#switcher story

[n3rdy247]

I'm still so mad that people hated on MCSM for all this time because they didn't see how PEAK IT FUCKING WAS.

[t-hiswifey]

[exculis]

??? i was looking for mouse sensitivity settings.

[zambiaz1ne]

Soldout #BeefeaterLDU Brings All 9 Gin Botanicals #LondonSpiritAfricanStyle Alive At Elite Chic Juniper Saturday Night Experience: Salma Sky, Ms. Selfie, Dj Switcher, Caiiro and Black Motion Supplied A High Octane Groove and Set The Quorum Rooftop on Fire

From parking to crowd control, the event experience was as smooth as the worlds most awarded gin, the detail measured as a classic G n T cocktail.

Beefeater did not disappoint on the occasion, they came through with #LondonSpiritAfricanStyle and elevated the London Dry Gin experience by leaps and bounds from the last outing. From parking to crowd control, the event experience was as smooth as the worlds most awarded gin, the detail measured as a classic G n T cocktail. The vibe was non-stop as the staff kept the service flowing like gin…

[mellowcherryblossomblaze]

Trolls: Band Together TV Series (Idea)

NOTE: NOT OFFICIAL, JUST SPECULATION OF SOMETHING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT COME TO EXIST

(ALSO COUNTS AS A POTENTIAL FANFIC IDEA)

Trolls: Family Harmony

Plot: Now that their siblings are back in their lives again, Poppy and Branch try to adjust to their new normal while also keeping up with their responsibilities in Trollstopia. Becoming one big family won’t be easy, but getting to know each other is sure to make for some interesting new adventures!

Episode Ideas:

Pilot: Poppy and Branch give their reunited siblings a tour of their home. Branch tries to keep his grey past a secret from his brothers while Poppy struggles to keep Viva from attacking her friends at random.

Dude, Where’s My Armadillo?: Rhonda goes missing after a wild party, so Branch, Floyd and a frantic John Dory try to track her down.

Adventures in Muppet-Sitting: Poppy volunteers to watch three of Bruce’s kids for him, bringing Holly and Val along for backup.

Bored Games: Branch and Clay try to find a hobby they both enjoy, and discover they both share a love of puzzles.

Tech-No-Pop: Stuck in the medical pod after a panic attack, Floyd forms an unexpected bond with Synth.

Three’s A Crowd: Peppy’s birthday rolls around, and he ends up giving Viva more attention than Poppy, so Branch gives his girlfriend a crash course in sibling jealousy.

Return Of The Switcher-Ruby: The day before BroZone’s first official concert in Trollstopia, Branch and Poppy accidentally come in contact with another Switcher-Ruby.

Long Time, No Sing: Branch discovers that John Dory used to date Delta Dawn, leader of the Country Western Trolls.

Bruc-andy: Bruce tells his brothers the story of how he came to Vacay Island and met his wife, Brandy.

Prank Day, BroZone Edition: Clay only lets his old “Fun Boy” persona out one day a year, turning Prank Day into a fight for survival.

Dance With Me: Synth wants to dance with Floyd at Dante’s dinner party, but finds his confidence falling every time he tries to ask him.

Moving Day: After learning that Clay and most of the Putt-Putt Trolls are moving to Trollstopia permanently, Viva must decide if she wants to return to her old home or make a new one with her family.

[comicaurora]

Could you write a Trope Talk episode about characters that are the last of their kind, e.g., Aang, King from The Owl House? Even Thomas the Tank Engine is canonically the last of a class of Southampton dock switchers.

Honestly, that could be really interesting to unpack! For some reason it feels like doing character origins on easy mode. It's also very funny how almost every "last of their kind" story eventually has a sequel where the Last Of Their Kind finds the hidden village where The Rest Of The Last Of Their Kind have been secretly hanging out without them

[phopollo]

Tell us about the other characters in Rusty and GB's photos!

TEEHEE IM SO GLSD YOU ASKED (this is going to be a long post)

Also just for anyone who's curious about the mentioned photos becsuse you may have missed the post, fear not, you can just check it out right here 👍

So!! Let's start with Rusty's photo! I think it's pretty clear thst we've got Rusty in the center there, little baby man style, just a little guy-- but of course, he's not the only one there-- so let's talk about Rusty's little parental polycule!

