#it's sunny during pandemic

[em-allay]

Sunny: are you poor?

Fit: No I was a Minecraft YouTuber during the pandemic

[raina-at]

Secret

Bakers, again, and a very direct sequel to this ficlet from last year. It doesn't stand alone quite as well, but keep in mind that in this universe, John was working in an inner-city A+E during the worst of the pandemic, and I think the rest is self-explanatory. (It's also maybe a bit of hubris to explain the premise of this ficlet with a reference to another ficlet, and not the original story, but I'm sort of assuming if you know me it's probably for these two dorks, so here we are ;-))

-------------------

One of the things Sherlock loves most about John is that he’s the least sneaky person Sherlock knows. Every time John tries to keep a secret from Sherlock, he’s so transparent about it he might as well be wearing a neon sign. 

The thing is, the absolute foundation of their relationship is trust. When Sherlock asked John for more, John took a gigantic leap of faith for Sherlock. John trusted Sherlock not to break his heart, and he trusted Sherlock to stay clean.

In return, Sherlock trusts John unconditionally. He can’t imagine John hurting him. It just wouldn’t happen. He trusted John every time he came home late from the hospital, and he trusted him every time he lost his temper and went out for a walk to cool off. He knows, for a stone cold fact, that John would never hurt him, never betray him. The one time Mycroft offered to have John surveilled, Sherlock laughed in his face and told his brother to grow the fuck up. Mycroft was noticeably taken aback by this, and asked how Sherlock could be so sure. 

Sherlock still remembers this day, because he finally realised that in this one area of life, he knows so much more than his formerly all-knowing big brother. He looked long and hard at Mycroft and said, “That’s what trust is.”

Mycroft never mentioned the subject again. 

So. Sherlock trusts John absolutely. That’s why Sherlock never tries to find out what secrets John is keeping, because they mostly turn out to be surprises for Sherlock. And Sherlock might be a certified arsehole—at least if you believe his YouTube comment section—but he’s not going to ruin the joy John takes in surprising him by calling him on the bad sneaking around. 

All that having been said, this time, Sherlock is a tiny bit worried. Mostly because John seems to be. John is being incredibly obvious again, clicking away tabs and hiding things under pillows when Sherlock enters the room, having quiet phone conversations he takes to other rooms, even skiving off work one day, to apparently—judging from the dirt on his shoes and the rain on his jacket— traipsing around the countryside somewhere. Normally all this sneaking around would be accompanied by sly grins and sparkling eyes, but this time, he catches John looking at him worriedly. John’s also having trouble sleeping, and when he’s very tired he rubs his hand over the leg that bothers him every time he’s stressed.

Conclusion: Whatever John is doing, he’s worried about Sherlock’s reaction when he finds out. 

Sherlock debates whether he should say something, but in the end he decides against it. Whatever John is up to, he’s apparently working his way up to telling Sherlock, and Sherlock will just have to be patient.

Not his best discipline, it has to be said. But since he can’t imagine anything he wouldn’t do for John if asked, and he can’t imagine John asking something of him he wouldn’t be willing to give, he says nothing, and waits.

Thankfully, John doesn’t keep him waiting for long.

It’s about a month after the whole sneaky business started. It’s Saturday and sunny outside when John asks, trying and failing to be casual, “Any plans for the day?”

Sherlock looks up from the accounts spreadsheets he was pretending to peruse and gives John a look over the rim of the glasses he reluctantly wears now. “Are you finally ready?” he asks, knowing John will understand.

John rubs a hand over his thigh, a classic nervous tell. “I think so. Yes.”

“Show me,” Sherlock says. “Show me now.”

*-*

The house is beautiful. 

Sherlock stands outside in the generous garden and breathes in the smell of green and rain and the ocean.

The house is a quaint brick cottage, with a generous sitting room and library downstairs, and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. It’s situated a five minutes’ walk from the train station. Trains go to London every half hour, transit takes forty-five minutes to Waterloo. The village is small but thriving. The sea is an easy five-minute walk away.

It’s idyllic. Peaceful.

And it has a tiny, dark, pokey kitchen. The oven is small and barely usable. There’s no room for his equipment, for his ingredients. 

“Hey,” John’s arms come around him from behind. 

Sherlock leans back into him and says nothing. He doesn’t want to disappoint John, but he can’t live here.

“Want to see the barn?” John asks, and there’s a great deal of amusement in his voice.

Before Sherlock can answer, John takes his hand and drags him to the barn. He opens the door and presents the inside to Sherlock with a knowing grin. 

Sherlock gapes as he steps inside. The entire barn has been transformed into a professional kitchen. Ovens, walk-in fridge, gleaming work surfaces. Large windows let in a lot of natural light. Wooden countertops, lovely light fittings. 

“The house belongs to the owner of the local bakery,” John says from behind him, watching with a fond smile as Sherlock runs his fingers over the gleaming surfaces, the shelves, the ovens. “She used the barn as a kitchen, since the bakery is so small. It’s pretty much just a storefront. If you want to, we can look at it later. It’s also for sale.”

Sherlock looks up from inspecting the oven. “Is it now.”

John swallows, looking nervous again. “Mike runs a primary care centre in Brighton. They have an opening. I could commute from London, of course, no problem, but I thought, maybe…” he trails off.

Sherlock looks around the kitchen. A purchase of this size would mean selling 221B as well as the bakery. He bought out Amit’s daughters when he died, so the property is his to do with as he pleases. It’s doable. Easily. It’s also a huge step he’s not in the least considered before.

But then his brain fully catches up to the implications of what John is saying. “You’re quitting,” he whispers. “You’re quitting the hospital.”

John looks down, a bit embarrassed, and shrugs. “Seemed like the thing to do.” He looks up at Sherlock again, who’s staring at him in shock. “You said I could do what I wanted, remember? Well, this is what I want. If you want it too, that is. I know it’s a lot to ask. Not trying to force you into—”

“Shut the fuck up right this second,” Sherlock breathes, then walks over and pulls John into a searing kiss. “Do you know,” Sherlock mutters between increasingly frantic kisses, “what I would do to get you out of that fucking hospital?”

John lets himself be kissed for a few moments, then draws back. “But your bakery—”

“I’m the bakery. I can bake anywhere. You know that the channel makes more money than the bakery does, anyway. I could close up today and be financially better off.”

“But you love it,” John whispers, running his thumb tenderly over Sherlock’s cheekbone. “This isn’t an either or, you know. I’m quitting either way. We can stay in London and I can commute.”

“And run yourself into the ground like you’ve done the last three years?” Sherlock shakes his head.  “I don’t think so.”

“It’s a lot to ask,” John says quietly. 

“Listen to me,” Sherlock says, taking John’s face in his hands to ensure John is looking at him. He needs to make John see that this is the very definition of a no-brainer, and in fact one of the easiest decisions of Sherlock's life. “I love the bakery. And I love London, and 221B, but I love you so much more, it’s not even remotely a fair comparison. You’ve always supported me. I think now it’s my turn.  Will you let me do this for you? Please?”

“Well,” John says softly, giving him a small smile. “If you insist.”

“I do,” Sherlock says, kissing John’s forehead gently. “Also, you found me a house with the most beautiful kitchen in the world, and if you think for one second that you’re getting out of this now, then you’re certifiably insane.”

John laughs and sags into Sherlock, obviously relieved. “I haven’t even gotten around to showing you the beehives,” he murmurs into Sherlock’s shirt.

Sherlock smiles into John’s hair. “When do we move in?”

-------

Tags under the cut as always, please let me know if you want to be tagged or untagged. Also, I hope it's not bothering anyone that I'm doing so many ficlets where you kind of need prior knowledge of some of my work. I'm always trying to make them as stand-alone-y as possible.

@dapetty @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @jrow @peanitbear @jolieblack @meetinginsamarra @helloliriels @keirgreeneyes @lisbeth-kk @friday411 @givemesherbet-blog-blog @salmonsown @weeesi @thalialunacy @thegildedbee

[doeeyeseddie]

"Road trips" for soft prompts if you feel inspired

👉👈😊

road trip fics are my kryptonite so it was difficult to keep this short skhdk thank you!!

[read on ao3]

Buck shows up at Eddie’s place unannounced early on the second morning since Christopher has left for camp.

At least half the time when he comes over it’s without specific plans, but this morning, it’s clear that Buck does have specific plans, he just didn’t tell Eddie about them.

Eddie is sitting aimlessly at the kitchen table, trying to convince himself to at least put away his dishes from breakfast, when Buck bursts in and (Eddie is aware of how cliched that is) immediately brightens up his so far very gray morning.

“Eddie,” he calls instead of a hello, and he hears him kicking off his shoes by the door, “it’s me! Are you dressed?”

Eddie snorts. “You think I have a habit of walking around naked when I’m home alone?”

Buck’s face is pink when he rounds the corner to the kitchen. “No, uh, I’m– I meant dressed to leave the house.”

Eddie looks down at the ratty old gym shorts he slept in. “Uh. No, why?”

“Well, then go get dressed,” Buck orders him instead of answering the question. He waves at the dishes and adds, “I’ve got this.”

“Get dressed for what?” Eddie asks

“Just put on something comfortable that you’re okay with being seen in in public.” Buck starts gathering Eddie’s dirty dishes, completely ignoring Eddie’s confusion. “I’m not answering any questions until we’re in the car.”

Ten minutes later, Eddie is dressed and ready, and Buck’s waiting in the living room for him, Eddie’s duffle bag on the couch next to him.

“When did you pack that?” he asks, and Buck gives him a sunny smile and a shrug.

“The other day.”

“Where are we going? For how long? And what about work? How long have you been planning this?”

“I knew you’d just sit around and mope while Chris is away,” Buck says, getting up and grabbing Eddie’s duffle. “Come on, I’ll tell you the rest in the car.”

It turns out that Buck has planned a whole road trip for them.

