#mask fundraiser poster

[cosette-is-brunette]

📢📢📢 HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT 🗣🎉🗣🎉🗣🎉

We're doing a collaborative fundraiser!

Alongside 12+ mutual aid groups across the West Coast and Southwest, we're collaboratively raising funds to take advantage of a VERY rare opportunity to purchase over a hundred thousand government surplus masks at a huge discount! These masks will go to mask blocs in Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, where they will be distributed for free within our local communities ⛑

This has been an amazing project to be a small part of, and we're so grateful to everyone who has been working hard to handle the logistics of getting these necessary supplies in-hand so blocs all over the West Coast and Southwest can provide free masks to their communities 🫂💓

If you're in a position to, we'd greatly appreciate any donation you're able to make, and please help us get the word out by sharing this post, commenting, and telling your friends! Tell your cat, that influencer whose DMs you won't stay out of, that "friend" your aunt still talks to 30 years later, the stoic bus driver who never acknowledges when you say hi... we're going to be telling everyone we can about this and if you know of any way to help this reach more people, we'd be forever grateful for your help!

[anarchotahdigism]

I know i say "wear a mask and riot" and "fuck a peaceful protest" but I'd had a nice long post about how digital work and advocacy is praxis (or can be) on my old account. Right now, COVID is spreading and killing thousands of people in the US alone and nearly all """radicals""""" and """""leftists"""" are philosophically no different than the fascists they claim to oppose because they are so thoroughly wedded to eugenics that they refuse to wear and enforce masking. COVID causes long COVID in 10-30% of cases so the so-called US alone may well be a majority disabled nation now due to rampant eugenics forcing the spread of COVID. Long COVID is a rotting death and makes everything an order of magnitude more difficult if you still are able to do the things you were prior. Repeated COVID infections means you're guaranteed to be immunocompromised permanently and disabled in other ways you'll likely find out the hard way. With 40% of cases being asymptomatic and most only showing severe symptoms after 2-3 infections, and many starting to drop dead after 3 to 5 infections, many people accrue damage from and spread COVID without realizing it until it is far, far too late. As a result, it's guaranteed that the ableists have disabled and killed people. They've kept disabled people like me who are high risk out of radical spaces & communities. They've abandoned solidarity for everyone but the abled, ableist middle class while focusing most of their efforts on electoralism, despite the clear and constant failures of such actions. The BLM Rebellion of 2020-2021 had significant---albeit broadly temporary--impacts on electoral politics, society, and communities because it was a constant and ongoing rebellion that was also much more disability inclusive than prior leftist movement moments. For the first time, people recognized the need for remote actions & support because while masking was at the high water mark, more abled people understood that a lot of us disabled could not and would not risk COVID but we had had skills vital to the project. Things disabled people were absolutely critical for during the BLM Rebellion: police scanner observation and transcription, evacuation coordination, event & route planning, translation services, postering, graphics art & design, self defense seminars, radio nets, mutual aid fundraising, mutual aid distribution, bail fund coordination, zine writing, mask & test distributions, contact tracing (remember this??!??!), car brigades, organizing medical supplies, teaching first aid skills, and countless other roles often organized & performed remotely. For every fighter, there are at least a dozen support roles and with some thought and effort, those roles can be aided or done digitally. Posting on its own can be praxis in that it shares information, knowledge, tactics, demonstrates that there are other radicals out there willing to do what they can, normalizes radicalism, and in some cases, regimes pay close attention to internet support.

During the height of the Jina Amini rebellion in 2022, the Iranian regime tried to cut the internet repeatedly to stifle information out of and into Iran to hinder protest coordination and outrage. It also paid extremely close attention to when the rebellion was trending and refrained from reprisals until the mass attention of the internet citizenry turned away. Posting literally helped save lives by forcing the regime to wait, buying people time to organize, prepare, and act accordingly in Iran and internationally. Personally, I will always remember and be grateful for the Palestinians who turned out across the world, but especially in occupied Palestine, for Iranians. Iran is not the only regime that will wait until posts slacken and attention wanes before massacring people. If you are disabled, if you have arrest risks, if for any reasons you don't want to be involved in a radical riot, but you want to support those who can and do, there is so much you can do year round but especially things kick off!! Any skills, resources, knowledge, or support you can organize or contribute is valuable! eSims for Gaza right now are monumental in ensuring Gazans can coordinate information, requests, record Israeli occupation war crimes & apartheid cruelty, and many disabled graphics designers are offering their services in exchange for esim donations. It's been incredible to see.

The people who are against digital activism are ableist and racist and ignorant as hell beyond that. You can make an impact and even save and change lives while homebound. Begging genociders to stop profitable genocides has never and will never work. Riots & boycotts work because they directly confront and attack power and if those actions are supported by communities, they can continue for quite some time, as we saw with the BLM uprising. Regimes do not fall because people ask regime leaders to please stop committing atrocities; they fall when the people are able to bring to bear the sum of their hopes and wrath and bring the fight to those who have been oppressing them. That requires inclusive community & an outright rejection of the regime and its systems of cooptation & recuperation.

If a revolution or movement isn't inclusive, if it excludes the disabled, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, it's not a revolution or movement, it's just another genocidal regime change.

[mauesartetc]

Regarding art asks

From this point forward, anyone with a character design or general art ask for me will need to present a screenshot (in the ask or in DMs, either is fine) proving you've donated at least 5 of whatever currency is required to one of the fundraisers listed here. No proof, no answer. Simple as that. Thus far I've been content to answer these for free, and they really are fun for me. But people's lives are at stake, and I feel especially responsible for the folks who have contacted me directly. This policy will continue until all the listed fundraisers have reached their goals. Thanks for understanding. (And if you submitted an ask before I made this post, the answers are coming soon.)

If you're new here and you'd like some examples of past questions I've answered, here they are (after the cut because holy hell, this got long):

How to design a non-generic jester

Critique of a Stolas design

Critique of the Helluva Boss poster

Check out these character designers!

Critique of Owl House posters

"It's been hell." (Character consistency and structure)

"What's your favorite part of the character design process?"

Model sheet tips

Designing a father character

What artists and writers can learn from Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel (sorry fans, I'm a bit hard on both here)

Asmodeus redline

How to draw dynamic poses

The respectable assassin

Turtle iceberg!

Showing personality through poses

"How do you find inspiration?"

Scientist, magician, mechanic (avoiding generic-looking characters)

Critique of Angel Dust's design

How many sketches to improve line art?

Fizzarolli art critique

Character size accuracy

Critique of "Allison" designs

When animation backgrounds upstage characters

Critique of Vaggie's design (If you're not familiar with Hazbin Hotel, yes, that really is her name. I hate it too.)

Making a cohesive team outfit

"How do you design an androgynous character?"

Visual reference and making colors look less "off"

The rules ain't set in stone

Thoughts on character outfits

Shape language and symbolism

Creating a unique candy character

The flexibility of color symbolism

Challenge: Random combinations

Drawings look too dirty?

Uniformed henchmen with unique identities

Brother and sister redline

Showing a character's past in her design

Critique of Niffty's design

How to make a character stand out from the cast

Critique of period outfits

Too many colors?

Characters with animal symbolism (Edwardian doggos!)

Redesign redlines

Showing personality through poses (Doctor turned construction worker)

How to create without any kind of inspiration (Spoiler: You can't.)

Stolas redesign critique

Cherri Bomb's official "redesign"

Finding the right colors through research

Drawing robot characters

Stolas redline 2

Verosika Mayday redesign redline

Clarity in fantasy prop design

"Holy crap, Lois!" (animation lip sync overview)

Spider Lamb! (research and face structure for creature design)

Character design questions to ask before you start

My least favorite Helluva Boss design

Mask design for a demon music nerd

Critique of Lucifer's design (Hazbin Hotel)

How to differentiate a character from their inspiration (Homage vs ripoff)

On characters who act the opposite of how they look

Designing a character based on a photo

Color theory and Helluva Boss

A request to "fix" Tinkerbell's design (because it's too sexual, I guess??)

Artistic pet peeves

Useful creative resources

A new outfit for Lady Kryptina

Mixing animal species in a believable way

Redesigning Miraculous Ladybug

When do a character's details become too much to animate?

The balance between characters looking related and identical

Critique of Adam and Lute

On body structure and clothing

Analyzing art style to make a fan character fit in the universe

"What's your favorite art, writing, and character design advice?"

(Cries in former art student)

Wilma and Betty time travel to ancient Greece

Linking a transforming character's two forms together

Streamlining detail on a character

Critique of Hazbin Hotel redesigns

Simplifying a statue for animation

Too many hues on characters

The planet Venus, personified

Making a character recognizable in her alternate form

Puss in Boots vs. Wish

Creature design with a human base

On AI in art and writing

How to make a plain design not look boring

What outfit would go with this headdress?

On four-fingered hands in cartoons

Making a character's fiery hair look like fire

Posing characters with props

The characters of Doll Eye (Holy tangents, Batman!)

..."Brawny"?

"Do you think a god should look human?"

The characters of Drawn to Life (How are these supposed to be foxes?)

How to make drawing humans more fun

I learn what Frutiger Aero is

Showing personality in teen vampires

Thoughts regarding human hair on anthro characters

I tried to add more but it kept breaking the post. Now do the math on how much money I could have raised to help people escape genocide if all these askers donated just five bucks each.

[destroyingangelneveragod]

WANT TO HELP OPERATION OLIVE BRANCH?

My partner made a link tree with posters that have QR codes to verified Operation Olive Branch fundraisers and mutual aid campaigns. Please strategically place these in high foot traffic areas and wherever possible. There's a guide on how to wheatpaste. Be careful and wear dark solid colored clothing and masks for safety.

[hostilecityshowdown]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-psychosis-nicho

"Hello. I'm Ruben Zamora from Masked Republic and I'm fundraising for my friend the original Pyschosis, also known as Nicho.

On Thursday, February 15th, 2024 Nicho suffered a fall while working. At the moment, nobody knew how bad the injury was. After a few days, fellow luchador Damian convinced him to go to the hospital. Nicho took the advice, which he would later learn might have saved his life. At the moment, nobody knew how bad the injury was.

Upon arriving at the hospital, x-rays and an MRI were taken and showed that his right hip was broken. Not bruised, not fractured, but broken. Medical doctors advised Nicho that he would not be able to go home and instead must stay for observation and an eventual emergency surgery.

A few days later the surgery was performed successfully. Several days later, Nicho was allowed to go home. I have been in contact with Nicho and he tells me that he is not able to sit up, move, much less walk. He is to stay in bed for several weeks before he can attempt to sit up. Nicho tells me that the pain is severe, keeping him from sleeping at night.

Why am I doing this, you may ask? Nicho has been not only a very good friend to me, but he has been a loyal supporter in what we do at Masked Republic since day 1. When ever I called for a booking date, he always said yes, asked when and where, and say he'd be there. (Note, he never started the conversation asking about pay.) When I needed a radio interview, or a tv appearance, Nicho was always the first to step up and help out... never asking about pay. When I would go out at midnight to plaster my event posters around San Diego, Nicho would cross the border and come along to help put up posters. He never asked for anything in return. When the attendance was bad and I was short on cash, Nicho would tell me, "pay everyone else first. Take care of all the kids (luchadors from the undercard) and your expenses first and whenever you have money, don't forget about me".

For those reasons, and many more, I want to help my friend Nicho, the real and true original Psychosis.

His generosity and support has allowed me and Masked Republic to thrive in the lucha libre space, and thus allowing us to help others and provide them with an opportunity to pursue their dreams as well.

All donations will go directly to Nicho in order for him to pay his medical bills, pay for his upcoming physical therapy, and help pay for any future medical expenses as he will not be able to work for the foreseeable future.

I ask that you please help if you can. Every donation will help. Please tell a friend.

Thank You!

-R"

[oneatlatime]

Avatar Day

I'm back!

"A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar" That wasn't just chance, was it? Wanna bet that it also wasn't just chance that Zuko was near enough to see the beam of light?

HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO BE ASLEEP FOR A SPIDER TO SET UP SHOP IN YOUR MOUTH?!?!?

"What are you doing in my mouth" is a sentence so ripe for innuendo-isation that my brain tripped over itself trying to come up with a dirty way to spin it.

Love the boundary talk too. I had no idea that kind of therapy speak was around in the early 2000s.

There has got to be a more efficient way of stopping someone who can canonically fly than pulling down a whole ass tree vaguely in their path. And how strong are these rhino things?

Did that mask guy just try to bomb a child?

Tee Hee. A Pee Pee.

Boomerang has to come back though. That what boomerangs do. I refuse to believe that boomerang is gone.