To his left is Momma!

A bit younger than she's appearing in the actual rest of the story, but there she is! Momma is pretty much the same as the musical version-- previous world champion racer, retired in her old age, etc etc

Above Rusty though, is Poppa! That's right, I say both Momma and Poppa rights for Rusty

Poppa is a steam engine switcher like Rusty. He ran a few races back in his younger days, but he never really won any-- and while he's about the age that he really probably should be retiring, he's still working hard!

And then to Rusty's right is Memphis!

Alternatively, the original Belle! I've decided to use just Memphis, since there 2024 Belle already, and I wasn't planning any connection between them, so making them Jr/Sr just didn't feel right. Memphis has a roughly similar story to her canon one as well! She's an old sleeping car who used to race with Momma, and was even her coach for many of Momma's years as champion!

It may not be as obvious because he calls her by name, but Memphis is absolutely also one of Rusty's parents! Unfortunately, they as a family got separated when Poppa and Memphis got assigned to another station/train yard when Rusty was younger-- it's been maybe a whole decade at this point. Rusty will always volunteer to bring something to the other station when they send requests for help though, just for the opportunity to see his other two parents

So then! Now let's talk about Greaseball's family photo!

In case it wasn't entirely clear, because I used the like.... draft version of her wig; on the left is Junior!

This one's our little baby girlball! She is not having a good time :(

On the right is Virtuoso!

Lowkey, kinda just made him up, because Greaseball strikes me as having really complicated family relationships. They're kind of age gap siblings, they never really had anything in common aside from their father's racing desires for them, and admittedly, in what turned out to be a golden child/black sheep situation, Virtuoso was very much the black sheep. He is very much what I'd consider as a "season 2" kind of character-- one mentioned a couple times or that you visually see the photo of some time during season 1 (shortly before the events of the musical through Rusty becoming the champion), but you wouldn't actually hear about or meet him until season 2

And then finally, in the middle, we've got Senior

Everyone say hello Greaseball Senior, who's inspiration came from the very first iteration of Greaseball. He sustained a pretty serious injury pretty early on in his racing career, leaving him unable to get up to speeds to keep up with those around him. And while he could still work, he wasn't satisfied with that-- as a result, he ended uo pushiny his dreams and aspirations of racing on his kids pretty hard

As I mentioned earlier, the family dynamic and relationships are kind of.... rocky, to put it politely. Virtuoso is completely out of the picture at this point, and I definitely wouldn't say Jr and Sr get along. Jr will go out of her way to avoid him, but Sr keeps going out of his way to track her down because of the vicarious glory of being her, the current reigning world champion's, dad. Admittedly, Jr's view of family and what family is supposed to be is a little messed up because of all of this

[phastcast]

Your friend pleaded with you to try out old school runescape and you caved. Maybe they even bought you a bond. Now how are you supposed to have fun.

-Organize quests by storyline. pick a story line that sounds cool and try to do it. So many quests require other quests and certain skill levels that you'll end up seeing a lot of the game.

-Do the achievement diaries. Easy diaries are pretty simple and quick. Don't be afraid to search the wiki if you are having trouble finding certain items you need ect.

-Find a mini game. Wintertodt, Tempoross, and Guardians of the Rift are full of players and have great rewards. They require some basic skill levels to enter.

-After finishing the Cook's Assistant quest, talk to him again. Should give you plenty to do.

-Money will come

-Turn off most of your runelite plugins

-Join a Clan. Even if you do nothing in it, getting notified when someone else gets a drop is fun on it's own.

-If you are doing a repetitive activity like training skills or doing a mini game, check the world switcher to see if there is a dedicated world.

[scp-torment]

SCP Tournament… 2!

Accepting submissions immediately:

Edit: No longer accepting submissions. Please refresh the page and wait for the bracket and first round.

Now that things have calmed down (both in blog and life), I think it's time for the foundation to run the second tournament. We ran out of numbers to crunch and organize, so now the foundation has come back to organize more chaos to later fix.

