#still some interesting snippets
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John Lennon by his friends and son: âHe got eight years more than Jesusâ
The former Beatle would have been turning 84 this autumn. Now his son Sean and those who knew him best are keeping his spirit alive with the rerelease of his classic solo album Mind Games
Everyone wonders what John Lennon could have become. When he was murdered in New York on December 8, 1980, the 40-year-old was in his post-Beatles prime. The superb album Double Fantasy had just come out and he was plotting a world tour. His second son, Sean, whom he took time off to bring up with his wife, Yoko Ono, was five, and Lennon was feeling inspired. Seven solo records since the Beatles had split ten years earlier; a reconciliation with Paul McCartney.
âEveryone gets the time they get, and he got eight years longer than Jesus,â says Bob Gruen, the rockânâroll legend who took photographs of everyone who mattered in the 1970s. He captured Lennon and Onoâs time in New York and is confident and chatty â until conversation turns to what Mark Chapman took outside the Dakota that day.
âJohn should be alive now,â Gruen says, clearly still affected 44 years on. Gruen had spent the weekend with Lennon before he died and was developing his photos when he got the call. âHe didnât die in an accident or of a disease. His death broke my trust in everything. He was grounded at the time. He learnt a lot from raising his son, about enjoying his life and being sober. Then I heard he was dead.â
Lennon would have been 84 in October â and at least we are left with his songs. But legacy is complicated. Over the years McCartney has stolen his crown as chief creative in the Beatles. Partly because Lennon is no longer here to speak. Also because, during Peter Jacksonâs 2021 film, Get Back, Lennon was largely stoned, while the charismatic McCartney conjured up magic. So to redress the balance, this monthâs innovative rerelease of Lennonâs Mind Games (1973) pushes design and immersion in ways few box sets have before. It features new mixes â some that amplify Lennonâs voice, others that emphasise the instruments.
It is the work of Sean, 48, who has been at the forefront of the Mind Games rerelease. Lennonâs younger son is a musician and artist based in New York near his mother, 91. âThe title track is one of the most beautiful songs ever written,â he says.
The songs answer questions Sean never got to ask his father. Despite being very young when his father was around, Sean does have memories of him â talking, watching TV, playing guitar and saying, âGood night, Sean.â The song Aisumasen (Iâm Sorry) on the record is an apology from Lennon to Ono.
âOne thing that distinguishes my dadâs solo career,â Sean says, âis how personal his lyrics became. It is like a diary, and it is my duty to bring attention to my fatherâs music. Not just my duty to him, but a duty to the world. With the world as it is now, people have forgotten so many things that I never imagined could be forgotten. I refuse to let that happen to this music â it means too much to me.â
Two years before Mind Games came out, Lennon moved to New York and met Gruen. Living in New York was simpler for him and Ono. They were hounded in Britain. âOne paper called Yoko ugly,â Gruen recalls. âBut in New York they were just treated as the quirky artists who came to town.â
Gruenâs eyes light up. âHe was just funnier than everyone else,â he says. âIâd have loved him on Twitter, he was so cool with one-liners.â He smiles. âAnd, also, he learnt to cook. Iâd always try to go to the Dakota for mealtimes.â What sort of food? âJohn used to be a meat and potatoes guy, but he met [the actress] Gloria Swanson in the vegetable store and she gave him a book that acted as a way into a macrobiotic diet from a western one. He got really into healthy food, baking vegetables and steaming fish.â
And this is the frustration. In the late 1970s Lennon was cleaning up his act. For himself, for Sean â a son he was involved with, as opposed to his first child, Julian. He had changed, from the man who went on his fabled âLost Weekendâ in Los Angeles in 1973. The weekend actually ran for months, during which Lennon left Ono, on Onoâs suggestion, for their assistant, May Pang, then 23. After Lennon went back to Ono, Pang carried on in the music business and married the producer Tony Visconti, but the Lost Weekend era remains her headline. During that time Lennon enjoyed chaotic recording sessions with Phil Spector. âI wondered if heâd ever make it back to New York,â Gruen says. âI thought he might get a place in Hawaii, or just die.â But Lennon returned in 1974, for his final six years.
What does Gruen think about how Lennon is remembered? Especially in Get Back? âWell, whoâs the last one standing?â Gruen scoffs. âWho gets to write the history? The survivors get to write the history. Thatâs the way it goes.â
Tony King was the vice-president of Apple Records at the time of Lennonâs Lost Weekend. âWeâre here to talk about my friend,â he tells me sweetly. King was out in Los Angeles working on a Ringo album when Pang phoned to say that Lennon needed help with his Mind Games record.
âI wasnât looking forward to it,â King admits. âJohn could be sharp-tongued. But, in LA, he was super-friendly. I was straightforward. I told him he had to repair his reputation. After Imagine [1971] heâd gone in a different direction, making songs with a political edge. It was quite easy for John to get caught up in things. He had this tendency to see someone, decide he loved them and then go in their direction. I was lucky he went in my direction for a while. He realised he had lost some fans. Mind Games was more what people wanted.â Its songs were simpler and less political.
Personally, however, Lennon was in turmoil. âMay on one arm, Yoko on the other!â King says. âHe was juggling a lot.â Did Lennon talk about McCartney? âThey were not getting along, but he was still fond of him,â King recalls. And what about that Lost Weekend era? âHe was off the walls, to be honest.
âWe went to Las Vegas and John interrupted Frankie Valli during a show, saying, âGet your cock out!â We got thrown out and on the way back to the hotel he was pissing up against trees and then throwing his chips around the lobby. I put him to bed. It was difficult when he drank. John had taken way too much acid and so when he drank it flipped him into another style of person. One day it was great, the next it was very hard.â
King remembers the night his friend died clearly. âI was out at dinner in LA and the waiter said, âHeâs dead.â I returned to a very lonely, sad hotel room.â Does he ever think about what Lennon might have achieved later in his life? âElton and I talk about John,â King says. He means Elton John. âWe say, âI wonder what heâd be up to?â Well, heâd have pounced on the internet and got into AI. And heâd still campaign. I could see him hopping on a plane to see Zelensky. He was a busy person, with an arresting personality. Youâre never going to forget him.â
The Mind Games reissue is a beast, a lavish celebration of a fine, melodic rush of songs. Bonuses include the Ultimate Mixes, which bring Lennonâs voice to the fore; Raw Studio Mixes; there is a Super Deluxe Edition âpresented in a 13in cubeâ; puzzles; and even an experience on the free Lumenate app that is described as a âconsciousness-expanding psychedelic meditationâ and uses the phoneâs torch and Lennonâs tunes to guide users into âa state of consciousness between deep meditation and psychedelicsâ.
