#pretty sure it scares authories to

[scenetocause]

⭐star⭐

ah thank you anon!!! i'm gonna do climb up to your lips because altho i already did the logan ask i have an embarrassing number of thoughts and feelings about. my own fic. good god. but specifically about girloscar and i've been really fighting the urge to write a bit from her perspective because it's unnecessary authorial indulgence but also whatever, doing it for free aren't i.

Oscar's going to fucking die. They can't seriously be making them play Twister, this is like some sort of torture. The team shouldn't be torturing them, they're meant to be driving F1 cars soon. If she DNFs this weekend it's absolutely on marketing.

She says it to Mark, who tells her it's just a bit of fun, mate. Don't worry, he's probably shit at it. Which tells her Mark doesn't know anything about Lando Norris because the guy can contort into a shapes Oscar's never seen before but now very much haunt her dreams even when he's just meant to be sitting in a press conference chair.

It's not fair, being given a hot teammate. She could've had someone weird and awkward like Esteban but the need for a seat, to secure her future, was too strong to worry about the other side of the McLaren garage until she was there and it was suddenly her problem.

Lando's really nice, too. Helps her out, isn't anything like as annoying as she'd expected him to be. He's taken to spending meal times with her and giving her bits of his food and things, probably because he's a fussy little bitch but Oscar still appreciates it. The company, the way he doesn't seem scared of her being a girl, the sort of sad illusion he could be her boyfriend or whatever.

Logan says it's just teammate stuff, that him and Alex do that kind of thing, too. But Oscar's pretty sure Logan's never had Alex bring him a hot chocolate and a brownie just because it was a bit chilly in the sim room that morning. She doubts Logan is having to play Twister with him, either because Williams is a humane team with sane people doing their PR.

Sweating her way through a game of who can look the stupidest between her and the world's hottest, bendiest man has got to be some circle of hell. At one point she somehow ends up having to stick her arse practically in his face and she wishes she'd worn jeans, even if that might make it even worse, just in case he can see her whole bush up the leg or something.

When she admits she's in a world of trouble it's not just because she has no idea where her left foot can go now. Trying not to look Lando in the face is fruitless because he's giggling and keeps wriggling around, getting her attention so she'll laugh with him. Maybe it's awkward for him, too, having some girl he'd rather not touch having to climb all over him.

She knows she doesn't have a chance with him, that he's just being friendly. Lando dates models, influencers, whatever. Pretty, little girls with long hair who tell him he's big and strong or something, not someone taller than him. She can compete with him, not instagram hotties.

It's fine. Oscar could probably get her own instagram hottie if she liked. Or some guy who worked in finance, could look after her future. Handle all that shit, probably be nice enough to her. Mark was suggesting it the other week, that that'd be a good way to plan things out and Oscar's practical enough to know it makes sense.

It's just that she's being really stupid about being in love with Lando Norris. And guys in pinstripe suits make her pussy dry up.

Wanting things comes naturally to a racing driver. And usually there's a set way of getting them: be good enough, win. It's just that she's not going to magically become half a foot shorter, skinny and with a lingerie deal any time soon, so that's not an option.

"You're not putting your foot between my legs." Lando's blushing, mouth wet and panicky-open, like he's going to make one of those screeching noises she shouldn't find cute.

Conceding is the only option. Because Lando's not just laughing, his voice is a croak and he looks - obviously, he's not but - like he's turned on. Like Oscar could push him back onto the mat and kiss him and he'd wriggle and moan just as much as he is now. Like he'd want her to touch him and she knows he doesn't, would probably freak out if he knew the way she thinks about him.

(face down in a pillow, getting fucked raw, that flush high on his skin while he's making all his weird, whining noises and begging to come, still begging for her to hold him afterwards so she can stroke his sweaty curls - it's started invading her thoughts at the worst times, like right now)

Limbo is even worse. She's shit at it and he could probably get under something an inch off the ground. It's awful, Prema challenges were never like this; she might not know how to cook eggs but at least Rob didn't, either.

Lando's clearly insane because he's won both the first rounds, has got this challenge in the bag, except he makes the third one all or nothing. By this point, Oscar had figured it'd probably be slime wrestling or something equally awful but instead they get to sit down and play jenga like relatively normal people.

He absolutely lets her win. Which is shit, as she explains to Logan later.

"I think he just wanted to get away, y'know? Like, obviously he doesn't want to spend time with me, that's fine."

Logan raises his eyebrows, fringe standing on end where he's been running his hand through it. "Didn't you just say he followed you to your driver room and talked about Halo for twenty minutes?"

"Well, yeah but I think he was just hiding from Sophie." And they'd had hats to sign, so it sort of made sense to do it together.

Logan sits back, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing his arms. "You know how many times Alex has been in my room?"

The fuck would she know that. "No?"

"Zero. Nada. Zilch." Logan looks smug, for some reason. "I've never been in his, either."

"So?" Clearly Williams have different rules. It's not like they're in Logan's room now, sitting out on the patio in front of the motorhome nursing sparkling waters.

"I am just saying," Logan's grinning, like he knows she isn't going to listen to him and thinks it's hilarious. "That doesn't sound like a guy who doesn't want to spend time with you."

[5ummit]

In Defense of Dead Dove: Do Not Eat

What's the point of a tag that tells you to read the tags? Isn't that redundant? Actually, no! "Dead dove: do not eat" does serve an important purpose because it's NOT just a generic "mind the tags" statement, there's more to it than that.

Because of all the misinformation surrounding DD:DNE and how muddied the waters have become with some people trying to claim that it's equivalent to "what it says on the tin" (or the like), there seems to be some confusion about its purpose. I recently explained the origins of DD:DNE and its inherent dark connotations, but I just encountered another misleading dead dove post and I want to provide more clarity on how it's supposed to be used and why it's genuinely helpful.

Many writers these days tend to be overly cautious and tag every little thing, particularly when it comes to potentially triggering or problematic content, regardless of how much or little that content is featured in the fic. While thorough tagging is greatly beneficial on the whole, it can sometimes be hard to tell the tone or intent of a fic and how much weight you should put on those warnings from just looking at a list of tags.

"Dead dove: do not eat" is a flashing warning sign that, not only will potentially triggering or problematic content feature heavily, it will also be presented and framed with little to no authorial commentary or judgment. It's saying: "I hope you're prepared to read something fucked up because that's what you'll find here and I'm not justifying, moralizing, or apologizing for it. You have been warned." This should be used in conjunction with specific content warnings to indicate the exact flavor of fucked up you're going to encounter, but even if someone chooses not to clarify in the tags for some reason (a controversial choice, to be sure), it's still a warning in and of itself. DD:DNE is not entirely meaningless without other tags, it's just more thorough and informative with them.

Consider two fics tagged with rape/noncon, one with the DD:DNE tag and one without.

