#me fuckin absorbing movies

[cwarscars]

GET TO KNOW ME: TOP 10 MOVIES.

━━━ list your top 10 favourite movies and tag friends to do the same

1. robocop (1987) 2. the shawshank redemption (1994) 3. twelve angry men (1957) 4. the sword of doom (1966) 5. the happiness of the katakuris (2001) 6. hardware (1990) 7. dawn of the dead (1978) 8. casablanca (1942) 9. the warriors (1979) 10. platoon (1986)

tagged by : i stole this from @omniterror while i salivated over her choice in films cause hot DAMN tagging: @stingslikeabee @poeticphoenix @midgarwhispers @futurespacess @ubcs @infernocharged @shinrasfirst and everyone else, let me judge yo taste in films owo

[luck-of-the-drawings]

!!! FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING!!! [IM NOT FUCKIN AROUND!!]

REACHED THE CUSP OF 'THIS MAY NEVER BE ABSOLUTELY FINISHED N IF I DONT SHOW IT NOW, IT WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.' SO HERE, A PROJECT IVE BEEN ORBITING AROUND UHH SINCE 2021 OR SO.

[trungles]

Regarding your winter romcoms: just wanted to say you have truly IMPECCABLE taste in films (which is to say that we have the *same* movie taste), and it makes me love you/your art all the more. Any other suggestions? Ultimte favorite films? Do share!

HELLO, it has been a hot dang minute since I did one of these, and I'm pretty sure this question was dropped into my inbox closer to Christmas of 2022. So. Thank you very much for your kind words, anonymous, and apologies for the very long delay!

This is a fun question, though, so I really wanted to answer it eventually. Forgive the typos, grab your popcorn and your Red Vines (the best licorice-ish candy, I WILL FIGHT YOU no I won't but I love them), and let's go through my favorite comfort-watch movies. They're mostly rom-coms and coming-of-age movies for teens.

As a general caveat, I am not a big movie person at all. I know basically nothing about film. You will find no sensitive critique or analysis here. My favorite movies are all VIBES. I'm also not a big horror/thriller/bloody violence sort of person, so I don't watch many of those, which is weird because a goodly number of my dearest friends are horror film buffs. Also, I have made it a habit, in my adulthood, to go watch movies that I wasn't allowed to watch or didn't have access to as a kid. I'm a first-and-a-half generation immigrant to the United States, so my way of getting comfortable with American culture was to sort of approximate its vibes by absorbing its popular culture almost anthropologically? So in this post I'll maybe go over why I like it, and I might mention some of the things that have not aged super well because, as I'm sure you know, every single thing ever made cannot help being a product of the time it was made. I believe in being able to watch these things critically, enjoying them as they are, understanding that everybody's mileage may vary, and that not everything I like will be for everyone. I'm mostly including this bit because it's internet and people don't always know how to simply disengage with things they don't like.

In my Winter Movie post, I recommended The Holiday, When Harry Met Sally, Single All the Way, Moonstruck, and While You Were Sleeping, so I won't go over those again. Let's kick this off with something to help manage everybody's expectations.

The McG-directed Charlie's Angels movies, 2000 and 2003. Both of them.

I actually saw the second one first. It was one of the first PG-13 movies I ever saw in theatres, and it sort of just imprinted in my psyche, I think? They're just fun. They're real fuckin' fun. Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore have great onscreen chemistry, and the cheesy wire-fu sequences are so ham-fisted that they delight me. These movies know exactly what they are, and they're very up-front about being Movies, particularly the second one where every scene seems to have an Old Hollywood pastiche. The first one has a bit of very odd brownface moments that I did not love upon rewatch.

Singin' in the Rain, 1952

I saw this movie for the first time when I was in middle school, and I was absolutely obsessed. It was the very first time I realized that the movies had its own histories, and that there was a transition of culture when there was a change in technology. Also, I just loved watching Gene Kelly dance, for gay reasons. Plus, Rita Moreno is in it for a split second, and she's divine.

Clueless, 1995

This movie rules, I don't know what else to say. It's a fantastic Austen adaptation, and while I was too young to catch this in the 90s, it felt great catching up with this one as an adult. I think it also helped me contextualize what other kids were into in the 90s, so I retroactively feel less isolated from my peers. It's a weird sort of magic. It's also strange to me, in hindsight, that in 1995 there was an enormous hit teen movie where there is a gay character who is treated incredibly lovingly for the time? Like, no gay trauma, no homophobic bullying, no nothing. He's just there, and he gets folded into the rest of the story and remains important to the main character's life? I'd have loved that as a kid.

Shanghai Noon, 2000

The year 2000 was an incredible time for goofy action comedies, and this one was formative for me. It's extremely silly and embarrassing to admit, but this movie was the first time I learned about how Chinese railroad workers built the transcontinental railroads in the later 1800s. I first saw it as a rental from the local video store, and my parents let me watch it because my dad liked Jackie Chan movies. It's... very 2000 in its treatment of racial politics, but you could reasonably argue that not too much has changed since.

The Princess Bride, 1987

I don't need to explain this to anyone.

Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994

God, you can see the accent on Hugh Grant's mouth. I don't know why I love this movie as much as I do. I came to it a bit later in my teen years, and I'd watch it again every few years. It's grown on me more and more as the years go on. It's the only British-American ensemble production that I really latched onto, and it's in no small part because the supporting cast is so much fun to watch.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I watch it probably three or four times a year. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star as two showgirls who embark on a cruise to France to work around the machinations of an old millionaire who refuses to let his son marry Monroe's character. It's got that iconic Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend number, and it has one of the best third-act thesis statement speeches I've ever heard in any era. It's a great old musical.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, 2008

This is a gem that I missed back in 2008 because I was graduating high school at the time and had other things going on (being queer at a Catholic high school in the 2000s sucked ass, btw, let this ol' geezer tell ya). Frances McDormand plays a conservative governess who can't hold down a job because she, being a preacher's daughter, is a morally upright Amelia Bedelia. Out of desperation, she scams her way into becoming the social secretary for a bubbly young actress played by Amy Adams, and they spend a wild and heartwarming day together where Frances McDormand's character navigates wartime, friendship, and romance. This is also the movie that made me develop an embarrassing crush on Lee Pace (not because Lee Pace is embarrassing, I just hate having crushes on famous actors because I know, at the end of the day, that they're just weird theatre kids who have money now). It's based on a novel written in 1938, and it's aged surprisingly well.

