of the Amazon series “Panic.” Coming soon, a major role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” For now, he’s going to Ohio.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli Published May 27, 2021

Tall and lanky, looking as if he were born wearing Wranglers, Mike Faist cuts quite a striking figure in the Amazon Prime series “Panic”: His character, Dodge Mason, is a Stetson-wearing rodeo dude who breaks untamed horses, then soulfully gazes into their eyes.

That, however, is not at all how the character was written in the Lauren Oliver young adult novel that inspired the show, debuting Friday, in which Dodge and a dozen other small-town teenagers face off in a series of life-threatening challenges — think a naturalistic “Hunger Games” with more class war.

After shooting a pilot in 2018 in upstate New York (where the book is set), the production completely rebooted in Austin, Tex., a year later, and Dodge’s back story was changed to better fit the new locale. Suddenly, the school wimp who was interested in cards and magic had been turned into a Western archetype: the strong, do-right loner who doesn’t say much. Faist went with the flow.

“Ciphers can be really boring,” said Oliver, who also wrote the screenplay, “but he manages to capture the power inherent in a certain level of invisibility.”

Dodge is quite a departure for Faist, who is best known for his Tony-nominated performance as the tormented, cynical Connor Murphy in the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” Blessed with a rangy charisma and a bone structure that appears to have been carved with a scythe, the actor, now 29, could have easily coasted in “Panic.” But his sensibility is closer to that of such atypical leading men as Adam Driver, and he modernizes a potentially boilerplate part.

“Mike really didn’t want to be a caricature, but I don’t think he ever could be,” said Jessica Sula, who plays Natalie, Dodge’s love interest in “Panic.” She recalled that when shooting resumed in Texas after a Covid-19-imposed pause, Faist chose to live in a trailer on a plot of land with his rescue dog, Austin.

“He’s just so fabulously ridiculous and wonderful,” she said of Faist, laughing fondly.

Faist’s own course has been ascendant since he dropped out of acting school at 18, and his plum role in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated “West Side Story” as Riff, the leader of the Jets, should put him on Hollywood’s speed dial when it debuts in December. (Shooting wrapped in September 2019.)

And yet the actor spent much of a recent conversation candidly admitting to ambivalence and incertitude. He spent some of the past year driving around the country with Austin and writing a screenplay. He has been turning down offers and is now selling his Brooklyn apartment and heading back to Ohio.

Faist was warm and laid back on a recent sunny morning in Park Slope, and he laughed a lot in what seemed to be protective self-deprecation as he pondered his future, professional and otherwise. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How did they spring the new Dodge on you?

It was still the same elements in terms of, “Oh, here’s the new guy,” but instead of, like, a weird magician, he’s now a … cowboy? I was like, “What do you mean, I’m now a cowboy?” They were like: “Yeah, yeah, you’ll be fine. Maybe try an accent.”

You do look pretty comfortable playing a horse whisperer.

I’d never worked with a horse in a production before. There were two of them: a very calm, gentle horse and a skittish one. We just ended up working with this skittish horse because it was actually doing stuff. The scene where the horse moves toward me was not planned or choreographed at all. They are, you know, unpredictable.

It might have been less intimidating than a sex scene. Is the one with Jessica Sula your first as an actor?

Maybe. I don’t know.

Wouldn’t you remember?

You’d think! I did do a romantic scene [onstage] in “A Month in the Country” with Taylor Schilling. I remember getting a pretty [expletive] review. [Laughs.]

Since the fall of 2018, you’ve gone back and forth between “Panic” and “West Side Story.” How did you handle these very physical projects?

For “West Side,” I found these Bruce Davidson photos of Brooklyn gangs from the late ’50s. If you look at their photos, these guys are emaciated, they have tattoos, and they look wired. Any money they had, they would pool and buy cheap wine and maybe they would have French fries or something. Then they were doing drugs. So I was like, “I need to lose some weight.” But my body was totally breaking down. Then I tried to bulk up as much as possible for “Panic” — just eating potatoes.

Did you do any kind of special training?

I started going to the Mendez boxing gym in Manhattan for “West Side.” I was working with John Rosado, who was raised in New York, Puerto Rican, badass. He was like, “I can’t believe I’m training a Jet!”

Your first big job was in the Broadway musical “Newsies,” which is quite dance heavy. Still, was it daunting to audition for “West Side Story”?

I put together a tape, and then they said, “We want you to come back in and dance.” I was like, “Is there any way you could not have me dance?” They were like: “What are you talking about? This is ‘West Side Story’!” The only saving grace is that Justin Peck [the choreographer] and I have similar body types: tall, nothing but arms and legs. They had their work cut out for them in order to get me up to snuff.

Why aren’t you in the upcoming “Dear Evan Hansen” movie alongside your former co-star Ben Platt?

I feel like I couldn’t do it. I started that when I was, like, 21, and was with it for five or six years. When you’re doing eight shows a week, it very much turns into relying on your technique and the job of it. And the show was such a zeitgeisty thing. It really took a lot out of me, and I didn’t really have it in me anymore.

With “Panic” and “West Side Story” behind you, what are you lining up?

Maybe this is so pretentious, but “West Side” was everything I had ever hoped to accomplish as an actor. It’s really crazy, but it was transcendental: either I didn’t feel like I was myself, or I was the most authentic version of myself. I can’t really tell which one. Having gone from having no money, wanting to just be a working actor — I don’t want to just be a working actor anymore. I had that experience. It [expletive] me up.