We are a long way from 1973 â when the session musicians David Spinozza, on guitar, and Ken Ascher, on keyboards, were asked to play on Mind Games. They recall the recording as efficient â Lennon left his partying for later. He was in a creative peak, with Mind Games his fourth album in three years since the Beatles.
âHe was a Beatle!â Ascher says. âI was thrilled to get the call. Yoko told me, around 10pm, that John would like to meet. I called my wife and said, âIâm not coming home â Iâm meeting John.â He played me music he liked, and we talked for hours. His humour helped me relax.â
Spinozza worked with Lennon and McCartney in the 1970s. How did the men compare? âPaul would do one song for six hours, even for a day,â he says. âWith John we never worked on one song for six hours. He worked quick â he was all business. Iâm not saying one was better than the other, but Paul could work on a drum sound for hours. John just wanted to get it done.â
How does Sean feel about his parents, looking back? âTheir story is a love story,â he says. âThey found each other across a great divide and certainly struggled through ups and downs, but never doubted their love. It is important we remember them as an example. Even through rough patches you can see my father thought about my mother. They were simply, irrevocably intertwined.â
Lovely words â and as for John Lennon himself? âGenerally itâs whatever comes out, like diarrhoea,â he once said of his recordings. âA bit personal, a bit political â someone told me Mind Games was Imagine with balls, which I liked. It was like an interim record between being a manic political lunatic back to a musician again.â
Speaking in the early 1970s, after a decade of super-fame, he said he did not feel different to how he had before. âIâm still a bit adolescent,â he said in one of his final interviews. âMy old friends from Liverpool got jobs after school. Iâd see them six months later and their hair would be thin and theyâd be getting fat. They were becoming old men â while I just keep going.â
(source)
#god save me from mainstream beatles articles#still some interesting snippets#john lennon#sean lennon#paul mccartney
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etho said actually you _don't_ understand the intricacies of how tango is my boyfriend and bdubs is my ex
(and how tango and bdubs kiss too)
Scar: We went on that little adventure, you know! Etho: Yeah, yeah, we had our adventure, that's true, that's true. Scar: You disparaged your teammates. That's it, all right, no more spoilers. Etho: (laughs) Our team has -- our team has some weird dynamics this -- this season. Cleo: (overlapping) Really, Etho? Is there trouble in paradise? (pause) Who's third-wheeling with you, again? I can't remember. Etho: (laughs) Uhh. The -- Cleo: Genuinely can't remember. I know it's you and Bdubs. And...Tango? Tango. Tango. Etho: (loudly) Why -- Why is Tango the third wheel? Why -- why isn't Bdubs the third wheel? Cleo: Because it's you and Bdubs. I'm sorry. I understand how that relationship goes. Etho: (dissatisfied) Hmm.
#why is this what makes me post again#tangtho#etho#ethoslab#tango#tangotek#tango tek#bdubs#bdoubleo100#bangtho#< saw that in etho's comments. and. yeah#also consider that tango and bdubs were together first this series and etho is the third wheel#to the fucked up love hate thing they have going on#there's never been something more appreciating and adoring BUT biting each other as tangdubs#goodtimeswithscar#hermitcraft s10#wild life smp#wild life smp spoilers#(Sorry but some people have ethubs blinders on but that's so much less interesting to me than the whole.#Yes bdubs is pathetic and will always be at etho's feet. and Yes etho will pity bdubs and want him protected.#but tangtho (!!!) has SO much more to play with...to Me.)#and Why is etho being a tango girl so under-noticed??? lmao. it's there to be noticed All the time#hot mic! hot mic!#but also lowkey dreading ep2 lmao#anyway I'll regret posting this lol#(also I see you asks in my inbox. sorry I haven't replied yet <3 re: s7 oh do I have thoughts! it's where it truly kinda began... I started#forming a reply to you back in May I think but I've been kinda averse to posting/participating in the fandom side for a while. sorry I#stopped being a good place for your tangtho snippets </3 I've still been watching and enjoying the streams and the tango etho joy continues#just haven't really felt like posting)
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ands snippet: fast and furious
Summary: Vivienne delivers on a promise and expected only the self-satisfaction of a âjob well done.â His Dark Grace decides otherwise.
or tldr: the batmobile's first, official iteration gets its christening đ (making out + some d/s vibes) this is a write up of this post on how bruce (the batman, really) and vivienne "get together," originally written to entertain @rozaceous (and here's the link to the og concept) the gist is that it's pre-NYE party debacle, ros and vi are practically u-haul lesbians but it's no one's business (not even their authors') how involved they are with each other, and ros and bruce have not resolved their UST yet.
ââand there might be tolerance issues with the panels, but they should be resolved by next month.â Neel Singh, the Experimental Manufacturing lead, concludes his briefing and falls half a pace back.
âWeâre not racing the clock, Neel.â Vivienne jots down her thoughts in her notepad, and adds, âThe winter holidays are coming up. I donât expect anything more until February, the earliest.â
âY-Yes, of course.â After pressing him for continuous updates for the past few months, of course heâd feel discombobulated by the sudden release of the gas pedal, so to speak. Neel pulls out his phone to type a message. âShould I call anyone else to show you around, Vivienne? Someone from Facilities for the test track?â
Vivienne looks up and out past the glass, into the indoor test track where the subject of their discussion sits parked. All aerodynamic sleekness and curves, the diffused polish of a practical matte black coating, and the intuitive physical sense of power and nimbleness in its formâŠ
Now thatâthat is her son, midwifed by the hardworking and circumspect members of her handpicked team.