As voted on by test subjects the people, this bracket with be the same set up as the previous, with the exception to not allow any contestants that made it above round 2. A full list of banned contestants can be found below the read more. There are no other limitations, so normal SCPs, tales, and stories from international brackets are all allowed. Go wild. Find the most obscure stories to share. Find the most controversial. The most confusing narrative. The more the merrier.

Submission period will be open for approximately 2 weeks and a day, ending on the 18th. This date may change depending on the rate of submissions. Assuming all goes smoothly, round 1 (or qualifiers) will begin on the 22nd.

Let the chaos begin again.

Full list of disqualified contestants:

SCP-053: Young Girl

SCP-105: "Iris"

SCP-113: The Gender-Switcher

SCP-247: A Harmless Kitten

SCP-426: I am a toaster

SCP-529: Josie the Half-Cat (Previous winner)

SCP-682: Hard-to-Destroy Reptile

SCP-914: The Clockworks

SCP-1313: Solve for Bear

SCP-1762: Where The Dragons Went

SCP-2721: Eli and Lyris

SCP-3001: Red Reality

SCP-3008: A Perfectly Normal, Regular Old IKEA

SCP-4231: The Montauk House

SCP-4335: A Welt In The Crucible

SCP-7000: The Loser

And I haven't actually kept up with other tournament blogs at all in this last month, so I have no idea who's still running and who can boost this. I suppose just reblog this if you can. It's greatly appreciated.

[6lovelytenders]

Miscellaneous Star Fleet Headcanons That Have Been Rotting in My Notes App for Too Long

(if anyone wants to hear my headcanons for the Zeds lmk! I have many for them as well)

Hercules is a maladaptive daydreamer, and that's how he spends his time when out at sea. His daydreams are fulled by the stories Ten Cents tells him about the port while he's away.

Sunshine is endlessly charming and is on good terms with pretty much every vessel and worker in the port. Everyone loves Sunshine.

O.J. was quite the prankster in his youth; while he's mellowed out a lot in his old age, if someone is out of line he won't hesitate putting them back in their place via a trick of some sort.

Warrior was originally built for the Bigg City Port Fire Department, but was sold off due to him being so darn clumsy. Him and the Fire Chief are still friends, and will chat if they have the time.

It is physically impossible for Ten Cents to relax. He has 2 modes: asleep and working. Has to be doing something at all times or else he gets snappy.

Big Mac is a chronic worrier. And he worries about the star switchers the most. He feels responsible for their well being and can be a bit overbearing, much to Ten Cents annoyance.

Hercules has the same short temper as Ten Cents, but is able to manage it better.

Top Hat chews on his lip when he's nervous.

Hercules sleeps like a rock (IF he ever falls asleep) and very few things can wake him up.

Hercules is also chronically sleep-deprived, both from all the work Capt. Star gives him and just anxiety in general.

[jessi4fanfics]

Do you still take fic suggestions?

What about a comedy story where Branch and Poppy switches bodies/minds (like in ttbgo episode switch ruby) but this time it happens after tbt so Viva and Branch's brothers are involved and have to deal with Branch and Poppy "acting weird".

I love your broppy fics by the way!

THANK YOU!! THAT MEANS LITERALLY SO MUCH TO ME!!💕😭

And I am, actually!! I am getting a lot of requests so it may take me a bit to write (I'm sorryyyyy) plus I do have camp still for the next two weeks, so I hope to get to this one soon!

I love this idea, and Switcher Ruby is one of my favorites in that series!! Love it, love it, thank you, thank you 😌💕💕

Love ya! You are appreciated and awesome!!

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Lets not pretend like Tawnypelt has ever had a spotlight... She's always been there, just ALMOST important, before getting shoved into the background. And novellas are by far the least read and least important warriors books whose stories are usually so isolated you could go without knowing they ever existed, which is probably why they stopped bothering with them. No one would accuse daisy of already getting her time to shine because of her novella and it was probably one of the better ones imo. And despite being pov Tawnypelt wasn't even really the important character in her novella. She's been stuck on the periphery while every one of her family and friends have been important and affecting the world while her own story only gets fed in quickly dismissed pieces despite having by far the most interesting life of all of them. As a clan switcher from a time before it was common and accepted, being the only tnp cat with neither a pov nor narrative significance despite having the most to lose by going on the journey and closest ties to tigerstar, while having such a strange husband and openly defiant of clan culture at the time by naming her son tiger, despite both her husband and son being leaders while significantly more qualified than both and yet choosing for the greater good of her clan to turn down being deputy which no one else has ever done. She's done and gone through so much but we rarely get to actually see it. Leafstar I can understand being questionable since she's had her own time to shine multiple times, but Tawnypelt deserves her last hurrah to be in the spotlight for once imo. (And it's better than a flashback superedition that would probably mess up her story despite all the material to work with. One of the most prime targets for that treatment given how much of her story is untold yet never tapped into, but thats probably for the best given the quality of those)

