#letter charms

[aquapede]

thinking about gardevoir and gengar being pen pals after everything. she'll always have time for her favorite insane little guy

[giddlygoat]

OH, TO SLEEP PERCHANCE TO DREAM TO LIVE AGAIN THOSE JOYOUS SCENES THE LAUGHTER AND THE FOLLIES THAT ARE LOCKED INSIDE MY HEAD

mister kingdom - electric light orchestra

this took quite a while to finish. i think just over 7 hours. i keep trying to express how much these three mean to me and i never quite feel satisfied with it, but just the act of creating things to show my love for these characters is therapeutic to me. also, everyone go read all chips in. beautiful and life changing hr x chip [or as i like to call it, High Revver] fic!

[dungeonzero]

One Piece Fan Letter key charm will be in shop in November!

[weirdasshomo]

the moment i got Charons keepsake n saw this my delulu ass went straight back to charmes train

like H STANDS FOR HERMES!!! CHANGE MY MIND CHALLENGE (IMPOSSIBLE!!)

[utane]

Head's up ! I'm putting left over zines up for sale later today so there is a very limited quantity of them 👀 You'll find them here eventually https://ko-fi.com/umichill/shop

[flownwrong]

chaotic ckr c6d squee propaganda (?) post

This, started half a year ago for @ds30below, was initially a general c6d short reviews post but kinda skewed majorly towards CKR's repertoire and wasn't too review-y. So I gave up on making sense and on including the non-CKR works. I don't know who the audience for this is, because I never give basic details for people who don't know about this stuff but say too much for those who do. I giffed what I could and tried to avoid what I know a lot about but haven't actually seen. Here goes.

Frank's Cock (1993)

Not much to say. It's only 8 minutes, it's beautiful and you should see it if you haven't. I won't spoil the subject, but you can likely guess. Watch it, cry a little. Then go watch some more of Mike Hoolboom's stuff, the vimeo link above is from his channel.

Two X-Files episodes (1994 – 1995)

Well, I haven't actually seen X-files since I was about fifteen and watched the like two seasons, and I remember none of it. I rewatched the two early episodes CKR appears in and they were fun. I did not watch the, the movie or whatever where he's doing the evil gay thing. But really, this one is on the list so I can show you this self-indulgent gif of him being Very Long:

Double Happiness (1994)

You shouldn't watch this one for CKR. I mean, you absolutely should see him here, looking like he's barely out of his teens and playing up the insecure act and having devastating chemistry with devastatingly beautiful Sandra Oh, but this is not why it's great. And it's really, really great. It's touching and funny and sincere. If you wanna have some feels about complicated family relationships and identity and growing up (at any point in life), you'll find them here.

Curtis's Charm (1995)

Don't regret watching it, can't recommend. Not gonna lie, I was emotionally affected. But I usually am by things as in-your-face bleak as this. Mostly, it's trying very hard to be smarter than it is, I think.

However: CKR's One Wild Curl is everything to me (see above, on the right. It was, like, actually curly. I was rendered speechless). And like two seconds of Hugh Dillon made me do a double-take, lol. Incredibly weird knowing this was shot like half a year before HCL began shooting. Feels like it must've been a decade earlier.

Hard Core Logo (1996)

I could make three separate posts about this one, so of course I have no idea what to say.

This one, you should watch for CKR, actually, he's something, but so is every single other aspect of this film. I wouldn't change a thing about it. It hits you like a 16 wheeler. Perfectly cast, unimaginably beautiful, hysterical and melancholy and disgusting and compelling.

Related recs:

A wonderfully fun article/retrospective/interview for its 20th anniversary a while back.

You should also absolutely read Hard Core Roadshow if you enjoyed the film. It's a book documenting the whole thing from conception to release. It touched me for its own sake, not just a backstage glance, full of love for the craft and the people and carrying this tangible bittersweetness about the heightened and fleeting nature of this kind of work.

(here, I feel compelled to include a quote from another c6d-related interview on Slings & Arrows, which I read after the book and went like man, it's really a universal experience isn't it.

