#that some people limit themselves to like three artists

[multifandomangel]

seeing people say “pop music is so back” as if it ever left us in the first place is so funny to me

[loveemagicpeace]

💕Astro notes🏹

☁️Capricorns and Taurus always set limits for themselves in the sense that when they decide something, they stick to it and that's how it is. They stick to certain things because they are determined.

✨Mars in fire sign in 12th -u do so many risky and fearful things but this is good for you. The more you do the things you fear, the better you feel. Many times I also notice that people who have mars in the 12th house can manifest pain or something about their appearance, in the sense that they go to get tattooed and they won't be in pain.

🥂You truly got to know someone who has Capricorn rising when you see them like three,four maybe five times. They are very secretive people and do not like to share many things about themselves. Intimacy it's a big thing for them they will not get intimate with people who they are not comfortable with.

🍸People who has pluto in their 3rd house are obsseded with cars. Also because pluto shows your obsession you can also have obsessive thoughts or obsessively thinking about someone.

⚡️People who has capricorn placements in particular (mercury, venus & mars) are big car lovers. They know a lot about them and talk a lot about them. They always have some business of their own, which includes some things related to cars. I don't know why but a lot of people with these signs drive or love BMWs haha.

❤️‍🔥People who have Venus in Leo or Sagittarius are very passionate people. They do everything they do with passion. They cannot imagine love without passion.

🌙Chiron Sextile Ascendant-you can easily find support in comunuty. Your tramums can be public or you share them with public.

🦋Uranus in 1st house makes people very special, different and interesting. And people always remember you even if they only see you once. Many times I notice that these people cannot be compared to anyone because their beauty is so unique. Many times I notice that people are jealous of them because of this.

💘The sign you have in the 8th house is the sign that will stalk you the most on social networks or in general. And it's also the sign that's most obsessed with you. All the planets that the person has in this sign will indicate that the person is obsessed with you or wants to have you for themselves.

🐚The most spiritual connection u will have with the sign in your 12th house. You can receive the most empathy and warm advice from this sign.

🍦Zodiac signs that love to eat are cancer, taurus, leos, sagittarius( they will really enjoy the food). They will always make time for good things. Meanwhile, I notice that people who have Virgo, Capricorn, Aries, Libra, Aquarius don't take time to eat or eat something small. They don't put much on food or things like that. Especially if they are surrounded by work.

🌌Having a north node in Scorpio means your life journey is all about learning to accept that change is constant. North node in virgo represents a point in your natal chart that signifies your soul's evolutionary path and the lessons you are meant to learn in this lifetime. These people are creative, artistic, sensitive, spiritual. North node in sagittarius means that in your lifetime you're meant to find your fate ,your believing system & your true meaning in this life and also growth.

📀The most healthy sign to hang out with is sign u have in your 9th house. Because the sign in this house represents everything you can learn, how you can grow into a better person. You will always have an honest and direct relationship with this person.

💡You would only understand people with first house placements if you also have them. Because if you don't have 1st house placements you will have hard time being with these people cuz people with first house placements have this confidence, can be little selfish or do things in a more selfish way. They are unbothered about a lot of things. And they can easily express themselves. And when you don't have 1st first placements it is harder for you to find compatibility with them.

🫧People with second house placements know their true value. Always when I'm around with these people it feels like I know that they value themselves & things around them. When I'm with them, I feel that they really appreciate me and somehow they will never invite me to some cheap place, but there will always be something beautiful and luxurious. I feel appreciated by them.

🌊🔥People with fire/water placements are very passionate, emotional, intense. Water is always getting into emotions seeing things for emotional side & they can quickly feel things through emotions. And fire is a about passion,anger and about doing. They will not be just emotional ,they will be angry emotional(crying out of anger) also they can do some really crazy things -sometimes I feel like they black out and when they are angry they are completely different person is like they got blinded by the anger. They can also be emotionally impulsive.

-Rebekah📀☁️🫧💘

[project-lumen]

Have you ever wondered how the Life Series would look like as a videogame?

Then I bring to you…

Project LUMEN: APPLICATIONS OPEN!!

Ever wanted to relive the stories woven by the Watchers, exceeding the limits of what Minecraft is able to offer? How about venturing in a perilous journey full of twists and turns, and most importantly, loooooooooooore?

Well, why hello there! To kick off the start of 2025, Kori, Arto and Pinkie here, and we are proud to present “Project LUMEN”! Our newest scheme to conceptualize and develop a video game based off the traffic-colored hearts we are all so familiar with. An ambitious project, that’s for sure, and that is why we are opening applications to join our little team, right on time to welcome the new year! :]

(way more info under the cut, get ready)

Once a pile of jumbled, senseless ideas, Project LUMEN has evolved into a more fleshed-out collection of story beats and mechanics. An RPG-like game revolving around the tales within the Life Series, a collection of death games ran by the mysterious deities that call themselves Watchers. The player takes on the role of the Watcher Child (affectionately referred to as WC), following and guiding the Champions chosen by the Watchers themselves through challenges and enemies. Featuring unique leveling systems, DnD inspired classes, and, most importantly, the ability to impact the story with the choices you make… because, after experiencing all the Life Series seasons from both the Watcher and the Player side, maybe you’ll have a change of mind. After all is said and done and seen, the world is yours to shape, Watcher Child.

Right, so that’s a basic summary of the concept we have, now here’s a little preview of what we have written for the prologue :3

Chapter 0: ‘The Watcher’s Apprentice’

The player takes the form of a Watcher in training, an ageless child, the Watcher Child. The most powerful and ancient Watchers, unexplained cryptic creatures that live up to their name by watching all, talk about a new series of experiments they have been running, called “The Life Series”.

The only rundown that the WC was given was that a carefully selected group of talented players were asked to test their little Life game for them, where they each have only three lives. Whoever survives last, wins. There were no rules as to how they could play the games. The Watchers then add that they, along other WCs, will be observing from the viewpoint and thoughts of one of the players. This is so the WC can get an idea of the Watchers' work. Of course, our little WC was ecstatic and ever so curious about this new idea.

Fast-forward (and after a couple of tutorials showing off the bare basics of the battle mechanics in the actual game), now our WC was standing in a circle with other apprentices just like them. The Watchers then hold a deck of mystic cards in front of each of them, and everyone picks one. When the cards are revealed, our WC sees a glowing, red card with a person on it. The card simply said, "THE SUN".

Huh, I wonder who could that be…

Now, we get into the thick of it: who are we searching for to join our team? Well, there are some requirements that the potential members should fulfill, here’s a comprehensive list of key points:

We are mainly looking for artists to help us with designs, sprites, backgrounds and UI. Although, we also welcome any writers willing to help us with developing concepts and adding more ideas!

Every person who applies should be involved with the Life Series fandom, we want to build a team with people as passionate about this Minecraft series as we are!

When answering the Application Form, please type in your favorite type of flower (in case you do not have one, just write 'sunflower') in the "Anything else to add?" part, this is only to ensure you've read the announcement :]

Welp, glad you asked. The current plan is, while the applications go on for a week or two, constantly post pieces of concept art and just story bits on this blog, then all the people selected to join the team will be added to the blog as members. We plan to post updates, concept art, sprites and small lore drops periodically on that blog to hopefully garner an audience, and it will also be open for asks and suggestions so that, even if some users aren’t part of the team, they can still help bring this absolute beast of a game to life. Ideally we will work on a small demo experience first with placeholders and stuff to just get the mechanics right and get some testers, and after that, use all feedback, polish the art, deliver a beta version for playtesting, then fix the last details and then release the full version on itch.io, that’s our roadmap. :D (there's the possibility to also publish a browser version to Newgrounds with mobile compatibility tho, so mobile users do not fear!)