A thought comes to mind. âWeâre dealing with carbon fiber, yes? RTM process?â
Neel nods warily. âThe team assessed it to be the best fit for purposeâŠâ
âLet me see the molds. And I may have some thoughts on the trickier shapes.â At this point, itâs better to do things right than to play coy with knowledge. There arenât any patents on the line, or papers to publish.
Bless Neelâheâs not the most inspirational team lead out there, but the man can get things done, keeps track of his flock, and does not put them in the line of fire if he can help it. It takes the entire hallwayâs length to convince him that no, Vivienne isnât here to take heads and draw blood. And yes, she does have some experience with composites. Thankfully, what she knows and has retained is relevant enough for their use case.
The setup tour and the technicians present are all of acceptable quality. Thereâs nothing wrong with their process, per seâŠ
âI appreciate the teamâs rationale in using vinyl ester. However, in application, the easier forming and mechanical properties with using epoxy should make it an appropriate trade-off,â she declares her verdict. No one is impolite enough to interrupt her (or theyâre not green enough to), but the manufacturing team does exchange serious side eye among each other.
When dealing with technical experts, care must be taken to speak their language. Always acknowledge someoneâs hard work, and give good faith that theyâve made their decision with good judgment behind it.
And, of course, one should give explicit reasoning when suggesting an alternative. âWe wonât be seeing the same type of corrosion nor UV exposure on average, or most of the expected causes of catastrophic failureââhere, Vivienne meets their gazes directly, pausing deliberately so they get her gistâ âwill render long-term considerations, hm, superfluous.â
Various noises of scoffing and muffled chortles come from the team before her. âItâs likely to explode, GTA-style, before we care about actual sunlight in Gotham,â someone mutters. âGot it.â
Bonus: appeal to their good humor, show that youâre on their side. Show that if they work with you instead of against you, everyone benefits.
âThen, weâll put the order in for epoxy instead?â Neel announces to the group.
âLet me liaison with the Testing guys, see which specific one they recommend,â one of the technicians answers while the others debate quietly between themselves. âAnd we need to check the MSDS for any changes needed.â
âShouldnât be muchâI think we can relax some of the workflow, too,â another one calls out. âItâll go a lot faster this round.â
Neel turns towards Vivienne, implicitly waiting for her approval.
âGo ahead,â she confirms. âNo rush. You should have enough budget; if not, CC me on any requests.â She waits for Neel to nod before turning back to finish her notes.
One of the technicians whistles low and, undeterred by his coworkerâs elbow to the gut, asks out loud, âHow the hell are we getting the funding for this? It canât be government.â
Vivienne pauses, looks up to raise an eyebrow at him. She gives it two secondsâenough to make it awkward but not enough to be aggressiveâbefore answering nonchalantly, âDoes it matter? As long as we can all go about our day without the mob brazenly shaking people down in public, or an attention-seeking wack job gassing the streets and locking down the expressway, I do not care.â
The emphasis nets her a âfair enoughâ gesture and no further questions, with the general atmosphere being one of jocular compliance and satisfaction.
Very good.
She turns to Neel, while announcing to the group at large, âThat will be all. Everyone should make sure to confirm with my PA on their way out, so you all can receive your bonuses in a timely manner. Have a happy Thanksgiving.â Then, more directly at Neel: âIâll meet with Facilities before closing the site for the holiday. Official half-day.â
He gets her unspoken âclear everyone outâ order and turns to usher the technicians along, all while starting a phone call with other leads in the testing facility.
---
Vivienne takes the scenic route towards the direction of the Facilities Management suite, walking leisurely to keep her baby in her sights the entire time. She returns absent hums of acknowledgment to the people that greet her along her way, dismissing them when they try to ask if she needs anything, and eventually, the facility is empty.
Instead of turning into the Facilities suite, she goes to the nearby elevator to scan her card and wait.
The building lights dim to their low-occupancy standby state. Then, one of the shadows in the empty hallway distends into a vaguely humanoid form, stalking forward until thereâs a glint of whited-out eyes.
Ever the dramatic. His Dark Graceâs penchant for positioning is comically perfect.
âI assume youâve looped the cameras?â Vivienne tilts her head towards the Facilities suite.
The Batman gives a little, âHm,â and continues towards her and the elevator.
Yes, duh. Vivienne doesnât roll her eyes. Itâd be wasted on this bat-shaped mime.
She instead flips her notepad to a later page, where sheâs noted down the information received from Facilities via email a week ago. Meeting with them was entirely unnecessary. Her mind runs through what would be the most efficient loop of comprehensive testingâand if they waited until sunset, she could set up and open the outdoor portion of the track for ârealistic conditions.â
Itâs rather easy to ignore the looming shadow next to herâsheâs had practice and more important things to think about. Normally, anyone impolite enough to look over her shoulder at her notes would be told to back off, but here she can hope that heâd absorb some proper methodology for fucking once. To be fair, any thought of âproperâ leaves her head upon reaching the ground floor of the track.
The so-called âBatmobileâ is gorgeous. If not in her heels, Vivienne would have sprinted over to him.
Her beautiful baby boy.
She tucks her notepad and pen away into her handbag, and loops the shoulder strap across her torso. All hands are needed for properly admiring this work of art.
âAhâthe slight ripples Neel mentioned,â she talks His Dark Grace through the visual inspection. âProject Lead Neel Singh,â she adds for clarification, letting him know who and what to satisfy his paranoia. âYes, the matrix voids will be easier to mitigate with the modifications to their vacuum assistance setup, the tooling support, and of course, not using vinyl ester. More workable.â
She walks around the car, eyeing the front and back tires, noting the height of the chassis, and internally debates the optimum between aesthetics, performance, and practicality.