Coyne: <...> But I also think, and this is my experience, what we were all experiencing, because we were all talking about our lives, our life in the arts — there’s something very melancholy about doing something you love, because it will never be good enough, it will always break your heart.

McKinney: Or it will be fleeting.

Coyne: It’ll be fleeting. You come together with people you feel passionately connected to and two weeks later they’re tearing down the sets.)

Quotes from the article and the book respectively include:

McDonald: So there was a kind of mutual dependency society with Hugh telling Callum, “Don’t worry, man, I got your back, I’ll tell you how high or low to wear your guitar, I’ll tell you how you should dress, I’ll tell you what you should drink…” and Callum was like, “I’ll tell you what hitting your mark is, I’ll tell you why they pull out fucking tape measures, I’ll tell you why you have to do it again, I’ll tell you about not overlapping dialogue..” and you know they clung to each other, like the other one was gonna fucking save them.

And:

A final gathering at the back of the tour bus with Bruce, Callum, Hugh, Bernie. We listen to the tape of HCL songs, all the way through, one last time. And we belt the words out. Bernie sings loudest, performing for Salerno's camera. Hugh and Callum sit back, looks of sadness. I get the sense that if they could do it, they'd chuck their lives and be Joe Dick and Billy Tallent forever. Callum leans to Bruce and says exactly what everyone else is thinking: "I don't want it to end."

There's much more to both texts than *gestures* the whatever those two had, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

And Xeriscape is the best HCL fic I've read. Granted, I read very few because it's not a source that creates in me a craving for fic. But this one perfectly matches the film's fucked up beauty with its language while also adding a quieter, more fraught layer of humanity that we only get glimpses of in canon and that perfectly fits John. 10/10, would recommend.

Anyway. Watch it. Read it. If you haven't. Otherwise, come scream with meeee! And go reblog my gifs or something. Idk.

Letters From Home (1996)

Mike Hoolboom strikes again, with another short. This goes into the "don't watch it for CKR, watch it because it's great" box. Yes, you will cry.

For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down (1996)

Another bleak one! It sucked to watch, I mean, on purpose. There were a couple of very effective scenes. I really enjoyed the opening. They say the book is decent too, I haven't checked that out.

Actually, let's just switch back from coherent thought to undignified staring at his mouth with this one. What the fuck is that cigarette thing. I couldn't help myself.

Last Night (1998)

These gifs are not representative of the whole movie. There is more happening than CKR kissing or hugging people. He's also doing more than just kissing and hugging. It's all very... impressive.

Guess who's also here again? Sandra Oh! And say hi to Don McKellar, who is an absolute champion for writing/directing/starring. You'll be seeing more of him.

Another one for the "watch it for its own sake" box. Seriously, that late 90s indie stuff is banger after banger. It's so beautiful! Look at those colours! Look at those shots! It's very uneasy and charming and melanchioly and itself in the best way.

Twitch City (1998 – 2000)

Don McKellar is back to murder you with discomfort! Bruce McDonald lends a hand. Molly Parker is also here. And Daniel McIvor, who'd go on to direct, for example, Wilby Wonderful. It's a party. If you watched some stuff from above (or below) on this list, most faces and names will be familiar to you, tbh (another Hugh Dillon double-take happens).

If you liked Spaced, you'll love this. You might also love it because it commits to its weirdness with an admirable resolve and is genuinely hilarious. (Honestly, CKR's outfits alone warrant a watch.) The idiosyncrasy is definitely Don McKellar's doing 200%. It couldn't be more different from Last Night, but if you've seen one, you'll recognise the other.

Battlestar Galactica (2003 – 2009)

I don't think a person should be allowed to look this pretty in the sweaty-and-dying makeup in that light (this sentence probably looks very weird to those not under the CKR magic spell).

I don't know what to say about BSG because I really, really enjoyed early it initially, but by the middle of S2 it got... well, whatever that was. If you know you know, if you don't, still give it a go. You might get invested enough to suffer through it all, as I have been, slowly.