I guessed about halfway through season 1 that Zuko would have to go through some identity struggles in this show, but I was wrong! It's Sokka who gets to reevaluate his identity. Ponytail guy doesn't have the same ring to it.

Dingalings all over this episode.

I've been wondering why we weren't seeing more Avatar themed places and events. Granted, the avatar's been missing for a century, but in a world where there is recurring proof of a spiritually endowed god-like person's existence, I would expect more temples and Holy days. I mean, we can't even prove that any of our gods exist and we still commit to building megachurches. Imagine how easy it would be to fundraise to build a temple to an Avatar when there's the underlying threat that if you don't donate, the demigod in question could show up at your house.

Two things: first, there were some serious resources invested in these floats. Either this village is loaded or has priority problems. Second: Aang is now well enough known worldwide, that villages he's never been to can accurately depict his appearance, costume, and personality. It really never occurred to them to lay low, did it?

"That's the biggest me I've ever seen." I'm curious to know your sample size.

Sokka could totally carry a torch. It's the torch that wouldn't be worthy of the wielder.

That about sums up my reaction too.

Zuko's in this episode. Hi Zuko! I'd know that musical trill anywhere. When was the last time I saw Zuko?

So I know that Zuko's got a wisdom problem, but could he at least wait until after dark to rob people? While wearing a very recognisable costume that is prominently featured on its own Wanted poster? Just a little common sense I'm begging you.

So in character for it to be Katara who takes action first when Aang is insulted/has his effigy set on fire.

This guy is stupid right? Kyoshi was around at least, what - two hundred years ago? And there's been two avatars since, who as far as I can tell aren't Kyoshi reincarnated but are whole other people, and he's still blaming Aang for some rando's death?

Pro tip: anyone introduced with the expression "glorious leader" is invariably neither glorious nor a good leader. Good leaders don't need hyping up.

I was wondering if that little remark about water tribe money at the beginning of the episode was going to have a payoff. Every time I think it's simple worldbuilding, it turns out to be plot. This show is so neat.

The loss of boomerang is having unforseen effects on Sokka's mental state.

"I can't do that [save the world] with people thinking I'm a murderer either." Says Aang. "So what exactly do you think every earth kingdom and water tribe person assumes you're going to do to the Fire Lord?" Says I. To be clear, I don't want to watch a goofy 12 year old commit a war crime, but I guarantee that no one in the avatar world is under any illusions about any fire lord going quietly.

How does Aang know how do push the 'expert detective' button?

How long is Katara's arm?

Ok I'm guessing from Katara and Aang's reaction to the polar leopard boots story, that Aang knew that Sokka could be conned into helping with 'expert detective' talk, because Sokka has retold the polar leopard boots story 800 times.

Sokka understands the importance of looking the part! Hang on I got a gif for this.

Well-known top three rich person activity: money fondling.

Moneybags should have put those metal reinforcing struts on the roof too. He probably cheaped out.

Oh my GOD this is peak sibling energy. This is MY thing. No touch. ME DO. MINE. Yeah I know it's obvious to anyone with eyes but I'M THE ONE WHO GETS TO SAY IT OUT LOUD.

Loving the bubble pipe.

HYBRID ANIMAL

NOT A DRILL

Rat Elephant?

Too late my man. The only person who didn't see that is Aangy.

Super nitpick time! Why did they build a defensive stockade when there are highly climbable cliffs 50 feet away and the fire nation have cliff-climbing tanks?

Funny how the mayor guy says "clear her name." Aang wants to clear his own name, the mayor wants to clears Kyoshi's. At least some people get that avatars are different people.

Last visit to Kyoshi was: -Harassing local wildlife -Misogyny -Crossdressing -Burning down the whole village -Harassing local wildlife again

What in that list inspired Suki to change the world/fight in the war?

Respect the props Katara.

I found the sane people is this village! You know what I love? When they're listing Aang's good points, being the Avatar comes FORTH. They get that he's more than his title.

I'm sorry but I cannot believe that this painting, which lives in a building without a door, is three hundred years old. Unless that thing is behind 15 layers of varnish or invisible glass, humidity would have destroyed it in the first decade.

Katara getting ragdolled got a big laugh from me. Plus the follow up pipe to the noggin. Gotta love a sibling slap fight!

With that model of justice it's no wonder the sane ones are in jail.

Sounds like someone was chasing butterflies when he should have been paying attention...

Zuko again. I'd forgotten he was in this episode.

"There is a simple honour in poverty" is a good-sounding line, but I'd believe it more if it wasn't coming from a former crown prince who, until like three weeks ago, never wanted for anything.

Can someone please make Zuko aware of the fact that honour as a concept exists outside of an avatar-capturing context?

In my experience, the hope you give to yourself when there's no hope left is less hope and more spite. Still works though.

Was all that talk about not touching Kyoshi's things just talk, or did the water tribe siblings have to steal this stuff?

YES Sokka is RIGHT stuff has POWER.

Did Koh steal their brains as well as their faces?

The village idiots fucked around, and now they're gonna find out! this is going to be good.

So Chin the conqueror was about as smart as the people of his village. He really thought he could take on the Avatar?

Good Lord avatars can move tectonic plates?

She's blowing a continent. She sailed a continent. Without a sail.

Tiny Momo.

Badadss lady speech aside, it's pretty funny that Kyoshi used her ability to manifest to be the opposite of helpful.

Just when I thought he couldn't possibly get more stupid, he sinks to an even lower level of dumbass. Zuko sucks all the common sense out of any room he enters; the only thing that's kept him alive this long is being in proximity to the world's wisest man as balance. So what does Zuko do? Rides off into the sunset WITHOUT Iroh. Dumbass. I give him two days before he dies in a freak foraging accident. Dumbass.

SERIOUSLY. DUMBASS.

Never thought I'd be happy to see these guys, but here I am.

Petty Aang! I've never seen petty Aang before. Boy contains multitudes.

Screw artifact preservation.

Three of these jokes in a single episode. This episode does rather feel as though it was written with the brakes off.

The lead rhino takes one look at Aang and is like "I'm not going to mess with that. Let's burn down some buildings instead." Let the record show, the lead rhino has more sense than Chin the Conqueror.

I knew it! Boomerang came back!

Raw dough. Uncooked dough. Their new snack is salmonella. "This is by far the worst town we've ever been to." Thanks to Sokka for the thesis statement.

Final Thoughts

This episode was hot nonsense! And I love nonsense, but it's too far when I find myself rooting FOR the rhinos. To be clear, I loved this episode's humour and especially the sibling dynamic between Sokka and Katara. I've literally had that exact conversation with siblings, usually about who gets to be the one to tell Mom about the spectacular awesome thing we saw that totally wasn't our fault and that we totally saw without going somewhere we shouldn't have.

But! The villagers? Stupid. We cut to Zuko? Heretofore unseen levels of Stupid. Even Iroh was being stupid. You do have to let children learn things for themselves and make their own mistakes, but in enemy territory? With a documented history of dumbass behaviour? And a propensity for dressing as a wanted criminal, while also being a different wanted fugitive while out of disguise? Mark my words; it's going to end stupid.

I loved the C plot with Sokka and identity. It's funny how it parallels/speedruns the journey Zuko's going to have to end up doing at some point (he'd BETTER), although probably not in a single episode with goofy props. If only teenage identity crises were as easily solved as a returned boomerang.

That scene with Kyoshi sure was something, huh? I actually rewound and watched it twice through before I tried to comment on it, because I was too enthralled to do anything but watch.

If all Avatars can do what Kyoshi can do, then Aang is: a) nowhere near as developed an Avatar as I've been assuming, and b) going to be really really scary one day. Not sure how I feel about Scary Aang. Although petty Aang was fun.

I love monster of the week episodes with low stakes and high humour, but this one was had so much stupid coming at me from so many directions that it did get a little annoying. Still, I'll rewatch it. That Kyoshi bit was delicious.

[psychologicalwarclaire]

Asking some writers/artists I follow:

Is there anything in your fic/comic that you as the author know about, but won't end up in the actual story?

There is. a lot.

Spoilers for Spider's Web With Strings Attached (and a really long rant) below the cut

When she took Donnie's mask after Heinous Green bashed his head in, she kept it in her vault in case she needed to perform some sort of magic that required his DNA some day.

Big Mama never intended for Donnie to die.

That being said, she still recorded and sold copies of Donnie's death. It's her most sold recording ever.

Viper requested to fight Leo. Big Mama only agreed if she kept him alive and able to fight.

Like she got the orb that she captured all of New York in from Draxum, Big Mama got the spider brooches from Draxum many years ago. She only had two; she was lying about the other two for Raph and Mikey.

Before he knew where the twins were, Mikey kept having visions of them fighting people and getting hurt. He thought they were just nightmares.

Heinous Green was in the arena because Big Mama often partners with the Hidden City police. Criminals can work of time by serving the community. In this case, they serve the community by providing entertainment Roman Coliseum style.

Big Mama's family introduced arena fights to the humans.

There was going to be a fight where Tyrian fought a scorpion and writhed with agonizing poison for a chapter, but I forgot about it until it was too late to add it -_-

Raph and Mikey's arena names would have been Rouge and Terracotta.

Big Mama was panicking the majority of the fic. Because she kidnapped them very illegally, she had to manage their food, housing, medical care, and fight arrangements herself so none of the people who normally do that (legally) would get suspicious. Honestly, Big Mama didn't expect them to become SO well loved, and then worried about keeping audience interest by putting the twins in harder fights, but not killing off her greatest assets. She, like everyone else, thought that Leo would snap first. When Donnie snapped first and proved to be a very effective killer, some of the audience grew worried about what was happening behind the scenes and raised questions Big Mama couldn't answer. Panicking, she set up the death bracket, hoping that becoming the champion would turn public opinion of Tyrian positive again. She miscalculated, and Donnie died. She also didn't intend for Leo to get mixed up in the bracket. A LOT of people lost a LOT of money, and her stocks dropped. At that point, it became less about business and money making and much more about getting revenge via torture. By the time she offered Astros the 'out' that was one final fight, she was stressed out of her mind with upholding her reputation. Had Leo been in his right mind, he would have seen how much she was unraveling.

Todd turned his non profit lemonade into a fundraiser to find the twins back when they were first missing. There were a LOT of posters and Big Mama had a FIELD DAY trying to take them all down.

Mikey and Raph tried for DAYS to get the trackers back online, but it never worked.

After hearing that Donnie had died, Hypno, Warren, Meat Sweats, and Repo got together and made the Hamatos a gift basket.

April is failing most of her classes right now.

At some point during the recovery arc, Donnie snuck out to secretly turn every blinking red light in the Lair green. You know exactly why.

Raph was wrong when he said crime had been way down since the invasion. Casey Jr had been handling it without anyone knowing. The Purple Dragons hate him a lot now.

Draxum learned slang words from school, but April taught him what they meant

[haywire-cebus]

Something. Anything.

A TMNT Mutant Mayhem trans fem Leonardo fic :)

Leo stares into the bathroom mirror, trying to figure out what was weird. He tugs his mask tails with a solid yank, making sure the knot is secure. He ends up tugging a little too hard and his face ends up level with the new crack in the corner of the mirror (courtesy of Mondo and Mikey trying to share the sink a few weeks ago). His face looks… weird. The fragmented view of eye and eye and mouth and mouth layering and stacking and- Something.

[read on AO3 here]

There is something about April that makes it impossible for Leo to stop thinking about her.

Maybe it is her hair and how it sits perfectly framing the top of her face. Or her thick eyeliner that brings out her eyes. Or her sense of fashion- simple but stunning.

Something.

It has to be something. He’s seen human girls before, human teens. He’s watched TV with his brothers, ducked away from a gaggle of teenagers on their way to the bodega too late at night and gotten glimpses of the girls there.

Something.

Maybe it is how she was simply unafraid to be herself- loud and angry at whatever threw a full-on ninja star at her head. Maybe it is how she continued on from being dubbed Puke Girl with a brave face. Maybe how she was barely even scared of them when she first saw them.

Something.

Because, if not- why? What made her different from the other girls he’d gotten glimpses of? The ones on the shows and YouTube and and and-

She had looked at him and he’d seen something in her eyes he couldn’t stop thinking about.

He does his best to ignore it. To let the crush remain what it is- his brothers tease him, sure, but nothing more than what he’d do to them, if the situation were reversed.

April is a great friend, and he can take a hint. Prom was the last straw- going as friends made it clear as day how she saw him. 

And yet. Something. Something.