The fic without the dead dove label may just include discussion of noncon that happened to a character in the past, the noncon may occur in the fic but be glossed over and not described in detail, or the noncon may be dubcon at worst. Everyone has different thresholds for certain types of content, so some people may still choose to warn for it in these cases. I'm not attempting to pass judgement on whether or not the noncon warning should be used in that way, but it happens regularly and it can make sorting through tags to find what you're looking for complicated.

The fic with the DD:DNE tag? That's a Rape Fic. You can pretty safely assume the noncon is going to be a major component of the fic, it will likely be explicit, you won't be spoon-fed any morals about it, and it probably won't have a conventionally happy ending.

Not having the DD:DNE tag obviously doesn't mean that a fic does NOT contain dark or problematic content, as not everyone chooses to use it, but including it essentially guarantees it (at least when used correctly). This can be very helpful for anyone specifically looking for something angsty and awful to wallow in, while allowing others who aren't interested in that to safely avoid it.

Because of its inherent connotations, "dead dove: do not eat" should NEVER be used as a generic call to "mind the tags." If you add it to your non-problematic, 100% consensual fic because you happen to include an unusual kink or whatever, you WILL scare away readers because they WILL assume you have a dark untagged twist in there somewhere.

DD:DNE is a convenient fandom-agnostic modifier that conveys to readers they are about to encounter something unapologetically fucked up and to make sure they're in the right headspace for it. Do not open the bag labeled "dead dove" if you are not prepared to see a dead dove.

[exploding-plastic-inevitable]

tbh from a political perspective the power of shock value art is very very limited and can reduce a movement to just anougher scene by conflating ideals with aesthetic and generally making good theory offputting to potential future comrades because they associate it more with gorey and weirdly sexual imagry then criticisms of systems of power and potential alternatives to them

[dotthings]

Well that flayed my emotions as much as I hoped and in some encouraging ways YES PAIN WITH PURPOSE THANK YOU. There’s a lot here, as is usual with Bobo eps and I’m going to have to take this one at a time especially since I really really need to break down what happened with Dean and Cas in this ep, at length. Yep I am going to go on a bit about Dean and Cas. As you do.

I’ve posted quite a bit of meta about how the rift was a combination of things. It’s years of unaddressed issues. Dean’s abandonment issues vs Cas’s tendency to be taken away, or die, or leave. Years of that. Then on top of it, when Cas couldn’t stand with Dean about Jack, and when he kept some crucial information from Dean that he shouldn’t have due to Jack. Let me restate something I’ve said before: Dean wasn’t wrong to express his hurt and anger. He loves Cas, and Cas is imperfect. No Cas isn’t always the screw up and Dean I already knew regretted that and didn’t believe that (see? I told you) nor does Dean ever want Cas dead. But Cas is imperfect and Cas has hurt Dean, as Dean has hurt Cas. Then there’s Cas’s fears about not being needed/wanted, his doubts about his place in this family, and in Dean’s heart vs. the complicated mess that is involved in being adopted into the Winchester clan as deeply as Cas was. So their insecurities have been their own worst enemies for years, and then the Jack and Mary thing happened. And then ON TOP OF ALL THAT, Chuck and Dean’s wondering what’s real what isn’t. I was pretty sure at least some of that might make it overtly into the prayer. But no none of that.

While I think it is definitely good that Dean expressed himself so openly and did it in a prayer he definitely had reasons to believe Cas would hear and it is really really good Cas HEARD HIM OH MY GOD THANK YOU CAS HEARD ALL THAT. It’s also not such good news that what comes out here is that this is all about Dean’s anger issues and he “can’t stop it.” And I’m not deciding here whether this is authorial eye or Dean’s. It certainly makes sense that Dean would pull guilt onto himself (rather than authorial blaming Dean). But Dean pulling all the guilt into himself, crying and apologizing and there being very little in the ep to address the other side of this--the Cas pov, and how Cas has hurt Dean--is just more cyclical unhealthiness.

Maybe this prayer was cathartic. Maybe this will help Dean going forward, letting go of that anger, that guilt. 

So that dynamic therefore is actually really unhealthy. Lashing out at your best friend, who you love, that severely because you just can’t help it when a crisis happens and the pressure is on, even if said best friend hurt you? It’s not a problem that Dean expressed his hurt and anger, it’s that he went too far. And he couldn’t help it. And it wasn’t Chuck existential crisis or even about Mary, it’s just that when under pressure Dean lashes out at those he loves and can’t stop it. While that is a valid issue...that kind of takes the entire burden and puts it onto Dean. Full stop. It’s all Dean’s fault. Dean, how dare you get angry and hurt when you best friend does stuff that actually...hurts you. This is, IMO, canon putting the kind of pressure on Dean that fandom does. Only express positive feelings, Dean, otherwise shut up. Regardless of intent, that’s kind of what this scene validated.

So on top of years of issues Dean and Cas haven’t dealt with, chronic issues, about each other. On top of reasons here Dean might think the bond was manufactured by Chuck, but all right, that last point doesn’t seem to be presenting itself unless I reach pretty down deep into subtext. Maybe we can say it’s fueling Dean’s anxieties and made everything worse, ramped everything up.

But I think given how this unfolded, Dean and Cas having some time apart isn’t a bad idea. That this turned out to actually be “Dean lashes out when he’s panicked and he can’t stop himself” and hurt Cas so much with it is worrying and I get it’s supposed to be worrying. But I’m not exactly vomiting rainbows. I  WANT THEM TO FIX IT.  I’m incredibly uncomfortable with how the story (whether authorial view or not) places it all on Dean. 

This is, frankly, going to feed the Dean hate and I’m just so tired of it, it’s unfair, it’s a twisted stanning view of the character, it lacks empathy, and I’m sorry that this episode did something that validated people who literally needed Dean LITERALLY ON HIS KEES CRYING AND APOLOGIZING before they might believe Dean isn’t an uncaring asshole. Some of us didn’t need that to know, while it is good that Dean said what was deepest in his heart. Yet there’s still going to be stans who keep bashing him and saying he doesn’t care about Cas. I really wish they would just stop and they never will so I will ignore it best I can.

After what I just witnesses in this ep, I am beyond FLOORED if there would be ANYONE LEFT IN THIS FANDOM WHO COULD THINK THAT. I get thinking they need couples therapy or maybe they need space. I’m thinking it. But to actually keep flogging the idea that Dean doesn’t care about Cas, that was already egregious before this ep, now it’s REALLY really egregious to keep flogging that.

So I’m uneasy, for what this means for Dean and Cas--not that they can’t or won’t fix this. OBVIOUSLY THEY WILL FIX THIS. They want to fix this. The arc isn’t over--and for what it means for Dean.

On the one hand, I’m glad to see things dig so deeply into Dean’s issues. Because it’s not Dean hate to say, yeah he’s got some anger issues and needs to examine that. But on the other hand, Dean crying and apologizing on his knees is NOT THE FIX FOR THE RELATIONSHIP. Because there’s unaddressed stuff from Cas’s side. And I’m sure a lot of people are going to breeze right by that. Because in this fandom you have to choose Dean or Cas, and one or the other is being dragged as being an uncaring assholes. 