âHm. This tire size is special order, but still commercial-off-the-shelf. The concern is that typical road conditions wonât allow for anything lower, but we need to balance the handling with the overall weightâŠespecially since the chassis will be so lightweight.â She backs up and takes in the whole of the carâs form. âIâŠIâm actually a bit worriedâwe might not have the right balance between the aero and weight for the CG, being not for track purposes, so we canât go as low as actual motorsport designsââ
ââthen letâs test it,â Batman cuts through her fretting. Heâs been following along with her inspection, practically hovering over her the entire time. The fingers of his gauntleted hand carefully trace where she was pointing out, trailing behind her handâs path. âThatâs why weâre here.â
Credit where credit is dueâthatâs true. At least he didnât immediately demand to do so; his interjection is a polite ask, the bat and all things considered. And Vivienne wouldnât have let him within a zip code of her new son if he wasnât ready to handle. She can allow His Dark Grace some fun, for once.
She takes out the prototype key fobâslow enough to rile up the menacing furry next to herâand clicks. The doors unlock and pop slightly ajar before she dangles the fob in front of Batman.
Heâs finally trained enough to be polite during their handovers; he takes the fob from her possession without force, and waits for her to situate herself in the passenger side before getting in himself.
âNo helmets. Well, you better not get me killed,â Vivienne says blandly when Batman starts up the car. He purrs, lovely and smooth like a spoiled cat. âOr I wonât offer custom hubcaps. Ones with little bat decals.â
Thereâs a faint smirk on His Dark Graceâs face. âIâm better than that.â He teases with a brief revving of the engine.
The test track comes into hyperfocus in front of Vivienne; on a whim, she clicks an additional control up top near the rearview HUD of the car that opens up the gate to the outdoor track. She can recognize the adrenaline building upâitâs what follows a good challenge, either mental or physical, and she welcomes it with relish.
âLetâs see it, then,â she nods towards the gate, unable to help her toothy grin in return.
---
Her baby boy âhandles,â is what Vivienne can say for now. She didnât expect the response to be buttery smooth on first iteration, and for something experimental. The seeds of something are presentâHis Dark Grace pulled them into two hairpin turns in sequenceâand coupled with the snappiness, she thinks they have an unpolished gem in their hands. The car is like having a barely tamed big cat, leashed up and ready to let loose on oneâs orders.
Itâs fucking exhilarating.
The stupid showoff figures out how to manage the car quickly enough. He pulls another turn that lets them slide perfectly against the side of the track into the bay thatâs meant to be a small pit area. The uncovered half of his face is not as expressive as he pretends to be, day-to-day, but the expression present is full-on cocky as hell.
(Honestly, Vivienne can admit to liking itâor at least, this is much more tolerable than the public-facing himbo she needs to politely shake hands with whenever he deigns to muck around at the office.)
âProven enough?â His typical growl is less forced, and more of a pleasant rumble that harmonizes nicely with the idling engine. In the full furry get-up, subtle side glances and all that aren't really possible. His Dark Grace turns to stare at her, goading for a response.
The cowl and the whited-out effect of the lenses are eerie up close, but dealing with the devil is much less intimidating when one has leverage. In Vivienneâs caseâhe knows sheâs capable and motivated enough to possibly add something like a kill-switch to the car, just to fuck with him if he pisses her off. His Dark Grace wants her baby real bad, and with proof of concept she can probably get him to do anytâ
Hold up, Vi, say that again? Her inner Ros stops that train of thought.
âDifferential adjustment shouâwell. Acceptable,â she gives him the compliment, leaning back into the seat with a more relaxed posture. They never make the ergonomics of them fit for anyone of average height; her hairpin has slightly loosened from how the back of the seat rubbed against her updo, and she pulls the pin free to restyle her hair. She feels the Batmanâs stare as he waits, and she keeps him waiting. âYouâre competent and quick on the uptake. Adaptive.â
Wrangling the Batman was the equivalent of wrangling a division of egotistical engineers working at the cutting edge of everythingâall very competent people that will step on each otherâs toes, get in each otherâs way, and are too used to being correct that they forget their purpose. The balance was slightly off here, becoming the classical joke of âone horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses.â
But everyone has their leverage points, and all are susceptible to The Carrot versus The Stick in personalized ratios and applied judiciously. Vivienne didnât aim to do anything as Machiavellian as put the Dark Knight of Gotham under her thumb, but thatâs where he somehow ended up. She, by sheer grit, found the winning combo of getting him to listen to herâat least when it came to nonsensical designsâand actively soliciting her opinion. Sheâs not dumb enough to lose that leverage when she sees it in her hands. Maintaining it requires work: showing agreeableness to an extent, with the occasional reminder that heâs in her territory and he would do well to remember it. A little flick to the ego, occasionally.
It helps to put into perspective that, at the end of the day, Bruce Wayne the Batman is nearly five years younger than her. Engineers and technicians under her, the ones ranging from two to ten years younger, with a plethora of tertiary degrees between themâher mind canât help flagging them as âchildrenâ until they temper themselves with a real project, from bid to deliverable.
So, of course her brain demoted the fucking CEO of her company and its parent conglomerate to being a âboyâ as soon as he called her Luciusâs PA. She has found no evidence contrary to that ever since. With him neatly categorized, accounting for unique attributes and handling, Vivienne knows very well how to deal with âboys,â because she wouldnât have gotten this far otherwise.
âHah. If you had wrecked my shit, as with your typical M.O., maybe I couldâve gotten a nice dinner out of you tonight.â Her tone is intentionally sharper, diction and accent more crass with the habitual New Jersey attitude rather than her usual featureless cosmopolitan speech pattern. Dusk was here, steadily eating away the evening hours as autumn progressed. Theyâve stayed later than she anticipated, butâŠ
âŠfor once, in a very long time, she was having fun. The evidence is on her teethâshe was grinning wide enough to catch some of her lipstick on her canines, which her tongue can clearly feel the slick of it.
âWell. Weâre done here. Keep up withââshe gestures at the whole of him with a dismissive handâ âthat well enough, donât piss me off, and maybe youâll earn your new toy by the end of next quarter.â
That whole posturingâafter prolonged proximity and the hot-and-cold of seemingly hard-won praise versus snide dismissivenessâis supposed to make His Dark Grace harrumph and skulk away.