Leo stares into the bathroom mirror, trying to figure out what was weird. He tugs his mask tails with a solid yank, making sure the knot is secure. He ends up tugging a little too hard and his face ends up level with the new crack in the corner of the mirror (courtesy of Mondo and Mikey trying to share the sink a few weeks ago). 

His face looks… weird. The fragmented view of eye and eye and mouth and mouth layering and stacking and-

Something.

He doesn’t know how to describe it. But it’s weird.

“Leo! Hurry up!” Raph’s knock is heavy on the door and he straightens up quickly.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” He shouts back, ready for their nightly patrol. They’re helping April with her current case, doing stakeouts and keeping an eye out for the TCRI. It’s good- distracting. He’s in his element when he’s running across rooftops, watching Mikey try to grind across railings and Raph attempt to perfect his “running across walls” technique. It’s fun and stupid and reckless and helps stop the weird Something that lingers in the pit of his stomach and bubbles up through his chest like an avalanche when he leasts expects it. 

As he leaves the bathroom, he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror before he clicks the lights off. He reaches up and flips his mask tails to lay in front of his shoulder, almost like he’s seen the-

Something.

There’s a LGBTQ club at school. He knows of it passively from the posters on the wall and the article April posted about some fundraiser they were doing. It didn’t really click that it was something he could look into until now. April is home sick. He doesn’t technically need to wait around for everyone’s clubs to be over with for the day to head home, but they always walked home together.

It is routine, and he likes that part of his routine. 

He considered lingering in their set-aside classroom for the journalism club (technically six members strong, with Raph, Donnie, and Mikey on the list so the club could officially be formed for numbers sake, and some girl named Irma who shows up once in a blue moon to meetings). It feels weird being in there alone, so he decides to wander the halls. 

He makes his way to the improv club room, because Mikey had told him he is always welcome to stop by and watch him be “The King of Comedy,” but a few rooms before the door where Leo can practically see the laughter pouring out of, is a cracked open door. One of the only two rooms in the hallway with the lights on, and a single piece of colored paper with “LGBTQ and Ally’s Welcome!” written in alternating colored markers.

Something.

He steps through the door.

The heads in the room perk up, and Leo suddenly needs to turn and leave immediately. He tugs on the collar of his shirt (a nice dark blue button-up, because April said that polo’s were for dads) and waves, “Hi, uh, sorry?”

A kid with bright white hair turns and smiles up at him, showing off braces and copious necklaces, “I’m Renet. She/they. You’re welcome to sit in, no pressure. Anyone is welcome so long as you aren’t a piece of shit.”

Another kid, with a closely shaved head speaks up, “I didn’t know the mutant turtles were gay!”

The girl, Renet, hits the shaved-head kid’s arm, “whatever their reason for coming to this meeting is none of our business, unless they want to share. Don’t pressure anyone, this is a safe place for anyone. That’s the rules.” She turns her dark eyes onto him, and everything is suddenly a lot. “You’re Leo, right? You understand the rules?”

He manages a nod. She gestures to the many chairs around the room, and he sits. Further away from the main group, but close enough. They’re all nice, going back to the conversation he interrupted, but he can barely pay attention.

When talking about him- she hadn’t called him, well, a him. He could excuse it as her generalizing him with his brothers, but-

She said her pronouns were she/they. He knows what that means- that it is a thing that people could do. He is on the internet, of course. 

But Renet- well. There was no way he can phrase this without sounding like a jerk, but they don’t look like a typical… girl. He feels gross thinking that. He’s not going to judge someone for how they look, none of his brothers would. But her voice is a little deeper, and her face wider. She looks a little like he does-

Something.

Something.

The meeting ends, and Renet steps up to him and reinforces that he is always welcome to join, if he wants to. He stumbles out a quick thank you and ducks out, moving towards the improv club room again before Mikey can leave and see him in there.

Not that it is something to be ashamed of but-

Something.

He isn’t sure why, but he doesn’t want his brothers to see him leaving there. He shakes his hands out and reaches up to tug on his mask tails, only to remember they never wore them to school. He flaps his hands up and down and up and down again, leaning against the lockers until Mikey comes laughing out of the club room. 

“You okay?” Mikey asks quickly, glancing down at Leo’s hands. 

Leo nods, stuffing his hands in his pockets, “yeah, just- uh. That test in math is coming up.”

Mikey sighs solemnly, “the worst part of school is the math. I can’t believe Donnie tested out and then decided to take harder math! Who does that!” Mikey’s rant continues on as they make their way to the front of the school, where Raph is already waiting. Donnie catches up to hear the end of Mikey’s scathing comments, and the appearance of him only spurs them back on. It ends only when Raph tackles him down the sewer ladder.

For a moment, Leo has to wonder if Mikey did that on purpose. The journalism club room was on the second floor, at the back end of the school. The improv club was all the way by the theater- only the LGBTQ club was over there. Leo had no reason to be over there waiting for him. Donnie’s club was closer. 

No one noticed, though, through Mikey’s talking. 

Or maybe Mikey didn’t notice himself. It’s not like it was anything weird. Leo is allowed to go in there. He’s allowed to meet other people like him-

Other people. Just other people. 

Something.

He’s not sure if he has a crush on April anymore. 

Don’t get him wrong! He still loves hanging out with her, helping her film her research for journalism stuff, playing video games after school, all of it. 

But.

Something.

He doesn’t have a word for it.

He hasn’t been able to get Renet out of his mind. 

Maybe he has a crush on her?

That’s really the only answer. Unless he just really wants to be her friend? Or wants to be as cool as she looks? Or- or-

Something.

“Hey, want to go get-”

The curtain to their room opens, and Leo slams the laptop closed, hard enough he worries about breaking the screen. Donnie pauses in the entrance to the room, staring Leo down. He places a completely casual elbow on the laptop and props up his head, giving his brother a big grin, hoping it masks how the guilty sick feeling he’s been choking on since he first started googling today is just about boiling over.

Donnie squints at him, his stupid nerd glasses making his eyes look huge, “what were you looking at?”

“Nothing, Donnie. You know, you’re my favorite brother. And I’d love to go get whatever you were going to go ask if I wanted to go get. That sounds great. Wait out there. For a minute.”

Of course, this is not subtle or sly or anything of that nature. Donnie is at his side in an instant, trying to yank the computer away, but Leo’s grip is iron. Donnie starts yelling at him, saying something about how this was their shared laptop, he better not be weird on there, but Leo’s ears are ringing. Donnie could see-

The stupid articles and the-

The damning quiz he has pulled up, halfway filled out. 

There would be no explanation for what’s on there. Nothing he can say that would make Donnie not know-

Nothing.

Something.

He feels the familiar sting of tears in his eyes, and the churning feeling in his gut rising and all he can do is hold tight and say, “it’s nothing weird. I promise- just- please-”

And Donnie lets go, hands up like he’s at gunpoint. Eyes wide, bigger than they should be with his glasses. “Okay, sorry. I- are you good?”

The laptop is safe, tucked against his plastron, and Leo can’t bear to look at his brother. He squeezes his eyes shut and nods. “Yeah, just. Uh. A secret. Please.”

Donnie mimics his nod, and begins to back out, “okay. Well, we’re going to get pizza. Mondo is paying this time. Uh, I can tell them you’re not feeling well? Or that you’ll be out in a minute?”

Leo shrugs, “I might be coming on with something.”

“Okay- uh. Okay.” Donnie steps out of the curtain.

Leo stays where he is, frozen. The curtain rustles once more, but Donnie doesn’t reenter.  Just softly says, “you know you can tell me anything, right?”

He can’t bring himself to nod, but he chokes out, “Yeah. Anything.”

Anything.

Something.

Leo doesn’t know if he believes it. That he could share this with Donnie- with anyone. That it wouldn’t be weird.

Be wrong.

He’s already a mutant turtle. He’s already weird. He already doesn’t think the way most people do, doesn’t talk or act right. Doesn’t move right.

This is just another thing he’s doing wrong.

But Donnie is his brother. Raph and Mikey too. And his dad has proven time and time again that he loves them all no matter what. He just wants them to be happy.

Leo would be happy if this rock lodged deep in his chest would just go away.

One week later, he sets the camera down in the middle of a shoot that was honestly going pretty well. 

“Leo! The camera!” April’s brow is furrowed, and she looks like she’s rearing up to start another rant about how to be a cameraman, but Leo cuts her off.

“Can I tell you something?”

It’s easier, he reasons, to tell a friend. A close friend, yeah. Probably the closest friend he’s ever had. One he has a maybe-crush on. 

But if she finds him weird for this, whatever, right? He’ll still have his brothers and his dad. And if it goes good with her and bad with them, well, April has always seemed pretty ride-or-die. Her parents have always seemed cool, in the few short moments he’s met them. Worst case scenario he could probably crash with them as he waited for his family to get over their bad feelings about him not being- well- him.

Worst-worst case scenario he’s on his own. He refuses to entertain those thoughts. He’ll be accepted. He has to be. He has to.

Right?

“Oh. Uh, yeah, sure. What’s up?” She hops up on the table between them, legs dangling and crumpling the paper beneath her. April has clearly read his tone, and he’s grateful for that.

The rock in his chest feels so big, it’s weighing him down. It’s like he can’t breathe, and he feels warm and sweaty and the stupid shirt he has on is already tight against his shell but it’s tight all over and-

“What if I wasn’t a guy?” They blurt out.

“Oh, uh-” April starts, but Leo goes on, now that they’ve started they (they isn’t right it’s not quite there but it’s easier it’s easier right now it’s deniable it’s easier) can’t hold themself back.

“I’m still Leo, I think. But I don’t think I’m a guy. Or a person- not in a mutant way! I mean, clearly in a mutant way. Like I’m not a human, never was one. Always been a turtle, always will be. But like, not a guy turtle. Sometimes, well, really all the time, I feel like I’d like to be a girl turtle? Which sounds stupid and is a horrible way to phrase it. I had a better way of saying this I promise, but I just don’t think I like being a guy. Honestly, I really really don’t like it. But I don’t know what to do or how to really say it and-”

April cuts Leo off with a hand resting on Leo’s shoulder. “Leo, are you coming out?”

“Maybe,” Leo answers, as honestly as she allows herself to be.

“Okay. Cool. Thank you for trusting me with this. Do you want to use she/her or…?” April’s hand is still on her shoulder, and Leo lets herself nod. “Can I give you a hug?” 

Leo nods again, and is quickly engulfed in April’s arms, warm all around her. It’s not the same sickly warmth that the panic was causing; instead, something safe wraps around her. 

She’s holding herself together pretty well, and then April leans back and grins, “I’ve never had a girl best friend before.” 

And Leo shoves her face in her hands as she lets out a sob.

April offers to be there with her when she tells her family, but Leo wants to do this on her own. She pulls Donnie aside first, making something up about wanting to race to the bridge again.

It’s a bad lie as it is, but Donnie clearly wants to know been wrong, and Raph is too busy kicking Mikey’s butt at Street Fighter (and getting his butt kicked by Leatherhead in return) to really notice.

They get to the rooftop, and Leo chickens out. She doesn’t let Donnie get a word in before she shouts “Go!” and starts running.

She makes it to the top of Brooklyn Bridge first, sitting atop the towering pillars in the middle. Neither of them have broken a sweat, and Leo can’t help but let the pride of how much stronger they’ve all gotten wash over her.

She hopes the adrenaline will carry her through the conversation, at least. “So.”

Donnie stares at her. “So?”

“So.”

“So.”

She snorts, and then Donnie laughs at her snort, and then they’re both laughing. It’s nice, and it’s just like old times, and it’s so familiar that she just says, “I’m a girl.”

Donnie stops laughing, and stares. He does that sometimes, when he’s focusing. He’ll zone out and think, gathering his thoughts. Oftentimes that means he’s about to say a lot of things about something he’s really passionate about, and as much as Leo teases she does enjoy listening to it. Most of the time.

Right now, the anxiety that had been washed away by their race is trickling back in, starting in her hands that she begins to flap and then Donnie goes-

“My friend Angel has started using she/they, and it’s gotten me thinking about how I don’t always feel like a boy. So I think I want to try he/they.”

It’s Leo’s turn to stare, mind blank as she tries to process this new information. And then, she blurts out, “you’re stealing my moment?”

She had no idea that was what she was going to say, and it makes Donnie glare at her and yell back, “you don’t get to hog coming out! Anyone can do it!” 

Donnie hand goes for her face, pushing her back, and she reacts exactly how fifteen years of growing up with three brothers- siblings, she corrects herself- has trained her. She bites at their hand, and Donnie yelps.