Well, Project LUMEN is a very, very hefty task, a big plan to undertake, and, in all honesty, too much work for only three people. Also, talking from experience, having other person involved in development has helped LUMEN to give gigantic steps, helping to ground ideas and give inspiration, now, imagine how far we could go if we had more people in this squad. We are not only looking for artists, we are looking for people whom we can brainstorm with and throw concepts around to polish them and grow the game even more. However, we also wish to keep the team directly working on the game fairly reduced, we are thinking 3–5 people more, but depending on the amount of responses we have, we might consider expanding that number.

The spirit of the game is to be made by the community for the community, we want to offer a quality game, and, by working together, we will be able to make Project LUMEN the best it can be. Though, you need to be aware that this project is solely fueled by the passion we have for the Life Series, and we will not profit off it at all. Please, take into account that this is likely going to be a months-long project, and only apply if you are willing to put in the effort in the long-run, that’s all we ask for.

On the bright side though, by joining in the developing of the game, you’ll be able to contribute to it as much as you’d like, change anything, add anything! You’ll have your rightful spot in the credits and probably a cameo in-game, the team may be small, but we know that, with the right people, we will be able to get it done (cleo is in the storyline too dw).

Application Form!

[blluespirit]

okay first three episodes thoughts

good

bending is cool as fuck

sozin’s actor does an amazing job at full crazy but calculated

scenery is STUNNING

monk gyatso made me cry. idk why i just saw him and wanted him to give me a hug so bad

APPA ACTUALLY LOOKS GOOD AND NOT LIKE A LITERAL MONSTER

i wasn’t sure how id feel about them showing the air nomad massacre but i think the importsnt thing is that they showed it was a massacre - and that although they can defend themselves, they don’t have the ability to fight back like an organised army would bc they’re pacifists! they attacked a peaceful group

the abandoned fire nation ship in the southern water tribe looks so fucking cool

ARTIST ZUKO???!!! LETS GOOO

Dallas does an amazing job at getting across Zuko’s intense desperation

I actually ended up loving all the Sokka and Suki interactions sm it was so cute and wholesome

Katara is perfect i will kill and die for her

Azula’s opening scene being her manipulating those people trying kill ozai ultimately leading them to getting burned alive by him and smiling - literally so fucking good. she is the best villain in history of forever

really good move having the mechanist (Sai!) and Teo be in Omashu imo. having them destroy the northern Air Temple so carelessly always pissed me off

THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS ARE LITERALLY PERFECT I AM SCREAMINGGGG

I was wondering how they were going to introduce the Mechanist and Jet in a limited amount of episodes but I like how they combined the two stories

Also Sokka absolutely nerding out in the Mechanist’s home is so important to me

Zuko getting has ass beat by that lady for fighting Aang is literally so funny and reminiscent of the goofy aang vs zuko fights we see in season 1 (to be clear: i adore zuko. this is NOT hate on him)

Zuko losing shit about his notebook and trashing his room and then outing himself as a fire bender in Omashu is so perfect. god i love him so much. it’s very season 1 zuko. it’s giving I DONT NEED ANY CALMING TEA!!!

things i was not a fan of: (some of these are a little pedantic i’ll admit)

Exposition is a little is a little janky but i’ll forgive it i guess bc at least it isn’t egregious as The Movie That Shall Not Be Named

Aang leaving just to get fresh air/clear his head and intending to come back is a silly change to me. all i keep thinking about is the storm where we got those epic Zuko and Aang parallels which now doesn’t really work and also takes away a lot of Aang’s depth. A good change adds to the story, but personally this seems to take it away

WHY would they not make Katara the one to bring him back from the avatar state? just seems like a strange choice to me? not saying this from a shipping point at all but that moment is a big step to their bond/friendship especially since they have only just met

Still don’t understand why they made the head of the village Suki’s mum. like i don’t think it’s a terrible choice but they still could have let them have a mother/daughter bond but still let Suki be the leader without any implications of nepotism. it mostly seeems silly

tl;dr - really enjoying it so far!

[tobiasdrake]

I'm curious what Tenshinhan's fighting style is beyond general weirdness lol. I always interpreted it as a "showing off" sort of style back in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, with most of his moves being visually impressive and/or intended to instill despair in his opponent, but then you have his kikōhō, a move that damages the self for greater strength...

Tenshinhan is fucking weird is what he is.

I mean that sincerely. Fitting for a man who walks in with three eyes like that's totally normal and no one ever speaks of it, Tenshinhan's style comes straight from the realm of the bizarre and esoteric. He's an outside-the-box challenger to test the limits of Goku's counter-fighting.

He is the drunken boxer. The fighting game character that plays utterly differently from all other characters, making them hard to learn but unpredictable when mastered. Ten forges his own way through martial arts with off-the-wall tricks and game-changing shenanigans.

It's just. Easy to forget how weird he is because the rest of the cast have thoroughly cannibalized his style. Kame-senryu are a bunch of fucking thieves.

This eye-searing image is the most normal thing Ten has in his repertoire.

Ten and Chiaotzu lay out that they're going to be... unlike anything we've seen before right from the get-go, when they use psychic powers to rig the matches.

Already, it's clear that we're about to see some weird shit. Both of these characters are built on the martial arts philosophy of "Okay what the hell even is that, how did you even bring laser eyes to a knife fight?"

Ten in particular is a formidable martial artist.

But as early as his first match, the oddball nature of his abilities start to settle in.

Okay, so Ten can just Nope any Kamehameha thrown at him. Sure. Guess that's a thing now. New rule, guys: No more Kamehamehas.

But you also kinda get it. Like. Tsuru-senryu is the rival school to Kame-senryu, and the Kamehameha is the signature technique of Kame-senryu. So it makes sense that they'd develop countermeasures for the Kamehameha.

Also, they can levitate.

Well, that's going to make scoring a ringout fucking hard, isn't it? One of the two ways you win in this tournament is by making your opponent fall in the grass outside the ring, and these fuckers can fly.

That's unfair, is what that is. They don't even need to use helicopter tail shenanigans or a well-aimed Kamehameha for propulsion to do it. They can just decide that they don't feel like being rung out today.

This is the first technique that doesn't seem so special today because everybody cannibalized their Bukujutsu. But at the time, it was unique. Even Taopaipai, their idol, couldn't fly. He got around by the delightfully comical method of throwing something really hard and then jumping on it and being taken for a ride.

Taopaipai was doing Breath of the Wild rock transit decades before it was cool.

As the tournament picks up, Chiaotzu foreshadows the bizarre nature of the fights ahead when he reveals his ultimate technique: Binding his opponent in place with psychic powers so they can't defend themselves.

That's. Not. Really. A martial art? Even by the incredibly loose definitions already on display in this manga. It's closer to General Blue's paralyzing glare. And there's a lot more of that to come.

Further included in Ten's repertoire of Weird Shit (TM) is his third eye, which serves a vital function in combat until everyone starts ki sensing and it ceases to be relevant.

Ten has enhanced perception, allowing him to see things that others can't. This is notably distinct from being able to sense people by following their ki signatures. A distinction the Muten-Roshi helpfully lays out by stating he can't see Goku but can sense him just before Ten confirms he can still see him.