Today, he grabs her hand. Itâs not violent or anything, but he doesnât touch her. Sheâs lost her temper enough to jab her finger in his cowled face, and heâs been taken aback enough and in the position to let her. Heâs never touched her.
Thatâthatâs not in the script.
His Dark Grace continues to stare at her, his exposed jaw not quite clenched enough to denote a possible temper tantrum incoming. So, she minutely cocks her chin up, adding a slight challenging tilt to her expression with a raised eyebrow and the slight baring of her teeth in a sneering smile. What are you doing? Are you reallyâreally?
He has her wrist with his left hand, and his full attention and facing is towards her. The right hand comes closer. And because he doesnât pull her that she lets him, itâs so much closer untilâof all fucking thingsâshe feels the gauntlet leather past the corner of her mouth and pressure on her teeth.
The thumbpad has her lipstick stain on it from him wiping it away.
She scoffs, half-between a laugh and an incredulous squawk, and tries to tug her hand away. It doesnât budge. âHow badly do you want this car?â The tone isnât rightâwrong mix of scathing versus levity. And yet, it seems to draw him in closer, the tireless masochist that he is. âDidnât I say âdonât piss me offâ?â
âIâm hoping to do the opposite.â This close, he doesnât bother with the growl at all. Heâs almost inaudible over the engine. The lipstick-stained gauntlet cups her jaw, the thumb carefully avoiding her skin, and he leans in when she doesnât resist.
What the fuck. What is happening. Did he bug the apartment, overhear the sleepover-bullshit talks with Ros?
Itâs fascinating, clinically speaking. From what Vivienneâs heard of local gossip, especially among the secretary pool and their particular brand of romantic fantasizing, the Batman is expected to be rough. Wild. Heâs supposed to fulfill all sorts of âtall, dark, and handsomeâ daydreams and lonely imaginings at night, along with fighting crimeâwhat a busy guy.
So, to have him soft and insistent at her mouth, but more like asking for permission than forceful, is a fascinating gap between expectation and reality. Heâs not a shabby kisser at all; the playboy types usually have something else going on that makes everyone else do the work for them, and they get to reap all the pleasure. That is apparently not the case here.
Eventually, he pulls back so they can breathe and reassess.
Vivienne looks. She really looksâhis face may be mostly covered, heâs still staring, but heâs flushed, visibly steadying his breathing, and her lipstick stains his mouth in a viscerally appealing way that makes her want to lick her teeth. Heâs paradoxically much more exposed than she is.
And with that, His Dark Grace is really such a pretty boyâsomething Vivienne has constantly lamented with Ros over for his pissy attitude. Heâs perfectly amenable now, though.
âYou really want this,â she says this again, her free hand coming down to pat the console between them and leaning closer.
Heâs still a cheeky shit, though. âI want it,â and tilts his head again, ready to close the distance at her say-so.
She means the damn car, butâ âThen youâll have to work for it,â and she closes the distance herself.
#phd-verse#on ands#verm bits#so uh. what am i up to rn? (besides this)#still finishing my document (380+ pgs now)#i ended up running some additional experiments bc i'm insane#and i'm still waiting for the various admins in my life to fucking give me my paperwork and aehrohewohrowehofsd#and and trying to not commit homicide before i graduate :)#but back to the snippet---i hope this is some interesting insight into the whole thing
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Voted for Bumble bc of course but also if you think Alex would not pspsps Bumble you are wrong. If they could communicate they would go to therapy together /s
If then could communicate they would go to therapy together
/GEN
Kyle/Green Lantern resurrects her but then he becomes convinced that she's not the same person she was before the incident, OR SOMETHING SOMETHING Black Lanterns aren't ACTUALLY bad they're just misunderstood Grim Reaper types, in either case Alex ends up breaking it off with Kyle because they've become very different people.
And then Bumble's there
And then they go to therapy or Alex adopts Bumble, and then uhhh Bumble's like one of the superpets. Like Krypto the Superdog. Free premise go forth and play with it if ur a DC fan
#bone babble#Again I don't actually know a lot about the DC universe besides what my friend tells me#But also from reading into the Black Lanterns having them be evil sound like a WHOLE wasted opportunity#Lanterns are supposed to be emotions yeah? so why the hell are we downplaying the emotion of GRIEF?#There's a whole lot you could do with that actually. Death doesn't deserve to just be a villain of the week#And hell. You could explore some WILD emotions here about Alex becoming so much more than Kyle's tragedy#Can I still mourn you when you aren't dead?#What does it mean for me that the worst thing that ever happened to me has become an opportunity for her?#And... does this make me selfish for not being happy for her?#For not trying to understand the person she has become? for only thinking of how this impacts myself#RE: THIS IS NOT A DIG AT DC FANS#BUT I want to share that like... a reason I've kinda had a hard time getting into comics is because like... really interesting premises--#like that often get turned into Monster-of-the-Week struggles for the heroes to punch into submission#I've probably just seen really bad summaries or not found the editions that would appeal to me specifically#But it's kinda why the only DC hero I'm really interested in is Superman#Because a lot of his thing is that he's a good GUY#And that creates a lot of interesting moral questions#Like YES he's a good guy. YES he has no ulterior motive. But what if he DID?-- how can EVERYONE ELSE in the universe truly know that-#for sure?#And that's cool and I really like the snippets I've seen especially between him and batman#But anyway. so much fridging and misogyny in the world of comics has kinda turned me away from getting into it#because. VERY often. Misogyny can be... *tied* to a bit of a lack of imagination. Or empathy on behalf of a particular writer#RE: There is good stuff in DC PLEASE understand im not trying to be insulting
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đ More haunted house designer au?! đ I love that concept so much so would be overjoyed if you ever decided to revisit it :)
đi love it too. i wish i could tell you there are finally actually haunted houses in this one but unfortunately the girls are still working through it đ also i am working through it (editing đ)
so in this one they're on a scouting-slash-forced teambuilding trip and it's um Going. it's a few thousand k of Meet The Ava wherein Ava is frustrated + up against it + dramatic, but also Meets The Beatrice.
anyway anyway it starts like this (subject to me finding it too cringey and editing it):
Ava sees her at the end of the pier, a dark figure in the already-dark; a smudge of barely-moving ink on the line between wind and water. Barely, indeed â wavering less than the yearning swallow and swoop of the waves interrupted by pillars of wood, and, further back, stone.Â
At night, after everythingâs shut, this place is quiet until the fishermen get out in the early morning. In the off-season, even more so. Rain slings down frequently, and itâs not warm enough for balmy walks by the rocks. Not many come out, if any. Avaâs one.