I agree, Tawnypelt definitely deserves to have an important story of her own told before she passes on given just how tossed around she’s been and while she’s always been surrounded by important stuff the narrative has never actually done anything for her to feel particularly important. Even in TNP her presence is surprisingly minimal compared to the rest of the TNP gang. Out of the journeying cats she is the one who has the least going on narratively, and then mostly disappears for the second half of the arc, although theoretically she should have had a lot more due to her clanswapping and how her clan still didn’t trust her. I will die on the hill that the TNP arc Brambleclaw went through related to fitting in and being swayed by Tigerstar should have been Tawnypelt’s arc.

[siderods]

OC Post 8 - The Traveller

Another possible Doozy, The Traveller is an episodic anthology universe where every "Episode" centers around its own self-contained story, with the linking factor being a mysterious steam engine known only as Mutt. Because of the nature of this universe, i'll jot down a description of each "Episode" and then describe the characters. So let's begin!

"Chomping At The Bit" - The introductory episode. A Sharknose diesel has somehow found his way to the Rio Grande, and he desperately wants a promotion from his current lowly position. Mutt decides to help the poor engine by mentoring him on some basics for a few days, but also not letting the shark grow attatched to him. The episode contains a few vauge hints to Mutt's mysterious past and why he's a drifter.

"The Amazing Technicolor Paint Job" is a very loose adaptation of the musical of a similar name. Joseph gets a new coat of paint with some interesting properties, but it leads to him being exiled by the others out of jealousy until it saves them all big time by providing a temporary tourist draw when the freight work dries out. In the story, Mutt consoles the exiled switcher and helps him take pride in himself once more, before leaving with a mysterious warning about the upcoming crisis.

"Brotherly Love" - A PRR M1 named Maxwell is being followed by one of his deceased siblings for no apparent reason. Maxwell unravels the mystery behind his deceased sibling, and confronts him on the bridge. Mutt shows up as cameos throughout the episode but most notably appears near the end when he pushes a line of cars into the posessed M1, stunning it and saving the MC, who was about to get cronched. After that, the Entity is banished and the dead M1 is properly put to rest.

"High Class Pooch" - When Mutt comes across a particularly rough-riding P30CH, he takes it upon himself to help the poor engine out, while also accidentally revealing some interesting truths about his own past.

"Hound Dog" - A 50's story of a bitter rivalry between two Union Pacific giants - a Big Boy and a first generation GTEL. The two engines are very competitive over the concept of modernization, with Mutt initially helping the Big Boy as the two try to prove the other as a fraud. However, when the Big Boy tries to get Mutt to directly sabotage the GTEL, it reminds him of some of the reasons he gave up his old life, and Mutt, seeing the writing on the wall for both of them, leaves to two to quarrel on their own.

Some of the characters appearing in these stories are as follows:

Mutt - This engine is like a weird stray that keeps turning up in random places, a mysterious drifter who usually does a valiant act before disappearing somewhere else before he can be fully identified or rewarded. Some say that he has a secret hideout or a home base to fall back on, but nobody has found it yet.

Reese - An enthusiastic but troubled diesel that Mutt comes to the assistance of, this Sharknose becomes a fish out of water upon inexplicably ending up on the Denver & Rio Grande Western. While eager to prove his worth, he has issues applying himself to his work, which he ultimately overcomes.

Joseph - A small diesel switcher graced with a unique paint scheme that has interesting properties around cameras. Despite being humble and agreeable, his coworkers eject him from their shed until he proves his worth when a decline in goods traffic makes his unique draw become the only thing to keep their railroad afloat.