When Goku meets Popo, we'll have entered the realm where the limitations of human eyesight can no longer keep up with the speeds of the characters, and learning to perceive through ki sensing becomes necessary.

But right now, Ten's enhanced perception lends him a number of edges over other martial artists that have to rely on eyesight to track their foes. Advantages such as thwarting this particular invisibility technique of Goku's.

Or piercing the illusion of the Zanzoken/Afterimage speed technique.

As an aside, I love the way both of those moments draw attention to Ten's two normal eyes looking one direction while his third looks the other. It's such an eerie but effective way of conveying the idea that he can see more than a normal man.

Ten and Chiaotzu play by different rules than everyone else.

Sometimes he has four arms. That's life, man. Again, they make a point of showing us what this looks like as a speed technique:

Both to set up Goku's counter for this and also so that we understand how meaningful it is that Ten is not doing that. Chapa and later Goku perform Hasshuken, moving their arms so fast it creates the illusion of eight. Ten physically sprouted two extra arms. He can just. Like. Shapeshift, I guess. He's a flying shapeshifter who sees faster than everyone because of his three eyes and he hangs out with a telekinetic doll.

Also he can flashbang his opponents as a clincher.

This is another move that seems mundane now because everyone stole it from him. They took his Bukujutsu/Levitation and they took his Taiyoken/Solar Flare. But it's another data point on the list of ways Ten's such a weird and complicated opponent to try and fight.

Even by the standards of Tsuru-senryu, he's weird. Taopaipai didn't do half of this shit. Ten specifically refers to the Taiyoken/Solar Flare as a New Tsuru-senryu technique, which implies that he created it himself.

Which makes me wonder just how much of his moveset is actually part of the Tsuru-senryu curriculum and how much is Ten. Just. Being weird.

Notably, at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Ten shows up with something even more absolutely freakish than the Shiyoken/Four-Armed Fist.

Shishin no Ken also known in English as the Multiform Technique is another departure from your illusory speed techniques, in that Ten splits his body into four bodies. How does he do that? Fuck you, that's how. This is the evolution of both his enhanced perception and his ability to sprout extra arms - And, in being so, a demonstration of how Goku has left him behind.

It's an admittedly creative solution to the problem that Goku, following his training with Popo, can move too fast for even his three eyes to follow. But now he has twelve eyes.

TWELVE. That's as many as four Tens! And that's terrible.

The Shishin no Ken was another weird-ass technique from a weird-ass martial artist, serving a practical function in enhancing Ten's unique characteristics to compensate for Goku's now godly abilities.

But it was ultimately undone by a catastrophic vulnerability, which is the reason nobody ever tried this shit again.

Splitting into multiple copies of yourself turns you into a team of useless scrubs who can't throw a punch to save your life. It's a bad technique and was written off immediately after this fight, never to be seen again.

...except in anime filler, where everyone stole that from Tenshinhan too.

You guys were both at the tournament when Goku pointed out that this technique makes you throw punches like slow, limp noodles! Come on, guys! These characters would not even try this shit.

But I digress.

Not to be outdone, Chiaotzu invented a technique where he blows himself up and dies ineffectually.

Tenshinhan never let him fight another person again for the rest of his life. This cost him fighting privileges. Straight up left him with the non-combatants during the Android arc. You are done, Chiaotzu.

Look, just because their shit is weird doesn't mean it's all good.

Of course, we can't talk about Ten without talking about the Big Gun. His ultimate technique. The thing he's known for better than anything else, especially by people who never watched or read the material prior to Raditz.

The Kikoho/Tri-Beam is not a Tsuru-senryu technique or a Kame-senryu technique. It's not even a Tenshinhan original. It's a forbidden technique known to both schools but, at least in the Muten-Roshi's opinion, inappropriate to ever pass on. Tenshinhan's going to use it to win at recreational sports.

And people complain about Korra entering the Avatar State to win a race. If Goku broke out the Genki-Dama/Spirit Bomb to punch Krillin out of the ring, Kaio would have his ass for that....

The Kikoho is, so far as we know, the most powerful individual technique in Dragon Ball in terms of the gulf between the wielder's power and the destructive force output by their technique. It punches far above Ten's weight class. Whether that means:

Managing to fuck up Nappa pretty bad.

Holding back Semi-Perfect Cell.

Or even dissipating a shot from Super Buutenks, the Kikoho is in a league of power far beyond anything Tenshinhan would be capable of himself. This technique lends Ten the ability to show up and be occasionally useful even after the power scales leave him far behind.

At least, for a short time.

Sorry, man. You cannot fight at this level. But at least you got that killer shot in.

Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu are wild cards. Not as characters, mind you, but as martial artists. Their greatest strength is their unpredictability. You never know what they're going to pull out of their pocket next, which for a time made Ten in particular into a fun and engaging rival for the ever-analytical Son Goku.

[hjnxx]

new company silence in the studio makes way for something new.

featuring bang chan, mentions of skz & hjx in passing word count 1k ( 1099 ) notes from june ummm. petition for men to be written as yearners. may the wanting make them quietly miserable. good day.

— hello? hey… it’s me, again.

studio nights were as lonely as they were fulfilling. the boys filling out with every hour that dipped towards midnight, stifling yawns as exhaustion from a packed day began to weigh on their shoulders. one by one they get up from their seats to stretch and wish him a good night, murmured well wishes and thank yous and claps on his shoulders given as parting gifts with each soft shut of his door.

he didn’t mind it. they deserved all the rest they got away from this demanding job, and he couldn’t blame them for their human limits. silence was a known companion, anyway—much like an old friend who is the only one who knows your true self. it lingers above his shoulders. peering. curious even after so long of a routine engraved in the palms of his calloused hands.

— i missed your call… i can’t believe i missed your call again. that keeps happening. why does it keep happening?

until this. a exchange by pure chance.

his hands reach for his phone before his mind catches up to his bodily actions, scrolling through apps and pictures absentmindedly. stalling. embarrassing. he itches to hear her voice until he can’t any longer, leg jumping, fingers tapping against his desk.

— maybe it’s fate? they do say distance makes the heart fonder. i think whoever said that didn’t account for artists working themselves to the brink of collapse, though. i wish fate was kinder to artists.

he’s already heard this voicemail before. it was sent a few days ago in response to a hasty one he’d sent hidden away between sets of a performance, his voice hushed as staff rushed around in front of him. he remembers his heart thumping louder than the bass he could feel through his boots, hands cradling his phone so gently. whispering so he wouldn’t get caught.

minho’s knowing look on stage long after and the feeling of his ears turning red.

— i wish you also didn’t feel like you had to rush a response. it sounded awfully noisy out there… were you caught? i hope not. i would hate to be the cause of a petty scandal. i know much this means to you.

would he say he believed in fate? in some instances, maybe. that the reason why his chances at making it on a stage, his dream of becoming a star in his own right, was delayed because he hadn’t found the right people to surround himself with. that one would become three would become eight and then nine, all by the grace of some overhead hands pulling at taut red strings? he could subscribe to the thought in theory. it was nice to believe the universe was finally rewarding him for his years spent hustling.

his hands hover over his screen anyway, pausing to listen. a pocket of time frozen solely for the seconds ticking down.

she was similar to him in more obvious ways. the fans were quick to note that she, like him, was the oldest out of three as well as the oldest of their group, thus subject to many an age joke said tinged with affection. he’s pleasantly surprised by her love for music, burning bright through the magnitude of credits she’d quickly collected in just three short years—not that he’s counting, that’s weird—and the fierce love of family that rivals everything else. he doesn’t doubt that she’d take a bullet for her girls without question. family wasn’t always in blood, after all.

he’s curious, he can admit it.