“Just a few days,” he says. “I talked to Bobby, and we both have plenty of PTO, so I figured, why not distract ourselves a little bit while Christopher is at camp?” He glances at Eddie for a moment before focusing back on the road. “We’re going hiking for a few days, one state park after another. And then we’re in San Diego for two nights, just to relax. Or at least I hope it’ll be relaxing – I got us this really nice hotel with a wellness center, but we’re gonna have to share a room.”

“That’s fine,” Eddie says, and desperately hopes it’s true. They shared Buck’s bed for weeks during the pandemic, but that was before Eddie realized that he’s very, very attracted to his best friend. “We’ve shared plenty of times.”

“Yeah, but after four nights of sharing a motel room with me, you might want your own space back.”

Eddie kind of wants to tell him he never wants space from him, but he catches himself just in time.

There are a lot of close calls like that over the next few days: thoughtless words that come too close to a confession, sleepily cuddling closer in a motel room that accidentally didn’t book them into a twin room, staring at Buck for too long when he takes his shirt off while hiking. Buck does almost all of the driving and Eddie spends too much time watching him rather than the landscape flashing by, the long stretches of road not nearly as fascinating as Buck’s face while he talks, his one-handed gestures, his smile, the way he sometimes laughs with his whole body.

“Hey, did I tell you I wanted to take you to Channel Islands National Park?” Buck asks on an especially empty road somewhere between the desert and San Diego. “It’s super inaccessible so I figured it wasn’t something we could do with Christopher anyway, but you can only get there by boat and everything’s limited so they say you should start planning like six months ahead of time. I’ve had this planned for a while, but not for that long.”

“No, you didn’t tell me,” Eddie says, and it comes out sounding just as weak as he feels.

“Oh yeah, you probably know it – they’re these islands off Santa Barbara where you’re not even allowed to bike, you have to do everything on foot. But we could’ve hiked there and camped, and then gotten a nice hotel in Santa Barbara if we wanted. They’re beautiful, apparently, but I wouldn’t want Chris to feel left out.”

“No,” Eddie agrees, something that feels a bit like laughter rising up in his chest. He can’t believe Buck is real sometimes, that there’s someone with all that love in his heart, and that he gives it to Eddie and his son so freely. “It sounds great, though.”

“Yeah, so maybe we can go next year when he’s at camp. Do you think he’ll be less mad if he’s doing something cool at the same time?”

“I don’t think he’ll be mad at us at all,” Eddie says. “If there’s nothing to do but hike–”

“There’s whale watching too, and all sorts of other animals,” Buck interrupts. “I think I could make it cool for him, too, if only there was a way for him to get around comfortably.”

“I’m sure you could.” Eddie’s mouth is dry, and he wipes his sweaty palms on the shorts he’s wearing. “Pull over.”

Buck glances at him, confused. “What?”

Eddie takes a breath. “Just– when you can do it safely, please pull over.”

Buck gives him a look that’s equal parts confused and worried. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Eddie says, even though his heart feels like it’s trying to beat right out of his chest.

“Okay.” Buck sounds like he doesn’t fully believe him, but he doesn’t ask again until he’s pulled over at a tiny rest stop that’s nothing but a parking spot and a trash can a minute later. “What’s going on?”

“Sorry, I didn’t– I didn’t mean to make you worry,” Eddie starts. He wipes his hands again. “I just– I didn’t want to say this while you were driving, but I also can’t not say it any longer–”

“Say what?” Buck asks when Eddie pauses to take a deep breath.

“Oh, god,” Eddie mutters, and then turns to face Buck, makes himself look him in the eye. “I love you. I have for a long time, and it’s been getting harder and harder not to tell you, so. I guess I’m telling you.”

Buck’s eyes widen, and he starts trying to unclip his seatbelt. The worry and confusion melt from his face and turn into something that Eddie very much hopes is happiness, and then asks, “Wait, just to be sure, you mean–?”

“I’m in love with you,” Eddie clarifies, Buck’s seatbelt finally clicks open, and he launches himself across the middle console to grab Eddie’s face with both hands.

“I’m in love with you too,” he says, and then his mouth is on Eddie’s and he doesn’t think about anything else for a few minutes.

Buck exhales a breathless laugh against his lips and pulls back just enough to talk but leaning his forehead against Eddie’s instead. “God, Eddie, what the fuck? When you said to pull over I thought– I don’t know what I thought, but it wasn’t this.”

“Sorry,” Eddie says, nudging Buck’s nose with his own. “It’s just– you love us so much, and I love you so much and I just couldn’t wait a minute longer to tell you.”

“Well, now I’m kind of glad you asked me to pull over first.” He leans in for one way too short kiss. “I would’ve crashed the car.”

“Safety first,” Eddie says, but he’s not really focused on talking anymore.

“This is good timing,” Buck keeps talking, and he only grins at the noise of protest Eddie makes when he leans back to look at him. “First of all, this way I can take you on a date in a city rather than in some remote mountain place.”

“Sounds good,” Eddie says, and he’s distracted by Buck’s immensely kissable mouth, but he still wants to know, “And secondly?”

Buck grins wider and tugs Eddie closer with a gentle hand on the back of his neck. “The fancy hotel in San Diego didn’t have any twin rooms.”

[mikaikaika]

Sunny : Fit are you poor ?

Fit : Nah I was a minecraft youtuber during the pandemic I am not poor :D

[mikeywayarchive]

Photo: Jawn Rocha

Mikey Way debuts his Dark Horse Comics series, Christmas 365

Anna Zanes | July 24, 2024

Full article under the cut:

It might still be sunny out, but Mikey Way is stuck on Christmas. Alongside co-writer Jonathan Rivera and illustrator Piotr Kowalski, with Brad Simpson on colors, the My Chem guitarist-cum-graphic novelist (Electric Century, Collapser) has announced Christmas 365, an upcoming series with Dark Horse Comics, also home to Gerard Way’s Paranoid Gardens and The Umbrella Academy. This oddly feel-good story, bizarre and magical as it is loaded with gallows humor, follows the arc of Peter Rockwell and his family as they navigate the treacherous holiday season, aided by some words of wisdom from a strip mall Santa. Way describes the surreal satire astutely: “Like most kids growing up, I would often fantasize, ‘What if [Christmas] never had to end?’ That very thought was what sparked this story.” Though it's got the spirit of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the kooky suburban charm of Better Off Dead — this team has created a series that’s fresh, surprising, a bit spooky, and entirely their own. 

In speaking to their process, AP connected with co-writers Way and Rivera. “Finally being able to tell this story is a real dream come true! The idea came about a decade ago, and there were plenty of starts and stops in the process,” Way shares. “Putting it in comic form felt like the perfect way to tell the story exactly how we envisioned it after so many years of wanting to share it with the world. Let's be honest, I don't think there's a kid alive who hasn't wished Christmas would never end. Haven't we all fantasized about it being something we got to live day after day?” He continues, “I saw this as an opportunity to tell a funny but heartfelt story, in the vein of all of the classic ’80s and ’90s Christmas movies that I loved so much. I remember watching Home Alone and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation back to back one night and wondering, ‘What story is left to tell?’ An hour or two later, the framework for Christmas 365 was born.”

The connection between co-writers has been an ongoing one, though this project sees it come to fruition. “It's been really fulfilling getting to finally write a story with Jonathan Rivera, who is one of my best friends — I think we've known each other over 20 years now,” Way says. As for the rest of the highly experienced team, “Piotr Kowalski and Brad Simpson brought the story to life exactly as we imagined, giving it the feel and imagery of a ’90s Christmas movie through and through. Daniel Chabon has been a terrific editor to work with and really helped us keep the story focused. I am sure this goes without saying, but it has been a real honor to be able to put out a comic under the Dark Horse banner. The folks over there have always been super kind and supportive to me, and have a rich history with my brother. So to be joining the ‘family’ with my own story to tell is pretty surreal!” 

Rivera, also known for Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, adds, “Mikey and I had been talking about this story for a while, but it really started to come together as a comic during the pandemic. We’re living in stressful times, so it felt so cathartic to work on such a sweet and strange story about forgiveness and spending time with the people we love. It’s also the type of story we rarely see in comics, and that made me really excited as well.” 

For the writer, a goal has been achieved with this project. Dark Horse has long been a northern star in the industry for Rivera, who caps the chat off with, “I’ve been a fan of Dark Horse comics since I picked up their first Aliens vs. Predator miniseries as a kid. I later worked with them when I ran the official Myspace for The Umbrella Academy back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. So it brings me great joy to come home again with a book that means so much to me!”

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

[resident-wof-expert]

since someone sent one of the ones from Tuis blog I shall send the other one that I found, during the early pandemic, which I guess ALSO took place in WoF(quite the coincidence)

Starflight: I miss school.

Tsunami: This IS school. You’re LITERALLY TRAPPED IN A SCHOOL.

Sunny: But with no students! I miss our students so much!

Starflight: And no homework!

Tsunami: Three moons, if you say you miss homework I will stuff this fish up your nose.

Clay (waking up): Did someone say fish? Is it time for dinner?

Starflight (mournfully): I haven’t read a poorly-worded essay with too many commas in it in WEEKS.

Fatespeaker: I’ll write you one! And then read it to you! I promise I’ll read out every single wrong comma!

Peril: Hey, hey everyone, GUESS WHO is a total expert at social distancing?

Sunny: Is it–

Peril: IT’S ME!

Everyone:

Peril: Because of the not touching anyone. Because of how if anyone touches me they’ll burst into flames.

Starflight: Yeah, we got that.

Peril: So if you have any questions about staying six feet apart and NOT setting other people on fire, I am the dragon to ask! OR NOT THAT’S FINE TOO, you can go ahead and set yourselves on fire, see if I care.

Clay (affectionately): Peril, come help me figure out what a “scone” is.

Nerds.

[swabian-princess]

Domestic engineer tales - daily cleaning routine

Hey girlies,

as we all know - I'm a proud domestic engineer (aka SAHGF) and while this life is very soft I still have responsibilities. One of them is cleaning.

