#like at least commit in some way to a style. to an era

[redacted-metallum]

Always heartbreaking when you see a hot person on here post something like omggg this song is sooo goood it makes me feel like im undergoing metamorphosis!!! and then when you listen to the song it's at best below mid in the most inoffensive marketable way that's just like. This is boring.

[imsosleepyofyourbull]

This is an impulsive draft of a scene I thought up based on @orange-artist‘s Time Travel AU of the Kamaboko Squad… if you read this, know that I love your art and that I genuinely can’t stop thinking about it. Please enjoy the hyper-fixation soup of words that I call my unedited writing!

“Kanata and Kiriya,” Kagaya gasped, his usually gentle and composed features overrun with surprise as he desperately hoped he had not misheard them. “How… how many of the children did you say survived this year’s Final Selection?”

“Of the thirty-three test takers, thirty-three have passed and will continue to serve the Demon Slayer Corps,” Kanata replied dutifully.

“Of those thirty-three,” Kiriya continued after, already anticipating their father’s next question. “Five were noted to be especially skilled.”

“The independent swordsman who developed his own breathing style, Hashibira Inosuke.”

“The independent swordsman who does not use a breathing style, Shinazugawa Genya.”

“The youngest student of the retired Rumbling Pillar Kuwajima Jigoro, Agatsuma Zenitsu.”

“The newest student of the retired Water Pillar Urokodaki Sakonji, Kamado Tanjiro.”

“And the only student of the current Insect Pillar Kocho Shinobu, Tsuyuri Kanao.”

Kiriya gave their father a moment to commit the different names to memory before concluding, “the remaining twenty-eight state one or more of these five had saved their lives at least once and stayed close by until they were healthy enough to survive the rest of the week. We saw each of them waiting at the edge of the forest for the rest of the stragglers before passing themselves. Additionally, the Kasugai Crows we sent on a final expedition of the forest afterward reported that only one or two of the demons were left alive.”

Kagaya had believed the Miracle Selection to be a once in a lifetime phenomena — marked by a lonely gravestone in their strange family’s shared cemetery and the memory of a peach colored fox wielding violent waters in defense of its peers.

Unimaginable, and unrepeatable.

He was right, but only because this Miracle Selection was nothing like the first. This one was intentional and decisive and everything that his family made of blood, bone, and steel had been waiting for. The beginning, or perhaps just the first visible omen, of a change in the very course of the world that Kagaya had been unable to foresee until it had already happened. Was it any coincidence that there were thirty-three survivors specifically? That, of those thirty-three, five of them in particular had saved the rest?

The Ubuyashiki were superstitious by nature; marrying their heirs to the daughters of priests and teaching their children to create rings of salt around their beds when they wanted some extra protection at night. The importance of the numbers three and five were not lost on him. With the three sacred treasures and the five directions (the five senses) marking their way, there was no question as to what he must do. Kanata and Kiriya know it too, or they would’ve sent a crow instead of making a personal report.

“Tell our most reliable kasugai to follow the five children you just mentioned,” he ordered Kanata, “they don’t have to be especially quiet… though I would appreciate it if they were undisruptive.”

He could not see her, but he knew that she gave him a solemn bow before turning to leave.

For Kiriya, “I need a missive to be sent to all of the currently active Pillars as well as the retired Rumbling and Water Pillars for a meeting at the northwestern estate three months from now.”

“Understood.”

The tide of change was fast approaching, and he knows that it will spell the end of this centuries long battle against the night. Kibutsuji Muzan will not live to see the next era — that, he promises.

(What he does not know just yet is that his chosen children have already sat on the horizon of a demon free world, and they know that they cannot afford to fail twice. Once was enough.)

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I think a lot of people severely underestimate Jungkook's self-knowledge of being a pretty boy.

He knows how to babygirl and he does so very often. He babygirls us on purpose.

...isn't this fatal?

*

Do you think there's anybody alive who can look at that face and not thank holy Hera for fucking Zeus?

*

...

For anyone who hasn't yet, you can pre-order the single, Seven, here.

*

Anyway, for the Anon who asked whether I'm gatekeeping Namjoon... Well, yes I am.

What of it?

I think my only choice is to gatekeep Joon when that man walks around looking like that.

Imagine the audacity of this man.

It's big... and normally he's clumsy but somehow I feel he won't be clumsy with it, you know? He's too much of a slut and a student at heart to not know what he's doing with it. At least that's what it looks like. And the music he makes, that's what it sounds like. In my opinion, and so gatekeep Joon I shall.

*

For the Anon who biased Jimin for his 'past' sexiness and feels his styling since MOTS7 has been disappointing, plus you hated his look for FACE promotions era...

I mean, on one hand I understand what you're saying. Jimin's look today is very much a choice, as it always is with him. And you're telling me you don't like it. Of course that's fine. Yes please vent in my inbox, but personally, I disagree. I think every post-2020 look Jimin has served deserves to be experienced.

And for no reason at all, Jimin.

Idk... Did people just randomly forget this happened?

*

Jimin offered such delectable sides of himself during the PTD concerts.

*

He commits to the slayage and I will always respect him for that.

*

...do you see the man?

*

A friend called him "The sexy Lord of the Manor and refined rake ready to ravish your soul." and she's right.

*

It's so natural for him.

*

Beautiful.

*

In some parallel universe he's a college professor and faculty advisor... With his beefy introverted husband at home with their two cats and one puppy.

*

Stream Set Me Free Pt 2.

*

Anyway... it's alright if his styling lately isn't for you. He'll be rocking a very different style post-military, and before then he'll have to cut all his hair anyway so don't worry too much about it I guess.

The way I see Jimin, he drips charisma so even when the look shouldn't work, it does, because something else that's innate to him draws you in. Plus I'm a fiend for his visuals.

Like, his look in 1:55 - 3:45 still has me kinda gagged ngl.

*

His styling this era represents a different energy he's feeling. It's possible he changes things up for his next solo project, maybe not, either way I genuinely think Jimin looks incredible.

[moonshynecybin]

thinking about that ranch visit again…. obvs marc rocking up with honda mechanics is such a major part of it. like i think that was a big factor in vale shifting marc in his brain from friend :) to—> sort of friend who is a ruthless competitor to—-> snake trying to sabatoge me to—> evilest motorcycle racer who ever lived.

idk vale cultivates the ranch as such a place of community and fun that is crucially far away from the press and like. the ruthless professional circus of the paddock. like marc is visiting his private little area here, and he kind of encroaches on the fundamental philosophical idea of it by bringing his mechanics. it becomes a professional arena of competition then, in a way it wasn’t entirely before. like to valentino i think marc is the one that shifted their relationship here.

and i’m not being naive and thinking there wasn’t already some degree of professional scoping out wrt to riding style and decision making, ofc. vale is a savvy dude who would use the experience and learn about marc as a competitor any way he can (and oh my god vice versa). he loves to win just as bad as marc does. they BOTH went ham trying to win that day he’s right there with him.

i’m also not saying marc was in the wrong!! in his brain of course he’s gonna bring his mechanics, he wants to win!! he can’t even work out without a competitive incentive it’s a huge part of like. the foundational makeup of his being. so he doesn’t notice anything that would raise a red flag in terms of vale being unhappy about it or transgressing on his climate of relaxed fun bc in his mind it’s normal! why wouldn’t he try as hard as he can! his mechanics help him do that! and valentino is a charming guy who is generally pretty friendly. hell, he’ll stab you with a smile, so marc doesn’t notice much in the way of tension at the time, probably. or, at least he can brush it off.

BUT! it’s notable that the way marc has narrativized the breakup to himself starts at the ranch. he says our relationship changed THERE. even now he conceptualizes it as i beat vale at the ranch bc i was better than him and our relationship changed bc he couldn’t handle it. and i’m sure there is a factor of valentino sensing the sun setting of his era and the rise of marc’s here. but i also think he saw marc as deliberately orienting himself as a serious, direct competitor to vale in a way he wasn’t before. so he pulls back a little. you wanna be my competitor? we can fucking do that.

so going into the season some narratives are forming in valentino’s brain here, and then they have a bunch of races where they always seem to tussle on the track — they make contact a LOT— and i think to vale those narratives are unfortunately being confirmed. vale voice that twunk wants me dead.

ON TOP OF ALL THIS and maybe most crucially: the title fight heats up and vale is WAY more insecure about it than he’s ever been in his entire competitive career. he’s older, he’s had some dogshit years at ducati so he’s not bullletproof anymore, he’s had to actually start going to the gym (he committed corporate espionage on jorge lorenzo to find out how he trains LMAO), and this punk kid who idolizes him is apparently the second coming of motorcycle christ. he used to be motorcycle christ. and!! i think he knows he can exert some real power over marc by spinning all of this to the media and making marc the bad guy.

so in vale’s head. he can take marc down a peg and shift some blame away from the way he’s potentially flopping AND do some personal mythmaking. reassert his status as motorcycle christ. and to his credit it pretty much works!! but GOD. poor marc got blindsided. like it’s so so mean. so mean.

[granddaughterogg]

What is ur interpretation on Simon’s character? like personality wise and what he would be like if he was dating someone. would he push away his feelings? would he fall first? etc

Hi Anon!