The unfortunate thing is that CKR got to be there mostly in the "what the fuck" years and not the "wow that's so cool" years. That, as you might be aware, is a pattern with him. But! When he was here, he was so genuinely, wonderfully creepy not in the typecast-baddy way, but in this slow, half-absent way, which really worked. You can also see him tortured a little, as a treat!! <3

Also, a wild John Pyper-Ferguson appears! If you're looking at him thinking you know him from somewhere but not immediately remembering, you'll figure it out, I believe in you. I was very happy to see him.

Wilby Wonderful (2004)

Another win for the put CKR in more good shit team!!! Guess who's here again? Sandra Oh! Also, Paul Gross. Don't watch it for him either though haha.

Another one for whoever wants to look at pushing against the weight of others' (or your own) expectations and growing into who you are or reconsidering who you are or finding meaningful connections with others even when you're kind of a mess and they are too.

Not nearly the first time CKR's gotten to play a queer character, but man, this one really is the heart of the in-universe community, and, through that, of the film. A rare chance to see him so far out of the prickly persona! He's just so solid and calm and there for others in this one and, and soft, ough. It's awesome.

By the way, if any of you have the commentary track or know someone who has, please drop me a line here or on discord (emotionalrisotto), I really wanna hear that.

Supernatural (2005)

I love Supernatural a lot. It was a formative experiences (albeit a very late one) and I owe a lot of my favourite stuff about fandom-ing to the buddies I met through it. I can't believe I'm telling you this (because who hasn't seen it, not because I'm reccing it), but you should really try it if you haven't. It's pretty rad.

I had no idea who this guy was when I saw that episode (the second ever one!), though. I simply cannot fathom what @nigeltde-fic felt when she first saw it. I think I personally got very lucky she didn't combust on the spot. It would've been unfortunate.

On a sillier note, CKR's character has weird tension with both Sam and Dean in this episode, which is par for the course. I personally think they should've... no, I shan't say it. You can probably imagine.

Californication (2008 – 2013)

I haven't actually seen it, lol (and I suspect I won't enjoy it, but I'm very curious and also CKR looks really really good).

The real reason for this one on the list is to share a fic rec. Really, it's a due South F/K fic featuring Lew Ashby. It's ridiculously hot and very satisfying in its romantic resolution, too (but then, I'm kind of big on selfcest. And consensual voyeurism. And pretend relationships when done like this. And sublimated yearning. Erm.)

Shattered (2010 – 2011)

I wish this never happened. I badly, badly wish this never happened. I can't turn back time, but I can warn those luckier than me: do not go there. Yes, even for this dude. You'll sleep better not knowing just what it is he was the EP on. And the only important part — the mascara — can be seen above (yes, the show does look that bad, it's not just the gifs).

Just kidding — I watched it, didn't I? You'll have fun hating it! Just prepare for industrial grade cringe, lower your expectations (No, lower. No, still lower than that. And just a bit more.) and you'll have a great time!

Star trek: Discovery (2024)

Or, as I call it, Star Trek: The Mediocre Show. Discovery S5 was... what it was, but it was a wonderful viewing experience — mostly thanks to the gang (@kittkatk and @feroxargentea especially!)

What a joy it is, to follow a show week by week, yelling and laughing and discussing the whole time. And giffing, too. I was very happy to contribute to the Disco fandom from my own little obsessive corner, and I was glad to see people adoring Rayner, haha.

He's a pretty neat character — very much a stereotype, yes, but with CKR's usual twist of odd vulnerability and weirdness. Also, I loved the ears. I miss the ears. The ears were great.

I even wrote a fic! Although it's not within my usual range to write for canons and universes I don't know well — and back then, I'd only seen S5 of Disco. It was a lot of suffering, and a lot of fun.

Closing thoughts

I'd really love the dude to get a better agent. And possibly better taste, but I realise that's a tougher ask. Seriously, it's been too long since he was in something majorly cool. I'm grateful to him, at least, for not making terrible music on the side. And I still have a lot of his back catalogue to get through, some of it even good, so there will be more insanity. Until then!