The good news, this ep was exactly what I thought and hoped it would be for Dean and Cas otherwise, in terms of getting them past that early season freeze. 

Oh that revisiting of Purgatory was effing beautiful, structurally and emotionally. Cas refused to split up this time. Cas waited at the portal. Cas went through the portal with Dean. There is healing in this ep, they went through a similar situation only with a different outcome. Cas isn’t voluntarily staying in Purgatory to wear a hair shirt this time. This time, Cas didn’t run off and leave Dean just to protect Dean, they only got separated after they were overpowered. Cas waited and waited by that portal and Dean looked and looked. That was no really, that was beautiful (whatever issues I have about the prayer itself).

This was the thaw. This was the beginning of the next phase for Dean and Cas, and no it’s not intended as a fix. The door’s been opened, the ice has broken, the walls have crumbled, so that they can fix it and hopefully to an even better, stronger relationship that all they’ve been before, which is really strong already but damn they have so many issues. While Dean and Cas have mostly been a comforting relationship for me on SPN (health for relative values of healthy) and it is mostly a positive relationship...yeah. Issues. 

JFC I just really hope Cas is going to get to voice how he feels about hurting Dean as he has and it does an incredible disservice to the characters and their story to skip over that, not just because I’m defensive of Dean, but for Cas’s sake, for the sake of his character and pov. I feel like Cas’s pov is incomplete. He’s not getting to express himself the way I really really hope he will and I think he needs to. Hell, can I have Cas on his knees in tears pouring his heart out about Dean, it wouldn’t be a prayer or actual tears probably, since he’s an angel, but give me something.

Howe even did things get to the point where it’s Dean carrying most of the Destiel and expressing most of the feelings and bleeding out emotionally again and again in canon and yet so many people act like CAS is the one doing all the pining, as if Dean is the uncaring asshole, while we have such gaps in Cas expressing his pov on Dean. It’s absolutely WILD. It’s beyond wild. 

The other good news is despite my discomfort with the speech, I am reeling a bit at just how expressive it was. I do think as the one who said the harsh things, Dean would be the one who needed to take the first sledgehammer to the ice wall and he did it. It’s not that I agree all the blame is on him. But yes Dean opened the door and that’s a good thing. Dean falling to his knees, weeping because he’s scared he is losing his best friend again. To PURGATORY AGAIN NO LESS *screaming internally* and with all the times since he’s lost Cas. It wasn’t an angry emotional rant. It was a vulnerable, sad, quiet pleading prayer directly to his best friend. I am a bit shook that the Dean and Cas feelings weren’t nested in with some other bigger plot thing eating at Dean, where Cas is one of a list, or it’s something else breaking Dean and losing Cas is just too much on top of that. No, it’s just a guy falling to his knees because he’s scared he’s losing his best friend who he loves in every sense of the word yet again and it’s just them and their feelings.

The last time we saw something this overt from Dean, tear-filled, raw, laying it all out there, Cas was dead and in The Empty and Cas couldn’t hear it.

Ohhh and remember how I pointed out in S14 Cas hearing in Dean’s trauma memories the scream Dean let out when he lost Cas and I wasn’t sure if Cas knew that was for him or not, just that it was traumatic.

BUT THIS TIME CAS HEARD IT. HE HEARD THE PRAYER. HE KNEW DEAN CRIED. HE HEARD ALL OF DEAN’S ANGUISH ABOUT LOSING HIM. (Hopefully Cas will get an actual clue now, I hope).

[garden-ghoul]

gurguliare replied to your post: gurguliare replied to your post: gurguliare...

i’m not sure i have a point……….. anyway i agree that tma is definitely interested in how lack of support network makes people vulnerable

I just remembered I already wrote a 60k fanfiction of “what if in tma it was not metaphysically impossible to have a support network,” which kind of makes all my posts tonight irrelevant

by 'resistance to that framework' i mean stuff like gerry rejecting jon's question about other emotions fueling gods out of hand--of course gerry isn't a reliable or all-knowing narrator but, idk, i feel like jonny has tried pretty hard to maintain the "fear only" conceit even in places where it clearly starts to break down like with the hunt, hence why i describe it as authorial resistance more than anything 

and also has stressed the unknowability and uselessness of the gods even to their own followers a bunch in a way that makes me hesitant over a new god who confers actual boons

AH thank you that helps a lot. I’ll be real, one of my favorite things about tma is how totally useless it is to be an avatar. you really do not get anything cool out of it unless you happen to enjoy scaring people. at most, a cozy dirt hole to lie in, which really you could just dig for yourself without becoming physiologically addicted to fear.

but if we're just using the anchor as a shorthand for the idea that fear gets people who don't have anyone else to lean on and even one connection can make all the difference then like, yes, absolutely

mm I think you’re right about framing it as a Power being pretty useless. part of it, for me, is that framing the anchor as a power in some ways reveals the bullshit of dividing fear up? like if the hunt can mess with the definition of “fear” it’s very silly to frame any of these things as magic that is fundamentally different from non-magic things--

i just feel like a lot of tma is about this treadmill attempt to surrender responsibility/agency to Higher Beings that never actually succeeds, because people remain people throughout

nice segue, gogol! the theme I am now wandering around to is VERY difficult to verbalize, but I think it’s something about how the only magic is people doing very stupid things, all magic is apophenia, et c, et c. like if “burning someone’s house down while telling yourself that there is a reason for doing this that you just don’t understand” is magic, then “being late for dinner” can be magic. anchor as 16th power is a useful framework to the extent that it led you to argue this great argument at me. maybe because it challenges the fundamental cosmology of tma or maybe not. up in the air on this one.

[forest-of-stories]

“They Won’t Let You Remember”: Obsession Before Fandom

[This is another round of extremely personal spelunking into my own fannish past that I sometimes do on this and other platforms, including Dreamwidth, which is where I first posted it.  Content warning for digressions into Fannish Discourse, and also brains - mostly mine - conflating fiction and reality in sometimes unhealthy ways.]