I see Simon "Ghost" Riley as first and foremost an introvert. He's not shy by any means, it's just that people (the emotional demands they make on him and his time, the noise they create) often drain him. He doesn't have many friends and it takes someone as relentlessly open and sociable as Soap to actually befriend him, because Ghost sure as hell won't initiate anything.

Then there's the question of endured trauma. SImon Riley have lost all his kin to a gruesome murder. It's been committed by his former brothers in arms, too - men who he might've trusted at some point, but they've been brainwashed by his enemy. (Look for the "Ghost" comic books online, I'm not pulling this out of my arse.) Naturally after such a tragedy Simon fell into this kind of fatalistic thinking that is well known to trauma survivors: Namely he believes that he's not allowed to care for anyone *or they will die*.

(I mean, Activision did this very thing to him. But MW III ending shall not be named as canon within my premises.)

And there's also the ever-present mask, a memento of another traumatic experience (he had been buried alive with a corpse of his former commanding officer and had to dig himself out of the grave, Beatrix Kiddo style.) Not many women enjoy company of a man whose face they've never seen. On the other side, there are many who would be down *exactly* for the thrill of it, and this is why Simon has an account on fetlife.

So - how does all this influence his attachment style and dating?

Lemme tell you...Simon Riley does not date. At least not if he can help it. What he does is blow off steam by the way of one night stands or no-strings-attached relationships which span for a few weeks between his deployments. He enjoys all the sex and intimacy he can get - and give, because this lad is actually surprisingly giving. And then he just dissapears. It's never about the woman; it's him.

He doesn't allow himself the luxury of emotional attachment and he doesn't want anyone to get attached to him. He strongly feels that they deserve better.

Until feelings catch him like a bag of bricks. And he'll still fight them every step of the way.

I've been working on a story about SImon Riley slowly, reluctantly, begrudgingly falling in love. It's just two chapters deep, so he's still in his Fuckboy Era but I will do my best to update it next week. Have a peek: You Let Me Complicate You - Chapter 1 - Granddaughter_Ogg - Call of Duty (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

[cinemaocd]

My april films list

The Scar/Blizna (1976): When I was in college my roommate was in a Polish class and she had access to a library of films and we watched a lot of Krzysztof Kieślowski and they are all good, I think. This one is about a mid level manager who inherits a white elephant of a project: clear a forest to build an industrial plant. The local people and the forest itself turn against him. It's magical realism with that Slavic touch of fatalism that always feels relevant.

Sweetie (1989): I saw this in the 90s at a film festival and so it was a bit of a shock when The Piano came out and it felt like you could not have two more different films at least on the surface, but both are directed by Jane Campion. Sweetie is a frank and often dark comedy about an ungovernable woman--a cautionary tale about the infantilisation of women, seen through the eyes of her long suffering sibling.  Akira (1987): Iconic anime with a beautiful smooth style. Copied so frequently it can look a bit basic to those who've grown up with its imitators, but the heart of it is a great score and atmospheric noir setting that make the set pieces like the night motorcycle ride through Tokyo the perfect accompaniment to millennial angst. Near Dark (1987): Katherine Bigelow's shot at the sexy vampire genre features most of the cast of Aliens as a troop of vampires who follow around a Confederate soldier. Bill Paxton does an entertainingly nasty turn as one of the baddies. Feels like an Aliens/Lost Boys AU and that is a compliment, really.

Cleo from 5-7 (1962): Not to be like this already in what amounts to a two sentence blurb, but the summary for this film describes Cleo as a hypochondriac? Excuse me but she is waiting around to find out if she has cancer. It seems to me that this is a movie about the way women are dismissed and not seen, even when they are famous and actually the center of attention wherever they go. On the surface she looks like a spoiled diva, but behind the scenes we see she is frightened and lonely. Anyway fuck the patriarchy and Free Cleo! Twelve Angry Men (1957): We rewatched this because my son is on some weird reddit sub thread discord where everyone rpgs as jurors from this movie...I'm not joking. Imagining a super niche fandom for Jack Warner. It exists. THe internet is a wild place. Anyway, this holds up. Don't mix up Syndey Lumet and Sydney Pollack like I did, lol. Embarrassing!

Ashes and Diamonds (1958): Polish film master, Andrez Wadja's be bop riff on neo realism, is a chronicle of the final day of German occupation, and a Hail Mary attempt by a young resistance fighter to wrest the country back from the Soviet Army which is already there. It's a hopeless mission, born of drunken desperation in smokey back rooms, one that comes apart in daylight. It's feels like Rebel without a Cause, but like...he has a cause? There a sense of tragic waste that mirrors Nicholas Ray's vision of restless American youth. Scoop (2024): A rather weak entry in the behind the scenes journalism drama genre that I seem to be unable to resist in any form. This has Billy Piper as a booking agent who manages the coup of getting Prince Andrew to sit down for an interview with the press about the pedophilia allegations. Your average episode of The Thick of It, probably has more meat than this made for TV film.

The Two Popes (2019): For those playing along at home this was my fourth time watching this. What can I say, two of my fave old lovies flirting away in Pope costumes. It's a comfort film. You are not immune to propaganda. Bulworth (1998): Featuring just about every working black actor of the era, this movie was kind of ahead of its time. About a liberal politician who is so depressed about the state of his party being owned by powerful business interests that he decides to commit suicide by hiring a hitman to kill him so that his family will at least get the insurance. Warren Beatty at his most ridiculous, this is underrated gem.

Great Expectations (1974) After revisiting this version, I went back to David Lean, which is no surprise. This is a made for TV movie that has a lot of familiar faces from 50s British film including Robert Morley and my boi Anthony Quayle. Michael York is Pip. Heat (1995): I might become slightly obsessed with Michael Mann after watching all this moody atmosphere punctuated with bursts of violence, with long passages set to a synth score that made Chris Fleming want to crash his car. Some beautiful lighting and camera work in the final set piece which takes place on an airport runway. Iconic and yet, bloated and overlong and I just don't know why I like it so much? Maybe it's Al Pacino's reactions which are just so off the wall in some scenes, and the disconcerting normality of the other people in the same scenes, ya know? Like they are in two different movies. I shot Andy Warhol (1996): Watched this for Jared Harris (who is adorable as always and terrific as always and completely sinks into the role as always) and came away remembering why Lily Taylor was a 90s icon/IT girl and boy can she act. Like wow. Andy Warhol is the title character, but it's more about Valerie Solanas the radical feminist lesbian who shot him because she believed he stole her work. (The movie implies that he did, a little bit...). Her SCUM manifesto remains controversial to say the least, but her story is a utterly heartbreaking, told with humanity and nuance. Actually a great choice for Pride month because it talks about gay history and it's not pretty or comfortable but it's necessary to learn. Hopscotch (1980): Delightful comedy starring Walter Matthau and Judy Collins as a spy couple. Combines actually decent spy thriller with actually funny stuff and it's romantic and sweet as well.

[the-heartstring-chronicles]

For @para-amour and any others looking for P/C fic recs

These are some of my fave fics and authors so far:

Spontaneity by theramblinrose, I love babyfic and this story Spontaneity has one of the most loving and in character birth scenes of a P/C child where they are both present that I've seen to date in fic. You can find it linked below.

Spontaneity by theramblinrose

Then there is Cave Baby by Mighty_Oak_Roots. Basically Beverly watching "her friend and captain" Jean Luc handling an infant in an emergency situation and enjoying both his discomfort and his caring nature towards the baby in equal measure, with some longing for what could be and a cute last scene that definitely is romantic and potential family P/C. It can be accessed at the link below.

Cave Baby by Mighty_Oak_Roots

Now for two novel length fics

I loved Snow Falling Softly by Mackillian. I read it last year and was invested from the start. Without giving too much away, if one likes the plot we have this season with Jack, this is similar but on an extra intense level in terms of emotion, complexity and dynamics. It's set during TNG and It also allows Wesley to react to the storyline and process his own emotions about not being an only child and the circumstances! Highly recommend. It is however over 500 or so pages when downloaded as an epub, so even online, it is an all weekend read, at least. Link is below.

Snow Falling Softly by Mackillian

I had barely started In The Depth of Winter by Mackillian last year when I got pulled away by stuff in another fandom. It is the sequel to Snow Falling Softly. It redoes All Good Things in a way that centers the fallout from Snow Falling Softly. It seems just as good so I am looking forward to finishing it. It is 700 pages in epub though so it may need two full weekends to read. Link can be found below

The Depth of Winter by Mackillian

I am also including this single chapter vignette In Paradisum by Mackillian because it is the sequel to The Depth of Winter. I have not read it yet but skimmed the first few lines and the writing seems on par with the two novels. You need to read them to understand this piece. Link to In Paradisum ready below

In Paradisum by Mackillian

Now for authors from whom I recommend reading everything they've written for the pairing:

I am absolutely loving everything I've read so far written for P/C by pktechgirlus. The style is spot on and very emotional while also at times being humorous and steamy. My favorite so far from this author is the story "Never And Always" but all I've read so far are incredible. Some are semi explicit, some are not (Warning, not all end happily) Here is the link to the author's TNG fics,

pktechgirlus's TNG Fics for P/C

There is also one for them from the Picard era which I love too, you can find that below

Vignette by pktechgirlus

And finally, the author I feel has the most solid, in character grasp on P/C in totality. @ussjellyfish. I adore reading their work because they understand the multi facets and deep humanity that is at the core of P/C. They can both perfectly write P/C playing on the holodeck, or saving each other from certain death even by committing violence in defense of the other or breaking laws/oaths. They keep P/C's love paramount, but also allow for mistakes to be made by each and vulnerability to be shown. Even the way they write physical intimacy between P/C feels like P/C and not "insert couple here" and I usually skip sex scenes now because I've been in so many fandoms that reading those scenes are a dime a dozen , but not those written by USSJellyfish, they actually make me care about seeing these characters enjoy each other.