[aphroditelovesu]

May i request Yandere love letter of Prince Kit (part 2), where reader ran away from him after midnight at the ball

Beloved,

As the last chime echoed through the empty hall, my heart was filled with sadness as I saw you disappear into the shadows of the night. The radiant beauty that lit my path all night has now been lost, leaving only the memory of your enchanting presence.

Your escape has left an emptiness in my chest, a feeling of loss that I can't bear. Every moment with you was like a fairy tale, and now, in the solitude of this empty hall, I realize how deeply I fell in love with you.

If only I could find words to express how I feel, maybe I could bring you back into my arms. I promise to search for you tirelessly, riding through dark forests and deep valleys, until our destinies intertwine again.

The night was just beginning for us, but cruel fate separated us. Since then, I have been counting the minutes, hours and days, waiting for the moment when we can meet again. Every second away from you is an eternity of pain and longing. If only I could go back in time and prolong that magical moment we were together, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Please believe in my sincere love and my determination to win your heart once again. You are my lost princess, my light in the darkness, and I will do everything in my power to have you back by my side. Just wait for me because I am coming for you.

With all my love and longing,

Kit.

[foursaints]

saints do you ever think about Barty’s time in Azkaban

i think it’s objectively hilarious that he was only there for “about a year” before his parents busted him out. and then he started bragging about surviving azkaban like. love of my life. that was basically just an interesting gap semester that you had 😭

but generally i think it’s pretty straightforward in there? i think the way dementors alienate you from yourself was already pretty familiar to him because of his childhood, and that’s why he bounced back so quickly. his post-azkaban “kept under imperius & under an invisibility cloak” imprisonment is much sadder to me than his actual prison stay

[blood-orange-juice]

Yet another Childe post, inspired by a reddit discussion this time.

In the Chinese voiceover he switches to a flat PTSD voice after he declares you a friend. Early Liyue interactions are warmer and more cordial.

He puts a lot of effort into pretending he's a normal person in front of strangers and most people never get to see anything even resembling the real him.

This is why I don't really agree with headcanons about him making friends everywhere he goes (people often use it as a proof that he's Normal and Sweet and only does morally questionable things because of the Fatui). He's superficially friendly and charming because he wants something from people or as a precaution measure, but that's all there is to it. It's a skill. 

I don't think he cares about making friends.

(I actually wonder if Yoimiya and Xinyan friendly reactions to him is being able to see his real somewhat decent self or just giving our boy the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think these two can be fooled by superficial things so it's probably just them being kind and him not being actively malicious)

When he actually considers someone a friend he becomes... rather unpleasant. Like in that line about rain and fishing.

For a similar reason I don't really buy the idea of three guys in Meropide being Childe's friends. The story they tell heavily implies that they tried to bully him until he snapped, wiped the floor with them and returned to whatever he was doing at the moment. Then they suddenly began to adore him. It's not friendship, it's fawning and it's not worth much. I'm sure Childe knows it.

So he got himself a bunch of henchmen, shrugged and used them for his goals (I'm sure he was nice about it, the guy is generous when someone helps him). He then probably forgot they ever existed.

It's not what you normally call "making friends". He just makes sure he's liked while he still needs it.

The boy has manners though, I'll give him that.

[thoodleoo]

not me taking old latin V national latin exams to make sure i still know how this language works

[mrdarcysdadbod]

One of the essays I'd love to write if I had the time would be about the central importance of the Home in L.M. Montgomery books. Like - the way that a house is a character in a gothic because it's got all the history and the secrets and everything, a house in a Montgomery novel is the precise opposite. It helps that some of them are named - Green Gables being the obvious example - but even those ones are often given their names by someone that lives there and loves it. And it's not just about the house as setting in terms of physical place, it's also a key part of the atmospheric setting.

I'm thinking about the house Anne lived in while at Redmond, where its status as a rental was emphasized by the references to other people's furniture and decor, affirming its place as only temporary to her, but it was never made to feel cold or impersonal, because it was a place of warmth and joy. In contrast, there's the home where Valancy Stirling grew up, which she constantly emphasizes as being proper but not homey, as being a building without a soul, essentially. They're small details, but it matters that it was always unwelcoming, that Valancy's room had old, dusty potpurri in it, that it would be either too cold or too hot because her mother imposed a rigid rule without considering the state of the home; it makes me think about the way Anne personifies her surroundings with such regularity, like the Snow Queen outside her window and the frequent yearning speeches about Green Gables and its land when she's away. The house often seems as much a part of the family as any of the people in it.