She calls out as she walks down the planks, only thinking belatedly that perhaps she might not want to be disturbed. Out here behind the motel, unmoving under the preliminary drizzle of rain, embraced and cocooned by temperamentally warping air. It is, after all, that tremulous transitory phase between spring and summer that borrows its faces from both, and switches its masks sharply in the slit-time of blinks.
#also is it revisiting if they've always just been on my mind i'm just incredibly slow gsdufghw#truly writing is a muscle and i have not been working it out hard enough in my life#but don't worry anon even if nobody else in the world was interested i would still be putting them on rotating plinths in my head#i've some fun ideas for non chronological random snippets later i just think they need to narratively have their#The Girls Are Fightingggggg era first before it makes sense to have them where they are later?? you know??#but yeah i'm slow enough that if you have anything beyond this you wanna see đ#wn haunted house au
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ive spent like the past week finishing up putting together a literature curriculum for a spanish class im teaching over the summer & man, there's nothing like trying to give an overview of spanish lit to a bunch of teenagers in just 4 weeks to make you feel the weight of The Canon. like, on one hand i want to give them an overview that doesn't just pretend that the only people writing anything good or important were just a small group of men who only spoke castillian spanish (or even just who lived in spain, the class is focusing on spain in particular but im still including sor juana and ruben dario on account of sheer influence, and if i had time i'd probably throw at least one latam boom author in there), but on the other hand-- with the amount of time we have and an average language level of the class, we can't actually read a whole lot of material, so i feel like i cant leave out some of the biggest names regardless of personal taste. like sure, i generally preferred reading maria de zayas to cervantes, but we only have time for one siglo de oro prose author and i'm not going to leave out miguel de fucking cervantes, are you kidding me?
this is doubly complicated by the fact that'd i'd be completely justified in using emilia pardo bazan as my example of an Important Canonical Realismo author who is also a woman but i simply refuse to do that to myself on account of jesus christ have you tried to read her prose. i'm not doing that to a high schooler
#it's not BAD prose but it's so fucking dense and wordy#even moreso than most realismo authors#anyway im doing a snippet of galdos instead#i TRIED to put victor catala in there but bc god hates me i couldnt get my hands on the only castillian translation of drames rurals#which im still upset about bc there are some GREAT short stories in there that would have been literally perfect for that unit and are also#written by a catalan woman and have an interesting perspective on gender stuff as a result! but alas#ok im actually sleeping now night#txt#ari adventures
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Sending lots of asks today, but I was curious:
I don't think you've written XF fic (which is my exclusive fic wheelhouse, usually), but if you WERE to write XF fic, what would you focus on? Friendship, RST, UST, casefile, MOTW, in-between scenes, or just a drabbles (LOVE me a good drabble.)
Hah! Well, I guess now is as good a time as any; you've outed me! Or, I'm outing myself, since you asked. I actually have written some X Files, but I've never posted any of it. I got back into writing fiction fairly recently, being wildly inspired during lockdown by a tv show called Blindspot (which my original blog @nachosncheeze is based around - I later made @nachosncheezies for other fandoms). I was encouraged by a writer I really respect, and recklessly gave it a go.
I started dabbling with XF a few months ago, when I found myself getting lost in the details on a couple of my Blindspot WIPs. XF has characters I can connect with, but I'm not too much in their heads, if that makes sense. Playing with the Spooky Squad is giving me some practice (especially with dialogue, which I've felt weak at - the ways they talk to each other [and the ways they don't] are SO interesting) and a bit of distance from my other WIPs. The original goal was just to be able to come back to those other ones fresh, but I'm finding I'm enjoying it now, too!
To answer the hypotheticals I suppose it's easiest to look at what I've written in the past. In general, I'm a sucker for angst, I do introspective sorts of character things a lot, and so far everything has been canon-compliant fill-in-the-blanks/extra scenes. At this point AUs, casefic, etc feel a bit too ambitious for me. I've done some ship work but no smut, so not much you could call UST/RST. I think the lion's share of it has been one-shots around siblings and different iterations of [found] family.