They have both long novel length fics for P/C that are part of a series. and shorter one shot pieces.

The novel series starts with the fic Fair Trade and is several novel length fics long. I haven't finished the entire series yet but I am enthralled by what I have finished of it.

And some of my favorite shorter fics of theirs for P/C are Kindling and Lifeline, both are hurt/comfort fics of a sort. Kindling is explicit.

As I said though, I recommend reading all of their fics for P/C so I am putting a link that leads to all of their P/C fic below.

USSJellyfish's P/C Fics

(They also write Beverly/Kathryn fic, Beverly/Deanna fic, Riker/ Beverly fic, and other pairings on TNG, Fic for several parings on Discovery, and for several on Voyager including Chakotay/Paris and J/C. so much to read!)

Happy reading everyone, I hope this list was helpful!

[appears]

20th Anniversary

Namie Amuro: Style (2003.12.10)

There are at least four distinct eras in Namie Amuro's career: 1) her initial debut with the idol-ish super eurobeat/dance group SUPER MONKEY'S (which spawned the group MAX) from 1992 to 1995, 2) her major debut as a solo artist with Avex Trax in 1995, kicked off by the single "Body Feels EXIT," through to the height of her popularity as a leading figure in the J-pop industry alongside producer Tetsuya Komuro until her abrupt hiatus in 1997, 3) the awkward, not-very-well-received comeback and transition to post-TK R&B, which saw the lowest sales numbers of her career, and lasted roughly until the release of Queen of Hip-Pop in 2005, and 4) her meteoric rebound, transition back to dance-pop, and the cementing of her status as a legend, until the abrupt announcement of her retirement in 2017. There are a lot of mini-moments within these eras, and many parts overlap so that it's not exactly seamless, but that's the gist of it.

While Namie's comeback was one of the rarest in music history, the factors that led to the initial nadir are just as interesting and numerous. For one, she had squandered the goodwill of the public by engaging in activity that was frowned upon in Japan at the time: she hooked up with a backup dancer, got pregnant, got married, got tattoos, and got divorced, all within the space of a couple of years. On top of it, Namie's success was tied to that of her producer, the mega-popular and prolific Tetsuya Komuro, who was basically running a personal empire in the 1990s. While Namie's popularity and success was never due solely to the music he was writing for her, it was an enormous contributing factor to her sales numbers. TK's brand of pop was the defining style of the 90s, with no one better able to pry open wallets in what was the CD format's most lucrative era. But just as quickly and completely as he ruled hearts and charts, his music fell out of style, also as a result of several factors (mostly the rise of singer-songwriters and R&B/hip-hop in the mainstream, and personal issues involving everything from tax evasion, to drug rumors and a wild romantic life). Namie teaming up with him again for her immediate comeback never stood a chance against so much drama. So major changes were made when Namie ditched the Komuro baggage, taking the plunge with new support -- Dallas Austin, m-flo, ZEEBRA, even Teddy Riley -- into the world of R&B and hip-hop.

This brave step didn't immediately produce amazing results: if anything, Namie's early forays proved lackluster and indecisive on albums like GENIUS 2000. It wasn't until 2003's STYLE that she finally and fully committed to the change. Gone were the days of chasing the chance and dreaming that she was dreaming, Namie was now putting up her dukes, wishing on the same star, and shining more. The songs on the album were all heavily influenced by contemporary Western trends of the time, especially Black hip-hop, fashion, and culture. The early 00s was still the era of P. Diddy, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly, Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott, and in some ways, STYLE samples sounds from all of these artists in different ways, with the inclusion of a few softer songs, such as "Four Seasons," "As Good As," and "Come," which were deliberately added for variety. But for the most part, the album is built on beats, bars, and rhymes. This was still a fairly new thing to see in the Japanese mainstream, and certainly by an Avex Trax artist -- for comparison, Ayumi Hamasaki had just released her rock opus I am..., while RAINBOW merely dipped a toe into R&B on a song like "Real me," Ai Otsuka was less than a year out from releasing LOVE PUNCH, Hikaru Utada was actually going softer and more art-pop with Deep River, and both BoA and Kumi Koda had just debuted in Japan with LISTEN TO MY HEART and affection respectively, which stayed squarely on the softer R&B/pop side of the fence. Only Crystal Kay, HEARTSDALES, and maybe DOUBLE were a step ahead of Namie, but I would argue that STYLE and Namie's involvement in projects like SUITE CHIC really let the sound transition into the broader and bigger Oricon mainstream, prompting a rash of copycat records.

Even so, STYLE did poorly. It still hit #1 in its first week, but it stands as Namie's least popular record with the fewest sales numbers to this day. It does, however, have something of a cult following by fans who now look back at the early 00s with nostalgia. Personally, I didn't like this album when I first heard it -- its lack of pop and dance music, which I was used to hearing from Namie, coupled with what seemed like a desperate bid for relevancy in a genre that I wasn't particularly interested in at the time, turned me off from spending much time with it. Nowadays, I dislike this album less -- there are songs on here that I actually really like. My only real caveat is that the album is split too abruptly at the halfway point between the bangers and the non-hip-hop tracks. In hindsight, STYLE is clearly Namie still getting comfortable in this milieu, and it's especially obvious next to albums like Queen of Hip-Pop and PLAY that were more successful at capturing something both influenced by hip-hop and unique to what only Namie could bring.

This CD album comes in a standard jewel case with an OBI and a booklet that features additional photos and lyrics. First press editions featured two exclusive bonus tracks: a remix of "SO CRAZY," and an alternate version of "Wishing on the Same Star." For me, this album is more interesting for what lead to it, what it lead to, and what it said about the state of Namie Amuro and J-pop at the time. It's not great, but it's not nearly as bad as I remember it being. Avex Trax, of course, would politely disagree, largely ignoring it on the career-summarizing compilation album Finally (only "SO CRAZY" represents). After something as tentative and a bit try-hard as this, the world was not ready for what was coming down the pipe with Queen of Hip-Pop, making that era all the more wild and magical.

Catalog Number: AVCD-17372

[malibudarby87]

Games Men Play - short story

Content Warnings:

Body Horror

Brief mention of Mental Illness/Suicidal Ideation

Sexual Themes

Violence

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the sixth time I’d seen him. I’d been counting.

The first time was Leather Night, at The Pit across town. I’d thought he’d been going for some kind of leather-punk, biker-goth, 80’s throwback thing. Black string vest – low-cut to better show off a thicket of walnut hair – under a sleeveless black denim jacket; leather trousers laced at the side; a wide, flaccid black mohawk turning electric blue at the end like some exotic bird.

By my third sighting of him, at Drag Queen Bingo here at Charlie’s, I realised it was a committed style. Tonight was no different. All leather, denim, and black as sleep, save for the electric blue plumage which was now bleached a ghostly white. It caught the club lights as they flashed towards him, dancing through the rainbow in time with the music.

Each night I’d seen him on the periphery, dancing through the crowd or standing in a doorway. I’d watch for a while, weighing up if my fascination was piqued enough to make a move. By the time I came to a conclusion he’d always be gone, dropping out of view like shadow into shadow.

Tonight, he seemed content to stand vigil at the bar. Sharp blue eyes like the base of glaciers scanning a crowd of sweating, leaping bodies.

I wiped the few errant beads of my own sweat off my forehead and began pushing my way to my latest potential conquest. The bar was abandoned by patrons in favour of the dance floor, and taking a seat next to him was a deliberate move.

‘Sazerac, please,’ I barked through the din.

I waited until the drink was in front of me to turn towards him. When I did, I found him pointedly turned towards me. Pushing from the hips, leaning back like a cat. Nursing his own drink between two hands, in a way that pressed his pecs together in a masculine cleavage.

I was in.

‘Looks like I’m stood up again,’ I said, brushing my hair from my face, flexing slightly. ‘Fucking app twats, always wasting time.’ A frequently used opening gambit that paid off more than it should.

He smiled tightly and lidded his black-lined eyes. ‘Yeah, we’re not doing that.’

‘Doing what?’ I asked, innocently.

‘That tired game where you pretend to have been interested in someone else, but oh no, they ghosted me! Please, save me from a night alone!’ He tapped a fingernail on his glass as he spoke. ‘Bit sad, don’t you think?’

I thought about walking away right then, sure I’d completely fucked it. But something in the way he looked at me, a patient teacher watching his student stumble over the first answer, made me think I had at least one more shot.

I took a drink. The bitter liquor hit me harder than expected. Burning to a comfortable weight in my chest and spinning my head.

‘James,’ I said, extending a hand, which he took and turned palm down, with an unexpected delicacy. A regency era politeness in a venue where guys were getting blown in the bathrooms as we spoke.

‘Vox,’ he said, and I wasn’t sure if that was a name or some kind of old-world insult.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Vox,’ he repeated, turning to the bartender to order another whiskey with a series of simple, but unignorable hand gestures. Like carving runes into the air. Within seconds a fresh drink was placed on the counter.