Sailor Moon SuperS, 1995

I borrowed the VHS for this movie from the library as often as I could in the second or third grade. It was the one movie I had memorized in my brain to the extent that I could just recite the dub to myself whenever I wanted. Plus, Chibi Moon was my favorite (do not @ me, I will fight you).

Waiting to Exhale, 1995

I don't know how I caught this one as a kid or which channel aired it, but Waiting to Exhale–starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon–was something I saw pieces of when I was way too young to understand any of it, and it was a joy to revisit it as an adult. I've since seen it a few times. This endlessly gif'd scene pictured above is every bit as cathartic as it looks, and the soundtrack is incredible.

The Mummy, 1999

Yeah yeah, this is an incredibly unsurprising and safe pick, but the movie is so much damn fun, and Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have the most belligerently bisexual energy ever shared between a heterosexual pairing. I don't know how else to explain it.

Sister Act 2, 1993

I saw this one on TV a lot, and I watched it from top to bottom every single time. I don't think I've ever actually seen the first one.

Adventures in Babysitting, 1987

I found this movie incredibly delightful, and I'm pretty sure I watched it in adulthood because I was looking for this movie I'd only seen in bits and pieces on TV as a kid or something. It stars Elizabeth Shue and a very young Anthony Rapp. Plot-wise, it's very much like Lord of the Rings if Gandalf were a plucky teen girl and the hobbits were a bunch of literal children. I'm not kidding. It's also an 80s movie about a bunch of white suburbanites who have adventures in Chicago, so there are a couple cringey moments, but by the standards of its time, nothing wildly egregious. Bonus points for a surprise appearance by strapping young Vincent D'Onofrio.

Pretty in Pink, 1986, and Some Kind of Wonderful, 1987, double-feature.

I put these two together because they're the same movie, but gender-swapped. They're both written by John Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch, so they have the same very ineffectual Reagan-era flattening of class consciousness. They're about a poor girl/boy protagonist who falls in love with a rich boy/girl. The protagonist develops a richer relationship with their beleaguered father character and develop a better understanding of themselves, kind of. John Hughes teen comedy-dramas are significant, I think, because they're some of the first blockbuster teen movies that took teens and their feelings seriously, wrote from their perspectives, and courted teens as an audience (for all kinds of historical and economic reasons between the 70s and the 80s, I'm sure, but I'm no expert). They're also more watchable than some of the other John Hughes teen movies; Sixteen Candles is basically unwatchable to me.

Porco Rosso, 1992

I told myself I could only pick one Ghibli movie for this list, and this is it. Porco Rosso might be my favorite Ghibli movie, which might seem like an odd choice for me. Like a lot of millennials who were teens when Spirited Away came out, I got really into the Ghibli catalogue in the late 2000s but had seen some Ghibli movies much earlier in my life. My first was technically Grave of the Fireflies. I was eight, and came away with the notion that if I left my little brother alone, who was five at the time, the adults around us would just let him die, so I had to watch him as carefully as I could. I became an incredibly anxious and overbearing older brother very early. Next, I'd see the Buena Vista release of Kiki's Delivery service, so I have a soft spot for all the Sydney Forest pop songs they inserted in the 90s dub of that movie. By the time I watched Porco Rosso, I'd seen most of the rest of the Ghibli catalogue, but it really stood out to me. Most of Miyazaki's protagonists are girls, but this one is a kids' feature about a middle-aged man with a pig's head. In hindsight, I think I loved it because it is one of those rare children's narratives that conflates femininity with practicality and masculinity with frivolous ostentatiousness. It's worth a watch!

Say Anything... , 1989

This is one of those teen movies where they take small, mundane problems and make them enormous, which I sort of love as a storytelling tool. John Cusack plays Lloyd, a high school underachiever who falls in love with the valedictorian, and you watch him experience true internal motivation for the first time in his young life. It's very cute! I think the thing this sort of teen movie gets really right about being a teenager is you don't really have a sense of scale for your problems at that age because all your problems are just problems you're encountering for largely the first time. Ione Skye's valedictorian character experiences a pretty devastating family issue with her father, but it's flattened into the same strata as her anxiety about flying, her first breakup, and her feelings of isolation and remove from her peers. Plus Lili Taylor is in this as Lloyd's best friend character, and she's great, just like in the next movie on this list...

Mystic Pizza, 1988

I couldn't decide which gif I wanted to use for this movie, so I just picked two. It's another slice-of-life teen comedy-drama, and it's real cozy. The performances from all the young actors are fantastic. Lili Taylor, Annabeth Gish, and Julia Roberts are great in this, plus you get to see strapping young Vincent D'Onofrio again, which is a treat. He gets to do a lot more in this one. At this point it's worth noting that 80s teen movies are obsessed with romances among young people across different social strata, and true to the Reagan era, the movies like to impress upon its audiences that hating rich people is the same as hating poor people (cue heavy eyeroll). This honestly explains a lot of things to me about today's political discourses, I think.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before, 2018

I enjoyed this Netflix movie so much that I watched it 16 or 17 times in the month after its release. It's fine, I'm fine. I don't know exactly what it was. I love rom coms. I've seen a ton of high school romance movies, and this one hit me really hard for some reason.

And that's everything I could come up with off the very top of my head. I think I hit something like 20 movies up there? Whew! That's my evening, but it was the only thing I could focus on for more than an hour at a time today.