What did?

“West Side,” in the best of ways. I can’t unsee what I’ve seen. The pandemic nearly killed us and — what, I just want to be an actor? That’s ridiculous. [Laughs.] I don’t care enough. It’s a weird thing: I can’t tell if I hate acting or if I love it too much. It’s not like I don’t plan on doing it. I just don’t want to follow the trajectory of what the industry wants me to do.

Which is what?

Put on a cape and wear a mask. I need to take more agency because no one’s going to do it for me. It’s tricky, but it’s interesting and pretty exciting. I’m going to hang out with my family in Ohio and then start to figure out where I’m going to go. I would like to ultimately be of service and of use; that’s when I feel at my best.

You can find here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/arts/television/mike-faist-panic-west-side-story.html

[yourlocalsmutwriter]

Don’t bite your tongue, it’s just a word game ‐ Rena x reader

It was time for the class mission and your team wasn’t doing too well. Redlic’s choreography was rejected in favour for Latrice’s and your own rookie group was a bit tense. But there were more obstacles in the way. Buckey entered the hideout, sighing.

‘’Rena barely has me in the video, you can’t see me. I tried to talk to her, everyone’s been kissing up to her. But even though I try I can’t seem to convince her.’’ With that she turns to you, batting her eyes.

‘’Can you try to help.’’. Since you had an interest in Japanese culture from a young age, you had picked up the language. You even had enrolled in a language school to learn it better. Unbeknownst to the people around you, it was called ‘’The lesbian school’’ and you kinda helped with that reputation. Bring together a bunch of teenage girls with the same interests, nerdy looks and too much love for GL manga and Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami and well. To be fair, it reminded you a bit of this competition. And now it was time to use your Japanese skills to win over a woman again, with less of your sapphic energy, sadly.

You knocking on the door of the Tsubakill hideout was not unusual. You had been bonding with their team since the begging of the competition. Asking about the dance scene in Japan, teaching them more about Korea. You had also been the one to translate the lyrics for the song Rena was choreographing. At the words beckoning you inside you opened the door and were surprised . Rena was alone.Before you could ask, she started explaining herself :

‘’Everyone’s either practicing or resting. But why are you here. Let me guess, Buckey sent you.’’

‘’Yes, but if you could just give her a chance, she can preform well in a more central spot.’’

‘’I’m not doubting your teammate’s skills. But this is a competition, Manequeen should have just preformed better.’’

‘’So this is about strategy. I’ve been nothing but helpful to you. And I can continue to be. Voting the way you want. Teaching you new moves, extra practice. Of course you know I’m a cunning linguist. ‘’ The thing is you didn’t mean to say the last word like that. It was a direct innuendo, a freudian slip on your part. It had been a running joke at your school to make certain Japanese words as gay as possible. And this one stuck, apparently.

“Rena, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. It’s a stupid pun I just happened to memorise.”

Instead of saying anything about your fuckup, she just told you.

“I’ll think about it. And while I do, let’s play Shiritori. It always clears my head. ”

You thought that it seemed strange, but you weren’t about to argue with the woman you needed help from. You motioned for her to start.

とうみ she said

もん you continued

こ she replied

いる you fired back, hoping to trip her up. There were no stakes in the game, anyway so there was no point in being competitive. Still, you were curious about what she would say.

むんこ was her response. Your eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Rena just said pussy. She could’ve played friend, cup or even anger. But she chose that word. Before you could comment any further, she bursts out laughing.

“You should see your face, you’re so red. Did I surprise you?"

“Did you even want to play Shiritori?”

“No. I suck so much at that game. I’m amazed I lasted long enough to pull it off.” With that you both started laughing again.

“You know, I’m surprised that we are getting along so well. You know, with everything being so intense, I didn’t think you were the affectionate type.”

“Not affectionate, huh. How’s this for not being affectionate?” You lean into her and pressed your forehead against hers. You look at her lips for permission and she responds by kissing you. One kiss turns into two and then a full blown make out session on the couch. Apparently your attraction wasn’t as one sided as you thought. And also being cooped up with a lot of beautiful women for weeks had a similar effect on everyone. You wondered if Rena also took longer showers, so she could get off. But you quickly thought of something else, not wanting to go too far, despite how wet you already were.

But soon enough Rena was on top of you, kissing your neck and your hands were under her shirt. In the mess of limbs your knee lightly brushed against her pussy. She moaned and then covered her mouth.

“Should we test if you are a cunning linguist?” She said. You moved from under her and kneeled on the floor. You pulled her body close to yours, removing her panties. Thank god for skirts, am I right. You began kissing her inner thigh and moved slowly to where she wanted you. You lapped at her clit, moving your tongue up. Her hands pulled on your hair, making you both moan. You say. “Need to taste you, Rena.”. But before you do, she pulls you up and gives you a passionate kiss. You decide to tease her again, kissing her breasts, sucking on her nipples. As much as you wanted to take your time and please her, you remembered that her crew could be back any time now. So you set out to make her cum before her team comes.

You teasingly flick your tongue on her clit before slowly licking her, fucking her with your tongue. You slip a finger into her while you mouth is on her clit, and added a second finger when she asked for more. You curl two fingers inside her and move them up, while sucking on her clit and look up to watch her cum. She looks so pretty, her face red and her hand over her mouth.

And that’s how you go far in Street Woman Fighter 2.