‘Thank the devil you finally came over,’ he said with a lilt. ‘All that staring through the crowd. Ducking through shadows. You started to seem a little…’ he trailed off, head tilting quizzically as his eyes scanned me. ‘Stalkerish.’

‘Did it work? Do you feel hunted?’

‘Like prey?’

‘I could be the predator.’ I pushed, enjoying the banter a little too much; whiskey clouded, and straining at the edges of good taste.

‘Nah,’ he said, swirling ice cubes in the brown liquid with a sharp scraping somehow still audible over the bass. Fingernails black. Chipped lacquer that showed pale underneath. ‘That’s straight people shit. I don’t do prey.’

‘So, no games. No carnal pursuit. What do you do, Vox?’

‘I never said no games.’ A flash of teeth like a circus showman. ‘Just not the kind that bore me.’

My tastes typically leaned more towards the preppies and gym bunnies. The boys-next-door – if next door was a 24-hour gym with adjoining GAP outlet. I’d pick up a new one most every night I went out. An endless parade of stout, tan men with identikit haircuts and personalities in various shades of beige. Easy conquests. Easy prey.

This guy wasn’t my usual type. But there was something about his Doc Martins, and painted nails, his anachronistic sideburns and soul patch. A smattering of piercings on his face and ears, black ink tattoos peeking up under his collar and above his waistband, which told tale of a penchant for pain that I didn’t find unappealing.

And his name. The way it tasted as my tongue pressed to roof of my mouth. Old in a way I couldn’t place. An incantation.

‘Tell me then, Vox,’ I shifted a leg, grazing his knee with mine. He looked down at it pointedly but didn’t move away. ‘What kind of games do you like?’

‘The dangerous kind. The old kind.’ His voice was cold on heat. Icicles forming from sweat.

‘I’m afraid I don’t know any games like that,’ I said, sinking deeper into his glacial eyes. Head a fog of etiquette and desire. My words came out in slow bursts. Metered and unrhyming. ‘I’m more an Uno and Scrabble guy. But I’m a quick study and down to play. Maybe you could teach me the rules?’

The look he gave burned through me. He downed his drink in one gulp, eyes unflinching, and grabbed my wrist like an adder’s bite.

In that moment, something was decided. Something I wouldn’t understand until later. Until it was too late to take back.

+

He led me from the bar and into the chill of the night. A world washed in cold blue, moon thick and languid in a cloud splattered sky.

I followed behind, whiskey drunk and shuffling. Heartbeat rhythm of hook-up anticipation. A stirring in my jeans and warmth under my armpits. The few late-night stragglers disappeared behind us. The bass of the club giving way to the clop of his boots on stone.

Outside of the dry smoke and dancing lights, he seemed larger. Pulled at the edges, silhouetted in the alleyway, flanked by shadows.

The colouring of him looked different in the moonlight too. The white stripe of hair a natural warning. Skunks and poisonous frogs. Things that sicken and kill.

I was past the point of warning now.

His grip on my wrist was iron. He walked with a purpose I didn’t understand, and my head swam in the movement, lulled to a fearless resignation. A crying baby coddled by a late-night ride.

‘Hey, what’s the rush?’ The words dripped out of me in slow motion. Distant in my own mind.

He didn’t answer, leading me further down the alley without word or pause.

I didn’t recognise the street anymore. The redbrick townhouses giving way to black, soot-stained buildings. Victorian. Almost industrial. Tall windows with hidden shadows and overhanging roofs that bent in like a copse of trees.

I imagined worker children in Dickensian fashions, dragged by ears to death-trap factories. I imagined pigs, bellies distended, food drunk and stupid being led to slaughter.

‘My place isn’t far,’ I said, not sure if that was true anymore. Processions of shadows danced closer, narrowing the alleyway as he grew taller.

‘Mine is closer,’ he said, and the words hit my ears at once. An inorganic stereo sensation. I nodded grimly, and followed on, barely noticing that the narrowing darkness now snatched at my heels.

+

I still remember my first time with a man.

It came late, all things considered. Twenty-three and three months to the day. I lie and tell everyone I first did it when I was fifteen, with a builder who’d been helping put up an extension for my parents. The builder was real, and the extension happened, but everything else was just fevered teenage fantasy.

My real first time was with a counsellor I’d been seeing to cope with what my parents called “Post University Depression” which I suppose was partly accurate. The biggest issue, however, was that I was a fag, and a coward.

It’s cliché to say, but it really did just happen. He’d given me his number in case of emergencies, and I’d called one night, staring at a bottle of pills, and hoping to see oblivion.

He came over and a three-hour talk turned into something else.

I remember the act itself felt incredibly sudden and yet oddly formal. Showering after the first tentative kisses. Discussions of position and choice of activity. Flesh yielding to force and patience. A chorus of grunts and sighs, strange bodily scents, and a guilt-laden aching that felt like shooting up liquid sin. Afterwards, collapsing, quivering on my back, my entire body an exposed nerve.

Every night since had been a hunt to feel that again.

+

Something cold twisted at my naked thigh. A swift, slick motion and I awoke in fits. I thrashed and flopped like a fisherman’s catch and when my eyes came to focus in the dim light, I saw something black coiled around my leg.

I slapped it with a hand and felt soft, cool silk.

Looking around, I noticed a few things; firstly, my lack of clothing; secondly, that I was somewhere in a Meatloaf music video.

The room was palatial in scale, with high vaulted ceilings, disappearing into shadow. Chain suspended black iron chandeliers hung from the cross beams, candles bulbous and nobbled from overuse. The light generated by them – and the handful of candelabra scattered about the bed, and more near the strange, circular, curtained-off area in the centre of the room – seemed to be contained. Diffused and unable to touch the shadows that clung, heavy as blood sated bats to wood-panelled corners and beneath French provincial furniture.

Everything seemed out of scale. A dollhouse with the wrong dolls. The bed I was lying on could have comfortably held five. The full-length mirror, smoky at the edges, stretched a good fifteen feet up the wall. Next to it a tapestry, old as dirt and with a strange paper texture snaked its way around the room, disappearing out of sight behind the curtained off section, and reappearing on the other side.

The colour was faded, pictures indecipherable in the dim light.

The last thing I noticed, was him.

Vox sat at a vanity – oddly to scale for his size – back towards me, facing what might have once been a mirror but now held a scant few shards, like teeth in a screaming maw.

His back was bare, showing a tapestry of its own, scarred in black ink that spread like sickness over one shoulder. He busied himself pulling jewellery free from his face and ears that he dropped one at a time on a plate. Each piece hit the surface with a muffled, wet tap.

Fear and confusion pushed me to move and as I rose a wave of sickness gripped my stomach. A crunching twist like bad street food doubled me over, beads of sweat pricking on my back.

‘Don’t try to move,’ his voice, clear as a bell in the cavernous room.

I curled pathetically, pulling the sheets in bawled fists until I heard the tear of fabric. The pain was unbearable, stealing my breath and pounding in my blood. Something slithered inside me, contracting, and pulling at all the vital parts, making shapes no human organ should be suffered to endure.

Cool fingertips traced a pattern on my neck and the pain faded, quick as it had arrived, slipping free like a retreating invader.

I gasped and hacked; some black residue expelled into my palm.

‘Breathe,’ he said. A mother comforting a child. ‘That’s it, James. Just breathe.’

‘The fuck did you do to me?’ I hacked between sucking breaths. A hand the size of a shovel, segmented with too many knuckles tilted my face up, and I saw him. Truly saw him.

Childhood fears of grinning men. Of clowns and child-catchers and toothpaste ad teeth that sat in wide, fat gummed mouths. Skin split, liquorish blood at the corners of his rictus grin, eyes wrinkled at the sockets so deep they sank into dark pits, where glacial blue stars twinkled and faded in a grim mockery of blinking.

‘I’m teaching you the rules,’ he said, mouth unmoving. Fingernails like bevel edged chisels curled under the flesh of my cheek and gripped me in place. ‘We’re going to play that game now. You remember. The dangerous one? The old one?’

I blinked a response. A plea, I suppose. Choosing not to form words for fear of my face being torn from my skull.

His hand receded, each nail pulling from the meat of my cheek with a sickening pop.

‘It’s a simple game. One of the first, but not the first,’ he strode to the curtain in the middle of the room, back hunched and legs bowed in strange angles, the white streak of hair stretched and ragged, hanging like a tattered banner over one sinewy shoulder.

A hand still dripping with my blood snatched at the curtain, pulling it into the shadows and revealing a large circular area.

It was stone. Old and porous. Grey in the way only ancient things can be. Colour stolen by millennia. Hollows and tiles swirled into the centre in a checkerboard pattern that formed a large, coiled snake.

The Vox thing circled it with hands flourishing. A ghastly gameshow model presenting my prize.

‘You make it to the mouth of the snake, and you make it back. Can’t get much simpler than that.’

I wiped tears and blood and stared at it. It was hypnotic, seeming to move and shift in my vision. Slowly spiralling in place. An optical illusion, surely, but one accompanied by the sounds of grinding stone.

‘I don’t want to play,’ I said, eyes downcast for fear of its response. I expected screaming. I expected death.

‘Well, I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough,’ it said. The offence in its words was jarring. ‘A couple of hours ago, you were falling over yourself to play with him.’