I grew up with a mother that wasn't about cleaning all the time. Sure, the basics were always done but she wasn't bothered if some pet hair was on the couch or if the kitchen wasn't cleaned until the next day.

Well, my bf is the direct opposite. He hates dirt, dust, stains, pet hair and the list goes on. Basically - he wants our apartment to look like nobody lives there. He's a perfectionist and he can't relax if he suspects the apartment is not clean. That's when I enter the game - it's my task to tidy the apartment every day, so he can come home and simply relax.

I'm not going to lie - it was really rough in the beginning because it seems like this man can smell a faint stain on a towel ten miles away.

Realize that maintenance is key!

It took some time for me to realize this. Just trust me - it's way easier to clean just a little bit every day than to spend hours cleaning once a week.

1. vacuuming

My first step is always vacuuming the whole apartment. I need roughly 30-45 min to thoroughly vacuum the apartment. My holy grail tip is to invest in a wireless vacuum cleaner. It doesn't have to be the newest dyson! In fact, bf and I have three vacuum cleaners: two dysons, one of them wireless and one Phillips, and I absolutely prefer the Philipps one over both the dysons.

2. dusting

I hate dust. It makes my nose itch and my eyes water - so there is a strong no dust policy in my home! I just grab an good old swiffer and simply dust off all my counters and all the surfaces in the apartment.

3. disinfect

I blame the pandemic for my urge to disinfect everything. I love sagrotan cleaning wipes and I always buy them in bulk when they're on sale. I wipe down my kitchen counters and every other surface in the apartment. I've been doing this for a few months now and I don't see any damage on our furniture that could be caused by the wipes.

I also wipe down my bathrooms - my sink, the water taps and the complete toilet. I also spray down the toilet and my door handles with disinfectantspray for extra protection.

4. polishing

We have quite a few glass surfaces that need to be polished every day because they tend to get grease stains very easily. I take a microfiber towel and a cotton towel and spray those surfaces with a special glass cleaner, rub it in with the microfiber towel and dry with the cotton towel for a streak free finish.

5. couch vacuuming

It was not the best decision to get two white/grey coated cats with long and fine hair while still having a black couch. You. can. see. every. single. hair. I'm very happy that our Philipps vacuum comes with a special attachment for pet hair removal. I use it on both of our couches and the attachment works like a charm. No more hairs!

6. making sure it smells good

A good smelling apartment is mandatory for me because I believe that a good smelling apartment makes living way more enjoyable.

I make sure to clean the cats' litterboxes frequently - I try to scoop the litter out immediately after they finished their business. Nothing is worse than the smell of cat shit or piss and I know way to many people that have their whole apartment smell like their cats litterbox because they neglect cleaning it.

I also spritz our couch and our carpets down with some Febreeze golden orchid cushion cleaner. It smells heavenly and the smell stays for hours! It's also pet safe, so don't worry.

Last but not least - candles. I like to light some scented candles in different rooms of the apartment to make sure that it smells nice everywhere. My current favorites are the yankee candles in vanilla cupcake and sunny daydream!

It takes me around 3hours daily to finish cleaning the apartment and that's only maintenance.

I deep clean different rooms on different days during the week. My daily tasks also include loading and unloading the dish washer, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning the kitchen after cooking.

lots of love

Selene

[starseneyes]

New York, New York - A Union Town

This weekend, I went on a whirlwind adventure up to New York from Virginia on Sunday and back down on Monday. Why? I went to walk the picket line with my Union.

Why go through 8 excruciating hours of driving up, one brief night of sleep, 4 hours walking 10 miles, and another 8 painful hours driving back in less than 40 hours? I'm glad you asked.

I joined SAG-AFTRA in 2001. I started acting as a kid, but it was then that I had the opportunity to join, at age 17.

It was just AFTRA back then, which is why I still have never had a SAG card. Maybe after I catch up on my dues, I can solicit one, but I'm two years behind due to Pandemic and *waves hands* all this. Those who read this blog often know life's hit us with problem after problem, but we soldier on.

So, why the hell waste money going to New York? Well, first of all, I didn't. I told my husband that I felt like I needed to be there during the first day of negotiations. See, yesterday AMPTP finally met with the NegCom to negotiate a new contract.

The old contract is antiquated, leaves us vulnerable to AI, and has made it almost impossible to make a living as an actor in the current landscape. There was a time voice-acting was a third of my income. Those days are long gone.

It's important to have as many people on the line as possible during negotiations to send a clear message—we're here, and we aren't going anywhere until you give us fair contracts.

I originally was going to bum a night in a sleeping bag on a friend's cat-filled house while freezing because they don't believe in turning on the heat at night. I'm allergic to cats. Still, the idea was the only one I had.

Then, a client of mine (I'm a Digital Marketer by trade because writing and acting don't exactly pay the bills) said she wanted to cover my room.

We should note that I know writers don't need actors to write. I meant that they needed actors for the Fall Season, and I was having trouble thinking and typing through my tears. Anyway...

That settled, a Twitter friend I've never met in real life reached out offering gas money. I was so thankful, cried again, then quickly packed on a Saturday night for a Sunday morning departure.

I drove up with one stop to relieve my bladder, grab a kids meal (keeping down costs) and gas up.

I tried to sleep Sunday night, but I'm rubbish at going to bed early. I am good at getting up, early, and was ready for the lines. I put on my WGA East hat a WGA member handed me when I walked the lines back in July. I think they thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion, I was so red.

Instead of politely explaining that I don't temperature regulate and only sweat after I'm already in danger of heat stroke, I said, "Thank you".

I brought it with me this time in case Netflix was a sunny location. Spoiler alert: It wasn't. I didn't need the hat, and I didn't mind one bit.

Also to note: It's not that I was rich in July. No, a dear friend who passed (see blog on Cheryl Anne Marek) gifted us with a little money and said she knew we'd find something good to do with it. We rented a lake house in New Jersey for a vacation with the kids (though I brought my work and worked every day) and I took the train in one day to walk the WGA line.

I lamented that a heat wave shut down the rest of the week's picketing back in July, and always wanted to get back. So, I was ready for walking yesterday!

I was nearly a half hour early, and remarked that my mother's an IATSE 798 Journeyman makeup artist and I'm very used to being there before actors. I received a polite nod and asked if I could help at all. No, they said, they had a system.

So, I took this picture which strangely got the most attention on Twitter. But, it was a call to action—"I'm here and signed in! Where are you?"

"On our way", came the response. And people came. Our initial group of 20 or so became well over a hundred in under an hour. They kept expanding our walk way, and we marched, sang, and chanted along to the beat of our five percussionists. Yes, people with drums. Actors do not hold back when we're asked to go all-out. We go all-out!

Shortly after we got started walking in our tight, little circle, a friend of mine found me. Well, Peter and I have been Zoom and Twitter friends for ages, but we finally met. And when we hugged it was like old friends who hadn't seen one another in a few years. Fairly accurate, really.

We're both Pre-WGA—an often polarizing term that simply means we'd like to be WGA someday and are puttering along with spec scripts and screenwriting competitions until our dreams turn real. Being the realist I am, I know my odds are next to null, but the optimistic corner of my brain says not to surrender hope. So, I don't.

We stepped out of line for a quick photo, then back in to dance, chant, chat, and make noise. And while Picket Lines might look like a lot of fun from the outside, I was in a mad amount of pain.

See, I have a lot going on medically. Chronic pain is an old friend. And smiling through it, second nature.

So, if you saw me singing and swinging my hips, that wasn't just the beat. That was me trying to keep everything from locking up and telling myself I could make it just a little longer without a sip of water. And, yes, they handed us waters. I never say no to a proffered (sealed) bottle of water.

Because Picket Lines aren't just about the dancing, singing, chanting, and chatting. So many people out there are exhausted. But Actors are really good at finding our way through lean times, and Writers are, too, dagnabbit. Several WGA folks were out on the line with us, and they're standing alongside us as we stood alongside them.

Solidarity matters. We stand together, and it's not just Writers and Actors. I've seen IATSE on the lines. I've seen Teamsters on the lines. I've seen vacationers who decided to skip seeing the Empire State Building and come march with us instead. I've met film students (and history students) out on the lines who said they knew this mattered and they had to be a part of it.

I drove 8 hours there. I know people who've driven far more.

We are Actors. Writers. PAs. Teamsters. Makeup Artists. Hair Artists. Grips. Electricians. Craft Services. Camera Operators. Directors of Photography. Costumers. Best Boys. Boom Mic Operators. Editors. And more.

We—not those few billionaire, decision-making CEOs—create the bounty of beautiful films and television shows that illuminate people's lives. We are the dreamers of dreams.

Throughout the walk, I was struck by the care of the Captains. They made sure we knew where to walk and not. They brought out coffee (regular or black), bagels with cream cheese, cold waters, chips (or crisps, if you're across the pond), and more. These folks are volunteers who believe. We are all out there because we know this matters. But the sacrifice they make cannot be under-represented.

I got a new Strike shirt at the line, and decided to wear it on the drive home. It was far less smelly than the one I'd worn all day, and I was going to be trapped in a small tin can with me for hours, after all.

When I stopped at a service station, a random woman pointed at the shirt and told me she liked it. I smiled and thanked her. It always warms my heart when people see our fight and stand with us.

I drove home listening to the Good Omens audiobook (have about 41 minutes left, now) I borrowed via my local library (Please support yours. Libraries are amazing!). I was so bloody tired, but the voices of the actors filled my car and the story kept my mind awake. It's bloody brilliant if you've never read/listened.

It was after 9PM when I pulled up to my house. My three children (ages 9, 9, and 6) were still awake.

6yo: Mama, what did you do?! Me: Walked in circles for three hours. 6yo: Walked in circles?

While the twins have a fairly firm grasp on all this, she's six. I pulled her in my arms and hugged her close as I tried to explain a little better.