They start fighting, and that rock in her chest erodes away a little more when Donnie cries out (in full dorky glory) “just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean I won’t hit you! It would be sexist of me to treat you differently!”

This does cause her to lose the fight, because laughing and hands flipping wildly in joy when trying to pin down your sibling gives you a distinct disadvantage.

They talk, after. The stars are dull above them, drowned out by the city lights. But that’s okay. They spent a lot of their life only getting glimpses through sewer grates and stolen moments when grocery trips “accidentally” went long. The stars are plenty bright enough.

The light of Donnie’s phone as they start editing a picture of her on top of the trans flag for her contact photo is also plenty bright. He promises to not change the actual icon until she comes out to the others. They look over at her as they save their edit, “there’s this anime one of my friends recommended about a trans girl. Wanna watch it with me?”

Anything.

Leo spends her night curled over her sibling’s shoulder, staring into his phone screen. Their legs dangle dangerously off the edge of the bridge’s pillar, and the phone fares no safer, especially when Leo mutters out a quick joke that sends Donnie snorting into laughter, one hand clutching the phone. The episode is half unwatchable after that, the subtitles hard for Leo to read through the shakiness of Donnie’s laughs. It’s okay, though. She’ll live without fully understanding the plot.

She’ll live.

She tells Raph next, only because she’s pretty sure Mikey wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret. Not out of any malice, he just sometimes forgets that something is a secret at all, and she’d hate for Raph or their dad to find out second hand.

Raph is easy to catch, half-dozing in bed after school a few days later. Donnie’s in the room, headphones on and watching some show or BTS compilation on YouTube, but they’ve known this is coming, so when he sees her enter the room he mutters something about getting a snack and steps out. 

And then it was her and Raph.

Tucked away under the small stone archway, her bed is like a safe-haven, so she takes it. Sitting on the edge, but facing Raph, who grows more alert the longer she looks at him.

“What?” He grumbles through a yawn. “Am I in trouble again? Coming in here to ground me, mom?” It’s a playful joke. One they’ve tossed at her countless times; she can’t help how she worries. Can’t help wanting to make sure they’re all safe and not getting into trouble (at least, not trouble she hasn’t deemed safe enough or fun enough to warrant the risk). 

This time, no defensive bubble rises in her chest. Instead, the rock shifts. 

She asks plainly, “do you know what transgender means?”

“Uh… Is ‘kinda’ the wrong answer here?” He asks, sitting up in bed and squinting at her.

“So, I’ve been thinking and stuff, and I’m a girl. I haven’t told Mikey or Dad yet, so please don’t say anything right away, but I just wanted you to know.” It’s much more precise than how she explained it to Donnie, more certain and set in stone. She can only hope Raph doesn’t find it weird or tease her, because if he says anything mean right now she’ll probably cry and not the cathartic kind she had after telling Donnie and being met with something more than acceptance. 

“Oh. Uh, do I have to do anything special?” Raph asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

And it was stupid, it was always stupid to doubt that he’d be mean or angry at this. Because, yes, Raph is hot-headed. He’s stubborn. But he would also kill for any of them without blinking, especially if it was something important. “Not yet, but once I tell everyone else just you know. Use she/her and call me your sister and stuff. I guess.” 

“Cool.” He goes to lay back down before bolting back up, “wait. You told me before telling Dad? Or Mikey?”

“...Yes?” She says, hesitating over how sudden this shift was.

Raph hops out of bed and gives her a firm hug, “heck yeah. I knew I was your favorite.” It's warm. Safe, as his hugs always are, even though they’ve grown more and more rare as they’ve gotten older. It’s nice. 

“Are you intentionally forgetting Donnie here?”

The hug is dropped as Raph steps back, a frown on his face. “...No.”

“What a cruel brother.”

“Hey! I’m not mean! I’m the best!” 

She tosses a quick, thickly sarcastic “uh-huh” over her shoulder as she steps out of the room. “Enjoy your nap.”

She goes to Mikey right after, emboldened by the warmth of her brother's arms around her. Mikey is in the living room, standing on top of the coffee table and clearly recreating some joke or other from his Improv club that doesn’t pan out as well, second hand and far removed from the situation, but Dad, Wingnut, and Leatherhead laugh anyways. 

Mikey see’s Leo in the doorway and grins, “Wait- Leo, let me set it up for you-”

“I saw it from here. It was hilarious, dude.” She stops him before he can get going again. Maybe another time she would have watched the joke a second time, but she wants to get it over with.

Doesn’t want to keep it in anymore. 

“Do you have a moment?” She asks.

Dad looks over, “everything okay?” His concern is clear, and she thinks she’ll be ready to tell him soon. Not before she tells Mikey. This just. It feels like something you tell your siblings first. They’ve been through everything together, and she trusts them all in ways none of them can trust their dad. It’s just how things are with siblings.

“I’m good. Just forgot to write something down for class and wanted to check Mikey’s notes.” It’s a bad lie- she’s still not good at it. Luckily, their dad doesn’t understand how school works too much, so doesn’t question her asking Mikey for his notes. It’s usually the other way around. Or asking Donnie. Or texting April. Or just deciding it wasn’t important stuff anyways.

Mikey is right behind her, barely into the adjacent sewer tunnel before he’s asking, “what’s up? Secret mission Dad can’t know about?” 

“No, just. Well, kinda. A secret yes, a mission no. Unless you count not telling anyone before I do as a mission.” It’s vague, and Mikey clearly hates that, if the way his beak scrunches up and he slumps onto her.

“Come on dude- you know I can’t keep secrets, even ones from my brothers. My blood brothers-”

“I’m not your brother.” Which is not the way to phrase it! Mikey steps back, and she quickly fishes for damage control, still speaking quietly even as she tugs him a little further down the tunnel, cognizant of how it echoes. “I’m your sister. I don’t know how much you know about people being trans, but-”

“You’re trans!” Mikey practically shouts, and she’s quick to slap a hand over his mouth. He licks it, and it’s years of being the eldest that help her keep her cool and keep the hand there. She feels more than hears his next, almost awed, “that’s so cool.”

(A few months later, Mikey finds her in the kitchen late at night. Bebop and Rocksteady are asleep on the couch, loud snores masking his feet until he practically sneaks up on her. It’s raining on the surface, and their ever-leaky pipe brings a gentle drip-drip-drip to the ambiance of their conversation.

Mikey tells her about the new transfer in his history class. Some scrawny kid named Woody who comes to school every day smelling like pizza because his family opened a new restaurant in the city. She can tell he’s blushing, even in the barely-there orange light of the string lights in the kitchen. He talks about how cool Woody is, how he’s funny and hasn’t once been weird about him being a turtle. He goes to Improv and doesn’t even do jokes- he just watches and Mikey swears he laughs the hardest at his jokes. But Mikey doesn’t know what to do. Because Woody is a good human, and Mikey doesn’t know if it’s okay because even though she is still crushing (half-crushing? She still doesn’t know) on April it’s gotten nowhere and-

And she wraps her brother into a hug and tells him that if Woody breaks his heart she’ll get to him before Raph can. 

And when Mikey tells Donnie and Raph the next day, she joins in on the endless teasing that ensues. It’s what siblings do).

Their dinner table is more packed than it ever was in their first fifteen years of life. Mutants squeeze together, shoulder to shoulder, as Bebop and Rocksteady talk about an apartment they’ve been looking at, and Wingnut has a college with on-campus housing that may be willing to give a good scholarship out. April is cramped between Raph and Mondo, who is attempting to get a word in about how college degrees aren’t helping anyone anymore.

Donnie turns their head and smiles at her, hand coming under the table to hold her flapping hand still with a squeeze. She returns it twice as hard, and says, “I have something to say.”

Mikey grins over at her, giving two very obvious thumbs up, and April places a hand on Mondo’s shoulder to get him to quiet down.

Whiskers twitching, Dad looks up at her, “something up? 

Something indeed.

[obsceremediaarchive]

Finnish Ginga Nagareboshi Gin and Urumi/PurePlastic merchandise🐶

Something interesting about the Japanese series “Sliver Fang” or “Ginga Nagareboshi Gin” is that in it somehow got really popular in Finland and the North in general, but for Finland it got many Finnish translation releases,

and to this day it’s very well loved and known there to my knowledge, So it wouldn’t be so farfetched for merchandise to be made and sold there,

Such as:

PurePlastic’s/Urumi’s plush line, these plush were made to release in Finland, they could also be shipped to other Scandinavian countries and South Korea, making them a little hard to find, though some characters are easier to find them others, there still pretty well loved even popular around the Ginga fandom and again since they had a county exclusive release there a bit hard to find along with being very wanted making them pretty pricey, but there high quality makes the item the worth the price for many.

Tags (two different known swing tags, green is the first release of a line of classic characters that appear in the 80s anime, and the blue tag is the line of more modern characters that appear in the 2000s anime and even in comics.)

Plush of both lines

Classic (2020)

(Puppy Gin, older Gin, older Riki, John, Akame, and kurojaki)

Modern (unknown)

(Weed, Yukimura, Tesshin, Jerome, George, Hougen, Kyoshiro, Mel)

There have also been one more plush and even merchandise made by them, some of this merchandise (not plush) would come free with purchased item/items or only with specific items or circumstances not just with any item, such as:

Akakabuto plush (2023)

Keychains (2020-2023, All classic and modern characters along with The First Wars spin-off, some single character keychains (not chibi, nor “The First Wars” spin-off, nor art and character fighting move keychains) coming as free items for preordering the plushies)

Shirts (“Bear dogs” 2023, classic and modern, “Legends” 2023, classic characters,) Bags (shoulder bag 2021, classic and modern characters, shopping bag 2021, modern characters, The First Wars spin-off bag 2021, was free with certain orders for a limited time, modern characters,) badges (Gin and weed 2021, Riki and Yukimura 2021, John and Andy 2021, Ken and Kagetora 2021, Orion and Sirius 2021, Rigel and Bella 2021, two “Strive For Justice” Ukraine fundraising badges 2022, classic and modern characters) stickers (Weed 2020, was a free gift in some Urumi orders, Bella 2020, was given as a free preorder bonus with “Sunset” or “Wardogs” cups/mugs, classic and modern characters) magnets (weed family and allies 2020, Gin 2020, John 2020, GB 2020, Orion 2020, classic and modern characters) Fidget Spinner (Gin 2023, was given as a free preorder bonus with Akakabuto plush, classic character) Mask (2020, translation from Finnish is "Remember to social distance!" or "stay apart," characters are Orion, Sirius, Rigel other characters I can’t Identify, modern characters) Umbrella (date unknown, The First Wars spin-off characters on it, modern characters) Buckets (2020, Given out for the opening of a new Urumi shop, The First Wars spin-off characters on them, modern characters) Cups (“Legends” mug 2020, classic characters, “Gin, Shiro and Riki” mug 2020, classic characters, Sunset mug 2020, modern characters, Wardogs mug 2020, classic and modern characters, “Monsoon And Brothers” mug 2020, modern characters,) Postcards (“Year of the Boar“ The First Wars spin-off card 2020, another The First Wars card 2019 this time of the main series instead of spin-off,) and Posters (some of these images have appeared in other merchandise, like “Northern Lights” 2016 (modern and classic characters) art which appeared on a keychain (2020) with the same name as the art piece but without the top words on Keychain, “The Legend” poster 2016 (classic characters) it’s art appearing in Keychain (2020) with the same name, Sunset poster 2017 (modern characters) which it’s art has appeared on a mug (2020) of again the same name, not all art got this treatment only appearing as posters it seems, like, “Thoughts” poster 2016, watercolor poster 2017, “Next Generation” poster 2016 (modern and classic characters) (though similar it’s a different item and it’s not to be mistaken for Northern Lights 2016 art,) “Mother And Son” poster 2017 (modern and classic characters), “Kyoshiro Challenge” poster 2016, “Summer Day” poster (date unknown,) “Run” poster 2017, “Rest” poster 2017, “Monster In Paradise” poster 2016.)

Honestly it’s clear to see how much Finland loves this series, Urumi definitely has a large category for any Ginga fan, though the plushies are still the most well loved, it’s still interesting to take a look at other items as well.

Thanks to the GingaMerch website for all this information, without you this merchandise wouldn’t be archived and out there for collectors to see, again thanks to them for all this important information, if your a Ginga fan or just interested for whatever reason, go check them out, there amazing!

(LINK IS SAFE)

[starry-bi-sky]

Damian meets Dani about... oh, a few weeks after he's found out his brother was alive and living somewhere in America, and... lets say a week after he's met Samantha Manson. After that gala, it doesn't take much prodding and stalking to find out that Mansons live in Amity Park, Illinois. And if that's where Samantha was, then that's where Danyal was.