— i hope you’ve been well. it’s good to see that everyone is getting along well. i hear there’s something along the lines of dinner in the works? courtesy of minho sunbae and yuina. maybe we’ll be able to see each other then.

so curious, in fact, that it’s not uncommon for glances to be shared when he reaches for his phone, as if he can’t see or sense them. nosy to no fault of their own, knowing smiles with questions that he can’t seem to answer beyond an embarrassing amount of silence, and just minho’s presence overall. he’s been more teasing than usual, but almost in an encouraging way? he can’t wrap his head around it.

he’s always the last to leave, lingering over his shoulder like he wants to say something. like he knows more than he lets on.

— oh, speaking of sunbae, he said something about a song? that you would like to work on together?

he’s aware that his boys are curious about them. peering at them without any shame in public while jostling each other, more for show than anything. the stares they get back in response are funny, he can’t lie, especially when the small energetic one—yuina, he recalls—has to be dragged back from storming over.

he’s not surprised they’ve already started talking amongst each other. the fans are thrilled that both groups seem to be close, from minho recruiting yuina into his own shenanigans to the weird one-upping stint seungmin and micha have. and cléo adores eunji, and it’s not hard to say the same in return.

hell, he himself, the proclaimed social butterfly he is, wants nothing more than to pick apart at what this new connection could bring. but he keeps hesitating. keeps missing her calls. it’s not like he’s scared, either? but…

fuck. the only reason why he has her number was because of minho.

— i have a few ideas! nothing is really fleshed out yet, but i’d like to meet so we can discuss things in person. hopefully before the dinner?

his gaze shifts back to his screen, paused in the middle of the track they’d been working on before before the door swung shut for the last time. nothing is really fleshed out on his end, either. just samples and raw vocals and a mess of beats and frustration.

and curiosity, still. so much curiosity. it keeps him up more than he already is.

— or whenever’s good for you? i know you’re busy, so… call me back to let me know when.

his screen dims before him but he makes no move to move his mouse. he knows he’ll still be up for another two, three more hours, the stress on his shoulders weighing him down more than anything. but at least her voice is keeping him company for now.

— take care of yourself, chan. bye.

silence lingers once again as his phone dims in light as well. and before he can stop himself, his finger swipes across his screen languidly.

— hello? hey… it’s me, again.

[bijoupreciieux]

the ruby slippers in various verses / au’s. i headcanon that unlike in the 1939 film, the ruby slippers aren’t covered in sequins but rather actual real rubies as shown here on a pair beautifully crafted by an artist on e/tsy ( X )

main / disney: in the end of baum’s original story, glinda, the good witch of the south, tells dorothy how the magic charm of the silver shoes ruby slippers work. she also reveals to dorothy that they hold several mysterious powers inside them, this indicates that the shoes are able to do much more than carry people places. but what these other specific powers can do is left a mystery.

powers include — (1) transportation to any place in the world in just three seconds regardless of distance, (2) protection for the wearer including negating dark magical energy or physical attack, (3) some degree of wish granting, (4) ability to change their size and style depending on wearer ( example: they became large boots for the gnome king as opposed to small high heels ), (5) limited teleportation to different realms & even different times (6) healing ability for illness and injury (7) energy manipulation.

in this verse, dorothy is unaware of the shoes powers aside from the teleportation and some degree of protection. at least not until she officially moves to oz and is elected the ruler later on.

harry potter / wizarding world: in this au the slippers are a magical and lost relic, featured in history textbooks and quite famous. originally forged by famed sorceress glinda the good. when they are eventually found there’s a note with them written by glinda centuries prior that simply read a single name: dorothy. the slippers are dull in color, as if covered in raw ruby stones instead of sparkling gemstones.

dusty and time-worn. there is no historical evidence of glinda being associated with anyone named dorothy. but many with the name come to try and claim the shoes. but it’s dorothy gale, a sweet and “simple” farm girl for whom the shoes suddenly return to their original appearance & transfer themselves ( as if they are sentient ) to her feet, fitting perfectly as if made for her. in this au, dorothy is an unknown descendant of glinda.

the latter looking far far far into the future could see dorothy with her big heart and her goodness, her kindness and bravery even when she was afraid, her devotion to her family and her desire to make the world a better place. glinda hadn’t taken long to decide the slippers would remain dormant and dull until dorothy stumbled onto them someway or another.

the slippers are not at all as powerful as they had been but still have traces of magic in them, dorothy is able to use them to some degree to travel anywhere in mere seconds and the journey though short is quite pleasant & doesn’t hold the same risks as apparating or cause nausea / discomfort like a portkey does. but the shoes lacking their original level of power means this doesn’t always work. their protective charm as well once was able to protect the wearer from powerful or advanced dark magic but now can only protect against milder or beginner forms of dark magic.

[knightotoc]

"Star Wars: Architect" video game concept:

You're a celebrity architect of a long-lived alien species, so you get commissions by the upper-crust across all three trilogies

Your first mission is to design the secret lakehouse where Senator Amidala is going to have her mysterious babies. You take it because the war has hurt your business, even though you won't be able to add it to your portfolio. Big budget, medium plot size, lots of artistic freedom

But before the senator can make her final payment, she suddenly dies, and you're in debt (especially if you went way over budget) --

Branching path: You immediately get a lucrative and public but morally repugnant offer: convert the Jedi Temple into the Imperial Palace. Huge budget, huge plot size, limited artistic freedom

If you accept, you're on the Imperial path, and you're guaranteed twenty more years of wealthy patronage. These include: the Emperor's private residence (another job on beautiful Naboo), a mansion to tempt Galen Erso, and a lot of converting Separatist and Jedi property into Imperial outposts (Dooku's castle, Ossus, Ilum). There are also more secret missions which, like Padme's, cannot be put on your portfolio but offer more artistic freedom: the Inquistors' undersea base, various evil laboratories, and Tarkin's penthouse for his down low gay affairs. All of these commissions will have strict rules of expression

If you refuse, you're on the Pariah path: you're blacklisted by the government, and your name is now considered dangerous and -- much worse -- unfashionable. The only big jobs you can get are from gauche and unreliable crooks like Jabba the Hutt and Hondo Ohnaka. These are fun projects, but they will screw you over, and are pretty revolting themselves. In this path, the secret missions are by wealthy people who will only employ you if you use a pseudonym. These include jobs in Alderaan, which are totally unique and cool, though you the player know your beautiful buildings will get destroyed

Near the end of the Rebellion the fortunes of the two paths flip; so, the Imperial architect gameplay goes from easy to hard, while the Pariah goes from hard to easy. An ex-Imperial will now have a harder time getting respectable jobs, and will either have to turn to the crimelords or demonstrate their artistic and political versatility ASAP. There will be a huge demand to destroy Imperial buildings (even ones you may have built) and replace them with something new; generally these jobs will offer more artistic freedom but less pay. You can offer to help design for the rebels or Luke's new Jedi order, but they won't pay or respect you very much

For the next thirty years, most wealthy people will want their buildings to look as un-Imperial as possible ... except for the shady extremists who will grow to support the First Order. This is another branching path, but unlike the first one, you have to seek these people out if you want their money. They do have some deeply bizarre commissions, especially the highest-paying job in the game: converting Ilum into Starkiller Base. You can and should retire with this fortune, since no one will ever want to hire you again

Following the destruction of Hosnian Prime, you'll get the final mission of the game from Hamato Xiono, to rebuild his family estate on a Hosnian colony. He'll also commission a racetrack to try to get his wayward son to come home, bookending the game with an emotional, complicated parenthood theme

[doctorstrangereview]

0095: Marvel Premiere #6

Cover Date: January 1973 On-Sale Date: October 24, 1972

For this issue, the fill-in artist if Frank Brunner. It gives us a glimpse into the near future when Englehart and Brunner take over as the regular creatives for a decent length of time. Robert E. Howard continues to get credited with "featuring concepts created by" while Howard P. Lovecraft continues to be ignored despite being the stronger influence. There's an interesting first. Doc purposely kills not one, but two villains in this issue.