Because I believe in what we did. I am no influencer or celebrity. I'm simply a girl who believes in her Union. While I've been a Twitter warrior (one WGA guy I met said, "I think I've seen your tweets!"), I wanted to do more. I have been to a rally in Wilmington. I've walked the lines with WGA. But I wanted to walk the lines with my Union, too. It felt like the right thing to do.

My hips were killing me last night. And I admit I worried about my chronic pilonidal disease flaring up. But, I know what to do after a decade of living with it, and today I'm just fine.

Folks, WGA and SAG-AFTRA have been out here fighting for the rights of workers. We're all workers. That's what we are. Most actors and writers aren't famous or rich. We're simply people working our asses off doing what we love, and hoping to make enough to live. It's as simple as that.

I never wanted fame or fortune, even in my youth! I simply wanted to write and act and earn a living. Doesn't seem so strange, right?

Anyway, please do post your support for SAG-AFTRA, if you feel so inclined. If you can make it to a picket line, good on ya! If you can't, no worries. We all have different parameters to what we can and cannot do. And we're all in this together.

Here's to new contracts, a better future, and worker's rights. Onward.

[hyunnieshannie]

Boundless

Series: Boundless

Word Count: 2,832

Pairing: Hyunjin x Female Reader

Genre/Warnings: Fantasy AU, Non Idol Au, harsh words (swearing) Dom!Hyunjin, degradation, mentions of anxiety, sex as a dare, self esteem issues, mentions names of other idols. (Anything else I have missed just let me know and will be added in, more warnings will be added with each chapter update)

A/N: this is my first attempt at writing a proper fic with smut included. I hope you enjoy🖤

PREVIOUS MASTER LIST NEXT

~Prologue~

The world can be so beautiful. Simple things like the changing of the seasons, to the way the clouds look on a particularly sunny day, how the flowers bloom vibrantly after a beautiful white winter. But the key word for you, was can. To you the world was dull and these days seemed more dull than ever. You had been trapped in your home for two years, during the pandemic and now that it’s finally over the world felt as if it had only gotten worse. People had forgotten how to properly socialize without staring deep into their phones, and due to this people had forgotten what basic human decency was. All your life you had felt the overbearing negativity of this world. Elementary school was certainly the easiest. You had a small group of friends which you played with everyday, but when middle school hit; one by one those friends disappeared. And by the time you were in highschool you had learned that you didn’t need a big group of people around you. You were much more interested in reading, and focusing on yourself and so that's exactly what you did. You had friends in highschool, but not ones you considered close. And as they say, people come and go. This was life. Now that you’ve been accepted to your choice college, you figured maybe this could be a new start, a new school in a new state. Living on your own (with a roommate) of course on campus. Maybe you could reinvent yourself. But in a world of impossible beauty standards and expectations of how to act and be noticed, your attempts to fit in never worked out. Because you are no supermodel, or an extraordinarily social person, you are unbelievably. Ordinary. 

Your roommate would often spend nights away from the dorm, and you found yourself feeling more homesick with each passing day. You didn’t make many friends, as your anxiety would get in the way of talking to new people. You got lonely very quickly, and thus drew back to your favorite form of comfort. Reading. People suck, and often never offer the same type of comfort a good book would. You read anything that caught your eye with a good plot, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, even the occasional romance. You got attached to characters, laughed with them, cried with them and grew with them. And that was more than what you could say for the so called ‘friends’ you had made throughout your life. “Ah he’s such a red flag!” you mutter to yourself, as you sat cozily in your dorm room. “He's just going to hurt you, walk away! Go to Wooyoung! He loves you!” you turn the page eager to read the next chapter, but unfortunately for you, your timer goes off notifying you, it was time to start walking over to your class. You picked yourself up and groaned, disappointed you couldn't continue the next chapter, where the characters would definitely fight for the main protagonist's hand in marriage. You wanted to know if she’d really choose Yeonjun the (in your opinion) selfish prince over Wooyoung, the (in your very biased opinion) wonderful bookkeeper. “Ugh, fuck it” you say as you snatch the book from off your bed, opening it up to where you left off, reading as you walked to class. “I hate to admit it Tzuyu, Yeonjun isn’t that bad,” you say as you flip the page, “But the cute bookkeeper treated you better”. You didn't realize you were speaking aloud until someone behind you whispered to their friend. 

“How strange.” she giggled, 

“See this is why I don’t go back to my dorm often,” the other whispers back, maybe they didn’t know you could hear them, or maybe they intended for you to hear them but still it stung to know they were there literally talking behind your back. The two girls pick up their pace and walk past you laughing as they do. You look to your roommate, who ignores you. You were used to this. Either you were ignored like some sort of ghost that no one noticed. Or they spoke about you with little regard towards your feelings. It didn’t bother you as much as it used to throughout highschool but now you’d have to deal with occasionally seeing your roommate in the dorm knowing how she actually felt about you. 

“Ignore them,” a voice sounds from behind you, you look up to see Changbin walking towards you, “They’re just bitchess with nothing better to do,” he smiles warmly at you, Changbin was someone you met your first year of college during orientation. He was a well built man, with incredibly gorgeous features. Toned muscles from going to the gym often and a beautiful smile. How can anyone be so incredibly good looking you thought to yourself, “So Y/N, are you going to the party tonight?” your heart races as he says your name, you didn’t even know that he knew it. You’ve barely spoken to him, only in passing during class. But that didn’t stop you from having the biggest crush on him. You often wondered what it would be like to have him pick you up and pin you against the wall as he kissed you harshly, a curiosity you would never satisfy. 

“Party?” you say, 

“The one Jisungs throwing.” he smiles, 

“Oh,” you hadn’t been invited but you didn’t want to admit that to him, “No, I have to study for a test.” you force a weak smile at him, 

“Oh come on Y/N come it’ll be fun, I haven’t seen you at any of the other parties so you have to come to this one.” Did he have to make that comment? Of course you hadn’t gone to the others, how could you go somewhere when you weren’t even invited?

“I don’t really like big crowds of people, and I don’t have anyone to go with on such short notice.”  

“You don’t need a date for a party you know?” 

“I don’t know a lot of people, the way you and Jisung do. It’s not really about a date, it’s more less wanting someone familiar with me so I don’t get nervous” you laugh, the two of you continue walking towards the lecture hall with an awkward silence, you sneak a look at Changbin who looks like he’s in deep thought. 

“Okay I got it then!” He says as the two of you walk into the building, Jisung who stood waiting by a vending machine yells for Changbin's attention and he waves to him, then looks back at you “So” you look up at him confused, “you’d go if someone you knew would be there right?” he asks, you nod in response, “Perfect, I’ll pick you up at seven.” he smiles, but before you could tell him that wasn’t what you meant he waves back to you as he runs off to catch up with Jisung and his other friends he turns back to you, and yells “Seven be outside your dorm!” you nod. Changbin invited me to a party, you think to yourself, your heart fluttering. Your crush wanted you to go so badly, he offered to be your date. You smile at the thought.

After popping out of the shower, you carefully do your makeup, and pick out a short black dress from your closet. And once you’re ready you head downstairs to wait for Changbin. As you walk out the doors you see he’s already standing there looking at his phone, he looks back up when he hears you approach him. “Damn Y/N I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in anything other than jeans and a hoodie.” he smiles, 

“Is that a good or bad thing?” 

“Well you look good in your hoodies, but you look good like this too, I could get used to it,” he smirks, your heart pounding. He thinks I look good in my usual outfits.. Does that mean he’s looked at you the way you have him? The two of you leave walking off campus and towards Jisungs home which was fairly close. The music booms through speakers, and large crowds of  people who are already visibly drunk dance and talk all around. Changbin guides you through the doors and greets everyone who comes up to him. He doesn’t leave your side until he offers to get you a drink. 

“Y/N?” Jisung says as he walks up to you, “No way Bin actually got you to come!” he says, “You look hot, didn't expect that out of you” he laughs, 

“Thanks?” you say questioning what he meant by that, 

“Fuck off Jisung,” Changbin says as he returns with two drinks, 

“Oh come on I’m just fucking around,” Jisung laughs, as Changbin hands you your drink, “anyways Y/N I need to borrow Bin, I gotta talk to him about this thing we had planned.” he smiles at you cheerfully as he grabs Changbins arm and drags him away. Half an hour passes and Changbin hasn’t returned. Your anxiety begins to get to you as you stand alone in a room full of people. You make your way to the kitchen and stop when you hear a familiar voice, “If you can’t do it Bin you lose the bet, and you know what that means bro” Jisung laughs, 

“The girls never been to a party Ji” Changbin sighs, “It took me giving her no option to come how the fuck am I gonna get her to-” 

“She's probably drunk by now, little miss bookworm probably hasn’t ever drank either so it should be easy,” a girl laughs, 

“Nah thats fucked up if shes drunk im not going through with it,” Changbin says, staringcoldly at the girl,

“Awe don’t tell me you’re starting to rethink the dare Binnie” your roommates voice sounds from another area in the kitchen that you can’t see. 

“I’m not rethinking shit, I’m just not gonna fucking do it if shes drunk. Thats beyond fucked up” 

“I agree with Bin, if she's drunk that's not cool.” Jisung says with a serious face. 

“It’s a little late for fucked up dont you think? You accepted a dare to literally fuck the loser on campus for a measly fifty bucks. Whats fucked up is how far your rep is gonna drop when people find out” the girl laughs, your heart stings hearing her words. He was dared to fuck you. 

“Common Binnie it’s easy poor girls got it bad for you, she’d probably jump at the chance, think of how funny it would be” Because of course how funny would it be if the boy the loser has a crush on fucks her for a dare, wow what a great joke. With that Changbin notices you standing there, you’ve heard everything. You turn around and walk straight out of the party, your chest stings, and tears stream down your cheek. Because who was I to think he’d actually be interested in me. He chases you down the street as you continue to walk faster, wanting nothing more than to get away from him, 

“Y/N! Wait” he yells out, as he grabs onto your wrist, 

“Get away from me.” you hiss, your face heating up with anger and hurt, 

“Y/N please let me explain,” you jerk your hand away from him, he looks hurt and confused by your action how fucking dare he look at me like that. Did he think because you had a crush on him you’d melt to his touch? That you’d let him explain his stupid fucking dare? No.