Stalking Manson's social media -- of which required a little bit of hacking as she kept her account private -- to see if there were any pictures of his brother was only slightly helpful. Most of her pictures were either scenic shots of Amity Park, photos of posters and signs of her environmental protests, fundraisers, and other such activities. The photos that did include Danyal were all carefully cropped out or angled to avoid showing his face.

The most recent photo was one of Manson at what appeared to be a gym, sitting in front of a mirror with another brown-skinned boy leaning against her. They all looked like they were coming down from exercising, Manson and the other boy -- Foley, as the tag said -- were both sitting on the ground. But the third boy, Danyal, was laying down, the angle prevented the camera from seeing most of his face and body, and what could have been seen was covered by Danyal's arm that he'd thrown over his face.

Unfortunately, as easy as it would be to take a plane down to Amity Park and hunt down his brother for answers, that would cause more problems than it would solve. Father made it explicitly clear after they'd returned from the gala and found out where the Mansons resided that they were to wait.

"If Danyal finds out that we know he's alive, he will likely try and run." Father told them, sitting at the chair in front of the Batcomputer, Amity Park's page pulled up. "He's spent the last five years in what has been, essentially, deep cover. He will not react well to finding out it's been blown."

(Damian had wanted to argue -- he's waited long enough. He wants to know what his brother's real feelings on him are. He wants to know why Danyal decided to leave the League himself. It had been a decision between Danyal and Damian over who would fake their death, and Danyal had chosen to leave. He wants answers.)

(But, Father's been quieter since the reveal of Danyal's existence was brought to him, and the memory is still fresh in Damian's mind of Father approaching him after the fight and quietly asking him why he hadn't told him about Danyal.)

(It was hard to read his face with the mask on, but the line in his shoulders, the pinch of his mouth -- Father was hurt and trying not to show it. Guilt still bubbles up in Damian's chest at the recall.)

(He feels even worse remembering his response -- rolling his shoulders back and telling Father, his stomach churning: "I thought it pointless to inform you of a son that was already dead." He didn't want his Father to mourn a child he never met, and... Damian didn't want Father to wish it was Danyal here instead of him.)

So, waiting for their plan of attack to finally be initialized, Damian allows Richard to drag him down to Gotham's mall. To get out of the house and do something else.

And it's there that he meets Danielle Fenton. Really, how unexpected. He's in the middle of conversation with Richard when she, well, bumps into him. Its not a huge bump, neither of them go to the ground nor do they drop anything, but she whirls around in utter apology while Damian is already forming an insult on the tip of his tongue.

"Oh geez, sorry! I didn't see you--" Ellie makes eye contact with him, and her voice cuts off, but her jaw stays dropped. Damian can't say he's of the same expression, but he is of similar sentiment. Brown skin only a few shades lighter than his own, black hair, glacier blue eyes that Damian has only ever seen on two people. And, as both of their eyes flick up to each other's brows, the death knell.

Father has a very unique set of facial features -- specifically, the strange shape of his eyebrows. It feels ridiculous to say aloud, but the 'batwing' shape of his brows means that anyone who knows about the Waynes would, reliably, be able to recognize them within minutes.

And this girl had them, just as Father did, just as Danyal did, and just as Damian does. She also shared an uncanny likeness to Danyal, and to mother.

Damian's hands immediately go to a dagger at his hip.

At the same time, the girl makes a strange squawking sound - like she's just had a revelation. And immediately she's jabbing a finger at Damian's face, her other hand slamming over her mouth to smother her annoying, staccato shrieking.

"You!" She squeaks, hopping in place with sparkling blue eyes. She looks around frantically, and Dick tenses up in Damian's peripherals -- likely seconds away from dragging the girl away from the crowd.

The girl laughs, giggly and excited, and lands her eyes back on him. There is an expression of awe on her face as she drops her hand from her mouth, she leans her face close to his, grinning from ear to ear. "You! You're Danny's brother!"

Damian's attention sharpens. She knows Danyal -- she looks like Danyal. She knows Danyal.

The girl couldn't be more than a few years older than Damian, but younger than 15 -- the age Danyal should be right now. She claps her hands together excitedly. "Holy cow!" She breathes, and audibly inhales, "Look at you! Wow! I thought you were a mini-Danny for a moment. But then I realized your eyes were green and you don't have his scar."

She's tilting her head side to side, looking over him like a specimen to be studied. Automatically, Damian is scowling, leaning away from her in annoyance.

That only seems to delight her more, and she laughs again. "You even have his scowl! Amazing!" She exclaims, and long-driven instinct forces Damian to ruffle up in offense, how dare she compare him--

The girl juts her hand out for a handshake, grinning from ear-to-ear. "I'm Dani with an i, but you can also just call me Ellie if it's too confusing." She waits patiently for Damian to give her his hand, and he tamps down his annoyance to reluctantly take it. Dani shakes it hard.

"You know, Danny's told me about you a few times -- never your name, no, he's always calling you starlight. It's incredible how he can share details while also keeping all the important bits out."

'He calls you starlight.'

Dani speaks quickly, excitably, like a child on a sugar rush or a teenager meeting her favorite author. She steamrolls through her sentences like she didn't just hit Damian with a sledgehammer to the chest. It's the second time he's heard someone claim that they've been told about him under a pseudonym, under the same pseudonym.

He's at a loss for words, and Richard steps in with a hearty chuckle and a hand on his shoulder. "Woah," he says, cutting off Dani with a warm smile, "I think we should probably talk about this sitting down, yes?"

Yes, Damian thinks, blinking at Dani, let's pause this for a moment. He needs a moment to breathe.

Dani blinks, and then nods, smiling back easily. "Right, good idea! I know a good spot." Then she turns and bounds into the crowd of other shoppers, and only then does Damian realize that Dani was without a chaperone.

They quickly follow after her, and perhaps if they were anyone else, they would have lost her in the crowd. The ease she moves between people makes Damian wonder about her origins -- obviously she is a clone of Danyal. The eyes, the name, the similarities are all too convenient to ignore.

However, who made her was the question. She was far too bubbly to be made by the League, and the fact that she knows Danyal and was even within speaking terms of him implied that whoever made her was within close range of him as well. Perhaps even knew him, to some level.

Most people who made clones did not do so with good intent, but the fact that Danyal told this clone about Damian meant they were close on some level. Dani likely defected then? Similarly to Superboy. Did she have powers? Did she know of the League?

She's sitting at a table in the food court when they finally catch up with her, and she looks a little sheepish as they draw up their chairs. "Sorry," she says as they sit down, smiling nervously, "I totally forgot to make sure you guys were following me."

Not a lie, Damian thinks, eyeing her up and down as he lowers into his seat beside Richard. He sniffs curtly, hiding only some of his annoyance. "It's fine. We found you, didn't we?"

Dani nods,her mouth twitching into a more relaxed smile. "You did! Yeah, wow." She stifles a round of awed giggling. "Sorry, sorry-- it's just so weird to actually meet you in person. The way Danny talked about you made it sound like he was never gonna see you again, so I kinda thought the same."

...Ah. Right. Because he faked his death without any intention of reveaing that it was fake in the first place. The squeeze of Damian's chest is unexpected and throbbing, like someone put a weight on his sternum in an effort to crush his lungs. In his chair, Richard's arms flexed and unflexed subtly.

"Well..." Damian pressed his lips together, "I am here now. It is interesting to meet you, Dani." He says, he can't say nice, the jury is still out on that one. But it is interesting. Placing his elbows on the table, he leans forward. "Are you Danyal's clone?"

Immediately Richard swats him lightly in the arm with a hiss of his name, while Dani's eyes widen comically at him. However, instead of getting defensive or even fleeing, Dani grins widely. "I am, actually. No point in denying it, right? But you haven't given me your name, Danny's brother."

Damian tamps down an instinctive twitch, a trained negative response to being Danyal's anything. He nods shortly. "My name is Damian, this is my... brother, Richard." He gestures to Richard, and ignores the grin he gets burning into his temples.

"You can call me Dick, Dani." Richard says, leaning over the table to shake Dani's hand. Dani nods, an eyebrow raised amusedly. When Richard lets go, his smile carefully falters, and he feigns looking around. "Are you alone?"

Dani's eyes bug for a moment, and her smile turns strained. "Ah, my -uh, guardian is actually in another store right now. I texted them, they'll meet me here when they're done."

Lie, Damian thinks, and shares a knowing look with Richard. She's alone -- a foolish thing to be for children, especially in Gotham. If there's one thing Damian knows for certain, it's that Danyal would not allow any clone of his to wander around inept or incompetent. Especially when he is supposed to be dead.

He likely allowed Dani to live because she was not only a girl, but had something that prevented her from being easy to defeat or capture. He doesn't see anywhere where she could be concealing a weapon -- so powers, perhaps? A meta Al Ghul would be a useful asset to anyone, if she had no weapons, then powers were the next potential option.

He turns back to Dani, "I see. Can you tell me more about Danyal? It has been a long, long time since I last saw him. I am... curious to see if he's the same as I remember him."

Dani's expression falls flat and deadpan, the illusion only ruined by the toying of her mouth and the amused glimmering of her eyes. "By that do you mean if he's still a stubborn stick-in-the-mud with a mean streak a mile wide, and a weird propensity for breaking out into shakespeare when he's pissed?"

Damian stares at her. "...Yes."

The girl sighs dramatically and slumps against the table, pressing her cheek into the cold metal with her face all scrunched up. "Then yeeesss!" She whines, "I love Danny, I do. He can be a big prickly teddybear sometimes, but oh ancients, I will always hold our first meeting against him for as long as I live."

An eyebrow crawls up Damian's forehead - both at Dani's description of his brother, and the mention of their 'first meeting'. Dick sits up in his peripherals, an equally intrigued look on his face.

"How did you guys first meet?" He asks, barely bothering to hide his interest.

Propping her head up on her chin, Dani remains deadpan -- and perhaps a little pouty -- "Ehh... I claimed to be his third cousin once removed." Automatically, Damian presses his mouth into a line. She was avoiding answering the question in full. "He didn't really... take it that well."

Damian can understand why. Father's earlier explanation brings itself back to the forefront of his mind -- Danyal would not react well to finding out his death was uncovered. If Dani claimed to be related to him, then it is a miracle she was still even alive. Had it been Damian, he would have killed her on the spot.

"Yes," he hums, "I can understand why."

Dani scrunches her nose up, and eyes him warily, "Yeah, don't think I didn't see you grabbing your side earlier." She says, ignoring how Damian stiffens up faintly. "I've learned my lesson."

They fall into almost comfortable conversation after that - trading questions and answers back and forth. Dani, short for Danielle, was in Gotham to explore. She was nearly a year old, and she wanted to see the world before settling down and doing anything concrete.

Danielle asks Damian what he was doing in Gotham, Danny said they lived overseas. Damian tells her that he lives here, and she perks up and asks if he was put into foster care too.

He nearly ruffles with offense -- no, he was living with their Father. He nearly says as such -- only for a hand on his back to stop him. Richard sends him a warning look, and Damian is very vividly recalling just that weekend with Manson.

(He is still wondering how his brother managed to reach Gotham so quickly, because that was his brother. He might not have been able to see his face, but that voice was his.)

Manson was furious with them over something, furious enough that she refused him information on his brother. Enough that she was petty to hang up the phone with Damian's brother without ever even uttering a word to him of who she was talking to.

Damian looks Danielle and lies, and tells her yes, he was also put into foster care. Richard backs him up.

Danielle is a well of information on his brother -- more so than any of Manson's social media was. Despite her explorations, she's still naive -- or, at least, naive to Danyal's situation. With Richard's help it's all too easy to get her to tell them about Danyal.

He learns that Danyal was interested in astronomy. Whenever Dani visited it was like he had new facts to tell her. He learns that his brother listens to goth rock, and was particularly a fan of a band called Dumpty Humpty. Something that Damian was certainly not expecting his brother to be interested, of all things.

And, perhaps the most important piece of information of all, Danielle pulls out her phone with little prompting and shows him a recent photo of his brother. Damian prevents himself from stealing it out of her hands, forcing himself into carefully taking it with permission and showing it to Richard.

It was a simple selfie of the two of them in a park somewhere. Danyal was crouched down beside her, and while Danielle was beaming into the camera, Danyal simply wore a half-tilted, awkward smile. He was in a red muscle-tee, the last thing Damian could imagine his brother wearing.