[ohimsummer]

JENNY ( ft. mikasa)

— crushing, mikasa x fem! reader, black! reader, modern au, fluff, inspired by this song, idk a lil sum sum for Mikaaa

Mikasa had known you for a while, just a couple months shy of a year. You two met at some college frat party, forcibly shoved into each other by drunk and rowdy partygoers. She murmured out a ‘sorry’, but her apology is completely drowned out by your loud exclamation.

"God dammit!", Your words are still hard to hear over the deafening music. "Spilled my fuckin' drink!"

The hustle and bustle of patrons does nothing to help the situation, so Mikasa ends up accompanying you off to the edges of the crowd so you can get cleaned up. And as she turns back towards you, she gets to see the face belonging to such a pretty voice. The shine of your glossy, plump lips, bottom one tucked between your teeth as you struggle to deal with the growing stain on your sweet, satin dress. Her eyes roll over rounded curves, dark skin highlighted by flashing rainbow lights, and long, sleek hair that cascades over your shoulders and down your back.

“Are you checking me out?”

Your words pull Mikasa from her thoughts, and the red blush on her face is immediate. She prays that the lights are distracting enough to not make her embarrassment noticeable.

“Uh, no.” comes the low and curt response, almost inaudible over the beating of her own heart.

Clammy hands rub at her jeans as you pause, and then release a symphony of giggles. You grab handfuls of paper towels off the roll on the table, dabbing at the stain while throwing playfully suspicious glances at Mikasa.

“O-kay...but I mean...I wouldn't have really gave a fuck." You smile up at her with a mischievous glint in your eyes.”Just, ya know, be a lil’ more subtle about it. But if you wanna look, baby, I don't mind. Tryna catch eyes tonight, anyway."

Your playful tone, the wide grin on your lips, and just the way you’re staring at her, and that’s it. Mikasa's a goner.

From that point on, you have her wrapped tight around your finger. Mikasa finds herself cancelling plans with her friends if it meant getting dragged off to watch you get your nails done, or help you pick out hair in the shop for your next hairstyle. “Braids, locs? Twists? Or should I go for another wig?”, you ask her. And Mikasa doesn’t answer because she can’t decide. Because she knows you’ll look great in all of them.

It's on a familiar Friday night that Mikasa finds herself again at your apartment, sitting on those familiar, cotton sheets and bathing in the comfort of your company. You’re in the bathroom; Mikasa spots you swaying your hips to whatever song is currently playing as you finish your nightly routine early, and occasionally peeking at her through the mirror. Mikasa can tell you’re amused at how she can’t hold your gaze.

“You okay back there, Mika?”, you ask. The smile is evident in your voice.

“Mhm.”

“My laptop’s on the nightstand, why don’t you find a movie for us to watch?”

Mikasa obeys your order without question, browsing the streaming service’s array of selections and occasionally asking your opinion to get a feel of what she could choose. You eventually finish your routine, climb onto the bed and position yourself next to her; both of you lay stomach-down on the sheets with a thick blanket to block out the cool air of your apartment. Mikasa ended up picking some old, slasher-comedy flick, but despite the bad takes and cheap jumpscares, she finds herself heavily absorbed in the movie’s terrible plot. You, on the other hand, are drifting off deeper and deeper into slumber, head lolled onto Mikasa’s shoulder but she doesn’t even take notice. 

The credits begin rolling across the screen and Mikasa finally takes note of your limp form. “Y/N?”

“...Hmm...?”, you hum at her, moving to clutch her arm and snuggle against her shoulder. 

Mikasa stiffens for a few seconds under your touch, then forces herself to relax. “Do you want to go to bed? I can leave.”

“No, ‘m not tired, baby..”, your mumbled voice is barely audible and the words are slurring together. “Stay here with me.”

She’s glad you’re too drowsy to notice the way her face is deep red, and how her breaths have become shallow like she’s afraid to breath too hard in fear of waking you up. In spite of her nervousness, Mikasa decides to test the waters, and slowly but gently lays her cheek against the crown of your head. Being this close, she can smell the light, lingering scent of shea butter and coconut from your hair conditioner; it calms her down just a little, enough to get comfortable resting her head against yours as she listens to the low sounds of your rhythmic breathing. Mikasa closes her eyes as sleep begins to overcome her, as well. You two sit like that for a while, comfortably silent and poorly fighting off the persistent urge to doze off. 

“Mikaa?”

The quiet murmur infiltrates her ears and makes Mikasa crack her eyes open.”Mm?”

You’re silent for a few seconds before speaking again.”D’ you wanna go out with me?” Another pause. “Like a date?”

Mikasa’s mind feels heavy in her head, and though the curse of sleep is muddling her thoughts, she’s well-aware enough to spout a response. ”Of course.”

She hears the content sigh blow from your lips, feels the heavy rise and fall of your side against hers. “Okay.”, is all you can say. It sounds relieved, like a huge burden has been taken off your shoulders.

You don’t say anything else, and Mikasa eventually realizes you’ve finally drifted off to sleep. She dozes off right next to you, still not fully understanding the weight of your question and her answer and what it could mean for you both. But who cares? She’d think about it in the morning. Right now, she just wanted to sleep next to you like this forever.

[voidpunkanathema]

if not already asked, leon for the character ask :) basic but opinions vary!

(Also asked by @shinekittenace)

Why I like them: I fully expected this guy with his John Cena-esque go getter attitude and aggressively marketable ace to annoy the shit out of me, but the truth is is that hating Leon is like hating a puppy. You just can't. He's just a nice fuckin dude that wants to keep everyone safe even though he's just one man. There's also the fact that he's essentially a grown up ex-protagonist which the game delves into a little with his complicated emotions surrounding losing the title he's had since he was eleven by the end of the game and the fandom's done some FASCINATING psychological deep dives with. 