I raised my head and saw him. The man from the bar, stood naked next to the Vox thing. He eyed me with a look of seduction, painted nails stroking at his chest. Lip bite and a widening stance.

‘You can have him, if you want,’ the Vox thing purred through its unending grin. ‘Wouldn’t that be nice? All the things you could do. Use him up until you’re bored like all the others.’

The man shivered and split, briefly flickering to shadow before reforming as two. One the man I met, the other different. Tan skin with a hairless chest, the suggestion of abs beneath a slight paunch. They pressed against each other, lips, and tongues on flesh in a stilted eroticism that felt like theatre.

‘I could get you more. As many as you desire. That could be your prize.’

Would that be so bad? I thought. My life had been just that, so far. A string of men. Conquered and won, used, and discarded until the next and the next and the next. It was something I was good at, the hunt. But would I be happy without it? If they were handed to me like packaged meat? No danger of defeat?

I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts. Willing a civilised mind to prevail over base desire. ‘I don’t want to play I just want to leave.’

‘Enough!’

With a swipe of its hand the Vox thing rent the men into pieces, blood heat and pink flesh cascading into shadows that hit the ground and scuttled away into dark places.

‘You don’t seem to understand, James. You’re already playing, sweet. And the longer you wait to make your move…’ its voice trailed off, head tilted. ‘Well, let’s just say you’re not the only piece on the board.’

A morbid wave of inevitability hit me. Sudden clarity of what the Vox thing meant. I had been playing. Longer than perhaps even it knew. It was all a game, in the end, wasn’t it? Snakes and ladders. Snakes and men. Men and snakes and ladders and each one with its own unique poison.

There was death waiting out there as much as it was in here. Different guises, yes, but death the same.

I walked towards the board, knowing somewhere deep that it was not the first time. Late night hook-ups. Fumbling in the dark with strange men just to feel the thrill of life and the danger of it too. It was all a game. Get to the snake and get back safely.

I was good at that game.

My foot found the first divot in the stone. I looked at the board. There was no difficulty to the path. A few tiles marked with symbols immediately recognisable as warnings in some deep, ancient way that lived in the blood of man. A few pits that sunk deeper than the others. The route was clear, and no danger of getting lost when the path was so singular.

I could do this. I had done this.

Bare feet found purchase on the porous stone, one after the other and in my mind, I saw images of a lion and a gazelle. Sat around a board like this, nudging pieces with hoof and claw.

A game as old as man, and older still.

The gazelle placed a winning piece and the lion, incensed at the move, sunk rending teeth into yielding flesh.

It never once occurred to me that I was not the lion.

Outside the board something in the darkness laughed.

I looked back, the path I had taken stretching out like time. Something crawled up the snake’s back. Something large, and black. Body of lion, mane thick with shadow and a head of long, snapping jaws. It padded across the tiles, following my footfalls, bounding across time like an approaching comet.

The second piece.

I turned and ran like prey.

[waheelawhisperer]

Thoughts on Cinder

I liked her a lot during the Beacon era and felt like her whole mysterious villain thing was pretty cool. She had solid potential as an antagonist at that point, but the show took too long to give us any kind of backstory for her while at the same time giving her a bunch of focus as a major villain, so she ended up feeling kind of flat for a while. The writers gave her a lot of screentime throughout the series, but didn't use that screentime particularly well, and thus she committed the cardinal sin of being boring as a major character. She somewhat improved in Volumes 7 and 8 where we got actual insight into her past and motivations and so on, but it was too little, too late for me, and what she got in Atlas wasn't helped by Volume 8's incredibly baffling decision to juggle 3 villains and do little of interest with any of them.

In terms of aesthetic, I really like her Poser look with the long hair and femme fatale vibes. It felt a little bit overblown at the time, especially with the way she was voiced, but her backstory makes it fit a little more. I'm not as big a fan of the short hair looks, and the Atlas one in particular is a fit I do not care for (common theme with Atlas outfits). It's too black and really lacks any sort of color to make it stand out, which is pretty unfortunate in a show that supposedly has a heavy emphasis on color and its use and meaning.

Her fighting style is hella cool, especially her use of glass and her ability to switch between range and melee with her bow blades before gaining the Maiden powers. I think there is a lot that can be done with her Semblance in fight scenes and it's frankly wasted by giving her the Maiden powers, which were a stupid addition to begin with. Cinder tends to get some of the better fights in the series, so she's got that going for her, at least.

I never had as many issues with her voice acting as a lot of others do, but I do think her Volumes 1-3 sultry voice felt like her VA was trying too hard. I do think Nigri, like a lot of other RWBY VAs, improved a lot over the show's run, but I can't say I'm a good judge of voice acting or its quality.

None of her ships are interesting to me tbh. Fallen Petals had potential in a "seductive villainess corrupts young idealistic hero" kind of way, but now there's just no chemistry between her and Ruby (or anyone else, for that matter). She's got the obsession with Ruby, I guess, but that doesn't do much when Ruby literally forgets she exists for large stretches of the show.

[peterparkersnose]

Tumblr Wrapped @peterparkersnose

This account was launched January 8th, 2022 (Exactly one year ago) and I just wanted to share some stats because I love statistics and to see progress and growth.

I have 1,803 followers

I have 85 published works

I have 8 different fan groups I wrote for

I have 18 characters I wrote for

Marvel Word Count was 36,982 words

DC Word Count was 8,400 words

Star Wars Word Count was 26,324 words

Stranger Things Word Count was 11,957 words

Top Gun Maverick Word Count was 5,148 words

Klitz (The Girl Next Door) Word Count was 6,500 words

Javier Peña (Narcos) Word Count was 4,500 words

Joel Miller (The Last of Us) Word Count was 1,300 words

101,111 words in total.

Average of 1.1k words per posting.

There are about 70,000 to 120,000 words roughly in any usual book. Landing right in the middle of that statistic warms my heart.

A special thank you to my consistent tag list (love you guys) for their continued support of me over the last year.

{ @dani5216 @uwiuwi @alohastyles-x @samanthacookieone @maddieinnit0 @alexxavicry @scoliobean }

I know I’m not the best writer out there, I’ve read MANY fics this year that beat out mine by a long shot (check some of them out here). Thank you to all my readers, I’m glad you enjoyed my work. To another successful year, hopes for 2023!

I have a ton of Joel Miller fics queued for The Last of Us Show (Airing 1/15 on HBO Max).

My Favorites of the Year

Movie: The Batman (2022)

Album: Harry’s House (Harry Styles)

Dilf: Pedro Pascal

Character to write for: Din Djarin

Fan base (everyone is so lovely, it was so hard to choose): Druig/Eternals/Barry Keoghan

Fan Base to write for: Star Wars

Series I wrote: Pink Bra Strap- Klitz (Paul Dano)

Video Game: The Last of Us 1 (again)

Least Favorite Character I wrote for: Eddie Munson (sorry tik tok ruined it)

Show: Game of Thrones

Favorite Genre: Angst

Least Favorite Genre: Smut (I can enjoy on occasion but I like a good argument vs good sex)

Top Three Stories I Wrote

Secret (Din Djarin)

Body Lightweight (Kylo Ren)

Unreleased Obi Wan fic (sorry not sorry)

Dilf of the Month 2022:

December 2021- Adam Driver

January 2022- Andrew Garfield

February 2022- Barry Keoghan

March 2022- Pedro Pascal

April 2022- Paul Dano

May 2022- Oscar Isaac

June 2022- Eddie Munson/ Joe Quinn

July 2022- Matthew Gray Gubler

August 2022- David Harbor

September 2022- Rooster Top Gun/Miles Teller

October 2022- Evan Peters

Nov 2022- Hayden Christansen

Dec 2022- Ewan McGregor/Obi Wan Kenobi

Jan 2023- Bob Odenkirk/ Saul Goodman

Top Five Era’s of this year

Pedro Pascal Era (March-Now)

Bagel Era 🥯 (March-May)

Miles Teller Era (June-October)

Party Monster The Weeknd Era (October-Now)

Fletcher Meme Era (August-October)

(This is not a brag post in any way shape or form. I am extremely proud of myself. I worked hard for what I have. I have attention issues and I expected to drop this account when I got bored so I’m thrilled I committed to it. I am very appreciative of every single one of you.)

Thank you all.

Love,

@peterparkersnose

[beautifulpersonpeach]

It's cold and dreary and the tannies are gone,,, *cries in the corner* But the re-debuting (?) efforts for 2 cool 4 skool (I definitely didn't know how to spell this lol) is so heartwarming!! I just feel warm and fuzzy inside, you know?? Do you know if these fandom efforts are typical for kpop groups? I don't know what to expect for this ms era. I keep seeing articles and discussions that talk about who'll fill in the gap that's left by bts. It's not that I'm super worried (I know exactly where I stand), but I just don't know what will happen next as a whole. I quite enjoy the current army atmosphere. It makes me think that armys are the best when they are working towards a goal. Would you be able to share what are the things that ppl (who's never been through something like this) should keep in mind moving forward for the next 6month-1.5year? Thank you so much!

***

Yeah, re-charting old songs is something more than a few fandoms do from time to time, but ARMYs’ aim of re-charting several old songs, sometimes whole albums, at once and methodically - that’s something I don’t think has been done before. And yes it warms my heart to see the fandom give BTS this. Even though it’s more of symbolic gesture than ‘huge achievement’, it’s a tangible way the fandom can express that we intend to stick by BTS this entire time. Life might happen, we might explore other groups and hobbies or take some time to ourselves, but we’ll never really abandon BTS or forget them while they’re in service. It also allows the fandom the opportunity to re-experience BTS’s old music. It’s reminding me of why I fell in love with them in the beginning.