Picking up directly from the previous issue, Ebora is closing in on Doc who's trapped in a crevasse. This isn't as hopeless a situation as we're led to believe. Doc has the plan of grabbing Ebora's trident out of her evil hands using that handy cloak of levitation. Clever Doc!

Ebora thinks she can leave Doc to drown in the rising waters. His legs are still trapped after all. Like many people in Doc's orbit, including Doc himself, they don't clean up their messes assuming that the circumstances will finish the job instead of doing it themselves. Well, Doc uses the trident to free himself and caption describes his leg muscles as powerful! I'll bet Clea is a happy girl!

As Doc swims away, a familiar shape starts to follow. The incompetent demon, Sliggith still wants a piece of him. Doc manages break the surface and gulp down some air right before Sliggith grabs one of his powerful legs and drag him under.

Doc, still under the influence of Starkesboro's evil aura that cancels out most of his magic (I guess the Vishanti's time limit was reached) has to turn to the physical again. Good thing he's got those powerful legs! Doc grabs the Sliggith cross and gives the lizard dude a swift bonk on the head. I'm guessing his arms are powerful too!

And there you have it. Doc holds Sliggith's gills shut. Doc straight out murders him.

Sliggith's death causes the next Gardner Fox weirdo to wake up and we are introduced to N'Gabthoth, the Shambler from the Sea.

The suction cup fingers are a nice touch! Meanwhile, Clea and Wong arrive at Starkesboro and immediately run into someone names Johnny Frames who followed his fiancé Deborah back to their hometown. Jonny appears to be Ethan Stoddard-lite. He distracts our supporting cast long enough for the town's lizard-folk to overwhelm them.

They chain the trio to an altar on a cliff and Ebora uses her cleavage to summon N'Gabthoth.

We change scene to Kaa-U where The Ancient One by the little shrunken people from Phantasm Shadowmen. The Ancient One thinks "I can't do anything to help myself here, I'll go check on Stephen." The old boy goes ghost and heads to Starkesboro. Doc is flying over the countryside and sees his underlings (and a stranger) about to get eaten by suction cup fingered thing.

The three really freak out, understandably so. In the nick of time Doc swoops down to the rescue! The cyclopean Shambler's eye beam is too much for Doc who comes crashing down. Ebora thinks she's got this nailed down. But Doc musters up enough mojo to break the captive trio's chains.

Wong, Clea, Johnny and the lizard-folk start beating the crap out of each other while Ebora cajoles N'Gabthoth to kill Doc. Doc thinks he's done. But this is the moment when The Ancient One, in ghost form, arrives and cancels out the towns naughty aura. He's filling in for the Vishanti. With full power, the Shambler isn't much more of a challenge than Sliggith and he runs away. The Ancient One gets particularly vicious.

Doc is like "Nah. Gotta find out where he's going. Then I'll kill him." The Shambler runs back to the Sliggith church and gets and adorably sinister chest hidden under the floorboards.

The two duke it out until Doc finally overwhelms him. Once N'Gabthoth is subdued, we get murder number two!

Doc reunites with his underlings to check out the cute chest. Johnny frets about losing Deborah after all the lizard-folk retreat to the hills. Then feels that his problems aren't really a big deal compared to the man in the cape who just murdered his opponent. Don't worry, when we return to this scene next issue Johnny will have disappeared as if he'd never existed. Doc, Clea and Wong check out the parchment in the adorable chest. It's got a drawing of Stonehenge on it. Guess where we're heading next!

This is a fun one. Gardner Fox displays his usual funky weird style here. He doesn't have the greatest grasp on Doc. Doc has said at least once, but probably multiple times that he is pledged never to take a life. He murders twice in this issue. I can maybe excuse Sliggith because Doc, lacking most of his power, saw no other way to stop him. It's still a lame excuse. For the Shambler, he was at full strength and could have banished him (see next issue for more of this.) Even The Ancient One, who's been a bit shady in the past, seems out of character with the vicious "kill him" attitude.

I don't know why Johnny Frames was introduced. He's completely unnecessary. He doesn't even consume any real estate to stretch the story. A copy of a character introduced two issues ago just gets shoehorned into the story. He even completely vanishes by the next issue. Perhaps Fox just wanted a normie in the story.

Overall, it's a good middle-arc story. We get a couple of one-shot monsters who are mildly interesting, but, fortunately, won't show up again because they're not that interesting. We get an ending that moves the plot. The story doesn't lag and has some good action. We get more evidence that even bereft of magic, Doc has the ability to handle the situation.

[ahmedmootaz]

If Ayin did distort, what kind of abilities would he have?

Dear Anonymous,

Good question! I've thought about it a lot, and I think that Ayin's Distortion would be mostly influenced by the traumas he endured, just as the Ensemble's members were all influenced by their most traumatic events;

Jae-Heon was influenced by how his son was run over by a road-roller and how his puppet was then destroyed by Roland, thus turning into a puppet-master and, subsequently, into an amalgamation of various different creatures, just like his puppets he made for Argalia.

Greta was influenced by how her fellow Eight-Chefs ate themselves and pushed themselves to the limit in the search for new tastes and flavours; her hunger and desire manifested in the form of a famished shark with many, many mouths in order to eat as much as she wanted.

And so on and so forth. If we were to follow the same formula for Ayin, I'd think that the events that marked/traumatised him the most had to be the Old Lab's raid by Garion, the Smoke War, and the loss of Carmen, so I believe his Distortion would have some form of connection to all three of these events.

Not to mention that, personally, I think Ayin was just a few wrong/right turns away in life from being the perfect Arbiter, and seeing how X manifested into a sick parody of an Arbiter himself, I'd think Ayin's Distortion would be quite similar, although with a few twists here and there.

For starters, I believe that his Arbiter gear would be more white-and-red instead of the standard and iconic gold-and-black issued to most Arbiters, mostly for the sake of artistic choices on my end, but also because I believe a Distortion would attempt to be different from the main enforcers of the City's order, as Carmen explicitly stated that, after she herself became the Voice of the Distortion, she was attempting to free the people from the City's cycle in her own, twisted way. As such, I believe she would help draw out a form that is at least visually distinct from Arbiters for her beloved Yinnie, of all people, seeing how he deserves that little pleasure the most, which is my explanation for how I'd explain this stylistic choice for Ayin while X's Distortion is a regular Arbiter outfit.