“Seo Changbin, don’t you ever come near me again,” you turn around walking away from him, you walk back towards your dorm, in tears. Everything that happened tonight was straight out of a drama and you couldn’t believe these things actually happened in real life. As you walk back on to campus you see the light from the library still on, the one place you know you can find exactly what you need. Comfort. You make your way inside where the librarian sits peacefully reading a book, 

“Y/N!” he yells, knowing the library is currently empty, 

“What are you doing here so late Mr. Lee?” 

“I was going to ask you the same question, miss Y/LN, is everything alright?” he asks, 

“Just a bit of heartbreak,” you whisper, his face showing signs of concern, “That book you gave me really tore me apart you know!” you force a laugh, you really weren't ready to explain this situation to anyone let alone, the only person who ever spoke to you as an equal. 

“Oh!” he laughs, “I had the same reaction! Well I’m glad you're here,” he says, “What kind of book are you looking for tonight?” he says, 

“Something that will take me far away from here,” you smile, 

“Well, I may be able to help with that,” he gets up and opens the door to his office, walking out with a small bag, “I was going to save this one for your birthday next week but it seems I’ve broken your heart with my last gift so consider this one to be the one that mends it” he smiles, 

“You didn’t have to mr. Lee,” you say as you take the bag from him, 

“Well I was out with one of your teachers and it caught my eye and I thought to myself, Lee Taemin if you do not bring this book back to your favorite reader you will regret it,” he laughs, “I kid you not, it called out to me as if begging me to bring it back for you” 

“Maybe it was calling out for you!” you laugh, 

“No, it was definitely calling for you,” he smiles, “Now go on, get home.” he smiles, you thank him once again for the gift and begin to leave, “Oh and Y/N” you turn back around to see what he called you for, “The boy who made you cry tonight, never deserved to be blessed with the gift of your heart. Write the story your heart deserves.” he smiles at you, like a brother trying to comfort his heartbroken younger sister. 

“Thank you,” you say weakly smiling at him as you exit the library. 