And you’re right. The fandom does need a goal to work towards. One of the first things I said on this blog that I remember people got mad at me for (lol), was that I think many ARMYs are just Type A k-pop stans who prioritize BTS. A lot of us do well with targets and performance measures, using information and ingenuity to achieve desired goals for someone we love genuinely gets us going. When the fandom is aimless people go crazy. So yeah, keep ARMYs busy and peace will be reasonably attainable.

It seems HYBE intends to keep milking the fandom too - more documentaries are coming, at least four members will release new music over the next 1.5 years, we might get a Jin tour/showcase or Hobi live performances, etc. So I guess we’ve got nothing to worry about on that front.

I’m not too sure myself what to expect between now and 2025. Last week I talked about what usually happens when a group enlists based on what I’ve observed:

1. Some people take a break away from k-pop fully.

2. Some explore other groups, whether or not they end up stanning as well.

3. Some people stay in k-pop and remain only committed to BTS

All three options are valid and sometimes there’s no real difference between how people approach options 2 and 3.

But really, while the guys are in the military I don’t expect the infighting within the fandom to reduce. At best it’s going to remain this annoying for the next 18 months. I know people are hopeful we get more spaced out releases but I’m actually expecting some stacked line-ups in releases next year. I’m also not expecting Seven/Golden-style promotions for any member that doesn’t release under HYBE America. The usual suspects (akgaes, shooters, antis, shippers) will be whining in any case so it’s going to be a pain.

And outside the fandom, I know the race is going to be mad. Right now ATEEZ, Stray Kids, NewJeans, RIIZE, Aespa, VCHA, Katseye, IVE, SHINee, Blackpink and few more… are revving up to take over in 2024. I’m so curious to see all the ways these groups/their companies will try to fill the BTS vacuum. How they will try to court ARMYs and pitch themselves as the rightful successors to BTS.

I’m not really sure what to expect but I know it’s going to be a fun time that’s for sure.

[sloshed-cinema]

Judex (1963)

Halloween, or indeed any costume party, is among other things a measure of one’s character and moral fiber.  Most folks are content to phone it in, whether with something from the local Spirit Halloween or what have you.  But everyone has that one friend who is VERY into Halloween and puts A LOT of effort into their look.  Bless them, because for every one of those, there are six generic hot girls who think putting on cat ears and making a dot on their nose and mascara whiskers counts as a fun costume.  I deride Marie Verdier for her pathetic attempt at a heist disguise, but honestly she kills it through the rest of the film, turning a lewk whether she’s an evil nun or an evil mod suit gal pulling it off even better than the likes of Tilda Swinton could ever hope to do so.  My gal has her cat eye on point whether she’s breaking into mansions, swindling ambulance drivers, or plummeting off of rooftops.  That said, nothing is quite so striking as Judex’ entrance into the film.   A man in a bird mask which outdoes anything anyone else at the pageant could hope to do—the masquerade is 90% boring pedestrian shit, 10% BIRB SQUAD RISE UP—enters, does dove-based magic tricks, and then slays the host with a gesture at the stroke of midnight.  The obvious comparison to draw here (or one of the front-runners, at least) is to Batman.  But here, Judex does everything the Adam West Batman series could do, but better.  A more based socialist agenda: he kills an evil venture capitalist banker and then apparently fucking resurrects him once his daughter proves she has a conscience.  A better persona and a more hilariously impractical commitment to the bit: make a really well-crafted mask for your big reveal, but then lean on… carrier pigeons for your instant alert signal.  Could there not be some kind of Bird Signal in the sky?  In a world where buggies need candles as headlights, I suppose that would be a tough ask.  We also get more enjoyable campy villains in Marie and her cadre of ghouls, Marie slipping into the catsuit and exploiting every possible angle as she hustles her way to riches, paired off with incompetence on the part of Judex: he’s a genius and yet somehow still places faith in the bumbling detective Cocantin who would much rather be reading something.  Pure rip-roaring fun through and through.

The film closes with an intertitle reference to the silent serial to which it is paying homage, acknowledging its source as something as a product of a darker time.  But truly, this sort of entertainment is evergreen and always needed.  This is a cousin of the likes of Adéla ještě nevečeřela and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, reaching back to a bygone era to realize that, yeah.  Sometimes we just need unhinged nonsense where the bad guy is an unambiguous monster and a little magic and circumstance can get you a long way. 

THE RULES

SIP

An intertitle appears onscreen.

Marie is a style icon.

Sci-fi shenanigans.

Cocantin is utterly useless, but at least he likes his stories.

Someone faints.

BIG DRINK

A clock starts chiming.

Someone gets conked over the head.

Someone is introduced.

[major-wren]

If Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog was cancelled by issue fifty in 1997 and was years later replaced by the Sonic X comic book before that too would be replaced by another Sonic comic title, that being the Sonic Boom comic, how different could the landscape of comicdom (comic fandom) be with Archie Sonic ending it's run? And what if the 48 page Sonic Super Specials were canned too back then?

Honestly sometimes I almost feel like there is a pocket of the Sonic Fandom that is entirely separate to everything else, and that is the Archie sonic fans. There are so many Archie characters and aosth characters that never even made it out into any other Sonic media, and so many story lines and character arcs that are exclusive to Archie that shape the characters into almost entirely different versions than their video game counter-parts. I mean just think of Fleetway too, and how different that Sonic is, and even Fleetway Amy, or Archie Shadow compared to Boom Shadow.

Putting a cut cause I ended up rambling really bad lol sorry

But tbh? If Sonic Team had just let go of archie early on, and smoothly moved on from era to era without any overlap... I wonder, would that have been better? Sort of like my little pony and monster high, how they change up the characters, world, and style with each new generation. But then you have moments where the fans don't like a new wave but are stuck with it, and can't get any new content of the version they already grew up with and fell in love with, so they kind of end up getting left behind in favour of the new generation of fans.

In fact, I think that's exactly why Sonic The Hedgehog has fans that follow the characters for years and years into their adulthood, and is why a lot of the writers and artists are those very fans grown up. It's because they see stories through instead of entirely abandoning them to appeal to the next generation. I remember there was a moment where a new sonic game would come out, and then the Archie comic would tell its own version of the game that included their own exclusive characters and build on their exclusive lore within their world and already-existing plots, just building up and up.

I think even after switching from Archie to IDW, Sonic team still does this. The new movies are wildly different and far removed from all pre-existing sonic media, what with Sonic growing up alone on our Earth and getting adopted by humans. It's clearly a new version of Sonic made fresh for a new, younger audience. I think Prime may also be aiming younger, too. But we still have IDW for older, already committed fans happening at the same time, along with new games like sonic fronteirs and the murder of sonic the hedgehog seemingly made with all ages in mind. I think that's why the Sonic franchise is so successful, because they have so many different versions of sonic and his world. He can appeal to absolutely anyone, any demographic. It does cause a lot of confusion with the lore, and some in-fighting over "what is this character's true personality" or general confusion over what even is canon or not. The whole point, I personally think, is that the sonic franchise has always encouraged fans to engage with the storytelling to spin their own versions or seek out their own preferences, and it shows in their staff selection, how a good majority of them are sonic fans grown up and ready to tell their own versions of sonic. Just like Tails said in that TailsTube episode, there's an infinite amount of Sonics in infinite amounts of worlds.

Long answer but yeah, I think its better that archie stretched on so long and truly explored absolutely every possibility, and that we get so many different versions that overlap with eachother. I don't think Sonic would have been as successful if they did generational waves like every other franchise, or at least not successful in the same way it is today. I think the Fandom would have been infinitely less creative too, have you seen how many Sonic fans are independently running their own Sonic comics??? Like @tatck , @the-heart-of-a-monster , @pandoraaucomic , ghosts of the future, the phantom ruby au, etc. How many fandoms just build their own fully-fledged content like that? I mean, in such a large quantity? There's a whole bag-full of fully illustrated comics I can think of off the top of my head, plus fully programmed and voice acted fan-made games too.

The way Sonic is set up right now, allowing their writers to chase any story they want regardless of clashing canon or overlapping separate versions, I think it really encourages fans to chase their own stories too. It's funny but I think your question sparked such a long answer because it made me realize why I really love Sonic. They just seem to have given their writers so much freedom, especially in the Archie era. It's a shame that staff like Ken penders kinda ruined that and forced them to put more restrictions. Even still, there's so much freedom and variations in the stories to this day. I mean, sometimes you can just like, not have humans exist at all! Or put crazy aliens! Or fast forward into crazy futuristic cities with hoverboards and flying cars, then dial it back to island living animal people with basic engineering. It's crazy and so fluid and nothing is ever set in stone, and you end up with crazy random stories like Sonic 2006, but that just makes it so fun and opens the world up to be so big. It truly is infinite possibilities, and I think that inspires the Fandom to higher levels.