As for abilities, I'd personally assume they would be similar to what X possesses, to some degree, with typical Arbiter powers being the 'norm' for Ayin's Distortion, but I'd also assume that seeing how his trauma extends far beyond that of most of the PM characters we got to see so far, he'd also be able to tap into powers specifically from his time in the Smoke War. For example, I assume that he would be able to concentrate his powers to summon inter-dimensional portals like those used in the War, or perhaps even utilise the Smoke itself as one of his abilities to weaken opponents at the cost of it also adversely affecting him.

But I think what would also make him even more of a force to be reckoned with would be his relation to Abnormalities. I'm sure that he would resonate with quite a few Abnormality powers which Carmen would happily draw from him to make him into a bit of a indestructible force, although I'm not exactly sure on what Abnormality powers he would have access to, but one thing I am certain of is that he would without a doubt be able to manipulate blood to some extent or perhaps even mess with one's central nervous system, as an homage to his trauma with regards to Carmen. Perhaps he causes hallucinations or causes one's own mind to start attacking itself?

I think his biggest weakness would be his willingness to fight against his Distortion, it's just that he will need a lot of outside help to even have a chance at managing to ward off the Distortion, seeing how he's so full of repressed sentiments and emotions, and all of them bursting out as he Distorts would have quite the catastrophic consequences.

This was a really fun ask, and so I thank you, Anon, for providing me with it! I don't know if I can apply them somewhere soon, but this was quite fun to think of! As always, take care, stay safe, and see ya'!

[familyabolisher]

omg I don’t remember the Van Gogh ep very well pls say more

there’s something just very unpleasant and patronising about the whole tone that the episode takes. i’m not especially fond of the tendency to narrativise real people anyway, but i think some of dw’s other episodes manage to strike a more lighthearted tone which aims to build a plot around the presence of a famous historical figure (charles dickens, agatha christie, shakespeare, regrettably churchill), sometimes exploiting biographical details (the plot of the unicorn and the wasp hinges on christie’s real-life three-day disappearance, for instance, and draws not inconsiderably from the breakdown of her marriage) but often not seeking to inhabit or interiorize the historical figure in question to an extent that supercedes the desire to like, tell a story in an episode of doctor who. the tone of the episodes doesn’t tend to veer outside of the register of like, It’s The Fun BBC Science Fiction Show.

by contrast, there’s something very … condescending, i think, about how van gogh (the real van gogh!) is treated in vincent and the doctor. it strikes this odd tone between like a platitudinous approach to the nebulous concept of ‘mental health’ of the #BeKind ilk and this almost voyeuristic desire to paint a mentally ill man as, like, at once necessarily separate from the audience such that we must Encounter him (the presumed audience is never themselves mentally ill; we are here to Learn about mental illness and to Reflect on our desire to disenfranchise the mentally ill! etc) and available to us as a source from which we can extract all sorts of Lessons about Mental Health. the tone of the episode is very self-serious; it is very clearly aware of itself as an episode with Something To Say. that being, that VVG’s suicidality couldn’t have been prevented by the doctor and amy or by idk The Power of Art (And One’s Own Legacy Within It), that the doctor is limited in what ‘monsters’ he can fight and what ‘monsters’ he cannot, that we (for whom the doctor + amy briefly become audience surrogates 1 and 2, amy in particular) are tasked with Being Kind anyway because we might make a small difference in someone’s life such that they, for example, dedicate a painting of sunflowers to us. (lmfao?)

it’s just weirdly cannibalistic; it’s taking this historical figure and extrapolating a bunch of like, sweeping moralising statements and supposedly affecting scenes (i know many people find the scene in the musée d’orsay vv affecting; i thought it was stupid, sorry), trying to say something about artistic brilliance & artistic legacy but not really landing on anything coherent or interesting beyond like, art by marginalised people is depreciated (true!) but we can fix that by appreciating it, in the musée d’orsay (fuck off!), but Even That can’t make someone not suicidal (true but collapsed by the narrative as quickly as it comes, and also not really … interesting). it wants so badly to say something about van gogh, but it doesn’t feel like an episode that cares about van gogh the man as much as it cares about using van gogh as a metonymic shorthand for all these ideas around Mental Health and Art and Madness and Legacy. which is what i meant when i said it feels cannibalistic—and intrusive at points! i felt uncomfortable watching it in ways that i didn’t with eg. the dickens, christie, shakespeare eps.

[arecomicsevengood]

Jack Cole's Plastic Man

I recently discovered that some volumes of the Plastic Man Archives, those fifty dollar hardcovers issued by DC, can be had for fairly affordable prices these days. I had always heard that Jack Cole was one of the few Golden Age cartoonists whose work held up - Some would advocate for Will Eisner's work on The Spirit, but Cole's work, being more explicitly comedic seemed like it might come closer to E.C. Segar or other strip cartoonists whose work I know to be enjoyable. I'd read a little bit of Plastic Man before - his origin story, as reprinted in Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes, is not that impressive, but is ingrained in my memory due to poring over that book at my grandparents' house as a kid. I also know that I read the Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd Jack Cole And Plastic Man: Forms Stretched To Their Limits book but that was much later in life and so I don't remember the stories reprinted nearly as much as I recall the Chip Kidd of it all: The scans from newsprint, the ephemera. There are only a few complete stories in that book.

I do wish there was a single volume best-of, in an affordable softcover, rather than a series of eight hardcovers, committed to completism. There are also now four softcovers, put out by PS Artbooks, that reprint four issues of the Plastic Man series at a time - I believe there is some overlap with the archives in the first two of these volumes, but that with the third they get to reprinting material DC didn't get around to. I also believe that PS follows the "scanning from old issues" method preferred by Spiegelman to the "restored and made crisper" approach seen in the DC Archives books. I don't know, of course, if my personal taste in what I think is the strongest material would align with that of the editors of a hypothetical best-of. I'm sure there are great discrepancies between my taste, those of an editor at DC Comics, and Art Spiegelman's when it comes to contemporary work, but I would also like to think that, when evaluating work from the 1940s, our collective tastes would approximate those of the theoretical modern reader. I believe we'd all agree that The Granite Lady, from Volume Five, with its reoccurring gags of men being suicidal due to a beautiful but indifferent woman, or the same volume's Thinking Machine, with its prefiguring of AI played for laughs, constitutes top-shelf material. Volume 3 is a little more consistently high-quality than volume 5, but not by much.

But beyond selecting the stories that hold up as comedy, that are able to maintain a certain velocity, there is the cartooning itself to observe the oddity of. There is a peculiar way these panels move from panel to panel, which is abnormally solid: Often it seems like the figures are made of clay, and they and the camera are being moved around a stop-motion diorama. There's a way of foreshortening the bodies and backgrounds that gives the comics a sense that the spaces have been realized by the artist with perfect precision before he laid his pen to paper. This is most in evidence with Woozy Winks, Plastic Man's sidekick, a big fat guy wearing polka dots and a straw boater hat, but there is always a sense of solidity, of moving the reader through the space of the page by identifiable props. A big part of this is the gag of Plastic Man himself, how he disguises himself as an object then reveals himself later.

Cole shows Plastic Man stretching within the panels themselves, which are set out in a standard three-tier page. He doesn't go for wacky byzantine dynamic layouts that have Plastic Man moving throughout the page. There is something inherently deadpan or understated, which is both a big part of why these comics work and something that people trying to adapt Plastic Man to a more traditional superhero comics framework miss. Plastic Man is now owned by DC Comics, and when he shows up as a character, he is played as zany, while the sense of humor in Cole's comics is situational and occasionally dark. In a non-Golden Age context, it makes sense to play the character for what he can do visually, but playing the cartooning broader leads to different calculations as to how the timing would work.