There wasn't much to put it, Danyal was simply older. With wavy black hair framing his face and his glacier blue eyes, there was no doubt about it that he was an Al Ghul and and Wayne. The scar he's had for as long as Damian can remember -- the one he gained from protecting Damian merely a week into his birth -- split diagonally down his face. It's shrunken more with age -- well, not shrunken. Danyal merely grew.

He had old, familiar scars down his arms. Ones he gained from training. But there were ones Damian doesn't recognize -- a pinkish one near his upper shoulder that looks new. Another laceration on his other arm that still had its stitches. An ugly, mottled wound as if someone had stabbed him with a blunt object.

There was a cut on his throat, healed but certainly not years old, as if someone had meant to slit his neck and missed it's mark. His brother has been in battles, in fights, and they are recent.

Damian stares at it silently. His tongue locked to the roof of his mouth, unable to formulate a sound. He never really knew his brother in the League, he was not allowed to -- not by Grandfather, not by Mother, and encouraged by Danyal. He is a stranger to him. Damian is sick of it.

Danyal and Danielle look more like siblings than he and Damian ever did.

He looks up at the girl, and finds his voice. "Can I have this?"

Danielle is all too happy to give it to him, typing her number into his phone. It's the first message she sends him. Richard leans over Damian's shoulder with a smile, "Would you be willing to send us anything you've got on, uh, Danny?"

Danielle beams at him, looking incredibly touched, "Of course! I can give your number to Danny the next time I see him, if you'd like."

That's right, Damian realizes with white hot panic, to get these photos she has to see him in person. He can't know I know he's alive. He jolts his head up, eyes wide. "No!" He exclaims. Danielle reels back, looking surprised.

"No." Damian repeats, forcing his voice to remain calm despite still feeling panicked. "No, not yet."

"Oh." Danielle simply says, her brows furrow together. She looks like a lost fawn. It's incredibly strange to see on a face that holds Al Ghul blood. "Uh... why?"

Yes, why? Damian can't seem to come up with an excuse.

But Richard can, always a lifesaver. He wraps an arm around the back of Damian's chair. "We recently found out Danny lives in Amity Park, our family was hoping to go visit him as a surprise." He lies, easy as breathing. And it's hardly even a lie. Just the truth re-worded. Damian nods shortly.

Danielle believes it, hook, line, and sinker. She grins widely, near-impishly. She smiles so much. It is equally as strange. "That's so sweet! Okay! I won't say anything, promise." She swears, and Richard feigns a slump of relief. "Dan's pretty good at sniffing out lies, so don't tell me anything about it. The less I know, the better."

Richard nods, smiling warmly and gratefully. "That'd be great. Thank you, Dani."

Danielle and Danyal's meeting... very, very quickly goes very sour from, basically, the moment Danny steps into his room and finds Ellie sitting on his bed (strike one) and reading the comic books Tucker introduced him to (strike two). By the time she's looked up to address him, Danny has the door locked, and a hand hovering near the knife hidden under his shirt.

She gets her third strike when Danny, in a voice that could make the mountains tremble, demands to know how she got into his room, and she lies (with uncertainty of her decision growing in her chest) that Jazz let her in. Danny's hand shifts closer to his weapon, and he turns towards her fully, and says that Jazz would never let someone he didn’t know into his room, and who was she.

(Vlad Masters had underprepared Danielle for her meeting with Danny -- not out of any completely direct malicious intent, but he failed to mention just how... 'touchy' Daniel could be -- he failed to mention the scars littering up his arms, unhidden by the hoodie tee he meets Ellie in. He failed to mention that along with those scars, that Danny was visibly lean, capable of doing very real damage without the use of his powers.)

(He tells Ellie that he’s adopted, and that he is observant and clever, but ungrateful and has a bad attitude.)

Her final strike occurs when Ellie, trying to keep her facade of cheeriness, tells him that she’s his third cousin once removed. Immediately, Danny has his dagger pulled out, and Ellie finds herself with the cold metal of a blade pressing against her throat.

Danyal 'A.G' Fenton hasn’t killed since he arrived in Amity Park. At first it was because mother told him to keep a low profile, and killing would do the opposite of that. But, he's been slowly learning from his sister and friends over the years the value of human life. So it's become a combination of keeping his head down, and also that life has value to it.

But. That doesn’t mean he can’t kill, nor is he opposed to doing it if the situation calls for it. It just means that he doesn't do it. And ‘Danielle’ is an unknown in his room, claiming to be family to him, and appearing uncannily similar to him and his family. Either someone hired her and she was trying to pass herself off as a relative to him because that someone realized Danny was the biggest threat, or, his false death has been compromised, his mother was unable to tell him, and the league was aware he was alive.

No matter how he looks at it, this Danielle was a threat to him, his sister, his friends, to Damian, and to the Drs. Fenton. Danyal Fenton doesn't kill, but he has no problems doing so.

(Ellie, pinned under Danny’s knee and the blade to her neck, is too terrified to think of phasing out of his hold. Not that it would help, he would just chase after her.)

“You have broken into my home, dared to lie to my face, and when I demanded to know the truth, you dared lie to me again." Danny's scowl could cower even Skulker, his glacier blue eyes burning. "Your continual breath has been a favor from me, that I have graciously allowed, from the moment you entered my room, dahkil."

"So I will ask one more time," he hisses, "who. are. you."

Danielle, only a few months old, unprepared for the ice storm that is "Daniel" Fenton, and his clone in only flesh and blood, and not memories, immediately breaks. And tells him that she was his clone, that Vlad sent her to come capture him, and to please not kill her.

Danny's face twists with anger, Ellie thinks he's going to kill her anyways. Instead, he withdraws his knife and gets off her, stringing out curses in Arabic as he sheathes his weapon back into its hiding place faster than Ellie can blink.

He switches to English as she is collecting her bearings (and contemplating fleeing), and Danny paces the room like a tiger in a cage. "--of course that wretched, arrogant, peacocking little ingrate would do something so infuriating. I should have driven my sword into the shrivel of his heart when I had the chance--"

Ellie, for a moment, thinks of leaving while he is distracted. And starts to slowly creep away. But Danny notices instantly, and whirls on her. His too-bright eyes bore into her head: "Where do you think you're going."

"...I'm leaving."

And Danny scoffs at her, "Why? So you can fly back to Masters and tell him that you failed to capture me, and that I know that he cloned me?" He says, and Ellie remains silent -- that's exactly what she was going to do. "He will destroy you within seconds."

Of course, Ellie rears back in offense, and she finds the footing to glare at him. "He would not! He's my dad, he loves me!"

Danny gets in her face, glowering back with an equal intensity. "He does not." He snaps, "Vlad Masters has not a soul in his body nor a heart in his chest. He would sooner cut off the hand that helps him stand, than to take it along with him."

"If you're really made of my blood, then I will teach you only this: we bow not our heads nor our hearts to anyone." Danny's too-blue eyes narrow, and his voice dips into a hiss, "Especially not to a conniving snake like Masters. Your heart: cut it off, or cut it out. He will sooner leave you to bleed."

Then, he unlocks the door and drags her out before she has much time to act. And as he drags her down the hall he shoots Sam and Tucker a text, and they meet up at Nasty Burger. Ellie is a spitfire, but Danny has her too intimidated to leave.

"This is Danielle," he tells them bluntly as he corners her into the booth, "she's my clone. Masters created her."

Ellie is with them for a week, and somehow throughout that time, Danny manages to actually get her to like him throughout that time. He's callous, blunt, and full of sharp edges that you can cut yourself on. But when he's not spitting venom, he's fretting.

When he drags her back to the house after being with Sam and Tucker, he pulls her to Jazz's room and opens the door to tell her the same thing. "This is Danielle." He says upon abruptly opening the door, interrupting Jazz's studying as he pulls Ellie inside. "She is my clone, Masters created her. She needs clothes."

Then he turns and leaves, shutting the door behind him. Ellie, in that moment, thinks that now's her chance to flee. But Jazz then squeals, and she is trapped in new arms, shaken around by Jazz Fenton, excited for a sister.

(Ellie finds herself complaining to Jazz that night, shoved into old pajamas. She's in utter disbelief that Jazz could care about a jerk like Danny.)

("He's rough around the edges, but Danny does care." Jazz tells her, combing through her hair with her fingers. "We've been working on it ever since he joined the family, but Danny warms up slowly. He's usually less stoney; I think your arrival spooked him.")

("Spooked him?" Ellie repeats, she doesn't believe it at all. "He has a funny way of showing it, he threatened to kill me!" And she turns around just in time to see Jazz's press her lips into a line.)

("He's... very protective. He'll deny if you ask him, but he worries a lot." Jazz's fingers find her hair again. "What I do know for certain though, is that he wouldn't have kept you here if he wasn't worried about you at least a little bit.")

(Ellie doubts it.)

But Ellie is indeed there for a week, and the day after her initially rocky introduction with Danny, he is a little bit kinder to her. Still kinda a bitch, but he's less harsh to her, if... almost uncomfortable around her. Flighty, kinda.

Whenever she gets mouthy at him though, he looks oddly smug about it and, infuriatingly enough, praises her attitude. He is very, very annoying. And still kinda terrifying. But hearing him shout insults via puns at someone during a ghost fight that happens that week lessens the intimidating factor,,, a little bit.

Things go about,,,, relatively,,,, similar to canon. In the sense that it ends with Ellie defecting from Vlad because she finds out that Danny was right and that Vlad didn't actually care about her. (And that Jazz had been right too; Danny, in his weird, mean way, had been worried about her as well)

Danny looks out of his depth as she talks about how he was right, and he cuts her off with a vaguely uncomfortable clearing of his throat. And gives her the most awkward, but genuine apology he can muster.

"I should've used more tact when telling you about Masters, and I... apologize for threatening you when we met. I was..." he makes a face like he's sucked on a particularly sour lemon, "worried. First about my family, and then later about you."

(Ellie will be damned: Jazz was right)

Before Ellie leaves, Danny puts a hand on her shoulder and tells her: "I wasn't kidding about what I said to you when we first met: you are of my blood, and as such, you do not bow your head nor your heart to anyone."

Ellie looks at him, thinks about the last week, and smiles like she's caught him in a trap. "What about Sam and Tucker then? And Jazz?"

Danny smiles, it's awkward and tilted, like his face isn't used to the gesture. "We bow not our hearts, but that doesn't mean we can't share."

[indigoworks]

It’s finally here! This is the two-page spread I contributed to the Beetlejuice Musical Fanbook! The Fanbook was a charity fundraiser that ran throughout the month of July 2020, and donated $6k toward The Actors Fund and COVID relief.

Two versions of my piece are now available to order HERE on Redbubble!* There are also a number of other Beetlejuice stickers available there, including a companion 5-sticker pack to this piece!

UPPER: Includes an “I Spy” game legend added to the original piece! Over 50 spooky easter eggs for you to find scattered throughout! Available as various size posters and prints. Original size is 24 x 18.

LOWER: The original zine piece! Available as a poster and various prints, as well as a pin and masks. Original size is 11.25 x 8.75.

THANK YOU !!!

* lower corner green/blue watermark not present on final product.

[ndn-bebop]

Digital design for Defund the Police poster produced for a fundraiser in conjunction with the Land Back exhibition at Open Space (on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations). The poster is printed by The Riso Collective and available through the Open Space’s online store, alongside designs by Chandra Melting-Tallow, Lacie Burning and Nicole Neidhardt. Each poster is $25 with proceeds going towards each artists chosen cause. Proceeds from my design go towards the Unist’ot’en Camp on Wet’suwet’en territory. [Image Description: A portrait style poster with a mask-like face as it's focal point. The face has one eye and a mouth with pointed teeth that look like they've been set with rivets. Underneath the one eye is a distorted formline u shapes that cover one cheek. On the forehead is a circle shape, off-centre. The face in wrinkled. Framing the face are two panels attached by hinges to each side of the face. On each panel are hands held in a open palmed gesture. Behind these you can see two masses of hair folded over and tied. In the forefront of the image is another set of hands, held close together in open palms and framing the words Defund the Police in a stylized text with northwest coast formline designs.]

[marveloussupernerd]

Holiday Charity Stream pt2 - Jumin Han

Howdy here it is nobody asked for it but I did I’m so tired

Summary: you and Jumin are holding a holiday charity stream! You have two surprise guests left for the night, Jaehee and V, and you’re hoping to ask them to be your soon to be baby’s godparents!

Fastest five minute break of your life. You went pee, drank more water, got your makeup touched up, and had a few apple slices! Didn’t even get to SEE Jumin, as he also had to get makeup touch ups.

Within a blink of an eye, you were carrying your plate of apple slices to sit back on the couch with your husband. “How much longer til we’re back?” Jumin asked the cameras. Thirty seconds. He scooted closer to you, resting a hand on your knee. “Hi,” he whispered to you. It made you giggle.