Why I don’t: I feel like GameFreak failed a bit with show don't tell with him. Some of the ways GameFreak try to make him seem really intelligent and capable are...a little on the nose to say the least. Like for instance him estimating how much Hop has grown during his introduction scene COULD be taken as a hint they don't get to see each other often but nah I really do suspect they wanted the kiddies to be like WOW THIS GUY IS SO SMART HE CAN DO MATH lol. I do kiiiind of suspect the fandom put more effort into analyzing the guy and the kind of havoc being a massive celebrity since the age of 11 can wreak on your personal life than GameFreak ever did but that's very much not a bad thing IMHO. I'm not one of those IF IT'S NOT STRICT CONFIRMED CANON IT'S OF THE DEVIL people (and honestly rather detest them) 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I...don't think the Anime showcased the better sides of his personality well (he loses the protective streak and just kind of comes off like a self-absorbed manchild that everyone loves because he can defy basic Pokemon battle logic in the same way Ash can. He's a protagonist But Annoying This Time) so I'm not terribly interested in seeing more. 

Favorite season/movie: See above. 

Favorite line: Tbh I don't have one particular standout one immediately coming to mind and I'm feeling too lazy to go through his quotes page rn. His catchphrase IS fun to meme about I will say. 

Favorite outfit: He absolutely kills everything that's not the Sponsorship Cape tbh. The guy has GOOD fashion sense despite the memes, corporate was just holding him back. 

OTP: Raihan/Piers/Leon for reasons I already went into in the Raihan response lol (the vibes between him and Rai are interesting and pretty damn hard to deny but Piers is holding up 90% of my mental health on his bony little shoulders rn and also I wanna see him and Leon interact more) I'd also love he and Sonia to work thier shit out, they are cute as FUCK together in Pokespe 

Brotp: The platonic Raileon enjoyer strikes again. Id also certainly take he and Piers being bros too. Also he and Nemona would be absolutely insufferable together and I'd love to see it someday lol 

Head Canon: One thing that was inspired the anime and a certain infamous wall punching scene is that through no real fault of his own he and Raihan's relationship was actually dangerously close to fraying for a bit. He WANTS to be a good and supportive friend to his favorite person but he's gotten fame and empty adoration pretty much handed to him for long enough that he can't REALLY understand what's going on in Raihan's head, the immense pressure he's putting himself under and the frankly unhealthy behaviors he's starting to develop. It's gonna take the pressure of the championship being gone for Leon to stop being the impossible standard Raihan's harming himself with and start being an uncomplicated source of companionship again. On a brighter note he's a good enough guy that once he becomes Chairman he's gonna prove he deserves that position by taking steps to reverse Rose's power consolidation to make sure no one person can cause that much trouble for the nation of Galar again. He'll prove his worthiness to rule by NOT being a total corporate dictator. 

Unpopular opinion: I've bitched about finding him annoying in the anime enough so instead I'll say I actually don't mind how involved he was in the game plot, it's honestly kind of weird other adults HAVEN'T been like "why are we letting random ten year olds go into very dangerous situations unaccompanied" before if you think about it

A wish: The same as the others, I'd love to see him again IF he's not miserable or acting like an ass. 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Don't get lost in spacetime my neurodivergent king you've been through enough 🤞🤞🤞

5 words to best describe them: The tragedy of Superman, Pokemonned. 

My nickname for them: Lee suffices.

[fictionkinfessions]

Canon species confession: fuckin IKRAN

The movies would never have the time or the cultural good will to be able to explore the goddamn Implications of ikran-rider bonds being intended and followed a Lifelong and Unique the way bonding with another Na'vi mate would, and that makes me so mad sometimes.

No, its not SEX, that is and has always been a deliberate bad-faith """interpretation""" of the neural queues and their function (by people who refuse to meet the fucking movies where they are at and insist on needing world building concepts Spoonfed to them instead of just extrapolating shit for themselves), what i Mean is ITS BIOLOGICAL TELEPATHY. We are more or less TALKING to the ikran when tsaheylu is made. My banshee was my friend, in absolutely every sense of the word. She shared her memories, her life story with me, and I shared mine with her. She had her own ideas on how to do things -- good ones. Usually much better than whatever I'd had in mind.

The line between "intelligent" and "non-intelligent" animals on Pandora was EXTREMELY blurred -- much like we are straight up finding out about our own animals here on earth right now. (Have you guys heard about the elephants? The whales? With Names? Distinct, Unique names for eachother? Interesting interesting interesting. it's almost as if the Avatar films actually DO have something important to say that's worth taking a shot at absorbing just like every other story thats ever been written Ever, golly gee whoever could've seen this coming!)

Using spoken+written language and tool use as the Only metric by which to measure how "sentient" things are is and has always only ever been an excuse to demean and disregard inconvenient truths about what it means to be alive on the same planet of other autonomous beings at all. It's just another way of dampening our own sympathies for things that don't look like us, to help us not feel so bad when we kill and farm and mistreat them.

It pissed me off so much how casual fans or fic writers will talk about ikran or pa'li or any other animals on Pandora -- Like they're all just mindless beasts, that tsaheylu "tames" them, that tsaheylu is Strictly a way to dominate and control other creatures -- except, of course, when its with another na'vi! THENNN its sweet and romantic and hot and totally 100% mutual, obviously. Just like marriage. teehee.

The next few movies are probably going to be clearing SOME things up, but I also have a feeling it's going to be a little painful watching myself champion that exact homo-sapient attitude in them, too. The human identity is so wrapped up in the idea that we need to micromanage and dictate every little of iota of the matter and interactions happening arounds us aaaalllll the fucking tiiiimmmmeeee and it only ever hurts us, but we keep going, because at least when we feed into it, we can feel like "we know who we are".

I say 'human', but of course -- even that's a gross over simplification. There's countless indigenous people across the continents who understood what bullshit that way of approaching life is, sometimes before they even reach the age of majority. Its the fucking white man's issue, injected into everything, because that was the whole point. It was a choice made, to colonize and spread and seed that voracious perspective into children so they'd grow up and do the same -- for fantastical "benefits" that have left the planet exactly where it is right now. The people who started all this got what they wanted, and most died happily, in the lap of luxury.