There are other factors in play as to why later incarnations may not work as well. Over time, the idea of a humorous superhero veers into superhero parody, which then gives way to head-up-its-own-ass self-referentiality. This is a trap even very funny people can fall into. Jack Cole is simply telling stories, that require very little from the reader in terms of background knowledge they need going in, and he elaborates on his basic premise, time and time again, becoming reliably entertaining. I don't think I need many more of these collections beyond the two that I have, but two volumes of classic comics is generally my limit: That's all I have of Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, E.C. Segar, and Cliff Sterrett. Cole easily ranks among those guys, a great entertainer for a broad audience.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Black Belt Eagle Scout Interview: Expanding My Vulnerability

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Katherine Paul began the Black Belt Eagle Scout set at Pitchfork with whispered singing. As “My Blood Runs Through This Land” progressed, the song a standout from their third album The Land, The Water, The Sky (Saddle Creek), Paul’s singing transformed into a wail, albeit muted by her own guitar distortion and Camas Logue’s mighty drums. Fittingly, Paul’s voice never seemed like it was at the center. It was there, telling her stories, but always equal in sonic and emotional importance to her surroundings. Sometimes, the neighboring elements were symbolic, like the guitar solo of “My Blood Runs Through This Land”, “emulating [her] ancestors running,” as she told me at Pitchfork. (Paul is Coast Salish/Swinomish, raised in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in LaConner, Washington.) Other times, they were perhaps coincidental, as when she sang about being “engulfed by beauty” on “Don’t Give Up”, right as her singing was overwhelmed by the swirling of Logue’s drums, Nay Wilkins’ bass, and Claire Puckett’s guitars. No matter what, the set was a masterclass in tension and ultimate expressiveness, the songs exponentially louder than their studio versions. With every repetition of “Need you, want you” on Mother of My Children’s “Soft Stud”, the guitars bellowed with mammoth force, the crowd whooping in approval. It was breathtaking.

The Land, The Water, The Sky is inspired by Paul moving back to the Swinomish Reservation on which she was raised, as well as her metaphoric personal journeys. The record contains love songs of varying recipients: her surroundings (“Nobody”), her immediate family (“Spaces”), her local queer community (“Sčičudz (a narrow place)”). This time around, she worked with some notable collaborators on the record, like multi-instrumentalist Takiaya Reed of excellent Melbourne doom duo Divide and Dissolve, who co-produced the album, and Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, who sings on “Salmon Stinta”. Though Paul played many of the instruments on the record and certainly led its expanded instrumental palate, its instrumentation and production was not a one-person affair like her previous two albums. Many artists find working by themselves intimidating; in contrast, for Paul, opening herself up to other musicians in this way was a key part of her growth in confidence. Ditto for playing live. “I have a really amazing band,” Paul said. “We’ve grown so much...for most of the year, we’ve been on the road non-stop, so we’ve learned how to work through certain sounds and passages together.”

Paul and I sat outside the festival press tent (as JPEGMAFIA boomed in the distance) to discuss The Land, The Water, The Sky, playing live, her writing process, and Divide and Dissolve. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: You have three albums already and a somewhat limited set time. How do you decide what songs to play at a festival?

Katherine Paul: I really wanted to play a lot of the new album, but also bring in some of what I felt are the heavy hitters from my previous album. [Songs] that make the set flow. I tried to put some of the new singles in the set, and some that are the favorites in the previous albums. Since you’re playing to a lot of new people, too, something that keeps the energy up.

SILY: I definitely felt that with what you chose to play. I had never seen you live and wanted to come in green, so I didn’t watch any videos, and your set was definitely louder than I expected, in a great way. There was a lot of play with dynamics and catharsis and release. Are you feeling those emotions on stage?

KP: Yeah, I mean I feel like we kick it up a notch, and I like to rock out. For this show, I played on an amp I don’t normally play out of, and I loved it. I kind of want to get one. I love playing loud guitars. [laughs]

SILY: When you play live, do you find yourself in a similar headspace to when you wrote the songs? Are you trying to channel on stage what inspired you to write them in the first place?

KP: I think about what they mean to me, which is maybe a similar thing. I think about why I play certain parts. When I play “My Blood Runs Through This Land”, the guitar solo is supposed to emulate my ancestors running. It’s raw and beautiful. I think about that and put my feeling and playing into those thoughts. I like to make a connection to what the song means to me when I play it.

SILY: On the record, you did a lot of the instrumentation yourself. Do you find adapting the songs to the stage, with a full band, just as rewarding as writing and recording them in the first place?

KP: I’m still learning. That’s what I’m realizing. Sometimes, my natural instinct is to play them how they sound on the recording, but lately, I feel like I want to put a jam in there. [laughs]

SILY: You played “Don’t Give Up” right before playing “Indians Never Die”. In interviews around the release of Mother of My Children, you were talking about “Indians Never Die” and the idea of always taking care of the land. When you sing on "Don’t Give Up”, “I was only seventeen, I was only seventy,” is that a similar sentiment?

KP: “Don’t Give Up” has a lot of writing about my mental health and taking care of myself, having that knowledge that we’re still growing as people and trying to figure things out, whether we’re seventeen or seventy. That’s what those specific lyrics mean, but I think that could tie into, by taking care of myself, I’m taking care of the connection to where I’m from.

SILY: I also like the phrase on the song, “engulfed by beauty.” It suggests being almost overwhelmed by nature, and it works with the heavy reverb of the music.

KP: Yeah. Being swallowed by it.

SILY: Have you gotten to see anyone else at the festival?

KP: I got to see snippets here and there: Vagabon’s one and a half songs, Weyes Blood, Big Thief, yaya bey. I wanted to see Julia [Jacklin], but I couldn’t. Her set was so short. There was a lot of running around, getting food, getting situated.

SILY: Do you like the new Divide and Dissolve record?

KP: I haven’t heard it yet. I’m waiting for the right time to listen to it. I know it’s out, and I want to listen to it when I’m at home on a walk. When I heard the previous record, I was just gutted. So I want to listen to this one walking around in the woods or something.

SILY: Apart from the specific stories and changes in your life that inspired The Land, The Water, The Sky, is there anything else unique about it as compared to your first two records? And how is it a continuation of them?

KP: There are still those glittery sounds within the pop genre that pop up. The uniqueness comes with expanding my vulnerability as a songwriter, having different people play on it. It shifted my perspective of what my songwriting can be. Before, I was more afraid to take risks and do different things, but now, I feel better about it--almost encouraged.

SILY: Are you the type of songwriter always writing, or do you have to set periods of time for you to sit down and do it?

KP: I definitely have to set time aside to do it. I have so much going on in my life. [laughs] It’s hard to always be writing.

SILY: Is there anything else upcoming for you?

KP: I’m working on a mini tour documentary with Evan Atwood, who did the photo [on the front cover of] the album. We’ll have some live recorded versions and filmed versions on the songs. This coming winter, I’m just going to write music and figure out what’s next.

[the-void-writes]

OC Interview Tag

Thank you @tryingtimi for the tag! I’ll leave this one open for whoever wants to use the questions.

I feel like I haven’t written them consistently in this, but I wanted an excuse to develop one of Vesely’s employees. So here’s Ridley, a biologist who is less invested in spreading Freak genes and more interested in unlocking immortality via reanimation.