[sheacouleecametoslay]

Season 6 (2014)

Season 6 is often regarded as the best Drag Race season ever. A part of me thinks Season 5 was better, but that season also had Roxxxy Andrews on it. There's no one that I truly can't stand on Season 6; the worst I can come up with is Magnolia having a bad attitude and Milk's style not being for me. Even Darienne Lake had her moments, which caught me by surprise on a rewatch. But I felt like Season 5 had more classic moments and classic characters ya know? Still I think I'm going to give both seasons the same grade. I think it's because Season 6 serves as the transition between the early years and the middle era; before the Untucked format changed, before Santino left. It's also when the show switched-up the "Cover Girl" transition. It's the first season where the queens are required to wear the same outfit in every confessional. And the term "She-Mail" is about to be axed from the show (finally), all thanks to that awful mini-challenge. This season has a strong set of challenges. The only ones I didn't like were the Chaz/Georgia interview and the wedding Makeover. Both of which had uncomfortable moments. Especially the latter, since one of the grooms was forced to do it by his fiancée, and he was visibly uncomfortable with the whole experience. Also, the design challenges in the double premiere had some lackluster runways in them. But other than that, Season 6 has one of the best Snatch Games. For once, more than just 3 queens are funny. We have the first ever Rusical, and this one involved live singing. It pitted the two singers Courtney and Adore against each other, and while some other queens fumbled their lines, and the April/Josyln/Laganja trio was a mess, it's often regarded as one of the best. The body painting mini-challenge was a cool idea too. The 90s Rap Battle was fun. Bianca killed the stand-up. And "Scream Queens" was a decent acting challenge. Episode 7 felt very contrived though. It was giving me flashbacks to the duets in Season 4. The pairings were obviously done on purpose - Adore & Laganja were having their friendship tested, Bianca & Trinity already had drama, Darienne & Ben also had tension, and Courtney & Joslyn had a celebrity/fan dynamic. The producers just put all the drama pairings together. In a way I'm glad that was the Double Shantay episode. Least of all because Darienne won that lip sync against Ben, and I doubt production wanted Ben gone so soon. It also affected the schedule, meaning that someone actually Sashay'ed in the final regular episode of the season. It also helps that the main song of Season 6 is "Sissy That Walk", which is probably Ru's signature song. It wasn't my favourite finale music video, but those weird poses in the photoshoot were... something. The double premiere is another factor that helped this season. It helped the audience get to know the queens better when it wasn't 14 people competing for screen time. It made the early boots feel less forgettable than usual. Untucked had Bianca asking Trinity "What do you do successfully", Laganja saying "I feel very attacked", Laganja breaking down in general.