Prioritizing the self at every and all costs, and justifying it to ourselves with blithe, shallow perceptions of the other, just to try not to feel so guilty about it after the ash and dust settles, and the next generation is left to try to till that scorched soil.

Anyway. Ikran are cool. I miss Cupcake. -- Quaritch

[fordarkisthesuede]

Heyyy…so, about where I’ve beeeeen… 

I considered doing a silly little poll to have you guess, but... Oh, what the hey! Let's do it!!!

Anyway -

While a lotta y’all had "Brat Summer", I had "Slowly-Being-Consumed-By-Moss" Summer.

And GA summers are real fuckin’ long.

Every year I seem to go through a phase where I decide I’ve had enough of endlessly scrolling through tumblr and feeling bad about not getting things done. Sometimes this is combined with the incredible gloom of coming onto the only social media I partake in and finding nothing but tragic news. Only this time it combined with the very-dreaded Election Season Panic (US version). (Please hold in your derisive laughter.)

Pictured above:  a representation of me, circa…like, April 2024.

I should note the things that I tend to over-use tumblr to avoid aren’t things that have “real” deadlines, but I feel more and more guilty when I don’t do them, or else carve out time to do them. These are usually “replying to messages” and “writing my epic fanfic”, but can even branch out to “making stable diary entries” and the like.

My fellow writers - at least some of you - know what I mean. We clean our living spaces or sort things or bake to avoid writing, because for some reason when we look at the proverbial page our brain nopes out. Sometimes it’s because of the fear we’re not writing well enough for our stuff to actually be liked. Sometimes it’s because we’re veeery stuck with where we’re at and looking at the stupid spot we’re stuck at for the millionth time is exhausting. Sometimes it’s cuz we’re plum outta ideas ‘cause the stars haven’t aligned.

But this past summer was…particularly bad in the writer’s block area. So much so that another fic I was writing from back in February to combat writer’s block with BtTTS: S5 was even getting big ol’ roadblocks! Which is really dumb. It’s mindless self-insert fun for a fandom I’ll probably never write for publicly, yet I’m struggling? WTF.

So most of the summer, I experienced Lethargy. No melancholy, no anger or serious anxiety, no hopelessness or real lack of sleep or feeling over-tired. So not depression, I don’t think, but no real enthusiasm or energy for creative stuff, nor video games for some reason. I went to work, read the news, worked my way through most of a One Piece rewatch, caught up on some manga, and went through a list of movies I had been meaning to see. (Man, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf was wild. You guys see that? De-licious drama. Incredible. I’ll def see it again in like 5 or 10 years.)

I thought about coming back to do a Book of Bill post. I pre-ordered it ages ago. It arrived, I read through it over the span of a few days, I spent time working out most of the puzzles… But I just couldn’t bring up the enthusiasm to do anything for it. It was fun ‘n’ all, but it’s not like a lot of the stuff in there is revolutionary or anything. Besides, by the time I got around to reading the book I already knew all the puzzles were solved and posted online by like day 2 of release or something, because the GF fandom is feral when it comes to puzzles. The Blacklight book was special because of its limited run, and I felt the need to share it so everyone could see. The Bill book you can find in any B&N or e-book store. The thought of typing up anything on it just felt like work.

And THEN…come late July… 

Like ol’ blue eyes lyrics, something came shakin’.

It was like the rubber-band that somehow wound around my brain SNAPPED and went

It wasn't exactly a surprise, yet it was. I've been waiting for like, a decade now. And I finally had means, motive, and opportunity,

It took every single one of my weekends from August to mid-September to find and settle on a place. And then it was every single weekend from then to mid-October to find and store furniture and start packing, all while juggling the UTTER NIGHTMARE that is the mortgage closing process.

Oh, and that hurricane. That certainly didn’t help any. (I'm fine.)

Anywho, that’s why I’ve been hermiting it up. Just been trying to clear my head and get a sense of independence - while I still can -while crafting my own little Ha-Hacienda. And even in light of recent…world-changing events…I’m clinging to my projects with my sharp, sharp nails and my primitive canines, because while the world is clearly always awful I’ve got to enjoy some small slices of life on this absolute bitch of an Earth. Hope I didn’t scare any of ya with my absence. ❤️

P.S. If anyone wants to fill me in on what tumblr-centric and Batman-universe things I missed this past 6 months, the askbox and replies are open. Wrong answers, vague answers, and hieroglyphics accepted, as long as you cite your sources.

[lunearobservatory]

Yk what, I shall fancy you by asking about Idaho and Oregon. Tell me your head cannons about the two of them.

And I mean all of it.

Whether it's crazy, angsty, or something else, I. Don't. Care.

Give me passion for the specific things you love or give me nothing

Grabs you firmly by the shoulders. You have given me Power. STRAP IN FUCKERS!

I'll start with Oregon. Little warning now for weed nicotine alcohol and a small hunting mention i guess? Just in case <3

He's chill! He's cool, he's doing alright. In his own words "good, not great". He seems pretty tight with Washington, they're besties.

The West Coast really do scream "dysfunctional family dynamics" don't they?

(Aka, my three girlfriends West Coast boys, and yes, they smoke weed.)

Anyway, he's with Washington the most. That bit of them hanging out together alone while ignoring California's calls? Yeah, that's them all the time. Washington info dumps about tech and Oregon is a little book nerd who absorbs info (Powell's city of books) and it's a very good combo. They share local coffee shop and microbrew recs and go hiking they are!! Hiking bros!!! They are also couch locked high as fuck watching runbacks of 2004 Cartoon Network bros!!! That La Niña bond!!!