You wash the makeup off and change into a comfortable pair of leggings and a large hoodie, sliding into bed and laying down to stare at the ceiling. The events of that night are still eating away at your heart. You turn to your side and stare at the gift from Mr. Lee. you sit back up, turning the lamp on your side table on, opening the bag and staring at the large book that lay within it. The beautifully decorated leather cover that you could tell was handmade, a reddish brown with gorgeous gold details, the pages with gold trimming shone brightly under the light. It was magnificent, and by far the most beautiful book to be added to your collection. Almost like mr. Lee said, you felt a pull from it begging to be opened, to be read. It called out to you. You trace your fingers over the golden indented title, Boundless. You open the book carefully, turning the first page, from its title page, only to find it completely empty. There is no table of contents, you turn to the next page, once again empty. You flip through the whole book and there's nothing. You sit the book down, thinking of how strange it is for a book of this size to be empty, maybe it was sold by mistake? Just then the alarm on your clock on the nightstand goes off, you panic trying to shut it down. Did you accidentally set an alarm? No. You never would’ve set one for eleven pm, nor am. The light on your desk flickers and the room falls into a deep darkness, your heart begins to beat out of your chest and fear sinks in, just then the whispering starts, “Am i going crazy?” you say out loud, the whispers grow louder, and louder until light shines again, but not from your lamp, the book itself glows vibrantly illuminating the dark room around you. “Y/N…Y/N… Y/N!” the whispers chant, the book flies open landing on a page directly in the middle of the book, in a panicked state you jump off your bed wondering what could possibly be going on, but your head spins, or is the room spinning? You couldn't tell, the whispers growing into loud shouting, you drop down into a ball covering your ears, squeezing your eyes shut. You feel something pulling at you, you let out a scream as your body finally gives way and you’re being dragged back onto your bed, “Help!” was the last thing anyone would have heard coming from your dorm.

~~~~

Tags: @thvjnm @chanlixiiee @channiesbub @jaebaebaegot7 @maeleelee @iadorethemskz @maenijw @hangin-out-with-the-street-rats @jinniespuppy @painstakingly-juno @lethallyprotected @mimi-sierra04

[paulsemel]

Though it's set during a pandemic, in my new interview with "Your Shadow Half Remains" author Sunny Moraine, they say this horror novella is actually about so much more. https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-your-shadow-half-remains-author-sunny-moraine/ 📖👀😵‍💫

[sinceileftyoublog]

Say Anything Interview: Intentional Is My Default

Photo by Nicole Mago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

I'm waiting back stage at Riot Fest for Say Anything's Max Bemis to finish a photoshoot, one that sees him lie in the grass in various positions that make it look like he's stretching after a tough workout. Despite the fact that he hasn't yet gotten his real workout in yet--his newly reformed band would go on stage in a few hours--and that this photoshoot is full of capital-p Poses, I'm taken by how at ease Bemis seems with everything. When we speak, he reveals to me that, yes, while he did in fact feel awkward during the photoshoot--most of us do--he's learning to lean into his feelings much more naturally.

Five years ago, the legendary emo band disbanded, with their 2019 album Oliver Appropriate billed as their final LP for the moment. A purported sequel to their beloved sophomore record ...Is A Real Boy, the album was publicized in conjunction with a nine-page letter from Bemis, in which came out as bisexual and admitted to struggles with drug use. (The frontman has long been open about his diagnosed bipolar disorder, previous self-medication through drugs, and manic episodes.) During the pandemic, Bemis stayed busy, performing livestreams of older material, but there was always lingering doubt the band's hiatus would become permanent.

It wasn't until late last year that Bemis dropped that the band would be reuniting for festivals in 2023. In typical nonchalant fashion, he shared that the reunion would include past members drummer Coby Linder and bassist Alex Kent by replying to someone's comment on a Facebook post. In April, the band released their first new material since Oliver Appropriate, the maximally stream-of-consciousness rant "Psyche!". The song sees Bemis laying out those same struggles for everyone to bear witness to, blaming himself for his personal, marital, and familial problems atop a bevy of references to the band's older material, Titanic, and Riot Fest itself. "By Riot Fest '24, I'll be coughing up corks if you supply the Malörk," he sings, a line that's instantly iconic and bound to be infamous for its satiric misspelling of Chicago's shot of choice. In August, the band followed it up with "Are You (In) There?", which also establishes itself within our emo universe, with mentions of Sunny Day Real Estate and mewithoutYou, but a more personal ode to Bemis' wife and the love they have for each other despite his past actions and shortcomings. And just this morning, Say Anything annouced ...Is Committed (Dine Alone), their new record, along with a single entitled "Carrie & Lowell & Cody (Pendent)", Bemis placing his "mommy issues" in conversation with those of indie folk luminary Sufjan Stevens. The song is musically heavier and more complex and full-throated, while also containing gorgeous choral harmonies from Bemis' wife, Sherri Dupree-Bemis.

At one point, the future of the band was a mystery to everyone, Bemis included. But with some newfound perspectives, the musical and personal influence of new band member Brian Warren of Weatherbox, and therapy, it seemed from just the short conversation I had with Bemis and Kent that they're in a good place, ready to embrace their new chapter. Read my interview below, conducted last month before I knew about their new album, edited for length and clarity. Catch the band three nights next week at The Regent Theater in LA and at When We Were Young in Las Vegas next weekend.

Photo courtesy of Say Anything

Since I Left You: How does it feel to be back?

Max Bemis: It feels great. I don't think I would have decided to write the songs again if I didn't aspire to how this feels now, which is very different than our experience as little kids being in a punk band, which was very intense and an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. But this is comfortable, and it feels like having the best job ever, in the words of Piebald. It could have been a stress fest, anxious, or bad, but the only reason I wanted to write again was to reach for this thing that we never got to settle into, being dads approaching 40. The bands we looked up to were doing it at that age and still making inventive music but still seeming to chill and not base their entire personas and aspirations around being in a band. I think I appreciate it more now that I'm not trying to be "a guy in a band" as hard as I was.

Alex Kent: Something we've been talking about since getting back up and running was the transition from utilizing it as an escape versus a form of healing. Because we've been through so much traumatic shit in our lives, most of the time Max and I talk, we talk about therapy. It's fucking weird going from 18 years old on a tour bus to having that self-awareness and reflection.

MB: I didn't need it like that for many years because our entire life cycle was keyed in to being on tour. I wasn't living a normal person life. I'm not saying I ever have really or ever will--I wrote comic books for five years. That's still weird. We're still weirdo guys. Having a family, coming out of that kind of circus, I feel more like my 14-year-old self who needed this music for that reason.

SILY: The new songs have a self-aware quality.

MB: More than ever.

SILY: How do you include the self-awareness in a set at a festival or concert, where you're literally referring to other songs you're playing in the setlist?

MB: We refer to Riot Fest itself!

SILY: And Malörk [sic]

MB: And Malörk. It's incredibly self-referential and ironic, but because the band started that way, it's come full circle and is no longer ironic at the same time. There's still a lot of exaggeration and bullshit, but it's closer to me saying actual things that are happening. As you age, everyone's life becomes a circus, more surreal. The world has been very surreal, with COVID and Trump. You kind of have to say your inner experience now. It's an emotional, crazy, surreal thing anyway. It's not like before, when I said, "I have to think about my ex-girlfriend, but I'm thinking about my wife, and what the fuck is this about?" Now, this is about being at Riot Fest. And I am at Riot Fest.

SILY: There is a song about your wife, though.

MB: Yes. Also quite literal. So many emotions are certainly exaggerated, but the sincerity isn't. The love for my wife is very real. But even there, if you're in any successful relationship, it goes through the most intense rebirths and reformations, and you're adjusting to each other, especially after having kids. It's more potent to me to say what's happening or what my emotions are than do what we did on In Defense of the Genre, where I was literally forcing drama into my life on a regular basis. Now, I have no room. I'm tired. I have children to look after. The drama just happens from kids, life, everything. It's real and heartfelt, but a seasoned emotion and not so adolescent. I still love those songs, and I relate to them, but they all speak to a certain side of me I can't live out anymore.

SILY: Do the new songs more than ever exemplify the idea that the more personal you are, the more universal the songs can be?

MB: Yeah. But probably by being a little too hyper-specific. That's why I fell in love with this kind of music. Saves The Day got me into wanting to be in a band. What wowed me was when he was talking about the names of the other band members in song, like, "Ted's drooling on his sleeve." He's just saying he's in this New Jersey bar and he misses his girlfriend. He's not cloaking anything. Our thing has been a kind of parody of that, but now I don't have to stretch anything for it to be a parody.

Photo by Ben Trivett

SILY: What do you think Brian Warren brings to the table on the new songs?

AK: I've known Brian since we were 9 years old. Our very first band, we were in together.

MB: I wouldn't know about Weatherbox if it wasn't for Alex.

AK: He brings this calming energy. Humble is a weird word to describe him.

MB: It's accurate.

AK: Weatherbox is fucking amazing.

MB: He has more impostor syndrome than even me.

AK: He can play everything, and he writes cool shit.

MB: He's a virtuoso. The cool thing about Brian is that there's always been a connection between our bands. It's similar to me playing music with [Chris] Conley [in Two Tongues] back in the day. It's surreal, but it makes so much sense that you don't have to think about where he fits into the sonic picture or personality picture because we're friends.

AK: It's very cool how much sense it makes.

SILY: Has your relationship changed to your old songs?

MB: I like them more. Over the break from the band, I would listen to Say Anything, with my kids or in my car, alone. The way I severed it was so intentional. I wasn't saying, "The band was over." I was saying, "We're probably going to get back together, but I have to sever this incarnation." I was listening to [old Say Anything songs] and thinking, "I like Alex's bass part. I like the production. I even like my voice." It was like listening to another band, because of the space. I've grown to like them. I definitely know people in bands that are not what they listen to, but Say Anything has always been a conglomeration of the type of thing we listen to. If I'm going to listen to The Get Up Kids, I might as well listen to Say Anything.

SILY: Moving forward, are you trying to continue to be more intentional, or do what feels best?

MB: Both. I know that's cliché to say, and it does and doesn't make sense. I find that intentional is my default, and before, I would second-guess myself constantly. Now, I allow myself to make mistakes, and I let other people give me advice that before were such cerebral trips. There was a lot that weighed on me. If the lyrics are super intentional and literal, I'm just going to do it. If I feel awkward in a photo shoot like right now, I'm just going to be awkward in the photo shoot. That is, of course, my safe and happy place in life.

[amazing-spiderling]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

HECK. Ummmm okay okay... I'll do my best.

Surface Tension

I'm taking this opportunity to highlight a fic that I wrote for an anthology I put together with a team of *very* talented writers and artists, Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years. I had wanted to tell a story about Hal's isolation and vulnerability in his youth, the aspects of his past that made him an easy target for predatory behavior- and even though this story isn't particularly long, I think it's the one I spent the longest working on (in a words per day sense). Writing this story made me dead sure that Kojima was referencing the movie "The Graduate" when it came to the Emmerichs, and I tried to channel that sort of listlessness into this story. Because it was for a zine, I don't think it got many hits or comments, so I'm putting it here now.

The Man in the Mask

My own little "hit in the face by Apollo's red playground ball" of a fic- I actually wrote this Spideypool AU to deal with my frustrations regarding the handling of asylum seekers at the border- but the pandemic aspects of the story ended up hitting very close to home for everyone just a few years later. Fun! This is one of those stories I thought of as a "weird one that nobody read" but when I looked at my actual hit counter, I saw it had proven more popular than I realized, so that's good for me? It's a bit of a bottle episode that is more about Wade and Peter than Deadpool and Spider-Man and has a more sedate tone for most of it, but I'm partial to the way the story unfolds.

Pictures of You

Another Metal Gear story, this was for the Otasune Zine "Let the World Be". I got to team up with the incredible Harshai who did the illustrations for this story in the zine. It's a collection of moments during Dave and Hal's Philanthropy days, each one with an accompanying photograph. It's a pretty soft one, but one that comes to mind a lot, especially when I'm in the car and staring out the window at the landscape, thinking about these two on the open road. It also comes to mind every time I see a ridiculous food challenge posted on a restaurant wall. I need to see about getting permission to share the art in the posted fic, because I think it really adds something, especially the last image which was a polaroid of Sunny besting Hal's time eating the enourmous burger.

Five Years Later