Rueben & Simeon - A 45 tonner and a Model 40 respectively, these two were rather jealous and stand-offish when Joseph received his new paint, going so far as to kick him out of the roundhouse they lived in.

Maxwell - A rather regular M1 still reeling from the sudden loss of his brother, Maxwell soon finds himself entangled in a plot of posessons, ghosts, and demonic entities. He soldiers his way through and is ultimately able to find peace for himself and his brother.

Marley - Formerly Maxwell’s closest brother, Marley unfortunately suffered a catastrophic internal mechanical defect and passed away suddenly. After becoming a restless spirit when his dead body was taken over by a strange entity to stalk his brother, he is eventually able to pass on in peace when the entity is banished and his brother is able to come to terms with his passing.

The Entity - An entity taking on Marley’s body, preventing his soul from being properly put to rest. His motivations for stalking Maxwell are unknown, but he is swiftly vanquished regardless.

Papillion - Another troubled diesel that we see Mutt assist, this P30CH is very eager to work but struggles with getting excited and distracted, leading to derailments.

With all the charactes out of the way, have a super duper secret lore moment!

"..."

"Y'know, I was a high-class pooch once."

"Wasn't the life for me. Too many.. fake people."

"I don't mind my current lot one bit."

"Because what I do now is real work."

To end off, have a Cronchy photo of Mutt.

I hope you enjoy these guys. I have so many ideas with this concept.

P.S: Very ironic that the character who canonically does funny things to cameras is also messing with tumblr's formatting lol

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice (3DS)

Am I hot for this or did it leave me cold? I'll just tell you, I love it.

Rounding out my coverage of Sonic Boom (or is it??) is the second handheld instalment by Sanzaru Games. This one was released in between the first and second series of the show, and as I had hoped it improves on Sanzaru's initial effort in various ways. Let us enumerate them, shall we?

While Shattered Crystal managed to get some jokes out of Lyric (unlike Rise of Lyric), the almost complete absence of Eggman was striking. Fire & Ice makes up for that with an Eggman-centred story, along with a new character: his rejected bot D-Fekt. This little guy is both cute and threatening, but also a bumbler like his creator, so the tone doesn't stray too far from the show's. The cutscenes are now all fully voiced and there’s more FMV animation sequences, so you could easily cut together something like an episode of the show and it would feel pretty pukka.

The new plot device is Ragnium, a potent mineral that Eggman needs to… *checks notes* power his racing bots? It replaces the tokens from SC, serving as a collectible earned from achieving goals and destroying enemies in levels, which can unlock a small number of perks as well as concept art from the show which is a nice bonus. Having Eggman as the main baddie instead of Lyric also has the flow-on effect that the basic enemies in levels are animal-themed robots of varied and fun designs rather than the prior generic bots of the other two games.

If the title didn’t give it away this game features an elemental gimmick as its main new gameplay hook. At almost any time you can tap either shoulder button to switch your active element between fire and ice. This has potential but is mostly used as a simple trigger to turn certain blocks on and off. Not quite tapped to its full potential but on top of the other systems it’s a nice extra wrinkle to keep you on your toes. Otherwise the gameplay is pretty similar to the previous entry with dashing, swinging, homing attack-ing, and double jumping making for some nice flow. They have improved the pace of animations, so particularly Sonic’s air dash is snappier and chaining them together feels much better.

The more meaningful change is the overhaul to the level structure. Stages are now much shorter, more straightforward, and much more plentiful, a better fit for Sonic and for handheld sessions. The bottom screen map is now autofilled and more detailed, and the dual-environment theme is gone. There’s still foreground/background swapping but it’s more dynamic and streamlined. The extra side stages are still here for a change of pace: auto running tunnels, Tails’s submarine minigame now on the world map, a new hovercraft shmup thing, and the races now presented as a lap-based speed course against Eggman's bots (these also form the basis of a new multiplayer mode). Another addition is more boss fights, which play out across both screens as D-Fekt uses the environment to create some ad-hoc construct; they're ok.

Speaking of environments, there's some fun ideas for level themes here. A tarpit fossil zone, pirate cove, and gothic mansion make for great backdrops for the action. As before they look really good, and I must mention Richard Jacques who for both games did quite a nice job with the music. I do have to ding Sanzaru for not fixing the zoomed-in world map navigation, but the addition of fast travel and a level select menu alleviates the issue pretty well.