Not long ago, my mom asked me on the phone if I was aware that a new Men in Black movie would be out later this year. I told her that I knew, and added, “If I see it with other humans, they might have to hear how the original was one of the root causes of my mind control feelings.” Not the root cause, I should emphasize: those feelings could have come from any number of sources, but that number is probably greater than “one.” We both knew why she had brought up this particular franchise. There is a file cabinet in my childhood bedroom that once contained many, many handwritten stories – some co-written with middle school classmates, though most of them weren’t – that featured the titular secret organization, the protectors of the Earth from the scum of the universe, as the bad guys. I wrote those in order to deal with the sharp turn that my already present Mind Control Feelings took when a silly science fiction comedy featuring giant space bugs encouraged me to root for characters who maintained the status quo by erasing memories from ordinary people – people like me – on a regular basis. Some of you might be asking, “Wait, you knew it was only a movie, right?” And my answer would be, “Yes, but…” Since time and emotional distance have both clarified and obscured my understanding of how I used to think and behave, here is the best (and probably most long-winded) way that I can answer that question for both myself and others: I was an imaginative and overwhelmingly anxious child. On the one hand, my imaginative side desperately wanted magic and aliens and Weird Stuff to be real, which I still don’t think was always a bad thing. On the other hand, during my preteen and teenage years, my anxiety (which wouldn’t be linked to a diagnosis until much later in my life) manifested as “what if?” scenarios that were at least as convincing as reality… even if they were based in speculative fiction. Even if I didn’t believe that they would happen, I spent a lot of time telling myself stories about what might happen if they did, or even just thinking, “What if this is how the world is supposed to work, even if I don’t like it or want it and you can’t make me?” So, although I knew the difference between fiction and reality by the age of twelve, knew that Men in Black was Only A Movie, my “what if?” reflex kicked in hard the more I recognized its world as being much closer enough to my own than my previous, limited encounters with memory erasure in fiction. According to the rules of that world, if the Weird Stuff were real, I wouldn’t even know, and, according to the text, shouldn’t know. “Wasn’t the next line of the theme song ‘They won’t let you remember’?” Older Sister asked, the last time we talked about it. Yes. Yes, it was. The immediacy is right there in the song’s refrain (which, by the way, is still an earworm and a half). At one point, Tommy Lee Jones’ veteran agent character insists that, while Earth is constantly under extraterrestrial threat, humans can only live our lives peacefully if we don’t know about it. (Keeping in mind that humans do a pretty solid job of threatening life on Earth ourselves, I feel like that statement is also linked to questions about the supposedly blissful ignorance of privilege, which go beyond the scope of this post, but are still worth mentioning.) Maybe I reacted so strongly to that bit of dialogue because I believed that it wasn’t true, or because I feared that it was. I’m pretty sure that it was the combination of that scene and its message, with my recurring issues around authority and self-control, and my growing self-awareness about my misbehaving brain, that set my anxious imagination spinning. I would guess that I was wondering something like, “What if the only way that I could have peace of mind was if somebody or something else edited my thoughts and memories without my knowledge or consent?” That idea scared me. It made me angry. And since I was not mature enough to have any filters or sense of other people’s boundaries, I talked – loudly and incoherently – to anybody who would listen, and quite a few people who wouldn’t, about how scared and angry it made me. A lot of the things that I said and did are now difficult for me to understand (one might almost say… alien), and I’m not sure whether they helped with my worries or just made them worse. I do know that this was neither the first nor the last work of fiction about which some of my loved ones told me to shut up because I was too obsessed, resulting in screaming fights, sneering mockery, and tears. I was also old enough, you see, to understand that I wasn’t responding to fiction in the same way that a lot of my peers were, and to, perhaps, start feeling like there was something wrong with me. Not that this was enough to shut me, in fact, up. But I did something else, too: I started to write the stories that I mentioned above. Some of my point-of-view characters were disillusioned agents, others were characters from other media that I enjoyed; the more sources I could pull from, and the more surreal I could make the mix, the happier I was. Still other POV characters were authorial avatars who started out as innocent bystanders and narrowly escaped having their memories wiped. (A few of those self-insert fantasies also involved my earliest fictional crush, who just happened to be an alien from a certain book series that I loved at the time. I quite happily imagined scenarios in which my very knowledge of his true nature was forbidden and yet our love conquered all in the end, but I never put any of those scenarios on paper. I kind of wish I had.) Some of the storylines fizzled out after a few chapters, while others ended with my protagonists riding off into the sunset with their minds, for the time being, safe. I should stress that even my writing wasn't necessarily integrated into my life in a healthy way: I scribbled during my classes (yes, I got caught at least once), I wrote scenarios that crossed the line from nonsensical into offensive (why so many “man in a dress” jokes, younger self? Why even one?), and I buttonholed friends and classmates as audiences and even collaborators despite their probably being much less interested than I was. Even though I was discovering a third option besides “shut up forever” and “shut up never,” it would take several more years, at least two more obsessions, and the discovery of online fandom (I only somewhat knew what “online” was in the late 1990s, and “fandom” was nowhere near my vocabulary) before I sorted out the appropriate time and place for each of those options. But I was on my way there, even if I didn’t know what “there” was. When I questioned and pulled apart an established narrative to turn the heroes into villains and shine a light on viewpoints that I thought the original creators had overlooked, I was writing fanfiction, whether I knew it or not. When I finally did find my way to fandom communities, it was thanks to the Harry Potter books, whose world-building also relies on what TV Tropes calls “The Masquerade.” (If you look up the page for that trope, guess whose quote is right at the top? Yeah.) Which led me to recognize it in certain versions of X-Men, and The Incredibles, and Torchwood and The Vampire Diaries and and and… The more I saw of organized efforts to conceal the existence of Weird Stuff from the Oblivious Masses, the more I understood that the audience was meant to feel like we were in on the secret, but I couldn’t stop sympathizing with the people who weren’t. I still dislike and distrust that trope to this day, even in works that I otherwise enjoy, and storylines involving memory erasure – consensual or not, narratively endorsed or not – still push both good and bad buttons, sometimes both at once. And I believe that my explorations of mind control in fiction, from the beginning until now, have partly been informed by questions like, “What if I couldn’t trust my own mind, and was asked to believe that this was for my own good and/or the good of society?” And, since it bears mentioning: I hope that nobody interprets this recollection as, “A storytelling device warped Nevanna’s understanding of reality, and therefore stories can reprogram people’s behaviors and problematic fiction should be eliminated!” First of all, I object to that kind of black-and-white thinking, as a librarian, a writer, and someone who tries to thoughtfully consume media. Secondly, it’s more accurate that the dysfunction in my own brain once warped my understanding of reality; that even then, I was still responsible for my own actions; and although I have a history of giving fictional constructs an unhealthy amount of power over my own life, I grew out of it. And even though I have mixed feelings about the debate over Problematic Fiction, and I certainly do not condone harassment and shaming – because I’ve been there and done that, on both sides – I try to maintain that it is not my place to stop people from having negative emotions about stories. Even if I don’t agree, even when their objections make me uncomfortable, I can disagree with what they’re saying or doing without invalidating what they might be feeling. And I try to be better at doing so, because I am the last person in the world to deny that stories spark powerful emotions and thoughts, that sometimes they go against the creators’ intentions. Part of becoming a responsible consumer of media and participant in fandom is learning to manage those emotions constructively and make space for other people’s feelings and needs. I used to be angry at my younger self for being unable or unwilling to do that. I’m not anymore. That said, one of the differences between preteen Nevanna and thirty-something Nevanna is that nobody has to hear me talk about mind control unless they want to. (Although I’m happy that a noticeable number of people usually seem to want to.) I never saw the original Men in Black in the movie theater. I think it took me several tries (much to Younger Sister’s frustration) to sit through it on home video, and the ghost of who I was back then, as much as if not more than the actual content, has kept me from revisiting the 1997 movie in the intervening years. If I wanted to watch it again, I think that I would want (and here I'll paraphrase a fantasy series, also about aliens, that more or less avoids the Masquerade altogether) to prepare myself emotionally. I still haven’t watched the sequels or had much interest in doing so, and I never posted any fanfiction set in that universe. It has occurred to me that I might end up writing fic for the 2019 reimagining, if I see it (it wouldn’t be the first time in the recent past that I revisited fictional worlds from my childhood in new and surprising ways). But if I do write anything – and maybe even if I don’t – I will continue to feel pity and compassion and gratitude for the twelve-year-old believer in Weird Stuff who heard, “They won’t let you remember,” and responded, “What if I did anyway?”