Definitely get very philosophical a lot in conversation, like Wash gets viscerally emotional over space stuff and cried over Spirit the rover being shut down (rip to the real ones i miss them all) and Oregon is like god yeah man human attachment to inanimate objects is so wild. They'll either talk about it for hours OR bounce between topics so stupidly fast they don't even remember why they're talking about what they are or how they got on the topic from where they started.

Sorry for talking abt them forever I just think they're best friends.

As I mentioned Oregon is a big book nerd, he likes nature, probably has a house plant problem (they are all named), he hikes, and HUNTS!

This mf bow hunts, drag this out of my cold hands. Gun too sure but BOW HUNT OREGON. Washington gets icked about blood and killing animals probably so Oregon goes alone. Or maybe with Alaska sometimes? I really love Alaska and the PNW getting along for some reason.

Or, he goes with Ida :)

Idaho is Built Ford Tough thats for fuckin sure, this man's a farmer. And he fishes. He unironically owns several dad joke fishing shirts and a women love me, fish fear me hat. I love him. He's pretty outgoing, he Wyoming and Montana are all fairly good pals, hunting buddies and football friends definitely. Sometimes Colorado is alright to hang with, mostly when Denver is a little quieter.

And in a similar fashion, he and Oregon will get into bitchy fights bc Oregon really is still centered around Portland. Married couple spats yk?

Honestly they're just like. Domestic? I guess? They'll go on weekend hunting trips, Idaho really likes to cook esp with game, Oregon likes to try and pair whatever they're eating with a beer if applicable. It's usually applicable, they're "it's past five pm so it's socially acceptable to have a beer now, right?" people. They definitely have a wicked sourdough starter. Oregon likes kombucha sometimes and Ida thinks it's a hell liquid. They go to fuckin Albertsons and bring back like eight things they didn't need.

I've got a hc I've mentioned somewhere before that the West Coast/PNW including Ida have horrific nicotine addictions, and that Ida goes straight for cigarettes or steals off Oregon, who vapes and has a Juul that they scratched their names into with a pin. They're like That couple.

Idk they're in a way like the country/city boy dynamic but also not? Like Oregon is a bit rough and tumble he isn't a pure city boy. And Ida is like not country per se, more game hunting fisher boy. But it's similar yk? A little bit

Their dates are CUTE, they got that weekend hunting trip, Idaho is land locked so Oregon takes him down the coast, or like to an obscure distillery for flight tasting. Otherwise they just do movie nights and nice dinners. Oregon has taken them hiking to a nice place to see stars and has re-info dumped information from Wash about the stars and stuff and Ida is like wow that's so neat, absolutely not looking at the stars he's looking at Oregon.

I could get into angst but maybe i save that for now since I'm talkin about them bein cute and happy and i want them to have that rn tbh

[lilliths-httyd-blog]

@audriegreywind requested that I make a Nine Realms version of the "summarising every HTTYD movie/special/episode" post that I made ages ago so:

SUMMARISING EVERY EPISODE OF THE NINE REALMS

Tom: Jestem Hardkorem!

Tom almost gives a dragon food poisoning: The Episode

Oh, how I wish Tom and Jun had got Kentucky Fried Viggo'd during the Romantic Bootleg scene and we'd just never seen them again

THEY REALLY TOOK THAT "ENOUGH KETAMINE TO FLOOR A HORSE" COMMENT LITERALLY, HUH??

"It is NOT safe outside!" Well it doesn't look very safe inside either HOLY FUCK ALEX LOOK BEHIND YOU-

ARE THEY TRYING TO CAUSE MORE EARTHQUAKES?? THAT IS NOT HOW PLATE TECTONICS WORKS-

Rescue Riders was better.

IT'S FAT FUCK FRIDAY!!!!!

"I'll roam the Hidden World with the rest of these hideous whores!"

🚚 <( my main goal is to blow up )

Bootleg Silkspanners try to kill Bootleg Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way

Razorwhip absolutely BLAZING IT fr

Skrill leaving the Crystal Meth Realm like the soul leaving my body during my first watch of Return of Thor Bonecrusher

It would be really funny if they used the Monstrous Nightmare gel as an adhesive and then the gel got wet and absorbed the water and became flammable again and then Tom had got lit on fire in the Blaze-It Realm and he'd burned alive and died, I think that would be hysterical

We were gonna get shirtless Hiccup. We were gonna get shirtless ASTRID. We are DESPERATE to see shirtless Viggo. But THIS is what we get???

The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate-

DeAngelo almost recreates the Austin serial bombings

The Hidden World is just Australia clearly

The Magma Breather caused the Norwegian Butter Crisis of 2011 after getting addicted to deep fried butter on a stick (confirmed)

Did they rip off Wings of Fire with these Moonwatcher 'n Winter lookin' hoes??

Cocaine Realm. That's it. That's the joke.

Competency? In the Incompetency Show? It's more likely than you'd think… but Watch Out.

Bruhhh we need whatever these kids were getting high on after this shitshow, I don't feel that it's morally right to even remind people that this episode exists

🙋‍♂️ I wanna teach Viggo how to ride "dragons" (Yes I did watch Audrie's reviews instead of the actual TV show in order to make this list, how did you know?)

MA! MA, THERE'S A FUCKIN' STRAY CAT OUTSIDE-

No.

Tom gets put on house arrest and breaks out in order to enter the Weed Realm

Quick, someone edit those Scuttleclaws fucking exploding

NO.

Genuine character growth in the Adult Baby Fetish episode… yeah checks out

Get Jumpscared, Idiot

🚁 🤸🏼‍♀️ <( gonna catch me ridin' dirty )

I won't be updating this list until Audrie posts her TNRS6 review because I'd rather wait and give her the views than go watch TNRS6 now and give Universal money.