Yeah, it's a WIP. What are you gonna do about it? Back from hiatus, it's the second installment of a "mostly MCU compliant" Spideypool "met as childhood friends" AU that my friend @343enderspark and I have been working on for years. In this portion of the story, Wade is dealing with life in a world without Peter (oh, and half the population, I guess) and slowly starting his journey of training and eventually becoming the person he was meant to be. (And the Defenders show up because I literally could not resist.) I got to try my hand at writing a lot of different characters in this fic, so it's been fun to flex those muscles. We had a long break between the first and second chapter, but we're back on track and CH 3 is drafted and waiting on edits, so that should be out soon. :3

Home's Around the Corner (It's a Long Way There)

More WIPs? Yeah. More AU's? Double yeah, because this one is more or less an AU or an AU. XD This is a new project I'm working on with @blissful-thinker that's Earth-65 but a step to the left, where Matt wasn't adopted by the Hand, but ended up staying with the Chaste, and returns to New York City years later only to find out he doesn't really have a place in his old home anymore. (Or does he?) This one has been a lot of fun and allows me to write one of my favorite things- tired DA Nelson, and also too-big-for-her-britches Gwen, haha. It may be niche, but it's *my* niche.

[farshootingstar]

Sorry this took so long! Had the playlist itself ready for a good while, but hadn't gotten to the cover art.

Oh, boy. I thought I had things to explain before, but I went absolute clown mode on this one. I'm pretty glad I have things to say about this list, since John can feel a bit overlooked despite being just as interesting of a character as the rest. It's probably a mixture of him being the outdoorsy guy and his backstory, buuut...

Here's the John playlist for all the sunny sweethearts! Expect some bumps in the road, though. There's also some long songs in this one, including one I mentally wrestled over for a good while before even putting this list together (the opera one, in case anyone's curious).

Wellerman, covered by The Longest Johns, is my choice for the first song. John's listed favorite genres are sea shanties and celtic music, so it had to be one or the other. I guess it was sort of a good thing people lost their minds during the pandemic and returned to sea shanties (actually the pandemic was genuinely terrible, even if the shanties were fine). I think that this is the only a capella song in the playlists.

The second song is Mountain Sound by Of Monsters and Men. I wanted something kind of upbeat and I liked the theme of running from your past, for reasons. If you know, you know. Spoiler cut below for Picture Perfect Boyfriend's bonus word doc, as well as Picture Perfect Boyfriend REBOOT.

Bust Your Knee Caps by Pomplamoose is an option I was mentally eyeballing for a while for John's old identity, Max. That dude has major gangster vibes, so I had to put this in. He almost beats the player with brass knuckles, so I feel secure in this assessment.

Each and Every One is a song I decided to add in for the Glory version of Lily, someone that Max held a flame for. Needless to say, she couldn't bear how miserable things had become around him and I think this is a good song to reflect that. While Max did seem to have a soft spot for her, he doesn't seem adept at hiding his general nature and low opinion of other people around him.

This next song is like 12 minutes long and I can't believe I'm subjecting you guys to this. You have to understand, though: At heart, I'm old-school Final Fantasy garbage. So, yeah, we have a Distant Worlds concert recording of Opera "Maria and Draco" (from Final Fantasy VI). If there was a trimmed down version, maybe I could have gone for that. I chose this for the Lily, Eislied, and Max love triangle (who, in the song, would be Maria the mezzo-soprano, Draco the tenor, and Ralse the baritone, respectively). It seemed like Max would have taken losing a tad more gracefully (like Ralse respecting the results of the duel) if not for Lily's tragically young death, which leads us to...

Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna and I'd pretty self-explanitory, with how Max extorted Vincent's father. While Max had gotten worse to people after Lily left him, taking it out on everyone under him more and more, I get the feeling something well and truly snapped when she died. Maybe he could have learned to cope in time (not that it would be any consolation to the people he tormented), but I doubt he saw any value in self-improvement once Lily was gone. Really foolish, since his vile behavior was what pushed her away in the first place, but grief's not always rational.

Oak & Ash & Thorn is the transition between the absurdly cruel Max to the gentle protector John. That amnesia was practically like a spell on him. The Morning Dew is next and that one's some classic celtic music to chill or dance to.

Next up is Apple Green by Mother Earth because I have to inflict acid jazz upon everyone once again. I think it's safe to say that John wasn't some type of nature enjoyer in his previous life as Max, but that's behind him now. He definitely appreciates the beauty and color of the world around him now and I wanted to put this song in to reflect that.

The Mariner's Revenge Song by The Decemberists is also pretty long, so I'm feeling kind of silly in retrospect for worrying about song length back in Ashton's playlist. Then again, both the opera song and this one are both story songs, so I find it a bit easier to justify their lengths. This is a special choice, in that there's a side story (the word doc I mentioned before) about Vincent first meeting John and realizing right away that this was Max with amnesia.

Autumn's Song is here to represent John's favorite season. The nostalgic nature of it can hint at those old memories simmering inside of him, something that he understandably fears.

I wouldn't blame you guys if you clowned the hell out of me for this next one, but I chose Rainbow Connection by Kermit, from The Muppet Movie. It's just such a simple and sweet song. I feel like it really fits in with John being a kind and romantic person, seeing beauty and mystery in life when he hadn't before. I imagine John's flights of fancy also probably irritate Ashino a bit, which is funny with him having a crush on Kadsey. Wildflower Jigs is another song in here for the good vibes. Who doesn't enjoy a good jig, right? It kind of makes me miss ren fairs, since I haven't been to any since the pandemic.

Blackbird/Yesterday is an interesting Beatles mashup that was made for the Cirque du Soleil show, Love, and I think the sentiments of both songs really fit with John in general. Yesterday, the song that the lyrics are from, is a classic about the pain of being left behind by an important woman while Blackbird, which the guitar is taken from, is a song that's a little more abstract (to a degree) but always feels to me like moving past the pain life can bring. Both of the songs Stardust (Vocal Version) by Hoagy Carmichael and Happy to Be Here by Wookiefoot are for John's recovered memories. I feel like a crooner song fits Max (or at least his old-timey gangster vibes, since it's hard for me to imagine Max actually enjoying any particular genre) more while something somewhat more contemporary fits John, at least in that John is the here and now. In general, John seems like a very "happy to be here" sort of guy, even if things can be tough.

Bonny Portmore by Loreena McKennitt and In the Woods Somewhere by Hozier are to reflect the danger to the woods that John has called home for a while and the animals he's resolved to protect. If it weren't for that and Vincent's troubles, I have a feeling that John would've willfully stayed in the dark about his past for longer. I was also wondering while listening to In the Woods Somewhere if John ever has small recollections of being murdered, though he didn't really have time to process what happened. This leads us into Hello My Old Heart by The Oh Hellos, where John finally admits aloud that he's Max. I like the theme of this song, that you can't grow if you hide your heart away.

Remember when I chose a song in Vincent's playlist to acknowledge the yandere ends? Here's round 2: electric-boogaloo with the song Honeybee by Steam Powered Giraffe. Harmonizing singing groups (like barbershop quartets and such) seem like something that John could really appreciate. Also, very convenient title, considering one of the consistent particular details between the yandere ends. Again, I have speculations about what that all means and those make me pretty pleased that this recording is also an ensemble sort of song instead of a solo. I think it's a solo when played live, but I'll admit that I've never seen these guys perform despite some overlap in convention visits.

Thus Always To Tyrants feels like a good song for acknowledging that Max is John's past, but it's not who he needs to be in every way despite reclaiming that identity. That's kind of a given, but I feel for him and his fear to never become such a horrendous person again. Now that I think about it, he and Ashton could make a support group. Maybe they could drag Ashino in early, too, to save us all some grief.

Closing things off with the classic John Denver song Take Me Home, Country Roads. While John has to fit into his old life to some extent, he's taking all that he's become with him and being a better person for it. That's another great ending that I hope can stick.

[mariacallous]

I was grabbing a drink with an old friend when it happened. I told her I was excited about an upcoming reporting trip to Vancouver, to interview Naomi Klein. My friend wrinkled her nose, as if the bartender had just farted. Then she asked why I’d give my time to someone who thought the Covid-19 pandemic was a conspiracy.

I sighed. Turns out, she’d been thinking of Naomi Wolf.

You know Naomi Klein, right? Rabble-rousing leftist journalist and climate activist? Author of Gen X touchstone No Logo and the mega-influential The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism? Decidedly not the former liberal feminist writer turned far-out Covid truther Naomi Wolf? But just because they share a first name—and, I suppose, are both telegenic Jewish public intellectuals who found fame through polemical writing—people confuse the two Naomis constantly. Klein gets mixed up with Wolf so much, in fact, a Twitter mnemonic was born: “If the Naomi be Klein you’re doing just fine / If the Naomi be Wolf, oh, buddy. Ooooof.”

Thus the basis of Klein’s new book, Doppelganger. Writing hundreds of pages based on the Twitter discourse surrounding your evil twin is, of course, a deeply questionable choice. Klein openly admits that her family and friends questioned her sanity. As she is quick to point out, though, Doppelganger is not really about Wolf. Instead, the book uses the experience as an entry point to dissect the “intellectual and ideological mayhem” of the Covid era. How wellness entrepreneurs demonize medicine. How the far right appropriates and warps leftist talking points. How parents insist on seeing their children as reflections of themselves. In all this, Klein writes, there’s a new doubling going on—weird fun house distortions of what used to be more straightforward realities. It’s a lively, slightly unwieldy, wholly vital work. It could only be hers.

Klein moved to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia during the pandemic, a riotously beautiful nook of that vast province, where towns are nestled into fjords. It’s a place far more likely to be visited by orcas than members of the US media, and in the interest of saving me a journey on a ferry—you can only get to her home by boat or floatplane—Klein met me at her office at the University of British Columbia, where she codirects the Centre for Climate Justice. We’d intended to stroll around the sprawling, sunny campus, but the conversation kept such an intense clip, we ended up simply sitting for hours.

Kate Knibbs: Doppelganger is much more personal than your previous work. Why?

Naomi Klein: I thought it was really important not to be on the outside of this story, but to be inside, to fess up to my own disorientation. Having a doppelganger who a lot of people confuse me with is a type of losing oneself, and it provided a toehold into this larger and more interesting set of feelings, of being lost in a world we might not recognize.

You listened to conspiratorial podcasts for research, including Steve Bannon’s. Were you ever worried you’d get lost in those worlds?

I felt that way the first time I went to a climate change denial conference. I was a tiny bit worried I would start to doubt my own understanding of the science by listening to them. But the exact opposite happened, because it was so completely incoherent. One guy says it’s getting cooler. Another says it’s getting hotter—but the sunspots! Another guy says everyone should just get air-conditioning. That’s what it’s like listening to Bannon or any of those “intellectual dark web” types. You can see it right now with RFK Jr. He’s saying Covid was a bioweapon. This is also the guy who told people not to wear masks, not to lock down, not to get vaccinated. So which is it? Occasionally Bannon would have someone on who would claim that people were just dropping dead from the vaccine.

Like the whole #DiedSuddenly thing?

Exactly. What you start to realize is that these people are acting as if we were immortal before Covid. As if no one died from anything. What worries me more isn’t that I’m going to start thinking that the vaccines are killing us or anything like that. It’s that I understand why the things he’s doing are so resonant.

Why are they so resonant?

This is Bannon’s gift, sorry to say, and it’s how Trump won in 2016: by identifying a bloc of Democratic voters who had been screwed over by the party because they lost jobs to corporate free trade deals. So the offer was a counterfeit version of the left, which is what right-wing populism does. They were not rewriting trade deals in any significant way that would help workers. They were offering huge gifts to the already wealthy through tax cuts. But when people are desperate enough, they’ll go for a counterfeit.

I have someone close to me who has definitely bought into that counterfeit populism. It’s been hard to watch the change take place.

I’ve had so many conversations with people describing that feeling. It’s like watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

But I suppose we all have many competing, constantly mutating versions of ourselves. How do you think about your public persona now?

When we think about performing ourselves, we think about social media. For me, that’s Twitter [since renamed X]. And right now I don’t think any of us feel in control of whatever the fuck is happening on Twitter. But we’re still there, hoping to recapture something. I hope my relationship to my public persona is like my relationship with Twitter. I’m not really trying anymore.

Do you think there’s a way for you to have a conversation like this that’s truly authentic, or are you in some sense creating a doppelganger version of yourself to promote the book?