1. Are you named after anyone?

My name is my own. It gets the job done, and that’s all that matters.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I don’t cry. Crying gets you kicked. I work.

3. Do you have kids?

It depends on what you count as children. Did I create them? Yes. But I am not their parent. They answer to no one but themselves.

4. Do you use sarcasm?

Only for those who deserve it.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I listen to them talk. People with three-word vocabularies are worthless to my work. The patients that yield the best results are the confident ones who like to show off, who use fancy words at parties because they think you’re easily impressed. They have high brain capacity, but their egos cloud their judgment. Those are the people that will sign up for any experiment, as long as you make it seem like they’re important.

6. What’s your eye color?

Have you ever seen a piece of dry moss? It’s peeling off the tree, all shriveled up and bleached from the light, practically falling apart in your hand. I’m told it’s like that, only the moss is more pleasant to look at.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Horror films help me think better. I don’t care about ghost stories, or idiot slashers running around and wasting precious life. My mind has always been drawn to stories of the undead. Life persevering after death. Souls that refuse to die, even when time eats away at their shells. We have the potential to live forever, but no one is willing to explore what it takes to survive. No one but Master, of course.

8. Any special talents?

Some people out there would call it “necromancy.” I am not a sorcerer. There is no magic involved. I’m simply pushing biology to its limits, searching for the key to our survival.

9. Where were you born?

You would have to ask my parents, but no one knows who they are. They threw me away the minute they saw my face.

10. What are your hobbies?

Aside from my work, I try to read.

11. Do you have any pets?

Our lab rat, Dorian. He was the only one to survive the trials. He is my proof that we are meant to persevere, to laugh in the face of death.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

I do yoga, just to keep myself refreshed. There’s too much that needs to be done, I can’t waste that time on recreational sports.

13. How tall are you?

Five-foot-six, last I checked. I’m sure I’m not the shortest employee, but I don’t go around measuring people.

14. Favorite subject in school?

Health and fitness, of course. In this line of work, you need to know everything that the human body is capable of. An artist has nothing if their canvas is ill-prepared.

15. Dream job?

This is my dream, researching and testing under the safety of Our Master. With his guidance, I will find the key to our future.

[gaymormonmike]

INHERIT THE WIND

I recently saw the play with music, Inherit The Wind, at the Asolo/ U of South Fl theatre.  It was fantastic. I want to share why I think  it is still relevant. First some background. It is a play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee that opened on Broadway in 1955.It was based on the Scopes monkey trial in Tennessee in 1925. Tenn. had passed a law preventing the teaching of evolution to high school students. The ACLU wanted to challenge the law in court and arranged for a teacher to confess to teaching evolution.  The trial lawyers were 2 of the most famous attorneys in the nation. William Jennings Bryant, who ran for and lost the Presidency three times and Clarence Darrow. Lawrence and Lee had something more in mind than Biblical creation versus Darwin’s theories of evolution. They were responding to the McCarthy attacks on artists because of their alleged communists’ views. The play attacks the idea of disavowing critical thinking. The authors wanted us to question why children or anyone could not be exposed to many, diverse ideas and then use their own minds and power to think to determine the truth for them. They also wanted us to consider that rural America with its’ rigid views was passing away with the increase of urban living. They expressed that more open views were a healthier way of life.  The play has caught the imagination of so many as it has been made into motion pictures four times and the starring roles have been played by every important actor of the 20th century.

Now, in 2023, it is being staged in Florida. In my opinion, its’ relevance is even more important, especially in FL. Laws passed in Florida prevent the teaching of sexual and other topics to students in state schools. An even more restrictive law is being considered that would limit social media to people over the age of 18. Like the people in Tenn. in 1925, the legislature in Florida does not believe students can think for themselves. They want to prevent them from receiving information about various topics, including LBGTQA related topics in a school. And they also want to keep them from using social media. The censorship is scary. The magnificent play Inherit the Wind shows the stark contrast between forcing people to accept what some group wants them to accept versus allowing children and all people to hear and read various points of view and using critical thinking to come to their own decisions. I applaud Asolo Rep for their production and doing it at a time when Floridians need a reminder of what a fascist state really looks like.

[theninthdoor]

baekhyun || ideal type; tarot reading

disclaimer: in my Ideal Type readings, I look into what the person in question is currently (consciously and unconsciously) attracted to! it’s not necessarily their perfect match or the one they will end up with.

✦ Impression (What is seen externally // Might not accuratelly represent the person):

cards: king of wands reversed, three of swords reversed, king of swords reversed

Oh… he likes people who look like they have a mean streak?? Intolerant, always in control; someone who shows little patience or consideration for those who move at a slower pace than them or those who prefer to do things in a different way. At the same time, this person would never tolerate people being impolite towards them. They would lash out right away, and demand an apology! Most likely introverted, they would just appear cold and distant, keeping everybody at arm's length and rarely showing them a smile… people would get nothing else from them. Still, this is a rule breaker - the only rules never allowed to be broken, would be their own… They would not explain themselves to others and neither would they follow the lead of someone they considered being bellow their own level of expertise/intelligence. Alternatively, this could also be the sort of person who purposefully breaks rules to show that they are not part of crowd, and don't wanna be seen as such - they are their own individual, and they think with their own mind! It also feels like Baekhyun fantasies about his ideal type having a whole tragic backstory that turned them into this type of person. Movie villain, with a tragic past - that's his ideal type (impression wise).

✦ Personality:

cards: ace of cups, the moon, eight of swords reversed

This goes well with that last portion of their impression… Under the whole mean, cold, intimidating mask would be a soft-hearted, nurturing individual. Someone who cares deeply about those close to them, and gives them all the love and attention in the world. Besides that, his ideal type should also be somewhat artistically inclined or, at least, have an eye/ear for art and music. Essentially, this would be a sensitive person; that type to feel a lot, cry easily and share their feelings openly. Generous and compassionate, they should also value deep and meaningful connections. However, this would still be someone who would often prefer to hide their real selves from others as a defense mechanism. Because they would feel so vulnerable, they'd be afraid that people would use that against them, and so they'd mask it with something else (in this case, coldness/insensitivity/meanness). Plus, I also feel like his ideal type is someone who'd risk it all for love, even though they wouldn't look like it at a first glance. This person would see no limits. Not only would they open up completely to their loved ones, but they would also do everything and anything for them, no matter how crazy!

✦ What his ideal type should provide in a relationship:

cards: nine of pentacles reversed, five of wands, three of pentacles

Baekhyun would like his ideal type to act as if they can't live without him - like life isn't fun when he's not around; like being by themselves isn't enough anymore, now that they know him. Even if they are quite independent and self-reliant, he would like them to sometimes act like they need his help for certain thing (such as opening a wine bottle or getting something from the top shelf lmao… tall king BBH). Basically, he wants to feel like they need him, and he wants them to ACT like they need him. He enjoys seeing people working hard to get his attention, even by putting on an act - just the effort, no matter how silly, would get him going. But, besides that, he would also enjoy being with someone who's responsible and realistic, and not just a fool in love. Someone who values the right things in life, and is always willing to learn more and to work hard for their goals (in the relationship, too, but not solely). Plus, it also feels like having some similar hobbies or interests would be a point in favor. He'd just like to have something else to discuss with them besides all of the lovey-dovey stuff.

(Disclaimer: all readings are alleged and for entertainment purposes only.)