Oh, I should have said: Amy is here! All five of the main cast including Sticks are now playable for the first time (not counting Sonic Dash 2), which is great. Their abilities are mostly the same although Tails has a new gun and Knuckles can do Nights-style paraloops while digging, and of course Amy brings her trusty hammer to bear for knocking down pillars. Having five options does prevent the quick-change D-pad system that both RoL and SC used, so there's now a cycling switcher with a short delay or touchpad buttons; not as immediate but serviceable enough.

I'm very pleased with the refinements F&I brought to the table. Of the Sonic Boom games it's the most faithful to the show and as far as I'm concerned the most fun. Sanzaru made a cool experimental game but learned lessons from it and came back with something that feels really good. If they had kept making these I would have kept eating them up but sadly it was not to be. Sonic Boom has connected with me more than most other Sonic media, so I'm disappointed it didn't last much longer after this. I do have around 30 more episodes of the show to watch though, so if you'll excuse me...

[meiramenu]

Hii!! This is a series that I will mainly be focused on hope you enjoy! (1k words)

Soul Switcher

☆ The classic story of two unknown lovers. ☆

How many times do you have to do this, how many wakings up, how many snoozes, and how many awaited Fridays? Not many. Perhaps, after all, this was the first day of 12th grade.

The school hallways were stuffed per usual. To your left, a slow walker. This was going to be an amazing year.

During lunch, you sat next to your locker, alone. Your only friend was too ashamed to be seen with you. She believed that being friends with you would through daggers into her reputation. You weren't surprised when she announced this news. You were an outcast after all. No one wanted to talk to you, and no one was interested. No. One. Really. Cares.

You walked yourself to the bathroom, stuffing your hand into your palm. You prayed and prayed she wouldn't be in the hallways. Please please almost there.

"So so so, who do we have here?" a voice said behind you. It was Aliac. Your throat closed and your eyes widened. You stopped and turned around, somehow praying it wasn't her.

"If it's not the rat-looking disaster," she spat out, her words staining you, leaving permanent marks on your cherry-colored shirt. You stayed silent, the only noise being yout heart about to explode out of your chest.

"Babe?" a voice called out. It was Krist's.

"I told you spending time bothering her was a waste of time," Krist said rolling his eyes. He would always say things like this. His words were carved into your brain: 'Leave her alone,' 'It's not worth it,' or 'Not again.' You knew the only reason he complained was because he thought bullying you was worthless. But the little voice in the back of your head always tried to convince you that he liked you. But that's stupid. He had a girlfriend, and it was Aliac. She sucked. She didn't deserve him.

"I know babe, but it's so fun seeing her pathetic face freeze up” she said when putting her hand dramatically on her chest. I balled up my fists by my sides. “It is like when a rabbit sees a fox" she chuckled before placing her hand on the right side of Krist's chest.

"Well, I have swimming practice. So if you want a ride right now, is the time," Krist said, resting his hand on hers, and giving her a sweet smile. But she sucked. He deserved better. She gave you a quick glare before walking away.

This one was a close call.

"Hey, Mom," you called out, the smell of spaghetti tickling your nose hairs. You walked into the kitchen, furrowing your eyebrows from the lack of response. Mom was staring at the blank wall.

"Hey," you softly said before placing your hands on her shoulders. She jolted up before placing her hands on yours, nodding her head before giving you a soft, eyes-squeezing smile.

"Well, I'm going to my room," you said before giving her a peck on the cheek. Dad died 12 years ago, but she was still grieving, very heavily actually. She didn't believe in mental health, even though she was the definition of an emotionally unwell person.

You flopped into your bed after taking a warm shower, grabbing your computer to finish a few due assignments. Your cat brushed against your hand, the sweet fall scent of your candles – everything was perfect. A red bubble popped up at the corner of your Discord app. That must be Lina. The assignments can wait.

Lina: hey y/n how did your day go!! :p

You: It was okay, kind of. I almost got jumped by Lila again

Lina: Bruh but let me guess, Krist interrupted right?

You: When does he nooot

Lina: gurl   he is lit in love with you!!