[evilkitten3]

ok so i meant to post this yesterday but in my defense i have adhd and there were distractions

anyway! i'll post it now, and respond to the comments i got too (@hoverboards-and-dragons, @madscientist-enthusiast, and @darkersoul - that's you! sorry for the wordwall tho lol)

Red inspired me to read it for myself, actually! I rewatched her lovecraft video last night, and this morning I decided I might as well read it. I tried to keep all my jokes about it original, but I did just watch her vid, so some of her humor may have seeped through on accident

for me, the quality of his writing is kinda... all over the place, i guess? like i've definitely read worse (not in terms of sheer authorial bigotry, but. y'know), but he very clearly has some strengths as a writer. as a person, he was apparently afraid of damn near everything, and he's actually very good - at least in this one story of his that i've read - at getting that helpless terror across to his audience. i didn't necessarily feel the fear, but i've had years and years of pop cultural references to get used to the idea of cthulhu and the old gods. if i'd been a racist white rich asshole in the late 1920s/early 1930s, i presumably would've also been scared (and then thought "goodness but this writer is a tad extreme" or however racist assholes talked back then). he can also do Icky Descriptions pretty well, which i'll admit i'm rather fond of. i bitched the whole way through, but i did actually enjoy the overall story, though i definitely would've liked it more if lovecraft had been less,,,, lovecraft about it.

That aside, and i admit I'm not quite sure how to phrase this properly, lovecraft's bigotries affect the story in a way i don't usually see. Typically, reading a book by an objectively racist author is an uncomfortable experience, but most writers I've read incorporate their biases fairly well into their narrative. It may not have aged well, but it feels like a natural part of what's going on in the story. Like in Dracula, which I'm still seriously behind on, you can easily spot the author's personal biases, but aside from a sigh or an eyeroll, it doesn't really take away from the story.

Lovecraft, however, is so vested in making his disgust towards damn near everything as obvious as possible, that it breaks the immersion in the story. Call of Cthulhu is largely a collection of accounts by people the narrator either never meets or interviews after the fact, typically with little detail of the majority of those interviews (the narrator will bring up that he spoke with so-and-so, but aside from a couple instances, he doesn't really talk about their conversations much) (iirc the only characters whose personal tales he really bothers getting into are the white ones– angell and wilcox, legrasse and his team, and johansen, which isn't too surprising since. it's lovecraft. but like you didn't want to include anything from the cultists????? really?????).

That's all well and good, but it pretty quickly becomes apparent that the biases are the narrator's, not necessarily the actual sources themselves. Now, a narrator having their own thoughts and opinions isn't a deal breaker or anything, but all of it is presented as objective. The story assumes that the reader will share the opinions of the protagonist and therefore not question how he managed to run into so many people with the exact same opinions as his own- obviously, every rich white new englander thinks the way lovecraft does, and it's not like anyone else is sentient enough to read or anything. That'd be crazy.

it also ends up leading to some pretty blatant contradictions in the narrative. most notably, in johansen's part of the story, in which the narrator rushes to assure the readers that of course the crew of the emma was able to defeat the crew of the alert bc. well obviously the white side wouldn't lose.

The Emma’s men shewed fight, says the survivor, and though the schooner began to sink from shots beneath the waterline they managed to heave alongside their enemy and board her, grappling with the savage crew on the yacht’s deck, and being forced to kill them all, the number being slightly superior, because of their particularly abhorrent and desperate though rather clumsy mode of fighting.

the problem with this is that a part of the narrator's growing fear is of the cultists coming to kill him via mafioso-style tragic accident, which. doesn't really hold up when every single conflict with the cultists ends in the white right side winning. the sect in new orleans? don't worry, the cops took care of them. the swampy bois? nahhh legrasse and his team handled it fine. the alert? bit tougher, since they shot first, but johansen's side still won and wiped out the whole crew while only losing two members of their own. hell, the narrator seems to just be jumping to conclusions that his grand-uncle was murdered at all (like it's a horror story, so obviously he was, but the narrator doesn't know it's a horror story, so he has no reason to make that conclusion aside from the context of "there was a black guy kinda near him when he fell over"). hell, it's not even clear that johansen was killed by the cult, the narrator just assumes so bc the circumstances were kinda vague (read: he got knocked over by some papers and then two lascar - nonwhites! the horror! - sailors helped him up but he died anyway). that's two people dead from naval warfare, which the cultists apparently suck at, and two dead from conveniently placed comedic flower pots. all the narrator has to do is surround himself with white guys and stay away from the ocean, something he probably would've done regardless.

which is frustrating, bc i genuinely think lovecraft had the potential to write some legitimately spooky stuff. i'm not even saying he'd need to throw out the racism entirely (though that would of course be preferable), he just needed to be subtler about it. there's so much quality horror to be drawn from whatever the fuck is going on in the ocean, but he spends so much time and energy on just generally being a piece of shit that it's impossible to get immersed in the story enough to even try to relate to any of the characters except wilcox, and even him i only thought about long enough to question his sexuality. one of the major themes of lovecraft's works, as i understand it, was "none-me people are scary", but he actually ends up undercutting it with how overtly he sells it. it just comes off as the narrator being a racist sack of crap, to the point where even if the cultists were genuinely coming after him, i'd be rooting for them.

thanks, i needed it. on the plus side, that implies that some of the other works aren't going to be as painful to get through. i'll try to put the horror at red hook higher up on the list so i can get it over with - i think i'll read it after i get through the other ones red mentioned.

I started reading the call of cthulhu, for reasons known only to the old gods themselves, and good grief it takes lovecraft less than three paragraphs to start the racism

What does "nautical-looking negro" even mean? Like probably it's just an unnecessarily dickish way of saying "black guy in a sailor hat", but lovecraft was an idiot so maybe he always describes people as "adjective-looking".