“Hi Honey,” you whispered back. He cupped your cheek gently, placing a kiss to your lips, lingering there for a moment before pulling away.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. You’re doing great,” you replied.

The cameraman started counting down from 5. The two of you put in a little bit more space between each other (this was a family friendly stream of course) and turned to face the camera.

“We’re back!” You cheered, talking to the audience as you imagined them. “Hope you had a nice break.”

“I know we did,” Jumin smiled, grabbing your hand.

“Mhmm. I got some apple slices!” You exclaimed triumphantly, holding up the plate to show the audience. Family friendly Jumin. You were very worried somebody took that last comment the wrong way. You were also worried you were blushing.

He looked at you and smiled, stealing one of the apple slices for himself. You rolled your eyes but let him.

You could hear commotion at the door. V had just arrived! You got up, brushing your sweater so it would fall nicely, and made your way to see him. “Our next guest is here! V!”

You rushed by his side to help escort him onto the set. It was no secret to you that his eyesight was getting worse. It was a surprise that he agreed to be on the camera at all. Once he finally made it over, you pulled him in for a hug. He smiled, his hand making his way to feel your bump, which would normally be weird but was not at all odd for V since you were so close.

“Wow! They’re growing fast, huh?” He exclaimed. Jumin gave him a hug as well. It was sweet that they were still as close as ever.

“I’m surprised you could tell. I don’t feel like there’s that much of a difference,” you commented. V was always good at picking out the tiny details though, so you shouldn’t have been too too shocked.

“We’ve got a fun one planned for you,” Jumin told him, chuckling slightly as he thought of the activity you had planned. He had recommended ‘pin the star on the Christmas tree.’ Something V wouldn’t be at a disadvantage for because of his vision.

You stuck the poster of the Christmas tree to the wall, the cameras panning over to get a good view of the action. “Just like at birthday parties,” you explained, handing him the star sticker. “Did you guys do that at birthday parties?” You forgot how fancy~ these two were.

“No,” Jumin smiled. He knew their upbringing was strange but embraced it, especially because he was able to have a friend to go through it all with. “But I’ve seen it played before.”

“Well,” you handed V an eyemask. “You’ll put this on, we’ll spin you around, then you try to stick the star on the top of the tree.”

V, with the brightest smile on his face, put the eyemask on. It was nice to see him playing around. You and Jumin each stood on one side of him, spinning him a few times until he was slightly instead on his feet. He didn’t hit the right spot, but he did get it on the poster. He took off the eyemask and observed his work, shrugging at the okay job.

Jumin was next. He was surprisingly unsteady on his feet, faltering around as he tried to figure out which way to move. He bumped into you. “You’re not the wall, are you?” He asked.

You grabbed his outstretched hands. “Can’t say I am,” and then helped him shift to the side slightly to get back on track. He ended out putting the star on the wall, a bit off from the actual poster. He took off the mask, laughing out loud at the placement.

“It turns out I’m not very good at this,” he commented, a childish gleam in his eyes. It was nice to see him this happy. “You’re next.” He handed you the eyemask and you put it on.

“Promise not to spin me too fast or too much. I don’t wanna get sick.” Nothing would be worse than getting sick on air. And with your pregnancy your tummy wasn’t exactly dependable.

They spun you gently around, stopping finally as you started to feel lightheaded. You were swaying, but Jumin placed his hands on his shoulders to help you ground yourself. “Straight ahead,” he whispered in your ear. Alright. You’ve got this.

You took cautious steps forward, trying not to go off course, then finally hit the wall, luckily with your outstretched hands. Hands on the wall was cheating! You immediately snapped your hands back by your side. Okay... you put this poster up. Just had to visualize it.

“She sure is taking a while,” V joked.

“Shh! I need complete focus,” you teased back. Finally, you decided, reaching slightly upwards to stick it on.

You were at the wrong wall.

“I thought you said straight ahead!?” You cried to Jumin. He had his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his snickering. V was much the same. It was cute to see them so giddy. Almost forgiveable for making you look like an idiot live in front of millions of people. You rolled your eyes, trying to ignore them, and went to grab the present for V.

“Here’s your present for winning! Although I can’t confirm that you won fairly, you did win.” You glanced at Jumin, glaring at him. He knew you were playing around and simply smiled, resting a hand on your hip for good measure as you gave his friend the gift. V opened it slowly, taking off the tape and unwrapping it fold by fold. Finally he got to the box, opening it up and retrieving his gift.

“Is this a onesie?”

“V, would you be our baby’s godfather?” Jumin asked. He nearly dropped the present, pulling his friend into a hug.

“Nothing would make me happier.” He pulled back to hug you as well. “Thank you for all this. This was so much fun. And to be a part of your baby’s life too. That’s just wonderful.”

It was a heartwarming moment. All was forgiven for those two idiots.

As Jumin said his goodbyes to V, you waved Jaehee over to you.

“Is everything alright?” She asked, her voice quiet to avoid getting picked up by the microphones.

“Would you be our last guest tonight? You’ve done so much for this fundraiser, and for us in general, and I’d so love to have you on here.”

She grabbed your hands, tucking her clipboard under her arm. “Oh me? I don’t know... I’m not the person for tv.”

“We’d love you to. Please. It would mean so much to me.” You would have run the suggestion by her ahead of time, but she would have denied and avoided the production at all costs. You knew this was your only shot to get her here.

Jumin walked over to join the two of you, a warmth flooding his features. “Jaehee. We’d love to have you.”

“J-Jaehee? Mr. Han, I don’t know...” she was entirely flustered.

“You don’t have to. I want you on here as our friend, not an assistant. And if my friend doesn’t want to go on, she doesn’t have to,” you explained, a considerate smile on your face.

She took a deep breath. “Yes. Of course I’ll go on.”

You went back to the camera. “For our last guest of the night, we have one of my best friends. She’s been doing a lot of behind the scenes on this production tonight and deserves all the recognition. Please welcome Jaehee Kang.”

You imagined applause as she made her way out. You led her to the couch to sit down next to you and Jumin.

“Jaehee is a trusted member of the RFA. She really does it all. I’m constantly impressed and amazed by everything you do,” Jumin complimented. He was looking her right in the eyes. It was as though the cameras weren’t there. It was nice to see him being so kind.

“On a similar note,” you started, “I’m sure Jaehee has done her time wrapping gifts for you Jumin. So I thought we could do a gift wrapping contest. Who can wrap the fastest?” You got up, setting two boxes in front of the two, wrapping paper, scissors, and tape.

“Mr.- Uh, Jumin, do you even know how to wrap a present?” Jaehee asked. There was a mischevious smile on her face. It was like she could finally act the way she had always wanted to.

“I know how to... in theory.”

“I’m sitting this one out to ensure it’s a fair fight. And to eat more apple slices,” you explained to them. Jaehee nodded, Jumin laughed, shaking his head. You moved to the armchair with your apple in order to give them some more elbow space. “Are you ready? Then the time starts... now!”

In retrospect it wasn’t a timer, it was just who did it first. Oh well.

There was Jaehee, moving quickly but still taking her time to crease the edges nice. Her package looked great... honestly you should have paid her to wrap presents for you this year. And then there was Jumin.

He was lost. Constantly glancing over at Jaehee. He got the first step fine. But then when it came to the sides and making the triangles... well, he was lost.

Jaehee finished. He was clueless. She smiled, reaching over to take his, explaining step by step how to do the sides. He followed along with the opposite side, doing a decent job. And there it was, two perfect presents.

“I don’t think we need to talk about the winner,” you giggled, standing up to move back to them. “And your prize, Jaehee? Well, you just wrapped it yourself.”

“Suckered into it again,” she sighed. She ripped open the present, like a normal human being should, and opened the box. “I can’t believe I hadn’t even considered that.

Pushing the tissue paper aside, she pulled out a Christmas ornament. “This... this can’t be.” She looked at the two of you, shock on her face. “Truly? Me?”

“Of course you,” you encouraged.

“But you have so many other friends. Wonderful friends. And family. Me?”

“Nobody could possibly be a better godmother than you Jaehee,” Jumin reaffirmed, smiling softly at her.

“Plus you’ll probably be watching the little rascal from time to time,” you winked at her. She pulled you both into the biggest hug, tears in her eyes.

“This is the best gift ever. Really. Even if I did wrap it myself.”

She excused herself to go compose herself. It was sweet to see her so happy. She would be perfect for the job. You sat back down on the couch, leaning your head on your husband’s shoulder.

“I’m tired.” You tried to keep your voice upbeat but it was challenging. You had been up for forever, and coordinating this all and the lights and the excitement had drained you.

“Luckily enough that was the closing act.” Jumin wrapped his arm around your waist to keep you close, his fingers lazily brushing across your skin. “Thank you so much everyone. I’ve been told we surpassed our goal significantly.”

“We, of course, will be making a contribution to once this has ended. This is such a great cause and I can’t thank you all enough.”

Jumin nodded, and kissed your head. Looks like he was going to close it out. Thank goodness, because you were exhausted. “Happy holidays, whatever you celebrate. Rest well and stay safe.”

[slasher-party]

Leslie Vernon’s Secret 2021 Short Film: Wait For It

J: Calling all Leslie Vernonites! This info is MUST KNOW for all fans of the Glen Echo slasher! So even if you already know about this project, please consider reading & sharing so more fans can get excited about this!  (This is a post I’ve been REALLY excited to make for a while, so I really hope you enjoy and spread the news!) Lace your boots up, kiddies; this is gonna be a looong post. I’m putting every step of my discovery path in here. That way you have access to all my sources:

We begin our journey on YouTube back in July. I was fooling around, watching some Leslie content, and was recommended  Joebizz34's 1/6 Behind The Mask Leslie Vernon custom figure video (tip: bold words from this point forward are most likely links). I thought it was super cool! And it had about 1k views. A small plug! But I scrolled down into the comments... and spotted a familiar face.

‘Nathan?!’ I thought to myself. Was this his actual YouTube account? That singular like is my own, by the way. So odds are, Joebizz34 himself hasn’t even seen this comment (or doesn’t realize who this is). Step One: Investigating Nathan’s Channel A natural skeptic, I assumed this was a fan account and set out to prove myself wrong. (Here’s the link: Nathan Baesel) At the beginning of all of this, this was the main task I was attempting to accomplish.

Pulling up his page, there isn’t much to look at. Just a clip from an old movie and a short video of someone who clearly isn’t Nathan Baesel. He also only has a handful of followers, but that didn’t deter me and I decided to look deeper. 

Popping over to his own subscriptions, another familiar face jumped out at me:

Ben Pace! Who you might recognize as the man who played Doug in Behind the Mask!

Double-checking this page as well, this is definitely his channel. 

And Leslie/Nathan fangirls will find a particular little treat in this pinned video of his, Hello Jogger:

Absolutely fantastic, the both of them. 

So this is a good sign, but Ben doesn’t follow him back, and I couldn’t find any interaction between them with this account. So this isn’t definitive proof.  Step Two: the 197 MPH Promo Going back to his channel, I checked out the first video he had up... with only 15 views on it. 

Now, this guy I didn’t recognize. So I jumped in to see if I could figure out who it was, and low-and-behold, you’re looking at David J. Stieve, the writer of Behind the Mask. And that man in the back? In the stripes? Well, check out the video yourself and you’ll see:

Now, there’s a lot to unpack here. Keep in mind - I was just trying to figure out whether or not this was Nathan’s actual YouTube channel for fun. Now I’m going nuts cause there’s apparently some short-film set in the Behind the Mask universe that I haven’t heard about?! At this point, I can’t say for sure this is Nathan’s actual YouTube account, but I can definitely confirm that that is Nathan in the video, and this main guy is David Stieve, the writer of Behind the Mask. (Also, can I just say, I live for Nathan’s sass? He’s just the best, guys.) But my goal had changed. Now I needed to find out what this Wait for It project was all about. Step Three: Discovering Wait for It I jumped on over to IMDB and there it is: Wait for It (2021)

Check out that unnamed boy. That’s right, folks.  You’re looking at a secret Behind the Mask project. (That little bit of trivia that says they’re linked was actually added by me. Sorry for the bad wording - I tried to fix it but IMDB wouldn’t let me, so, what can I do.) Now, talk about being hard to find! Without my addition, there’s nothing that points to this having anything to do with Leslie. Even with Nathan & David’s involvement. I checked Twitter today, and there are only a few tweets (with the #WaitForIt tag) that refer to this project and not Hamilton. David hasn’t said anything about it, Nathan hasn’t said anything about it. That I saw. I did an advanced search but if I accidentally misspelled something and they have mentioned it, please let me know. From this tweet:

I was able to find the IndieGogo for the project:

Which was closed a long time ago, with only 36 backers, where B4TM got roughly 300. One can only assume it was an exposure issue, but it doesn’t seem like they really advertised it. However, I wasn’t a Vernonite back in 2017, so I can’t really say that for sure. The last update was from 2018, which stated that things were in motion for the project: 

But then again, the last update on the B4TM Indiegogo is outdated, stating issue #6 is in production when I have it sitting on my desk right now. So who knows where this project lies. It could be even further along than the update suggests, and after all, the IMDB does say 2021. One last update I found poking around the official B4TM Facebook page: 

Now, this is a little strange. You have the Behind the Mask crew here, and given the title of the page this is posted on, one would assume this “screening” is for Behind the Mask. But looking at the date, and the now-familiar-to-us posters on the table, that might not be the case.