Queens Ranking: 14. Magnolia Crawford In her intro, Magnolia kept changing her mind on how to label herself, before settling "glamorous trash queen". A description that didn't really apply to what we saw. She then metaphorically threw her hands up in the air after seeing the materials she had to work with. And that sour attitude is why she did so poorly. Her first runway was that basic cow-print, with the bow on her ass, and the unflattering dark nose contour. The judges read her for it and she got really defensive and irritated in response. She also blamed everything on the materials. I think Ru was done with Magnolia the moment she talked back lol. She said on Untucked she was just there for the exposure anyways. Did she even know the words to that lip sync? 13. Milk The original quirky queen. Milk was committed to doing her own weird thing and defying the accepted norms of RPDR; without a single regard for what the judges, or anyone else for that matter, thought about it. Her entrance look had toilet paper on her shoe. Her runways included a white beard, a Pinocchio nose, a baby bump, and of course Werk Room RuPaul in boy drag. That last one is why I put her bottom 3 for Snatch Game over Trinity. Milk is someone you either love or hate, and she definitely has her fans, but her style is not for me. In the challenges, she was okay in the beginning. But her Julia Child in Snatch Game was boring. And her rap verse included the line "if you're looking for a dude or in the preggers mood"; alongside some rather cringey dance moves in the video. Ironically enough, the round she left was the only time she did a "normal" runway. Also her lip sync moves to "Whatta Man" didn't match the song. 12. Kelly Mantle Kelly's whole story was that she had 17 years of drag experience, along with some acting experience, but it didn't materialize on the show. Her first runway was that horrible bacon dress with the red wig. She also started the season off with a subtle dig at Willam. She later made a dig at Vivacious's age. And... that's about all I got. A hint of shadiness to her personality but she's the one S6 queen I could consider "forgettable". 11. Darienne Lake The annual RPDR cockroach. Why she lasted until Final 4 just to be the most obvious final elimination this side of Alexis Michelle remains a mystery. I guess cuz she brought the drama? But Darienne delivered basic runway after basic runway. Her St Patrick's Day outfit landed her in the bottom 2 in her debut episode. The elephant outfit was tacky. Her goth Makeover didn't work out so well. And then there's the Glitter Ball!, where she had 3 of the worst looks of the entire season. That was not Executive Realness. Those dropping topaz jewels! She was also really bitter for some reason? She made comments on Milk's outfit, she said "why not just give her cement shoes and throw her in the water", and of course she had a random feud with Ben because Ben was gloating about her wins. Darienne also overestimated her challenge performances, even thinking she was top 3 in the Rusical when she was out of step with Gia. Moreover, her rap verse didn't describe who she is. And her interviewing was awkward. But Darienne had some comedic moments - she won as a talking head in a box, she interjected a bunch as Paula Deen in the Snatch Game, her stand-up was suprisingly solid, and she even won the Reading mini-challenge. Plus that lip sync where she grabbed the tips was fun. 10. Laganja Estranja The annual RPDR trainwreck. "OKURRRR"; "YASS GAWD". Laganja's death drop entrance is iconic, but she spent the entire season embodying this forced, phony, exaggerated weed-smoker persona. It's like she was trying to be someone that she's not, and it got really annoying. She had this posh voice in confessional. She'd come into the Werk Room with things on her head and Bianca would call her an attention-seeker. She got upset when her friend Adore outperformed her. And she wrote her stand-up routine underneath a desk. Speaking of which, that stand-up routine was such a WTF moment ("it's very dry, it's almost kinda like your vagina"). That was her persona cranked to an 11; the outfit was a choice too. Moreover, her Rachel Zoe in Snatch Game was robotic and unfunny. Still, her rap verse was alright; probably my 4th place. She pulled out the splits and death drops during her lip syncs. And her Best Drag runway was good. Laganja also got emotional in Untucked a lot; from Bianca joking about her parents video, to the iconic "I feel very attacked" episode, where she lashed out after being confronted about her persona. Even Adore was saying that isn't the Laganja she knows. 9. April Carrión April spent the season metaphorically burying her head in her hands, feeling doubtful in all 3 challenges. She wasn't happy with the Duck Dynasty box in the first episode, but she turned it out in the final product. It was the second best outfit from her group. In episode 2, she didn't know how to play a butch queen, but she delivered one of my favourite runways of the season - that umbrella with the blue string rain. But then the Rusical was another messy performance from April, and that was end of her run. She didn't have a big personality anyways. 8. Vivacious Vivacious is mostly this high for Ornacia. The way she struggled to unzip her outfit during her entrance lol. I think she was too old-school for what RPDR is looking for, especially by Season 6. She had 21 years of drag experience and labelled herself as the last original NYC club kid. That's era that she wanted to represent on the show and she wasn't going to change or compromise her style to adapt to the modern era. But I didn't like that black cone outfit either way. Also her Game of Thrones runway look sloppy. She even wanted to put a baby dragon on it and Ru was not won over lol. As for her performance in "Scream Queens", the producers could've edited out that long awkward pause, but her lines still lacked energy. 7. Courtney Act Courtney had great runways - the waitress outfit, the spreading bird wings, the Australian/aboriginal flag combination, the Ruby look in the Glitter Ball. But she's like Raja or Detox; I respect their craft but find them hard to root for. She came off like one of those celebrities who can't relate to non-celebrities. The lifestyle is so different. Her main criticism was that she lacked humanity. And she won the talk show challenge because she made an effort to rectify that. She also won the Rusical because her big vocal moments stole the show. She could've been top 3 in "Scream Queens" too if it weren't based on teams. But the rest of her challenge performances were very safe/mid. She seriously resorted to singing in her stand-up. I think the producers were giving Courtney a villain edit as well. She was pretty patronizing to Joslyn, who idolized her. It made it seem like she doesn't treat her fans well. She upstaged her Makeover partner. She spent her confessionals poking flaws in her competitors. And she showed off her body multiple times on the runway, giving Carmen Carrera flashbacks. Her entrance is still one of my faves though - when she pretended to walk into the wrong room. 6. Joslyn Fox "Keep it Foxy, wonk wonk". The utter lack of self-awareness with this girl. "I do like to eat at IHOP"; "I have house numbers" (Bianca: "it's your age"); "I've finally narrowed down my fabrics" (camera shows a giant pile of fabric); "I plan on being the black horse"; "I wanna lick Santino's head"... and that's just from her debut episode! She also gave us "not my cup of soup"; the "jumbo shrimp" joke and "I like gumbo". Joslyn had this giddy, smiling approach to everything. She was average in most challenges, and her runways were subpar (two episodes in a row of those straps; that overly busy Quinceanera outfit; that checkered thing in the stand-up), but her cluelessness was weirdly endearing. Her Teresa Giudice in Snatch Game was funny too ("Cumin!"). Her rap verse was good. She kinda slayed that P!nk lip sync. And her getting married in the finale was a nice moment. But Joslyn really crashed and burned in the latter half. She had one good joke in the stand-up. She wasted time choosing an outfit instead of preparing for the interview. She then asked Georgia Holt about abortion (and somehow thought that interview went well). And her demise was the Makeover, where production screwed her over by getting rid of the dark toned make-up after Trinity left. She was the obvious queen to go though. 5. Gia Gunn When Gia entered the Werk Room with that hula hoop purse, I thought she was going to be a top contender. She gave main character energy; between her rude reads in confessional and just being clueless - "What's a Tony?"; "I'm feeling my oats"; "Darinne, you know... my god... there's room for everybody let's just say that"; "well you girls... look good"; "I've never heard of a Delorean, for all I know it's a f**king ancient dildo"; "...if it's not giving it, maybe it's just not for you". Or even saying "absolutely" 3 times in a row to the judges. Or how poorly she sold her ideas to Ru in the Werk Room. Gia impressed with her first runway, even if I thought it was generic. But then came the performance challenges and... yeah, Gia was not a good actress or singer. Her ultimate downfall was the Snatch Game. Her Kim K was rough to watch. And she originally wanted to do Selena lol. BTW, can someone please tell Gia to get off of Twitter? Even on this season I get the vibe that she thinks she knows what she's talking about when she doesn't. But I don't think she crossed a line on this season? Unless I missed something. 4. BenDeLaCreme Ben should've stayed over Darienne, and it should've been a 4-person finale. I think the judges were too harsh on her. I mean, yeah the rapping challenge proved that she lacked versality. Her verse was so cringe ("Creminem!") and I would've put her in the bottom 3 for that. I also wasn't fond of her showgirl drag voice at first. But her down-to-Earth, mild-mannered out-of-drag voice balanced things out. She had one of the best Snatch Game performances ever as Maggie Smith ("excuse me we originated the language"). She won the first challenge with that cheesecake thing. I liked her Chaz/Georgia interview better than Courtney's. She could've won the "Scream Queens" challenge, but was stuck on the losing team. She was top 3 in the Rusical. And I almost gave her the win for the Makeover. Ben was strong this season. She came off professional and well-trained. Her bug and her fur runways were great as well. Her low points were the stand-up routine, where she just rambled on and on and got heckled. The cosmetics ad, but I think her and Darienne were set-up; and I don't know why they aimed it at plastic surgery users. And of course the Glitter Ball, where her first two looks were disappointing. 3. Adore Delano "Party". Adore is weirdly charming for someone who was unprepared and unprofessional for many challenges this season. The first few episodes were a wake-up-call that she couldn't skate by. She had no sewing skills, and it showed in that horrible Honey Boo Boo dress. It was even stuck to the mannequin! Next episode she was team leader and rushed through assigning the roles, which ended in disaster. Her acting wasn't the worst though. She was also read for not cinching her waist early on. The Rusical began her redemption arc, where she stood out as the star of her group. After that, she was funny as Anna Nicole Smith in Snatch Game. And she embodied 90s rap the best. But then she stumbled again - her stand-up routine was messy (but at least she had jokes), she was unprepared for the Chaz/Georgia interview, and her wedding Makeover was rough. She bounced back a second time by winning the Glitter Ball, but her 2nd look wasn't as good; and I only liked the 3rd one for the presentation of it. Adore knew how to work the runway. I thought her Aretha lip sync was too intense though. Adore had this casual approach to the show, while still wanting to prove herself. She kinda came off as someone that I'd want to be friends with? and I think that's why her charm worked. 2. Trinity K. Bonet Introvert queen! That entrance was so awkward when she was waiting with Bianca lol. Trinity's story was her reluctant attitude in the challenges. She let her acting  inexperience get in her head and it put her in the bottom 2 three times. It reached a boiling point during the Rusical episode, where she was very grumpy during rehearsal and later lashed out in the Werk Room. Still, I felt there was worse offenders each time she was in the bottom 2. Sure Trinity tripped over a line in the Rusical, but at least she was in sync with Bianca. Her rap verse lacked conviction, but she had better writing than some others. She kept calling Chaz Bono "Chad" in the interview, but how is that worse than an abortion question? Her Nicki Minaj in Snatch Game wasn't great either. But at the same time, those bottom 2 placements lead to Trinity becoming the Lip Sync Assassin of Season 6. She was the best lip syncer in the cast, and one of the top runway queens too - the Princess Party, the hippie, the domino dress, the bird feathers. I think she should've won the cosmetics ad with Bianca (that was a missed storyline opportunity), but her stand-up routine the next episode was even better redemption moment. Otherwise, her HIV confession was an emotional moment. And I didn't like when her enunciation was criticized. 1. Bianca Del Rio As if anyone else was going to be #1. This season was a cakewalk for Bianca - no one else stood chance. It was almost unfair to the other competitors. She was never in the bottom 3. She never flopped a challenge. She was cracking remarks in her entrance. She never stopped hurling those insulting remarks or reality checks at her fellow queens in the Werk Room or Untucked. And not only is Bianca one of the best comedy queens in RPDR herstory, she had strong runways too. Two of her wins were actually design challenges. She won her debut episode with the Hawaiian Luau dress, which is my favourite look of hers. The black-and-white one and the Best Drag one are up there too. Her Judge Judy in the Snatch Game came so naturally to her and it would've won in another season. Her rap verse was good. And her peak moment was the stand-up routine; she absolutely killed it. She also won the Makeover challenge (that wedding dress looked well-made) and she probably should've won the Glitter Ball too. Bianca's relationship with Trinity was a major part of the season as well; she was like a frustrated drag mother showing tough love. They were paired together in the cosmetics ad and pulled it out. Bianca also helped Adore with her outfits. Bianca had a soft side and she wasn't serious with the insults; that distinction makes all the difference. Favourite entrance: Gia Gunn (episode 1) / Trinity K. Bonet (episode 2) Challenge ranking: 1. Snatch Game 2. 90s Rap Battle 3. "Scream Queens" (Acting) 4. Shade: The Rusical 5. Stand-up routine 6. Glitter Ball 7. Cosmetics adverts 8. "Sissy That Walk" Music Video 9. Party box couture (Design Pt 2) 10. TV shows couture (Design Pt 1) 11. The RuPaul Show (Talk show/Improv) 12. "Drag My Wedding" Makeover Lip Sync ranking: 1. Adore Delano vs Trinity K. Bonet ("Vibeology") (should've been the Double Shantay) 2. April Carrión vs Trinity K. Bonet ("I'm Every Woman") 3. Milk vs Trinity K. Bonet ("Whatta Man") 4. Joslyn Fox vs Laganja Estranja ("Stupid Girls") 5. BenDeLaCreme vs Darienne Lake (1) ("Point of No Return") 6. April Carrión vs Vivacious ("Shake It Up") 7. Adore Delano vs Joslyn Fox ("Think") 8. Gia Gunn vs Laganja Estranja ("Head to Toe") 9. Kelly Mantle vs Vivacious ("Express Yourself") 10. Darienne Lake vs Magnolia Crawford ("Turn The Beat Around") (messy but Dari was fun) 11. Top 4 Lip Sync ("Sissy That Walk") (zzzz + fake split screen editing) 12. BenDeLaCreme vs Darienne Lake (2) ("Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)") (zzzz) Every season has had an obvious #1 lip sync so far Season ranking so far: 5 > 6 > 4 > 2 > 3 > 1 > AS1

[juan1dupree23]

if you or anyone you know is thinking of committing suicide call 988 English and french languages with 24/7 phone and text hours (in Canada)

(I have this at the start as their is fictional self harm in this post)

spoilers for something I’m trying to write

it’s main character is a serial killer but the murders won’t be too descriptive on some cases or at least descriptive enough to satisfy some gore lovers of the horror genre

(If anyone would like to continue on this won’t ruin anything plot related I’m just giving you something so that you know what to expect from this story)

I remember the black label comic killer smile

And that movie daddy longlegs

And How about i use some that shot i love so much as in that one opening shot to season 2 episode 1’s end of the fucking world (Netflix show)

(I mean that as in there’s that one shot in that show that I always love so much in other words it’s something that has to be seen to be understood)

I’m just being my usual artsy farts self on an excitedly out of control adhd high 😊😁

The killer leaves long winded notes along with titles to songs

He dances with his headphones on full maximum volume with rock music playing during the story’s opening

He dances wildly in an unplanned and somewhat impulsive manner with some joints moving lightly to crazily in contained enough movement

Imagine how extras dance in raves and imagine that for the killer expect in a way that’s not too low that it leaves the exciting tension of the opening song but also not too wildly that it takes away from when reality appears

(Reality is to be shown in a way that doesn’t seem to ruin the opening)

The killer cuts himself with a scalpel

 (if you or anyone you know is thinking of committing suicide call 988 English and french languages with 24/7 phone and text hours)

Somewhat skinned nose where blackheads may or may not still have on its red layer

Much like killer smile’s joker the killer has few bandages on his face

He wears killing garb that changes with his mood and genre/era/style of the song/songs/playlist 

just a heads up I’m a musicophile and I apologize if it ruins the ambiance of the story If the usual mention of a song from 1918 - 1980s becomes too much

I will most likely have it be a short story that I will be posting in here from time to time whenever I’m able to and feel like it

also if by any chance there’s going to be some vigilante that is just me being a boring comic book nerd that can’t live without all of those superhero tropes

my apologies if that too will also ruin the story for you

(I do not mean to glorify serial killing)

my condolences to the victims of each one