The only other thing he's bothered to mention about this guy is that he (presumably accidentally) jostled the narrator's grand-uncle, causing him to fall over, and physicians couldn't find anything wrong with him. I'm just gonna go ahead and assume he fainted from the horror of physical contact with a working class black guy, if he was anything like the narrator

[raptorreels]

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

a note from the future: more like deliver us from this script. If I had to endure this movie, you have to read about me enduring this movie

also good ol gore warning and one pic of a pretty gross dead cat prop becasue the FX department were the only people who did some fucking work on this movie that is in any way effective

Gotta love how every possession movie since the exorcist insists on having a backstory scene in the Middle East.

Someone fire the sound editor please.

That is zero percent how emt's work

It's not just the start scene. Somebody should seriously have cut the Blatty estate a fcking check for this

Gotta love this complex cinematic language. You know it's a bad neighborhood when they make fingerguns at you and the women are wearing tiny shorts. Such bad. Much decay.

Your radar is gay.

Wow this must be fiction, there's an immediate and effective response to domestic violence and the victim isn't coverin for the abuser.

“that's enough for christ's sake this isn't batman”  CALLED OUT, BRUCE. Yeah geeze guy put on some bat ears before you beat the shit out of suspects

you know he's Intense because he owns a punching bag and it's Worn. Definitely intensity and not a sign you spent a whole fifteen dollars at the goodwill.

What kind of weirdo gets a shot of whiskey in the middle of a run???? Introducing: the weirdest alocholic.

Oh nooo it's a menacing owl.

For a big budget movie, this shit watches like something a film student put together while hungover for a last-minute participation grade in a contest of how many half-baked cliches they can sew together.

Alcoholic jogger is a jesuit. Hokay then.

This is so. Badly. Written. Like not even at the plot level, just at the everyday klunky ass 'noone on god's green earth speaks like that' level. And there hasn't been a decent extra yet.

The only good thing about this movie are the references. The Doors, Larry Byrd and the Addams Family already.

These guys are terrible cops. Fucking calling people whackjobs to their faces, fucking assholes. And calling everybody whackjobs too, not just the clearly drug addicts. Like no bro their house got broken into that's not crazy. Fuck off.

“You wanna read him his rights or shoot him while he's down.” funny line, made funnier by my desperation to enjoy SOMETHING about this movie other than eric bana's pleasantly handsome face.

Yeah leave your partner alone in the creepy basement, that's both procedure and always ends we

i'm not a doctor but that doesn't look great

gaaaaaaaaaaaasp not someone wearing a hoodie in the fall. Real sinister intent there.

Ok from personal experience, moble radios pic up weird static all the time

WELL THEN. and okay i also had to cap this because it’s a great fucking creepy prop, and i can’t believe it got wasted on this shitty as movie.

this guy is cute but he can. Not. Act. Bana is phoing it in half the time too, which I cannot blame him for, this script is a total fucking disaster. From a wtf-ass plot all the way down to wtf-is-this-dialogue. It's like they shredded the pilot scripts of a hundred dumb horror tv shows, threw in a buddy cop comedy and just taped together any line that immediately made a normal human roll their eyes.

Drank TWO QUARTS of paint thinner. Jesus christ.

Well at least they have the dysfnctional cop homelife down. Insert bitter authorial cops-kid laugh.

Could they really not afford any decent fill cast???? none can deliever a line without it sounding like telepromted BS

“a combat videographer”

sure let's run through the stock creepy sound loops, regardless of whether it makes sense. Everything is creepy if you turn off the lights, right?

“upstairs is for the disturbed, down here is for the dangerous and deranged” that is. Zero percent how it works.

When you stick your arm in the crazy chick's cell, you don't get to be shocked when she tries to bite it off. Also, with all the biting that goes in this movie you would think it would turn out to Mean Something. It does not. We get closeups for it for no fucking reason at all.

Rough and tumble street cop recognizes latin immediately when he hears it. Shit son I took latin for three years and I couldn't pick it up like that.

“they might kill me slowly but they won't kill me fast” I feel that

“persian pictographs” you couldn't even be assed to find some, those are literally egyptian

this movie is just. It's so bad.

I can't.

“i don't wanna talk abou it” you JUTS SAID you thought something was wrong!!! with you!!!  how is that NOT an invitation/request to talk about it???? ffs

well that's not great

“those who are suspetable become possessed” by seeing some bad dog latin and cribbed ancient egyptian? No discussion of what susptible means, either. Fuck world building, we stumble through this bullshit plot like men.

I always deeply dislike the “serious evil has no rhym or reason” bullshit it doesn't

oh look, the partner reappears. Now taking bets on his remaining lifespan.

What child has EVER enarestly earned a fucking jakc in the box

“do you have a crucifix in your home?” “we're italian, what do you think?” is THAT the fucking accent you were doing? Fuck I thought that was some bad third generation irish-american shit.

You gonna get eat by a demon and you still can't talk about your feels? Big. Mood.

His magic power is literally that he can hear the soundtrack.

Guys guys. Guys it's a CLOWN jack in the box. Literally WHAT CHILD????????

gotta give it up to the FX folks at least, they're the only ones who showed up to work for this movie:

man the reports this guy files must be great. I once filled out five pages of explanation about having to replace a blown tire, I don't even wanna think about what cops who leave the scenes of crime scenes they just called in have to file.

Nice of the cinamatographer to finally show up to work

“well do the exorcism now” “what the fuuuuck”  giggles

and now we pretend we aren't the exorcist again. Badly.

“god knows your name, knows your number.”  your.....number???

“oh. My. Fuck.” at least we get a realistic response to an exorcism from an onlooker. And oh, I know what you're thinking. Surely this guy watching will be relevant to the plot. Does the demon jump into him? Is he the after-credits scare? Will he later get this cop in trouble for this unauthorized shit? N o p e. It's just a fucking thing that exists to pad out this excerable script.

That's not the Clash, that's The Doors. (this movie doesn't deserve a better joke)

qick and dirty exorcisms, five minutes or less

that movie was so. Bad. Eric Bana you failed me.

[recentanimenews]

O Maidens in Your Savage Season – 05 – A Completely Different Creature Entirely

This week picks right up from the last but flips the POV, from Kazusa to Niina and Izumi. I’m not going to say they don’t flirt with each other quite a bit on their train ride, but it’s certainly not the sweaty tryst Kazusa’s out-of-control imagination makes it out to be.

While it isn’t clear whether it’s a coincidence that Niina’s old acting coach Saegusa is on the very same train, she ends up utilizing Izumi in much same way she used Kazusa a few weeks back: as a prop in a fiction. In this case, she makes a big show of being with her “boyfriend” in front of Saegusa, who nods a gentle approval before taking his leave.

As Momoko tries (mostly in vain) to reassure Kazusa that there’s probably a harmless explanation for the two on the train, Hitoha just happens to be ridden past their exact position on the bridge. She’s in Yamagishi’s car, where he continues to make it clear he’s not into high school girls, and causing Hitoha to cry, as she doesn’t know what else to do; having her authorial debut is everything to her.