[llycaons]

also, the parts from porco rosso I liked

the pirates kidnapping a bunch of little girls who are both thrilled to be in an adventure and extremely destructive

hehe. and of course the classic line

<3

and when everyone showed up to fuckin kill him

the way this was translated was killing me

also important to note that in this very funny shot from this movie

or, as my subs said

gina here is actually REJECTING curtiss. my subs seemed to go for a more sarcastic approach than the one above it. curtiss is a self-absorbed braggart who just asked her to marry him so they can go to hollywood, where he assures her he will become a famous actor, and then the president of the united states. right before she says this line, she's laughing in genuine delight because this is so absurd

[just-someone-online]

So like, can someone explain what the 'that' was in Electrified? Cos I've been seeing vague mentions of a 'that' that was so bad it ruined the movie. I've seen some people say it was so bad that it retroactively ruined the first movie for them. But like, I didn't see anything that bad?

Like, was Moanica's grand plan amounting to a blackout and a little property damage a letdown? I mean, yeah. Especially after her whole thing in the first movie. Did she get off way too light for forcing Frankie to absorb millions of watts of electricity and attacking the normies? Abso-fuckin'-lutely.

But neither of those really ruined the movie for me? It's just kinda there, honestly.

[gggoldfinch]

My little tiny sad brain can’t handle trying to absorb new things right now but I am curious. Can you spoon feed sales pitch explain rammestein like I’m five?

THIS MADE ME GIGGLE SO FUCKING HARD oh god I’m tearing up idk why this is so funny LMAO

I love talking about things I’m into to people on the internet, so yes I can absolutely sales pitch explain Rammstein to you anon. This may be a little too long-winded but I’m insane so you have to forgive me… (tldr at the end)

Okay so,, basically: Rammstein is a German industrial metal band formed in 1994, consisting of lead singer Till Lindemann, guitarists Richard Z. Kruspe and Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, synth/keyboardist Christian Lorenz (aka Flake or Dr Lorenz), and drummer Christoph Schneider.

They lean heavy on performative violence and pyrotechnics during shows (i.e. Till bashing his head against things, Till “cooking” Flake alive in a cauldron with an actual flame thrower, etc… also Till is kinda insane ?? homeboy frequently puts himself through intense physical pain, possibly bordering on self-mutilation, all for shits and gigs??). There is also a fair amount of sexually explicit lyrics, and occasionally visuals (Till and Flake once got arrested for emulating gay sex on stage despite being fully clothed— which is fucking hilarious).

Basically, they’re a bunch of old(ish) german guys having questionably explicit fun, and I’m completely infatuated. They’re also kindaaaaa 👀 HDJKDKFLF…… Anyway, one of their songs, “Sonne” has been trending on tiktok lately (as songs tend to do), so chances are if you have tiktok you’ve probably heard it. Their music videos are fucking wild too— my favorite mvs are “Angst,” “Adieu,” and “Deutschland.” Also Till’s solo “Ich hasse Kinder” mv fuckin slapssss. The mvs, especially the more recent ones, are shot with movie level quality and, though often bizarre and slightly unsettling, are definitely worth a viewing.

They’re kinda always dirty and grimy and covered in soot on stage (presumably both for the aesthetic and because of the extensive use of serious pyrotechnics), in addition to wearing makeup and outlandish costumes (when not shirtless), and are just a bunch of goofballs tbh. They dance around and bully each other on stage— it’s pretty entertaining to watch. Unfortunately they’re not touring the US rn so I can’t cop a ticket, but when they do come back around I can only hope to get my eyebrows scorched off in the pit. And, if you ever see me posting about a super beefy dude with a lot of facial piercings, usually sweaty and gross looking, that’s my beloved Till. I admittedly have a big fat crush on him (and also Richard and Paul) 🤷🏻‍♀️

So, tldr: they’re an off-color German industrial metal group, not particularly for the faint of heart.

(For reference here’s a pic from 2001; L->R: Oliver, Flake, Paul, Till, Chris, Richard)

[shadyhouse]

Your art is so fuckin good and I lose my mind every time I see it! You pretty much top the list of artists I want to commission one I have digital money again. Do you have any art advice you'd wanna give a fellow (though less experienced) furry artist?

OMGGGG THANK YOU!!! :D that means so much, i'm glad my art can have so much of an influence on you! that seriously makes me so happy 😭 i'm honored to be one of your favorites!!!

as for art advice.... i feel like im not qualified to give Good advice since im pretty much completely self-taught, but also maybe that makes the advice better? idk ive been "serious" about art and doing commissions since 2017 so i have quite a bit of experience but i still feel like a beginner gdhkgjldsgdskg but anyways here's my own personal things ive learned over the years

absorb as much art as you possibly can. art of all mediums. tv shows, movies, music, visual art, animations, books, comics, ect ect ect EVEN bad art! i am a huge believer of the idea that both bad art and good art is extremely important to you as an artist because not only does the bad art show you what Not to do, but sometimes bad art has GREAT ideas that you wouldve never thought of before. whether they're just executed poorly or the ideas arent touched upon as in depth as you'd like. i'm giving you permission to steal ideas right now PLEASE steal ideas from all the stuff you love and put your own personal spin on them i'm BEGGING you!!!! just don't claim other people's art as your own and you're golden

if you want to open commissions but you don't think you're "good enough", open them anyway. i swear it will do nothing but help you improve and give you experience for the future. i started out by drawing things for $10 a pop and it did SO MUCH for my improvement, i'm always drawing stuff that i wouldve never drawn otherwise and it's helped me a ton with my own personal art too. the variety of the prompts you'll get will be intimidating Because it'll be stuff you don't typically draw, but you'll feel such a sense of accomplishment by the end Because it's a challenge. all this being said, don't let people take advantage of you. stand your ground and don't be afraid to refund/deny a commission request because you're excited to get paid. for every client who's a dick to you there's like five clients who will gladly respect you and pay you what you deserve irt your skill and quality. i Promise