There’s always going to be some contradictions involved in hawking a book when you’re an anti-capitalist author. I’ve been living with that contradiction for a long time. I find talking to people exciting. I have ideas that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I had the idea to write No Logo while I was doing an interview with a student journalist.

Are your students influential in other ways?

One of the really nice things about being on campuses right now is that, if I was just getting my sense of youth culture through media, I’d think that all young people are constantly posing and performing themselves on Instagram. But it’s definitely a minority. A lot of young people feel alienated from it.

I get a lot of youth culture tidbits from my babysitter, which is how I know that super polished and posed Instagram photos are seen as a geriatric millennial thing.

They want it to look really authentic, to be messy.

I reread No Logo recently. It holds up.

Maybe not the Blockbuster references!

Honestly, we need to bring back your concept of selling out. I got in a lot of trouble on Twitter a few months ago for saying the Barbie movie looked bad. I love Greta Gerwig, but I don’t want to like Barbie! I hate the idea of a Mattel Cinematic Universe.

The thing that’s so clever is that it’s shiny and pretty enough to get the normie Barbie fans, but it also has so-called subversive content for the people who don’t want to like Barbie. It’s genius marketing. But the world is fraying. It’s an odd time for us to get excited about pink plastic.

Probably an odd time for me to be really annoyed about it, too.

No, I think it’s time to have some standards again.

Do you ever think about returning to that mode of criticism?

Just to keep you company?

To keep me company, and because efforts to turn cinema and television into capital-B Brands—the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most infamously—are so much more flagrant than before.

And also to keep us in our childhoods in a strange way. This is not kid content, it’s adult content, but it’s feeding on nostalgia for being 8 years old.

What’s a recent movie you liked?

Despite the critics hating it, I thought Don’t Look Up was brilliant. It was taking aim at the culture of narcissism and distraction at this most critical moment. It was broad, like all of Adam McKay’s comedies. But that was not the problem. The problem was that it was right.

Doesn’t everyone die at the end?

That’s the best part. He fucked with the Judeo-Christian trope that the righteous will be saved.

I do think it was broad.

Well, Anchorman is broad!

True. But I don’t necessarily want my comedy to be didactic. I just really don’t want it to be branded content from Mattel. There’s this amazing Canadian filmmaker, Sarah Polley, and she’s doing a live-action Bambi.

My grandpa worked on the original Bambi. He was an animator.

I read about this. Didn’t he get fired for trying to unionize?

He did. And they had the first strike at Disney during the production of Dumbo.

Have you been paying attention to the strike wave happening?

It’s exciting. I’m really glad that there’s the focus on AI.

What else interests you politically, right now?

I think it’s important to think about where the Covid denialism energy is going now that there aren’t vaccine mandates. It’s morphing, going in new directions, and it’s important to try and follow that.

Which new directions?

There are two main wellsprings the Covid denialism movement drew from. One was the anti-vax people. The other group was climate deniers. Now, when you post anything about climate change, you’ll get hit with “Davos elites, Great Reset.”

When we were talking earlier about how people take leftist ideas and make counterfeit versions of them, I was thinking about how that happened to the shock doctrine—your idea that global elites use disasters to push brutal policies to benefit themselves at the expense of the masses. People co-opted the concept to talk about the Great Reset, saying there was a global conspiracy to use Covid to strip away personal freedoms. Has this changed your relationship to your own ideas? Do you feel less ownership over them?

I’ve never felt I had that much control over my ideas in the culture. I remember Arundhati Roy saying to me many years ago, we can’t control what our words do once we release them. I have tried to correct the record and do my own writing about what I think the shock doctrine is and isn’t, but I think I’ve always felt a bit of detachment around it.

Jane Fonda started her Fire Drill Fridays because of you.

That was just getting somebody at the right moment of receptivity. That’s what Jane did. I take no credit.

Do you believe in the horseshoe theory? Are the people on the far left swinging far right because they’re attracted to conspiratorial thinking about Covid?

There are some people who have decided that Tucker Carlson is a great guy and Trump’s better than Biden. But most of those people I wouldn’t consider very left-wing. Someone like Glenn Greenwald. For a while, he seemed to be a left-wing person because he was against the Patriot Act and the Iraq War. But he was a libertarian upset about Bush-era government overreach. So it makes sense, when a government has to robustly respond to a pandemic, that a lot of those people got upset. I know some of these people—Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald—I know that they are not deep left thinkers. We have to make the distinction.

Do you think there’s an incentive to shift rightward now to bolster one’s personal brand online?

Yes.

Could there be a positive incentive the other way? Is it possible to build up an ecosystem of independent leftist outlets?

Remember that idea? We need to invest in media, and not be reliant on quixotic billionaires to find one another. I think we need to get serious about independent alternative media and local media.

Meaning, like, a new Twitter?

The problem with something like Mastodon or the smaller Twitter competitors is that they’re not able to offer what Twitter did at its best, which was this feeling of we’re all having one conversation together.

I don’t know if there will ever be one main conversation again.

I wish Twitter could’ve been turned into a co-op. This is labor we’ve put into this thing. We all wrote for free!

A lot.

There was always something self-exploiting about that. Sure, we were able to share our articles and do self-promotion, but I always knew they were going to try to charge us. It’s too valuable.

There’s a co-op movement for media startups, where the writers own their outlets, but I haven’t seen the same thing happen for social media.

And the thing happening now with AI—it was one thing for all of us to be writing for free for Zuckerberg and Musk, but now it turns out that all of that content is being used to create doppelgangers of us by AI companies. Now that’s going to be used to put people out of work, or cheapen their labor.

It’s accelerating so rapidly. Big outlets are already putting out AI-generated articles.

This relates back to conspiracies and why they’re spreading as quickly as they are. It’s a dangerous time to give people more reasons not to believe what’s in front of them. Anything you’re shown now can be dismissed as fake news. “It’s not even Biden, it’s AI.” We’re barely glimpsing the ramifications.

In Doppelganger, you wrote about a South Korean politician who used AI to look younger.

The thing about the Korean example is, it was not hidden. Everyone knew. And it worked for him. So who knows? As our candidates get older, they may rely on AI doppelgangers. It’s being packaged as a way to reach younger voters, because they prefer synthetic reality.

Have you had discussions with your students about AI? Do they actually prefer synthetic reality? 

Last semester, ChatGPT was really everywhere, and we were discussing how they were not using it to write their essays. I think we’ve overfocused on the plagiarism piece of things. It’s just one element within a completely unstable and frightening future. Maybe it’s helpful writing essays, but they also know it’s replacing entire sectors they may have been preparing for—between not being able to afford living in the city to the acceleration of the climate crisis to AI changing the job market.

I’m aware of at least one podcasting company hoping to use AI to translate podcasts into a bunch of different languages. It sounds cool, but then you think: What about translators?

The thing I find disingenuous is when you hear, oh, we’re going to have so much leisure time, the AI will do the grunt work. What world are you living in? That’s not what happens. Fewer people will get hired. And I don’t think this is a fight between humans and machines; that’s bad framing. It’s a fight between conglomerates that have been poisoning our information ecology and mining our data. We thought it was just about tracking us to sell us things, to better train their algorithms to recommend music. It turns out we’re creating a whole doppelganger world.

We’ve provided just enough raw material.

When Shoshana Zuboff wrote The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, it was more about convincing people who’d never had a sense that they had a right to privacy—because they’d grown up with the all-seeing eye of social media—that they did have a right to privacy. Now it’s not just that, even though privacy is important. It’s about whether anything we create is going to be weaponized against us and used to replace us—a phrase that unfortunately has different connotations right now.

Take it back! The right stole “shock doctrine,” you can nab “replace us” for the AI age.

These companies knew that our data was valuable, but I don’t even think they knew exactly what they were going to do with it beyond sell it to advertisers or other third parties. We’re through the first phase now, though. Our data is being used to train the machines.

Fodder for a Doppelganger sequel.

And about what it means for our ability to think new thoughts. The idea that everything is a remix, a mimicry—it relates to what you were talking about, the various Marvel and Mattel universes. The extent to which our culture is already formulaic and mechanistic is the extent to which it’s replaceable by AI. The more predictable we are, the easier it is to mimic. I find something unbearably sad about the idea that culture is becoming a hall of mirrors, where all we see is our own reflections back.

You reached out to Naomi Wolf and she didn’t respond. If she had responded, would you want to debate her?

I think it’s important to engage with what’s being said and marshal counterfacts. But the idea of just sneering at people is dangerous. I think we do need to debate, but whether that means creating some kind of theatrical Naomi vs. Naomi spectacle—I don’t know about that.

You could be second billing to Musk vs. Zuckerberg.

Anyway, as you know from reading the book, it’s not really about her. She’s just a case study. I follow her down the rabbit hole. But I’m more interested in the rabbit hole.

[sepublic]

Post-Hoot for Them’s the Breaks, Kid!

-They wrote TTBK at least a year ago (this Post-Hoot was recorded before Hollow Mind’s release), having started production pre-pandemic, and finishing it during that time. The episode was intended as a breather episode before some spicy plot developments and uh, boy was it. 

-The Raeda dynamic as kids was initially more antagonistic, Raine was more of this badass. There would’ve been a fight to get the badge and have Eda stay in school (like Lumity), but Zach Marcus felt the conflict was unnatural to how Raine and Eda ended up together, so he opted for an immediate friendship instead.

-Sarah remembers making a lot of notes while working on the show that no longer make sense, like “Moon Villain”...

-Boscha’s parent, the one with glasses, is named Larry in the art tracking system. 

-Eric Bauza recalls playing either Harvey or Gilbert, though he was credited only as Mr. Park, unhelpfully. He voiced Faust during the pandemic (which could mean anything lbr), and didn’t even know what Faust looked like, having to ask Dana what she thought he’d sound like. Eric’s delivery actually influenced Faust’s final design lacking any lips!

-The neck crack was devised as a means for Faust to maneuver and turn his head around (I guessed it).

-In Zach Marcus’ mind, Terra and Faust had a history together.

-There was going to be an episode that gave Bump a love interest, written by Molly Ostertag; “A very elven man”, but Dana shot it down.

-At one point Tibbles was the principal of Hexside, and Zach jokingly suggested to say he was the vice-principal now.

-JBO wrote a lot for Mattholomule, and Zach Marcus said he’d love to have him as the main character in a show like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where he’s always being beaten at his game and you love to see it. 

-According to Avi, Raine is more chaotic than Eda, and Sarah agrees. 

-Zach Marcus suggested that Faust used to have big, juicy, candy Bratz lips. He thinks Faust lives in the school (this might be contradicted later on or not), and before that he and Terra used to live together as a couple. However, there was a BAD breakup, and Faust lost both his voluptuous lips and the place in the fight. This is why he lives at Hexside now, it’s the only place he has any sense of control and so he exerts it so wildly because it’s all he has.

-Zach joked that Kikimora is a high school dropout, like him!

-Dana pushed to have Luz’s artistic journey progress, with the viewer seeing how her style develops over time.

[187days]

Bonus Day

The class of 2024 graduated this morning.

These were the kids who came into ninth grade while the pandemic was still raging and we were one of the only high schools in the state that was able to fully open: the kids who wore masks every day, ate lunch in classrooms, played "pandemic tag" on the front fields, Google chatted their friends in other cohorts because they couldn't see them, and endured remote instruction any time Covid cases in the region spiked.

They're the last of our "quaranteens."

The student speakers (valedictorian, salutatorian, student body president, and senior class president) all made reference to that, and how their unique journey through high school had shaped them as a class. They're a tight-knit bunch, as was evident by how many of them teared up at one point or another during the ceremony, and they're ready for whatever the world throws at them.

I was so happy that they had a beautifully sunny day to celebrate because there was a chance of rain the forecast (it held off until the afternoon). I was also happy that The Principal let one of my sprinter boys graduate right after the welcoming address- as opposed to at the end of the ceremony- so that he could leave and join his 4x100m teammates at the New England Championship. And, of course, I was thrilled to see all the students I'd taught have their moment.

After many hugs and pictures, particularly with my GOV kids, I found Mrs. T, and we headed to lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants. We agreed that it had been a great day. I always say that it's my favorite one, as a teacher, because it's the culmination of all the hard work.

And, as I always tell my seniors before they go, it's a privilege to have taught them.