Meanwhile, we and Izumi learn about Saegusa and what a phenomenally creepy dude he was, singling Niina out when she was 11, rubbing his face on her shoe, and taking her out alone to shows and meals. But Izumi is only grossed out on the most basic level of suspecting Saegusa of being a paedophile. He doesn’t realize how deep and fucked up the bond became between Saegua and Niina.

And yet Niina declares Saegusa never laid a finger on him…even when she was fourteen, starting to get that kind of attention, and the age when she decided to ask why he wouldn’t do it with her. But he told her he could never love her as a woman, only her girlish nature, and to touch her would be to instantly transform her into something else entirely—something he had no interest in.

All I can say is…Damn. Poor Niina. Unfortunately, she’s very far from the only victim of this particular brand of push/pull mind game bullshit. Niina loathes attention because the only person she wanted it from utterly rejected her. But that does make a nice segue to her original subject of conversation with Izumi: his willingness so say something so “cruel and heartless” to Kazusa—the very same thing Saegusa told her.

But the fact is, Izumi didn’t see it as cruel or heartless at the time, because didn’t even know Kazusa had a crush on him until Niina let it slip right then, assuming (reasonably, and at the same time totally unreasonably so) he did. Indeed, Niina is rather shocked (and amused!) by Izumi’s denseness, having pegged him as someone quick on the uptake. Clearly, he has a significant blind spot…which sports a bob cut.

While she keeps up a brave front in front of Momo, when left on her own in her room Kaz’s mind continues to race, as she deliberates over how impossible it would be to compete against a goddess like Niina. Kaz gets so worked up, she doesn’t realize she’s thinking out loud, talking about being way too obsessed with sex just as her mom steps into her room.

Turns out Kazusa’s and Izumi’s families go out for bowling night on occasion. That has to be the most goddamn fun thing I’ve ever heard! Sure, it’s a little awkward for Izumi and Kaz, especially when…Izumi…sticks his fingers…in the three holes of the ball…GAAAH, anyway things calm down when Kazusa goes to grab some refreshments and Izumi follows her, now knowing exactly what’s eating her.

What follows is the second most heartwarming scene of the episode (the first most comes later): the two, knowing each other so well, recall each other’s childish likes (Kaz a bit of milk in her Calpis; Izumi with melon soda). In this moment they remember how close they are and have always been, and that even with their raging hormones, they can find such moments of peace if they try.

Izumi even sets Kazusa’s mind at ease, first by almost reading it (she wants to bring up Niina, but he beats her to it), then by saying Niina is “more weird than pretty.”

Switching to Momoko, now a much more visible and compelling character, she goes on a date with Sugimoto and it’s…fine? Kinda meh? She honestly doesn’t know how to feel or act or speak, and is basically just relieved to be on the train home.

She’s surprised to find “opening up” by saying she has no dad is such a big deal to him. In any case, it’s a clear case of Momo…just not feeling it. Is it just because of the guy, or is she not into guys, or girls, or anyone? Not enough data to know yet, but I’m intrigued.

As stated last week I’m much less enamored of Yamagishi doing anything at all with Hitoha, and predictably, he decides to continue indulging Hitoha by ruling out direct eroticism and settling for indirect methods, such as Hitoha staking out a spot where he and only he can watch her show him her panties.

Hitoha is apparently getting what she wants—personal sexual experiences with which to improve her writing and hasten her debut—but without getting overbearingly paternalistic, I still fear for her. She’s doing this, at least in part, because she feels she has no other way to achieve her dreams.

That desperation, her limited years and Yamagishi’s more numerous ones all conspire to call her ability to consent into serious question. Yamagishi is the adult here. It’s completely on him to stop this, and endure the cascade of hate from Hitoha. She will get over him, in that situation. She may not get over where this is headed.

The first time Kazusa sees Niina at school, Niina calls Izumi “weird” just as Izumi used to describe her, and the wheels in Kazusa’s head start spinning all over again, helped not at all by a reading in club by Rika that describes exactly the means by which two people think and speak alike. If they both think each other are weird, that doesn’t bode well, Kazusa thinks, and she may well be right.

While we leave Kazusa trapped in a typhoon of suspicion, indecision, despair, and longing, the episode thankfully ends on that first-most heartwarming note I mentioned earlier, as Rika meets Amagi on the rooftop to deliver him his report, which she’s marked up in red to correct his errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation…oh, and on the last page where he asked her out, she wrote in tiny letters if you would be so kind. It’s a yes!

Rika had hoped not to be right there when he discovered that note, but when Amagi sees it, he starts leaping around the flying pages of the report in unabashed joy. Rika most certainly is abashed, at first covering her ears on the stairs, then chiding Amagi for being so loud about his happiness.

Rika is happy no doubt; but she’s no doubt scared shitless. The territory couldn’t be more uncharted if she started reading Shounen Jump. Not to mention, what if she ends up becoming a completely different creature entirely? Boy or girl, every single one of these kids is going to eventually become that—whether they like it or not.

By: sesameacrylic

[beckytext]

Sunday Writing Stuff: ...and we’re back!

Oh hey it’s a Sunday!

When last I updated, just about a month ago, I had finished my draft and was going to take a break. Which I did! Then, over the last week, I reread my draft (and took notes) and then had an hour-long talk with my agent about it (and to a lesser extent about writing career stuff).

Real talk: I was super anxious about having that conversation. To be clear, not because of anything my agent has ever said or done -- in fact, I knew going in that it would likely leave me cheerful and energized, because that’s what talking with my agent usually does. Anxiety is not rational, though, so knowing that didn’t actually stop it.

The anxiety comes from a few places:

It’s been a long time since I’ve shown her anything -- nearly two years. And the last thing I showed her I ended up trunking because it was broken and I didn’t know how to fix it. So basically it had been over three years since I last showed her anything that we were actually able to move forward with (the draft of my second book), and part of me was just scared that she wouldn’t like this and would decide I’m not a good fit as a client anymore, etc. Was that a rational thing that was likely to happen? No. Was I anxious about it anyway? Yeah. 

I wasn’t sure I liked this project, so showing it to someone else -- especially someone whose taste I really trust and respect -- is super scary. I had finished rereading it and though there are some pieces I really like I also have an extensive list of its flaws and I had cringed the whole way through and that’s just... not what I want people to read and associate with me. 

That last thing but more so again: I queried her years ago with a polished manuscript and this ... is not polished. Which, duh. She’s read my messy drafts before. And yet I can not shake the perfectionist voice that tells me it should to be perfect, that this should come easily, that I should be further along in my career and that taking this long is bad and wrong, and ... you get the idea. 

Anxiety: the worst!

In case it isn’t obvious, none of those things happened and the conversation was, in fact, energizing and enthusiastic. She had some insightful thoughts on how to angle the next draft and even potentially where to pitch it, she thinks my authorial voice is great and my worldbuilding works (though it needs to be fleshed out!).