You: gurl stop feeding into my delusion

Lina: oop gtg see ya

You: oh ok bye

You closed your computer. Why can't things be like they were? No drama, no trouble, no one cared. Everything was much simpler. You shut down your computer and place it on the right side of your bed. Don't cry, don't cry. You can't keep it in. Your throat is throbbing it stings You can't keep it in anymore, You blink, and all the tears trapped in your eyes run out, flowing and sticking to your cheeks. You stuck out your tongue to lick the side of your lips – salty.

[granvarones]

My memories are a sacred place. Some may say I am addicted to nostalgia, and maybe, on some level, I am. But aren't most people? My visitations to yesteryear are not rooted in the longing to relive the past but rather a way for me to time travel and have conversations with my younger self. Conversations about what we both have survived, what we both witnessed, and, of course, re-examining the songs that got us through.

In the late 1980s, I shared a bedroom with my mother and three young brothers. While that sounds like a crowded situation, I remember spending a lot of time alone. This solitude allowed me to sing and dance to songs blasting from our clock radio. One of those songs was, in my opinion, one of the greatest pop songs in music history, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship.

Released in January 1987, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was the theme song to "Mannequin," a whimsical and quirky romantic comedy about a struggling artist who falls in love with a mannequin brought to life by an ancient Egyptian spell. Starring Brat Packer, Andrew McCarthy as Jonathan Switcher, and Kim Cattrall as Emy, "Mannequin" is a story about love, acceptance, and friendship. This is punctuated by the bond between Jonathan and Hollywood Montrose.

"I never thought they'd hire anyone stranger than me." - Hollywood Montrose

Portrayed by the late Meshach Taylor, Hollywood Montrose is a Black, flamboyant, gay window-dresser who, on the surface level, is the comedic relief but is a central part of the film and its narrative about living fearlessly. Jonathan, who is viewed as weird by co-workers, finds an ally in Hollywood. Their bond and the fully realized character of Hollywood were not lost upon me as a child. I knew it transcended my personal reality; I just didn't have the language to express it.

Fun Fact: In a 1990 interview, Meshach Taylor shared that his portrayal of "Hollywood Montrose" was informed and inspired by friends he made as a cast member during the National Tour of Hair in the early 1970s.

The film's soundtrack is anchored by the Diane Warren co-penned and produced by Narada Michael Walden timeless gem, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." A power ballad without the schmaltz, the song perfectly encapsulates the magical vibe of the feel-good film. At first listen, the song's message of love's perseverance can come off as cheesy, but in the context of when it was released, coupled with the queer representation of the character Hollywood, the song's lyrics resonate even more deeply.

"Let 'em say we're crazy, what do they know

Put your arms around me baby, Don't ever let go

Let the world around us just fall apart

Baby, we can make it if we're heart to heart"

"Mannequin" was a box-office success that captured the hearts and imaginations of moviegoers. While not a critical darling, it was a reminder that sometimes the most fantastical stories that invite us to suspend our beliefs are the most touching. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was just as successful, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in April 1987. The following year, the song was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 60th Academy Awards.

I remember watching this film over and over at my grandmother's house. I loved everything about it: Kim Cattrall as the beautiful mannequin that comes to life, the music (seriously, the soundtrack slaps!), and, of course, Hollywood Montrose. I was also moved by the friendship shared by Hollywood and the film's protagonist, Jonathan Switcher, a dynamic that challenged the norms of the time in 1987.

Yes, there are valid critiques about Hollywood and the stereotypes surrounding all flamboyant gay characters in cinema. But for me, Hollywood was a cultural touchstone, a joyful and bold representation of the LGBTQ+ community during a pivotal time in history. His audacity made him a mighty warrior. And for my younger self, who was always at war with classmates who teased me, Hollywood modeled that one could fight back and win!

I am grateful that my younger self saw a character like Hollywood in a movie the entire family watched. In the late 1980s, there wasn't much for me to choose from in terms of queer representation in mainstream media, especially during the years when the AIDS crisis was escalating. I am grateful that as an adult, I have been able to watch this film with my son and be reminded that Hollywood was a Black gay character that was vibrant and ALIVE during a time when so many were dying.

"And we can build this dream together

Standing strong forever

Nothing's gonna stop us now"