It's always been really evocative to me, and it really speaks to a rooted sense of place in Montgomery's work, not just in the houses and homes, but in the forests and Lovers' Lanes and all the other places that create the worlds of her stories. It's important also that so many of her books are named for or after homes. Anyway

[thepastisalreadywritten]

In words laden with affection and warmth, Prince Philip told the then Princess Elizabeth how he had fallen in love with her 'unreservedly.'

The letter, written in 1946 — a year before their wedding — was among several revealed in Philip Eade's 2011 book Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died aged 99, told the Princess how falling in love with her so 'completely' had made his personal troubles and even those of the world 'seem small and petty.'

He also found it difficult to put his feelings into words, describing in another message after they had spent time together how he felt incapable of 'showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

And he told the Queen Mother in the year of her daughter's wedding to him how 'Lilibet was the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me.'

Love letters

Philip served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and saw active service against German, Italian, and Japanese forces.

The Greek prince's early life was also marked by upheaval — he escaped his home country as a baby by being hidden in a makeshift cot made from an orange box.

So his words were filled with meaning when he told Princess Elizabeth in 1946 how his love for her made all his past struggle — and the horrors the world had just been through — seem trivial by comparison.

He wrote:

'To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty.'

Three years earlier, Philip had spent Christmas at Windsor Castle.

Princess Elizabeth was said to be animated in a way 'none of us had ever seen before,' her governess, Marion Crawford, wrote.

Writing to her after seeing her again in July, Philip wrote of the 'simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.'

'I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

The same year, he apologised for the 'monumental cheek' of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.

'Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying "Nothing ventured, nothing gained,"' he wrote.

'Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.'

And in a letter to the Queen Mother two weeks after his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in November 1947, Philip expressed his vision for their time together.

He said:

'Lilibet is the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me, and my ambition is to wield the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good... Cherish Lilibet?'

'I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one's sense of humour or one's musical ear or one's eyes?

'I am not sure, but I know that I thank God for them and so, very humbly, I thank God for Lilibet and us.'

Public speeches

The pair's wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947.

The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

And in the years since then, both Philip and the Queen have spoken of each other with affection in public.

In a 1997 toast during the couple's 50th wedding anniversary, he said:

'I think the main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage.

It may not be quite so important when things are going well, but it is absolutely vital when the going gets difficult.

You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.'

She said on the same evening that Philip had been her 'strength and stay all these years.'

'I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know,' she added.

In 2002, at her Golden Jubilee Speech, the monarch said of her consort:

'The Duke of Edinburgh has made an invaluable contribution to my life over these past fifty years, as he has to so many charities and organisations with which he has been involved.'

And, during her Diamond Jubilee address to Parliament in 2012, the Queen said to her husband:

'During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure.

Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.'

Private moments

Philip was there for the Queen when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952.

Only six days before her father's death, the then Princess and Philip had embarked on their tour of Australia via Kenya.

According to Eade in his book, Philip said of the days following the King's death that 'there were plenty of people telling me what not to do.'

He added:

'I had to try to support the Queen as best I could without getting in the way. The difficulty was to find things that might be useful.'

And according to an anecdote told by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Philip is said to have told the Queen when recalling their first meeting in 1934 that — 'you were so shy. I could not get a word out of you.'

Mischievous Philip is also said to have joked to his wife on the day of her coronation in 1953 — when she was wearing the 17th-century St Edward's Crown — 'where did you get that hat.'

Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022)

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021)

[ataleofcrowns]

i love the difference between a blunt and a charming crown’s letter to d! it just shows how much effort you put in the game, thank you! 💕

Thanks so much, I appreciate you noticing that!! 💖💖

[stimboardboy]

blue leftovers

x - x - x | x - x - x | x - x - x

[dozydawn]

[sullenseptember]

I have something to say