So, does that mean this short film is finished and unreleased? Does that mean we see Taylor and crew in the film? Or are they there to support the creators? I’m leaning toward the latter. A streaming party was also an incentive for backing the Wait for It fundraiser. I’m lead to believe they premiered a rough-cut of the short film, and that’s what we’re looking at in this photo. That may also be where the technical data on IMDB is pulled from, but that rough cut isn’t available to us, and the finished project isn’t either. If it is I can’t find it, otherwise it’d be part of this post.  I also did check the collector’s edition Blu-ray (which I’ve yet to get myself but I do want it for the incentive of extended/deleted scenes, the interviews, and the movie commentary), but Wait for It was not listed as part of the bonus features.  Now, this interview has the most information about the project’s details out of everything out there I’ve seen so far. It’s an audio-only over the phone interview a horror channel did with David Stieve back in 2017.

For details on what Wait for It is about, and how it fits into the Leslie universe, it would be better to listen to this interview than for me to write it all out.

Step Four: What now?

Well, I realized that I might have found something that maybe a lot of people don’t know about, but they should. So, I’m putting this together! While we can’t back the project monetarily anymore, we can support it, the creator, and the Leslie Universe by spreading as much awareness about it as possible.  With that said, this is all the information I’ve found, with the links included. Poke around and see if you turn up anything else! And if this project is available somewhere, even as a rough cut (but so long as it’s posted legally), please do share! I love Leslie, I love Taylor, and I love what the Behind the Mask universe stands for. I love David Stieve’s mindset, and if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would immediately call him up and tell him any Leslie projects he had planned were now completely funded. I’m really just that passionate about this franchise. 

Thank you so much for reading this!  I hope you found out something new, or you at least now have a post with all the information about Wait for It gathered in one place. Like I mentioned at the beginning, please consider sharing so all the Vernonites know about it! As always, much love to all of you, and the Slasher community!  XOXO, Mod Jess

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Prologue

Read the fic here!

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads 'Masked Omens'.

Image 2 - A scrapbook with two newspaper cuttings pasted in. Each has a date handwritten by it; the first reads ‘Tadfield Gazette, 24th July 2009′. The second reads ‘Toffley Courier, 10th August, 2009′. Full text transcription below cut. End ID.]

Tadfield Gazette, 24th July 2009

HIDDEN GEM: O’LEARY’S LATEST STUNS CRITICS Masterful casting highlights themes of innocence and fear against a background of domestic drama. [”What do you care, David? Maybe I’d rather he dream of monsters than wake alone, like me.” ~ Jane Winsome, Act 2, Scene 3] RUMOURS OF Colleen O’Leary’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated. While it’s true that in recent years her name has been conspicuously absent from the glossy playbills and bright posters of the West End, the Dublin-born playwright still has plenty to say. Her latest offering, Hidden, is on the surface a simple domestic drama about an upper middle class family with a young son. It follows their trials and tribulations through a single fraught year as ten year old Matthew (played by the talented young team of Warlock Dowling, Gert Johnson and Adam Young in rotation) questions his relationship with his parents, his nightmares, and ultimately the world around him. Anita Lovett is both adoring and adorable in her role as Matthew's mother Jane, while Oscar Williams fulfils the role of a baffled, slightly distant father as David Winsome. The cast is rounded out by Anthony Crowley, making a return to acting in the role of Ashton Storeth, Matthew's babysitter. What might have been a fairly pedestrian premise – a child becomes unsettled as his parents fail to find time for him – is elevated to new and sinister levels by Crowley's double role as both minder and monster; Matthew is plagued by nightmares of a dark creature that dwells beneath his bed, a creature that seems to have a lot in common with the mysterious Storeth. As Matthew's nightmares increase in both frequency and severity, strange events unfolding in the household lead the audience to question just how much of what they're seeing on stage is real. The script seems to demand introspection of its audience; how much can we ever really know about the world we live in or the people we invite into our homes, even trusting them with our most precious treasures, our children? And yet, ultimately, Storeth and the Nightmare have more meaningful interactions with young Matthew than either of his parents. It's a thought-provoking piece with an ending that must be seen and not spoiled. All in all, a triumphant return to the stage for both O'Leary and Crowley, who seem to have come determined to prove themselves and done so admirably. Hidden is now booking until September 30th this year; for venue information and to book tickets, visit www.hiddenuktour.com.

Lots Donated To Charity Fundraiser WITH PREPARATIONS well underway for the Anna and Eve Foundation’s upcoming auction, it seems there are still more celebrities prepared to offer up their most prized possessions for a good cause. The latest announcement of items going under the hammer includes: The upright piano played in the drawing room scene in The Grasswater Affair, kindly donated by Celestireel A flaming sword used in the original magic act of The Amazing Mr Fell, as seen on last year's Royal Variety Performance, with personal instruction in its use from the magician himself A signed drumskin and drumsticks used by Queen drummer, Roger Taylor A Nike Total 90 Omni football signed by every member of this year’s league-topping Tadfield FC squad The stunning faux-diamond necklace worn by Angela Crowley in the 2003 film More than a Memory, contributed by Pace Productions (newspaper cuts off here)

An advert for the Four Horse Inn is also cut off at the bottom of the cutting.

Toffley Courier, 10th August 2009

Toffley Gate Protests Planned [Uriel Scrolle, Reporter] When Lawrence Richmond was elected as MP for Toffley South, it was partly on the strength of his campaign promise to invest in building affordable housing for local people. Sure enough, within a year of his election, his flagship development had been completed. Having opened its doors in 2006, Toffley Gate is a towering edifice of concrete and glass, boasting over 300 individual homes, most of which are luxury apartments – but many of them still stand empty. Now local housing campaigners are calling for lower rents to be imposed on these unoccupied units in a bid to open them up to local people who cannot afford the current rates. (Continued below.) [Image: A large, modern block of flats in yellowed black-and-white newsprint. End ID.] [Caption] The Toffley Gate development, pictured shortly after completion. Local housing activists say the affordable housing they were promised has never been provided. Photo: Daniel Brubaker on Unsplash. [End caption.]

Local Theatre Reports Record Sales for O'Leary's 'Hidden' Masterpiece: Former 'Kilcridhe' star steals show with moving performance [Citron Deux-Cheval, Arts Critic] Greater Deville’s Inferion Theatre has long struggled to fill seats as the rise of commuting in the town has left residents with far les [sic] time and money to spend on the town’s recreational offerings. It relies, therefore, on the continued patronage of those who are able to attend regularly, and on the rare piece of theatre that causes its audiences to insist friends and family go along and watch, too. This week, it reported its highest ticket sales for a single show in over ten years for the Saturday night showing of Hidden, a new play from veteran playwright Colleen O’Leary. Naturally, I had to go along and see what all the fuss was about, and I was glad I did. Hidden is a deep, dark exploration of the psyche masquarading [sic] as a simple drama about two unhappily married parents and their neglected child. While the story of David and Jane Winsome (Oscar Williams and Anita Lovett respectively) and their strained marriage is compelling, with painful betrayals and soft, poignant moments aplenty, it’s their son Matthew who steals the show, along with his au pair, Ashton Storeth, played to perfection by Anthony Crowley (once a familiar face on our television screens as heart-throb Father Jacob MacCleod in Kilcridhe). On the night I attended, Matthew Winsome was portrayed by eleven year-old Gert Johnson, one of three children who take turns in the role. For such a young boy to take on such a complex role is a very tall order, but Johnson more than rose to the challenge, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the mix of fear and adoration with which Matthew regards Ashton. In scenes with his mother and father, Matthew is quiet and respectful, almost withdrwan - but opposite Crowley, who plays the double roles of Ashton and The Nightmare, he becomes expressive and unspoken, loud in his anger, his fear and, yes, his love. Crowley, too, gives an incredible double-edged performance as warm, gentle Ashton and the silent, sinister presence that lurks beneath his charge’s bed - perhaps drawing on his own inner demons to lend authenticity to the role. Hidden is a play that leaves much open to interpretation: whether The Nightmare is real or imagined, what, if anything, it has to do with Ashton, and what the surprising ending means for the family. It’s a play to get you thinking, and I highly recommend you go along. Hidden is playing at the Infernion until August 15th. Contact the Box Office on 01632 496055 to book.

[guylty]

I have been distracted. Like many of us, the latest audio book release took me by surprise. Without any warning, Audible suddenly dropped the seventh Jackman & Evans mystery. Apparently the author herself was surprised and had no idea it was coming. Mr Armitage must be particularly prolific, now that he is happily performing away in his state-of-the-art home studio! I really like the Jackman & Evans stories (although I will not deny that a lot of that is due to the person of the author herself – I simply like Joy Ellis who comes across as a charming lady on her FB page where she doesn’t think it beneath herself to communicate and react to her readers), and so I was delighted to get 10+ hours of Armitage reading onto my ears.

There. Improved it.

I have 33 minutes of They Disappeared left. And that can only mean one thing: I’ve been obsessively crafting (cos that’s what I do when I am listening to audio books). Which is also the reason for the delay in today’s round-up. It looks as if face masks are here to stay for a little while longer, and I was getting a bit fed up with my 4 face masks that will only last me four days before I have to wash them again. So I needed to sew more, and while looking through my fabric stash, I realised that my Armitage fabric is actually cotton – and hence the right sort of material for a mask. And hey, a fan should have the right accessory, even at this time… Some people wear their heart on their sleeve. I wear it on my… mask?

Two masks have hardly taken me the time it takes to listen to an audio book, though. I’ve been wondering whether there might be any demand for the (subtle) Armitage fan masks? I’ve made a whole heap of them, in fact, and they are available in my Etsy store. They are not part of the fundraiser as such, but if anybody would like to buy one of those masks, the proceeds from the sale will go into my postage fund for the RA birthday auctions later this month, as between 200 and 300 Euro are likely to be needed for posting.

Finally, let’s get to the round-up.

  Riepu10 has been giffing brown-eyed James from My Zoe 

Gorgeous Thorin, in fact a little prettier than he was, in a piece of digital fan art by sugarsu

Richardarmitagefanpage links to the latest trailer of the South Korean Sci-fi film that RA is in. No glimpse of Richard in this, though

LOL – have to include this hear for the headline provided by amelia307

I honestly can’t find the words to express how much I hate this film poster for Sleepwalker. It misrepresents Richard’s handsome face so much (and presumable inadvertently) I could scream. Am I the only one?  Posted by richardarmitagefanpage.

Wrist and hand porn galore. A scene from My Zoe, also giffed by riepu10

Um. Oh… Eh… That’s a bit short. Hm. Could be because *this* happened:

Six new (old) photos by An Le, taken end of last year in New York. They are most likely some “outtakes” from the shoot, posted by the photographer on IG. Yeah, quite frankly, that distracted me, too. Not always for the best reasons (I really don’t like photos that pretend to be “real life” but are only “really contrived”). I think it is very apparent that the photographer is primarily a fashion photographer. To me it felt as if there is lots of pretty in the shots – but very little Armitage, if you get my drift. It’s not even that the focus is on the clothes, but somehow the imagery does not feel authentic to me. It depicts an actor pretending to walk down the street or to look moody. Don’t get me wrong, I think the pictures are very aesthetic and nice to look at. But they tell me nothing about the man who is in it. Maybe that was exactly the point – obscuring rather than identifying the subject. But it’s just not what I am interested in rn. However, if pushed, I’d probably say that I like the fuzzy colour picture best where RA is looking over his shoulder (second but last image). What do you think?

Hope you have a lovely Sunday!

Sonja ❤

  2020 Armitage Weekly Round-up #30 I have been distracted. Like many of us, the latest audio book release took me by surprise.