And yeah, we did talk a bit about how my first duology, uh, “never found its readers.” (A polite way of saying no one bought it.) It was good to talk frankly about that because it’s something that’s weight heavily on me (a polite way of saying totally messed me up, at least, creatively-speaking). I’m not gonna say more about that here because I don’t wanna, but it’s something that I’m still processing and letting go of, and let’s be real, it was also a huge factor in my anxiety around this project.

But it is what it is. 

And my agent is great! Hearing what she likes about the draft was really helpful both in reminding me that I am actually pretty good at this whole writing thing, but also because it got me outside of my own head a bit. As the writer, obviously I know what I think I’m putting into the story, what’s meant to be in the story; hearing what someone else actually takes out of it can be disconcerting but also really cool. (This particular time it was mostly just cool.) 

So I feel good but now I actually have to, ugh, figure out how to fix the damn thing. Why won’t it just fix itself??

[seattlepestcontrol1]

RESTAURANTS IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE OVERRUN BY RATS, AUTHORITIES DEMAND PEST CONTROL EDUCATION

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Therefore, to ensure that you will not have recurring  http://ampmexterminators.com/pest-control-to-removal-dead-rats-animals/mice problems it’s strongly advisable to address a professional comprehensive exterminator. But the Rats are not only in restaurants. The nasty critters are also invading other commercial businesses and residences looking for food and shelter. The rats leave nasty evidence behind such as feces, urine and at times after birth. Downtown Seattle restaurants are experiencing an influx of rat infestations. Once the problem has been detected it is crucial to assess the degree of damages from food contamination, chewed up wiring and airborne bacteria.  http://ampmexterminators.com/attic-crawlspace-restoration/Restaurant Owners need to act quickly by contacting a Pest Control professional to inspect and evaluate the extent of a rat infestation. Rats put employees and customers at risk because the rat’s body waste carries viruses, toxins, bacteria and allergies can be affected. Who will the restaurant owner call: After doing some online research the restaurant manager notified AMPM Exterminators. It was important to make the best decision to hire experienced exterminators to do the best job.  http://ampmexterminators.com/commercial/AMPM Exterminators provides professional Inspections and evaluations for restaurants overrun by rats. A thorough inspection will tell the tale of how the nasty nasties got into the restaurant. Therefore a perimeter check is priority. The nasty pests can squeeze through quarter size openings: Aa rat can gain access to the restaurant through quarter sized holes or cracks. The first thing on the professional rat exterminators job order is to do a perimeter check of the premises. While doing so all cracks, holes and crevices around the structure of the restaurant will be sealed to prevent further access. Even if only one rat has been spotted, the chances are very great that there are more where that one came from. Where oh where can the rats be: The AMPM Exterminators technician reviewed the perimeter check with the restaurant manager and now it was time to move indoors. All favorite spots of shelter and places to hide were checked. Places like Floor drains which is an ideal area if the lids are not sealed tightly. Make sure to always close Garbage cans and dumpsters. Don’t let the garbage overflow to where the garbage or dumpster cannot be shut tightly. If not then the rats have RSVP’d to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Clean entire kitchen and equipment on a daily basis. Common sense would be to never ever leave dirty dishes and food garbage in the sink. Rats are wherever there is food and moisture. Sink stoppers hold leftover food and an easy find for the rats. Favorite places to add to the list of where rats will be are holes in walls,electrical boxes boxes, electrical outlets, cracks are perfect places to make a home in. Seattle Restaurant employees need to clean and sanitize daily: Being in the food serving business, restaurant employees should be thoroughly trained in how to keep the kitchen and pantries cleansed and sanitized. It should be a mandatory job responsibility that should be inspected on a daily basis. The restaurant is only going to be as successful and profitable by how excellent the hygiene practices are performed. This daily routine of cleaning should be done before closing the restaurant each and every day. If these preventive and necessary measures are taken than  http://ampmexterminators.com/pest-control/rodent control services wouldn’t be necessary. The perimeter of the building is priority to prevent further access to the restaurant. A restaurant rat infestation can attract other pests such as cockroaches. Always keep the kitchen clean and sanitized. Never ever leave leftover food on stoves and counters. Wipe down all surface areas and don’t leave back doors open or ajar. Restaurant owners can stay in business by following these steps and will not have loss of income due to a rat infestation. It only takes one customer to see a rat and immediately calls the Health Department. Or even worse starts screaming which attracts attention to all other patrons. Pretty soon the chaos is out of control and people are running out. Results are unpaid bills, reputation ruined, food contamination, rodent infestation cam clue costly. Best move was to call pest control services to get rid of the rats. When to Should Hire A Mouse Exterminator Downtown Seattle Restaurants are being overrun by rats. A Seattle restaurant owner called AMPM Exterminators to take care of the nasty problem. The owner quickly realized that Self-help methods were not going to cut it. Only a few rats were trapped but nobody wanted the job of getting rid of the dead rats. Employees nerves were totally frazzled and staff were pretty stressed out. AMPM Exterminators were hired for the professional expertise needed to exterminate the restaurant rat infestation. This pest control company is more than qualified to take care of the problem. Media Contact Company Name:  http://ampmexterminators.com/commercial/Mice and Rat Control Services for Residential and Commercial Property Contact Person: Doug Bunker Email:  http://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=restaurants-in-downtown-seattle-overrun-by-rats-authories-demand-pest-control-educationSend Email Phone: 4252008045 Address:8512 122nd ave ne, suite 80  City: Kirkland State: Washington Country: United States Website:  http://ampmexterminators.com/http://ampmexterminators.com/fore a perimeter check is priority. The nasty pests can squeeze through quarter size openings: Aa rat can gain access to the restaurant through quarter sized holes or cracks. The first thing on the professional rat exterminators job order is to do a perimeter check of the premises. While doing so all cracks, holes and crevices around the structure of the restaurant will be sealed to prevent further access. Even if only one rat has been spotted, the chances are very great that there are more where that one came from. Where oh where can the rats be: The AMPM Exterminators technician reviewed the perimeter check with the restaurant manager and now it was time to move indoors. All favorite spots of shelter and places to hide were checked. Places like Floor drains which is an ideal area if the lids are not sealed tightly. Make sure to always close Garbage cans and dumpsters. Don’t let the garbage overflow to where the garbage or dumpster cannot be shut tightly. If not then the rats have RSVP’d to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Clean entire kitchen and equipment on a daily basis. Common sense would be to never ever leave dirty dishes and food garbage in the sink. Rats are wherever there is food and moisture. Sink stoppers hold leftover food and an easy find for the rats. Favorite places to add to the list of where rats will be are holes in walls,electrical boxes boxes, electrical outlets, cracks are perfect places to make a home in. Seattle Restaurant employees need to clean and sanitize daily: Being in the food serving business, restaurant employees should be thoroughly trained in how to keep the kitchen and pantries cleansed and sanitized. It should be a mandatory job responsibility that should be inspected on a da

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