DRAW WHAT YOU LIKE TO DRAW!!!! Don't draw what you think other people want to see! at the end of the day, it's YOUR art, and you should be building a gallery full of things that make YOU happy and Spark Joy when you create, regardless of how "niche" the subjects may be. i'm in the process of unlearning this myself, but the best thing that you can do for yourself as an artist is be self indulgent and cater to Yourself above anyone else. if you only draw stuff to pull in followers/commission clients/ect you'll end up getting burnt out EXTREMELY easily and start to resent your art. the best thing to do is to slowly acquire the community that cares the most about your art, and you as an artist. that way you'll feel better about your craft and you'll be able to REALLY feel the love. the people who look at your art can absolutely tell when you're passionate about a piece vs when you're just doing it for attention/money/ect. that's why people who claim they're going to "stoop low and draw furry porn for money" never get anywhere unless theyre TRULY passionate about the craft, because people can TELL when their heart isnt in it

TL;DR draw whatever you wanna draw, be open to try new things, and take in as much art as you can and be open to new life experiences so you can stay inspired even when you're not making art. i hope this is helpful!! i feel like im kinda rambling about my own learning experience haha

[judahfisher]

❝ well, fuck, blondie. my bad for not realizin' you were trying to take your time with it. ❞ there's an almost devious lilt to the put-on drawl as judah's gaze instinctively wanders toward the exit ― at least to the room, if not the building at large ― before returning to ashton with a vaguely inquisitive crease forming at the corners. ❝ i'm more of an instant gratification kinda guy myself. all or nothin' type shit, yannow? ❞ and according to whatever tests they were running on him and his brother when they were busy getting poked and prodded like a bunch of potatoes at a goddamn science fair, it was looking a whole lot like nothing for him.

( he's yet to give any serious thought to the fact that jonah does not share in his immunity, finding that he actually really fucking hates the way his stomach twists up like a boardwalk soft pretzel every time he tries ― of all the dna that the two of them shared in the womb, jonah couldn't have absorbed a little bit of that, too? )

judah eyes the man curiously as he tosses back the pills. and yeah, he figures the guy's not casually popping bars in the middle of family movie night. for starters, he'd be a whole lot less tense if he were. in fact, judah's half-convinced the stick might just slide right on out of his ass like he'd lubed it up. ❝ downers, like i said. maybe not your anti-inflammatories, but the fuck do you think a muscle relaxer does? it's a central nervous system depressant. ❞ he clears his throat, takes another lengthy drag of his cigarette and exhales languidly. ❝ depressant. ❞

the question is enough to elicit a casual shrug as judah lets his gaze drift back to the animation flickering across the screen. ❝ ain't my fuckin' family, ❞ he replies breezily, ❝ but you could've fooled me into figuring it was yours. feels to me our choices― ❞ he nods toward the bottle in ashton's hand again, and now he's just looking to pluck at what appear to be already frayed nerves, to antagonize the man who's still eyeing him with the same disdain someone might regard a cockroach on the sidewalk, ❝ ―they don't really carry the same weight. ❞

He could smell the smoke before he could even see the person. There were only so many people that smoked in this building, with a dwindling supply of packs, much less smoke around the kids in the in room watching the movie. Still he ran through his guesses about to head out and nag at them to at least do it outside or in the small room he was in, not expecting the guesses to not hit at all, seeing one of the new brothers make his presence known. The room was dark but with the bright screen in the main room flooding into here Ash could make out the features, which ever twin the was, it was only further confirmed once he opened his mouth.

"Won't rot your brain as quick as those things out there," while Ashton wasn't an avid fan of TV and movies, the notion that it rots your brain barely has any good scientific conclusion on that. Ash frowned at the acknowledgment of his bottle of pills, as if Judah was trying to insinuate something, he shook out two pills from the bottle before twisting it shut again, tone shifting in defense from these stupid assumptions of him, "anti-inflammatory pills and muscle relaxants." He rigidly explained before popping them in his mouth, swallowing quick as the bitterness lingered at the back of his throat, "medication, not whatever you think it is." Fair is fair for the judgment on Ash himself, considering Ashton himself was making huge cautious assumptions of the brothers the moment they stepped foot into this building.

Ria let them in without a second thought, alarm bells sounding off especially just after the conversation he had with Mr Wexley, reminding, warning him of the possibility of retaliation from the raiders, they're more cunning than they thought, anything is possible, and lo and behold two strangers waltz right into their stronghold soon after. Ash had thus insisted on sitting in on Mr Wexley's usual entrance chat with all new comers, hoping to at least get a sense of whether they were full of shit, because if they let any one of those raiders impersonating as survivors in here, they are fucked. And he knows Mr Wexley will have blinders on. "And why are you smoking in this family affair? There are kids around, watching said Up." Ashton threw the question back, far enough into the smaller separate room to not be that big of a problem or be heard by the group watching but Ash doesn't appreciate the attitude Judah was giving him.

[ko-eko-ev-go-ms]

TFW you’re watching something and literally every single plot line is relatable and relevant to your life to the point it’s actually unsettling and lowkey starting to creep you out

[stargatebarbie]

Lately I've been hearing a lot of "well if I make allowances for your disability, I'm treating you differently. You don't want to be treated differently for your disability do you?" And honestly that's just some bullshit if I ever did hear some.

If I ask you to repeat something because my auditory processing issues mean I couldn't understand you, how is that different from a neurotypical person just not hearing you? That isn't "treating me different" and even if it somehow was, you shouldn't be treating everyone identically, you should be treating them how they need.

It's never been about if a person is differently able anyway, it's about if you decide their disabilities are valid. If I was physically deaf or hard of hearing I would not be shamed for asking people to communicate differently, because able-bodied people have decided that's a valid disability.

I'm so sick of neurotypical and able-bodied people deciding what "allowances" are valid to give to people with different needs, and covering up with "I'm just treating you the same as everyone else, isn't that what you want?" When they decide you don't ~really~ need whatever it is you're asking for. When disabled people say we want you to treat us the same as everyone else, we mean treat us with respect and like adults who know what assistance they do and don't need, not like we don't have a disability. Obviously.