When it comes to XF, anything I have/can imagine doing probably fits a similar pattern. My first exercise was an extra Scully/Bill scene for the Reduxes. I wrote it before I knew there was a deleted scene for Memento Mori and I was delighted to find some overlap because it kinda felt like I must be on the right track. đ Mostly, I've been playing pretty extensively with season 8. It hits the angst button pretty hard, moved fast enough to leave lots of space for in-betweens, and the second half has some useful places to practice fluff while still indulging my usual angsty "traumatize those suckers!" shenanigans. My house is currently watching 8 too, and I've been challenging myself to try to do a 150-word drabble from Doggett's perspective for each episode. That man is just so earthy and reliable. đ Soooo yeah, I suppose if I were to write XF, it would be something like... *gestures broadly*... that. ;D
Huh. Now that I'm chatting about it I guess I actually have a lot. Maybe I'll actually post something sometime. đ
#hey maybe if i manage to write john doggett i'll finally figure out how to write edgar reade đ€#that alone would make this splitting of attention worthwhile!#notes to self#this answer is overly complete...i'm using it to double as a 'state of my wips' for blindspot too xD#my s2/3 'jane's glow-up' piece is awaiting the red pen treatment and my 5x11 baby is forever in back of mind#i've been kicking around some snippets for season 4#i oopsied my way into another epilogue too đ#i know we're a tiny fandom and rewatch is winding down but i'm still milling in the background đ#thank you dear tiger for your asks :) you always find something interesting and i chatter too much đ#but it's fun :D#fanfic stuff#nachos gets asked#p.s. i saw earlier that you've got stories up now too! :D congrats-i am looking forward to reading đ
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From: Incident at Arbuk [Novel] I know they mean this in the straightest way possible but in my brain Neelix would be jealous because he wants Tuvok to compliment him too v_v
#Tuvok/Neelix#Incident at Arbuk (the parts I read - the non redacted parts with Tuvok) was fun!#Tuvok mind melds with an alien guy and they form a bond so strong they become one mind two bodies for a time#then the doc is able to separate them but their minds continue to strongly influence each other#and I like the aliens!! They're very cute they're very ant coded and Tuvok starts referring to the main crew as 'Friend-Name'#except Janeway who is 'Leader Janeway'...........but still his friend <3 <- she's touched when the latter is revealed#novel experiences#looove reading only the snippets of star trek novels that Tuvok's on and guessing the plot from there#this one really was interesting so I also looked at Neelix's plotline - seems he's thwarting some ensign's scheme and cooking a#delicious goulash
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#snippets#a little preview of something im working on#its a (potential) oneshot as thanks for the support ive gotten#particularly due to pulse#its unconnected#and it's set farther in the future#after john gets out of arkham again#very much bruce reminiscing on the progress of their relationship#with a bit of current day fluff#dont get me wrong there's still some slight angst in there at points lol#but it should be less of an emotional rollercoaster#(its only a potential oneshot because it was originally conceptualized as bruce and john trading scar stories)#(there was going to be a story per chapter alternating)#(might still do that bit if there's enough interest in this part of it)#(though i have a lot of writing on my plate already its good to have things to jump between)
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"
âHope you realise that if you mess up my ink -â Kit said quietly against the side of Liamâs head, his voice too soft and too silky, his sharp smile carving into each of the letters falling from his lips, â- Iâll put you in a fuckinâ muzzle.âÂ
"
Good lordy, I hope that makes the final cut, though I may need a fan... and an ice bath... or a very cold shower :-D
Loving all the little snippets!
Hehehe thank you so much! ;')
Love to hear you've liked the snippets, posting them keep me feeling more connected and they help me keep writing too! So I refuse to feel too bad about spoiling all my work lel xx
#That will 100% make the final cut#I was very much vibing with that when it materialised in my head in âKit's voiceâ lmao#It's this Lit chapter as a whole that's slowing down completing the snippet btw#it's kinda complex and a whole process#I don't even know if it will seem as complex once it's all done#but while writing it there's a lot of steps and thoughts and world building and some backstory stuffs that have to be processed#to get through the chapter#while it's also very physical#and emotional#and instinctive#just#lots going on in it#it's been a bit of a pain hahahah#but also interesting ig?#Lit's dynamic is so interesting to me#they flip-flop all over but somehow it still just always makes sense#at least to me#lmao#okkk#I'm rambling bc I'm worried I won't be able to sleep again because of HeAlTh and anxious :<#I should read something super comfy and cute#I hope you are feeling comfy and cute too <3
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⧠I wonât really write descriptions for these, but see original post tags for explanation/commentary on the song snippet â§
#This was literally just off the top of my head improvising words that rhyme (as is obvious from me rhyming the word#'on' with the word.... 'on' (what's going ON my name is ON' etc. lol) but after actually thinking about it this kind of seems a little#sinister?? why is his name on the news? why is he fleeing town? makes me think of of some guy who's killed#someone or is finally getting caught for his crimes so one last stop before he flees town is he returns home to his husband (who he#calls Hummingbird sometimes I guess) and is like 'erm... tee hee.. I can't tell you why but I shall leave. farewell' etc.#also 'I guess I could show you' having a bad implication like.. yeah I COULD show you the dead bodies and evidence of my crimes#but I will spare you from that and simply let you live in ignorance (at least until you see the news at 10.. but I will be long gone by#then.. eating green beans somewhere lol).. ANYWAY.. 100% unintentional but you could actually almost read some sort of meaning#out of this one. until the green beans part ghhbjb.. I try so hard for everything to just be meaningless gibberish#that has no connection but I suppose sometimes a connection can be made. alas.. a perhaps accidentally Dark seeming song snippet#OR alternate theory. uhh... actually his name is on the news for a good reason. he donated all his money to charity and now#he's fleeing town just because he's embarassed to be publicly recognized.. a shy philanthropist OR an evasive murderer#BOTH versions of him like green beans. which is the truth? up to listener interpretation lol.. Also I#still find it immensely funny for some reason to do this lower sounding style of singing. which not that I really care about like having a#Broad Range or something since I don't think it'd even be possible to have one in my position (as someone#with zero musical/vocial training/etc.) BUT because part of what I find fun is like.. experimenting with all different sorts of sounds#and also doing choir type stuff. So then I do want to be able to sound like multiple people.. if that makes sense? I want to have a really#high voice and the a really low voice and have them sing together and it sounds like a duet or something when it's really just one person.#etc. Thus have a passing interest in learning to adopt different singing styles if I can. because then that's funny and I can do a wider#variety of things like it's all different characters or something as if all the song snippets are done by different people or etc.#(maybe just part of the nature of it being experimental).#And the low voice is always the goofiest sounding to me and very 'fake' seeming I guess#like blatantly is just someone putting on an affect or whatever but still in a kind of fun jokey way lol#beepo tag
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here, have the start of the next story in that one series I wrote two years ago, about what would have happened, if ahsoka tano thought to ask maul who his sith master is.
in which time has passed, old wounds are healed if still tender, and there is a new generation to shepherd and nurture.
â
Ahsoka meets Cilghal for the first time when Obi-Wan volunteers her to lead a group of younglings to Ilum with Master Windu. Normally, the Temple respects her status as a Ranger too much to snatch her up for missions during those periods sheâs on Coruscant to rest, but somehow, this time was different.
She has to jog through the hangar to catch the Crucible in time, which she also doesnât appreciate. Force, she didnât even manage a real shower, just a quick run through the sonic in her quarters, which means her montrals are a touch out of sync with the rest of her; itâs not quite a headache, but it makes herâŠcranky.Â
Thatâs something she can admit to herself, if not Master Windu, who eyes her when she sheds momentum by nearly sliding up the ramp into the ship, projecting faint irritation in the Force.
Catching his gaze calmly, she pulls her emotions back behind her shields and gives a faint bow. âMaster Windu, itâs nice to see you again.â
âAnd you, Knight Tano,â he returns, and they walk deeper inside together, the younglings already scattered to set up their bunks in the berth.
Itâs been a while since theyâve spoken at any length; most of their interactions are consigned to polite acknowledgement as they pass one another in the halls of the Temple. Ahsoka honestly wouldnât put it past Obi-Wan to be forcing them to finally get over themselves, after all these years. They donât dislike each other, itâs not that. But thereâs a hum-thrumming of sensitivity itching under her skin whenever they spend too much time together, force-memory of a shatterpoint shared and echoes of tortured laughter cut brutally short. Thatâs something sheâs spent the last eight years trying to put down.
Though on rare occasions, that edge of a reminder at the back of her head makes for a spectacular spar between them in the salles, and their last bout drew what felt like half the Temple before it was over. Her musing actually pulls that particular clash out of both of them and into the surrounding Force, and they both soften at once.
Just in time for a little Rodian youngling to dash into the room across from them, chanting, âKnight Tano! Knight Tano! Padawan Katooni said when you took her to Ilum you were kidnapped by pirates is that true? Are we going to be kidnapped by pirates?â
She gets a blinding flash all her own of Ganodi pouting in disbelief at the idea of learning from a droid, but before she can even smile, a chorus of half a dozen other younglings gasp, âPirates?â and practically stampede into the room in the wake of their fellow.
Mace audibly sighs, and Ahsokaâs not-quite-a-headache has definitely solidified.
But she spends the next hour or so recanting the frankly ridiculous series of events that followed her last trip to Ilum, including being attacked by pirates, being kidnapped by pirates, the worst circus acts sheâs ever seen in her life, teaming up with those same pirates, and a brief and terrifying battle with General Grievous.Â
Fucking Hondo.
By the end of it, she has all their attention wrapped around her like a cloak, wide eyes following her hands and, in some instances, seeing what she saw through the Force. A few of them definitely have a talent for clairvoyance, if not outright precognition, which will make this trip interesting, to say the least. Ilum is strong in the unifying Force. She does her best to tuck the sheer desperation of that final duel away as she tells it because itâs just another fun story, for them. Jedi, fighting the forces of evil! The ups and downs of battle are exhilarating, not horrifying, because they still know in their hearts a Jedi can do anything they set their mind to.
â
Creating a lightsaber is a sacred process, one that unites every Jedi. These younglings will remember one another for the rest of their lives, remember the feeling of each other in the Force every time they held the physical manifestation of their lives in their hands.
All the crechémates Ahsoka built her first lightsaber with are dead.
â
aaaaand that's as far as I got, back in 2021. Cilghal is a real star wars character, a healer-knight from the days of the new jedi order. i figured bariss and ahsoka probably ended up sharing a padawan, given the ending scene of Had we but World enough, and Time.
#ahsoka is still in that period where she spends more time out of the temple#than in it#but she's so close!! so close to closure and the next steps!!#anyway#the rest of this story was going to be cilghal failing to find a crystal in illum#and ahsoka volunteering to take her to mon cala to search for ultima pearls#with which she can power her saber#which ahsoka is well suited to do#given that she's pretty tight with the king#snippet#i've got lots of other ideas for this verse still#just...the muse escapes me#maybe i'll throw up a poll of the different ideas i have#see if y'all have any particular interest in some of them#my fic#star wars#star wars fic#ahsoka tano#mace windu
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One of this days Iâm gonna write a scemma smut fic where the whole plot is that Scott canât cum bc of his ssri side effects. Itâll be the most useless smut piece in existence but imma do it anyway
#praying this wonât show up in any tags I canât have the ppl who donât understand me seeing this fic#he will still have fun!!! to clarify!#but it will be the most. boring and unsexy smut of all time.#this is ofc. if I ever write anything ever again lol.#might post some snippets later if anyone is interested bc I am WILDLY unmotivated to write but I do want to.
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I might have a thing
I don't think it's an amazing thing
but it's a finished thing and maybe that's the best I can ask for
#text post#that said if anyone would be interested in reading my fill for 'ancient'#i'd be happy to share the gdocs link#I took an immortality take on it but redid that take several times so now there's a curse involved and little connected scene snippets#so i could include at least a good number of the crew in this#didn't get everyone but the implication is that even if they aren't talking they're still there at least#god i should keep writing and try to do some of the other days I haven't finished a fill for yet but#we'll see lmao
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#wanted to make use of the new poll feature#the fic is a long one and still has a lot more to go but if people are interested i will share a small snippet from what i have so far#đ€#i also may or may not have some super top-secret freebies i'm working on to go with the fic which will be posted soon too
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send me a number 0-333 and i will write a lil smthn based on what loop sif was in.
#memes.#yes sif counted them all haha...ha#still not 100% sure on how many loops i want sif to have gone through#but i can cook up smthn cohesive for this amt at least#ftr though for the sake of more interesting writing not all of sifs loops are like......game intended.......#or even interesting from a gameplay standpoint a lot of his non-âdeathâ looping is emotionally driven i think personally#they were on some shit at points and snapping and irrational#so i like to imagine they were blowing through some loops hoping smthn would change only to find it didnt! it never did! idk!!!#i wont go over the entire loop just a snippet...something interesting...something that changed. teehee!#blablalbaah just gib number please i will blabber like a fool#(holds out my hand) let's put siffrin through the horrors.....together!
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